The Rakkhanga -Sannas - Curnikava and the Date of the Arrival of Arakanese Monks in Ceylon

The Rakkhanga-sannas-curnikava is a short document of eight palm leaves now deposited in the Library of the British Museum, London. On the evidence of the Sinhalese script employed in it, the document can be assigned to the eighteenth century. The script is, however, more developed than that used in the letter sent by King Naredrasimha to  the Dutch Political Council in 1726.

The first four leaves of the manuscript are devoted to a long list of pompous epithets intended to glorify the King of Kandy at the time the curnikava was indited. Of the other four leaves, three leaves and the first page of the last leaf are devoted to a very brief account of the first mission sent by King Vimaladharmsuriya II to Arakan in the yera 1693 for the purpose of examining the possiblities of obtaining the serves of some competent Buddhist monks to re-establish the upasampada in Ceylon.

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