The rich Asian works of a bygone era

Saturday, 2 November 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

‘Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon’ by Arnold Wright (Editor of the ‘Yorkshire Post’), first published in 1907, was much in demand some years ago.

The well-illustrated 916-page London publication, tracing the country’s history, people, commerce, industries and resources was out of print for many years. At least until Podi Hamuruduwo of the Gangaramaya took the initiative and printed it in its original form with the deep red cover with just a simple embossed illustration and text in the identical font on art paper. Book lovers grabbed it even though the price (Rs. 20,000) was a quite a tough figure at the time – about three decades back. The best piece of publicity used for the reprinted book was a reproduction of a lengthy review in the Times of Ceylon edition of 15 July 1907 – again in the original format. (I still preserve the facsimile). Under the title ‘A Monumental Work,’ the opening para read: “It may be said with very little fear of error that the book which has just been published by the Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Co. Ltd., is the handsomest and most sumptuous volume which has ever had Ceylon as its subject matter. There are 916 pages folio size, the illustrations number several thousands and the paper is of the highest form of art paper. The special articles have been written by gentlemen who are well qualified for the work, while the binding of this very substantial work is in red morocco with black and gold lettering.” The review which covered some of the sections written by authoritative persons was, in fact, to be continued the next day. ‘Twentieth Century Impressions,’ which is an excellent resource book, has now been done by other publishers and some of them were seen at the recently-held International Book Fair. I spotted it at the Vijitha Yapa stall and the Asian Educational Services, India stall. The new editions have changed the cover design. Some have a blue cover instead of the red, while some maintain a pale red. The simple illustration has been replaced with a map of Sri Lanka. Glancing through the catalogue of the Asian Educational Services, the collection of books written on Sri Lanka in the British colonial era is pretty impressive. In fact, the publications have been divided into several categories. These include Description and Travels, History, Archaeology and Antiquities, Natural History/Wild Life and Sports, Numismatics, Jaffna – History and Children’s literature. The list of authors is as impressive. There is a long list under Buddhism too. There are over a dozen publications in Sinhala as well. Among them are seven Sinhalese-English and English-Sinhalese dictionaries (by C. Carter, B. Clough, T. Moscrop and B.A. Mendis, A.M. Gunasekera, and J. Nicholson and De Silva). Geiger Wilhelm’s ‘Etymological Glossary of the Sinhalese Language,’ J.M. Senaveratna’s ‘Dictionary of Proverbs of the Sinhalese’ and several books on Sinhalese grammar are also available. Asian Educational Services headquartered in New Delhi does only rare reprints, according to W.J. Suresh, who manned the stall at the Book Fair. Some of them are facsimile prints. In all they have done around 1,200 titles of rare books in the Asian region, of which 200 are on Sri Lanka. The selected publications are those written between 17th and 20th century. In addition to English and Sinhala books, the reprints include several other languages – 50 in all. Tamil, Pali, Hindi, Islamic, Japanese, Telugu, Croatian, Urdu and Malyalam are among them.