Pali Canon written on palm leaves (Aluvihara)
Canon pali escrito en hojas de palma (Aluvihara)
- Date
- c. 29 BCE · confidence low
- Place
- Aluvihara, Matale, Sri Lanka
- Credited to
- Theravada Buddhist monks of Sri Lanka
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
According to Sri Lankan chronicles, under King Vattagamani monks committed the hitherto oral Pali Canon to writing on talipot palm leaves. It established the palm-leaf manuscript as the support of South and Southeast Asia.
The date comes from later chronicles (Dipavamsa, Mahavamsa); no manuscripts of that time survive and palm leaf was already used in India.
What it led to
- preservation of Theravada Buddhism in a written corpus
- a tradition of incised palm-leaf manuscripts across South and Southeast Asia
- spread of Pali to Burma, Thailand and Cambodia