It’s a treatise by Saṅgharakkhita, a Sinhalese monk of the late 12th century. G.P. Malalasekera gives a brief overview:
“The Subodhālaṅkāra is a work on the art of poetry, as the following table of contents show, apart from the technique of prosody, which is dealt with in the Vuttodaya. It is a learned and important work and treats chiefly of the gāthā verse. It is divided into five chapters: (1) Incongruity of sense and tautology; (2) the art of avoiding such faults; (3) elegance of words and phrases; (4) the elegance of sense and how it can be acquired; (5) the elegance of sound and the art of making verse pleasant to the listener. The work is much used in Ceylon and Burma, where a Nissaya or scholiast has been written on it as late as 1880 called the Alaṅkāra-nissaya.”
(The Pali Literature of Ceylon. pp. 199-200)
There is also a ṭīkā to it by Vācissara the Younger. Both are available online from the Vipassanā Research Institute.
Thanks for this Bhante. I downloaded a pdf version of ‘Pali Literature of Ceylon’ after reading the quote you provided, it looks like a useful resource indeed!
I was not aware of the 2 other references you’re providing, thanks for mentioning them.