Ariyavaṁsa untranslated

Ariyavaṁsa 01. A compilation, probably of the life-histories of men eminent in the Buddhist Saṅgha, made in Ceylon and read aloud publicly for the edification of the people. The reading of the Ariyavaṁsa seems once to have been a regular feature of gatherings in the Buddhist vihāras on feast days. King Vohārakatissa made endowments for the giving of alms throughout Ceylon on the occasions when the Ariyavaṁsa was read (Mhv.xxxvi.38; Mhv.trans.258, n.6). A Sutta called Ariyavaṁsasutta is mentioned in the Commentaries (DN­a.i.50; MN­a.i.14) as an example of a discourse preached by the Buddha on his own initiative (attajjhāsaya). This perhaps refers to the sermon on the four Ariyavaṁsā in the Aṅguttaranikāya (AN.ii.27). See also Mahā Ariyavaṁsa.

Ariyavaṁsa 02. A celebrated teacher and author of the fifteenth century. He came from Pagan and was a member of the Chapaṭa sect. He was a pupil of the famous Ye-din (“water-carrier”) of Sagaing (for an account of him see Bode, 41f), and with great zeal and enthusiasm learnt the Abhidhammatthavibhāvanī from his teacher. Later, Ariyavaṁsa wrote a commentary on this work and called it the Maṇisāramañjūsā. A charming anecdote is related of how he read the work to his colleagues and readily accepted their corrections with gratitude.

Among his other works are the Maṇidīpa, a Ṭīkā on the Atthasālinī, a grammatical treatise, the Gandhābharaṇa, and a study of the Jātakas called the Jātakavisodhana.

Ariyavaṁsa spent only a part of his life at Sagaing and afterwards taught at Ava, where the king was sometimes among his listeners. He was among the first of Burmese litterateurs to write a metaphysical work in the vernacular – an Anuṭīkā on the Abhidhamma (Sās. p.41ff). The Gandhavaṁsa (64-5) attributes to him another work, the Mahā Nissara (Mahā Nissaya?), but no mention is made of it in the Sāsanavaṁsa.