Book review:

Lankan royalty re-introduced

Title: Gem Mine of Kings
(Translation of ‘Rajaratnakaraya)
Translator: Professor Kusuma Karunaratne
Published: Central Cultural Fund, 2009

Sometime back when I visited Sigiri with my grandchildren, I came across the English translation of the Rajaratnakaraya at the Sigiri museum bookshop.

But regrettably I had no time to purchase a copy. Knowing my interest in this area, Professor Kusuma Karunaratne sent me a complimentary copy of her work which I read with great interest. I am glad to note that she has performed her task with much patience and sagacity.

Apart from the translation itself, it consists of an introduction and a glossary of unfamiliar terms for the use of English readers. The introduction (1-11 pp) is thought-provoking and interesting, but, to me, unpardonably brief. Her main interest has been to discuss the narrative style of the text.

She has tried to explain why the meanings of the Pali stanza are given by the author repeatedly in Sinhala.

To the English reader this would seem a repetition all the time. I expected the sufficient attention had been given to the historicity of the text, the subject matter as well. However it is obvious that the text with the Pali stanza and a commentary in Sinhala need no further explanation.

In the introduction, Kusuma Karunaratne has been very careful to identify the narrative styles, attitudes, the tone etc of the authors of the Dipavansa and Mahavansa nd compare with those of the Rajaratnakaraya. Unlike the Pali Dipavansa and the Mahavamsa or the Sinhala Pujavaliya and the Rajavliya, Rajaratnakaraya is not a connected genealogy of kings in the chronological order, but to comply with the aim of the writer, Pali stanzas have been selected from different texts with a Sinhala commentary, regardless of the confusion caused to the reader. Nevertheless, Kusuma Karunaratne has been extra careful to give an intelligible translation. In this respect she deserves our praise. As for the printed editions of the Rajaratnakaraya, she very rightly records works of Ven Welitara Saddhananda Thera, Simon de Silva and of course the joined edition of Ven Davuldena Gnanissara Thera and S J Sumanasekara Banda, the text on which the translation was based. The latest edition by Karunadasa Rupasinghe, Godage Brothers, 1995, is given in a footnote, to complete the list. For the information of the modern reader I wish to add translation of this text attempted by Edward Upham upon the request of Sir Alexander Johnston titled ‘Sacred and Historical Books of Ceylon, Mahanvansi, Rajaratnacari and Rajavali, London, 1833.

Professor G P Malalskeara in his introduction to his monumental work, ‘Pali Literature of Ceylon (1928)’ had made the following observation: “It was found that his pioneer work was full of inaccuracies…” There is no indication that Kusuma Karunaratne had made use of this translation with ‘full of inaccuracies’ for her work.

As a person interested in translation work particularly of historical texts, I fail in my duty if I do not take this opportunity to congratulate Prof Kusuma Karunaratne for her untiring efforts in bringing out a readable English translation of a complicated Sinhala work, compiled during a decadent period of Sri Lankan literature and history.