PDNRL No. 23 R.F. Young and G.P.V. Somaratna: Vain Debates. The Buddhist-Christian Controversies of Nineteenth-Century Ceylon. Vienna 1996, 236p. EUR 29.-

/

  • Contents

    Conventions (9)

    Acknowledgements (11)

    Abbreviations (13)

    Bibliography (15)

    I.                    “A Mighty Fortress is Our Buddha”:

    Conceptualizing Reactionary Revivalism (33)

    Perspectives (34)

    Sources (40)

    Text and Context (42)

    Periodizations (44)

    In Wandering Mazes Lost (47) 

    II.                  Politic Preambles:

    The Encounter to 1848 (51)

    The Aggravation of Conscience (53)

    Humane Encounters, Parody, and Apologetics (59)

    The Flight of the Beasts (67)

    III.                Tangled Briars:

    Ola Leaves and Confrontations from 1848

    to the Early 1860s (79)

    The Kristiyāni Prajñapti (80)

    The Great Hesitation (85)

    The World-Knower (92)

    The Deed and the Doer (97)

    The Carpenter-Prēta (103)

    Catholic Priests and Buddhist Monks (109) 

    IV.                Pamphleteering and the Minor Debates:

    The Emergence of Mohoṭṭivattē Guṇānanda to 1873 (113)

    Placards, Broadsheets, and Tracts (115)

    Galle Moderates (117)

    Colombo Extremists (127)

    The Baddegama Debate (141)

    Vessantara’s Children and Jephthah’s Daughter (146)

    V.                  Orators, Spectators, and Sherbet-Vendors:

    The Pānadurē Debate of 1873 (155)

    The Temple of Defiance (156)

    Vintage Gogerly, Ripened Guṇānanda (161)

    The Carpenter-Prēta and Zadkiel the Astrologer (167)

    The Ratsnake and the Potsherd (176)

    VI.                Recoil of the Dhamma:

    The Reification and Diversification of Revivalism (181)

    The Curious Virgin (184)

    Sacred Spaces (188)

    Flowers for the Buddha (198)

    The Last Hurrah at Ūrugoḍavatta (215)

    Protest and Protestantization (219)

    List of Illustrations (227)

    General Index (229)

  • Reviews