Mahavamsa
The
Mahavansha, also
Mahawansha, (Pāli: "great
chronicle") is a historical record, written in the
Pāli language, of the
Buddhist kings as well as
Dravidian kings of
Sri Lanka. It covers the period from the coming of King Vijaya in
543 BCE to the reign of King Mahasena (
334 –
361).
The Mahavansha was written in the
6th century CE by the Buddhist
monk Mahanama, brother of the Sri-Lankan King Dhatusena, and heavily relied on the
Dipavamsa, written five centuries earlier.
A companion volume, the
Culavamsa or Choolavansha ("lesser chronicle"), compiled by
Sinhala Buddhist monks, covers the period from the
4th century to the
British takeover of Sri Lanka in
1815. The combined work, sometimes collectively referred to as the "Mahavansha", provides a continuous historical record of over two millennia.
While not considered a canonical religious text, the Mahavansha is an important Buddhist document of the early history of religion in Sri Lanka, beginning near the time of the founder of Buddhism,
Siddhartha Gautama. As it often refers to the royal
dynasties of
India, the Mahavansha is also valuable to historians who wish to date and relate contemporary royal dynasties in the
Indian subcontinent. It is very important in dating the
consecration of the
Maurya emperor
Asoka, which is related to the
synchronicity with the
Seleucids and
Alexander the Great.
A
German translation of Mahavansha was completed by Wilhelm Geiger in
1912. This was then translated into
English by Mabel Haynes Bode, and the English translation was revised by Geiger. The revised English translation is now available on the
World wide web.
*
History of Sri Lanka*
Anuradhapura*
Polonnaruwa*
Buddhist texts*
Bodhi Vamsa*
Geiger/Bode Translation of the Mahavamsa*
The Mahavamsa - The Great Chronicle of Sri Lanka
