Famine, Social Disorder, and the Writing Down of Buddhist Scripture: Did the Eruption of Alaska’s Okmok Volcano Affect Sri Lanka in the First Century <scp>b</scp>.<scp>c</scp>.<scp>e</scp>.?

Abstract In 43 b.c.e., the eruption of Mt. Okmok in Alaska filled the atmosphere with volcanic fallout, blocking sunlight and cooling the climate throughout the Northern Hemisphere. Climate anomalies abounded, and the following decade was one of the coldest in the past 2,500 years. Evidence suggests that the extreme climate following the eruption resulted in devastating famine in South Asia, including Sri Lanka. In Buddhist sources, the so-called “Brahmanatissa famine” coincided with political turmoil and foreign invasion, forcing the monks of the island to write down theretofore orally preserved Pali scriptures to safeguard the doctrine.