Gornall states the following about the 15th-century Sri Lankan monk Śrī Rāhula in Rewriting Buddhism: Pali Literature and Monastic Reform in Sri Lanka:
“One of the keenest observers of Moggallāna’s source material was the fifteenth-century polymath Śrī Rāhula. He was the head monk of the academy of Toṭagamuva, the personal tutor of king Parākramabāhu VI (1411–66)…”
“In 1458 he composed the Moggallānapañcikāpradīpaya (‘Lamp on Moggallāna’s extensive commentary’), a Sinhala commentary on the Moggallānapañcikā, and later also a commentary on Piyadassi’s grammatical handbook…”
"Śrī Rāhula’s Sinhala commentary is useful in and of itself in ascertaining a reliable picture of the full scope of Sanskrit source material available to the monks of the reform era. His work is renowned in Sri Lanka for the sheer breadth of texts he had at his disposal in his library at Toṭagamuva in 1458. The commentary thus provides a snapshot of the Sanskrit knowledge preserved in Sri Lanka in the middle of the fifteenth century. Śrī Dharmārāma, who edited Śrī Rāhula’s ‘Lamp’ in 1886, lists fifty-nine quoted works in his introduction.60 Almost half of these works were Sanskrit philological texts, principally grammars and lexica (see Table 4.1).*
Table 4.1: A hypothetical chronology of Śrī Rāhula’s Sanskrit grammatical and lexicographical sources:
1 Aṣṭādhyāyī Pāṇini 300–400 BC N.W. India
2 Vārttika Kātyāyana 300–400 BC S. India
3 Mahābhāṣya Patañjali 200–100 BC N.W. India
4 Kātantravyākaraṇa Śarvavarman 100–200 S. India
5 Cāndravyākaraṇa Candragomin 100–200 S. India
6 Amarakośa Amarasiṃha 500–600 Unknown
7 Kāśikāvṛtti Jayāditya 600–700 Kashmir
8 Kāśikāvṛttipañcikā Jinendrabuddhi after 700 Bengal
9 Śākaṭāyanavyākaraṇa Pālyakīrti 800–900 W. India
10 Rūpāvatāra Dharmakīrti 900–1000 Sri Lanka
11 Halāyudhakośa Halāyudha 900–1000 W. India
12 Cāndrapañcikā Ratnamati 900–1000 Sri Lanka
13 Śabdārthacintā Ratnamati/ Ratnaśrījñāna 900–1000 N.E. India
14 Bhāgavṛtti Vimalamati 900–1000 Bengal
15 Vopālitakośa Vopālita 900–1000 Unknown
16 Bhāṣyapradīpa Kaiyaṭa 1000–1100 Kashmir
17 Anunyāsa Indumitra 1000–1100 Bengal
18 Kavikāmadhenu Subhūticandra 1000–1100 Bengal
19 Kātantrapañcikā Trilocanadāsa 1000–1100 Bengal
20 Bhāgavṛttipañcikā Śrīdhara before 1100 Bengal
21 Cāndrapañcikālaṅkāra Sāriputta before 1165 Sri Lanka
22 Pātrīkaraṇaṭīkā Buddhanāga 1100–1300 Sri Lanka
23 Viśvaprakāśa Maheśvarakavi 1111/12 Unknown
24 Vaijayantīkośa Yādavaprakāśa 1100–1200 S. India
25 Trikāṇḍaśeṣa Puruṣottamadeva 1100–1200 Bengal
26 Bhāṣāvṛtti Puruṣottamadeva 1179–1209 Bengal
27 Sārasvatavyākaraṇa Anubhūtisvarūpa 1200–1400 Unknown
The diversity of Śrī Rāhula’s source material is quite astounding, all the more so since much of this knowledge was lost in Sri Lanka in the subsequent centuries of colonial rule.
What is interesting from the perspective of the reform era’s intellectual history, specifically, is the concentration of sources from the tenth to twelfth centuries and the focus on the region of Bengal. This connection seems to have persisted even after the 1165 reforms since Śrī Rāhula cites Sena dynasty works, such as Puruṣottamadeva’s Bhāṣāvṛtti (‘Commentary on language’), which was composed at some point during the reign of king Lakṣmaṇasena (1179–1206)."
Gornall, Alastair. Rewriting Buddhism: Pali Literature and Monastic Reform in Sri Lanka, 11571270 (p. 71). UCL Press. Kindle Edition.
Much of this sanskrit grammatical and lexicographical material was lost in Sri Lanka in the subsequent centuries.
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