This book is written in Sinhala. Readers who do not read Sinhala will not be able to use it, and it is worth being clear about that before ordering.
The subject is the Mahavamsa, the Pali chronicle whose name means "Great Chronicle". It was composed in Pali verse, in the manner of an epic poem, and is attributed to the Buddhist monk Mahanama of the Mahavihara at Anuradhapura. Scholars date the work to the fifth or sixth century of the Common Era. Its narrative begins with the island's legendary origins and the arrival of Prince Vijaya, and carries forward to the reign of Mahasena of Anuradhapura, where Mahanama's portion closes. Later writers took up the account and continued it beyond that point.
The Mahavamsa occupies an unusual position: it is at once a religious text, written by a monk from within a monastic tradition and concerned with the fortunes of the Buddhist order on the island, and the principal narrative source for the early history of Sri Lanka. Kings, dynastic succession, the founding of monasteries and the great reservoirs and stupas of the Anuradhapura period are all threaded through its verse. Anyone working on the island's early centuries returns to it, and it has shaped how Sri Lankans have understood their own past for a very long time.
This Sinhala volume is the work of Prof Mangala Ilangasinha and is published by Godage International Publishers, an established Colombo house that publishes in Sinhala and English across history, religion, literature and reference.
It will suit Sinhala readers who want to approach the chronicle in their own language — students of history and Buddhist studies, and general readers with an interest in the Anuradhapura period.
- Author: Prof Mangala Ilangasinha
- Publisher: Godage International Publishers
- Language: Sinhala
- Pages: 346
- ISBN: 9789552087745
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