BODHI VAMSA  , a

prose poem in elaborate Sanskritized Pali, composed by Upatissa in the reign of Mahinda IV. of Ceylon about A.D . 980 . It is an adaptation of a previously existing work in Sinhalese on the same subject, and describes the bringing of a branch of the celebrated Bo or Bodhi tree (i.e . Wisdom Tree, under which the Buddha had attained wisdom) to Ceylon in the 3rd century B.C . The Bodhi Vamsa quotes verses from the Mahavamsa, but draws a great deal of its material from other sources; and it has occasionally preserved details of the older tradition not found in any other sources known to us . Edition in Pali for the Pali Text Society by S . Arthur Strong (London, 1891) .