The Anagarika’s Lists: Time, Space and Emotions in the ‘Sarnath Notebooks’

Abstract

This article focuses on the plethora of lists that the Sri Lankan Buddhist revivalist Anagarika Dharmapala (1864–1933) composed across his many notebooks. Rather than seeing lists as mere repositories of data, the text foregrounds aspects of form and formatting of the list as a genre and practice. Dharmapala’s notebooks emerge as key material aspects in the creation of his self, and list-making is revealed as an emotional practice. The various lists and their central role in Dharmapala’s life and thinking are explored by tracing list-making as a cultural practice belonging both to colonial modernity and to the ancient Theravada Buddhist tradition. This is shown in two particular foci: the temporal operations performed by Dharmapala’s historical and autobiographical lists, and the spatiality and visuality in and around his lists.