The or ''Thathanawin'' (, ) is a history of the Buddhist order in Burma, composed by the Burmese monk Paññāsāmi in 1861.Bischoff 1995Aung-Thwin 2005: 145 It is written in

Pali Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Can ...

prose, and based on earlier documents in Pali and Burmese, still extant, but which had not been edited at the end of the nineteenth century. The earlier part of the work deals with the history of Buddhism outside of Burma. This is based on the Mahavamsa, and other well-known

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

n works, and has no independent value. The latter part of the work, about three-fifths of the whole, deals with Buddhism in Burma, and contains information not obtainable elsewhere. Up to the 11th century the ''Sasana Vamsa'' is mythical or legendary. After that date it is sober, intelligible and in all probability accurate. This portion occupies about one hundred pages (eight volumes) in the excellent edition of the text prepared by the

Pali Text Society The Pāli Text Society is a text publication society founded in 1881 by Thomas William Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pāli texts." Pāli is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism are preserved. The ...

in 1897 by Dr. Mabel Bode. It shows a continuous literary effort through the eight and a half centuries, and constantly renewed ecclesiastical controversy. The latter is concerned for the most part with minor questions relating to rules of the order, there being a tendency, as relaxations of the rules crept in with the lapse of time, to hark back to the original simplicity. Of differences in matters of doctrine there is no mention in this manual. Dr Bode has prefixed to her edition a detailed summary of the contents of the book. The Dhammikarama Temple in

Penang, Malaysia Penang is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia along the Strait of Malacca. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. These ...

contains a ''Sasana Vamsa

Sima Sima or SIMA may refer to: People * Sima (Chinese surname) * Sima (Persian given name), a Persian feminine name in use in Iran and Turkey * Sima (Indian given name), an Indian feminine name used in South Asia * Sima (surname) * Sima (born 1 ...

Shrine Hall'' in honour of Bode's work. N. R. Ray used Bode's edited Pali text as the main source for his 1946 ''Introduction to the Study of Theravāda Buddhism in Burma''. B. C. Law in 1952 produced for the Pali Text Society an English translation of the ''Sāsanavaṃsa''.

References

Bibliography

* * * * Romanised Pali: Bode, Mable; ''Sāsanavaṃsa;'' 1897 (

), reprint 1996 * Engl.: ''History of the Buddha's religion (Sāsanavaṃsa);'' London 1952 {{Burmese chronicles 1861 books Burmese chronicles Pali Buddhist texts Burmese Buddhist texts