The Mahavamsaasserts that the Buddhist CANON
(Tripitaka; Pali, Tipitaka) was first committed to writ-
ing during the reign of King VattagaminAbhaya in
the first century B.C.E. at Aluvihara just north of
Matale, inaugurating, perhaps, the tradition of in-
scribing Buddhist texts on to olaleaves, a tradition of
committing the dharma to handwriting that continued
into the nineteenth century. In rare instances, texts
were also inscribed on gold or copper plates, such as
the gold leaves bearing an eighth-century fragment of
a Sanskrit Prajñaparamita-sutra(Perfection of Wisdom
Sutra), found within the massive STUPAat Jetavana in
Anuradhapura in the early 1980s.
In addition to the Pali Tipitakaand the Pali monas-
tic chronicles Dlpavamsaand Mahavamsa,the fifth
and sixth centuries were the backdrop for the com-
mentaries produced by BUDDHAGHOSA. His Visud-
dhimagga (Path of Purification), an elaborate and
precise exegesis of slla( ́slla; English, morality), sam-
adhi (meditation), and paññaor PRAJN
A(WISDOM)—
the three elemental principles of practice that
Buddhaghosa regarded as the bases of the Buddha’s
“noble eightfold PATH”—eventually became an endur-
ing centerpiece of normative orthodoxy for Theravada
in Sri Lanka and later in Southeast Asia. The Visud-
dhimaggastressed the interrelated and dependent na-
ture of slla, samadhi, and pan
n
a, and the fundamental
reality of paticcasamupada or PRATITYASAMUTPADA
(DEPENDENT ORIGINATION).
The Polonnaruva era
Beginning with the Polonnaruva era (eleventh through
thirteenth century C.E.), and especially during the
reign of Parakramabahu I (1153–1186 C.E.), when the
san ̇gha was reunified after its demise by south Indian
Cola invaders who had demolished Anuradhapura in
the late tenth century, Theravada became the exclu-
sive form of doctrinal orthodoxy patronized by the
kingship in Sri Lanka. It was specifically this reconsti-
tuted Theravada that was exported to Burma (Myan-
mar) in the eleventh century and subsequently into
northern Thailand, spreading from those regions to
become the dominant religion of mainland Southeast
Asia. What was not reconstituted at Polonnaruva,
however, was the bhikkhunlsan ̇gha,a sorority that had
thrived during the Anuradhapura centuries and had
spread its lineage as far as China. Yet Polonnaruva be-
came a marvelous city for a span of about 150 years
before it was sacked by another south Indian inva-
sion. Although its beautiful stupas could not rival the
size of the Abhayagiri, Jetavana, and Ruvanvälisa ̈ya
topes in Anuradhapura, and although its sculptures
lacked the plastic fluidity of times past, the architec-
ture, literature, and educational institutions of Polon-
naruva were unparalleled anywhere in South or
Southeast Asia at that time. The massive Alahena
monastic university, a bastion of Theravada ortho-
doxy, at one time housed as many as ten thousand
monks.
It was also at Polonnaruva and in the courts of kings
who soon followed, such as Parakramabahu II at
thirteenth-century Dam ̆badeniya, that new literary in-
novations were cultivated, in part due to the stimulus
and presence of Hinduism and Sanskrit literature, and
in part due to the maturation of the Sinhala language
itself. At Polonnaruva, the Hindu temples built by the
Cola invaders had not been destroyed by the recon-
quering Sinhalas in the eleventh century because the
queens of the Sinhala kings, who were brought from
south India, were nominally Hindu, as were their re-
lations and retinues. Thus, the royal court headed by
a Sinhala Buddhist king was heavily influenced by a
classical Sanskritic or Hindu presence seen not only in
the substance and style reflected in contemporary sec-
tions of the Culavamsa(Minor Chronicles,the sequel
to the Mahavamsa), but also in the cultic life and sculp-
tural creations of Polonnaruva, which included the
veneration and depiction of Hindu deities such as
VISNUand S ́iva. In this context, Gurulugomi, a Bud-
dhist upasaka(layman), composed the first Sinhala
works of prose, including the Amavatura(The Flood of
Nectar), a reworking of the life of the Buddha aimed
at demonstrating his powers to convert others to the
truth of dharma. Since the Amavaturaseems to have
been written in a conscious effort to avoid using San-
skrit words, some have suggested that his writings re-
flect an antipathy for an ever-growing Hindu influence
on Sinhala Buddhist culture in general. The late Polon-
naruva era also marks the creation of many other
important Sinhalese Theravada Buddhist classics, in-
cluding the Butsarana(Refuge of the Buddha), the
Pujavaliya(The Garland of Offerings), and the Sad-
dharma Ratnavaliya(The Garland of Jewels of the Good
Doctrine), all didactic and devotional works.Hinduization of Buddhist culture in Sri Lanka
While the destruction of institutional Buddhism at
Anuradhapura and the reconstruction of the san ̇gha at
Polonnaruvamay have led in general to the eclipse of
Mahayana and tantric cults in Lanka, invasions from
south India beginning in the tenth century and the in-
creasing numbers of military mercenaries who fol-SRILANKA