Mahāvaṃsa: The Great Chronicle of Sri Lanka — Chapters One to Thirty-Seven

The book is structured around two major intellectual layers: a critical study of the Mahāvaṃsa tradition and the translated chronicle itself. The Prolegomena discusses why a new translation is necessary, reviews the history of earlier English renderings, evaluates Turnour, Wijesinha, and Geiger, examines the Mahāvaṃsa as an epic poem, analyzes its didactic and historical functions, and places it within the broader Sri Lankan historical tradition alongside earlier and later chronicle materials. The translation then follows Chapters One to Thirty-Seven, beginning with the Buddha’s visits and the early Buddhist councils, then moving through Vijaya, Paṇḍukābhaya, Devānampiyatissa, Mahinda, the Bodhi-tree, Duṭṭhagāmaṇī, relics, monasteries, dynastic succession, and the reign of Mahāsena. Overall, the work presents the Mahāvaṃsa as both a religious chronicle and a civilizational archive, preserving Sri Lanka’s Buddhist memory through narratives of kingship, monastic patronage, sacred relics, ethical instruction, political legitimacy, and the historical formation of the island’s Buddhist identity.