J oumal of the International Association of

Buddhist Studies
Volume 22 Number 2 1999
ANANDA ABEYSEKARA
Politics of Higher Ordination, Buddhist Monastic Identity,
and Leadership at the Dambulla Temple in Sri Lanka 255
ANNE M. BLACKBURN
Looking for the Vinaya: Monastic Discipline
in the Practical Canons of the Theravada
RODERICK S. BUCKNELL
Conditioned Arising Evolves: Variation and Change
281
in Textual Accounts of the Paficca-samuppiida Doctrine 311
MAHINDA DEEGALLE
A Search for Mahayana in Sri Lanka
JONATHAN A. SILK
Marginal Notes on a Study of Buddhism,
Economy and Society in China
343
360
THE BANGKOK CONFERENCE ON BUDDHIST STUDIES:
Introduction
DONALD K. SWEARER 399
Buddhist Studies in Germany and Austria 1971-1996
with a contribution on East Asian Buddhism by Michael Friedrich
ELI FRANCO 403
Corning of age:
Buddhist Studies in the United States from 1972 to 1997
FRANK E. REYNOLDS 459
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EDITORIAL BOARD
Cristina A. Scherrer-Schaub
Tom IF. Tillemans
Editors-in-Chief
Robert Buswell
Steven Collins
Collett Cox
Luis O. Gomez
Paul Harrison
Oskar von Hinuber
Roger Jackson
Padmanabh S. Jaini
Shoryu Katsura
Donald S. Lopez, Jr.
Alexander Macdonald
D. Seyfort Ruegg
Robert Sharf
Ernst Steinkellner
Erik Zurcher
Editorial Assistant:
Yves Ramseier
JIABS 22.2
Contributors to this issue:
Ananda ABEYSEKARA is Assistant Professor in Religious Studies at
the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute
and State University. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern Univer-
sity. He has completed a manuscript entitled "Contested Religious
Identities: Debating Monkhood and Categories of Buddhism in Sri
Lanka." It examines the shifting relations between knowledge and
practice.
Anne M. BLACKBURN is Assistant Professor and Graduate Director .at
the Department of Religious Studies, University of South Carolina-
Columbia. Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1996. Research interests:
monastic education in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia; early Sri Lankan
and Southeast Asian uses of print technology; Buddhist-Christian inter-
action in late medieval and early modem Sri Lanka.
Roderick S. BUCKNELL is Reader in Eastern Religions in the Depart-
ment of Studies in Religion at the University of Queensland. His princi-
pal research interest is the teachings of Early Buddhism, and he is cur-
rently completing a lengthy book on that topic.
Mahinda DEEGALLE is Post-doctoral Research Fellow, Japan Society
for the Promotion of Science and Department of Religious Studies,
Aichi Gakuin University, Japan. He has co-edited PilIi Buddhism for
Curzon Studies in Asian Philosophy (1996). Main research interests are
Preaching Traditions in Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist Movement
in Sri Lanka.
Eli FRANCO is presently Privat Dozent at the Institut fUr Kultur und
Geschichte Indiens und Tibets (Institute for Culture and History of India
and Tibet). He is currently working on an edition of the so-called
"Spitzer-Manuscript," which is the earliest philosophical manuscript in
Sanskrit that has survived (3rd c. A.D.).
Frank E. REYNOLDS is Professor of History of Religions and Buddhist
Studies in the Divinity School and the Department of South Asian Lan-
guages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. The primary
focus of his Buddhological work is on Theravada Buddhism and on Thai
JIABS 22.2
Buddhism in particular. He lived in Thailand from 1956 to 1959 when
he was the Program Director at the Student Christian Center and taught
English and Amelican Studies at Chulalongkorn University, Thammasat
University, and several Buddhist monasteries. He returned to Thailand in
1973-1974 when he was a Fulbright scholar doing research in Chiang-
mai on Buddhist cosmology and Thai civil religion. His special research
interests include cosmology and eschatology, myth and ritual, religion
and society, religion and law, and religious ethics.
Jonathan SILK is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious
Studies at Yale University. His interests include Mahayana siltra litera-
ture, and the development of Mahayana Buddhism.
Donald K. SWEARER is the Charles and Harriet Cox McDowell Pro-
fessor of Religion at Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania,
U.S.A., where he teaches courses in Asian and comparative religions.
His research focuses on Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia, espe-
cially Thailand. His most recent publications include, The Legend of
Queen Ciima: BodhiraYf1si's CiimadevfvaYf1sa, a Translation and Com-
mentary (1998) with Sommai Premchit, "The Hermeneutics of Buddhist
Ecology in Contemporary Thailand: Buddhadasa and Dhammapitaka,"
in Buddhism and Ecology (1997), "Buddhist Virtue, Voluntary Poverty,
and Extensive Benevolence,'; Journal of Religious Ethics (1998), and
"Center and Periphery: Buddhism and Politics in Modern Thailand," in
Buddhism and Politics in Twentieth-Century Asia (1999).
ANANDA ABEYSEKARA
Politics of Higher Ordination, Buddhist Monastic
Identity, and Leadership in Sri Lanka*
Since July 20, 1985, a new higher ordination (upasampada)l movement
has emerged at the Dambulla Buddhist temple in Sri Lanka. The archi-
tect of this movement, a Sinhala Buddhist monk named Inamaluwe
Sumangala, challenges the contemporary Buddhist monastic practice of
ordaining monks on the basis of their castes, a practice that became
"institutionalized" in the eighteenth century.
Sumangala's new ordination movement should not be approached as a
transparent self-evident social phenomenon awaiting straightforward
causal explanations. On the face of it, the movement seems to involve a
debate about the irrelevance of caste to higher ordination between
Sumangala and the monks of the Asgiriya temple, one of several chap-
ters of the Siyam Nikaya (fraternity) that ordains only high-caste
Buddhist males. However, the challenge constituted by the new ordina-
tion can be seen as part of a broader attempt on Sumangala's part to
redefine monastic identity at the Dambulla temple. This redefinition
* I dedicate this paper to George D. Bond, who, both as a guru and friend en-
couraged me and offered critical comments. I must also record my debt of grati-
tude to Robert Launay and the late Edmund F. Perry whose suggestions rescued
the paper from many blunders. Others who read the paper and offered comments
are David Scott, Pradeep Jeganathan and Caitrin Lynch. Sandagomi Koperahewa
and J. B. Disanayaka assisted me in Sri Lanka. I also would like to thank one
anonymous reviewer and Cristina Anna Scherrer-Schaub, an editor of the
journal, for their very useful suggestions. A version of this paper was presented
at the Buddhism Across Asia workshop at the University of Chicago in May
1998. I would like to acknowledge the suggestions made particularly by Steven
Collins. Field research for this paper was conducted between 1995 and 1996,
which was partly supported by the Rocky Foundation and a travel grant from the
Center for International and Comparative Studies at Northwestern University.
1. There are two ordinations: lower ordination (pabbajjii) and higher ordination. For
a discussion of the two ordinations, which were synonymous at the beginning
but were separated later, see R. GOMBRICH: "Temporary Ordination in Sri
Lanka," Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 7.2 (1984):
42.
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
Volume 22. Number 2.1999
JIABS 22.2 256
process is central to Sumangala's claim to his legitimate leadership of
the wealthy, royal Dambulla temple where the new ordination is held
annually. Sumangala's challenge can be understood within a ,context o ~
constructing a reconceptualized space (a new image) of the Dambulla
temple.
2
In this new image of theDambulla temple we find an interplay
of debates among Sumangala, other monks, and political figures such. as
President Ranasinghe Premadasa not only about what it means to be a
monk but also about the antiquity of the Dambulla past. The discourses
that are produced to construct this particular image of the temple and its
"past" are communicated to monks and lay people in the context of a
landmark political debate in 1992. It is in such political condition's of
portraying this new image of the Dambulla temple that the casteless
ordination is located. In general, the contemporary controversies sur-
rounding the Dambulla temple and the new ordination show ways in
which questions and debates about what it means to be a Buddhist monk
- that is, whether or not caste is "Buddhist" or "unBuddhist" ("politi-
cal") and hence irrelevant to monastic ordination, who can and cannot
challenge the "tradition" (sampradaya) of a "central" monastic fraternity
and ordain monks irrespective of caste distinctions, what is and is not the
"proper" "Buddhist" relation between monks and politicians, and so on -
are made possible by complex political contexts in Sri Lanka.
2. The tenn reconceptualized space is not meant to be an abstract theoretical concept
but is a name for complex political conditions that enabled the construction of a
new image or representation of the Dambulla temple. Thus, throughout the paper
terms such as image, representation and reconceptualized space will be used inter-
changeably to refer to those political conditions.
ABEYSEKARA 257
"INSTITUTIONALIZATION" OF CASTE AS A PREREQUISITE TO
MONASTIC ORDINATION
There is documentary evidence that "caste" was present among monks as
early as the medieval period of Sri Lanka, and it is well discussed in the
literature.
3
However, caste as an issue in the sangha became pronounced
when the two renowned temples of the Siyam Nikaya, Malwatta and
Asgiriya (both based in Kandy), employed a new policy of conferring
the higher ordination only on those who belonged to the highest caste
(goyigama). One Buddhist monk told me an oral version of it, which
differs slightly from that which is found in the Sinhala text, Mandiiram-
purapuwata. According to the oral account I heard, the policy to ordain
monks based on caste came into existence when KIrthi Sri Rajasimha
(1747-1782) had a perplexing experience as he was riding his royal
elephant into Kandy. As the king was approaching the city, a Buddhist
novice who was supposedly from a low caste stood up from his seat and
bowed to the king. Since a monk never bows his head to any lay person,
the king was troubled by the experience and requested the chief monks
3. We come across references to caste considerations in the monastic order before
the eighteenth century, if we think of terms such as "birth and family name" (jiiti-
gotra) in terms of what we mean by "caste" today. For example, Dambadeni
Katikiivata, an eleventh century text, quotes a passage from the fifth century Pali
commentator, Buddhaghosa's work, Samantapiisiidikii. The passage says that
those who are ordained should be "cleansed" or "examined" (sodetvii). However,
the above Katikiivata text takes (reinterprets) the word "examine" to mean that
candidates' "birth and family" should be examined (jatigOtra viciirii) before they
are ordained; cited in A.V. SURAWEERA: Sinhala Katikiivata hii Bhikshu
Samiijaya, Colombo: Gunasena 1971: 110. Buddhaghosa certainly did not mean
what the Dambadeni Katikiivata attributes to him; what he meant was that an
examination should be conducted to find out if the candidate has been a debtor,
slave, or soldier, which bars him from gaining admission into the sangha. On the
"prevalence" of certain notions of caste in the medieval sangha, see Y.
