CULAVAMSA

(Pali: Little Chronicle), Ceylonese historical chronicle that details the history of the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) from about the 4th to the 16th century, considered a sequel to the earlier Mahavamsa (Great Chronicle). The entire Culavamsa is written in Pali, the sacred language of Buddhism, and displays a variety of epic styles. The portion of the Culavamsa dealing with Ceylon's history until the late 12th century was probably written by the Buddhist monk Dhammakitti in the 13th century. Succeeding portions, although they have not been assigned definite authorship, are generally considered inferiorboth in style and in factual reliabilityto Dhammakitti's portion.