The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

318 ltEVIEW ARTICLE
Rajawamsapustaka (the Book of Royal Dynasties), and the Parampar·
apustaka (the Book of Traditions.)
The Suvarnnapurawamsa was first completed in 300 A.D. when
King Mahasena was on the throne of Cey Ion. The chronicle was brought
up to date and enlarged in the 11th century by Maharaja Manabharana,
son of Maharaja Samara Vijayottunga (see Section 14). The original
was written in the Malay language of that time, but it was translated
into Sanskrit and several other languages.
The Rajavamsapustaka was started in the last year of King Mahasena
and finished in the reign of his successor, Sri Meghavarnna, by Maha
Buddbaraksitasthavira, a monk of the Abhayagiri Vihara Sect. The
work was written in the Simhalese language of that time, and there was
a Sanskrit version which also was said to have been written by the same
monk, Then in the twelfth century the great scholar, Buddbapriyasthavira,
wrote a number of historical essays based on the Rajavamsapustaka.
The monk was born at Suvarnnapura of a Simhalese farber
and a Malayan mother, and at one time was at Nagapattana in South
India, where he was Lord-abbot at Cudamanivarmavihara which the
Sailendra king Culamani had built early in the 11th century. From
Nagapattana, Buddbapriya came to Polonnaruva, where be presumably
died. The Rajawamsapustaka and the later chapter, Yavana-rajya-vrilanta,
were the main sources for The Greeks and the Mauriyas.
The third document, Paramparapustaka, was written in the reign
of Vikramabahu (1111-1132) by Bhadra-sthavira, who bad been the
disciple of Suvarnnapura-sthavira (he;d of the Sangha of Sri Vijaya).
According to Paranavitana (The Greeks and the Mauriyas, page 10):
"Bbadra-sthavira's approach to history is biographical He
bas selected a number of outstanding historical personages of
different times and climes, and narrated their life stories, referring
in the process to historical events with which they were connected.
Most of the heroes whose lives are narrated are from Ceylon,
India and the conutries in which Indian culture still prevails, or has
prevailed in the past, but famous personage's of Gt•eek, Persian and