Abeydeera, Ananda. “Paths of Faith: Following the Blessed Footsteps of Adam to Ceylon.” Diogenes 40 (1992): 69-94.
This article analyses some of the medieval Muslim and Christian references to Sri Lanka as an abode of Adam. Accounts of Christian writers like Marco Polo are compared with travelogues of Muslims like Ibn Battuta.
Aksland, Markus. The Sacred Footprint: A Cultural History of Adam’s Peak. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2001.
This short volume is published by a guidebook press, and is a useful introduction to the Peak, albeit without any theoretical analysis. It includes excerpts from historical sources mentioning the Peak across several religious traditions. It also provides an ethnographic description of pilgrimage to the mountain in the 1980s, including descriptions of Buddhist rituals.
De Silva, Premakumara. “God of Compassion and the Divine Protector of Sri Pada: Trends in Popular Buddhism in Sri Lanka.” The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities XXXIV, no. 1&2 (2008): 93-107.
Premakumara De Silva, Professor of Sociology at the University of Colombo, conducted his doctoral research on Adam’s Peak. The articles listed here are a sample of his most significant conclusions about the mountain.
This first article is a good introduction to Saman, the guardian god of the Peak. It argues that the benevolent and compassionate aspects of this god have been increasingly emphasized in the modern period. It also contains an interesting sampling of prayers to Saman delivered by Sri Lankan devotees.
De Silva, Premakumara. “Reordering of Postcolonial Sri Pāda Temple in Sri Lanka: Buddhism, State, and Nationalism.” History and Sociology of South Asia 7, no. 155 (2013): 155-76.
This article explains how the offices of the temple atop the Peak were reorganized in the postcolonial period to favor Buddhists at the expense of the Hindus and Muslims who shared the mountain for centuries. These structural changes have transformed the place into a symbol of distinctly Buddhist heritage in the national identity of Sri Lanka.
De Silva, Premakumara. “Anthropological Studies on South Asian Pilgrimage: Case of Buddhist Pilgrimage in Sri Lanka.” International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage 4, no. 1 (2016): 17-33.
This article compares the Peak to other pilgrimage sites in Sri Lanka, and contains interesting information about the composition of pilgrim groups. It describes the system of group leadership, and changes that have come with the modernization of social norms and pilgrimage infrastructure. Includes several photographs.
De Silva, Premakumara. “”Colonial Governmentality:” Legal and Administrative Technologies of the Governance of Sri Pada Temple in Sri Lanka.” In Theravada Buddhism in Colonial Contexts, edited by Thomas Borchert, 121-37. New York: Routledge, 2018.
This chapter illustrates colonial interventions into operations at the Peak, especially the establishment of a trustee positions to manage the incredible wealth of the Sri Pada temple. This created conflicts among the monastic leaders of the temple, lay trustees, and landowners who provided services to Sri Pada.
McKinley, Alexander. “The Spacing of Pilgrimage: Two Journeys to Sri Pada in Sinhala Verse.” SAGAR: A South Asia Research Journal 25 (2017): 96-133.
This article is a translation of two Sinhala poems about the Peak from the early 1920s. They are exemplary of a larger genre of Sinhala pilgrimage literature, which describes the route taken to the sacred destination, and the sights seen along the way. The differences between older modes of journeying on foot and modern methods of train travel are considered in the introduction to the translation.
McKinley, Alexander. “Farming Songs from the Poet King: Translation & Explication of a Sinhala Janakavi Work.” The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities 41, no. 1&2 (2017): 64-117.
Contains a translation of a Sinhala folksong that was likely sung during communal farming work. The Peak, named Samanala here, is elegized in the second half of the poem, especially lauded for sourcing four major rivers of the island. Although these rivers do not all actually start from the summit, this work is a good example of how the Peak came to stand as a symbol of a pure and fertile watershed.
Vedeha Thera. In Praise of Mount Samanta. Translated by Ann Appleby Hazlewood. London: The Pali Text Society, 1986.
A translation of the most extensive Pali work written about the Peak, composed around the thirteenth century. It is a poem of almost 800 verses, three quarters of which are a biography of the Buddha and a description of his legendary visits to Sri Lanka. During the third and final visit, when the Buddha leaves his footprint, the Peak is described in rich poetic language, as its environment is animated in worship of the Buddha.
Walters, Jonathan S. “Lovely Lady Lanka: A Tenth-Century Description.” The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities 19, no. 1&2 (1993): 45-56.
Contains a translation of a passage from a Pali commentary that is one of the earliest Lankan descriptions of the Peak as a piece of “Lady Lanka,” the poetic personification of the island. This trope of Lady Lanka has continued through subsequent generations of literature, with the Peak often representing her crown. The description in this commentary is unique for being more sexualized than most.
