This book is a new and revised edition of George Turnour's trans lation of Mahavamsa published in 1837. It had again been reprinted in Wijesinha's Mahavamsa in 1889. Why the need of a new and revised edition? Because R.O. Franke suspected the trustworthiness of historical traditions mentioned in Mahavamsa and considered it only Pali quolations from Jatakas and other canonical works. Kern in his "Manual of Indian Buddhism" (vide his book Noch einmal Divp. und Maha.) showed that for most ancient time the sources of historical events of Ceylon could not be accepted. V.A. Smith in his 'Ashoka" expressed that the Ceylonese Chronology prior to BC 160 is absolutely and compretely rejected ... positively false in its principal preposition." There were objections, untrust worthiness and absurdities regarding contents of Mahavamsa. Therefore Ceylon branch of Royal Asiatic Society constituted a com mittee. The Committee appointed T.W. Rhys Davids the Editor for the book. Plan stated for revision and to respond to the above-started pre vailed situation about Mahavamsa. Prof. Wilhelm Gieger had been the head of this work. He translated the Mahavamsa into German, and from German it is translated into the English by Mrs. Mabel Hanyes Bode. This book has the following specialities (1) In the Introduction to book ancient manuscripts as Mahavamsa Tika under the title *Vamsathappakasini', Dipavamsa of fourth century AD, and Atthakatha commentary literature and Attha katha-Mahavamsa are analysed. (2) External evidences (support) for chronicle in the form of Indian kings before Ashok, Rock Edicts of Ashoka and history of Mission to Ceylon, History of Buddhist Councils and Acariyaparampara of India and Ceylon are dicussed. (3) Table-works for chronologies of kings-a very valuable conclusion as evidence is vital part of the book. There are also Appendices to book. In net shell, this book a may be termed as reference book.
A FEW words are necessary to explain how the present work came to be written; and one or two points should be mentioned regarding the aims it is hoped to achieve. Early in 1908 the Government of Ceylon were contemplating a new and revised edition of Turnour's translation of the Mahavamsa, publihed in 1837 and reprinted in L.C. Wijesinha's Mahavamsa published in 1889, and were in correspondence on the subject with the Ceylon. Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. The Society appointed at numerous and influential Committee, and recommended myself as Editor for Europe. By their letter of July 18, 1908, the Government of Ceylon requested me to undertake that post. I took the opportunity at the Congress of Orientalists held at Copenhagen in August, and again at the Congress on the History of Religions held in September at Oxford, to consult my colleagues on the best plan for carrying out the proposed revision. They agreed that the method most likely to lead to a satisfactory result within a reasonable time was to entrust the work to one competent critical scholar who could, if necessary, consult members of the Ceylon Committee, but who should be himself responsible for all the details of the work. I reported to Government accordingly, and recommended that Prof. Geiger, who had just completed his edition of the text, should be asked to undertake the task. The Government approved the plan, and asked me to make the necessary arrangements. Those arrangements have resulted in the publication of the present volume. 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. It is true there is considerable literary merit in the original poem, and that it may be possible hereafter to attempt a reproduction also, in English unrhymed verse, of the literary spirit of the poem. But a literal version would still be indispensable for historical purposes. For similar reasons it has been decided to retain in the translation certain technical terms used in the Buddhist Order. In a translation aiming at literary merit some English word more or less analogous in meaning might be used, regardless of the fact that such a word would involve implications not found in the original. Thus bhikkhu has often been rendered 'priest' or 'monk'. But a bhikkhu claims no such priestly powers as are implied by the former term, and would yield no such obedience as is implied in the other, and to discuss all the similarities and differences between these three ideas would require a small treatise. There are other technical terms of the same kind. It is sufficient here to explain that when such terms are left, in the present translation, untranslated, it is because an accurate translation is not considered possible. Most of them are, like bhikkhu, already intelligible to those who are likely to use this version. But they are shortly explained in foot-notes; and a list of them, with further interpretation, will be found at the end of the volume. The Ceylon Government has defrayed the expense of this, as it did of the previously published translations of the Mahavamsa.
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