Buddhist History in the Vernacular

The Power of the Past in Late Medieval Sri Lanka
Erscheinungsjahr 2004
ISBN: 978-90-04-13910-7
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 23, 360 Seiten, Format (B × H): 167 mm x 245 mm, Gewicht: 794 g

Reihe: Brill's Indological Library

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Berkwitz, Stephen

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Buddhismus

Über Autor(innen)

Stephen C. Berkwitz, Ph.D. (1999) in Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Southwest Missouri State University. He has written chiefly on the cultural history and contemporary expressions of Sri Lankan Buddhism.