DHAMMAVISUDDHI: Polonnaru Hii Dambadeni Katikiivat, Colombo: Karuna-
ratna Saha Putrayo 1995: 77-83; A. LIYANAGAMAGE: ''The Influence of Caste on
the Buddhist Sangha," Kalyiini 2.1-2 (1982); M. ILANGASINHA: Buddhism in
Medieval Sri Lanka, Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications 1992: 83-90. PANABOKKE,
who maintains that caste discriminations in the sangha "gained ground from the
Polonnaruwa period onwards," gives a largely complementary account. See
History of the Buddhist Sangha in India and Sri Lanka, Kelaniya: Post-Graduate
Institute of Pall and Buddhist Studies 1993: 186-188.
-JIABS 22.2 258
of the Malwatta temple not to ordain low-caste people henceforth.
4
There is another version of the story. found in a Sinhalese text called
Nfthiratanawaliya which is worth mentioning also because of its similar
plot structure. In this version, a group of monks complained to King
Klrthi Sri Rajasirnha that monks from low castes had received higher
ordination and requested that he issue a royal decree prohibiting the
ordination of low-caste males into the monastic order.
5
The king then
informed Viilivita Saranankara, the progenitor of the eighteenth-century
"Buddhist revival," about the situation, but Saranankara refused even to
consider it because caste differences have no place in Buddhism.
However, the king later ignored Saranankara's advice and, in order to
appease the high-caste monks who had threatened to leave the order,
issued a decree that only "those of good birth" should be given higher
ordination.
6
We see in both stories how the monks strategically used the
authority of the king to construct and institutionalize a new tradition of
caste-based ordination. However, what is striking about the latter story is
that the author of the text wants to relieve monk: Saranankara of the
burden of responsibility for even thinking that the idea of caste can ever
be part of the monastic order, and instead places the burden on some
unidentified monks and the king.
Though caste became the central qualification for (higher) ordination
in the Kandyan monastic community, the monks of the Asgiriya and
Malwatta temples clashed over how and where the ordinations should be
performed, which led them to hold separate higher ordinations every
year.? In this context of competing forces for power and legitimacy we
see the emergence of two new monastic fraternities, Amarapura and
4. This story is in a text called Mandiirampura Puwata, which is believed to be an
appendix to the eighteenth century Kfrthi Sri Rtijasimha Katiktivata; cited in
SURA WEERA: Sinhala Katiktivata. This version of the story is slightly different
from the one that monks told R. GOMBRICH: Precept and Practice: Traditional
Buddhism in the Rural Highlands of Kandy, Oxford: Clarendon Press 1971: 312.
5. Nfthirataniiwaliya; cited in A. H. MIRANDO: Buddhism in Sri Lanka in the 17th
and the 18th Centuries, Dehiwala: Tisara Prakashakayo 1985: 136, 142. This
incident is mentioned in K. MALALGODA: Buddhism in Sinhalese Society, 1750-
1900, Berkeley: University of California Press 1976: 91; R. GOMBRICH: Precept
and Practice, p. 308. However, neither GOMBRICH nor MALALGODA refers to
the above text.
6. Cited in A. H. MIRANDo: Buddhism in Sri Lanka, p. 142.
7. MALALGODA: Buddhism in Sinhalese Society, p. 125.
ABEYSEKARA 259
Ramafina.
8
These new fraternities broke away from the community of
high-caste monks claiming to "reform" the caste-ridden monastic world.
They were not immune to making caste distinctions since today they too
ordain monks' on the basis of caste.
9
In the last hundred years or so many
other sub-frate'rnities or "chapters" (piirshava) have come into existence
in Sri Lanka,and presently there are approximately forty-three
"chapters" holding separate higher ordinations.l
o
SUMANGAlA'S NEW ORDINATION: CHALLENGING THE
"CENTER"
Sumangala explained that he started the .new ordination movement
becl!-use certain Sinhala monks, particularly those of the Asgiriya center
to which he belonged, have allegedly misunderstood and misinterpreted
the whole idea of higher ordination. As part of his polemical argument,
he pointed out and elaborated two striking "misconceptions." In the
course of his interview with me, the first misconception and misrepre-
sentation Sumangala named was the commercialization of the ceremony
of the higher ordination that masks the understanding of the higher ordi-
nation's "original" purpose. The second misconception he named was
the "fallacy" of dividing monastic communities into nikiiyas or fraterni-
ties. He holds that there are no nikiiyas as such in Sri Lanka, each differ-
ing in some substantive way from the others, and that there certainly
should not be nikiiyas based on caste differences in any Buddhist monas-
tic community. In fact, for Sumangala, nikiiya and caste are all interre-
lated features of one issue.
8. For an excellent discussion of the emergence of these two fraternities, see
MALALGODA: Buddhism in Sinhalese Society, pp.I44-177.
9. The widespread assumption among both monks and lay people is that Ramaiiiia
Nildiya is the only fraternity that does not discriminate on the basis of caste. This
is a myth because I found, as GOMBRICH did over twenty years ago, that certain
Ramaiiiia temples ordain only high-caste, goyigama candidates (GOMBRICH:
Precept and Practice, pp. 361-63).
10. These statistics are according to the Lankave Nikayan Pilibanda Toraturu,
Colombo: Bauddhakatayutu Departumentuwa 1984. The number is probably
higher today as it does not list Sumangala's fraternity and the most recent
"chapter" that broke away from Malwatta, "Ruhunu Piirshavaya," which was
spearheaded by Kamburupitiye Vanaratana. A report about this is found in P.
HEMASIRI: Ruhunu Sangha Sanvidanaya: Mata Yugaya, Matara: Bodhia-
rakshaka Sabhava 1990.
.JIABS 22.2 260
Higher ordination is something like what Bourdieu calls a "rite of
institution" (in the sense of being instituted) that a novice (sa.manera)
who has reached the age of at least twenty goes through i ~ order to
attain full membership in the sangha.
1I
In other words, it is after a
novice receives higher ordination that he gains the identity of a bhikkhu,
a full-fledged member of the cortununity of monks, the maha.sangha.
The process of qualifying for full membership culminates in an elabo-
rate ceremony in which the candidate/novice, who arrives (on some
occasions on an elephant) stripped of his robes, dons a dazzling royal
costume, symbolic of his last journey in the mundane world on an equal
footing with its highest authority, the king. He then presents himself in
front of an assembly of monks gathered within a duly consecrated
boundary (sima.) 12 and undergoes an oral examination that tests his
ability to memorize over two hundred Pilii verses and other passages.13
He takes on a different monastic identity by putting on new robes.
Before the ceremony the candidate's teachers will meet with the monks
who are to conduct the examination and present them with various gifts
(pudasatka.ra) which range from basic food items (such as rice, co-
11. I have deliberately avoided the Van Gennepian notion of "rite of passage" and
chosen BOURDIEU's substitute mainly because of the active sense it embodies.
BOURDIEU argues that "[to] speak of rites of institution is to suggest that all rites
tend to consecrate or legitimate an arbitrary boundary, by fostering a misrecog-
nition of the arbitrary nature of the limit and encouraging a recognition of it as
legitimate." In other words, it is like "teaching a fish to swim," or saying that
"this man is a man, ... a real man, which is not always obvious." P. BOURDIEU:
Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
1991: 118-119.
12. It is within a marked boundary that higher ordinations and other monastic acts
(sangha kamma) such as uposatha, a mutual fortnight confession ceremony, are
held. On the centrality of a sfma to higher ordination, see MALALGODA:
Buddhism in Sinhalese Society, pp. 154-155. On the general significance of sIma
to the monastic co=unity as found in the vinaya literature and the Sri Lankan
chronicles, see K. ARIYASENA, Sfmavan Ha Ehi Aitihasika Samvardhanaya
Pilibanda Tulanatmaka Vimansanayak, Unpublished Ph.D Dissertation, Univer-
sity of Ceylon 1967; P. KIEFFER-PiiLZ: "Ceremonial Boundaries in the Buddhist
Monastic Tradition in Sri Lanka," unpublished paper delivered at the Wilhelm
Geiger conference held in Sri Lanka in 1995.
13. For an account of a Kandyan upasampada ceremony as witnessed by an
Englishman in 1872, see IF. DICKSON: Ordination in Theravada Buddhism: An
Early Account, Piyadassi Thera ed., Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society 1963.
It gives a brief description of the assembly hall and the kinds of questions asked
of the candidates.
ABEYSEKARA 261
conuts, etc.) to money. Some monks maintain that the more gifts the
novice gives the easier the exam will be.
Sumangala recalled for me his own higher ordination examination to
which he had gone well-prepared, accompanied by his teacher and a
large retinue of lay Buddhists from Dambulla. Sumangala says that
during the examination the monks did not test his skills of memorization
by asking him to recite even one verse. He says that it was a shameful
and embarrassing experience, because people thought that he had gotten
off too easily and that his teacher had showered the examiners with too
many gifts. The disappointment he felt led him to write to the news-
papers from time to time suggesting that the monks should eliminate the
"commercialization" of the ceremony and restore what he termed
"authentic ordination" (niyama upasampadiiva).14
Sumangala says that the other factor that compelled him to start the
new ordination was the monastic fraternities' ordination of monastic
candidates on the basis of caste. He maintains that caste in the monastic
community is against the Buddha's teaching. In supporting his view, he
cites the Pahiiriida Sutta in the Buddhist canon where the Buddha com-
pares his doctrine to the ocean and states with regard to the Indian caste
system: "Just as: .. the great rivers, the Ganges, the Yamuna, the
Aciravau, the Sarabhu and the MahI, upon reaching the great ocean,
abandon their former names and gotras" and come to be known as the
great ocean, so do the four classes, viz. Brahmins, Ksatriyas, Vaisyas
and Sudras, upon joining the Buddhist monastic order, abandon their
former names and clans and become followers of the Buddha.
