About 26 BC, hundreds of elders of the great temple held Buddhist scriptures in the middle of Sri Lanka Island, and recited Sanzang at the top of the table, which was recorded in Pali. In the 5th century BC, another monk from India's Mogarto came to Sri Lanka. He sorted out the Buddhist scriptures that were popular in Sri Lanka at that time and rewritten them all in Pali. The input of Pali has a great influence on the cultural development of Sri Lanka. Island History and Mahayana are two important works written by Sri Lankan monks in Pali under this historical background.
The History of the Island is also called the History of the Island King and the History of the Mainland. The author is unknown. Some people think that it was written by monks in the Great Temple, or it was compiled according to the information from the Great Temple. Others believe that the main information of this book comes from Sangha Tam's early work Yi Shu. The main content of Island History is to describe the life of the Buddha, the myth of preaching in Sri Lanka, three collections of Buddhism, and the historical situation from the introduction of Buddhism to Sri Lanka to at least the third and fourth centuries. The historical facts recorded in it can be confirmed by Indian historical materials, which provides many valuable materials for future generations to study the ancient history of Sri Lanka and India and the early development and spread of Buddhism. The genre of this book is narrative poetry, with a rough style, but its shortcomings are mixed content, lack of coherence and repetition in some places. So some scholars think that it was not written by an author.
Grand History is a book called History of Kings, which was written a little later than History. The author is a Mahanamo monk in the 6th century AD. According to legend, he was the uncle of Datuk Na, King of Sri Lanka in the early 6th century. It is said that during the reign of King Dadusna, a Dharma meeting was held to purify Buddhism. Mahabharata's Mahabharata was also written at the behest of the king. The main data of Da Shi comes from the History of the Island and court documents, which supplements and annotates the History of the Island in some aspects. The content of this book mainly describes the emergence of Buddhism and the early Buddhist goodness in Sri Lanka. Mahayana and island history are interrelated, but Mahayana is more refined and richer in content, which is an important material for studying the early history of ancient India and Sri Lanka and the development of Buddhism. Like History of the Island, this book is also a narrative poem, but it is more literary. At present, the edited version of German scholar William Geiger (1856 ~ 1943) is published by the Pali Scripture Society in London. The time described in the book is from the emergence of Buddhism to the reign of Mahayana King of Sri Lanka in the 4th century BC. Now Sri Lankan people regard this epic as their national treasure.