Mahavamsa
The Mahavamsa (Sinhala: [mahavay]; Pali: Mahvasa, trans. "Great Chronicle"; abbrev. Mhv.[1] or Mhvs.[2]) is a historical poem written in the Pali language, of the Kings of Sri Lanka. The first version of it covered the period from the coming of King Vijaya of the Rarh region of ancient Bengal in 543 BCE to the reign of King Mahasena (334-361).
The first printed edition and English translation of the Mahavamsa was published in 1837 by George Turnour, an historian and officer of the Ceylon Civil Service. 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.[3]
Buddhism
While not considered a canonical religious text, the Mahavamsa is an important text in Theravada Buddhism. It covers the early history of religion in Sri Lanka, beginning with the time of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism. It also briefly recounts the history of Buddhism in India, from the date of the Buddha's death to the various Buddhist councils where the Dharma
was reviewed. Every chapter of the Mahavamsa ends by stating that it is
written for the "serene joy of the pious". From the emphasis of its
point-of-view, it can be said to have been compiled to record the good
deeds of the kings who were patrons of the Mahavihara temple in Anuradhapura.
History
Buddhist monks of the Mahavihara
maintained chronicles of Sri Lankan history, starting from the 3rd
century BCE. These annals were combined and compiled into a single
document in the 5th century by the Buddhist monk Mahathera Mahanama. It was written based on prior ancient compilations known as Sinhala Atthakatha, which were commentaries written in Sinhala[citation needed]. Mahathera Mahanama relied on this text, as he mentions in Mahavamse tika, that is the preface to Mahavamse.[4] Another, earlier document known as the Dipavamsa,
which survives today, is much simpler and contains less information
than the Mahavamsa, and was probably compiled using the Sinhala
Mahavamse Atthakatha as well.
A companion volume, the Culavamsa ("lesser chronicle"), compiled by Sinhala Buddhist monks, covers the period from the 4th century to the British takeover of Sri Lanka in 1815. The Culavamsa was compiled by a number of authors of different time periods.
The combined work, sometimes referred to collectively as the
Mahavamsa, provides a continuous historical record of over two
millennia, and is considered one of the world's longest unbroken
historical accounts[citation needed]. It is one of the few documents containing material relating to the Ngas and Yakkhas, the dwellers of Lanka prior to the legendary arrival of Vijaya.
As it often refers to the royal dynasties of India, the Mahavamsa is also valuable for 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.
Indian excavations in Sanchi and other locations, confirm the Mahavamsa account of the Empire of Asoka.
The accounts given in the Mahavamsa are also amply supported by the
numerous stone inscriptions, mostly in Sinhala, found in Sri Lanka.[5] Karthigesu Indrapala [6] has also upheld the historical value of the Mahavamsa. If not for the Mahavamsa, the story behind the large stupas in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, such as Ruwanwelisaya, Jetavanaramaya, Abhayagiri, and other works of ancient engineering would never have been known.
Most important Pali epic poem
Besides being an important historical source, the Mahavamsa is the most important epic poem in the Pali
language. Its stories of battles and invasions, court intrigue, great
constructions of stupas and water reservoirs, written in elegant verse
suitable for memorization, caught the imagination of the Buddhist world
of the time. Unlike many texts written in antiquity, it also discusses
various aspects of the lives of ordinary people, how they joined the
King's army or farmed. Thus the Mahavamsa was taken along the silk route to many Buddhist lands.[citation needed]
Parts of it were translated, retold, and absorbed into other languages.
An extended version of the Mahavamsa, which gives many more details,
has also been found in Cambodia.[7]
The Mahavamsa gave rise to many other Pali chronicles, making Sri Lanka
of that period probably the world's leading center in Pali literature.
Political significance
The Mahavamsa has, especially in modern Sri Lanka, acquired a significance as a document with a political message.[8]
The Sinhalese majority often use Manavamsa as a proof of their claim
that Sri Lanka is a Buddhist nation from historical time. The British
historian Jane Russell[9] has recounted how a process of "Mahavamsa bashing" began in the 1930s, especially from within the Tamil Nationalist
movement. The Mahavamsa, being a history of the Sinhala Buddhists,
presented itself to the Tamil Nationalists and the Sinhala Nationalists
as the hegemonic epic of the Sinhala people. This view was attacked by
G. G. Ponnambalam, the leader of the Nationalist Tamils in the 1930s. He
claimed that most of the Sinhala kings, including Vijaya, Kasyapa, and
Parakramabahu, were Tamils. Ponnambalam's 1939 speech in Navalpitiya,
attacking the claim that Sri Lanka is a Sinhalese, Buddhist nation was
seen as an act against the notion of creating a Buddhist only nation.
