Professor Geiger has made a translation into German of his own revised critical edition published by the Pali Text Society in 1908; and added the necessary introduction, appendices, and notes. Mrs. Bode has translated the German into English; and Professor Geiger has then revised the English translation.
The plan has been to produce a literal translation, as nearly, as possible an absolutely correct reproduction of the statements ' recorded in the Chronicle.
Now, however, R.O. Franke has taken a decided stand against my inferences.2 He disputes the existence of an older historical work as foundation of Dip. and Mah.
The former appears to him to be only a botched compilation of Pali quotations from the Jatakas and other canonical works. But the author of the Mah. has merely copied the Dip and the same applies to Buddhaghosa and his historical introduction to the Samanta-Pasadika.. I have however, I hope, succeeded in combating the doubts and objections raised by Franke.3
The defects of the Dip., which naturally neither can nor should be disputed, concern the outer form, not the contents. But that the author of the Dip. Simply invented the contents of his chronicle is a thing impossible to believe. Thus it is our task to trace the sources from which he drew his material. This is made possible for us by the Mahavamsa-Tika, i.e. the native commentary on our chronicle which, under the title Vamsatthappakasini, was composed by an unknown author.
Book's Contents and Sample Pages
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Art (276)
Biography (245)
Buddha (1958)
Children (75)
Deities (50)
Healing (33)
Hinduism (58)
History (534)
Language & Literature (448)
Mahayana (420)
Mythology (73)
Philosophy (425)
Sacred Sites (109)
Tantric Buddhism (94)
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