Bruno Shirley, "Religion, Gender, and Politics in Medieval Sri Lanka: The Reconstruction of Buddhist Kingship, ca. 1070-1215" (ARC Humanities Press, 2026)

Dr. Shirley's monograph, Religion, Gender, and Politics in Medieval Sri Lanka: The Reconstruction of Buddhist Kingship, ca. 1070-1215 (ARC Humanities Press, 2026), is now available open access, thanks to the generous support of the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation. This book offers a radical

reconsideration of the Poḷon-naruva period, long understood to be a

turning point in the history of Theravāda Buddhism. Histories of this

period have been overwhelmingly based on a series of literary accounts

written long after the fact. But by drawing on textual, inscriptional,

numismatic, and material evidence from within the period itself, the

book reveals how the intellectual and social histories of Buddhism,

politics, and gender were inextricably intertwined in Poḷon-naruva. In

particular, it argues that debates over what it meant to be a “good

Buddhist king” were intrinsically debates about Buddhist masculinity and

about the proper relationship of gender to power.

Link to purchase/download the book here.