Vaṃsa

Vamsa (Sanskrit: वंशम्, IAST: , is a Sanskrit word that means 'family, lineage'. It also refers to a genre of ancient and medieval literature in Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. This genre focuses on genealogies. They resemble the conventional histories found in the European literature, but differ as they predominantly chronicle myths and may integrate spiritual doctrines such as rebirths. A vaṃśam can be focussed on a dynasty, family, individual such as a saint, line of teachers of a particular tradition, or a place particularly of pilgrimage. Some of these texts are titled with vaṃśam as a suffix. The word vaṃśam has ancient roots and refers to bamboo cane or sugar cane reed. According to Monier Monier-Williams, the term evolved to mean 'lineage', likely inspired by the periodic lengths of a cane, where one distinct segment follows the previous, grows, ends and is the basis of another. The word is found in the sense of "line of teachers", genealogy and family tree in theShatapatha Brahmana, as well as in Sanskrit grammar text Ashtadhyayi by Pāṇini. A related genre of Indic literature is the Charita, which focuses on individual hagiographies. Vaṃśam appears in other Indic languages in derivative forms, such as bans. Buddhavaṃsa, Dipavaṃsa, and Mahāvaṃsa are examples of Buddhist vaṃsas. The Buddhavaṃsa chronicles the mythical lineage of 24 buddhas who preceded the actual human Buddha as Siddhartha, and includes the Bodhisatta doctrines. The Dipavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa both are Theravada chronicles of the island of Sri Lanka presenting legends about the place from the birth of the Buddha to about the early medieval era. According to Geiger, the Mahavamsa is likely based on Dipavamsa, these chronicles are of doubtful reliability. The Dāthāvaṃsa is the chronicle of the Buddha's tooth relic until the 9th-century CE. The Thūpavaṃsa is the purported legendary chronicle of the great stupa in Sri Lanka, mostly ahistorical stories from the 1st millennium.