VA?SA

The P?li word va?sa literally refers to "lineage" or "bamboo," but it acquired the technical meaning of a "chronicle" early in the first millennium c.e. among Therav?da Buddhists on the island of Sri Lanka. While many historical texts authored by Therav?da Buddhists in the ancient and medieval periods include the word va?sa in their titles, not all narrative accounts of the past are referred to in this way, nor do all va?sas share the same style and content. The Mah?va?sa (Great Chronicle) is arguably the best-known va?sa in modern times, yet its open-ended narrative, which has been periodically extended since the fifth century c.e., deviates from many other Therav?da va?sas whose narratives follow a discernible plot and reach a point of closure.

Modern scholars deduce that the va?sa genre of Buddhist literature grew out of ancient commentaries written on the P?li canon. The Therav?da tradition holds that these commentaries were brought to Sri Lanka by a monk named Mahinda in the third century b.c.e. Within a few centuries, excerpts dealing with the history of Buddhism in India and the events surrounding its establishment in Lanka were crafted into independent va?sas that recount events connected with the life of the Buddha and the historical instantiation of his teaching (??sana; P?li, s?sana). While P?li va?sas appear well-suited to legitimate monastic lineages and inspire devotion in Buddhist communities, European scholars in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries valued these texts for their detailed and fairly reliable accounts of South and Southeast Asian history. Still, many scholars point out that these texts mix historical facts with legendary embellishments.

Therav?da va?sas typically convey information about the life and death of the Buddha, the transmission of the dharma, and the establishment of the sa?gha (community of monks) and relics in other lands. Pious and sometimes heroic kings such as Du??hag?ma?? (161–137 b.c.e.) in Sri Lanka and Tilakapanattu (1495–1525 c.e.) in Thailand are regularly extolled, suggesting that the va?sas also provided images of virtuous and powerful Buddhist kings for later individuals to emulate. The oldest extant va?sas, the Mah?va?sa and its fourth-century predecessor the D?pava?sa (Chronicle of the Island), recount the establishment of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Other Sri Lankan va?sas written between the tenth and fourteenth centuries, such as the Mah?bodhiva?sa (Chronicle of the Bodhi Tree) and the Th?pava?sa (Chronicle of the Relic Shrine), often focus their narratives on particular relics of the Buddha that were purportedly brought from India and enshrined in Sri Lanka. The An?gatava?sa (Chronicle of the Future Buddha) is distinguished by the fact that it narrates future events connected with the coming of the next Buddha Maitreya (P?li, Metteyya). Several of these va?sas were subsequently translated into a literary form of the vernacular Sinhala language, and their narratives were often substantially revised in the process.

The va?sa genre was passed along from Sri Lanka to the Buddhist lands of Southeast Asia, fulfilling many similar functions in legitimating Therav?da monastic lineages, deepening piety, and extolling kings. The sixteenth-century P?li chronicle titled Jinak?lam?l? (Sheaf of Garlands of the Epochs of the Conqueror) details some of the historical events associated with the establishment of Therav?da Buddhism in Thailand. In Burma (Myanmar), the nineteenth-century S?sanava?sa (Chronicle of the Dispensation) performs an analogous role, connecting 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 History: The Sinhala Th?pava?sa and the Work of Virtue." Religion 31, no. 2 (2001): 155–173.

Geiger, Wilhelm, trans. The Mah?va?sa: Or the Great Chronicle 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 Jinak?lam?l?pakara?a?. 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 Va?sas 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.

Stephen C. Berkwitz