Buddhist history in the vernacular : the power of the past in late medieval Sri Lanka / by Stephen C. Berkwitz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berkwitz, Stephen C., 1969-

Series:

Brill's Indological library 0925-2916 ; v. 23.

Brill's Indological library, 0925-2916 ; v. 23

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Buddhism--Sri Lanka--History--To 1505.

Buddhism.

Buddhism--Historiography.

Stūpas.

History.

Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka--History--To 1505.

Stūpas--Sri Lanka--History.

Physical Description:

xii, 355 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Boston ; Leiden : Brill, 2004.

Summary:

This book on vernacular Buddhist histories written in late medieval Sri Lanka demonstrates that narrative representations of the past were designed to effectively constructing new moral communities in translocal spaces.

Contents:

Chapter 1 History and Textuality 1

1 Defining Buddhist History 1

2 Texts of the Past and the Present 11

3 The Contours of Buddhist History 16

4 The "Problems" of Buddhist History 21

5 Buddhist Vamsas and Current Conflicts 29

Chapter 2 Buddhist History Now and Then 40

1 Modern Views of Buddhist Pasts 41

2 The Beginnings of Buddhist Historiography 61

Chapter 3 Language and the Production of History 81

1 Compiling Pali Buddhist Histories 83

2 Buddhist History in a Sinhala Translation 107

3 Quotation and Revision in Historical Accounts 121

Chapter 4 Buddhist History as Literature 135

1 The Narrative Form of Buddhist History 136

2 Rhetoric and Representation 150

3 Addressing the Audience 158

4 Learning from the Past 171

Chapter 5 Transforming the Writers of History 182

1 Historiography in a Manuscript Culture 183

2 The Merits of Writing History 193

3 "Self-Writing" in Buddhist Historiography 200

4 Written Paradigms for the Past 214

Chapter 6 Fashioning Virtuous Readers and Listeners 231

1 Constructing Emotions 233

2 Joy and Gratitude for the Past 245

3 The Subjectivity of Satpurusas 258

4 The Ethics of Devotion 270

Chapter 7 Moral Communities & Vernacular Histories 287

1 Agency and Subjectivity 290

2 Social Ethics in Buddhist History 304

3 Vernacularization in Late Medieval Sri Lanka 312

Appendix List of Palm Leaf Manuscripts Consulted 329.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [331]-345) and index.

ISBN:

9004139109

OCLC:

57513573