Amavatura

Amavatura (Sinhala: අමා වතුර) (lit: Ambrosial Water) is a devotional biography of the Buddha composed by Gurulugomi , a commentator and philosopher who lived in the 12th century in Sri Lanka (Reynolds et al., 1994; Wikramasinghe, 1900). It is considered the first prose narrative among extant Sinhalese literary works (Suriyahetti, 1975). Amavatura is called the life story of the Buddha by its author Gurulugomi (Suriyahetti, 1975). He has compiled it by emphasizing one of the nine virtues of the Buddha namely Purisadhammasarathi which means "guide of tamable beings" (Suriyahetti, 1975). The work has been divided into 18 chapters under the following headings; 1) Durdanta-damana                2) Svasantana-damana                3) Parasantana-damana 4) Grihapati-damana                5) Brahmana-damana                  6) Raja-damana 7) Angulmal-damana               8) Parivarjaka-damana                 9) Manavaka-damana 10) Digambara-damana         11) Jatila-damana                        12…