Abstract:
The main objective of this research paper is to identify the authenticity of the historical facts
compiled on Sri Lanka, by Xuanzang. He travelled to India in seventh century C.E. Although
he wanted to visit Sri Lanka, he could not visit the island owing to a famine and political unrest
in Sri Lanka. He visited Kānchipuram, and there he met the chief monks of the
Bodhimegehsvar and Abhayadrustra with three hundred other fellow monks. Xuanzang’s
records of Sri Lanka were based on, what he has heard from the above mentioned monks. In
this research attention was given to compare the records of Xuanzang with the chronicles of
Sri Lanka, the Divyāvadāna, the records Faxian and the Jātaka stories. Samel Beal’s English
translation of the Buddhist Records of Western world, (1906) and Li Rongxi’s the Great Tang
Dynasty Record of the Western Regions (1996) were studied. Max Deeg’s unpublished English
translation of Xuanzang’s document strengthened my knowledge. Xuanzang reveals two
stories regarding the origin of Sinhalese people. One of the stories is much more similar with
the Mahāvaṃśa and the other is similar to that of the Divyāvadāna. The two different traditions
may have been used by him to compile his records. It is important to study all these literary
sources and its influence on the records of Xuanzang and this paper proposes to discuss the
significance of all these aspects
