මහාවංශය (Great Chronicle of Ceylon)

Introduction

Dīpavaṃsa, Mahāvaṃsa, and Sāsanavaṃsa Chronicle of the Doctrine deserve a special notice on account of their being so highly important for the ecclesiastical history of Ceylon.’ But here, however, it is only admitted that the chronicles can be utilized as of value for the period from Devānaṃpiyatissa onwards or perhaps only for a yet later time. For the most ancient times, when the history of continental India is also to be taken into consideration, KERN is hardly inclined to accept them as authentic sources.

A very trenchant verdict is pronounced by V. A. SMITH in his Asoka on the Ceylonese Chronicles. He says in the plainest fashion: ‘in this work (i. e. in the Asoka) the Ceylonese chronology prior to B.C. 160 is absolutely and completely rejected, as being not merely of doubtful authority but positively false in its principal propositions.’ 1

Perhaps V. A. SMITH has since modified his judgement. For he says now: 2 ‘These Sinhalese stories the value of which has been sometimes overestimated, demand cautious criticism at least as much as do other records of popular and ecclesiastical tradition.’ This sounds less cutting. The warning to handle critically, which the excellent historian considers necessary with regard to the Ceylonese Chronicles, is certainly justified. It applies to all historical documents, and I have no intention at all of disputing the justice of it.

The judgement pronounced by RHYS DAVIDS 3 on Dīp. and Mah. sounds much more favourable. He says: ‘The Ceylon Chronicles would not suffer in comparison with the best of the Chronicles, even though so considerably later in date, written in England or in France.’ He also lays stress on the fact that, as is self-evident, those Chronicles contain no pure history. But they represent the traditions of their time and permit us to draw retrospective conclusions as to earlier periods.

Lately H. C. NORMAN 4 has defended the Ceylonese Chronicles, with complete justice as it seems to me, against

1 Asoka, the Buddhist Emperor of India, p. 57.
2 Early History of India (2nd ed., 1908), p. 9.
3 Buddhist India, 1903, p. 274.
4 A Defense of the Chronicles of the Southern Buddhists, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1908, p. 1 foll.