Sinhala Buddhist Appropriations of Indic Cultural Forms
Literary Imitations and Conquests
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.27959Keywords:
Buddhism, kingship, poetry, Sanskrit, Sinhala, Sri LankaAbstract
The development of Sinhala literature and Buddhist culture in Sri Lanka between the tenth and sixteenth centuries ce reveals a complex negotiation of appropriating elements of Indic culture and distinguishing their Sinhala variants. Vernacular traditions of writing and worshipping emphasized the island’s differences from the mainland, despite (or perhaps because of) the invasions and cultural imports from South India. Examining the use of a literary vernacular, praise poetry, and messenger poetry in Sinhala, this article explores medieval Sri Lankan efforts to appropriate and ultimately rival the literary and religious cultures from the neighboring subcontinent.
References
Abhayagunaratna, D. G. (ed.). 1997 [1929]. Parakumba Sirita. Colombo: Madhyama Samskrtika Aramudala.
Adikaram, E. W. 1994. [1946]. Early History of Buddhism in Ceylon. Dehiwala, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Cultural Centre.
Ali, Daud. 2000. 'Royal Eulogy as World History: Rethinking Copper-plate Inscriptions in Cola India.' In Inden, Walters, and Ali 2000: 165-229.
--2004. Courtly Culture and Political Life in Early Medieval India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Berkwitz, Stephen C. 2004. Buddhist History in the Vernacular: The Power of the Past in Late Medieval Sri Lanka. Leiden: Brill.
--(trans.). 2007. The History of the Buddha's Relic Shrine: A Translation of the Sinhala Thupavamsa. New York: Oxford University Press.
--2013. Buddhist Poetry and Colonialism: Alagiyavanna and the Portuguese in Sri Lanka. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bloom, Harold. 1973. The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry. New York: Oxford University Press.
Bopearachchi, Osmund. 2008. Tamil Traders in Sri Lanka and Sinhalese Traders in Tamil Nadu. Colombo: International Centre for Ethnic Studies.
--2012. '"Andhra-Tamilnadu and Sri Lanka": Early Buddhist Sculptures of Sri Lanka.' In Appasamy Murugaiyan (ed.), New Dimensions in Tamil Epigraphy: Select Papers from the Symposia held at EPHE-SHP, Paris in 2005, 2006 and a Few Invited Papers: 49-68. Chennai: Cre-A Publishers.
Bronner, Yigal. 2013. 'Birds of a Feather: Vamana Bhatta Bana's Hamsasandesa and its Intertexts.' Journal of the American Oriental Society 133 (3): 495-526. https://doi.org/10.7817/jameroriesoci.133.3.0495
Bronner, Yigal, and David Shulman. 2006. '"A Cloud Turned Goose": Sanskrit in the Vernacular Millennium.' The Indian Economic and Social History Review 43 (1): 1-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/001946460504300101
Chakravarti, Chintaharan. 1927. 'The Origin and Development of Dutakavya Literature in Sanskrit.' Indian Historical Quarterly 3 (1): 273-97.
Dharmasena, Thera. 1991. Jewels of the Doctrine: Stories of the Saddharma Ratnavaliya. Trans. Ranjini Obeyesekere. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
De Silva, Chandra Richard. 1987. Sri Lanka: A History. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House.
Gair, James W., and W. S. Karunatillake. 2013. The Sidat Sangara: Text, Translation and Glossary. New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society.
Geiger, Wilhelm (trans.). 2001 [1912]. The Mahavamsa: Or Great Chronicle of Ceylon. Oxford: Pali Text Society.
Godakumbura, C. E. 1955. Sinhalese Literature. Colombo: The Colombo Apothecaries' Company.
Gombrich, Richard, and Gananath Obeyesekere. 1988. Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Gunasekera, Bandusena (ed.). 1986. Tisara Sandesaya. Colombo: S. Godage and Brothers.
Hacker, Paul. 1983. 'Inklusivismus.' In Gerhard Oberhammer (ed.), Inklusivismus: Eine indische Denkform: 11-28. Wien: Institut fur Indologie der Universitat Wien.
Hallisey, Charles. 2003. 'Works and Persons in Sinhala Literary Culture.' In Sheldon Pollock (ed.), Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia: 689-746. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hart, George L. 1975. The Poems of Ancient Tamil: Their Milieu and their Sanskrit Counterparts. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Hevawasam, P. B. J. 1961. 'Tamil Sources of Some Sinhalese Literary Works with Special Reference to Lokopakaraya.' Tamil Culture 9 (3): 241-62.
