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JASONNEELISSINHALA, BUDDHIST LITERATURE IN
Sinhala is the language of 72 percent of the population
of Sri Lanka. Sinhala is considered part of the Indo-
European family of languages, but recent scholarship
has revealed a strong Dravidian influence as well. No
written documents exist of the period before the com-
ing of Buddhism in the third century B.C.E.; with Bud-
dhism, a written literature developed. The earliest
extant records are cave and rock inscriptions in a
Brahmscript dating from around 200 B.C.E., which
list the names of Buddhist donors who supported cave
dwelling monks. This connection between the lan-
guage and the religion, established very early, gave rise
over time to a vigorous Buddhist literature.
As far back as the first century B.C.E., Buddhist
monks at Aluvihare in central Sri Lanka committed
Buddhist texts to writing. Monasteries quickly devel-
oped into centers of literary and intellectual activity,
and a substantial collection of religious works, com-
mentaries, exegetical writings, and historical records
appeared in Pali, Sanskrit, and the local vernacular.
Most of the early works have not survived, but schol-
ars know of their existence from references in later
texts and from rock inscriptions. The only extant
works from before the eighth century C.E. are the his-
torical chronicles the Dlpavamsa(fourth century C.E.),
the Mahavamsa(sixth century C.E.), and its continua-
tion the Culavamsa(twelfth century C.E.), which were
all written in Pali, though based on records from the
Sinhala. These chronicles, written by monks, consti-
tute a chronology of Sinhala kings (from the time of
the founder Vijaya to the time of the authors), their
major victories and defeats, and their peacetime activ-
ities, especially their meritorious deeds in support of
Buddhism. The chronicles present a blend of histori-
cal information, religious exhortation, and political
nationalism, all done with remarkable literary skill,
thus constituting a record of what the authors per-
ceived as the establishing of a Buddhist nation on the
island of Sri Lanka.The evidence of the chronicles, and references in
later works and inscriptions, all suggest the existence
of a flourishing literary tradition, even during this early
period. Jayabahu Dharmakirti, writing in the thir-
teenth century in his Nikayasamgrahaya(Collection of
Writings on the Books of the Doctrine), lists the names
of twenty-eight monks and nine lay writers well known
for composing religious works, commentaries, glos-
saries, translations, and other works between the fifth
and thirteenth centuries. Unfortunately, all that re-
mains from the first to eighth centuries C.E. are graf-
fiti poems on the mirror wall of the rock fortress at
Sigiriya. These short casual scribbles of visitors to Si-
giriya between the seventh and ninth centuries C.E.
(many of whom included their names and identities)
do not represent the major literary tradition of the
time. However, their skill and verve indicate the wide-
spread nature and vitality of a tradition where soldiers,
artisans, monks, and women (in addition to more tra-
ditional scholars) could all write poems.Sinhala literature from the tenth to the thirteenth
centuries was strongly influenced by the classical court
literature of India. The major Sinhala poetical works
of the period are the Muvadevavata(The Story of the
Bodhisattva’s Birth as King Mukhadeva, [twelfth cen-
tury]), the Sasadavata(The Story of the Bodhisattva’s
Birth as a Hare, [twelfth century]), and the KavsiluminaSINHALA, BUDDHISTLITERATURE IN