Cūḷavaṃsa

Historical record of the monarchs of Sri Lanka

The Cūḷavaṃsa or Chulavamsa (Pāli: "Lesser Chronicle") is a historical record, written in the Pali language, of the monarchs of Sri Lanka. It covers the period from the 4th century to 1815. The Cūḷavaṃsa was compiled over many years by Buddhist monks, and displays a variety of epic styles. It is generally considered to be a sequel to the Mahavamsa ("Great Chronicle") written in the 6th century by the monk Mahanama. The Mahavamsa and the Cūḷavaṃsa are sometimes thought of as a single work (referred to as the "Mahavamsa") spanning over two millennia of Sri Lankan history.

The Cūḷavaṃsa is a continuation of the Mahavamsa. But unlike the Mahavamsa it was written by different authors at different periods. The Cūḷavaṃsa is divided into two parts. The first part, chapters thirty seven to seventy nine, begins with the 4th century arrival of a tooth relic of Siddhartha Gautama to Sri Lanka and continues to the reign of Parakramabahu the Great (1153–1186) in the 12th century, and was written in the 13th century. While the authorship of the first part is traditionally ascribed to the Buddhist monk Thera Dhammakitti, many historians now believe it to be a collaborative effort, written by a number of monks.

Tradition has it that the work was compiled by the monk Dhammakitti, whom Geiger regards as 'a man of literary culture acquainted with Indian Niti literature'. He regards 'the history of Parakkama [sic] as the real kernel, the main subject of the Culavamsa', much in the same way that Dutugemunu's life is the major part of the Mahavamsa. Geiger believes that it is not possible 'to form a harmonious and credible picture of the single acts attributed to the youthful Parakkama [sic]' simply from the information presented in the Lesser Chronicle. The explanation for this lies in the writer's approach to history:

That there is a certain amount of truth contained in the text is corroborated by numerous carvings, edicts and monuments still extant in Sri Lanka today – e. g., Parakramabahu's wars with Gajabahu II and Manabharana are attested to by at least one rock carving from this period. Furthermore Geiger also believes that the Culavamsa 'does not consciously relate false [information]'. The primary source for Parakramabahu's reign is the Cūḷavaṃsa.

The foremost translation of this work was that of Wilhelm Geiger from Pali into German, completed in 1930. This was subsequently translated into English by Mabel Haynes Bode, and the English translation was revised by Geiger. In 1929 an English edition was published by Oxford University Press, translated by C. M. Rickmers. The British colonial government commissioned a translation into English of the Cūḷavaṃsa in 1871 and published it alongside George Turnour's translation of the Mahavamsa.

In 1871, the British colonial government of Sri Lanka commissioned a 101st chapter of the Cūḷavaṃsa, covering the period from 1815 1871. In 1935, Yagirala Pannananda, a Buddhist monk, wrote Mahavamsa Part III, a further extension of the Cūḷavaṃsa, in Sinhala. While not authorized by any government agency or religious organization, it was eventually accepted as part of the larger Mahavamsa/Cūḷavaṃsa tradition. In 1977, the government of Prime Minister JR Jayawardene established a commission to extend the chronicle to cover the years 1935 1977.