DIPAVAMSA, a poem ("History of the Island") composed in-Ceylon in the Pali language, relating the history of Buddhism in India and its propagation in Ceylon. It belongs to the 4th century A.D., and is the earliest example of a purely historical composition relating to India. It contains 22 chapters, and begins with the Enlightenment of Buddha, the immediately following events, and his three legendary visits to Ceylon. Then follows the genealogy of the kings of Buddha's ancestry from the first king of this cycle (kalpa) down to Buddha himself and his son Rahula. The really historical portion begins with chapter 4, the history of Buddhism in the Magadha kingdom down to the 3rd council in the reign of Asoka. From this point it continues with the history of Ceylon, the settlement of the island by king Vijaya, the subsequent kings down to Devanampiya Tissa, under whom Buddhism was introduced by Asoka's son Mahinda, with a continuation of the history of the island ending with king Mahasena at the beginning of the 4th century A.D.
Dipavamsa is the oldest connected account of Buddhism and of contemporary secular events in India for the first three centuries of its history, it is important to determine if possible in what sense it can be called historical. There are two circumstances to be first considered, the fact that its record of events (apart from purely local Sinhalese history) was compiled in India, and consequently cannot be treated as the composition or invention of a Sinhalese author, and secondly that it corresponds in important features with the Puranas. The Puranas, like the Dipavamsa, con tain genealogies of kings which are traced up to the purely legend ary beginnings of the cycle, and recent study has not only shown that the Puranas contain genealogies belonging to actual lines of kings, but further that in the case of the Magadha kings between Buddha and Asoka both the Puranas and the Dipavamsa rest on a common historical basis. This is further corroborated by the lists found in Jain works. What we possess is not a historical record in the modern sense, for the chroniclers recorded events uncritically, and accepted legends about quite historical persons. This is very different from free invention. What we have to guard against is not deliberate romancing, but faults due to the very de fective means of transmitting and recording events, and the un historical attitude of the compilers. The probable mode of com position has been most closely studied by Oldenberg, who first edited the Dipavamsa, and by Geiger, who has edited the later chronicle, the Mahavamsa. A native commentary (tika) on the Mandvamsa, was compiled about A.D. I000. References in it show that at that time there was in existence a Sinhalese historical work, which formed part of the great Sinhalese commentary on the Buddhist Scriptures. The existence of this Sinhalese commentary at least as early as the 4th century A.D. is known from frequent references found in the existing Pali commentaries. It was on the basis of this work in Sinhalese that the Dipavamsa was compiled, and its repetitions and the disjointed arrangement of various passages show that it must have been compiled from just such a source. The main details of the work correspond so closely with those in the Indian records (the Puranas and Buddhist Sanskrit works) that it is clear that they are of Indian origin. This Sin halese work must have at first ended with the introduction of Buddhism into Ceylon by Mahinda, but it appears to have been later on extended to the reign of Mahasena. This is the period covered by the Dipavoysa, and this work is probably a recension and adaptation of the whole of the Sinhalese work. These con clusions are essentially the views of Geiger, who has summarized his results about both the Dipavoysa and the Malzcivarysa in his translation of the latter work. References will also be found here to the criticisms of R. O. Franke, whose attitude on the historical value of the chronicles is one of complete scepticism. (See MAHAVAMSA.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-The Dipavamsa, edited and trans. by H. Oldenberg Bibliography.-The Dipavamsa, edited and trans. by H. Oldenberg 0879) • The Mahavamsa trans. by W. Geiger (Igi2) ; M. Winternitz, Geschichte der Indischen'Litteratur, V01. 2, (1920) .
An instrument used f or measuring the mag netic dip. It consists essentially of a magnetic needle pivoted at the centre of a graduated metal circle. The circle is mounted with its plane vertical and the axis about which the needle turns hori zontal. If such an instrument is placed with the plane of the circle in the magnetic meridian the needle will lie in the direction of the earth's magnetic field. See TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM.
