NO. 43.— 1892.] ANCIENT CHRONICLES OF CEYLON. 165 



works, which were in the possession of the monks of the 

 Maha-vihdra, Great Monastery, of Anuradhapura. By those 

 monks and their predecessors, who are doubtless the people 

 the author calls " the ancients " (under which name they are 

 constantly referred to by Buddhaghosha also), by those Bud- 

 dhist monks of the Maha-vihdra, the materials were collected 

 and handed down, on which the author of the Mahdwansa 

 relied. This is his claim to have access to sound materials. 



What is the extent of that claim taken at its very largest ? 

 At its very largest it runs back to the foundation of the 

 Maha-vihdra ("Great Monastery"). Before that, the author 

 makes no pretence whatever to have had historical materials. 

 How could the Maha-vihdra monks have kept records of what 

 occurred before their institution was founded, before there 

 was a monk in Ceylon, before Buddhism had been introduced 

 into the Island ? The Mahdwansa does not even claim to rest 

 on historical materials, except after 250 B.C. About 250 B.C., 

 speaking roughly, Buddhism was introduced into the Island 

 the " Great Monastery " was founded, and the recording of 

 events began. With the three centuries before that the life of 

 the "Great Monastery " was in no sense continuous. It came 

 over, so to speak, from India. Its founders knew nothing of 

 the history of Ceylon ; they were strangers. All that they 

 could know, even if they set themselves to inquire, would be 

 collected from the memories of living men, and from such 

 traditions as were cherished among the previous inhabitants, 

 a non-Buddhist, uncultivated, unhistorical people. 



It cannot be too decisively affirmed that history in Ceylon 

 began with the introduction of Buddhism. The previous 

 inhabitants of Ceylon are not more likely — but even less 

 likely — to have kept records than any other non-Buddhist 

 Indian people. When we look at the contents of those early 

 chapters which contain the traditions of the three centuries 

 between Vijaya and Mahinda — the pre-Buddhist period — 

 we find them just what we should expect. There are parti- 

 culars which have the look of facts about the father and the 

 grandfather of the reigning king ; before that time — before 



