Bretfeld, Sven
Das singhalesische Nationalepos von König Duṭṭhagāmaṇī Abhaya: Textkritische Bearbeitung und Übersetzung der Kapitel VII.3-VIII.3 der Rasavāhinī des Vedeha Thera und Vergleich mit den Paralleltexten Sahassavatthuppakaraṇa und Saddharmālaṅkāraya
An in-depth exploration of the authoritative "medieval" treatment of the material of the Sinhala national epic - in Pāli as the largest coherent collection of narratives in the Rasavāhinī of Vedeha and in Sinhala in the extended treatment of Dharmakīrti - is now presented for the first time in the present work by Sven Bretfeld. The significance of this material for South Asian studies goes far beyond the realm of pure textual analysis: at the center of this text is the conflict that has existed for more than two millennia between the Sinhalese and the Tamils who migrated from South India. It is precisely this conflict that, in a positive sense, led to the origin of historiography in the Indian cultural sphere, but in a negative sense led to today's civil war in Sri Lanka. Thus, with this text, made available here for the first time in a scholarly edition and translated for the first time, Sven Bretfeld has made a fundamental contribution both to traditional Indology and Buddhist studies and to a deeper understanding of the situation in Sri Lanka today.
