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Bruno M. Shirley - Religion, Gender, and Politics in Medieval Sri Lanka, Häftad

Häftad, Engelska, 2027

Religion, Gender, and Politics in Medieval Sri Lanka

The Reconstruction of Buddhist Kingship, ca. 1070–1215

Av Bruno M. Shirley

Del i serien Gender and Power in the Premodern World

548 kr

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Beskrivning
The early second millennium was a pivotal moment in the history of Theravāda Buddhism. Religious reforms carried out at Poḷonnaruva, then-capital of Sri Lanka, shaped the latter course of Buddhism across South and Southeast Asia. However, our understanding of these reforms has been over-determined by retrospective accounts written by male monastics, who focused on the heroic deeds of male monarchs.This book offers a radical revision of this narrative. Drawing on textual, inscriptional, numismatic, and material evidence from within the period itself, it reveals how the intellectual and social histories of Buddhism, politics, and gender were inextricably intertwined in Poḷonnaruva. In particular, it argues that debates over what it meant to be a “good Buddhist king” were intrinsically debates about Buddhist masculinity and about the proper relationship of gender to power.
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Bruno M. Shirley is an intellectual historian of gender, religion, and politics in medieval Sri Lanka. He teaches at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, Germany.

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This work is written and organized with exceptional clarity. Each chapter frequently references other chapters, and they all end with a section for conclusions by the author. Shirley’s carefully constructed arguments are supported by a wide range of evidence and detailed research into primary sources and secondary literature.It is apparent that Shirley wrote this book in large part to offer an alternative to the usual methods used in medieval historical research in Sri Lanka. While he does not disparage textual sources composed by Buddhist monks per se, he points out that historical studies that rely on texts too much fail to grasp important circumstances and events related to Sri Lanka’s kings. Instead, Shirley draws on inscriptions, archaeology, and coinage to present a fuller vision of medieval Sri Lankan history. This approach allows him to shine light on the transcultural influences on Buddhist kingship and the important role that royal women played in Sri Lanka, especially in the first half of the twelfth century and the early thirteenth century.[...]Shirley’s book is replete with intricate and innovative arguments about medieval Buddhist kingship when it was located chiefly in Poḷonnaruva. The specific details of his research ensure that it engages and often corrects existing scholarship in the field. This fact makes his book appear as a vital contribution to Sri Lankan history in particular. His decision to retain an open access version to make this work more available to scholars and students in Sri Lanka and elsewhere will undoubtedly help to increase its deserved impact on the field. At the same time, Shirley’s broader methodological arguments involving the material culture and gender of kingship ought to appeal to historians whose focus lies elsewhere in other lands or historical periods. Shirley’s close readings and analysis of royal inscriptions from medieval Sri Lanka have enabled him to revise and add more nuance to many received historical truths. His book undermines ahistorical, reified notions of Buddhist kingship and convincingly demonstrates that such kings were continually involved in constructing their royal personas to fit the particular circumstances of their rule.

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