The Buddhist Visnu: Religious Transformation, Politics, and Culture

John C. Holt

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Paper, 448 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13323-4
$34.00 / £23.50

December, 2004
Cloth, 448 pages,
ISBN: 978-0-231-13322-7
$105.00 / £72.50

Preface

Introduction: The Historical and Theoretical Problems

The "Hindu Buddha" and the "Buddhist Visnu"

"Unceasing Waves": Brahmanical and Hindu Influences on Medieval Sinhala Buddhist Culture in Sri Lanka

The Sandalwood Image: Upulvan Deviyo and the Origins of the Cult of Visnu in Sinhala Buddhist Sri Lanka

Transformed Deity: The "Buddhist Visnu" in Sinhala Literature and Liturgy

Introduction: The Cult of Visnu in Buddhist Sri Lanka

Seeking Protection: Cultic Life at the Udarata Visnu Devalayas

The Valiyaka Mangalya: The Curative Powers of the Mala Raja

Legacies of the "Buddhist Visnu": Myth and Cult at the Alutnuvara Devalaya

Minister of Defense? The Politics of Deification in Contemporary Sri Lanka

Conclusion

Related Subjects

• Religion

About the Author

John C. Holt is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of the Humanities in Religion and Asian Studies at Bowdoin College. He is the author of several books, including Buddha in the Crown: Avalokitesvara in the Buddhist Tradition of Sri Lanka, winner of an American Academy of Religion Book Award for Excellence, and The Religious World of Kirti Sri: Buddhism, Art and Politics in Late Medieval Sri Lanka, and is the editor of Constituting Communities: Theravada Buddhism and the Religious Cultures of South and Southeast Asia.

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