Imagining a Place for Buddhism: Literary Culture and Religious Community in Tamil-Speaking South IndiaWhile Tamil-speaking South India is celebrated for its preservation of Hindu tradition, other religious communities have played a significant role in shaping the region's religious history. Among these non-Hindu communities is that of the Buddhists, who are little-understood because of the scarcity of remnants of Tamil-speaking Buddhist culture. Here, focusing on the two Buddhist texts in Tamil that are complete (a sixth-century poetic narrative and an eleventh-century treatise on grammar and poetics), Monius sheds light on the role of literature and literary culture in the formation, articulation, and evolution of religious identity and community. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 84
Page 4
... character of the Tamil-speaking Buddhist community or communities has remained largely obscure. Who were the Tamil-speaking Buddhists of southern India? What did being "Buddhist” mean in the complex religious world of the medieval South ...
... character of the Tamil-speaking Buddhist community or communities has remained largely obscure. Who were the Tamil-speaking Buddhists of southern India? What did being "Buddhist” mean in the complex religious world of the medieval South ...
Page 7
... characters, the story of a king now ruling over a Southeast Asian island king. dom, the conversion to Buddhism of a wild band of barbarians, and the tale of a virtuous woman wronged by a lust-driven royal prince. The complex and ...
... characters, the story of a king now ruling over a Southeast Asian island king. dom, the conversion to Buddhism of a wild band of barbarians, and the tale of a virtuous woman wronged by a lust-driven royal prince. The complex and ...
Page 10
... characters, concepts, and values—that allows the reader or listener to envision himself as part of a larger, if not ... character of the text, filled with subplots and stories within stories, is meant to evoke subtly the particularly ...
... characters, concepts, and values—that allows the reader or listener to envision himself as part of a larger, if not ... character of the text, filled with subplots and stories within stories, is meant to evoke subtly the particularly ...
Page 11
... characters and settings, a picture begins to emerge of a textual community of literary connoisseurs who are multilingual, well versed in the worldviews and literatures of various religious communities, and thoroughly engaged in the ...
... characters and settings, a picture begins to emerge of a textual community of literary connoisseurs who are multilingual, well versed in the worldviews and literatures of various religious communities, and thoroughly engaged in the ...
Page 13
... characteristics: the intricate interweaving of sixteen "branch stories" (kilaik katai) into the main narrative;7 the seemingly abrupt shift from poetic narrative to philosophical discourse in the twenty-seventh, twentyninth, and ...
... characteristics: the intricate interweaving of sixteen "branch stories" (kilaik katai) into the main narrative;7 the seemingly abrupt shift from poetic narrative to philosophical discourse in the twenty-seventh, twentyninth, and ...
Contents
| 3 | |
| 13 | |
2 The Manimekalais Community of Readers and Listeners | 58 |
3 The Manimekalais Buddhist Community Envisioned | 87 |
Language Literary Theory and Religious Community | 116 |
5 Imagining Community through Commentary | 137 |
Conclusion | 156 |
Notes | 161 |
Bibliography | 227 |
Index | 245 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
aesthetic appear Asia Asian associated audience become birth bowl Buddha Buddhist century chapter characters Cilappatikāram cited claims classical coming commentary commentator complex composed concern context described devotional discussion doctrine early envisioned example existence experience final future given goddess grammar History human identified identity images imagined interdependent interpretation Jain Kannaki karma king known landscape language liberation linguistic literary culture literary language literature lives London Madras manifestation Manimékalai meaning medieval monks moral narrative nature notes origination Pāli particular past perhaps Poems poetic poetry present previously provides quoted reading references region relation relic religious renunciation Saiva Sanskrit simply sources South India Southeast specific story Studies suffering suggests Tamil Tamil Literature Tamil-speaking Tamilnadu teachings temple themes theory throughout tion Tolkāppiyam tradition trans translation University University Press various verse Viracóliyam vision young
Popular passages
Page 181 - I defend the literary imagination precisely because it seems to me an essential ingredient of an ethical stance that asks us to concern ourselves with the good of other people whose lives are distant from our own.
Page 99 - ... which he was led to believe were those of Adam. And why should I make a long story of it ? In sooth, the whole population of Cambaluc went forth to meet those reliques, and the ecclesiastics took them over and carried them to the Great Kaan, who received them with great joy and...
Page 167 - The coherence of literature as an event is primarily mediated in the horizon of expectations of the literary experience of contemporary and later readers, critics, and authors.
Page 205 - In the very numeruos inscriptions, on copper and stone, left by the rulers of the Pallava dynasty, no reference is made to relations, friendly or hostile, with the countries overseas. No sea-voyage is, in fact, alluded to. It would, however, be rash to conclude from this silence that such relations did not exist. Let us take the case of Ceylon for example. The epigraphical records of the Pallavas do not contain a word about any war waged by...
Page 62 - Quite fitting for one who is surroundbd by the darkness of ignorance. For : The body, a mine of diseases, subject to old age, poised on the brink of hidden Death, Is like a tree on a river bank, about to be uprooted by the ever-battering wave. And though such human embodiment is earned through numerous good...
Page 204 - PAGODA AT NEGAPATAM. Sir Walter ELLIOT, KCSI, to whom Yule refers for the information given about this pagoda, has since published in the Indian Antiquary, VII., 1878, pp. 224-227, an interesting article with the title : The Edifice formerly known as the Chinese or Jaina Pagoda at Negapatam, from which we gather the following particulars regarding its destruction : — " It went by various names, as the Puduveli-gdpuram, the old pagoda, Chinese pagoda, black pagoda, and in the map of the Trigonometrical...
Page 64 - Look at you ! Your face spangled with beads of perspiration, eyebrow-creepers in graceful agitation, Wanton movements, causeless smiles, speech with slurring syllables, A pair of rolling eyes with languid side-long glances, and with reddish tinge suffused, Hair falling over your shoulders, its garland all unloosed ! (6) 23.