Holt, John. 2004. The Buddhist Visnu: Religious Transformation, Politics, and Culture. New York: Columbia University Press. https://doi.org/10.7312/holt13322
Hopkins, Steven P. 2004. 'Lovers, Messengers, and Beloved Landscapes: Sandesakavya in Comparative Perspective.' International Journal of Hindu Studies 8 (1-3): 29-55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11407-004-0002-2
Inden, Ronald, Jonathan Walters and Daud Ali (eds.). 2000. Querying the Medieval: Texts and the History of Practices in South Asia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Josephson, Jason Ananda. 2012. The Invention of Religion in Japan. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226412351.001.0001
Kailasapathy, K. 1968. Tamil Heroic Poetry. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Kumaratunga, Munidasa (ed.). 2001 [1952]. Colombo: M. D. Gunasena.
Marasinghe, M. M. J. 1974. Gods in Early Buddhism: A Study in their Social and Mythological Milieu as Depicted in the Nikayas of the Pali Canon. Kelaniya, Sri Lanka: University of Sri Lanka, Vidyalankara Campus.
Nanavimala, Kiri Alle (ed.). 1993. Vyakhya sahita Buduguna Alankaraya. Colombo: Gunasena.
Nicholas, C. W., and S. Paranavitana. 1961. A Concise History of Ceylon: From the Earliest Times to the Arrival of the Portuguese in 1505. Colombo: Ceylon University Press.
Obeyesekere, Ranjini (ed.). 2012. The Revered Book of Five Hundred & Fifty Jataka Stories: Translated from the 14th Century Sinhala Version. Volume I. Colombo: M. D. Gunasena.
Pannasara, Dehigaspe. 1958. Sanskrit Literature: Extant among the Sinhalese and the Influence of Sanskrit on Sinhalese. Colombo: Wimala Dharma Hewavitarane.
Perera, Lakshman S. 2001. The Institutions of Ancient Ceylon from Inscriptions: Volume I (from 3 century BC to 830 AD). Kandy, Sri Lanka: International Centre for Ethnic Studies.
Pieris, Anoma. 2010. 'Avian Geographies: An Inquiry into National Consciousness in Medieval Lanka.' South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 33 (3): 336-62. https://doi.org/10.1080/00856401.2010.520647
Pollock, Sheldon. 2006. The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Shulman, David. 2001. The Wisdom of Poets: Studies in Tamil, Telugu, and Sanskrit. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Sivasundaram, Sujit. 2013. Islanded: Britain, Sri Lanka & the Bounds of an Indian Ocean Colony. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226038360.001.0001
Taussig, Michael. 1993. Mimesis and Alterity: A Particular History of the Senses. New York: Routledge.
Tennakone, Ra. (ed.) 1955. Savul Sandesaya. Colombo: M. D. Gunasena.
Tilakasiri, Siri (ed.). 2005. Parevi Sandesaya. Colombo: Ratna Pot Prakasakayo.
Walters, Jonathan S. 2000. 'Buddhist History: The Sri Lankan Pali Vamsas and their Commentary.' In Inden, Walters and Ali 2000: 99-164.
Wentworth, Blake. 2011. 'Insiders, Outsiders, and the Tamil Tongue.' In Yigal Bronner, Whitney Cox and Lawrence McCrea (eds.), South Asian Texts in History: Critical Engagements with Sheldon Pollock: 153-76. Ann Arbor, MI: Association for Asian Studies.
Wickramasinghe, Martin. 1997. Martin Wickramasinghe Complete Works: Volume 10, Essays in English. Dehiwala, Sri Lanka: Tisara Prakasakayo.
Wickremasinghe, Don Martino de Zilva (ed. and trans). 1985 [1928]. Epigraphia Zeylanica: Being Lithic and Other Inscriptions of Ceylon. Volume II. London: Oxford University Press.
Wijesekera, Nandadeva. 1987. Deities and Demons, Magic and Masks, Part I. Colombo: M. D. Gunasekara.
--(ed.). 1990. Archaeological Department Centenary (1890-1990) Commemorative Series: Volume Two Inscriptions. Colombo: Archaeological Department.
