PARANAVITANA, Senerat | Sinhalayo ( 2ème éd )

Broché couverture souple illustrée en noir ; petit accroc en bas du dos ; nombreuses illustrations en monochrome rouge ; intérieur en bon état ; Livre en anglais ; English book ; This is the story of the Sinhala people working in peace and war under an unbroken monarchy during two millennia and a half. The story begins with the neolithic culture represented by the megalithic monuments found in the Island, and runs through the fusion of this culture with an immigrant Indo-Aryan civilization from North India. This mingling with an Indo-Aryan people and the adoption of their language and ways of life mark the beginning of the Sinhala race. Dr. Paranavitana, who for thirty years worked and lived among the ruins of what was once a complete civilization, describes here with physical evidence the components that went to build the grand structure of a way of life. He takes us a long way from the crude dolmen of Rambukkana to the delicate chiselling of form and animation in the stone figures of Anurādhapura and Polonnaru. He takes us through shrine and temple to the flowering of our painting in Sigiri. He leads us from the vast plains of plenty watered by an irrigation system unparalleled in history to the flight to the hills and the threshold of want. The Pādaviya inscription, which appears on the cover of this book—a translation of which by Dr. Paranavitana appears below—while providing a wistful memory to the youth of the present generation, will, we hope, encourage them to emulate the achievements of their forebears. (19F5)"