Bodhivaṃsa

{{Theravada Buddhism|Texts}} The '''''Bodhi-Vamsa''''', or '''Mahabodhivamsa''', is a prose poem in elaborate Sanskritized Pali that recounts the story of the Bodhi tree of Bodh Gaya and Anuradhapura.<ref name=Hinuber>{{cite book | last = Von Hinüber | first = Oskar | author-link = Oskar von Hinüber | title = A Handbook of Pali Literature | publisher = Munishiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd. | edition = 1st Indian | date = 1997 | location = New Delhi | pages = 93–94 | language = English | isbn = 81-215-0778-2 }}</ref> It is attributed to a monk called Upatissa who lived during the reign of Mahinda IV of Sri Lanka, and believed to have been composed in the 10th Century AD.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Bodhi Vamsa|volume=4|page=109}}</ref><ref name=Hinuber/> It is written in the kavya style.<ref name=Hinuber/>

== Contents == The ''Mahabodhivamsa'' is composed primarily in prose, but includes verses at the end of each chapter, many of them originating from the Mahavamsa.<ref name=Norman>{{cite book | last = Norman | first = Kenneth Roy | author-link = K. R. Norman | title = Pali Literature | publisher = Otto Harrassowitz | date = 1983 | location = Wiesbaden | pages = 141 | language = English | isbn = 3-447-02285-X}}</ref> Like the ''Mahavamsa'', the ''Mahabodhivamsa'' begins by recounting the recognition of Gautama Buddha by Dipankara Buddha and then proceeds to recount the life of Gautama Buddha and an account of the first three Buddhist Councils.<ref name=Norman/> It then describes the mission of Mahinda to bring Buddhism to Sri Lanka in the 3rd century BCE, and the transplantation of the Bodhi tree and the creation of the ''bodhipuja'' ceremony that celebrates it.<ref name=Norman/> It consists of twelve chapters, and ends with a list of locations where saplings from the Bodhi tree were planted.<ref name=Jayawardhana>JAYAWARDHANA, SOMAPALA. “A SURVEY OF LITERATURE ON THE SACRED BODHI TREE AT ANURADHAPURA.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Sri Lanka, vol. 35, 1990, pp. 23–52. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23731154.</ref> This list matches those included in the ''Samantapasadika'' of Buddhaghosa and the ''Mahavamsa''.<ref name=Jayawardhana/>

According to its introduction, the ''Mahabodhivamsa'' is an adaptation of a previously existing work in Sinhalese on the same subject.<ref name=Hinuber/> The ''Mahabodhivamsa'' quotes verses from the ''Mahavamsa'', but draws a great deal of its material from other sources and has occasionally preserved details of the older tradition not found in any other sources known, such as a variant form of the Kalingabodhi Jataka.<ref name="EB1911"/><ref name=Hinuber/> The inclusion of quotations from the ''Mahavamsa'' and other Pali texts suggests that rather than simply translating an earlier Sinhala text, its author may have substantially expanded and supplemented the text.<ref name=PLC/>

The style of the ''Mahabodhivamsa'' shows a strong Sanskrit influence, using the Sanskrit meanings of some Pali words and incorporating Sanskrit terms and compounds.<ref name=PLC/> G.P. Malalasekera describes its composition as marking the beginning of an era of Sanskritized Pali composition that continued for several centuries in Sri Lanka.<ref name=PLC/>

==History and Authorship== The dating of the ''Mahabodhivamsa'' is based on the a Sinhalese commentary written in the late 12th Century.<ref name=Hinuber/> This is also the source of its attribution to Upatissa, who is otherwise unknown but described as composing the Pali text at the request of a monk called Dāthānāga, identified by 19th Century scholars with a monk by the same name mentioned in the Culavamsa and other sources as being appointed by Mahinda IV to teach the Abhidhamma.<ref name=PLC>{{cite book | last = Malalasekera | first = G.P. | author-link = Gunapala Piyasena Malalasekera | title = The Pali Literature of Ceylon | publisher = Buddhist Publication Society of Sri Lanka | edition = 1998 | date = 1928 | location = Colombo | pages = 156–60 | language = English | isbn = 9552401887}}</ref><ref name=Jayawardhana/>

==References== {{reflist}}

Category:Sri Lankan Buddhist texts Category:10th-century history books Category:Pali Buddhist texts Category:Sri Lankan chronicles Category:Buddhist poetry