Vinod Moonesinghe
The chapters relating to the Sinhalese settlement of Sri Lanka in the Mahavamsa have sparked debates over its historicity, often polarising scholars. However, neither side understands the text as a historical narrative interwoven with mythological elements, reflecting broader Indo-European traditions.
It should be remembered that the author of the Mahavamsa (like the slightly less credulous author of the earlier, Dipavamsa) based himself on the no-longer extant Sinhalese Buddhist commentaries, the Sihala Atthakatha. Several different versions of these contained varying folklore, leading to inconsistencies.
The lion and the princess
One of the main bones of contention is the story of a lion abducting a princess of Vanga, fathering Sinhabahu — a figure bridging animal and human realms. This clearly fantastical tale represents the bedrock of the argument opposing the historicity of the Mahavamsa.
This motif of animal abduction recurs in global myths, symbolising the clash between civilisation and primal forces. In the Mahavamsa, the lion, a symbol of primal strength and untamed nature, seizes the princess, an act that symbolises the encroachment of the wild upon civilisation.
The Greek tale of Zeus (as bull) abducting Europa mirrors the Mahavamsa’s lion-princess myth — both depict primal forces disrupting order to spawn dynasties (Minos, Sinhabahu). While some suggest Greek influence, shared Indo-European themes of power and destiny better explain parallels. Even China’s serpent-bodied Fuxi and Nüwa reflect this global motif: chaotic unions birthing civilisations.
Killing animals and parents
The killing of a primordial animal as an act of creation appears across mythologies. In the Enuma Elish, Babylonian god Marduk slays the dragon-goddess Tiamat, shaping her body into the cosmos. Likewise, Zoroastrian myth tells of Gavaevodata, the primordial bull, whose death spawns all plant and animal life—a symbol of cyclical renewal. These myths frame destruction as the foundation of order. The Sinhabahu story, in which the son kills his Lion father, may be a remnant of such a creation mythology.
The overthrow of parental figures marks a universal mythic transition from chaos to civilisation. In the Mahavamsa, Sinhabahu kills his lion-father, mirroring Babylon’s Ea slaying Apsu, Hurrian Teshub defeating Kumarbi, Greek Cronus castrating Uranus, Norse Odin killing Ymir to craft the world.
These patricidal acts — repeated in Oedipus and the Mahabharata — symbolise cyclical power shifts, where new orders emerge through violent rebirth. The pattern reveals deep cultural anxieties about authority and change.
Banishment and redemption
Vijaya, the legendary Sinhalese founder, is banished from Sinhapura for wickedness — a motif recurring in Indo-European lore: in the Greek Theban Cycle, Polynices is exiled, triggering a tragic war. On the Persian Shahnameh, Prince Siyâvash is wrongfully banished. In Russian Folklore, Prince Ivan, the hero of Russian folk tale The Frog Princess is banished and redeems himself. Even folktales such as Hansel and Gretel and Vasilisa the Beautiful render this motif, if not so clearly.
Banishment often serves as a prelude to redemption or heroic destiny, underscoring cultural values of justice and societal norms. Vijaya’s exile and subsequent founding of a kingdom align with this narrative pattern.
Vijaya’s voyage to Sri Lanka, like Odysseus’s long journey home in Homer’s Odyssey, mirrors the Indo-European hero archetype — a figure who faces numerous challenges, tests of character, and supernatural encounters. Similarly, heroes like Arjuna (Mahabharata), Aeneas (Aeneid), and even Beowulf share this overarching narrative of enduring hardships to achieve a greater purpose.
Enchantresses at the threshold
The parallel between Vijaya’s encounter with Kuveni in the Mahavamsa and Odysseus’s confrontation with Circe reveals a profound Indo-European trope: the liminal enchantress who tests heroes at civilization’s edge. Both supernatural women rule marginal realms (Kuveni’s wilderness/Circe’s Aeaea), threaten masculine agency through magic (imprisonment/transformation), are ultimately overcome yet provide crucial aid, and embody the dangerous allure of untamed nature
This archetype recurs across cultures, for example Celtic Morgan le Fay ensnaring knights, the Slavic Baba Yaga testing travellers, the European Witch in the forest with her gingerbread house, and Chinese fox-spirit Daji corrupting kings.
While differing in details (Kuveni doesn’t transform men physically like Circe), these stories share structural DNA: the hero must negotiate with feminine supernatural power to establish ordered society. The enchantress serves as both obstacle and catalyst – her defeat or co-operation enables the hero’s destiny.
The pattern reflects deep-seated anxieties about civilization’s fragile boundaries, female sexuality as simultaneously generative and destructive, and the price of political founding.
Yet the Mahavamsa adapts this trope uniquely. Kuveni’s tragic abandonment (unlike Circe’s peaceful parting with Odysseus) underscores Sinhalese tensions between indigenous and foreign legitimacy. Similarly, Daji’s role in justifying Zhou’s overthrow shows how China politicised the motif differently.
These variations prove that while core narrative elements travel across cultures, their meanings transform to serve local ideologies. The enchantress isn’t merely a stock character but a flexible symbol for each society’s specific fears about power, gender, and cultural identity.
Tower power
The Mahavamsa’s tale of Ummadachitta — imprisoned by brothers fearing a prophecy, yet impregnated by Dighagamani through a hook-ladder — mirrors global “princess in the tower” myths.
Greek Danaë, locked away by her father, is visited by Zeus as golden rain, birthing Perseus. In the Persian Shahnameh, Rudaba’s isolation is breached by a climbing prince, Zal Zal, who climbs up her hair (mirrored by the German folktale Rapunzel), their union producing Rostam, Persia’s greatest hero.
These myths share core themes: The inevitability of fate, as seen in Pandukabhaya, Perseus, and Rostam, whose prophesied triumphs defy all attempts at suppression; The transgression of boundaries, where towers of control are breached through Zeus’s metamorphosis, Dighagamani’s ladder, Rudaba’s hair; Gendered power dynamics, with passive princesses like Ummadachitta and Danaë serving as vessels for heroic legacies while male actors dominate the narrative — yet ultimately, it is their wombs that birth the true agents of change; and The civilizational consequences, as each breach triggers foundational shifts (Pandukabhaya unites Lanka; Perseus founds Mycenae; and Rostam saves the Shah Kai Kaus) — binding personal destiny to the forging of national identity.
The motif’s persistence — from Sri Lanka to Greece to Germanic folklore — reveals deep human preoccupations with control, fertility, and the paradox of “protected” women who must be accessed to ensure continuity.
While culturally distinct (contrast Zeus’s divine seduction with Dighagamani’s and Rudaba’s mortal resourcefulness), all versions assert that destiny cannot be caged. The tower, as both prison and womb, underscores how societies narrate the tension between security and the necessary risks of propagation.
Beyond Indo-European myths, the theme of a confined maiden whose destiny cannot be contained appears in diverse cultures, often with unique symbolic twists. In Irish mythology, Étaín is transformed into a fly and trapped by Fuamnach’s spells, only to be reborn centuries later, the “tower” being reincarnation. In the Iranian Haft Peykar of Nizami Ganjavi, the eponymous princess confines herself emotionally, imposing impossible conditions on suitors to avoid marriage.
Heroic archetypes
The story of Pandukabhaya’s rise, being hidden from his uncles, then overcoming them, is steeped in prophecy and familial conflict, similar to that of Cyrus the Great, the founder of the Achaemenid Empire.
To prevent Cyrus from overthrowing him as foretold, Cyrus’s grandfather, Astyages ordered the infant to be killed. However, the child was secretly spared and raised by a shepherd. As an adult, Cyrus led a rebellion, defeated Astyages, and united the Median and Persian kingdoms.
Both stories reflect common Indo-European mythological motifs: The inevitability of a foretold destiny, a recurring theme in Indo-European myths, such as Oedipus in Greek mythology. The act of overcoming or killing grandfathers and uncles to claim power mirrors such myths as Zeus overthrowing Cronus.
The motif of a hero being raised in obscurity to escape danger is seen in myths like Krishna in Indian mythology and Romulus and Remus in Roman mythology. It transcends the Indo-European in the Chinese myth of God Hou Ji (Lord of Millet), abandoned at birth due to an ominous prophecy but surviving miraculously to spawn the Zhou Dynasty.
Myth as cultural framework
Like Cyrus the Great, Pandukabhaya straddles myth and history. While the Mahavamsa recounts his supernatural origins and longevity, it also details his practical achievements — constructing tanks and organising settlements — marking a transition from legendary to historical narrative as the chronicle progresses.
The early parts of Sri Lanka’s chronicle mirror global myths — exiled heroes, magical brides, dynastic struggles — revealing how cultures use archetypes to explain origins. These parallels show myth as a universal language of power and identity, where human and divine collide to shape history.
Like other great foundational chronicles, the Mahavamsa interweaves myth and history, challenging us to distinguish divine legend from historical truth. Through this interplay, we see how even the most supernatural narratives remain anchored in real human endeavours —political struggles, technological achievements, and cultural identity formation.
Recognising these patterns allows us to appreciate the Mahavamsa as both history and myth, and to extract from the narrative the elements of natural or human agency, as against the supernatural.
Vinod Moonesinghe read mechanical engineering at the University of Westminster, and worked in Sri Lanka in the tea machinery and motor spares industries, as well as the railways. He later turned to journalism and writing history. He served as chair of the Board of Governors of the Ceylon German Technical Training Institute.
Factum is an Asia-Pacific focused think tank on International Relations, Tech Cooperation, Strategic Communications, and Climate Outreach accessible via www.factum.lk.
The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the organization’s.
