ABSTRACT
Introduction: dharma yuddhaya and its expressions As we noted in Chapter 2, according to the Mahavamsa, the omens attending the birth of Dutugemunu foretold that he was destined to be either a world conqueror or a world renouncer. Unlike the Buddha, however, whose life story is paradigmatic of other heroes in its embodiment of this contradiction or tension, Dutugemunu conquered his world through military prowess; the Buddha conquered delusion, hatred, and greed. As we shall see here, the idea of dharma yuddhaya (religious, or righteous, war), as actuality and as a metaphor, both deeply embedded in Sri Lankan discourse, reflects a similar tension in Sri Lankan Buddhism. And it is the sangha, the monastic community, that keeps alive the polysemic reading of dharma yuddhaya.
