Distant Shores of Dharma: Historical Imagination in Sri Lanka From the Late Medieval Perio | Posted on:2018-10-04 | Degree:Ph.D | Type:Dissertation | University:The University of Chicago | Candidate:Henry, Justin Wesley | Full Text:PDF | GTID:1475390020953464 | Subject:Religious history | Abstract/Summary: | | This dissertation examines competing and coalescing narratives concerning the distant past in Sri Lankan Buddhist and Tamil Hindu literature from the 14th-16th centuries. I argue that a more capacious view of the island's early history emerged during this period, extending chronologically to a point much earlier than the lifetime of the Buddha. The dissertation considers ways in which Sinhala literature reflected changing demographic realities through the imagined past, incorporating aspects of Hindu Puran&dotbelow;as and Sanskrit epics. I trace the identification of the island of Sri Lanka with the literary "Lan˙kapura," the abode of Ravan&dotbelow;a, demon-king antagonist of the Ramayana. I argue that that aspects of reconfigured historical imagination of the late medieval period endure to the present day, accounting for the now popular notion that Ravan&dotbelow;a was an ancient Sinhala king of Sri Lanka. | Keywords/Search Tags: | Sri lanka, Historical imagination, Late medieval, History | | Related items |
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