Miscellaneous Sinhalese manuscripts, many on palm leaves, mainly 19th and 20th century.
Miscellaneous Sinhalese manuscripts in the Bodleian Library
Archive Collection
- This material is held at
- ReferenceGB 161 MSS. Sinh. a. 1-4 (R), 5, 6-7 (R), b. 1-3, 4 (R), 9-11 (R), 15-28 (R), c. 2-4 (R), 8 (R), 13-25 (R), d. 1 (R), 2, 3-5 (R), 7-16 (R), e. 1-9 (R), f. 1-4 (R), g. 1, 2-4 (R)
- Dates of Creationmainly 19th and 20th century
- Name of Creator
- Language of MaterialSinhalese.
- Physical Description76 shelfmarks
Scope and Content
Administrative / Biographical History
Miscellaneous Sinhalese manuscripts acquired from various sources. The collection includes manuscripts given by the anthropologist Walter Yeeling Evans-Wentz (1878-1965).
Access Information
Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card (for admissions procedures see http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk).
Acquisition Information
Acquired between 1698 and 1978. The series includes the Sinhalese section of the manuscripts which W.Y. Evans-Wentz bequeathed to the Library in 1965.
Note
Collection level description created by Susan Thomas, Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts.
Other Finding Aids
Some of the manuscripts are in Falconer Madan, et al., A summary catalogue of western manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford which have not hitherto been catalogued in the Quarto series, with references to the oriental and other manuscripts (7 vols. in 8 [vol. II in 2 parts], Oxford, 1895-1953; reprinted, with corrections in vols. I and VII, Munich, 1980), vol. III, no. 8813.
The manuscripts are also summarily described in the card catalogue, arranged by language, located in the Oriental Reading Room.
J. Liyanaratne 'Sinhala palm-leaf manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford', Bodleian Library Record, 13 (1991), pp. 514-18. A handlist of 48 previously unidentified Sinhala manuscripts in the Bodleian's collection.
J. Liyanaratne 'Sri Lankan Medical manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Journal of the European Ayruvedic Society (1992), vol. 2, pp. 36-53. Lists and describes the Bodleian's collection of 36 palm-leaf manuscripts in Sinhala script. Reprinted in J. Liyanaratne, ed., Buddhism and traditional medicine in Sri Lanka (Dalugama, 1999).