The History of Buddhist Thought c9.s2.2

c9.s2.2

in the Island. The earlier of these is the *Dīpavaṃsa*, “history of the Island (of Ceylon),” a record in verse, assigned to the fourth century A.D. The *Mahāvaṃsa*, “the great Chronicle,” also in verse, is a rewriting of the same subject matter with more completeness, and is about a century later. Both these works rest upon historical material which was contained in the old Sinhalese commentaries on the Canon, and most of the material with which we are concerned originated in India. It is unnecessary to consider the *Dīpavaṃsa* in detail here. Its relation to the *Mahāvaṃsa* has been discussed by W. Geiger in his editions of the text and translation of the *Mahāvaṃsa*.