The Buddhist Catechism · 2 of 12

Certificates, First and Third-Third edition

CERTIFICATE

TO THE FIRST EDITION.

Vidyodaya College, Colombo, 7th July, 1881.

I hereby certify that I have carefully examined the Sinhalese version of the catechism prepared by Colonel H. S. Olcott, and that the same is in agreement with the Canon of the Southern Buddhist Church. I recommend the work to teachers in Buddhist schools, and to all others who may wish to impart information to beginners about the essential features of our religion.

Context

This certificate is the load-bearing legitimating document of the whole project. Sumangala writes that the Sinhalese version is 'in agreement with the Canon of the Southern Buddhist Church' — meaning the Pali Tipitaka as preserved in the Theravada lineage of Ceylon, Burma, and Siam. The phrasing 'Southern Buddhist Church' is Olcott's translation choice (echoing Christian ecclesiology to make the institution legible to Western readers); the Sinhalese sangha would not have called itself that. What matters is the canonical signoff: a foreign layman's catechism, approved by the head of the Sripada and Vidyodaya, became a recognized teaching tool inside the Theravada school system. Olcott's later boast that this is one of the few catechisms 'approved' by the sangha which propagated it has substance behind it.Vidyodaya College certificate, 1881; on the Sinhalese sangha-state structure see Heinz Bechert, 'Buddhism and the State.'

H. Sumangala, High Priest of the Sripada & Galle, and Principal of the Vidyodaya Parivena.

Vidyodaya College, April 7th, 1897.

I have gone over the thirty-third (English) edition of the catechism, with the help of interpreters, and. confirm my recommendation for its use in Buddhist schools.

H. SUMANGALA.