Polity Religious Tradition List
A viewset for viewing and editing Polity Religious Traditions.
GET /api/general/polity-religious-traditions/?format=api
{ "count": 168, "next": "https://seshat-db.com/api/general/polity-religious-traditions/?format=api&page=2", "previous": null, "results": [ { "id": 1, "polity": { "id": 84, "name": "es_spanish_emp_1", "long_name": "Spanish Empire I", "start_year": 1516, "end_year": 1715 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Christianity", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 2, "polity": { "id": 208, "name": "et_aksum_emp_1", "long_name": "Axum I", "start_year": -149, "end_year": 349 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "South Arabian Religions", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 3, "polity": null, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Christianity", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 4, "polity": { "id": 342, "name": "iq_babylonia_2", "long_name": "Kassite Babylonia", "start_year": -1595, "end_year": -1150 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Mesopotamian Religions", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 5, "polity": { "id": 481, "name": "iq_bazi_dyn", "long_name": "Bazi Dynasty", "start_year": -1005, "end_year": -986 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Mesopotamian Religions", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 6, "polity": { "id": 482, "name": "iq_dynasty_e", "long_name": "Dynasty of E", "start_year": -979, "end_year": -732 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Akkadian", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 7, "polity": { "id": 480, "name": "iq_isin_dynasty2", "long_name": "Second Dynasty of Isin", "start_year": -1153, "end_year": -1027 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Mesopotamian Religions", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 8, "polity": { "id": 478, "name": "iq_isin_larsa", "long_name": "Isin-Larsa", "start_year": -2004, "end_year": -1763 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Mesopotamian Religions", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 9, "polity": { "id": 346, "name": "iq_neo_babylonian_emp", "long_name": "Neo-Babylonian Empire", "start_year": -626, "end_year": -539 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Mesopotamian Religions", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 10, "polity": { "id": 528, "name": "mx_monte_alban_3_a", "long_name": "Monte Alban III", "start_year": 200, "end_year": 500 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Monte Albán Religion", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 11, "polity": { "id": 529, "name": "mx_monte_alban_3_b_4", "long_name": "Monte Alban IIIB and IV", "start_year": 500, "end_year": 900 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Monte Albán Religion", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 12, "polity": { "id": 78, "name": "pe_cuzco_2", "long_name": "Cuzco - Early Intermediate I", "start_year": 200, "end_year": 499 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 13, "polity": { "id": 79, "name": "pe_cuzco_3", "long_name": "Cuzco - Early Intermediate II", "start_year": 500, "end_year": 649 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 14, "polity": { "id": 81, "name": "pe_cuzco_5", "long_name": "Cuzco - Late Intermediate I", "start_year": 1000, "end_year": 1250 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 15, "polity": { "id": 82, "name": "pe_cuzco_6", "long_name": "Cuzco - Late Intermediate II", "start_year": 1250, "end_year": 1400 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 16, "polity": { "id": 77, "name": "pe_cuzco_1", "long_name": "Cuzco - Late Formative", "start_year": -500, "end_year": 200 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 17, "polity": { "id": 83, "name": "pe_inca_emp", "long_name": "Inca Empire", "start_year": 1375, "end_year": 1532 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Inca Religion", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 18, "polity": { "id": 80, "name": "pe_wari_emp", "long_name": "Wari Empire", "start_year": 650, "end_year": 999 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 19, "polity": { "id": 353, "name": "ye_himyar_1", "long_name": "Himyar I", "start_year": 270, "end_year": 340 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "South Arabian Religions", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 20, "polity": { "id": 354, "name": "ye_himyar_2", "long_name": "Himyar II", "start_year": 378, "end_year": 525 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Judaism", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 21, "polity": { "id": 541, "name": "ye_qasimid_dyn", "long_name": "Yemen - Qasimid Dynasty", "start_year": 1637, "end_year": 1805 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Sunni Islam", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 22, "polity": { "id": 539, "name": "ye_qatabanian_commonwealth", "long_name": "Qatabanian Commonwealth", "start_year": -450, "end_year": -111 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "South Arabian Religions", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 23, "polity": { "id": 538, "name": "ye_sabaean_commonwealth", "long_name": "Sabaean Commonwealth", "start_year": -800, "end_year": -451 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "South Arabian Religions", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 24, "polity": { "id": 540, "name": "ye_saba_k", "long_name": "Kingdom of Saba and Dhu Raydan", "start_year": -110, "end_year": 149 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "South Arabian Religions", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 25, "polity": { "id": 372, "name": "ye_tahirid_dyn", "long_name": "Yemen - Tahirid Dynasty", "start_year": 1454, "end_year": 1517 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Islam", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 26, "polity": { "id": 607, "name": "si_early_modern_interior", "long_name": "Early Modern Sierra Leone", "start_year": 1650, "end_year": 1896 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Sierra Leone Religion", "comment": null, "description": "“From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, Mande Muslim traders migrated to the Guinea-Sierra Leone hinterland seeking land and trade relations (Skinner 1978:34-35; cf. Triminghan and Fyfe 1960:36). They settled in villages along the trade routes of Sierra Leone, forming villages of their own where they combined cultivation with their trade. The Mande were accepted by the indigenes among whom they settled and with whom they intermarried (Triminghan and Fyfe 1960:36). [...] Another account of the infiltration of Islam into Sierra Leone recounts its expansion south from the Sudan through small groups of Fula and Mandingo traders in the eighteenth century (Fyle 1981:27; cf. Bah 1991:464). Upon arrival in any place, and during their temporary or permanent stay, the Fula and Mandingo opened schools to teach Arabic and the tenets of Islam (Alharazim 1939:14; cf. Parsons 1964:226; Bah 1991:464). Many of the people and their leaders rallied around these teachers, embraced the Muslim faith, and became the patrons of their teachers (1939:14). [...] In spite of this seemingly fruitful interaction between the Mandingo and the indigenes, these early Fula and Mandingo immigrants did not succeed in establishing Islam in Sierra Leone to any strong degree (1981:29).”