The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

REVIEW ARTICLE 323
Perera, Librarian of the Archaeological Department; the afore-mentioned
Mr. Amaraingbe of Lake House; Dr. Liyanagamage, a Senior Lecturer
in the History Department of the University of Sri Lanka Vidyalankara
Campus; and myself.
At the Public Trustee's office we were shown some palmleaf
manuscripts, but they were about Buddhist teachings and medicine. Then
we went to the professor's bouse where we found a great deal in
his own handwriting. If I understand the situation correctly, the last
chapter of the Paramparapustaka that Paranavitana used was 84; and
we found that his draft had got to chapter 88. We did not have much
time to do a thorough search, so we left, intending to go again. Unfortunately
I could not extend my stay in Ceylon and bad to leave before
another appointment with the Public Trustee could be made, so that is
all I know, but as the Public Trustee will in due course publish
Paranavitana's correspondence, as well as some other unpublished
material, we shall no doubt know more about these interlinear sources
than we do at present.
It is my guess that these documents were supplied from abroad
and not found in Ceylon itself, otherwise there would have been no need
for all this secrecy.
An example of an ancient document found recently
in a Western library might be cited. Mr. John Black,
Corresponding
Member of the Journal oftbe Siam Society, discovered some 'Marco Polo
Documents' in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., and be bad
the maps printed in one of the Volumes of JSS, 7th November 1965, w~th
the texts to follow. In the case of the documents under discussion, they
might have been obtained from some Western library in the same way,
perhaps illicitly or even surreptiously, so Paranavitana was asked not to
divulge his source.
This must have been mental torture to a scholar of
Paranavitana's calibre having to use some source which be could not
divulge.
lf my guess is correct, I wish whoever supplied the documents
would make them public as soon as possible.
That person should
understand that they could change a great deal of the histories of Ceylon,
South fndia and Southeast Asia.