The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c32.3

v1.c32.3

LEGEND and ethnographic observation are the only materials for constructing the history of Ceylon in the early period previous to the death of Gautama Buddha (probably B.C. 483). Events from that date onward are recorded in the official chronicles kept by the Buddhist Church after its introduction into Ceylon by Mahinda (Mahendra) in 246 B.C.; and these chronicles were incorporated in the *aṭṭhakathās* or canonical commentaries upon the Pāli Scriptures, and thence into the Pāli histories known as Dīpavaṃsa, the ‘Chronicle of the Island,’ and Mahāvaṃsa, the ‘Great Chronicle.’ These records, while mainly interested in the relations of the kings of Ceylon to the Church, and often erring in important details, are nevertheless on the whole valuable sources of information, to which however the later histories or Rājāvaliyas, ‘Lists of Kings,’ and the inscriptions form an indispensable supplement.