Portraits of Buddhist Women: Stories from the Saddharmaratnāvaliya

Ranjini Obeyesekere

sept 2001 · State University of New York Press

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A fascinating collection about Buddhist women translated from the thirteenth-century Sinhala Buddhist text, the Saddharmaratnāvaliya, these stories provide insights into the social status and roles of women in medieval India and Sri Lanka and the Buddhist doctrinal ideal. They also reflect the changes that took place as the Buddhist position on gender and female sexuality accommodated the social realities of the time. Translating, contextualizing, and commenting on the narratives, Ranjini Obeyesekere highlights the differences in perspective between the celibate monks who were the literary authors of the Saddharmaratnāvaliya and the social world of their audience.

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Ranjini Obeyesekere is Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at Princeton University. She is the author and editor of several books, including Sri Lankan Theater in a Time of Terror: Political Satire in a Permitted Space.