Didactic verse — poetry written to instruct rather than to entertain — occupies a distinct place in South Asian literature. In Sanskrit the tradition includes the Panchatantra, the Hitopadesha, the Vyasakaraya, the Niti Shataka and the Pratya Shataka. Sinhala has its own body of such poems, and the Lokopakaraya is one of them, named alongside the Lovada Sangarawa and the Subhasitaya. Of the Sinhala didactic poems it is the longest.
This edition comes from Weligama Seelananda Thero and is published by M. D. Gunasena & Co. of Colombo, a house long established in Sinhala publishing.
The text is in Sinhala throughout. There is no English translation or parallel text, so readers will need Sinhala to use it. It will suit students of classical Sinhala literature, readers working through the didactic poetry tradition, and Sri Lankan households abroad keeping such texts within reach of the next generation.
- Author: Weligama Seelananda Thero
- Publisher: M. D. Gunasena & Co. (Pvt) Ltd
- Language: Sinhala
- ISBN: 9789552106743
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