The Lost Palm-Leaf Manuscripts of Colonial-Era Sri Lanka: A Study of the Hugh Neville Collection at the British Museum

A bibliography is a list of bibliographic information arranged in a certain order. Details of several bibliographies compiled on the classical literature of Sri Lanka can be studied by examining documents from the colonial period. The book catalogue of Cornelius Joan Simmons, the book catalogue compiled by John Murdoch and James Nicholson, the book catalogue of manuscripts and books by Louis de Zoysa and the book catalogue of palm leaves by K. D. Somadasa are some examples.This research study will study only the books mentioned in the Hugh Neville bibliography. The main objective of this study is to uncover accurate information regarding the works related to the bibliography of scholar Hugh Neville. As this is a study based on various historical literary sources, the historical research method has been used. Data was compiled using written evidence from bibliographies compiled in different periods and bibliographies compiled on palm leaf books. According to the results of this research, the number of works mentioned in the Hugh Neville Bibliography can be identified as prose and poetry, and various subjective works can be identified according to the content. Accordingly, the relevant works are classified as Buddhist texts (Pali and Sinhala), genealogy and history, medicine and physiotherapy, astrology and magic, poetry and drama, linguistics and grammar, etc. It is expected that such studies will be useful for the studies of scholars and postgraduate students in the field of indigenous knowledge in Sri Lanka, especially in the Orient.