The literature of the ancient Singhalese derived its character from the hierarchic ascendency, which was fostered by their government, and exerted a preponderant influence over the temperament of the people.  The Buddhist priesthood were the depositories of all learning and the dispensers of all knowledge:—­by the obligation of their order the study of the classical Pali[1] was rendered compulsory upon them[2], and the books which have come down to us show that they were at the same time familiar with Sanskrit.  They were employed by royal command in compiling the national annals[3], and kings at various periods not only encouraged their labours by endowments of lands[4], but conferred distinction on such pursuits by devoting their own attention to the cultivation of poetry[5], and the formation of libraries.[6]

[Footnote 1:  Pali, which is the language of Buddist literature in Siam, Ava, as well as in Ceylon, is, according to Dr. MILL, “no other than the Magadha Pracrit, the classical form in ancient Behar of that very peculiar modification of Sanscrit speech which enters as largely into the drama of the Hindus, as did the Doric dialect into the Attic tragedy of Ancient Greece.”  In 1826 MM.  BURNOUF and LASSEN published their learned “Essai sur le Pali,” but the most ample light was thrown upon its structure and history by the subsequent investigations of TURNOUR, who, in the introduction to his version of the Mahawanso, has embodied a disquisition on the antiquity of Pali as compared with Sanskrit (p. xxii. &c.).]

[Footnote 2:  Rajaratnacari, p, 106.]

[Footnote 3:  Ibid., p. 43-74]

[Footnote 4:  Ibid., p. 113]

[Footnote 5:  Rajavali, p. 245; Mahawanso, ch. liv., lxxix.]

[Footnote 6:  Rajavali, p. 244.]

The books of the Singhalese are formed to-day, as they have been for ages past, of olas or strips taken from the young leaves of the Talipat or the Palmyra palm, cut before they have acquired the dark shade and strong texture which belong to the full grown frond.[1] After undergoing a process (one stage of which consists in steeping them in hot water and sometimes in milk) to preserve their flexibility, they are submitted to pressure to render their surface uniformly smooth.  They are then cut into stripes of two or three inches in breadth, and from one to three feet long.  These are pierced with two holes, one near each end, through which a cord is passed, so as to secure them between two wooden covers, lacquered and ornamented with coloured devices.  The leaves thus strung together and secured, form a book.

[Footnote 1:  The leaves of the Palmyra, similarly prepared, are used for writings of an ordinary kind, but the most valuable books are written on the Talipat See ante, Vol.  I. Pt I. ch. iii. p. 110.]

On these palm-leaves the custom is to write with an iron stile held nearly upright, and steadied by a nick cut to receive it in the thumb-nail of the left hand.  The stile is sometimes richly ornamented, shaped like an arrow, and inlaid with gold, one blade of the feather serving as a knife to trim the leaf preparatory to writing.  The case is sometimes made of carved ivory bound with hoops of filigreed silver.