"Life is Suffering"

[Viveka]

Here is the pertinent information about this

The original Alu Vihara manuscript does not exist

As is well known, the Pali canon was first written down in the Alu Vihara monastery in sri Lanka, around 20 BCE. This is based on an account in the Mahavamsa, which is generally reliable as far as historical details go. The original text copied 2,000 years has long vanished in the mists of history. Manuscripts in Sri Lanka generally do not last longer than a few hundred years, and presumably it would have been re-copied multiple times. The Alu Vihara, it seems, remained a center for preservin…