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Mahāvaṃsa is the meticulously kept historical chronicle of Sri Lanka until the period of Mahasena of Anuradhapura. It was written in the style of an epic poem written in the Pali language. It relates the history of Sri Lanka from its legendary beginnings up to the reign of Mahasena of Anuradhapura covering the period between the arrival of Prince Vijaya from India in 543 BCE to his reign and later updated by different writers. It was first composed by a Buddhist monk named Mahanama at the Mahavihara temple in Anuradhapura in the 5th or 6th-century CE.
The Cūḷavaṃsa or Chulavamsa is a historical record, written in the Pali language, of the monarchs of Sri Lanka. It covers the period from the 4th century to 1815. The Cūḷavaṃsa was compiled over many years by Buddhist monks, and displays a variety of epic styles. It is generally considered to be a sequel to the Mahavamsa written in the 6th century by the monk Mahanama. The Mahavamsa and the Cūḷavaṃsa are sometimes thought of as a single work spanning over two millennia of Sri Lankan history.
The Bodhi-Vamsa, or Mahabodhivamsa, is a prose poem in elaborate Sanskritized Pali that recounts the story of the Bodhi tree of Bodh Gaya and Anuradhapura. It is attributed to a monk called Upatissa who lived during the reign of Mahinda IV of Sri Lanka, and believed to have been composed in the 10th Century AD. It is written in the kavya style.
Tissa, later Devanampiya Tissa, meaning, was one of the earliest kings of Sri Lanka based at the ancient capital of Anuradhapura. According to the traditional chronology, he ruled from 307 BC to 267 BC, but the modified chronology adopted by modern scholars such as Wilhelm Geiger assigns his reign to 247 BC to 207 BC. His reign was notable for the arrival of Buddhism in Sri Lanka under the aegis of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka the Great. The primary source for his reign is the Mahavamsa, which in turn is based on the more ancient Dipavamsa.
The Dīpavaṃsa is the oldest historical record of Sri Lanka. The chronicle is believed to be compiled from Atthakatha and other sources around the 3rd to 4th century CE. Together with the Mahāvaṃsa, it is the source of many accounts of the ancient history of Sri Lanka and India. Its importance resides not only as a source of history and legend but also as an important early work in Buddhist and Pali literature.
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George Turnour Jnr, CCS (1799–1843) was a British colonial administrator, scholar and a historian. A member of the Ceylon Civil Service, he served as a Government Agent, Assistant Colonial Secretary and Treasurer of the Colony. He is known for his translation of the Mahavamsa, the Great Chronicle of Sri Lankan history which was published in 1837. Along with James Prinsep and Captain Edward Smith, he began to decipher the inscriptions on the first discovered Pillar of Ashoka.
The researcher into genealogy in Sri Lanka faces a significant problem due to the lack of reliable source material. Unlike in the West, where there has been a long tradition of documenting genealogical data from very early times, in Sri Lanka it is only after the advent of the Portuguese that such information was recorded systematically in the parish records. These records were destroyed by the Portuguese to prevent it from falling into the hands of the advancing Dutch Army.
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Dāṭhavaṃsa is a Pali chronicle attributed to Dhammakitti Thero. It is sometimes titled in English as "The History of the Tooth Relic" and contains histories and popular traditions associated with the Relic of the tooth of the Buddha. This relic is currently enshrined at the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, Sri Lanka.
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Edmund Rowland Jayathilake Gooneratne, Gate Mudaliyar, JP, was a Ceylonese British colonial-era administrator and a literary figure. He was also a scholar, intellectual, social worker, planter and a Buddhist revivalist. A resident of Atapattu Walawwa in Galle, E. R. Gooneratne served as the Atapattu Mudaliyar of Galle and as the Mudaliyar of the Governor’s Gate Later he was appointed as the acting Maha Mudaliyar. E. R. Gooneratne was the most influential native official of Southern Ceylon during the British colonial rule in the country.
The Pre-Anuradhapura period of Sri Lankan history begins with the gradual onset of historical records in the final centuries of the prehistoric period and ending in 437 BC. According to the Mahavamsa, the original inhabitants of Sri Lanka are the Yakshas and northern Naga tribes. Sinhalese history traditionally starts in 543 BC at the arrival of Prince Vijaya, a semi-legendary king who was banished from the Indian subcontinent with his 700 followers, and is recorded in the Mahavamsa chronicle. This period was succeeded by the Anuradhapura period.
Daniel John Gogerly was a British Wesleyan Methodist missionary and scholar, who served in Ceylon and provided one of the first translations of the Pāli text into English.
The Thūpavaṃsa is a Sri Lankan historical chronicle and religious text recorded in the Pali language. Its composition is attributed to a Buddhist monk known as Vācissara, the putative author of several Pali and Sinhala commentaries and handbooks. It was likely composed in the second half of the 13th Century.
Uttar-Vihara, also called Abhayagiri Vihara was a famous vihara in the ancient capital of Sri Lanka. This Vihara was one of the 4 Vihara built during the reign of King Tishya, which was also called the "Vihara of the North". One of the famous Atthakatha, Uttaravihara Atthakatha and Uttaravihara Mahavamsa were written here.
References
- 1 2 Dr. Jinie Dela. "Lost in the history of translations". Sunday Times. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
- ↑ "The Mahavansa. Part II / translated from the original Pali into English for the Government of Ceylon by L.C. Wijesinha, mudaliyar". nla.gov.au. National Library of Australia. Retrieved 24 January 2024.
- ↑ "The Mahavansa [The Mahavamsa] BY L. C. WIJESINHA; GEORGE TURNOUR". biblio.com.au. Retrieved 24 January 2024.