On the Chronicles of Ceylon

I. Chonological Position – 40
aware of the variants in the texts presented before him. Among other
older works in Sinhalese availed of by him include a Dīpavaṁsa
Aṭṭhakathā, an Exegetical Mahābodhivaṁsa and an Exegetical
Mahācetiyavaṁsa.
Malalasekera has drawn our attention to the Bodhgayā inscription of
the Thera Mahānāma in which the succession of six Theras of
Ceylon is traced through Bhara, Rāhula, Upasena (I), Mahānāma (I),
Upasena (II) and Mahānāma (II), [22] the last-named Thera being the
author of the epigraph. Apart from other cogent details, this is
nothing but a string of names without any bearing on the author of
the Mahāvaṁsa Ṭīkā or his time. 72
The compliment paid to Dhātusena for certain pious constructions
may be interesting as suggesting that the work could not have been
written previous to the reign of this king. 73 This does not, however,
lead us very far towards the solution of the problem, the name of
Dhātusena occurring as well in the Mahāvaṁsa itself. 74
The change of certain place-names noticed in the commentary, e.g.
that of the Issarasamaṇārāma into Kassapagirivihāra, with Kassagiri,
Kaṇḍagiri, Kandaragiri, Kassakagiri or Vessagiri as its variants, or
that of Sāmagalla into Moragalla, is not a decisive fact at all.
There is no better way of fixing the date of compilation of the
Mahāvaṁsa Ṭīkā than one suggested by Geiger. In the first place the
72 Vaṁsatthappakāsinī, I, Introduction, pp. civff.
73 Ibid., II, p. 626.
74 Mahāvaṁsa, XXXVII, 42.