A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature, so far as it illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans c8.s3.67

c8.s3.67

¹ Mahâvanso, p. 46. The Mahâvaṅsa was written in Pâli by Mahânâma. He was a priest and uncle of king Dasenkeleya or Dhâtusena, who reigned from A.D. 459 to 477. Mahânâma made use of earlier histories, and mentions among them the Dîpavaṅsa. This work, also called Mahâvaṅsa, and written in Pâli, is supposed to be still in existence, and carries the history to the reign of Mahâsena, who died A. D. 302. Mahânâma, though he lived more than a hundred years after Mahâsena's death, does not seem to have carried the history much further. His work ends with the account of Mahâsena's reign. It terminates with the 48th verse of the 37th chapter of what is now known as the Mahâvaṅsa, and it is only from conjecture that Turnour, the editor and translator of the first 38 chapters of the Mahâvaṅsa, ascribes the end of the 37th, and the whole of the 38th chapter, to the pen of Mahânâma. Mahânâma's work was afterwards continued by different writers. It now consists of 100 chapters, and carries the history of Ceylon to the middle of the 18th century. He is likewise the author of a commentary on his own work, which commentary ends at the 48th verse of the 37th chapter.