Sāsanavaṃsappadīpikā

The chronicle of the dispensation — the single most important Burmese source for the history of Pali literature in Burma. Written by Paññasāmi, a high ecclesiastic of the reign of Min-don-min, 1853–1878 CE.

Bode edited it for the Pali Text Society in 1897 and built her own book on it: “the whole of the Sāsanavaṃsa's literary information, as far as it concerns Burma, is given in the course of the present work”. What she valued was its chronology — “it observes the good traditions of Burmese chronicles and cares for chronology. It enables us at least to sketch in outline a connected story, while but for this record we could only enumerate works of doubtful date and mention authors without knowing what period in the growth of their country and Order had brought them forth” (Bode 1909, pp. x–xi).

She is just as plain about its faults, and they are recorded here rather than softened. Set beside “the arid little Gandhavaṃsa” it is “a very mine of interest”, but “it is confused, rambling, and prejudiced”. Its author belonged by all his convictions to the Sīhaḷasaṅgha, and the chronicle takes that side.