Robe and Plough: Monasticism and Economic Interest in Early Medieval Sri Lanka

The book is organized into ten chapters. The opening chapter examines the structure of the Saṅgha, including the three major nikāyas—Mahāvihāra, Abhayagiri, and Jetavana—and their institutional identities, doctrinal affiliations, monastic centers, and historical development. The next chapters study the Saṅgha and monastic property, the management of monastic estates, and the practical mechanisms through which monasteries acquired, administered, and benefited from land and other economic resources. Subsequent chapters analyze monastic life and relations with the laity, the relationship between the Saṅgha and the king, cults and ritual, and relations with foreign centers of Buddhism. The later sections focus on the structure of the Saṅgha in transition, especially the rise of the “Eight Fraternities,” followed by the new organization of the Saṅgha and the historical significance of its unification. The volume concludes with bibliography, chronological chart, index, and maps, including a map of Anuradhapura showing major monasteries. Overall, the work presents early medieval Sri Lankan Buddhism as an institutional field where religious discipline, royal power, agrarian economy, monastic property, ritual culture, and lay patronage were deeply interdependent.