The Mahavamsa’s prehistoric inundation of Sri Lanka
- Date of account
- Nineteenth-century translation by George Turnour, 1837; chronicle compiled earlier
- Location
- Sri Lanka, especially the island’s mythic prehistory
- Source
- model_recalled_reference
- Record updated
- 2026-10-10
Record summary
George Turnour’s 1837 translation of the Mahavamsa opened a major nineteenth-century source for Sri Lankan Buddhist historical tradition. The chronicle and related island traditions contain accounts of primordial rulers, sacred arrival narratives, and episodes interpreted in later literature as inundation or catastrophic transformation. This lead is useful for comparing island-origin traditions with South Asian deluge motifs, while also tracking how colonial scholarship classified Buddhist chronicles as history, myth, or both. Exact flood references should be checked against the Pali text and commentary.
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