State of Buddhism in Ceylon (Srilaṅkā) as Depicted in the Pali Chronicles
State of Buddhism in Ceylon (Srilaṅkā) as Depicted in the Pali Chronicles

Author: Sandhya Bhattacharya

Publisher: Pilgrims

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13:

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This book is an attempt to trace the history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka as depicted in the Pali lanaguage chronicles which date from the 4th century BC onwards. Describes about Vamsa Literature, short history of the Pali chronicles, royal patronage of buddhism, monastic life in ceylon, buddhist festivals and ceremonies in ceylon.

The Mahavamsa
The Mahavamsa

Author: Mahanama Thera

Publisher:

Published: 2018-01-18

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9781983960444

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The Mahavamsa ("Great Chronicle" )(5th century CE) is an epic poem written in the Pali language of the ancient Kings of Sri Lanka. It relates the history of Sri Lanka from its legendary beginnings up to the reign of Mahasena of Anuradhapura (A.D. 302) covering the period between the arrival of Prince Vijaya from India in 543 BCE to his reign (277-304 CE). It was composed by a Buddhist bhikku at the Mahavihara temple in Anuradhapura about the sixth century A.D.

Anil's Ghost
Anil's Ghost

Author: Michael Ondaatje

Publisher: Vintage Canada

Published: 2010-10-08

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 0307375897

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Winning a Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Kiriyama Pacific Rim Book Prize and the Scotiabank Giller Prize, Anil’s Ghost is another award-winning novel from Michael Ondaatje. Steeped in centuries of cultural achievement and tradition, Sri Lanka has been ravaged in the late twentieth century by bloody civil war. Anil Tissera, born in Sri Lanka but educated in England and the U.S., is sent by an international human rights group to participate in an investigation into suspected mass political murders in her homeland. Working with an archaeologist, she discovers a skeleton whose identity takes Anil on a fascinating journey that involves a riveting mystery. What follows, in a novel rich with character, emotion, and incident, is a story about love and loss, about family, identity and the unknown enemy. And it is a quest to unlock the hidden past—like a handful of soil analyzed by an archaeologist, the story becomes more diffuse the farther we reach into history. A universal tale of the casualties of war, unfolding as a detective story, the book gradually gives way to a more intricate exploration of its characters, a symphony of loss and loneliness haunted by a cast of solitary strangers and ghosts. The atrocities of a seemingly futile, muddled war are juxtaposed against the ancient, complex and ultimately redemptive culture and landscape of Sri Lanka.

Banishment and Belonging
Banishment and Belonging

Author: Ronit Ricci

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2019-11-21

Total Pages: 299

ISBN-13: 1108480276

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A ground-breaking exploration of exile and diaspora as they relate to place, language, religious tradition, literature and the imagination.

The Lion’s Roar
The Lion’s Roar

Author: Sarath Amunugama

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-08-12

Total Pages: 489

ISBN-13: 0199096155

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Anagarika Dharmapala (1864–1933) was a leading Sinhalese Buddhist reformer and national activist who ranks high among the makers of modern Buddhism. The Lion’s Roar is one of the first detailed accounts of Anagarika Dharmapala’s life and the pioneering role he played in the Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism at a time when resistance to colonial rule was mainly confined to the elite. The book explores his lifelong struggle for re-establishing Buddhist management of their own sacred places under Hindu control, particularly the Mahabodhi site in Bihar, India. Dharmapala’s association with the Bengali intelligensia, the ‘bhadralok’, and close interactions with Gandhi and Nehru in India, where he spent a greater part of his life, form an interesting part of the narration. Using a rich variety of primary sources, most importantly, Dharmapala’s diaries, the book situates his life within the socio-political and cultural ethos of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and chronicles the zealous efforts of a Buddhist crusader and monk who wished to reform the religion in his native land and propagate it in the Western world.

Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History
Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History

Author: Zoltán Biedermann

Publisher: UCL Press

Published: 2017-06-07

Total Pages: 357

ISBN-13: 1911307843

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The peoples of Sri Lanka have participated in far-flung trading networks, religious formations, and Asian and European empires for millennia. This interdisciplinary volume sets out to draw Sri Lanka into the field of Asian and Global History by showing how the latest wave of scholarship has explored the island as a ‘crossroads’, a place defined by its openness to movement across the Indian Ocean.Experts in the history, archaeology, literature and art of the island from c.500 BCE to c.1850 CE use Lankan material to explore a number of pressing scholarly debates. They address these matters from their varied disciplinary perspectives and diverse array of sources, critically assessing concepts such as ethnicity, cosmopolitanism and localisation, and elucidating the subtle ways in which the foreign may be resisted and embraced at the same time. The individual chapters, and the volume as a whole, are a welcome addition to the history and historiography of Sri Lanka, as well as studies of the Indian Ocean region, kingship, colonialism, imperialism, and early modernity.