In the official historiography of Sri Lanka, the Mahavamsa (Great Chronicle) reigns supreme. Compiled by Buddhist monks in the 6th century CE, it traces the island’s history from the arrival of the exiled Prince Vijaya (543 BCE) to the present, weaving a sacred narrative of Sinhalese Buddhist destiny. It names the island’s pre-Vijayan inhabitants as Yakkhas (demons) and Nagas (serpent-worshippers)—primordial, chaotic forces tamed by civilized, dharma-bearing Aryans.
Yet to dismiss it as mere "myth" or "forgery" is to miss the point. The Ravana Rajavaliya is a psychological document . It reveals a deep structure of Sri Lankan identity: a profound ambivalence toward India (the source of Buddhism, but also of repeated invasions); a need for a pre-Buddhist heroic age that is not "Hindu" but still glorious; and a longing for a lost golden age of technological mastery and political sovereignty. Ravana Rajavaliya
The Ravana Rajavaliya (The Lineage of Ravana) is its furious, fragmentary ghost. In the official historiography of Sri Lanka, the
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Yet to dismiss it as mere "myth" or
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