The Devalaya Review PDF Download

Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 876

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Author: John Clifford Holt
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass Publishe
ISBN: 9788120832695
Category : Buddhism
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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John Holt's groundbreaking study examines the assimilation, transformation, and subordination of the Hindu deity Visnu within the contexts of Sri Lankan history and Sinhala Buddhist religious culture. Holt argues that political agendas and social forces, as much as doctrinal concerns, have shaped the shifting patterns of the veneration of Visnu in Sri Lanka. Holt begins with a comparative look at the assimilation of the Buddha in Hinduism. He then explores the role and rationale of medieval Sinhala kings in assimilating Visnu into Sinhala Buddhism. Offering analyses of texts, many of which have never before been translated into English, Holt considers the development of Visnu in Buddhist literature and the changing practices of deity veneration. Shifting to the present, Holt describes the efforts of contemporary Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka to discourage the veneration of Visnu, suggesting that many are motivated by a reactionary fear that their culture and society will soon be overrun by the influences and practices of Hindus, Muslims, and Christians.

Author: Deborah de Koning
Publisher: LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN: 3643915047
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 422

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This book discusses Ravanisation: the revitalisation of Ravana among Sinhalese Buddhists in post-war (after 2009) Sri Lanka. The Hindu Ramayana generally portrays Ravana as a cruel king. How and why, then, has Ravana gained the interest of Sinhalese Buddhists? This study takes an ethnographic perspective to answer these questions. The book discusses multiple Ravana representations that have emerged at an urban Buddhist site (the Sri Devram Maha Viharaya) and a rural site (Lakegala), and discloses how Ravanisation relates to Sinhalese Buddhist ethno-nationalism. In addition, the material, ritual, and spatial perspectives offer unique insights in the personal and local relevance of Ravana.

Author: Sir Gooroo Dass Banerjee
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Bengal (India)
Languages : en
Pages : 558

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Author: John Clifford Holt
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195362462
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Historical, anthropological, and philosophical in approach, Buddha in the Crown is a case study in religious and cultural change. It examines the various ways in which Avalokitesvara, the most well known and proliferated bodhisattva of Mahayana Buddhism throughout south, southeast, and east Asia, was assimilated into the transforming religious culture of Sri Lanka, one of the most pluralistic in Asia. Exploring the expressions of the bodhisattva's cult in Sanskrit and Sinhala literature, in iconography, epigraphy, ritual, symbol, and myth, the author develops a provocative thesis regarding the dynamics of religious change. Interdisciplinary in scope, addressing a wide variety of issues relating to Buddhist thought and practice, and providing new and original information on the rich cultural history of Sri Lanka, this book will interest students of Buddhism and South Asia.

Author: François Molle
Publisher: IWMI
ISBN: 9290905220
Category : Dams
Languages : en
Pages : 30

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This exploratory study was designed to capture the main features of agrarian change in the upper part of the basin that depends mostly on anicuts. These anicuts amount to 59 percent of the total basin anicuts in terms of numbers, but to only 43 percent in terms of irrigated area. They are generally very old (the history of some of them goes back to 2000 years; see below) and obviously, many changes have occurred during this time. The study does not allow the reconstitution of all past transformations but offers some insight on recent changes: changes in population pressure over resources and changes in hydrology, crop choice, livelihoods and collective action. The analysis is based on exploratory surveys carried out by the authors and by students of the University of Sabaragamuwa and is not a detailed or in-depth investigation of agricultural systems in the Upper Walawe basin. However, it provides a useful outline of the situation in this part of the basin.

Author: Abilash Chandran, Supratick Basu
Publisher: Notion Press
ISBN: 9383185988
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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It was a period rife with chaos and destruction, and the whole world moved directionless, towards a definite path of selfannihilation. In these hours of distress, when the guardians of the great emperor were on the verge of disintegration and the power hungry fought for absolute control, there came a sliver of hope in the form of two brothers, an ancient prophecy, and a simple adventure trail, which turned into a quest that could alter the fate of the world. The search for the answers to a simple riddle opened up the glorious past and all that was concealed in the passage of time. Along with it rode danger and temptation as the dark forces waited in the shadows to grasp that which will either give absolute power to destroy, or open a gateway of restoration and peace in the world. As the brothers trysted with the menace that pursued them, they met with love, deception, betrayal and death. Time was the only witness that would reveal, whether the prophecy – Rise of Vidhiputra – would be fulfilled.

Author: John Clifford Holt
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824872452
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Theravada Traditions offers a unique comparative approach to understanding Buddhism: it examines popular rituals of central importance in the predominantly Theravada Buddhist cultures of Laos, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia. Instead of focusing on how religious ideas have impacted the ideals of government or ethical practice, author John Holt tries to ascertain how important changes, or shifts, in the trajectories of the political economies of societies have impacted the character of religious cultures. Each of the five chapters focuses on a particular rite and provides detailed historical, political, or social context: Holt shows how worship of the Phra Bang Buddha image in the annual pi mai or New Year’s rites in Luang Phrabang, Laos, has changed dramatically since the 1975 communist revolution and the subsequent opening up of the country to tourism; he describes how, in the face of insurrections and a prolonged civil war, the annual asala perahara processions in Kandy, Sri Lanka, have come to reflect a robust assertion of a Sinhala Buddhist nationalist identity; how ordination rites among Thai Buddhists reflect the manner in which Thai culture has been ever more “commodified” in the context of its dramatically developing economy; and how in tightly controlled Myanmar the kathina rite, the act of giving new robes to members of the sangha after the completion of the rain-retreat season, transformed into a season of campaigning for gift-giving and merit-making; finally, he demonstrates how, in light of the devastating losses inflicted by the Khmer Rouge, pchum ben, the annual rite of caring ritually for one’s deceased kin, became the most popular and perhaps most emotionally observed of all rites in the Khmer calendar year. In short, Theravada Traditions illustrates how popular, public ritual performance, far from being static, clearly indexes patterns of social and political change. Broad but deep, rigorous yet accessible, this rich, innovative volume provides a provocative introduction to the practice of Theravada Buddhism and the nature of social change in contemporary Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia.

Author:
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ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 662

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Author: Lopamudra Maitra Bajpai
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000205819
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 164

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This book examines the historical and socio-cultural connections across the SAARC region, with a special focus on the relationship between India and Sri Lanka. It investigates hitherto unexplored narratives of history, popular culture and intangible heritage in the region to identify the cultural parallels and intersections that link them together. In doing so, the volume moves away from an organised and authorised heritage discourse and encourages possibilities of new understandings and re-interpretations of cross-cultural communication and its sub-texts. Based on original ethnographic work, the book discusses themes such as cultural ties between India and Sri Lanka, exchanges between Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lanka and Satyajit Ray in India, cultural connectivity reflected through mythology and folklore, the influence of Rabindranath Tagore on modern dance in Sri Lanka, the introduction of railways in Sri Lanka, narrative scrolls and masked dance forms across SAARC countries, Hindi cinema as the pioneer of cultural connectivity, and women’s writing across South Asia. Lucid and compelling, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of cultural studies, South Asian studies, cultural anthropology, sociology, popular culture, cross-cultural communication, gender studies, political sociology, cultural history, diplomacy, international relations and heritage studies. It will also appeal to general readers interested in the linkages between India and Sri Lanka.