This article offers a close reading of the twelfth-century Muvadev-dā-vata, one of the earliest Sinhala-language poetic works to model itself on the Sanskrit kāvya. While earlier studies of the Muvadev-dā- vata have tended to criticize it as a flawed retelling of a Pāli-language jātaka, I argue that the poem instead represents an attempt to seriously grapple with rather serious Buddhological questions: When ought one renounce their worldly status in favor of spiritual progress? What does that renunciant lifestyle look like? What sort of practice is enjoined, and what does one gain from it? Despite its novel poetic form, in other words, the Muvadev-dā-vata offers us valuable insights into changing ideas about Buddhist practice in medieval Sri Lanka.