.png){kind=logo}
Memoirs on Ceylon
Two memoirs on Ceylon had been published on Eugène Burnouf’s name in the Journal asiatique. The first one, “Mémoires sur quelques noms de l’île de Ceylan et particulièrement sur celui de Taprobane sur lequel elle était connue des anciens” (Memoir on some names of the island of Ceylon and particularly on that of Taprobane under which it was known to the ancients), was published at the dawn of his career in 1826. The second one is a consistant 110-page article. Entitled « Recherches sur la Géographie ancienne de Ceylan, dans son rapport avec l’histoire de cette île » (Ancient Geography of Ceylon, in relation to the history of the island), it has been published after his untamily death by Jules Mohl, based on his scientific papers hold by his widow.
These memoirs are the results of his research on the religious and civil history of Ceylon. He used three Sri Lankan chronicles as primary sources: Mahāvamsa (5th century), Thupavamsa (13th century) and Rājāvaliya (17th century). Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire mentions in his book Le Buddha et sa religion (The Buddha and his religion) that when Edward Upham’s translation of the Mahavamsa appeared in Europe, Burnouf drew attention to the serious differences and omissions that existed between the manuscripts he possessed of the Ceylon books and Upham’s version, made under the orders of Sir Alexander Johnston, a British colonial official who served as third Chief Justice second Advocate Fiscal of Ceylon.
Names of Sri Lanka
In the first memoir, Burnouf begins with an analysis of the meaning of the most ancient name for Ceylon, “Lankā”, or “Lankādvīpa”. “Lankā” was used in the Rāmāyaṇa. He compares “Lankā” in the Rāmāyana, to Troy in Homer’s Illiad, as the place where the crucial battle takes place. He goes into a lengthy description of the location and size of Ceylon, dwelling on the inaccurate notions written by other authors, travellers, and explorers mostly based on religious beliefs. Burnouf's memoir provides one of the first scientific inquiries about whether the Indian texts were actually referring to Sri Lanka.
The second name Burnouf addresses is “Thāmraparṇa” or “Thāmraparṇi.” In order to establish its original meaning he analyses the word in Pali and in Sanskrit and explains each syllable of the word. In doing so, he refers to the Sinhalese dictionary of Reverend Benjamin Clough and also to the Mahāvamsa, the Rājaratnākarya, and theRājavāliya. “Thāmraparṇi” is the district in Sri Lanka where Prince Vijaya (reign traditionally dated to 543–505 BCE) is said to have landed and later made the capital. The whole island later came to bear the same name. Burnouf has shown that the Greek word “Taprobane” is derived from the Sanskrit “Thamraparṇa”, signifying copper colour. This is one of the names by which the travellers from the Indian subcontinent designated the island of Ceylon, because the leaves of certain trees are copper colour.
The object of the second memoir was the geographic location of the country, which Burnouf connected to accounts of its history, where a map was to be enclosed. Due to his untimely death in 1852, he was unable to complete the second volume. Burnouf’s unfinished manuscripts were confided to Sir James Emerson Tennent (1804-1865) by Jules Mohl. Using these manuscripts, Tennent had ventured to produce the map which accompanies his book, Ceylon: an account of the island. Physical, historical and topographical (London, 1859). Commenting on Burnouf’s work on Ceylon, Tennent mentions that he was not aware of a map ever being produced that showed the comparative geography of Ceylon and placed its modern names in juxtaposition with their Sanskrit and Pali originals.
Ancient Geography of Ceylon
Burnouf mentions in his introduction that many names of historic interest had disappeared from the modern map, or had become so altered as to be scarcely recognisable. Sanskrit words especially had been replaced by Sinhalese words so as to be no longer identifiable. Therefore, in order to trace the events which took place in Ceylon between the 4th – 7th centuries, Burnouf was obliged to draw a map and it was his intention to restore the ancient names and correct the corrupted orthography where it had not been obliterated altogether. His intention was to restore the ancient geography of Ceylon with the help of historical facts.
His memoir contains several references to other authors who wrote on Ceylon. He focused on the study of literary texts and written records in their original form and meaning. He also studied the traces of the Sanskrit language and writing in lesser known countries beyond India. In all his work, he made use of his knowledge to avoid being misled by false assumptions. For him, the best way to disprove dubious explanations is to trace the original meaning of the word in the Pali or Sanskrit texts. His memoirs show the important role philology has played in his analysis.
Published in March 2025