A History of Indian Literature v2.c19.s5.137

v2.c19.s5.137

While the Dīpavaṁsa was thus closely connected even in form with its sources, and is only a feeble attempt at the composition of an epic, the Mahāvaṁsa, probably the work of a poet Mahānāma, who lived in the last quarter of the 5th century A. D.,³ is a perfect epic. The poet wanted to create an ornate poem, a Kāvya, and he expressly states this in his poem. The historical work which the ancients composed,⁴ says he, is in some places too verbose, and in others too brief, and also contains many repetitions. He has, he says, avoided these faults and endeavoured to present the material in question in an easily comprehensible manner, so that the feelings of joy or of emotion may be aroused at the proper places. Indeed, in the Mahāvaṃsa the language and metre are handled with great dexterity. This is probably due not only to the talent of the poet, but also to the fact that the period between the origin of the Dīpavaṃsa and the Mahāvaṃsa coincides with the period of Buddhaghosa's literary activity, which made so lasting a mark on the Pāli literature of Ceylon. Neither is it possible to find fault with the presentation. There are no disturbing gaps, nor repetitions here. Where the Dīpavaṃsa is too brief, Mahānāma has extended and completed, again in other cases he has treated the theme more briefly. The Mahāvaṃsa is, as *Geiger*¹ says, "a work of art, created by a man who well deserves to be called a poet, and who mastered the frequently crude material, if not with genius, yet with taste and skill."