Dipavamsa und Mahavamsa und die geschichtliche uberlieferung in Ceylon. by Geiger, Wilhelm - 1905

Leipzig: A. Deichert, 1905. First edition, pp.viii, 146. Bound in contemporary cloth. Foot of spine snagged. Original front wrapper bound in. Wilhelm Geiger, 1856-1943, studied Oriental languages under Friedrich von Spiegel at the University of Erlangen and became the first German Pali scholar. He first went to Ceylon in 1895 to study Sinhalese, and to settle the question of whether it was an Aryan language. In 1897 he published a treatise on the language of the Rohiyas in Ceylon, and in 1898 the first edition of his etymological glossary of the Sinhalese. His translation of the "Great Chronicle" (Mahavamsa) was published between 1908 and 1930. This major contribution to our knowledge of Pali literature with his investigations into the sources and development of the Pali chronicles was translated into English three years later by Ethel M. Coomaraswamy.