The Dipavamsa (“Chronicle of the Island”) was his task. It was not a work of art, but a weapon. For generations, the elders had recited its disjointed verses: the three visits of the Buddha to the island (Lanka), the conversion of the yakkhas (demons), and the arrival of the sacred Bodhi tree. But it was ugly, repetitive, a patchwork quilt of memorized stanzas.
Ananda, the scribe of the Dipavamsa , had wanted only to survive. dipavamsa and mahavamsa pdf
The story ends with a final irony.