Constituting Communities

John Clifford Holt is Professor of Religion at Bowdoin College and the author of The Religious World of Kirti Sri: Buddhism, Art, and Politics in Late Medieval Sri Lanka. Jacob N. Kinnard is Assistant Professor of Religion at the College of William and Mary and the author of Imaging Wisdom: Seeing and Knowing in the Art of Indian Buddhism. Jonathan S. Walters is Associate Professor of Religion and Asian Studies at Whitman College and the coeditor (with Ronald Inden and Daud Ali) of Querying the Medieval: Texts and the History of Practices in South Asia.

• IntroductionJohn Clifford Holt and Jacob N. Kinnard 1. Communal Karma and Karmic Community in Theravada Buddhist HistoryJonathan S. Walters 2. Toward a Theory of Buddhist Queenship: The Legend of AsandhimittaJohn S. Strong 3. Beggars Can Be Choosers: Mahakassapa as a Selective Eater of Offerings Liz Wilson 4. The Insight Guide to Hell: Mahamoggallana and Theravada Buddhist CosmologyJulie Gifford 5. When the Buddha Sued VisnuJacob N. Kinnard 6. Minister of Defense? The Visnu Controversy in Contemporary Sri LankaJohn Clifford Holt 7. Localizing Lineage: Importing Higher Ordination in Theravadin South and Southeast Asia Anne M. Blackburn 8. Preacher as a Poet: Poetic Preaching as a Monastic Strategy in Constituting Buddhist Communities in Modern Sri Lanka and ThailandMahinda Deegalle 9. "For Those Who Are Ignorant": A Study of the Bauddha ÄdahillaCarol S. Anderson 10. Interpretive Strategies for Seeing the Body of the BuddhaJames R. Egge List of Contributors Index