Preface to the Revised Version

Between the years 1956-1969 Bhaddanta Vicittasārābhivaṁsa, otherwise known as Mingun Sayādaw, who had been the Chief Respondent answering the questions on both discipline and doctrine at the 6th Buddhist Council held in Yangon, compiled his Great Chronicles of the Buddhas (Mahā-buddha-vaṁsa) in the Myanmar language.

The original translation was made by three different translators: T. U Ko Lay, U Tin Lwin and U Tin Oo and is a big contribution which helped make this work available in English. However, their English was of variable standard, and their terminology sometimes differed from each other.

Changes made in this edition mainly affect five areas: language, presentation, format, rearrangement and addition.

In this edition I have corrected the English and harmonized the terminology. Nearly every sentence has had to be corrected for spelling or grammar; the use of diacritics was fairly haphazard – sometimes using them, sometimes not and sometimes wrongly – and most times the spelling of Pāḷi words has had to be corrected.

I have occasionally divided long chapters into two: a & b or more, to better bring out the various contents of the chapters; headings have many times been changed, omitted or added for consistency; and presentation has been simplified and made more consistent.

I have also rearranged some material, this especially applies to the early and later chapters, so that Chapter VI, originally entiled Reflections on Perfections (sic), Chapter VII, On Miscellany and Chapter VIII, Eighteen Abhabbaṭṭhānas, have all been moved to the Further Explanations, as has the Supplement that would have been Chapter X. This is so the story is more cohesive, and the treatises and supplements are treated separately. Also in the Dhamma Jewel section the three discourses: the Discourse setting the Dhamma Wheel Turning (Dhamma-cakkappavattana-sutta, SN 56.11), the Discourse about the Characteristics of Non-Self (Anatta-lakkhaṇa-sutta, SN 22.59) and the Discourse about the Treasures (Ratana-sutta, Khp 6, Snp 2:1) have been removed from that section and inserted in their proper place in the narrative.

I have also at times added in material, including Jātaka stories where these were just mentioned in passing, sometimes new translations, such as that of the Discourse about Taking up Weapons (Atta-daṇḍa-sutta, Snp 4.15), and the Āṭānāṭiya Safeguard (Āṭānāṭiya-paritta). The biggest addition though is adding in a chapter on Buddha Metteyya at the end of the Buddha Jewel.

References have been changed into the normal citation style in English works and is usually done with a translation of the title; so that, for instance, the “Third Sutta, 4. Mahā-vagga, Navaka Nipāta of the Aṅguttara-nikāya,” becomes “The Discourse on the Happiness of Nibbāna (Nibbāna-sukha-sutta, AN 9.34).” Also, in many cases, references that were omitted in the original have been added in, and I have given, where appropriate, the PTS page number. Unfortunately, however, the references in the original were sometimes too vague to be tracked down (i.e., simply given as: “Visuddhi-magga-mahā-ṭīkā,” which is a huge work), and I have only updated the title to “sub-commentary to the Path of Purification (Visuddhi-magga).” Dates and months which were given in an obscure Myanmar style of dating have been converted to CE/BCE, and month names have been given in English with Pāḷi equivalents.

Long notes that break up the story seem sometimes to have been written by the author and sometimes by the translators (there is no guidance given on these matters). I have usually brought them into the body of the text, though they are then distinguished from other parts of the text by being indented and set in a smaller font size, so they can be skipped if the reader wishes to avoid what are often technical details, and can continue with the story; short notes, which were placed in brackets, perhaps again by the translators, have most times been included directly into the body of the text, without marker, as they are essential for a proper understanding of the text. They have also sometimes been changed to footnotes where appropriate.

The Anudīpanī, translated here to Further Explanations, which was a long appendix of 400+ pages, has now been re-edited to bring together material that was sometimes dispersed, and I have moved much more material from the main text to this appendix, where it is better suited, so that it is now well over 500 pages long. All such changes have been noted in the text.

Many times the paragraphs were full of Pāḷi words, with no translation, so that the uninitiated would not know what is being said. Here I have prioritized the English translation and mainly put the Pāḷi in brackets, and sometimes only at the first instance within the section. On the other hand, I have also added in the Pāḷi when it was felt it would help in clarifying the translation.

Pāḷi text is written in blue and indented; translation is in dark red and slightly less indented; comments are given in green text. Footnotes in square brackets have been added in by the present editor.

I benefited greatly by having two helpers: Donny Hacker, who read the whole text through and made many improvements; and Anagārika Ṭhānuttamo, who read through the difficult Further Explanantions and helped correct that text, and also commented on the main text up to Chapter XII. Any mistakes that remain – and I am sure there still are some – are my fault. If you see any mistakes, or places where the text could be improved, please mail me at anandajoti@gmail.com.

Ānandajoti Bhikkhu
August 2024