[Footnote 18: For the credibility of the Sinhalese traditions see Geiger introd. to translation of Mahâvaṃsa 1912 and Norman in _J.R.A.S._ 1908, pp. 1 ff. and on the other side R.O. Franke in _W.Z.K.M._ 21, pp. 203 ff., 317 ff. and _Z.D.M.G._ 63, pp. 540 ff.] [Footnote 19: Grünwedel, _Buddhist art in India_, pp. 69-72. Rhys Davids, _Buddhist India_, p. 302.] [Footnote 20: The Jâtaka-nidâna-kathâ is also closely allied to these works in those parts where the subject matter is the same.] [Footnote 21: This section was probably called Mahâvaṃsa in a general sense long before the name was specially applied to the work which now bears it.] [Footnote 22: See introduction to Oldenburg's edition, pp. 8, 9.] [Footnote 23: Perhaps this is alluded to at the beginning of the Mahâvaṃsa itself, "The book made by the ancients (porvâṇehi kato) was in some places too diffuse and in others too condensed and contained many repetitions."] [Footnote 24: The Mahâvaṃsa was continued by later writers and brought down to about 1780 A.D.] [Footnote 25: The Mahâvaṃsatîkâ, a commentary written between 1000 and 1250 A.D., has also some independent value because the old Aṭṭhakathâ-Mahâvaṃsa was still extant and used by the writer.] [Footnote 26: Son according to the Sinhalese sources but according to Hsüan Chuang and others, younger brother. In favour of the latter it may be said that the younger brothers of kings often became monks in order to avoid political complications.] [Footnote 27: The modern Mahintale.] [Footnote 28: The Mahâvaṃsa implies that he had already some acquaintance with Buddhism. It represents him as knowing that monks do not eat in the afternoon and as suggesting that it would be better to ordain the layman Bhandu.] [Footnote 29: The chronicles give with some slight divergences the names of the texts on which his preaching was based. It is doubtless meant that he recited the Sutta with a running exposition.] [Footnote 30: Mahâvaṃ. xx. 17.] [Footnote 31: Many other places claimed to possess this relic.] [Footnote 32: Of course the antiquity of the Sinhalese Bo-tree is a different question from the identity of the parent tree with the tree under which the Buddha sat.] [Footnote 33: Mahâvaṃ. XVIII.; Dîpavaṃ. XV. and XVI.] [Footnote 34: But he says nothing about Mahinda or Sanghamittâ and does not support the Mahâvaṃsa in details.] [Footnote 35: Duṭṭha, meaning bad, angry or violent, apparently refers to the ferocity shown in his struggle with the Tamils.] [Footnote 36: Dîpavaṃsa XIX. 1. Mahâvaṃsa XXVII. 1-48. See Fergusson, _Hist. Ind. Architecture_, 1910, pp. 238, 246. I find it hard to picture such a building raised on pillars. Perhaps it was something like the Sat-mahal-prasâda at Pollanarua.] [Footnote 37: Parker, _Ancient Ceylon_, p. 282. The restoration of the Ruwanweli Dagoba was undertaken by Buddhists in 1873.] [Footnote 38: Mahâvaṃsa XXVIII.-XXXI. Duṭṭhagâmaṇi died before it was finished.]