§REF§(Conteh 2009: 92-93) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/SU25S5BX/items/WNZ725MA/item-list§REF§" }, { "id": 27, "polity": { "id": 608, "name": "gm_kaabu_emp", "long_name": "Kaabu", "start_year": 1500, "end_year": 1867 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Mande Religions", "comment": null, "description": "\"Ominously for Kaabu's Mandinka overlords, when the Frenchman Gaspard Mollien travelled through Futa Toro in 1818 he was informed of a \"sacred alliance\" of Muslims in Futa Toro, Bundu, and the Fula almamate in Futa Jallon to defeat \"pagans\" and compel them to submit to Islam.\"§REF§(Brooks 2007: 56) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/TT7FC2RX/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 28, "polity": { "id": 610, "name": "gu_futa_jallon", "long_name": "Futa Jallon", "start_year": 1725, "end_year": 1896 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Islam", "comment": null, "description": "\"Nineteenth-century European visitors were highly impressed by the extent of the Islamization, which was visible in the large number of mosques and schools at all levels, the degree of scholarship, the richness of the libraries, and the widespread practice of Islamic worship.\" §REF§(Barry 2005: 539) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/SU25S5BX/items/6TXWGHAX/item-list§REF§" }, { "id": 29, "polity": { "id": 617, "name": "bf_west_burkina_faso_red_2", "long_name": "West Burkina Faso Red II and III", "start_year": 1100, "end_year": 1400 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Voltaic Religions", "comment": null, "description": "\"The political power formerly residing at Mound 4 during Red I and Early Red II was largely disseminated within the community; however, their role as village founders who maintain the community's relations with the local and ancestral divinities, as well as their symbolic position as the external face of the village community, remained unchanged and was simply detached from the iron cult. The first nondomestic structures identified at Kirikongo are found from Red II and Red III on the peak of Mound 4. This multistory complex has formal similarities to a Bwa ancestor house, which today when associated with the founding house is a sacrificial shrine to the village ancestors, the meeting place for the village council, and maintained by the village headman. Given the presence of these ritual structures, cross-cutting communal activities, and a communally focused built environment, it is possible that an institution similar to the village Do was in existence.\"§REF§(Dueppen 2012: 31)§REF§" }, { "id": 30, "polity": { "id": 618, "name": "bf_west_burkina_faso_red_4", "long_name": "West Burkina Faso Red IV", "start_year": 1401, "end_year": 1500 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Voltaic Religions", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 31, "polity": { "id": 619, "name": "bf_west_burkina_faso_red_1", "long_name": "West Burkina Faso Red I", "start_year": 701, "end_year": 1100 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Voltaic Religions", "comment": null, "description": "\"At Kirikongo, increasing centralization is associated with a gradual co-option of iron metallurgy. Iron metallurgy as an avenue to inequality would provide an alternative spiritual power, derived from profound excavation and transformation in the realm of divinities (the earth). It is this power that today makes smiths held in high esteem and occasionally feared. The spiritual power of the Bwa smith is separate from the political process, but at Kirikongo the emergence of smith-elites at Mound 4 marks the possible combination of multiple spiritually derived sources of power, from those based upon their role as village founder (over nature and ancestry), to a new cult (iron) that may have been manipulated owing to its mysterious nature.\"§REF§(Dueppen 2012: 30)§REF§" }, { "id": 32, "polity": { "id": 620, "name": "bf_mossi_k_1", "long_name": "Mossi", "start_year": 1100, "end_year": 1897 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Mossi Religion", "comment": null, "description": "\"Ancestor veneration is at the core of Mossi religious behavior. The recent ancestors are notified, through sacrifices, of the important events in the lives of their descendants, and they are expected to aid in solving everyday problems. The ancestors also invoke their sanctions against antisocial behavior among their descendants. Once a year the Mossi people, in concert with the Moro Nabas, appeal to their individual and collective ancestors for good crops, large families, and for the preservation of the dynasty. Often associated with the ancestors as propitiatory agents are local deities called Tengkougas (sing. Tenkougre) or earth shrines, visibly manifested by clumps of trees, mountains, rocks, or rivers. [...] The earth itself, Tenga, is one of the principal deities of the Mossi. Tenga is considered the wife of a male deity called Winnam, Wind&, or Naba Zidiwind6. The true nature of Winnam is not clear. The Mossi say: “Winnam is the sun, and Winnam is God”; he is considered a sun god as well as a supreme deity. Winnam is venerated but he is not feared, because it is the dead ancestors who chastise evil-doers by afliction or death. When wicked people die they face the wrath of the ancestors in Keemsbtenga, or land of the ancestors.