Buddhist India c19.20

c19.20

A generation afterwards Mahānāma wrote his great work, the *Mahā-vamsa*. He was no historian, and had, besides the material used by his two predecessors, only popular legends to work on. But he was a literary artist, and his book is really an epic poem of remarkable merit, with the national idol, Dusṭa Gāmini, the conqueror of the invading hosts of the Tamils, as its hero. What he says of other kings, and of Asoka amongst them, is only by way of introduction, or of epilogue, to the main story.