Mahavamsa : the great chronicle of Ceylon

1912·19 MB·English

by  Geiger, Wilhelm, 1856-1943

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GIFT OF

THE MAHAVAMSA
OR
THE GREAT CHRONICLE
OF CEYLON

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THE MAHAVAMSA
OR
THE GREAT CHRONICLE
OF CEYLON
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
BY
WILHELM GEIGER, PH
D.,
:
PROFESSOR OF INDOGERMANIC PHILOLOGY
AT ERLANGEN UNIVERSITY
ASSISTED BY MABEL HAYNES BODE, Pn.D.
LECTURER ON PALI AT
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON
UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF CEYLON
OLonfcon
PUBLISHED FOR THE PALI TEXT SOCIETY
BY
HENRY FROWDE
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, AMEN CORNER, E.C.
1912
M3
OXFORD
*. I. .I'*.:. :'..'PRINTED BY HORACE HART
A* THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
EDITOR'S PREFACE
A PEW words are necessary toexplain howthe present work
came to be written ; and one or two points should be men-
tioned regarding- the aims it is hoped to achieve. Early in
1908 the Government of Ceylon were contemplating a new
and revised edition of Tumour's translation of the Maha-
vamsa, published in 1837 and reprinted in L. C. Wijesinha's
Mahavamsa published in 1889, andwere in correspondence on
the subject with the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic
Society. The Society appointed a numerous and influential
Committee, and recommended myself as Editor for Europe.1
By their letter of July 18, 1908, the Government of
Ceylon requested me to undertake that post. I took the
opportunityatthe Congressof Orientalistsheldat 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 allthedetails ofthe
work. I reported to Government accordingly, and recom-
mended 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 ofhis
own revised critical edition published by the Pali Text Society
1 See theJournal of the Ceylon Branch of the RoyalAsiaticSociety,
vol. xxi, no. 61,pp. 40-42, 70, 86.
4631^,;
vi Editors Preface
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, asnearly
aspossible anabsolutely correct reproduction ofthe statements
recorded in the Chronicle. It is true there is considerable
literary merit in the original poem,andthat it maybepossible
"hereaftertoattempt a reproduction also, in English unrhymed
verse, of the literary spirit of the poem. But a literal ver-
sion 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 bhikkhit, 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 thevolume.
The Ceylon Government has defrayed the expense of this,
as it did of the previously publishedtranslationsof the Maha-
vamsa.
T. W. RHYS DAVIDS.