Mahabodhivamsa (History of the Great Bodhi Tree) Mahabodhivamsa (lit: History of the Great Bodhi Tree ) is the earliest extant literary work on the sacred Sri Maha Bodhi Tree in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka (Jayawardhana, 1990). Sri Maha Bodhi Tree As described in several ancient chronicles such as Dipavamsa, Mahawamsa (ch. xviii-xix) and Samantapasadika, Sangamitta Theri, the daughter of Emperor Asoka (c.268-232 B.C.) and sister of Arhat Mahinda Thera, brought the southern branch of the sacred Bodhi-tree in Bodh Gaya (India) to Sri Lanka soon after the introduction of Buddhism in the 3rd century B.C. This historic incident is extensively described in later literary works including Bodhivamsa Katha, Mahabodhivamsa, Gantipada Vivaranaya, Dharmapradipika, Sinhala Bodhivamsa, and Sulu Bodhivamsa (Kulatunge, 2018). Mahabodhivamsa As mentioned in its introduction, Mahabodhivamsa is a Pali work recording the history of the Great Bodhi Tree and an adaptation of a previously existing work in Sinhalese on the same subject (Jayawardhana, 1990). It do…
