The Mahavamsa is Composed

Possibly the most culturally significant Pali text in Sri Lankan history, the Mahavamsa is written down, probably by a Buddhist monk at the Anuradhapura Mahavihara named Mahanama. Speculated to have existed in oral form for a few centuries already, it serves as a chronology of the Sinhalese kings of Sri Lanka, their achievements and their actions in the service of Buddhism. It begins with the island’s conquest by king Vijaya — believed to be a relative of the Buddha — in 543 BCE, and covers landmark events such as the introduction of Buddhism to the island by Mauryan emperor Ashoka’s children Mahinda and Sanghamitta in the third century BCE, and king Dutugemunu’s unification of the country after a period of strife under the rule of the Early Cholas in the second century BCE. The Mahavamsa’s narrative ends in the fourth century CE, before the time of its own writing and before the arrival of the Relic of the Buddha’s Tooth. A second part, the Culavamsa, will be composed and added to between the thirteenth and nineteenth centuries, picking up where the Mahavamsa leaves off.

While many of the Mahavamsa’s chronicles have been corroborated by inscriptions, archaeological evidence and independent sources, the veracity of some is still a matter of debate among scholars, especially those passages that find no mention elsewhere. These include the identity of the author and compiler Mahanama himself, the date of Vijaya’s arrival, the alleged compilation of the Pali Canon in the first century BCE and the destruction of the Anuradhapura Mahavihara in the fourth century.