Is
Sumangala argues further that on the basis of caste some monks have
confined higher ordination to certain central locations such as Kandy. He
maintains that such centralization obstructs one of the purposes of the
higher ordination intended by the Buddha: dispersion. He points out that
14. There is an instance where the Buddha himself is said to have carried out an
upasampada. It is found in the story of the little boy, Sopaka, whom the Buddha
ordained despite his low-caste status. The Buddha is reported to have given him
full membership after asking a series of questions (kumarapaiiiia); cited in H.
SMITH, ed.: Kuddhakapatha together with its Commentary, the Paramattha-
jotika. vol. 1., London: Pali Text Society, Luzac and Company 1959: 75-78.
15. See Anguttara Nikaya IV. 197; cited in G. P. MALALASEKERA: Dictionary of
Pali Proper Names, London: Pali Text Society [1938] 1960: 175. The very
structure of this sutta is similar to that of the Uposatha Sutta in P. MASEFIELD
trans., The Udana, Oxford: Pali Text Society 1994: 98.
JIABS 22.2 262
this idea of dispersion is clearly embedded within the very notion of
Buddhist monastics who are "dIspersed" in different directions to carry
the message of the Buddha "for the benefit and the happiness of the
many," avoiding settlement within a centralized establishment. Su-
mangala explains that centralization hampers that dispersion. He says:
The Buddha pointed out that any five monks - monks who are of ten years
standing from their upasampadii - could perform the ceremony within a given
marked boundary either on water (udakukkhepakasfmii)) or on land (baddha-
sima), that would allow dispersion. It should not be confined to one particular
geographical locality chosen by a group of individuals for some presumed notion
of sacredness. By not confining the performance of the upasampadii ceremony to
a particular place, the Buddha allowed monks the freedom to conduct an
important ceremony independent of the authority of any particular center or group
of individuals belonging to a center. There is no mention in the Buddha's doctrine
that it should be done in association with a central establishment.
16
Sumangala's assertion that the ordination could be performed at any
geographical location independent of a "center" blatantly contests the
claim and practice of the Asgiriya monastic chapter. Moreover, Su-
mangala's point that the ordination could be held within any given
"marked boundary" (slmii) allows for a slmii to be created anywhere
without reference to any central establishment.
Based on this reasoning Sumangala formed a monastic committee
(sangha sabhii) that consisted of one hundred and seventy monks from
various temples in Dambulla and neighboring areas. To this committee
he proposed the idea of holding a casteless ordination. The committee
reached a collective consensus on the proposal and decided in 1985 to
hold an upasampadii that would confer higher ordination on all qualified
candidates irrespective of their castes.
Sumangala recalled that the Asgiriya chief monks became enraged by
the news of the new ordination and voiced opposition to it on at least
two grounds: they argued that Sumangala could not begin a new caste-
less ordination at Dambulla because Dambulla is considered "one of
Asgiriya's temples," an issue to which I return shortly. Since it was an
individual monk who was challenging the caste-based ordination, the
Asgiriya monks also questioned whether Sumangala had the authority to
begin a new casteless ordination just because he thought that "caste" was
contrary to Buddhism.
16. From the interview conducted with Surnangala in July 1995.
ABEYSEKARA 263
The monks of Asgiriya whom I interviewed maintain that the majority
of monks recognize and respect the "age-old tradition" (puriina sam-
pradiiya) of caste-based ordination and that these kinds of new move-
ments against tradition will not last 10ng.17 Here is what Sumangala
thinks of "age-old tradition":
[People] may have practiced tradition (sampradiiya) for a hundred or two
hundred or a thousand years. The number of years that a tradition has been
practiced is not important; what is important is that we should examine whether
that tradition is correct or not. Any tradition could be maintained and continued
without examination. If we should accept it on that basis, we could say that the
Buddha himself might have done something wrong because he spoke against
caste that had been and is an age-old tradition in Indian society. Again, in those
days, there was male sovereignty in India, which enjoyed all kinds of rights and
privileges to the exclusion of women. The Buddha ordained women, and it was a
revolution. Did he do something wrong? That is not how it is. We should have
the right to get rid of any tradition that is not proper; everybody has the power to
get rid of tradition if it is wrong, improper, dangerous to any society, and particu-
larly if it is a hindrance to the development of any organization. We should not
just continue doing things because "tradition" says so.18
However, the Asgiriya's opposition to the new ordination became more
visible over the issue of registering the Buddhist monks who had re-
ceived the first casteless ordination.
19
Sumangala says that Chandananda,
chief monk of the Asgiriya temple had instructed the Buddhist commis-
sioner not to register the monks from the Dambulla chapter because it
was "not a legitimate Buddhist organization."2o Sumangala filed a peti-
tion with the public court, and after a prolonged period of litigation Su-
17. Interviews conducted with Asgiriya monks in Sept. 1996. The head monk,
Chandananda, refused to grant me an interview, but I spoke to the second in
charge and four other monks.
18. From my interview conducted with Sumangala in July 1995.
19. C.A. No: 1267/90- Application for a Writ of Mandamus. Copy of the Court
Order issued on Nov. 30, 1991 in the hand of Sumangala.
20. According to section 42 of the Ordinance of the Buddhist Temporalities all
monks - whether novices or full-fledged monks - should be registered at the
Buddhist commission. See Vihiira Deviilagam iignii Panata, Colombo: Bauddha
Katayutu Pilibanda Departumentuwa 1931, and Bauddha Vihiira Deviilagam
iignii Panata Yatate Upanfti, Colombo: Sri Lanka Rajaye Departumentuwe
Mudranalaya 1956. On the colonial context in which this practice came into
being, see S. KEMPER: "The Buddhist Monkhood, the Law, and the State in
Colonial Sri Lanka," Comparative Studies in Society and History 26.3 (1984):
416.
nABS 22.2 264
mangala persuaded the judge to order the Buddhist commissioner to
register the "Dambulla monks" as legitimate, full-fledged bhikkhus.
Recounting the origin of this movement gives some glimpse of the
ways in which the Sinhala monastic ideas of "authenticity" and "legiti-
macy" of a cultural practice such. as caste-based ordination came to be
contested for the first time by a group of monks. Sumangala says that
the committee of one hundred and seventy monks who gathered to
discuss establishing a casteless ordination questioned whether they pos-
sessed the "qualifications" (sudusukam) to do so. Sumangala reports that
he assured the monks that gaining "qualifications" was as easy as
memorizing a few Pilii passages from the "book of discipline" (vinaya-
pata) and having five senior monks recite them in any consecrated place.
Apparent in this case is his blunt contention that legitimacy or "quali-
fications" to hold a "separate ordination" are not derived from the
authority of a group of monks but from the mere application of the
"word of the Buddha." It is with this conviction he says that his commit-
tee of monks held the first casteless upasampadii at the Dambulla temple
and conferred higher ordination on five novice-monks, "the exact
number of monks the Buddha himself had ordained when he first started
the monastic order."
In providing this account of Sumangala's departure from the central
establishment of Asgiriya and the inauguration of what he calls an
"authentic ordination," I do not wish to be understood as suggesting that
Sumangala is attempting to recover a "lost," "historical reality" of the
sangha. There is more to it than meets the eye. For example, one should
not take literally Sumangala's assertion that anyone can gain the
"qualifications" to hold a new ordination just by chanting a few passages
from the 13uddhist vinaya texts. Surely, that assertion was a rhetorical
flourish. It will become evident later that these "qualifications" are con-
structed within the new image of the Dambulla temple.
I must point out that Sumangala himself demonstrates an ambiguous
attitude towards caste and nikiiya. This became evident in his discussion
with me about the Buddhist nikiiyas (fraternities) in Sri Lanka. Recall
that there are three major fraternities in Sri Lanka. Sumangala maintains
that he and his colleagues do not recognize the legitimacy of designating
these three fraternities as nikiiyas. For a nikiiya to exist there should be
"clear differences." While Sumangala accepts that monks of the three
fraternities have varying internal monastic customs such as shaving eye-
ABEYSEKARA 265
brows, lie insists that these differences are not substantive and therefore
do not constitute a nikiiya. He explains:
What distinguishes one "sect" from another is not just trivial matters like the caste
of its members but the interpretations and perception of the ultimatl6'reality of the
teaching, to which a "given sect" collectively adheres. If we take, for example, the
interpretation of Sinhalese Buddhism and that of the Korean or Japanese, we
could see clear differences; while the Korean and the Japanese Buddhist monks
recognize the Buddha more as a deity or a messenger of a deity than as a human
being, the Sinhala monks of all three nikiiyas accept indisputably that the Buddha
was but human. The very same principle applies to other key concepts of the
Buddha's doctrine such as "suffering," "impermanence," and "nibbiina," which
all three nikiiya monks accept as fundamental and preach to the laity without any
difference whatsoever.
Even as he explained how he does not recognize the existence of sepa-
rate fraternities among monks, I noticed that Sumangala himself had
shaved his eyebrows, and I asked him why he had done so. He quickly
responded: "Yes, I shaved the eyebrows because I am in the Siyam
Nikaya" (mama siyam nikiiyene). Why would Sumangala who main-
tained the "fallacy" of the Buddhist fraternities say that he is "in the
Siyam Nikaya"? It certainly cannot be a slip of the tongue because he
had not only accepted very clearly that he was "in the Siyam Nikaya,"
but he had also shaved his eyebrows, a practice that is unique to high-
caste monks of the Siyam fraternity. What is worth noting about this
paradox is that, even though he himself considers that the "external
practices" do not constitute a fraternity, he is. well aware that the major-
ity of monks have adopted them as marks of distinction. Sumangala's
seemingly ambiguous attitude toward caste signals that he operates
within Sinhala Buddhist monastic relations that define his identity as a
"high-caste monk" who is attempting to eliminate caste from the monk-
hood. If Sumangala does not shave his eyebrows he would surely be
identified as a "low-caste monk," an identity he apparently does not
want to acquire. Were Sumangala to be categorized as a low-caste monk,
his program for eliminating caste would seem to be motivated by self-
interest. By maintaining the status of a high-caste monk, he more effec-
tively removes the appearance of self-interest, but only at the expense of
assuming the very identity he seeks to eliminate.
