the literary aims of a Theravāda Buddhist history Scheible, Kristin creator author. text bibliography Electronic books. Criticism, interpretation, etc. nyu 2016 monographic eng 1 online resource (viii, 223 pages). Vamsa is a dynamic genre of Buddhist history filled with otherworldly characters and the exploits of real-life heroes. These narratives collapse the temporal distance between Buddha and the reader, building an emotionally resonant connection with an outsized religious figure and a longed-for past. The fifth-century Pali text Mahavamsa is a particularly effective example, using metaphor and other rhetorical devices to ethically transform readers, to stimulate and then to calm them. Reading the Mahavamsa advocates a new, literary approach to this text by revealing its embedded reading advice (to experience samvega and pasada) and affective work of metaphors (the Buddha's dharma as light) and salient characters (nagas). Kristin Scheible argues that the Mahavamsa requires a particular kind of reading. In the text's proem, special instructions draw readers to the metaphor of light and the nagas, or salient snake-beings, of the first chapter. Nagas are both model worshippers and unworthy hoarders of Buddha's relics. As nonhuman agents, they challenge political and historicist readings of the text. Scheible sees these slippery characters and the narrative's potent and playful metaphors as techniques for refocusing the reader's attention on the text's emotional aims. Her work explains the Mahavamsa's central motivational role in contemporary Sri Lankan Buddhist and nationalist circles. It also speaks broadly to strategies of reading religious texts and to the internal and external cues that give such works lives beyond the page. Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- A Note On Transliteration And Translation -- Introduction -- 1. Instructions, Admonitions, And Aspirations In Vamsa Proems -- 2. Relocating The Light -- 3. Nāgas, Transfigured Figures Inside The Text, Ruminative Triggers Outside -- 4. Nāgas And Relics -- 5. Historicizing (In) The Pāli Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index Kristin Scheible. Includes bibliographical references and index. In English. Mahānāma active 5th century Buddhist literature, Pali History and criticism Buddhist literature, Pali RELIGION / Comparative Religion BQ2607 .S35 2016 294.3/824 Scheible, Kristin. New York : Columbia University Press, 2016 (DLC) 2016002531 9780231542609 0231542607 2016038697 58350CB2-0DF8-417B-BFEA-A8A147D46030 OverDrive, Inc. 22573/ctt1h645xm JSTOR http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1821451 http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=1821451 DLC 160819 20200709060615.0 ocn957077739 eng