Lanka Nidhānaya (The Treasure of Sri Lanka): The Second Sinhala journal in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Seven years after publishing the very first Sinhala journal Māsika Tägga?(The Monthly Reward) in 1832, a second Sinhala journal called Lanka Nidhānaya (The Treasure of Sri Lanka) appeared in 1839. Produced by the Rev. R. S. Hardy, it was published in three series until it was discontinued in 1864. Even though no copies ofLanka Nidhānayaof the first series appear in Sri Lanka, five copies of the second and third series have been reported so far. Four issues dated February, April, July and August of 1850 have been introduced by Rev. K. Pragnasekara in his well known textThe History of Sinhalese Newspapers and Journals vol 1&3(Sinhala puwatpat sangara ithihasaya 1&3). D. M. De. Z Wickremasinghe’s catalogue,Catalogue of the Sinhalese Printed Books in the Library of the British Museum has reported one issue of Lanka Nidhānaya dated December 1861. Most recently"this researcher found 41 issues of Lanka Nidhānaya of its second and third seriesin the main library, University of Peradeniya. Apart from missionary teaching, Lanka Nidhānaya provided a monthly summary of news. It published articles on various subjects such as agriculture, sociology, botany, geography, biology, illnesses and medical treatments—essentially which provided knowledge of the contemporary world and special knowledge in the colonial period. Details of newly written missionary poetical works, ancient Sinhala, and Sanskrit poetical works also appeared. Meanwhile, contemporary temperance ideologies emerged in Lanka Nidhānaya as prose advice and occasionally as pictorial poems. Traditional indigenous knowledge, beliefs, rituals and astrology were subject to severe criticism in these journals, which considered them to be misbeliefs. This research study attempts to critically examine Lanka Nidhānaya from many perspectives