21
21. However, Sumangala says that monks who receive higher ordination at the
Dambulla temple mayor may not shave their eyebrows.
JIABS 22.2 266
Sumangala is one of the best known monastic figures among both
monks and lay people in Sri Lanka. In fact, most university monks, who
first told me about Sumangala during the times I was researching the
contemporary politics of monastic identity in Sri Lanka,22 regarded
Sumangala as a "real monk" (niyama hamuduru kenek). It is this idea of
the "real monk" that Sumangala constructs and debates within the new
representation of the Dambulla temple where the new ordination is held
annually. I want now to describe what the Dambulla temple is and the
political conditions within which Sumangala and his supporters construct
a particular image of the temple. It is in this new image of the Dambulla
temple that the new ordination came into being and is debated among
both monks and lay people.
CONSTRUCTION OF A RECONCEPTUALIZED SPACE
OF THE DAMBULLA TEMPLE: THE LOCATION
OF THE NEW ORDINATION
The Dambulla temple, or the "Golden Rock Temple" (Rangiri Dambulu
Vihiiraya), as it is well-known among the Sinhalese, is one of Sri
Lanka's most impressive places of Buddhist pilgrimage. It sits on an
enormous rock, which rises up to a height of over six hundred feet, and
overlooks a small town. The temple, with more than seventy-three gold-
painted images of the Buddha in many of its ninety some caves, is
famous for the myths associated with the "mysterious" drops of water
that seep incessantly from the ceiling of rock over the image house.2
3
Dambulla is also one of the wealthiest Buddhist temples in Sri Lanka,
owning more than 15,000 acres of land donated by kings.24 It is at this
22. The interviews that I conducted with more than ninety university monks in Sri
Lanka in 1994, 1995, and 1996 are part of a larger project that explores the con-
temporary politics of monastic identity in Sri Lanka.
23. Pujiiva/iya, which gives this account of King Nissankarnalla's patronage of the
temple, first uses the term "Sawarna Giri Guha" or the "Golden Rock Cave;"
cited in M. ILANGASINHA: Rangiri Dambulu Vihiiraya, Dehiwala: Sri Devi
Printers 1994: 22. However, there is some debate about who really built the
seventy-three Buddha images. See A. SENEVIRATNA: The Golden Rock Temple
of Dambulla, Colombo: Ministry of Cultural Affairs 1983: 31-39.
24. On the Sinhalese royal politics of periodic land donations to Buddhist temples,
see S. KEMPER: "Wealth and Reformation in Sinhalese Buddhist Monasticism,"
in D. Swearer and S. Sizemore eds.: Ethics, Wealth, and Salvation, Columbia:
University of South Carolina Press 1990: 152-158. ILANGASINHA says that the
popular belief is that Vattagamini Abhaya (89-77 BCE) donated 18,000 acres of
ABEYSEKARA 267
temple; of which Sumangala is the current incumbent, that the new
higher ordination is h ~ l d annually.
The "early" history of the Dambul1a temple is a debated issue. This is
because one of the most celebrated texts of Sinhala Buddhist history,
Mahavamsa (lit. Great Chronicle fifth century AD), does not have any
mention of the temple until about the tenth century.25 However,
Sumangala, with a well-respected historian on his side, challenges the
Mahavamsa and claims that the Dambulla temple not only existed "long
before" the Mahavamsa account of Sinhala Buddhist history began but
was also an important center of Theravada Buddhism. On the basis of
some inscriptions that excavation works unearthed in 1988, they argue
that the area of Dambulla was " ... among the earliest Aryan settlements
in the Island"26 and trace the origin of the temple to King Devanam-
piyatissa himself (3rd century BCE), under whose leadership Buddhism
is said to have been introduced to Sri Lanka.
27
Implicit in this claim is
that Dambulla temple is as "ancient" as both Buddhism in Sri Lanka and
the "aryan" Sinhalese race itself. It is within the context of this debate
about the "earliest" existence of the Dambulla temple that a new image
of the temple begins to emerge.
The debate about the antiquity of the Dambulla temple - with the
embellishments of the "ancient past" associated with it today - has been
in progress since the late 19708. The debate came about in the wake of at
least two important interventions by the UNP government authorities in
the affairs of the Dambulla temple.
28
The first instance of intervention
occurred in 1979 when the UNP government of Sri Lanka designated
the city of Dambulla as a "sacred area" (puja bhamiyak). The previous
land to the temple. However, today the temple owns an area of over 15,000 acres.
See M.lLANGASINHA: "Notes on the History of Sigiriya-Dambulla Region in the
18th and the 19th Centuries," in S. Bandaranayake et. a!., eds.: Settlement
Archaeology of the Sigiriya Dambulla Region, Kelaniya: University of Kelaniya
1990: 156.
25. Cited in M. lLANGASINHA: Rangiri Dambulu Vihtiraya, pp. 69-70.
26. M. lLANGASINHA: "Dambulla Rock Temple: Its Name and History," in H. T.
BASNAYAKE ed.: Dambulla Project: First Archaeological and Excavation
Project, Colombo: Ministry of Kelaniya 1988: 59-70.
27. lLANGASINHA claims that it was king Devanampiyatissa's brother, SUratisa, who
donated the temple to its "early Buddhist monks." See M. lLANGASINHA:
"Dambulla Rock Temple," p. 61.
28. It is probable that there were other state interventions. These two interventions are
the most visible to me from my interviews and archival research in Sri Lanka.
nABS 22.2 268
SLFP government had proposed to undertake this project in the early
1970s, but abandoned it .because of a "lack of funding."29 However,
when the newly elected UNP government frnanced the project, it did not
single out Dambulla; rather, as Steven Kemper observes, Dambulla was
one of many Buddhist areas that the government had undertaken to
develop and designate as "sacred'-' at the expense of over 1,000 million
rupees (1991: 179).3
0
Moreover, Dambulla is located at the center of the
triangle constituted by three "ancient," "sacred" capitals, Anuradhapura,
Polonnaruwa, and Kandy.
The second state intervention began when the UNP government spon-
sored an archaeological excavation project called the "Dambulla
project." The purpose of the project, as its director put it, was to
"excavate and expose, as far as possible, the 'ancient' monuments
belonging to Dambulla ... " and "develop and elevate Dambulla as a
center of pilgrimage and visitor interest."31 In the ambitious words of
W. Lokubandara, the then minister of cultural affairs, the project was to
"reveal the hitherto unknown past" of the Dambulla temple.3
2
This was
part of a larger project that the government's Cultural Triangle program
had undertaken to excavate and develop six other "sacred places."33 In
1985, R. Premadasa, then Prime Minister of Sri Lanka,34 who was also
the chairman of these projects, inaugurated the "Dambulla project."
Equally significant about his involvement in this project is his published
estimate of it. In the foreword to the "Project Report" in 1988, Prema-
dasa endorsed its findings as "scientific and authoritative."35 My point
here is obvious: These state interventions into the Dambulla temple and
the high opinions of them represented by Prime Minister Premadasa
contributed significantly to the conditions that made possible the con-
struction .C2f this particular ancient, sacred image of the Dambulla
temple. The new ordination is located in this image of the Dambulla
temple.
29. Divayina, June 20, 1982.
30. See S. KEMPER: The Presence o/The Past: Chronicles, Politics and Culture in
Sinhala Life, Ithaca: Cornell University Press 1991: 179.
31. BASNAYAKE's introduction to Dambulla Project.
32. LOKUBANDARA's "Preface" to Dambulla project.
33. Roland SILVA's "Note on the Project" in Dambulla Project.
34. Prime Minister Premadasa became President of Sri Lanka in 1989.
35. Premadasa's "Foreword" to the Dambulla Project.
ABEYSEKARA 269
Already during the early phase of these state interventions, certain dis-
courses about the antiquity of the Dambulla temple began to surface. For
example, an article that was published in a leading Sinhala newspaper in
1982 had a captivating title, "Dambulla, the Golden Rock: the Oasis of
the Sinhala Heroes."36 The article races through the "ancient history,"
the very beginning of the Dambulla temple, highlighting abruptly the
seventeenth-century Sri Lankan political situation. It refers to the "past
Dambulla monks" in the context of a peasant revolution that took place
against the British in 1848. In doing so, the article turns the. "Dambulla
monks" into ''heroic monks" by stating that the resident monks of the
Dambulla temple had "counseled and helped Sinhala leaders such as
Virapuran Appu launch the last Sinhala freedom struggle even at the ex-
pense of risking their own lives."31 In a similar way, today Sumangala
refers to Mahatissa, a monk from a different period (29 BeE) who
occupies a controversial place in the history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka.
Mahatissa, as Rahula points out, belonged to one of the early schools of
Buddhism, Mahavihiira. But he was later expelled from the Mahavihiira
because he had accepted the rival monastery Abhayagiri from King
Vattagiimini to whom he is said to have given shelter at his monastery
during the king's fourteen-year period of exile.
38
There is no evidence
to suggest that Mahatissa had ever lived at the temple and had given
King Vattagiimini shelter there, but Sumangala argues otherwise. He
says that "heroic monks" (vfra hiimuduruwaru) like Mahatissa had lived
at the Dambulla temple and had "counseled Kings who saved the
Sinhalese nation." Sumangala claims that the Mahiivamsa chronicle did
not mention the Dambulla temple because its writers, who were the
monks of the majority tradition of the Mahavihiira school, considered
Mahatissa an "unorthodox" monk who did "unorthodox" things.3
9
These
discourses about the "past heroic monks" are communicated in relation
36. "Sinbala V-rrayange Kshema Bhiimiyak Vii Rangiri Dambulla," Divayina, June
20,1982.
37. Ibid.
38. W. RAHULA: History of Buddhism in Ceylon, 3rd ed., Dehiwala: Buddhist
Cultural Center 1994: 83.