\"§REF§(Skinner 1958: 1103-1104) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXVG26H7/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 33, "polity": { "id": 622, "name": "bf_west_burkina_faso_yellow_6", "long_name": "West Burkina Faso Yellow II", "start_year": 501, "end_year": 700 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Voltaic Religions", "comment": null, "description": "\"The false huts that were set atop the burials may have served as altars for petitioning the village ancestors, as documented amongst Gourounsi villages in the early twentieth century (Tauxier 1912). The burials of individuals from other mounds may have been restricted to their respective residential areas, and lacked false huts. The mortuary program was likely a materialization of Mound 4's authority over a village community, and consequently over the village earth and ancestral shrines./\"Widespread among modern Voltaic societies is the belief that the well-being of a community is assured by the special relationship between a village founder and the local spirits. The demographic growth of a village represents success in this pact, as maintained by a series of sacrificial petitions, although the political role of the descendents of a village's founder varies according to society.\" §REF§(Dueppen 2012: 28)§REF§" }, { "id": 34, "polity": { "id": 624, "name": "zi_great_zimbabwe", "long_name": "Great Zimbabwe", "start_year": 1270, "end_year": 1550 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Mwari Religion", "comment": null, "description": "Ancestor worship combined with the worship of a supreme deity identified as the most likely form of worship practiced at Great Zimbabwe, based on the current traditions of the Shona-speaking Karanga. Their faith is built on a belief in supernatural beings, including a supreme being, “Mwari,”and ancestor spirits, who can be ritually communicated with, offered gifts, and supplicated to request that Mwari bring on rain. “Much of what we understand about the belief system at Great Zimbabwe comes from today’s Shona-speaking Karanga culture which inhabits the Great Zimbabwe area…. The Karanga believe in a range of supernatural beings, the most important of which are their ancestor spirits. Ancestors serve as guardians of the living, helping their descendants where possible, deflecting witchcraft and fending off evil intentions. Only those who were elderly at death, produced children, and who had lived honorable lives became ancestor spirits…. Ancestors are honored by gifts of millet, beer, and rituals. An area at the back of a Karanga house is dedicated to the ancestors…. One of the most important rituals involves rainmaking and takes place at the beginning of the rainy season…. An important task of the ancestors is to communicate with Mwari, the supreme god in Karanga religion, who is crucial to the bringing of rain…. As is the case among the Karanga today, recognition and propitiation of ancestor spirits at Great Zimbabwe seem to have been a central part of the belief system. The chief’s ancestors were of crucial importance, as they were in a very influential position to bring rain, wealth, fertility, and balance to the people…. Karanga oral tradition suggests that the Mwari cult began at Great Zimbabwe; the cave may have been used as a vehicle through which Mwari spoke to the people of the land.” §REF§ (Steadman 2009, 263-266) Sharon R. Steadman, The Archaeology of Religion: Cultures and Their Beliefs in Worldwide Context (London: Routledge, 2009). Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/N4R4GHNJ/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 35, "polity": { "id": 627, "name": "in_pandya_emp_3", "long_name": "Pandya Empire", "start_year": 1216, "end_year": 1323 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Hinduism", "comment": null, "description": "“The crowning achievement of the Śaivite saint Tiruñānasambandar, for example, is said to have been his conversion of a Pāṇḍya king from Jainism to Śaivism. […] Hence, such sacred books of the Tamils as the Dēvāram preserve, among other things, a kind of regional sacred geography of medieval Tamilnad. That such hymns helped to endow various temples with rich, sacred traditions undoubtedly helped to promote the growth of pilgrimage networks and the development of what might be called “regional consciousness” among the Tamils.” §REF§ (Spencer 1969, 48, 49) Spencer, George W. 1969. ‘Religious Networks and Royal Influence in Eleventh Century South India’. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. Vol 12: 1. Pp. 42-56. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/5XDG98BE/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 36, "polity": { "id": 627, "name": "in_pandya_emp_3", "long_name": "Pandya Empire", "start_year": 1216, "end_year": 1323 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Jainism", "comment": null, "description": "“The crowning achievement of the Śaivite saint Tiruñānasambandar, for example, is said to have been his conversion of a Pāṇḍya king from Jainism to Śaivism. […] Hence, such sacred books of the Tamils as the Dēvāram preserve, among other things, a kind of regional sacred geography of medieval Tamilnad. That such hymns helped to endow various temples with rich, sacred traditions undoubtedly helped to promote the growth of pilgrimage networks and the development of what might be called “regional consciousness” among the Tamils.” §REF§ (Spencer 1969, 48, 49) Spencer, George W. 1969. ‘Religious Networks and Royal Influence in Eleventh Century South India’. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient. Vol 12: 1. Pp. 42-56. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/5XDG98BE/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 37, "polity": { "id": 628, "name": "sl_dambadeniya", "long_name": "Dambadaneiya", "start_year": 1232, "end_year": 1293 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Buddhism", "comment": null, "description": "\"Dambadeniya rulers worked tirelessly for the development of Buddhism as the state religion.\"" }, { "id": 38, "polity": { "id": 629, "name": "sl_anuradhapura_4", "long_name": "Anurādhapura IV", "start_year": 614, "end_year": 1017 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Buddhism", "comment": null, "description": "Influence of Hinduism is inferred from the following quotes. “Anuradhapura (377 BCE–1017 CE) was the first Buddhist city in Sri Lanka.” §REF§ (De Silva 2019, 163) De Silva, Wasana. 2019. ‘Urban agriculture and Buddhist concepts for wellbeing: Anuradhapura Sacred City, Sri Lanka’. International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics. Vol 14: 3. Pp 163-177. