Mahāvaṃsa
| Mahāvaṃsa | |
|---|---|
| Type | Post-canonical text; Chronicle |
| Composition | 5th Century CE |
| Attribution | Mahānāma |
| Commentary | Mahavamsa-tika |
| Abbreviation | Bv |
| Pāli literature | |
| History of Sri Lanka | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mahāvaṃsa (Sinhala: මහාවංශ (Mahāvansha), Pali: මහාවංස (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.[1] 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.[2]
The Mahavamsa first came to the attention of Western researchers around 1809 CE, when Sir Alexander Johnston, Chief Justice of the British Ceylon, sent manuscripts of it and other Sri Lankan chronicles (written in mainly Sinhala language being the main language of Sri Lanka) to Europe for translation and publication.[3] Eugène Burnouf produced a Romanized transliteration and translation into Latin in 1826, but these garnered relatively little attention.[4]: 86 Working from Johnston's manuscripts, Edward Upham published an English translation in 1833, but it was marked by several errors in translation and interpretation, among them suggesting that the Buddha was born in Sri Lanka and built a monastery atop Adam's Peak.[4]: 86 The first printed edition and widely read English translation was published in 1837 by George Turnour, a historian and officer of the Ceylon Civil Service who translated 38 chapters.[4]: 86 Mudaliyar L. C. Wijesinghe completed the remaining 62 chapters and reviewed Turnour's work, publishing in 1889.[5] A German translation of Mahavamsa was completed by Wilhelm Geiger in 1912. This was then translated into English by Mabel Haynes Bode, and revised by Geiger.[6]
In 2023, the Mahavamsa was listed an item of globally important documentary heritage on UNESCO’s Memory of the World International Register.[7][8]
- ^ Rathanasara, Kaudagammana (November 2023). The Origins and Evolution of Sri Lankan Historiography. p. 147.
- ^ Gananath Obeyesekere, “Buddhism, ethnicity and Identity: A problem of Buddhist History,” in “Journal of Buddhist Ethics”, 10, (2003): 46 https://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/files/2010/04/Obeyesekere.pdf
- ^ Harris, Elizabeth (2006). Theravada Buddhism and the British Encounter: Religious, Missionary and Colonial Experience in Nineteenth-Century Sri Lanka (1st ed.). New York: Routledge. p. 12. ISBN 0415544424.
- ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference
Kemperwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "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.
- ^ Mahavamsa. Ceylon Government. 1912.
- ^ "Mahavamsa, the Great Chronicle of Sri Lanka (covering the period 6th century BCE to 1815 CE)". UNESCO. 2023.
- ^ "'Mahavamsa': Great Chronicle of Sri Lanka added to UNESCO Memory of the World Register". Ada Derana. 27 June 2023. Retrieved 3 July 2023.