39. In his interview with me in 1996. The Mahiivamsa mentions this episode be-
tween Mahatissa and Vattagiimini, but it says that Mahiitissa was from Accagala;
cited in A. SENEVIRATNA: Dambulla Rock Temple, pp.14-15. However,
ILANGASINHA holds strongly that Accagala was Dambulla. See M. ILANGA-
SINHA: "Dambulla Rock Temple," p. 65.
JIABS 22.2 _ 270
to a hallmark socio-polical debate that took place in 1992, to which l
will return shortly.
The early phases of representing the Dambulla temple as an :'oasis," in
which "heroic monks lived in the ancient past," were accompanied by
another very important shift within the Dambulla temple. The shift took
place in the administrative leadership of the temple. Some time in ~ e
early 1980s, Udugama Buddharakkhita, the previous incumbent (vihiirii-
dipati) of the temple, who was Sumangala's teacher, became ill, and,
according to convention, his office passed to Sumangala. This conven-
tion was the "tradition of the pupillary succession" in which the eldest
pupil assumes the leadership of the temple following the death of the
teacher/incumbent or some illness. The convention has become the law
now.
40
As early as 1984, Sumangala's emerging leadership of the Dambulla
temple had generated some unease among-the Asgiriya monks because
he did not seem to conform to the then-existing relationship between the
Asgiriya chapter and the Dambulla temple.
41
Dambulla is considered one
of seveJ). temples that are under the jurisdiction of the Asgiriya.
42
This is
because, as llangasinha points out, Potuhiira Tudapata, an eighteenth
century "letter patent," records that King K1rthi Sri Rajasimha, who had
renovated the temple, had entrusted the Asgiriya monks with the
administration of the Dambulla temple on the grounds that its resident
Lenavala monks had not executed the "rituals of the temple satisfacto-
rily."43 (This is the same king who is said to have issued the royal
decree that only high-caste males should be admitted into the monastic
order.) Over time, as llangasinha further shows, the Asgiriya monks also
40. Regar?ing pupillary succession, see U. PHADNIS: Religion and Politics in Sri
Lanka, New Delhi: Manohar 1976: 99. For a discussion of the process by which
this "tradition" became legal in 1924, see S. KEMPER: ''The Buddhist Monk-
hood," pp. 416-421.
41. "Sampradaya Riika GiinIma Api Age Karamu" ("We Must Proudly Safeguard
Tradition"), Lankadfpa, Oct. 9, 1984. The author of this article, who is an
Asgiriya monk, states implicitly the Asgiriya's concern over Sumangala's
emerging leadership of the temple.
42. The author of the above article identifies Dambulla.clearly as a property of the
Asgiriya temple. MALALGODA also says it is one of seven temples which fall
under the Asgiriya jurisdiction. See MALALGODA: Buddhism in Sinhalese
Society, p.68.
43. M. ILANGASINHA: "Notes On the History," p.1S7; idem, Rangiri Dambulu
Viharaya, p. 71.
ABEYSEKARA 271
undertook the task of appointing the head of the Dambulla temple, who
was usually a monk selected from the Asgiriya temple itself.44 There is
evidence that as late as 1835 the Asgiriya monks had appointed one of
their own monks as the head of the Dambulla temple and had justified
doing so because, they claimed, the "priests resident at Dambulla were
ignorant of Pali" and therefore, were unqualified for the office.
45
It is.
important to note that the head monk that the Asgiriya temple appointed
did not reside at the Dambulla temple. He played mainly a symbolic role
in administering the temple as he paid perfunctory annual visits to
Dambulla (ILANGASINHA 1994: 76). However, it is in the context of
the head monk's annual visits to Dambulla that the Asgiriya monks
make visible the authority of their claim to the ownership of the
Dambulla temple. During the head monk's visits to Dambulla, the
resident monks would pay respect to him by handing over keys not only
to the Dambulla temple but also to five other temples that belong to
Dambulla. Ilangasinha points out the unique aspect of this practice: Once
the Asgiriya head monk received the keys he could refuse to return them
to the Dambulla monks or could even hand them over to some other
monks.
46
Thus the ritual gesture of "handing over the keys" clearly
enforced the Asgiriya's authoritative claim that Dambulla is "one of its
temples" and that the monks who maintain it are temporary custodians.
In fact, Ilangasinha points out, this practice of "handing over the keys"
had given rise to sporadic conflicts between the Asgiriya's head and the
resident monks of the Dambulla temple. This created eventually what
Ilangasinha calls a "dual control system" in which there were two heads
of the Dambulla temple at the same time, one at Dambulla and the other
at Asgiriya.
47
With Sumangala's emerging leadership of the temple in the rnid-
1980s, supported by more than one hundred and seventy Buddhist
44. M. ILANGASINHA: "Notes on the History," p.157. Elsewhere, he points out that
there were two heads at the Dambulla temple because the "Leniivala" monks who
continued to live at the temple claimed that they too were heir to it. See M.
ILANGASINHA: Rangiri Dambulu Viharaya, p. 72.
45. This is found in A. C. LAWR1E: "A Gazetteer of the Central Province of Ceylon,"
in S. Bandaranayake et. al., eds.: Settlement Archaeology, pp. 169-193.
46. M. ILANGASINHA: Rangiri Dambulu Viharaya, pp.76-77. ILANGASINHA does
not mention when this practice originated or ended.
47. M. ILANGASINHA: "Notes On the History," p.157; idem, Rangiri Dambulu
Viharaya, p. 72.
nABS 22.2 272
monks from Dambulla and its neighboring areas, the Dambulla temple
entered a new phase of admirustration. It was during this time (a year
before Sumangala started the new ordination) that the secretary monk of
the Asgiriya temple wrote to a Sillhala newspaper an open letter entitled,
"We must protect proudly the long-standing (ciriigata) tradition." The
content of the article indicated clearly that by "long-standing tradition"
the Asgiriya monk meant that the Dambulla monks should recognize
Asgiriya's long line of monastic leadership of the Dambulla temple.
48
The reference to the Dambulla temple as "an oasis," an "independent
temple" with its "ancient" lineage of "heroic monks" implicitly contested
the authority of the Asgiriya's claim. Moreover, Sumangala's institUtion
of a new ordination explicitly contested the Asgiriya's caste-based ordi-
nation, which had worked to link the two temples for many years and to
authorize the Asgiriya monks' claim to the "long-standing" leadership of
the Dambulla temple. It was through the Asgiriya's caste-based ordina-
tion, which they received every year, that the Dambulla monks had
defined themselves as bhikkhus, "full-fledged monks." By obviating the .
Dambulla monks' long-maintained necessity of receiving ordination
from the Asgiriya temple, the new ordination created a gulf between the
two temples in such a way that the Asgiriya monks could no longer be
part of the Dambulla temple since they do not now participate in the
same tradition of the higher ordination. Before I discuss ways in which
some of the discourses are communicated, I want to examine a few con-
temporary practices that render those discourses about the antiquity of
the Dambulla temple more visible to its visitors.
Today, the Dambulla temple pre.sents itself as an "ancient, sacred,
independent" Buddhist temple in every sense of these terms. The prac-
tices that .communicate these adjectives as meaningful are made striking-
ly visible to visitors. One such practice is the dress code ("dressing
properly") to which all visitors - both local and foreign - should con-
form when entering the "sacred" grounds of the temple on the rock.
Until very recently, as far as my research indicates, there was no formal
injunction against wearing "short frocks" or "short-trousers" within the
"sacred" premises at Dambulla.
49
48. Divayina, June 20, 1984.
49. "Footwear, headgear, cameras taboo at Dambulla Viharaya," Daily News, Feb. 8,
1994.
ABEYSEKARA 273
It is, of course, customary that when Buddhists enter the "image
house" (budu ge) at any Buddhist temple they do so dressed in an attire
that covers almost completely both the upper and lower parts of the
body as a mark of reverence for the Buddha. However, there is no
"guard" at the entrance to most temples to bar those "dressed improp-
erly" from entering the temple. The only religious establishment where
there are "guards" at the entrance making sure that visitors are "dressed
properly" is the Temple of the Tooth (daladii miiligiiwa),50 a center of
worship fiequentedby thousands of daily visitors - both local and
foreign. Those who are not "dressed properly" can rent sarongs at the
main entrance before entering the temple.
Sumangala has imposed the very same practice at the Dambulla
temple. No visitor dressed improperly can enter the image house. A
dozen guards are stationed at the entrance to the temple on the rock to
enforce this practice. Those who need to rent a sarong (as did I, dressed
in shorts), may do so from little flower shops at the base of the rock.
Among other injunctions against head-gear and foot-wear, which are
observed at all Buddhist temples, the most conspicuous is the ban on
cameras in the temple. This ban is rendered visible by the "confiscated"
film rolls displayed hanging on the wall behind the security desk near
the entrance to the temple. The injunction was introduced after a mu.ch
publicized scandal of a foreigner being photographed seated on the lap
of a statue of the Buddha.
51
An article in a Sri Lankan English news-
paper, Daily News, in 1994 alluded to the episode and characterized
taking pictures at Dambulla as "taboo." The episode received wide
publicity because it was the first time a "desecrated" statue of the
Buddha, as the article pointed out, was "washed with fragrant water and
... re-painted" so as to "reconsecrate" it.5
2
The ideas of antiquity of the
Dambulla temple played right into this process of "repainting" the statue
of the Buddha. The painter whom Sumangala hired for this assignment,
the article pointed out, was a "descendent of a guild of people who had
come from India during ancient times."53 This claim implies that a
"modern [ordinary]" painter could not paint an "ancient" statue of the
50. The temple is so named because it is believed to house one of the Buddha's tooth
relics.
51. Daily News, Feb. 8, 1994.
52. Daily News, Feb. 8, 1994.
53. Daily News, Feb. 8, 1994.
JIABS 22.2 274
Buddha situated in an "ancient Buddhist temple" and restore it to its
"original purity:"
These practices or "rules," which are new inventions, ~ e strategic
attempts at making visible those discourses about the antiquity of the
temple. In other words, these practices attempt to communicate the new
image of the Dambulla temple as an oasis, an ancient temple with an
"ancient history" that is independent of all other Buddhist tempies,
including the Asgiriya temple, which claims to hold authority over
Dambulla.
