Contribution of dharmashala (preaching hall) towards the development of listening tradition in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to assess the contribution of the religious institute Dharmashala, also known as bana manduwa in the development of listening tradition in Sri Lanka. It is common knowledge that though out the world before the invention of writing system and the resulting written tradition there had been the oral and listening tradition. The main instrument in the human communication is the language. Language, the fore runner of the writing, was an oral system of the transmission of human knowledge. Oral system of communication or oral system of knowledge transmission is inevitably linked to the listening or listening tradition. Even after the spread of writing tradition the listening tradition did not fade away. Instead, it became stronger pattern of communication. This can specially be seen in oriental countries. Folk tales of different kinds stand for this argument. Since the importance of listening tradition people in different cultures invented different instruments in order to sustain it. It is hypothesized here that the Buddhist religious/ social institute Dharmashala has been one of the main instruments in Sri Lanka in the development of listening tradition in the country. Studies on the transmission of knowledge is one of the key research areas in the field of library and information science.