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/JIJEFKG3/collection §REF§ “it is very likely that the early Aryans brough with them some form of Brāhmanism. By the first century BC, however Buddhism had been introduced to the island, and was well established in the main areas of settlement. According to Mahāvaṁsa the entry of Buddhism to Sri Lanka occurred in the reign of Devānampiya Tissa (250-210 BC), a contemporary of the great Mauryan Emperor Aśoka whose emissary Mahinda (Aśoka’s son, as some authorities would have it, or his brother, as is suggested by others) converted Devānampiya Tissa to the new faith. Once again the Mahāvaṁsa’s account of events conceals as much as it reveals, and what it hides in this instance is the probability that Buddhists and Buddhism came to the island much earlier than that.” §REF§ (De Silva, 1981, 9) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection §REF§“ “It was in the later centuries of the Anurādhapura kingdom that the Hindu influence on Buddhism became more pronounced as a necessary result of political and religious change in South India. The early years of the Christian era saw Buddhism strongly entrenched in South India, and Nāgārjunikoṇḍa (in Andhra) and Kāñchī were famous Buddhist centres there. Close links were established between these South Indian Buddhist centres and Sri Lanka. There was a Sri Lanka vihara at Nāgārjunikoṇḍa, and the introduction and establishment of the new heterodox Buddhist sects of Sri Lanka was the work primarily of visiting ecclesiastics from India or Sri Lankan students of famous Indian theologians. After the sixth century all that remained of South Indian Buddhism, inundated by the rising tide of an aggressive Hindu revivalism, were a few isolated pockets in Orissa, for example, maintaining a stubborn but nonetheless precarious existence. There was no recovery from that onslaught. The intrusive pressures of South Indian kingdoms on the politics of Sri Lanka carried with them also the religious impact of a more self-confident Hinduism. All this was especially powerful after the Cōla invasions and Cōla rule. There was, for instance, the influence of Hindu ritual and modes of worship; faith in the magical effect of incantations, a great Vedic phenomenon, and more importantly in bhakti (devotion as a means of salvation), which was an important part of Hinduism from about the seventh century AD, strengthened the shift from the ethical to the devotional aspects of Buddhism initiated by Mahāyānism. Hindu shrines came to be located close to vihāras. The assimilation of Hindu practices in Buddhism, of which this was evidence, was reinforced by the gradual accommodation in Buddhist mythology of Hindu deities such as Upuluvan, Saman and Nātha. This latter occurred by the tenth century.” §REF§ (De Silva 1981, 50-51) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection §REF§ “Thus Sri Lanka’s Theravāda Buddhism accommodated a variety of religious influences—pre-Buddhistic cults and practices, Mahāyānism, Tantric Buddhism and Hinduism—but was not overwhelmed by any or all of them.” §REF§ (De Silva 1981, 51) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection §REF§ “The closest and most intimate ties were with the Buddhist kingdoms of South-East Asia, especially with lands where the prevalent form of Buddhism was Theravādin. Thus there were frequent exchanged of pilgrims and scriptural knowledge with Rāmaṇṇa in Burma. These links became stronger after the tenth century. The resuscitation of the Sinhalese saṅgha after the destructive effects of the Cōḷa conquests owed a great deal to bhikkhus from upper Burma sent over for this purpose by its king at the request of Vijayabāhu I (1055–1110).” §REF§ (De Silva 1981, 51) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection §REF§ “Around 1000 CE, the future of Buddhism in Sri Lanka came into danger as well, as the South Indian Cōḻas under the kings Rājarāja and Rājendra set out to not only conquer the island and its capital Anurādhapura, but also made it a province of the Cōḻa Empire for most of the eleventh century. Despite being separated from the mainland, the Anurādhapura kingdom had always been part of the political structure of South India and had experienced invasions from the mainland on several occasions. The latest Cōḻa conquest was a particular disaster, as it first resulted in the plunder and destruction of the capital and then the integration of the island into the Cōḻa empire, with Poḷonnaruva becoming the capital of the new province. More importantly, the destruction and plundering of the capital terminated the hitherto uninterrupted lineage of the Mahāvihāra. Never again mentioned in the chronicles, it continued to exist only as a notion, while relics (and especially the Tooth Relic) took the monastery’s place as a central religious site. The relics were salvaged by monks, who had managed to escape to Rohana, the island’s southern region. It also was in Rohana that a resistance movement formed under Vijaya Bāhu I, which eventually succeeded to restore the former Sinhala kingdom in the north and push the Cōḻas back to India. But before this, by the mid-eleventh century, Theravāda Buddhism seemed set to become extinguished on the island.” §REF§ (Frasch 2017, 70) Frasch, Tilman. 2017. ‘A Palii cosmopolis? Sri Lanka and the Theravada Buddhist ecumene, c. 500–1500’. Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History. London: UCL Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/JQMKSIWF/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 39, "polity": { "id": 629, "name": "sl_anuradhapura_4", "long_name": "Anurādhapura IV", "start_year": 614, "end_year": 1017 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Hinduism", "comment": null, "description": "Influence of Hinduism is inferred from the following quotes. “Anuradhapura (377 BCE–1017 CE) was the first Buddhist city in Sri Lanka.” §REF§ (De Silva 2019, 163) De Silva, Wasana. 2019. ‘Urban agriculture and Buddhist concepts for wellbeing: Anuradhapura Sacred City, Sri Lanka’. International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics. Vol 14: 3. Pp 163-177. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/JIJEFKG3/collection §REF§ “it is very likely that the early Aryans brough with them some form of Brāhmanism. By the first century BC, however Buddhism had been introduced to the island, and was well established in the main areas of settlement. According to Mahāvaṁsa the entry of Buddhism to Sri Lanka occurred in the reign of Devānampiya Tissa (250-210 BC), a contemporary of the great Mauryan Emperor Aśoka whose emissary Mahinda (Aśoka’s son, as some authorities would have it, or his brother, as is suggested by others) converted Devānampiya Tissa to the new faith. Once again the Mahāvaṁsa’s account of events conceals as much as it reveals, and what it hides in this instance is the probability that Buddhists and Buddhism came to the island much earlier than that.” §REF§ (De Silva, 1981, 9) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection §REF§“ “It was in the later centuries of the Anurādhapura kingdom that the Hindu influence on Buddhism became