A Secondary Concern:
In case one tends to doubt the commentaries due to thinking in the lines of,
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Since Buddhaghosa thera himself has stated in Visuddhimagga-colophon that he wish to meet Metteyya Buddha, it seems he didn’t believe in Visuddhimagga.
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Since Buddhaghosa thera burnt the ancient Sinhala commentaries, such a person is not trustworthy.
then, here are counter evidences:
1. For point 1:
Thirteenth Centary Visuddhimárga-mahásanne by King Parakramabahu’s (1234 - 1269 CE),A Sinhala glossary to Visuddhimagga:
The colophon (epilogue) starting from “This Path of Purification was made by …” onwards is the writing of Buddhamitta Thera who was an student of Buddhaghosa Thera.
Why the name of Acariya Buddhagosa is mentioned as “who bears the name Buddhaghosa conferred by the venerable ones", without directly mentioning it, is because, it is considered disrespectful if a student-monk mention the teacher-monk’s name directly.
(This convention was practiced by Venerable Ananda towards his teacher Venerable Mahakassapa and said to be practiced by traditional monks even in the present day.
Therefore this indirect mention of name also supports that the colophon was written by someone else.)
2. For Point 2:
Buddhist Commentarial Literature by L. R. Goonesekere, BPS:
The Dhampiyā-aṭuvāgāṭäpadaya , a work dated in the tenth century A. C. , contains quotations from these commentaries in the original Sinhalese (pp. 136, 148, 149) .
In the Sahassavatthuppakaraṇa, a work assigned to a period before the eleventh century A. C. , the author says in the introduction that he is following the method of the Sīhalaṭṭhakathā.
There is evidence that the Sinhalese commentaries were available also to the author of the Vaṃsatthappakāsinī which has been dated by Malalasekera in the eighth century or ninth century A. C. (Mhv-a Intr. p. cix) and by Geiger between 1000 and 1250 A.C . (Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa 34). The author of the Vaṃsatthappakāsinī has quoted from the Sīhalaṭṭhakathā , Sīhalaṭṭhakathāmahāvaṃsa and Aṭṭhakathā, Uttaravihāra-aṭṭhakathā, Uttaravihāramahāvaṃsa, Porāṇaṭṭhakathā, Vinayaṭṭhakathā, Mahāvaṃsaṭṭhakathā and Dīpavaṃsaṭṭhakathā . These were all commentaries in Sinhalese.
Vinayaṭṭhakathā, too, may be taken as referring to the Sinhalese commentary on the Vinaya, as the Samantapāsādikā has been separately quoted.
The Pālimuttaka-Vinayavinicchaya-Saṅgaha dated in the twelfth century A.C. contains quotations from the Mahā-aṭṭhakathā, the Mahāpaccari and the Kurundī (pp. 2, 4, Sinhalese edition, B. E. 2450).
The Sārasaṅgaha which was probably written in the thirteenth century refers to a statement found in the Vinayaṭṭhakathā (p. 32, Sinhalese edition, 1898) which cannot be traced in the Samantapāsādikā. This would indicate that the statement was taken from the Sinhalese Vinayaṭṭhakathā , unless it was contained in the Samantapāsādikā of the author’s time.
About what scholars say on the trustworthiness of the 15th century book “Buddhaghosuppatti” which is the only source for the story of ‘burning Sinhala commentaries by Buddhaghosa Thera’:
Ven. Nanamoli’s Visuddhimagga Introduction:
The “popular novel” called Buddhaghosuppatti, which was composed in Burma by an elder called Mahámaògala, perhaps as early as the 15th century, is less dependable. It has already been remarked that the general opinion of European scholars is that where this imaginative tale differs from, or adds to, the Mahávaísa’s account it is in legend rather than history.
Wikipedia:
The Buddhaghosuppatti, a later biographical text, is generally regarded by Western scholars as being legend rather than history. It adds to the Mahavamsa tale certain details, such as the identity of Buddhaghosa’s parents and his village, as well as several dramatic episodes, such as the conversion of Buddhaghosa’s father and Buddhaghosa’s role in deciding a legal case. It also explains the eventual loss of the Sinhala originals that Buddhaghosa worked from in creating his Pali commentaries by claiming that Buddhaghosa collected and burnt the original manuscripts once his work was completed.
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