Buddhist History in the Vernacular: The Power of the Past in Late Medieval Sri LankaBRILL, 2004 - 355 sider This is a careful study about the power attributed to historical narratives in early medieval Sri Lanka. On the basis of Sinhala histories of the Buddha and his relics this work sheds new light on historiography at work in a vernacular setting. Arguing that historical texts were both ethically and socially constructive, the author demonstrates that narrative representations of the past served the purpose to transform writers, readers, and listeners of history into virtuous persons, "and therewith to generate moral communities," Focusing on the thirteenth-century Sinhala Thupavamsa, this book problematizes modern interpretations of Buddhist histories, compares the production of Pali and Sinhala texts, and examines how historical works were directed towards religious ends. A significant contribution to scholarship in Buddhist Studies, Comparative Literature, and Historical Criticism. |
Indhold
Agency and Subjectivity | 1 |
The Beginnings of Buddhist Historiography | 61 |
Chapter Three Language and the Production of History | 81 |
40 | 101 |
2 | 107 |
Quotation and Revision in Historical Accounts | 121 |
Chapter Four Buddhist History as Literature | 135 |
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Buddhist History in the Vernacular: The Power of the Past in Late Medieval ... Stephen Berkwitz Begrænset visning - 2004 |
Almindelige termer og sætninger
ancient appears arahant aspirations audience Bodhi Tree Bodhisattva Buddha Buddhist histories Buddhist historiography Buddhist texts Buddhist vamfisas century Ceylon Chronicle of Thâpa Colombo commentaries composed copying cultural depicted devotees Dharma Dipavamsa emotions encounters ethical historian historical narratives Ibid interpretations Jayawickrama Karunatillake King DuÊugamuœu language late medieval Buddhist late medieval Sri literary literature MahÅvamfisa Mahāvamsa manuscript culture Māra material medieval Sri Lanka merit modern monastic monks moral nÅgas narrator nation one’s oneself pâjÅ PÅli and Sinhala Pali Text Society PÅli Thâpavamfisa palm leaf manuscripts ParÅkrama PaœØita paritta past events political practice premodern Sri Lanka present production readers and listeners Relic Shrine religious rhetorical Sangha Sanskrit scholars serene joy Sinhala language Sinhala text Sinhala Thâpavamfisa Sinhala Thūpavamsa Sinhalese sources Sri Lankan Buddhist story textual Thâpa and Thâpavamfisa thera TheravÅda tradition transform translation University Press VÅcissara vahansÉ vamsas verse virtuous persons wherein written