It is in these discourses, which represent the Dambulla temple as an
"ancient oasis of heroic monks," that we can locate the new ordination.
The existence of Dambulla from the "very beginning" of Buddhism in
Sri Lanka that SumangaIa and others claim for this temple is as old as
those discourses. 54 In other words, the antiquity of the Dambulla temple
that these discourses construct is as old as the new ordination.5
5
The representation of this new image of the Dambulla temple gain
greater visibility in the context of a hallmark socio-political debate that
took place in Dambulla in 1992. It is in relation to this debate that the
issues of the antiquity of the Dambulla temple and what it means to be a
Buddhist monk in its space are hotly debated by Sumangala, other
monks and lay Buddhists. Since this debate involves the issue of
building of a tourist hotel in KandaIama, an area of Dambulla, I will calI
it the "Kandalama debate." This is a seminal debate because it was
following Sumangala's controversial involvement in it in 1992 that the
54. Here I am aided by a similar argument that Jeganathan has made recently with
regard to Anuradhapura, one of the "ancient" capitals of Sri Lanka. Jeganathan
questions its antiquity and argues that Anuradhapura is as old as the nineteenth
century because the forms of authoritative knowledge about its antiquity came to
be produced in that nineteenth-century colonial rupture. He writes that " ... the
'very beginning,' or point of origin of contemporary authoritative forms of
knowledge about Anuradhapura is recent. The 'very beginning' was only 'the
day before yesterday'" See P. JEGANATHAN: "Authorizing History, Ordering
Land: The Conquest of Anuradhapura," in P. Jeganathan and Q. Ismail eds.:
Unmaking the Nation: The Politics of Identity and History in Modem Sri Lanka,
Colombo: Social Scientists' Association 1995: 107. It must be pointed out,
however, that the antiquity of Anuradhapura may be constructed anew in other
political conditions.
55. For a very different account of the temple's history from mine, see D. G. A.
PERERA: "King Valagamba's Role in the Uncharted History of the Dambulla
Temple," The Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities 22 (1-2) (1996): 83-142.
ABEYSEKARA 275
casteless ordination at the Dambulla temple gained publicity and
Sumangala himself became popular among Sinhala monks and lay
Buddhists.
THE KANDAUMA DEBATE
The Kandalama debate revolved around a private corporation's plan to
build a massive four-story lUXUry hotel in Kandalama, a village near the
Dambulla temple. The government of President Premadasa endorsed this
plan to boost tourism in the country.56 However, Sumangala and the
Dambulla people requested the government to revoke the plan because,
as Bond observes, they argued that " ... a large hotel would adversely
affect the cultural and moral environment of the community, disrupt the
ecological balance of the semi-wilderness area, pollute the water supply
and infringe on the sanctity of the ancient, sacred [Dambulla] Buddhist
shrine."57 As the government ignored the request and continued with its
plan, Sumangala staged a massive, "peaceful demonstration" (satya-
g raha) at the Dambulla temple, in which more than fifty thousand
people - monks and lay people - participated, to oppose the govern-
ment's decision.
58
Among those joined in this opposition effort were
prominent lay Buddhist leaders such as A.T. Ariyaratna.
59
According to
Piyasena, the government confronted Sumangala's challenge head-on by
mobilizing over three thousand official and undercover police officers
who marched into the houses of the Dambulla people and warned them
not to attend the demonstration at the temple.
60
The government also
attempted to impose a curfew and designate Dambulla a "restricted area"
on the day of the demonstration at the temple. It then staged its pro-
government, counter-demonstration, which was poorly attended. The
56. It is curious that 1. VAN DER HOST's Who is he? What is he Doing?: Religious
Rhetoric and Performances in Sri Lanka During R. Premadasa's Presidency
(Amsterdam: UV University Press 1996) makes no mention of this episode
between Sumangala and Premadasa.
57. This movement in relation to Ariyaratne' s participation in this event has been ex-
arnined by G. BOND: "Conflicts ofIdentity and Interpretation in Buddhism," in T.
Bartholomeusz and C. R. De Silva, eds.: Buddhist Fundamentalism and Minority
Identities, Albany: State University of New York Press 1998, pp. 36-52.
58. See L. PIYASENA: Vave Banda Hotalaya, Sarvodaya Vishvaleka: Ratmalana
1994: 69.
59. BOND: "Conflicts of Identity," p. 47.
60. L. PIYASENA: Vave Banda Hotalaya, p.68.
JIABS 22.2 276
government did, however, have the support of some high ranking monks
(mahiinayaka) who argued that the hotel would advance the develop-
ment scheme that President Premadasa had launched to usher ,the country
into a new era of prosperity.61 As these monks began to voice views
supporting the government, a number of debates took place focusing on
issues of the leadership of the Dambulla temple, monastic identity, and
the new ordination.
The Kandalama debate served as a political platform for making more
visible the reconceptualized space of the Dambulla temple. This was
facilitated at the most fundamental level by the argument that the con-
struction of the hotel would "infringe upon the sanctity of the ancient,
sacred [Dambulla temple]." That argument made Sumangala a leading
player in the Kandalama debate since he was now the head of that
"ancient temple" on which the hotel would infringe.
During this period, the non-government newspapers carried a flood of
articles that dramatized the debate. Some of the articles had large,
provocative captions such as, "The Dambulla rock is waging a cold
war," and "The Dambulla temple has been set on fire by villains,"62 One
newspaper ran a story of how Sumangala had received death threats
from unidentified people demanding that he withdraw the satyagraha.
63
While these newspaper articles explained how the Dambulla temple was
involved in the debate, they introduced (and popularized) Sumangala not
only as the head of the Dambulla temple but also as the architect of a
new ordination that is held at that "ancient temple." One such newspaper
article ostensibly discussing the debate devoted much of its content to
the new ordination.
64
61. Daily News, July 23, 1992; cited in G. BOND: "Conflicts of Identity," p. 52. It
must be evident tbat we are not interested in who won this debate tbough it must
be noted tbat tbe hotel was built later.
62. "Dambulu Gale SItaia Satana" ("The Cold War of the Dambulla Rock"),
Lankiidfpa, May 17, 1992; "Dambulu Mahaviharayata Maravaray6 Gini Tabati"
("The Dambulla Royal Temple has been Set on Fire by Villains"), Atta, April 30,
1992; "Dambulu Rajamahaviharaye Potgulata Gini Tabati" ("The Dambulla
Temple's Library is Set on Fire"), Divayina, April 29, 1992. Many of these
statements were polemical. PIYASENA says that only tbe temple library - not tbe
whole temple - had been set on fIre. L. PIYASENA: Viive Banda HOtalaya, p.45.
63. "Inamaluwe Nahimiyanta Marana Tarjana" ("Deatb Threats to Inamaluwe
Sumangala"), Lankadfpa, May 8, 1992.
64. Lankadfpa, May 17, 1992.
ABEYSEKARA 277
The meteoric rise of Sumangala and the new ordination in the public
consciousness during this period precipitated a climate in which the
issues of the leadership of the Dambulla temple and what it means to be
a monk came to be debated more visibly. In the wake of Sumangala's
popularity, one chief (Asgiriya) monk, Aruvala Somaratana, appeared
live on state-owned television and accused Sumangala of misleading the
public by pretending to be the head of the Dambulla temple. He said that
Sumangala had been presenting himself as the head of the Dambulla
temple when the real head of the Dambulla temple was in fact at
Asgiriya. Implicit in this accusation was the question of the validity of
the new ordination since it is held annually under Sumangala's leader-
ship.65 In responding to this accusation, Sumangala went on to criticize
monks such as Somaratana as "state monastic tools" that the government
was using to distract the public from the Kandalama debate.
66
Leading
Sinhalese newspapers carried reports of Sumangala's speaking to
professional lay and monastic audiences at major Sri Lankan universities
and accusing such pro-government chief monks of having become
"pliable as rubber (rabar patipanna vela) when the Buddha had said that
they should be firm and upright (ujupatipanna)."67 Other newspapers
reported his addressing large audiences at respectable Buddhist temples
in Colombo and stating that "Some monks have thrown to the winds the
dignity of the sangha because of greed for high office and other
[political] material benefits."68 Sumangala also made it clear in my
interview with him that some monks have "lost their autonomy and
power (balaya) and become like puppets because they seek political
benefits." Sumangala often made these criticisms even at meetings where
chief monks who had supported the construction of the Kandalama hotel
were present.
69
From Sumangala's perspective, the "real monk" is the
"firm monk" who is apolitical and does not seek political benefits. He
claims to represent this image of the "real monk" at the Dambulla
temple, which, as he stated in the interview, is a place "where heroic
monks lived in the past and worked to help the nation without seeking
political benefits."
65. Cited in PIYASENA: Vave Banda Hotalaya, pp. 63-66.
66. Lankadfpa, July 10, 1992.
67. Lankiidfpa, August 12, 1992.
68. Divayina, Oct. 12, 1993.
69. Island, Oct. 18, 1993.
JIABS 22.2 278
The discourses about what it means to be this "real monk," within
these representations of the Dambulla temple gained greater visibility in
relation to a different aspect of the Kandalama debate. Sunpngala met
with his sangha committee, consisting of one hundred and seventy
monks, and they decided that they would boycott every political meeting
taking place in the area and that no politician would be invited to a
Buddhist event until the government had withdrawn its plan to build the
hotel. 70 After the newspapers carried the report of this decision, as
Piyasena informs us, President Premadasa called Sumangala at five
o'clock in the morning one day and warned him to persuade the other
monks in the Dambulla area to reverse their decision.?! Sumangala
refused to do so stating that the decision was a collective one by the
members of the Dambulla monks.?2
Today some Sinhalese writers refer to this episode and portray
Sumangala as that "firm, real" monk who did not accede to the
President's "threat" to gain "political benefits" but moved ahead with his
decision even at the risk of his own life to further the cause.?3 Others
viewing this episode in retrospect write to newspapers about Dambulla
monks' "path of independence" and assert in hyperbolic phrases that
"those cardboard political leaders who had threatened the Dambulla
monks on the phone crumbled to pieces."74 A famous Buddhist Sinhala
monk, Maduluwawe Sobhita,75 congratulating Sumangala on his leader-
ship in the Kandalama debate, writes that "[a] Buddhist priest exercises
an unlimited sovereignty of free thought, expression, and writing ... No
one possess[es] this privilege other than a Buddhist monk. Ven.