more pronounced as a necessary result of political and religious change in South India. The early years of the Christian era saw Buddhism strongly entrenched in South India, and Nāgārjunikoṇḍa (in Andhra) and Kāñchī were famous Buddhist centres there. Close links were established between these South Indian Buddhist centres and Sri Lanka. There was a Sri Lanka vihara at Nāgārjunikoṇḍa, and the introduction and establishment of the new heterodox Buddhist sects of Sri Lanka was the work primarily of visiting ecclesiastics from India or Sri Lankan students of famous Indian theologians. After the sixth century all that remained of South Indian Buddhism, inundated by the rising tide of an aggressive Hindu revivalism, were a few isolated pockets in Orissa, for example, maintaining a stubborn but nonetheless precarious existence. There was no recovery from that onslaught. The intrusive pressures of South Indian kingdoms on the politics of Sri Lanka carried with them also the religious impact of a more self-confident Hinduism. All this was especially powerful after the Cōla invasions and Cōla rule. There was, for instance, the influence of Hindu ritual and modes of worship; faith in the magical effect of incantations, a great Vedic phenomenon, and more importantly in bhakti (devotion as a means of salvation), which was an important part of Hinduism from about the seventh century AD, strengthened the shift from the ethical to the devotional aspects of Buddhism initiated by Mahāyānism. Hindu shrines came to be located close to vihāras. The assimilation of Hindu practices in Buddhism, of which this was evidence, was reinforced by the gradual accommodation in Buddhist mythology of Hindu deities such as Upuluvan, Saman and Nātha. This latter occurred by the tenth century.” §REF§ (De Silva 1981, 50-51) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection §REF§ “Thus Sri Lanka’s Theravāda Buddhism accommodated a variety of religious influences—pre-Buddhistic cults and practices, Mahāyānism, Tantric Buddhism and Hinduism—but was not overwhelmed by any or all of them.” §REF§ (De Silva 1981, 51) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection §REF§ “The closest and most intimate ties were with the Buddhist kingdoms of South-East Asia, especially with lands where the prevalent form of Buddhism was Theravādin. Thus there were frequent exchanged of pilgrims and scriptural knowledge with Rāmaṇṇa in Burma. These links became stronger after the tenth century. The resuscitation of the Sinhalese saṅgha after the destructive effects of the Cōḷa conquests owed a great deal to bhikkhus from upper Burma sent over for this purpose by its king at the request of Vijayabāhu I (1055–1110).” §REF§ (De Silva 1981, 51) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection §REF§ “Around 1000 CE, the future of Buddhism in Sri Lanka came into danger as well, as the South Indian Cōḻas under the kings Rājarāja and Rājendra set out to not only conquer the island and its capital Anurādhapura, but also made it a province of the Cōḻa Empire for most of the eleventh century. Despite being separated from the mainland, the Anurādhapura kingdom had always been part of the political structure of South India and had experienced invasions from the mainland on several occasions. The latest Cōḻa conquest was a particular disaster, as it first resulted in the plunder and destruction of the capital and then the integration of the island into the Cōḻa empire, with Poḷonnaruva becoming the capital of the new province. More importantly, the destruction and plundering of the capital terminated the hitherto uninterrupted lineage of the Mahāvihāra. Never again mentioned in the chronicles, it continued to exist only as a notion, while relics (and especially the Tooth Relic) took the monastery’s place as a central religious site. The relics were salvaged by monks, who had managed to escape to Rohana, the island’s southern region. It also was in Rohana that a resistance movement formed under Vijaya Bāhu I, which eventually succeeded to restore the former Sinhala kingdom in the north and push the Cōḻas back to India. But before this, by the mid-eleventh century, Theravāda Buddhism seemed set to become extinguished on the island.” §REF§ (Frasch 2017, 70) Frasch, Tilman. 2017. ‘A Palii cosmopolis? Sri Lanka and the Theravada Buddhist ecumene, c. 500–1500’. Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History. London: UCL Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/JQMKSIWF/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 40, "polity": { "id": 630, "name": "sl_polonnaruva", "long_name": "Polonnaruwa", "start_year": 1070, "end_year": 1255 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Buddhism", "comment": null, "description": "“As stated above, the transfer of the capital to Polonnaruva has been portrayed as connected with a religious shift towards a more pluralistic and eclectic patronage at state-level, incorporating Buddhist, Brahmanical and Saivite practices. Indrapala has suggested that in tandem with the widespread appearance of tenth-century Tamil inscriptions dated to the regal years of Cōḻa rulers, there was also an increase in Saiva temples. In the chronicles, it is also stated that Parākramabāhu I (r. 1153–86 CE) constructed twenty-four temples to the gods, and Pathmanathan has recorded the presence of at least fourteen temples within Polonnaruva. In support of this plurality, archaeological investigations at Polonnaruva have identified Saiva and Vaisnava shrines with bronze Nataraja, Śiva and Parvati images. A twelfth-century inscription of Niśśaṅkamalla (r. 1187–96 CE) at Dambulla recorded the construction of a Hindu temple as well as the restoration and construction of Buddhist temples. In Anurādhapura itself, structures north of Abhayagiri dating to the later phases of the city’s occupation were identified as ‘Hindu ruins’ on the basis of their architectural layout and the recovery of several lingams, although this identification has been contested. §REF§ Coningham et al. 2017, 37) Coningham et al. 2017. ‘Archaeology and cosmopolitanism in early historic and medieval Sri Lanka.’ Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History. Edited by Zoltán Biedermann and Alan Strathern. London: UCL Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/DCQMW8E3/collection §REF§ “The patronage and protection afforded by ‘non-Buddhists’ is further reinforced by a Tamil inscription on a stone slab beside the Tooth Relic Temple in Polonnaruva. Known as the Aṭadāgē, this structure was built under the patronage of Vijayabāhu I (r. 1055–1110 CE) and the epigraph instructs guards from South India, Vēlaikkāras, to protect the Buddha’s Tooth Relic within (Figure 1.1). Part of a long tradition of ‘Sinhala’ states employing South Indian guards, the Vēlaikkāras are stated to be adherents of the Mahātantra, and this further highlights the diversity and complexity of identity, religiosity and the construction of royal legitimacy within medieval Sri Lanka. All these complexities are crucial for the consideration of evidence for potential signs of cosmopolitan practices in the archaeological record.” §REF§ Coningham et al. 2017, 25-26) Coningham et al. 2017. ‘Archaeology and cosmopolitanism in early historic and medieval Sri Lanka.’ Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History. Edited by Zoltán Biedermann and Alan Strathern. London: UCL Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/DCQMW8E3/collection §REF§ “The inevitable result of the Cōḷa conquest was the Hindu-Brāhmanical and Saiva religious practices, Dravidian art and architecture, and the Tamil language itself became overwhelmingly powerful in their intrusive impact on the religion and culture of Sri Lanka. The period of the South Indian invasions of the Anurādhapura kingdom in the ninth and tenth centuries coincided with the decline of Buddhism in India and the collapse of important centres of Buddhist learning as a result of Muslim invasions. These processes proved to be irreversible. South Indian influence on Sri Lanka thereafter became exclusively Hindu in content. It is against this background that the recovery of Buddhism under the Polonnaruva kings needs to be reviewed. The most substantial contributions came from Vijayabāhu I and Parākramabāhu I. The unification of the saṅgha in the latter’s reign was one of the most significant events in the history of Sinhalese Buddhism […] The resuscitatory zeal of these two monarchs in particular demonstrated afresh the remarkable resilience of Sri Lankan Buddhism. Sinhalese bhikkhus maintained contacts with distant centres of Buddhism like Nepal and Tibet; they also made vigorous but unsuccessful attempts to spread their teachings in Bengal, apart from engaging in spirited disputes with their Theravādin colleagues in South India on questions relating to the interpretation of the canon. It was South-East Asia, however, that was most receptive to their teachings, and the expansion of Sinhalese Theravāda Buddhism in that region was an important trend in this cultural history during this period.” §REF§ (De Silva 1981, 73-74) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 41, "polity": { "id": 630, "name": "sl_polonnaruva", "long_name": "Polonnaruwa", "start_year": 1070, "end_year": 1255 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Hinduism", "comment": null, "description": "“As stated above, the transfer of the capital to Polonnaruva has been portrayed as connected with a religious shift towards a more pluralistic and eclectic patronage at state-level, incorporating Buddhist, Brahmanical and Saivite practices. Indrapala has suggested that in tandem with the widespread appearance of tenth-century Tamil inscriptions dated to the regal years of Cōḻa rulers, there was also an increase in Saiva temples. In the chronicles, it is also stated that Parākramabāhu I (r. 1153–86 CE) constructed twenty-four temples to the gods, and Pathmanathan has recorded the presence of at least fourteen temples within Polonnaruva. In support of this plurality, archaeological investigations at Polonnaruva have identified Saiva and Vaisnava shrines with bronze Nataraja, Śiva and Parvati images. A twelfth-century inscription of Niśśaṅkamalla (r. 1187–96 CE) at Dambulla recorded the construction of a Hindu temple as well as the restoration and construction of Buddhist temples. In Anurādhapura itself, structures north of Abhayagiri dating to the later phases of the city’s occupation were identified as ‘Hindu ruins’ on the basis of their architectural layout and the recovery of several lingams, although this identification has been contested. §REF§ Coningham et al. 2017, 37) Coningham et al. 2017. ‘Archaeology and cosmopolitanism in early historic and medieval Sri Lanka.’ Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History. Edited by Zoltán Biedermann and Alan Strathern. London: UCL Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/DCQMW8E3/collection §REF§ “The patronage and protection afforded by ‘non-Buddhists’ is further reinforced by a Tamil inscription on a stone slab beside the Tooth Relic Temple in Polonnaruva. Known as the Aṭadāgē, this structure was built under the patronage of Vijayabāhu I (r. 1055–1110 CE) and the epigraph instructs guards from South India, Vēlaikkāras, to protect the Buddha’s Tooth Relic within (Figure 1.1). Part of a long tradition of ‘Sinhala’ states employing South Indian guards, the Vēlaikkāras are stated to be adherents of the Mahātantra, and this further highlights the diversity and complexity of identity, religiosity and the construction of royal legitimacy within medieval Sri Lanka. All these complexities are crucial for the consideration of evidence for potential signs of cosmopolitan practices in the archaeological record.” §REF§ Coningham et al. 2017, 25-26) Coningham et al. 2017. ‘Archaeology and cosmopolitanism in early historic and medieval Sri Lanka.’ Sri Lanka at the Crossroads of History. Edited by Zoltán Biedermann and Alan Strathern. London: UCL Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/DCQMW8E3/collection §REF§ “The inevitable result of the Cōḷa conquest was the Hindu-Brāhmanical and Saiva religious practices, Dravidian art and architecture, and the Tamil language itself became overwhelmingly powerful in their intrusive impact on the religion and culture of Sri Lanka. The period of the South Indian invasions of the Anurādhapura kingdom in the ninth and tenth centuries coincided with the decline of Buddhism in India and the collapse of important centres of Buddhist learning as a result of Muslim invasions. These processes proved to be irreversible. South Indian influence on Sri Lanka thereafter became exclusively Hindu in content. It is against this background that the recovery of Buddhism under the Polonnaruva kings needs to be reviewed. The most substantial contributions came from Vijayabāhu I and Parākramabāhu I. The unification of the saṅgha in the latter’s reign was one of the most significant events in the history of Sinhalese Buddhism […] The resuscitatory zeal of these two monarchs in particular demonstrated afresh the remarkable resilience of Sri Lankan Buddhism. Sinhalese bhikkhus maintained contacts with distant centres of Buddhism like Nepal and Tibet; they also made vigorous but unsuccessful attempts to spread their teachings in Bengal, apart from engaging in spirited disputes with their Theravādin colleagues in South India on questions relating to the interpretation of the canon. It was South-East Asia, however, that was most receptive to their teachings, and the expansion of Sinhalese Theravāda Buddhism in that region was an important trend in this cultural history during this period.” §REF§ (De Silva 1981, 73-74) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 42, "polity": { "id": 631, "name": "sl_anuradhapura_3", "long_name": "Anurādhapura III", "start_year": 428, "end_year": 614 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Buddhism", "comment": null, "description": "Influence of Hinduism in later centuries is inferred in the following quotes. “Anuradhapura (377 BCE–1017 CE) was the first Buddhist city in Sri Lanka.” §REF§ (De Silva 2019, 163) De Silva, Wasana. 