Camillo A. Formigatti Sanskrit Manuscripts in the Cambridge University Library: Three Centuries of History and PreservationAbstract: This article describes the history of the collections of Sanskrit manu-scripts at the Cambridge University Library over a time-span of three centuries. It provides ...
Through a comparison with the mtDNA HVS-1 and part of HVS-2 of Indian database, both Tamils and Sinhalese clusters were affiliated with Indian subcontinent populations than Vedda people who are believed to be the native population of the island of Sri Lanka. This is a preview of subscription...
Indo-Aryan languages, subgroup of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family. In the early 21st century, Indo-Aryan languages were spoken by more than 800 million people, primarily in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. L
Kingship was the unifying political institution in the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa periods, a symbol of the aims and achievements of the Sinhalese people. The kingship was essentially Brahmanic (hereditary within the priestly social class), with strong Buddhist influences; all the kings were practic...
dialects. Linguistic differences are less pronounced among the Malays, but the group includes Indonesians speaking Javanese, Boyanese, and other dialects. The Indian group is most diverse, consisting ofTamils(more than half), Malayalis, and Sikhs; it also includes Pakistani and Sinhalese ...
the oldest record of an Indo-Aryan language is theVedicSanskritof theRigveda, the oldest of the sacred scriptures of India, dating roughly from 1000bce. Examples of modern Indo-Aryan languages areHindi,Bengali,Sinhalese(spoken inSri Lanka), and the manydialectsofRomany, the language of theRoma...
Aryan, name originally given to a people who were said to speak an archaic Indo-European language and who were thought to have settled in prehistoric times in ancient Iran and the northern Indian subcontinent. The theory of an “Aryan race” appeared in the mid-19th century and remained ...
which is now thought to have been in the Mon region of the Isthmus of Kra. The ancient monastic settlement of Kelasa, situated near Thaton in southern Myanmar and claimed by Burmese and Mon chronicles to have been founded by Ashoka’s missionaries, was mentioned in earlySinhaleserecords as ...
and prescribed a course of scriptural studies for adherents. The Sinhalese chronicleMahavamsasays that when the order decided to send preaching missions abroad, Ashoka helped them enthusiastically and sent his own son and daughter as missionaries toSri Lanka. It is as a result of Ashoka’spatronage...