70. Lankildfpa, May 8, 1992 ..
71. PIYASENA: Vave Banda Hotalay, p.42-43.
72. PIYASENA records the entire content of the conversation. PIYASENA: Vave Banda
Hotalaya, pp.42-43.
73. PIYASENA: Vave Banda H6talaya, p.43.
74. See "Dambulu Viharaye Swadlna Gaman Maga" ("Independent Path of the
Dambulla Temple"), Divayina, July 30, 1995.
75. It was Sobhita's picture that appeared on the front page of S. J. TAMBIAH's
Buddhism Betrayed: Religion, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press 1992), a text that generated a polemical debate about
the politics of representing Buddhist identity in Sri Lanka. On some aspects of
this controversy in relation to questions of Buddhist identity, see Ananda
ABEYSEKARA: "The Ritual of Yaktovil and Being Buddhist," Journal of the
American Oriental Society, forthcoming.
ABEYSEKARA 279
Sumangala is fully conscious of [this] role of the [monk)."76 These dis-
courses about the monastic identity of the Dambulla temple have their
reality within that reconceptualized space of the Dambulla temple in
which "heroic monks" lived in the "ancient past." It is in this reconcep-
tualized space' that Sumangala, other monks and lay people continue to
debate the new ordination.
It is important to reiterate that I have not given, as some might say, an
account of "what this ordination is all about" and, therefore, have not
treated it as a self-evident social phenomenon. The new ordination is not
just about caste: it revolves around the issues of the legitimacy of
Sumangala's leadership of the Dambulla temple and also around the
process of redefining what it means to be a Buddhist monk in the recon-
ceptualized space of the Dambulla temple within a specific political
contexts.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The construction of a new image of the Dambulla temple was facilitated
by several factors. Significant among them were the government's
designation of the Dambulla temple as a "sacred area," followed by its
archaeological excavation works, which, as endorsed by then Prime
Minister Premadasa himself, "unearthed" the artifacts of antiquity,
which proved the existence of the Dambulla and its temple from "the
very beginning of Buddhism in Sri Lanka." Equally important was the
new phase of leadership at the Dambulla temple under its new incum-
bent, Inamaluwe Sumangala. Having capitalized on the state-designated
sacrality of the Dambulla temple, Sumangala implemented the casteless
ordination, "challenging" the caste-based ordination of the Asgiriya
monks. The Asgiriya monks had claimed for centuries that they had the
legitimate authority over the leadership of the temple because King
Klrthi Sri Rajasimha conceded the administration of the Dambulla
temple to the Asgiriya monks on the grounds that the Dambulla monks
had not performed their duties "properly." However, the new ordination
gave Sumangala ammunition to contest the authority of the Asgiriya
monks' claim by implying that Asgiriya monks had not done their duties
"properly" by ordaining monks on the basis of caste. In fact, Sumangala
argued in his interview with me that the Asgiriya monks have "followed
the 'doctrine of the king' (raja bana) and not the 'doctrine of the
76. See D. Ananda ed.: Abhivandana: Felicitations (No Publisher).
JIABS 22.2 280
Buddha' (budu bana) by ordaining .monks on the basis of caste" because
caste, he claims, was institutionalized by a king. Therefore, from
Sumangala's point of view, caste and politics are two sides 9f the same
coin; to abandon caste in the monkhood is to abandon political authority.
The Kandalama debate, which was the crowning movement in the
establishment of Dambulla as a sacred area, enabled Sumangala to make
these discourses more public. By portraying the image of a monk who
rejects both caste and thereby political authority Sumangala castigated
the monks who supported the government for taking political sides and
losing their autonomy and power. In doing so, Sumangala contested the
authority of the very state that helped to construct that new image of the
Dambulla temple in which the new ordination originated and is debated
among monks and lay people in Sri Lanka.
The new ordination, the administration of the Dambulla temple under
Sumangala's leadership, and the Premadasa government's attempt to
build a hotel on the Dambulla "sacred" grounds complex are not just
"local" debates. These debates point to complex ways in which questions
about what it means to be a Buddhist monk - that is to say, whether or
not Buddhism or Buddhist monastic identity is casteless or what should
and should not be the appropriate "Buddhist" relationship between
monks / temples and politicians / politics - are rendered possible by
political conditions at the "national" level.
ANNE M. BLACKBURN
Looking for the Vinaya: Monastic Discipline
in the Practical Canons of the Theravada*
Introduction
This paper introduces a new distinction between the 'formal' and the
'practical' canon, arguing that this distinction allows scholars of the
Theravada to write histories of Buddhist practice with greater precision.
The merits of the distinction between the formal and the practical canon
are explored through an examination of the way in which monks were
taught about monastic discipline in medieval Sri Lanka. I show that until
they became Theras few monks encountered the Vinaya Pitaka (here-
after, Vinaya) in anything close to its full form. Instead, monks engaged
ideas about monastic discipline through Pali and local-language conden-
sations of and commentaries on the Vinaya. Moreover, selected texts
from the Sutta Pitaka played a central role in drawing monks into a dis-
tinctive life of discipline. Monastic leaders in medieval Sri Lanka con-
sidered the Anumiina, Dasadhamma and (Karal}fya)metta Suttas to be
important resources for monastic education. Along with commentaries
written in Pali and Sinhala, these suttas were central monastic guidelines
in the practical canons of medieval Sri Lankan Buddhist communities.
Looking closely at these suttas and their commentaries, I explain that
they were important texts for medieval Sri Lankan monks because they
offered highly accessible accounts of monastic discipline. As such, they
* This paper draws on research conducted with funding from the Fulbright-Hays
Fellowship Program, Mellon Fellowships in the Humanities, the University of
Chicago Divinity School, and the Committee on Southern Asian Studies at the
University of Chicago. Some of the ideas included in it were fIrst presented at a
seminar on "Pali Texts in New Contexts" sponsored by the American Academy
of Religion. I would like to express my gratitude for this generous support. In
addition, I wish to thank John Holt, Julie Gifford, Manten van Steenbergen and
the anonymous reader at JIABS for their comments on earlier versions of this
essay, and Steven Collins and Seth Fleisher for sending xeroxes from the centers
to the periphery. Thanks are due also to James Gair and W.S. Karunatilaka for
comments on N. Ratnapala's translation of the katikiivatas.
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
VOLUME 22. NUMBER 2.1999
JIABS 22.2 282
were particularly valuable during periods in which monastic leaders
attempted to reorganize monastic institutions and establish clear guide-
lines for conduct within the sarp.gha.
'Formal' and 'Practical' Canon.
Until recently, studies of the Theravada have emphasized the central
place of Pali, and particularly canonical Pali texts, in discussions of
Buddhist teachings and the ways in which Buddhists have encountered
them. This focus on Pali language and thePali Canon emerged through
what Charles HALLISEY has described as "intercultural mimesis" ( ~ 9 9 5 :
33). HALLISEY uses this term to refer to an elective affinity between
Theravadin references to the authority of the tipi!aka and the expecta-
tions of textual scholars and missionaries who encountered Theravadin
cultures during the colonial period. Today, caught up in the important
work of editing, translating and analyzing canonical Pili texts and their
commentaries, we have only begun to notice that the assimilation of and
reflection on Buddhist ideas has in most times and places not occurred
through exposure to the Pali tipi!aka in its entirety.! Rather, these pro-
cesses have been characterized by an encounter with parts of the tipi!aka,
selected commentarial texts in both Pili and local languages, and a rich
array of non-tipi!aka texts written in Pali and local languages.
2
As
HALLISEY notes in a brief but helpful discussion of Theravadin Vinaya
literature, for instance, "the vast and intimidating literature associated
with the Vinaya ... makes relating the canonical Vinaya to actual practice
in diverse contexts more complex than has generally been admitted by
students of Buddhism" (1990, 207). In a similar vein, Steven COLLINS
notes that "[t]he evidence suggests that both in so-called 'popular' prac-
1. Clearly, there are clearly exceptions, or near exceptions, such as the celebrated
commentator Buddhaghosa, or a contemporary Thai monastic intellectual, Phra
Prayudh Payutto (on whom see OLSON 1995).
2. The growing number of studies referring to manuscript evidence make a very
important contribution to our recognition of this. See, for instance, SKILLING
1992 and VON HINUBER 1996. In this regard, see also HALLISEY (1990, 1995)
and note SCHOPEN's comment on textual emphases in Buddhist Studies: "But
notice too that this position, which gives overriding primacy to textual sources,
does not even consider the possibility that the texts we are to study to arrive at a
knowledge of 'Buddhism' may not even have been known to the vast majority of
practicing Buddhists - both monks and laity" (1997, 2). HOLT (1996) argues that
visual narratives were far more important than textual ones for lay Buddhists in
late medieval Sri Lanka.
BLACKBURN 283
tice and in the monastic world, even among vi.!tuosos, only parts of the
canonical collection have ever been in wide currency, and that other
texts have been known and used, sometimes much more widely" (1990:
103). COLLINS bases his statement in part on an important observation
about text-based education in the Theravada and other religious com-
munities made by Charles KEYES, a portion of which I quote below:
The relevance of texts to religious dogma ii:t the worldview of any people cannot
be assumed simply because some set of texts has been recognized as belonging to
a particular religious tradition ... There is no single integrated textual tradition
based on a "canon" to the exclusion of all other texts ... The very size and com-
plexity of a canon leads those who use it to give differential emphasis to its com-
ponent texts. Moreover, even those for whom a defined set of scriptures exist
will employ as sources of religious ideas many texts which do not belong to a
canon .... Moreover, for any particular temple monastery in Thailand or Laos, the
collection of texts available to the people in the associated community are not
exactly the same as those found in another temple monastery (1983: 272).
Building on KEYES' comments and a survey of manuscript catalogues,
COLLINS notes that"[i]t might well be that the content of most smaller
libraries is in effect a 'ritual canon'; that is, it contains the texts, canoni-
cal or otherwise, which are in actual use in ritual life in the area con-
cerned" (1990: 104).3 In what follows I extend KEYES' argument
against "a single integrated textual tradition based on a 'canon' to the
exclusion of all other texts," with an obvious debt to the other scholars
just cited, by developing a distinction between the 'formal' canon and
the 'practical' canon and suggesting its uses as a tool for historians of
Buddhism.