2019. ‘Urban agriculture and Buddhist concepts for wellbeing: Anuradhapura Sacred City, Sri Lanka’. International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics. Vol 14: 3. Pp 163-177. Sheshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/JIJEFKG3/collection §REF§ “[I]t is very likely that the early Aryans brough with them some form of Brāhmanism. By the first century BC, however Buddhism had been introduced to the island, and was well established in the main areas of settlement. According to Mahāvaṁsa the entry of Buddhism to Sri Lanka occurred in the reign of Devānampiya Tissa (250-210 BC), a contemporary of the great Mauryan Emperor Aśoka whose emissary Mahinda (Aśoka’s son, as some authorities would have it, or his brother, as is suggested by others) converted Devānampiya Tissa to the new faith. Once again the Mahāvaṁsa’s account of events conceals as much as it reveals, and what it hides in this instance is the probability that Buddhists and Buddhism came to the island much earlier than that. [...] Although the spread of Buddhism in the island was at the expense of Hinduism, the latter never became totally submerged, but survived and had an influence on Buddhism which became more marked with the passage of time. Vedic deities, pre-Buddhistic in origin in Sri Lanka, held their sway among the people, and kings who patronised the official religion, Buddhism, supported Hindu temples and observed Brāhmanic practices as well. Hinduism was sustained also by small groups of Brāhmans living among the people and at the court. It was in later centuries of the Anurādhapura kingdom that the Hindu influence on Buddhism became more pronounced as a necessary result of political and religious change in South India. The early years of the Christian era saw Buddhism strongly entrenched in South India, and Nāgārjunikoṇḍa (in Andhra) and Kāñchī were famous Buddhist centres there. Close links were established between these South Indian Buddhist centres and Sri Lanka. There was a Sri Lanka vihara at Nāgārjunikoṇḍa, and the introduction and establishment of the new heterodox Buddhist sects of Sri Lanka was the work primarily of visiting ecclesiastics from India or Sri Lankan students of famous Indian theologians. After the sixth century all that remained of South Indian Buddhism, inundated by the rising tide of an aggressive Hindu revivalism, were a few isolated pockets in Orissa, for example, maintaining a stubborn but nonetheless precarious existence. There was no recovery from that onslaught. The intrusive pressures of South Indian kingdoms on the politics of Sri Lanka carried with them also the religious impact of a more self-confident Hinduism. All this was especially powerful after the Cōla invasions and Cōla rule.” §REF§ (De Silva 1981, 9, 50). De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 43, "polity": { "id": 631, "name": "sl_anuradhapura_3", "long_name": "Anurādhapura III", "start_year": 428, "end_year": 614 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Hinduism", "comment": null, "description": "Influence of Hinduism in later centuries is inferred in the following quotes. “Anuradhapura (377 BCE–1017 CE) was the first Buddhist city in Sri Lanka.” §REF§ (De Silva 2019, 163) De Silva, Wasana. 2019. ‘Urban agriculture and Buddhist concepts for wellbeing: Anuradhapura Sacred City, Sri Lanka’. International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics. Vol 14: 3. Pp 163-177. Sheshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/JIJEFKG3/collection §REF§ “[I]t is very likely that the early Aryans brough with them some form of Brāhmanism. By the first century BC, however Buddhism had been introduced to the island, and was well established in the main areas of settlement. According to Mahāvaṁsa the entry of Buddhism to Sri Lanka occurred in the reign of Devānampiya Tissa (250-210 BC), a contemporary of the great Mauryan Emperor Aśoka whose emissary Mahinda (Aśoka’s son, as some authorities would have it, or his brother, as is suggested by others) converted Devānampiya Tissa to the new faith. Once again the Mahāvaṁsa’s account of events conceals as much as it reveals, and what it hides in this instance is the probability that Buddhists and Buddhism came to the island much earlier than that. [...] Although the spread of Buddhism in the island was at the expense of Hinduism, the latter never became totally submerged, but survived and had an influence on Buddhism which became more marked with the passage of time. Vedic deities, pre-Buddhistic in origin in Sri Lanka, held their sway among the people, and kings who patronised the official religion, Buddhism, supported Hindu temples and observed Brāhmanic practices as well. Hinduism was sustained also by small groups of Brāhmans living among the people and at the court. It was in later centuries of the Anurādhapura kingdom that the Hindu influence on Buddhism became more pronounced as a necessary result of political and religious change in South India. The early years of the Christian era saw Buddhism strongly entrenched in South India, and Nāgārjunikoṇḍa (in Andhra) and Kāñchī were famous Buddhist centres there. Close links were established between these South Indian Buddhist centres and Sri Lanka. There was a Sri Lanka vihara at Nāgārjunikoṇḍa, and the introduction and establishment of the new heterodox Buddhist sects of Sri Lanka was the work primarily of visiting ecclesiastics from India or Sri Lankan students of famous Indian theologians. After the sixth century all that remained of South Indian Buddhism, inundated by the rising tide of an aggressive Hindu revivalism, were a few isolated pockets in Orissa, for example, maintaining a stubborn but nonetheless precarious existence. There was no recovery from that onslaught. The intrusive pressures of South Indian kingdoms on the politics of Sri Lanka carried with them also the religious impact of a more self-confident Hinduism. All this was especially powerful after the Cōla invasions and Cōla rule.” §REF§ (De Silva 1981, 9, 50). De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 44, "polity": { "id": 632, "name": "nl_dutch_emp_1", "long_name": "Dutch Empire", "start_year": 1648, "end_year": 1795 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Christianity", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 45, "polity": { "id": 633, "name": "sl_anuradhapura_1", "long_name": "Anurādhapura I", "start_year": -300, "end_year": 70 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Buddhism", "comment": null, "description": "“Anuradhapura (377 BCE–1017 CE) was the first Buddhist city in Sri Lanka.” §REF§ (De Silva 2019, 163) De Silva, Wasana. 