Atthakathd

Atthakathd is the title of a commentary on the sacred books of the Buddhists among the Singhalese, which, until recently, was regarded as of equal authority with the text. The text was orally preserved until the reign of the Singhalese monarch Wattagamani, who reigned from B.C. 104 to B.C. 76, when it was committed to writing in the Island of Ceylon. The commentary was written by Budhagosha, at the ancient city of Anuradhapura, in Ceylon, A.D. 420. See Hardy, Eastern Monachism, p. 1, 167, 171, 187.