Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya

Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya was the great Theravada monastery of Anuradhapura, the royal capital of ancient Sri Lanka. King Devanampiya Tissa founded it in the third century BCE, and its monks became the island's oldest and most orthodox Buddhist fraternity.

It long rivaled the Abhayagiri and Jetavana monasteries. The chronicle Mahavamsa records its demolition under King Mahasena in the fourth century, though the Chinese pilgrim Faxian found three thousand monks there around 406. In the fifth century the scholar Buddhaghosa composed his Visuddhimagga and commentaries on the Tipitaka there, defining Theravada doctrine.

In the twelfth century King Parakramabahu I supported the Mahavihara, dissolved the rival fraternities and united the sangha under its lineage, which from Sri Lanka went on to shape the Theravada Buddhism of Southeast Asia.