2019. ‘Urban agriculture and Buddhist concepts for wellbeing: Anuradhapura Sacred City, Sri Lanka’. International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics. Vol 14: 3. Pp 163-177. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/JIJEFKG3/collection §REF§ “it is very likely that the early Aryans brought with them some form of Brāhmanism. By the first century BC, however Buddhism had been introduced to the island, and was well established in the main areas of settlement. According to Mahāvaṁsa the entry of Buddhism to Sri Lanka occurred in the reign of Devānampiya Tissa (250-210 BC), a contemporary of the great Mauryan Emperor Aśoka whose emissary Mahinda (Aśoka’s son, as some authorities would have it, or his brother, as is suggested by others) converted Devānampiya Tissa to the new faith. Once again the Mahāvaṁsa’s account of events conceals as much as it reveals, and what it hides in this instance is the probability that Buddhists and Buddhism came to the island much earlier than that. […] Although the spread of Buddhism in the island was at the expense of Hinduism, the latter never became totally submerged, but survived and had an influence on Buddhism which became more marked with the passage of time. Vedic deities, pre-Buddhistic in origin in Sri Lanka, held their sway among the people, and kings who patronised the official religion, Buddhism, supported Hindu temples and observed Brāhmanic practices as well. Hinduism was sustained also by small groups of Brāhmans living among the people and at the court. It was in later centuries of the Anurādhapura kingdom that the Hindu influence on Buddhism became more pronounced as a necessary result of political and religious change in South India.” §REF§ (De Silva 1981, 9, 50). De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 46, "polity": { "id": 634, "name": "sl_jaffa_k", "long_name": "Jaffna", "start_year": 1310, "end_year": 1591 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Hinduism", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 47, "polity": { "id": 634, "name": "sl_jaffa_k", "long_name": "Jaffna", "start_year": 1310, "end_year": 1591 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Buddhism", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 48, "polity": { "id": 635, "name": "sl_anuradhapura_2", "long_name": "Anurādhapura II", "start_year": 70, "end_year": 428 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Buddhism", "comment": null, "description": "“Anuradhapura (377 BCE–1017 CE) was the first Buddhist city in Sri Lanka.” §REF§ (De Silva 2019, 163) De Silva, Wasana. 2019. ‘Urban agriculture and Buddhist concepts for wellbeing: Anuradhapura Sacred City, Sri Lanka’. International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics. Vol 14: 3. Pp 163-177. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/JIJEFKG3/collection §REF§ “it is very likely that the early Aryans brough with them some form of Brāhmanism. By the first century BC, however Buddhism had been introduced to the island, and was well established in the main areas of settlement. According to Mahāvaṁsa the entry of Buddhism to Sri Lanka occurred in the reign of Devānampiya Tissa (250-210 BC), a contemporary of the great Mauryan Emperor Aśoka whose emissary Mahinda (Aśoka’s son, as some authorities would have it, or his brother, as is suggested by others) converted Devānampiya Tissa to the new faith. Once again the Mahāvaṁsa’s account of events conceals as much as it reveals, and what it hides in this instance is the probability that Buddhists and Buddhism came to the island much earlier than that.” §REF§ (De Silva, 1981, 9) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection §REF§“Although the spread of Buddhism in the island was at the expense of Hinduism, the latter never became totally submerged, but survived and had an influence on Buddhism which became more marked with the passage of time. Vedic deities, pre-Buddhistic in origin in Sri Lanka, held their sway among the people, and kings who patronised the official religion, Buddhism, supported Hindu temples and observed Brāhmanic practices as well. Hinduism was sustained also by small groups of Brāhmans living among the people and at the court. It was in later centuries of the Anurādhapura kingdom that the Hindu influence on Buddhism became more pronounced as a necessary result of political and religious change in South India.” §REF§ (De Silva 1981, 50). De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 49, "polity": { "id": 637, "name": "so_adal_sultanate", "long_name": "Adal Sultanate", "start_year": 1375, "end_year": 1543 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Islam", "comment": null, "description": "“The Adalite imams played a significant role in the spread of Islam in East Africa.” §REF§ (Mukhtar 2016, Encyclopedia of Empire) Mukhtar, Mohamed H. 2016. ‘Adal Sultanate.’ In J. Mackenzie Encyclopedia of Empire. Wiley. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/FM8D55XW/library §REF§" }, { "id": 50, "polity": { "id": 638, "name": "so_tunni_sultanate", "long_name": "Tunni Sultanate", "start_year": 800, "end_year": 1200 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Polity_religious_tradition", "religious_tradition": "Islam", "comment": null, "description": "“However they did accept the first Muslim migrants, the Hatimi from Yemen and the Amawi from Sham (Syria), around the 10th century, for both religious and commercial reasons. The town prospered and became one of the major Islamic centers in the Horn, the Barawaani Ulama, attracted students from all over the region. Muslim scholars of the time, such as al-Idrisi, wrote about Barawa as ‘an Arabic ‘Islamic’ island on the Somali coast.’” §REF§ (Mukhtar 2003, 50) Mukhtar, Mohamed H. 2003. Historical Dictionary of Somalia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/J8WZB6VI/collection §REF§" } ] }