UNESCO has declared the Mahawamsa - The Great Chronicle, which is kept at the Peradeniya University main library, as a world heritage.
According to the Head of the History Department of the University Prof.Rohitha Dissanayake, a part of the last half of the Mahawamsaya has been written in Kandyan Kingdom by a former Mahanayake Thera of the Malwatte Chapter.
He said that there are 99-chapters in Mahawamsaya and it had been written until King Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe surrendered to the British and there is no mention of the name of the monk who wrote it after Thibbattuwawe Nahimi.
About two years ago, the University proposed to UNESCO to designate the Mahawamsaya owned by Peradeniya University as a world heritage.Librarian Dr.R. Maheswaran said that copies of the Mahawamsaya are found in several places in the country and the government appointed a committee to observe them all and prepare a report. Accordingly, the committee confirmed that Peradeniya University owns the oldest and most complete collection of the Mahawamsaya.