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Dhammawasa

M.A. Upulvehere Dhammawasa

PhD student at the Doctoral Program in Buddhist Studies

Responsibilities

"Interpreting the Pāli Vinaya between the 1st Century BCE and the 4th Century CE: Views of the Elders Mahāpaduma and Mahāsumma as Reflected in the Samantapāsādikā"

Ven. Upulvehere Dhammawasa earned his Bachelor's degree in Pali language from the Department of Pali and Buddhist Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Peradeniya, Sri lanka (2015). He earned his Master's degree in Buddhist Studies from the Centre of Buddhist Studies within the Faculty of Arts, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (2023).

His doctoral thesis focused on the views of the Elders Mahāpaduma and Mahāsumma. The Elder Mahāpaduma and the Elder Mahāsumma are two important legal experts believed to have lived in Sri Lanka during the first century BCE. They are known to have held divergent views and interpretations of the Pāli monastic law code or Vinaya. Indeed, the 4th/5th-century Samantapāsādikā, being the most important commentary on the Pāli Vinaya, quotes these two elders side by side in twenty-four instances. In addition, the Samantapāsādikā quotes them separately in another six instances. There are altogether thirty quotations for these two elders. This project will undertake to edit, translate, and analyse these thirty quotations based on the available printed editions of the Samantapāsādikā.