Economic Situation of Contemporary Society as Reflected in Sri Lankan Stories of Saddharmalankaraya (Based on Five Selected Stories)

Abstract

Saddharmalankara, believed to have been written by Rev. Sri Jayabahu Dharmakirti, belongs to the Gampola period of literature, which has associated the Pali Rasavahini. The author mentions that the purpose of writing Saddharmalankara is to make people who do not know that language to read Sri Saddharma which was in Pali and to develop their faith and intelligence. The content of Saddharmalankara consists of 28 categories and 150 stories. The stories included here can be divided into two main parts: Jambudvipotpanna stories and Lankadvipotpanna stories. Jambudvipotpanna stories contain stories originated in Dambadiva, and Lankadvipotpanna stories contain stories related to different environments and regions of Sri Lanka. The objective of this research paper is to provide an analytical commentary on the economic situation of contemporary society as revealed in the Sri Lankan stories of Saddharmalankara. Many of the old classics were based on events and characters that happened in Jambudvipa. There are only a few books written about experiences and environment related to Sri Lanka. Among them, Saddharmalankara holds a special place. Its Sri Lankan stories provide great support to know the behaviour patterns, life experiences, economic situation, political situation etc. of people who lived in contemporary society. The research problem here is the lack of studies on the economic information of contemporary society, as reflected by the stories of Saddharmalankara. For this purpose, correlation analysis was chosen as the research methodology. Accordingly, the data related to the economic information of contemporary society obtained by referring to the book Saddharmalankaraya and the books and documents written by various scholars about it will be subjected to analysis. Saddharmalankara includes more than sixty stories of Lankan origin. From that, Shraddha Sumana story of Bodhiraja category, Uttaroliya story of Arannaka category, Nakula story of Saliraja category, Thambasumana story of Thambasumana category and Nandivanija story of Sanghadatta category were based for research. The expected results of this research are the analytical information presented about the economic situation of the people in contemporary society, the economic situation of the country, the nature of trade, the condition of transportation, highways, and other infrastructure.