An Examination of Sinhalese Monastic literary and Linguistic discourse in the 19th and 20th Century in Sri Lanka

The background of this study is two historical periods—the colonial and postcolonial eras in Sri Lanka, with special attention to the latter part of the 19th century and selected personalities of the 20th century. The objective here is to examine the Sinhalese monastic literary and Linguistic discourse with Max Weber’s theory of cultural consciousness, originally developed through his examination of the rise of capitalism in Europe and its relationship to religious traditions. Weber’s central argument—that the cultural values and worldview of a community are reflected in its social, intellectual, and economic activities—provides the theoretical foundation for this inquiry. In this study, Weber’s methodology is applied to examine the works of Buddhist monks who contributed to Sinhalese literary and linguistic scholarship. The finding advanced here is that cultural consciousness played a pivotal role in shaping the perspectives, priorities, and scholarly contributions of Buddhist monks in the Sinhalese literary tradition throughout these two key periods.