The Sinhala majority responded with a mob riot, which engulfed
Navalapitiya, Passara, Maskeliya, and even Jaffna.[9][10]
The riots were rapidly put down by the British colonial government, but
later this turned through various movements into the civil war in Sri
Lanka which ended in 2009.
Various writers have called into question the morality of the account given in the Mahavamsa, where Duttugemunu
regrets his actions in killing the Chola king Elara and his troops. The
Mahavamsa equates the killing of the invaders as being on par with the
killing of "sinners and wild beasts", and the King's sorrow and regret
are assuaged. This is considered by some critics as an ethical error.
However, Buddhism does recognize a hierarchy of actions as being more or
less wholesome or skillful, although the intent is as much as or more
important than the action itself. Thus the killing of an Arahant
may be considered less wholesome and skillful than the killing of an
ordinary human being. Buddhists may also assert that killing an elephant
is less skillful and wholesome than killing an ant. In both cases,
however, the intent must also be considered. An important thing to note
is that Dutthagamani regretted his act, and this was also true of King Asoka, who became a pacifist after a series of bloody military campaigns.
An eminent historian who has come to the defense of the Mahavamsa is Karthigesu Indrapala.[6]
He has argued that the popular presentation of the Mahavamsa as a work
of Sinhala Buddhist chauvinism is incorrect, and that the Mahavansa
writer was singularly fair in his presentation.
Historical accuracy
The historical accuracy of the Mahavamsa, given the time when it was written, is considered to be astonishing,[11] although the material prior to the death of Asoka is not considered to be trustworthy and is mostly legend.
This date of Vijaya's arrival is thought to have been artificially fixed to coincide with the Ceylonese date for the death of Buddha,
that is 543 BCE. The story of Vijaya's arrival was also written much
later after it had occurred, as the Mahavansa is thought to have been
written in 6 CE to 1877 CE by Buddhist monks.[12][13]
The historical accuracy of Mahinda converting the Sri Lankan king to Buddhism is also debated. Professor Hermann Oldenberg, a German scholar of Indology
who has published studies on the Buddha and translated many Pali texts,
considers this story a "pure invention". V. A. Smith (Author of Asoka and Early history of India)
also refers to this story as "a tissue of absurdities". V. A. Smith and
Professor Hermann came to this conclusion due to Ashoka not mentioning
the handing over of his son, Mahinda, to the temple to become a Buddhist
missionary and Mahinda's role in converting the Sri Lankan king to
Buddhism, in his 13th year Rock Edicts. Particularly the Rock-Edict
XIII.[14]
There is also an inconsistency with the year on which Ashoka sent
Buddhist missionaries to Sri Lanka. According to the Mahavamsa the
missionaries arrived in 255 BCE, but according to Ashoka's Rock-Edict
XIII it was 5 years earlier in 260 BCE.[14]
Bibliography
Editions and Translations
- Turnour, George (C.C.S.): The Mahawanso in Roman Characters with
the Translation Subjoined, and an Introductory Essay on Pali
Buddhistical Literature. Vol. I containing the first thirty eight
Chapters. Cotto 1837.
- Sumangala, H.; Silva Batuwantudawa, Don Andris de: The Mahawansha
from first to thirty-sixth Chapter. Revised and edited, under Orders of
the Ceylon Government by H. Sumangala, High Priest of Adam's Peak, and
Don Andris de Silva Batuwantudawa, Pandit. Colombo 1883.
- Geiger, Wilhelm; Bode, Mabel Haynes (transl.); Frowde, H. (ed.): The
Mahavamsa or, The great chronicle of Ceylon / translated into English
by Wilhelm Geiger ... assisted by Mabel Haynes Bode...under the
patronage of the government of Ceylon. London : Pali Text Society 1912 (Pali Text Society, London. Translation series ; no. 3).(Online text)
- Guruge, Ananda W.P.: Mahavamsa. Calcutta: M. P. Birla Foundation 1990 (Classics of the East).
- Ruwan Rajapakse, Concise Mahavamsa, Colombo, Sri Lanka, 2001
- Guruge, Ananda W. P. Mahavamsa: The Great Chronicle of Sri Lanka, A
New Annotated Translation with Prolegomena, ANCL Colombo 1989
- Early translation of a Sinhalese version of the text
- Upham, Edward (ed.): The Mahavansi, the Raja-ratnacari, and the
Raja-vali : forming the sacred and historical books of Ceylon; also, a
collection of tracts illustrative of the doctrines and literature of
Buddhism: translated from the Singhalese. London : Parbury, Allen, and Co. 1833 (3 vol.). (Mahavansi)
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