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. |
Contents
| 3 | |
1 Reading Manimekalai as Buddhist Literature | 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 |
| 227 | |
| 245 | |
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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
Bibliographic information
| Title | Imagining a Place for Buddhism: Literary Culture and Religious Community in Tamil-Speaking South India |
| Author | Anne E. Monius |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press, 2001 |
| ISBN | 0198032064, 9780198032069 |
| Length | 272 pages |
| Subjects | › › Religion / Buddhism / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |