]

A very important collection of Buddhist MSS. has lately been brought
from Ceylon to Europe by M. Grimblot, and is now deposited in the
Imperial Library at Paris. This collection, to judge from a report
published in 1866 in the 'Journal des Savants' by M. Barthelemy
Saint-Hilaire, consists of no less than eighty-seven works; and, as
some of them are represented by more than one copy, the total number
of MSS. amounts to one hundred and twenty-one. They fill altogether
14,000 palm leaves, and are written partly in Singhalese, partly in
Burmese characters. Next to Ceylon, Burmah and Siam would seem to be
the two countries most likely to yield large collections of Pali MSS.,
and the MSS. which now exist in Ceylon may, to a considerable extent,
be traced back to these two countries. At the beginning of the
sixteenth century, the Tamil conquerors of Ceylon are reported to have
burnt every Buddhist book they could discover, in the hope of thus
destroying the vitality of that detested religion. Buddhism, however,
though persecuted--or, more probably, because persecuted--remained
the national religion of the island, and in the eighteenth century it
had recovered its former ascendency. Missions were then sent to Siam
to procure authentic copies of the sacred documents; priests properly
ordained were imported from Burmah; and several libraries, which
contain both the canonical and the profane literature of Buddhism,
were founded at Dadala, Ambagapitya, and other places.

The sacred canon of the Buddhists is called the Tripi_t_aka, i. e. the
three baskets. The first basket contains all that has reference to
morality, or Vinaya; the second contains the Sutras, i. e. the
discourses of Buddha; the third includes all works treating of
dogmatic philosophy or metaphysics. The second and third baskets are
sometimes comprehended under the general name of Dharma, or law, and
it has become usual to apply to the third basket the name of
Abhidharma, or by-law. The first and second pi_t_akas contain each
five separate works; the third contains seven. M. Grimblot has secured
MSS. of nearly every one of these works, and he has likewise brought
home copies of the famous commentaries of Buddhaghosha. These
commentaries are of great importance; for although Buddhaghosha lived
as late as 430 A.D., he is supposed to have been the translator of
more ancient commentaries, brought in 316 B.C. to Ceylon from Magadha
by Mahinda, the son of A_s_oka, tra