associated with the establishment of Theravada
Buddhism in Thailand. In Burma (Myanmar), the
nineteenth-century Sasanavamsa(Chronicle of the
Dispensation) performs an analogous role, connect-
ing Burmese Buddhist traditions with those found in
India and Sri Lanka from an earlier age.
See also:History; Sinhala, Buddhist Literature in
Bibliography
Berkwitz, Stephen C. “Emotions and Ethics in Buddhist His-
tory: The Sinhala Thupavamsaand the Work of Virtue.” Re-
ligion31, no. 2 (2001): 155–173.
Geiger, Wilhelm, trans. The Mahavamsa: Or the Great Chroni-
cle of Ceylon(1912), assisted by Mabel Haynes Bode. Reprint,
London: Pali Text Society, 1980.
Jayawickrama, N. A., trans. The Sheaf of Garlands of the Epochs
of the Conqueror: Being a Translation of Jinakalamallpaka-
ranam ̇.London: Pali Text Society, 1968.
Smith, Bardwell L., ed. Religion and Legitimation of Power in Sri
Lanka.Chambersburg, PA: Anima Books, 1978.
Walters, Jonathan S. “Buddhist History: The Sri Lankan Pali
Vamsas and Their Commentary.” In Querying the Medieval:
Texts and the History of Practices in South Asia,ed. Ronald
Inden, Jonathan Walters, and Daud Ali. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2000.
STEPHENC. BERKWITZVASUBANDHU
While there is much disagreement concerning Va-
subandhu’s exact dates, most scholars agree that he
lived sometime between the mid-fourth and mid-fifth
centuries. Born in Purusapura (present-day Peshawar,
Pakistan) to the same mother as his half-brother
ASAN ̇GA, the putative founder of the YOGACARA
SCHOOL, Vasubandhu left his Brahman upbringing to
join the Vaibhasika Buddhists in their Kashmiri
stronghold. While there he brilliantly and compre-
hensively summarized Vaibhasika doctrines in a
roughly seven-hundred-stanza verse text entitled Ab-
hidharmakos ́a(Treasury of Abhidharma). The prose
autocommentary, ABHIDHARMAKOS ́ABHASYA, that he
wrote for these verses demonstrates his intellectual
restlessness and growing dissatisfaction with
Vaibhasika teachings as it critiques numerous Vaib-
hasika positions while siding with the positions of
other Buddhist groups, most notably the SAUTRAN-
TIKA. Vasubandhu eventually abandoned the teachings
of the MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS for MA-
HAYANA, and he became a Yogacara adept under
Asan ̇ga’s influence.
Vasubandhu’s literary output was prodigious, and
his works have had a deep impact on subsequent Bud-
dhist developments. The Abhidharmakos ́abhasyacon-
tinues to receive serious study by East Asian, Tibetan,
and modern Western scholars, all of whom treat it as
a major sourcebook for medieval Indian Buddhist doc-
trinal positions and terminology. Texts written during
Vasubandhu’s transitional period include Karmasid-
dhiprakarana(Investigation Establishing [the Correct
Understanding] of Karma), Vadavidhi(Debate Meth-
ods), and the Pañcaskandhaprakarana(Investigation of
the Five Aggregates). Vasubandhu’s Yogacara texts in-
clude the Vim ́atikas (Twenty Verses), the Trim ́ikas (Thirty
Verses), a crucial commentary on Maitreya-Asan ̇ga’s
Madhyantavibhaga (Madhyantavibhagabhasya), and a
commentary on Asan ̇ga’s Mahayanasamgraha.In addi-
tion, he is credited with commentaries on several Ma-
hayana sutras, including the DIAMOND SUTRA, the
NIRVANASUTRA, the Mañjus ́rlSutra, Das ́abhumika-sutra
(Ten Stages Sutra), and the LOTUSSUTRA(SADDHARMA-
PUNDARIKA-SUTRA). The latter two commentaries were
especially influential in East Asian Buddhism.Bibliography
Anacker, Stefan, trans. and ed. Seven Works of Vasubandhu: The
Buddhist Psychological Doctor.Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass,
1984.
Kochumuttom, Thomas. A Buddhist Doctrine of Experience: A
New Translation and Interpretation of the Works of Va-
subandhu the Yogacarin.Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1982.
Reprint, 1999.
La Vallée Poussin, Louis de. Abhidharmakos ́abhasyam,4 vols.,
tr. Leo M. Pruden. Berkeley, CA: Asian Humanities Press,
1988–1990.DANLUSTHAUSVIDYADHARAVidyadhara (Pali, vijjadhara; possessor of magical
power) is a master of esoteric knowledge, a magician
or sorcerer. In Indian Buddhist and Hindu sources the
vidyadharais depicted as a human or supernatural be-
ing who, by means of various occult sciences, develops
the ability to perform marvelous feats like flying
through the air, transmuting base metals into gold, be-VASUBANDHU