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

HEVIF.W AH'l'ICLE 319
Roman history are the subjects of some chapters. Alexander the
Great, Julius Caesar and the Emperor Angustus have each been
given a chapter in the Paramparapustaka . ...
"The author of the Paramparapustaka was acquainted with
the Rajavamsapustaka and the redaction of the Suvarnnapura-vamsa,
but there are many instances in which the Paramparapustaka bas
given an account of a historical personage or event differing in
important details from those in the earlier works. The case of
Candragupta is a case in point ... On some stones have been
recorded a list of contents of the chapters of the Paramparapustaka ,·
from this it is seen that Bhadra's work was voluminous, and
consisted of over two hundred chapters."
Another author that might be mentioned is Buddhamitra of
Suvarnnapura. He came to Ceylon in the latter part of the reign of
King Parakramababu VI (1412-1467) and acted as adviser to that king.
In due course, he became ordained, not in the Abhayagiri Sect as were
the other writers mentioned, but in the Theravada Nikaya, and was
known as Ananda-sthavira. He was a great historian and archaeologist,
who researched in the old texts and wrote the Story of Sigiri. Lake
House's blurp about this book says:
"This book gives the results of researches into the history
which centred round Sigiri carried out by Buddhamitra (of Suvarnnapura),
a scholar of the fifteenth century, who unlike the 'scientific
historians' of present-day Ceylon, studied history in depth ... The
result of the researches of this great historian and archaeologist,
given in Sanskrit, were incised in tiny characters on a dozen or
more of earlier Sinhalese inscriptions on the order of that liberal
and enlightened monarch, Parakramabahu VI, who was a scion of
the Kalinga (Srivijaya) branch of the Sinhalese royal family."
The Mahavihara church of Ceylon, who considered themselves
orthodox, were wont to destroy the writings of the Abhayagiri Sect.
Even historical writing they destroyed, and the history that they themselves
wrote, the Mahawamsa and Culawamsa, was biased to the faction
they supported, . All tbt~ t]le l.(alin~a kin¥s, who supporteci tb~