4
I then apply it to the study of monastic disciplinary educa-
tion in medieval Sri Lanka.
Rather than noting that the Theravada has a canon - the tipi!aka - and
assuming that it is at once a locus of authority and a primary tool in
Buddhist education, I suggest that we look for two types of canon in the
Theravada. The first is the canon as a concept, and as the ultimate locus
of interpretive authority. This I call the 'formal' canon. This formal
3. This statement about contemporary textual use is in harmony with Peter
SKILLING's observations of Buddhist textuaIity in earlier periods: "A distinguish-
ing mark of the T a k ~ a literature is that it was actually used - that is, memorized
and recited for specific purposes - by both monks and lay followers, from a very
early date. This is in contrast with the bulk of the canonical literature which
would only have been studied by the assidious [sic] few, mainly monk-scholars"
(1992: 113).
4. An initial attempt to elaborate this distinction appears in BLACKBURN 1996.
JIABS 22.2 284
canon, or the "very idea of the Pali canon," has a history, as Steven
COLLINS (1990) has engagingly shown. Since the fifth century C. E. the
formal canon has sometimes served as a point of reference in Buddhist
discussions of monastic history and identity. It has also played an impor-
tant role in what HALLISEY calls a "metaphysics of origins" in the
Theravada (HALLISEY 1995: 43). Here HALLISEY refers to a literary
practice in which Theravadin authors regularly and formally defer
authority to a Pali canon even if they do not engage specific portions of
the tipitaka in any sustained manner.
The second type of canon in the Theravada is what I call the
'practical' canon.
s
This may include portions of the tipitaka and 'com-
mentaries which encompassed, and perhaps "filtered"6 these portions of
the tipitaka to students. It may also include texts understood by their
authors, readers and listeners as works about the Buddhist dhamma,
consistent with but perhaps not explicitly related to, sections of the Pali
tipitaka and its commentaries. The practical canon thus refers to the
units of text actually employed in the practices of collecting manuscripts,
copying them, reading them, commenting on them, listening to them, and
preaching sermons based upon them that are understood by their users as
part of a tipitaka-based tradition. Note that COLLINS also uses.the term
"practical canon," in a new application of the work (COLLINS 1990)
from which I quoted above. For COLLINS the term has the following
more general meaning: "works in actual use at any given places and
times" (1998: 78).
Distinguishing between the practical and the formal canon is useful in
at least three ways. First, it allows us to orient the study of Buddhist
textual practice, and the study of Buddhist communities generally, to-
wards accounts which attend closely to historical differences and
regional particularity. If we map out the practical canons used in various
times and places by Buddhist communities associated with the Theravada
we will gain a much more vivid and detailed understanding of how
Buddhist identity was and is shaped through educational experiences.?
5. A term used also in BLACKBURN 1996: 90.
6. Here I am borrowing a phrase from CABEZON's (1996: 2) discussion of the rela-
tions between Tibetan and Indian commentarial materials.
7. COLLINS states that "unfortunately, we will almost never have any real knowl-
edge of what such a practical canon might have been in specific locales before
recent times" (1998: 78). I am somewhat more optimistic about the possibility of
mapping the practical canon (as I use the term) across time and space. This is
BLACKBURN 285
Second, we will be able to relate changes in textual practice to their
historical context, exploring the reasons for specific patterns of textual
composition and use. Third, separating the formal and the practical
callon in our analysis gives scholars of the Theravada a new way to look
for, and at, the'variety of ways in which textual authority is articulated
within Theravada Buddhism. In other words, if we explore the texts
actually used in a particular time and place (the practical canon) and the
ways in which Buddhist authors and commentators link these to the
formal canon, we will be able to identify a set of textual strategies
through which the formal canon is made relevant to textual production.
Although I do not apply the practical-formal canon distinction to non-
Theravadin contexts, I hope that colleagues working in these contexts
will find it suggestive.
In the remainder of this paper I use the distinction between the formal
and practical canon to frame a discussion of the ways Sri Lankan monks
were educated about monastic discipline in two periods: the 12th-13th
centuries and the 18th century. In doing so, I indicate that while the
Vinaya remained important as part of the formal canon it was relatively
unimportant as part of the practical canon. Further, I argue that certain
suttas became an important part of the practical canon in these historical
contexts because they provided an engaging way to introduce monks to
disciplined conduct.
Monastic Discipline in the Practical Canons of the Theraviida
We know that a disciplined monastic life is central to the normative
vision of the Theravada and other Buddhist traditions. Such discipline is
said to help monks on the path to liberation and to offer a compassionate
example to lay Buddhists. As Richard GOMBRICH puts it, "we may say
that living the life of the monk just as the Vinaya prescribes it is very
close, as close as it is possible to get, to acting out in daily life the spiri-
clearly easier when, as for the 18th and 19th centuries, we have a plentiful
manuscript record to work with which can often be read in relation to regional, if
not temple, use (e.g. BLACKBURN (ms.)) but it is also possible for earlier periods
with attention to the intertextual references visible in Buddhist texts and inscrip-
tions. The fragmented understanding of 'tradition' that is likely to emerge from
such studies of intertextuality may actually bring us closer to the textual experi-
ence of many Buddhists in the pre-printing era. See DAGENAIS 1994 for interest-
ing observations in this regard.
JIABS 22.2 286
tual goal of attaining nibbana" (1988: 89).8 But how, in fact, have
monks within the Theravilda been trained to learn a life of discipline?9
Textbook introductions to Theravada Buddhism typically gescribe the
Vinaya as the source through which monks learn about monastic disci-
pline.1
O
Yet, when we look closely at evidence for monastic education in Sri
Lanka during the 12th-13th centuries and the 18th century, we find that
sustained and direct access to the Vinaya was quite uncommon. I I How,
then, were monks exposed to normative ideas about monastic discipline?
Monks encountered these ideas partly through condensations of and
commentaries on parts of the Vinaya which were written in Pilii and
Sinhala because, as HALLISEY suggests,
Theravadins found the Vinaya both too little and too much. They found it too little
in so far as the canonical text required elucidation and clarification, and as a
result, massive commentaries and glossaries were written on it...They found it too
much in so far as the size of the canonical Vinaya made it unwieldly [sic] and
they consequently wrote diverse summaries and compendiums, including
Buddhadatta's Vinaya-vinicchaya and Sariputta's Muttaka-Vinaya-Vinicchaya.
Such works were written to present the Vinaya's practical message in a more
manageable fashion. In a similar vein, handbooks like the Khuddasikha, MuZa-
sikha, Heral}asikha, and indeed the katikiivatas themselves [on which see below]
were written to provide even more practical guidance (HALLISEY 1990: 207);
Strikingly, however, we also find that most monks were expected to
learn a great deal about disciplined monasticism through a set of three
suttas which they sometimes encountered with commentary written in
Pilli and/or Sinhala.
The monastic regulations which I draw upon to describe those parts of
the practical canon concerned with monastic discipline are known as
katikavatas. These are agreements on rules of conduct for monks, set
forth by the most powerful monastic leader of the time at a convocation
8. See HOLT 1995 for a thoughtful study of the relationship between monastic
discipline and soteriological goals.
9. I do not, of course, argue that all monks within the Theravada (or any other tradi-
tion) are disciplined monks. Rather, I am concerned here with the ways in which
a life of discipline is and was promoted as proper practice.
10. See, for instance, GOMBRICH 1988 and ROBINSON, JOHNSON et aZ 1997.
11. I have chosen to look at the Sri Lankan case in these periods because monastic
regulations from that period provide a relatively rich picture of Buddhist monastic
curriculum which has not yet been explored in any detail despite the 1971 Sinhala
edition and English translation of these regulations by N andasena RATNAP ALA.
BLACKBURN 287
of the si:up.gha held for the reorganization or "cleansing" (to adopt the
perspective of the katikiivatas themselves) of the monastic community.
The reorganizations which resulted in the katikavatas I will be consider-
ing here all occurred with royal support, and the katikiivatas often bear
the names of the kings reigning at the time of the convocation. The
katikiivatas were written during periods of monastic reorganization when
some members of the monastic leadership were concerned to address in-
ternal instability and were intended to be used regularly thereafter for
the guidance of the sazp.gha. Therefore, these regulations provide impor-
tant and detailed evidence of the ways in which educational practices
developed. Precisely because these works were written to respond to
practical problems within the monastic community (which appear to
have included slow-witted monks as well as monastic rivals), they give a
remarkably frank view of educational limitations among monks, and
indicate a "base-line" for acceptable monastic education.
The twelfth-century Mahii Pariikramabiihu Katikiivata instructs novice
monks to memorize a Sinhala prose extract from the Vinaya which
contains guidelines for novice monks
12
, as well as part of the Piiti-
mokkha and the Dasadhamma Sutta. Monks in the first years after upa-
sampada, or higher ordination, were obliged to memorize "at least the
Khuddasikkhii and the Piitimokkha from the Vinaya and the Dasa-
dhamma Sutta and Anumiina Sutta from the Suttas" (RATNAPALA 1971:
38-9). They were also asked to memorize the Mulasikkhii and the Sikha-
va!aiida-vinisa. The Khuddasikkhii and Mulasikkhii are verse summaries
of the Vinaya written in Pali. Sikhava!aiida-vinisa is Sinhala prose
translation of Mulasikkhii accompanied by a Sinhala commentary
(GODAKUMBURA 1955: 4; 16-8).
The DambadeIJ-i Katikiivata set forth in 1266-7 under the authority of
King Vijayabahu III, describes a system of monastic education in more
elaborate terms. Its detailed prescription of monastic educational attain-
ments required for each rank in the monastic hierarchy directs our atten-
tion in important ways to the process by which monks learned about
monastic discipline. These educational requirements indicate that the
only monks expected to have a substantial direct knowledge of the
Vinaya, apart from the Piitimokkha, were the monks eligible for Thera
status. For all junior monks, encounters with the Vinaya were expected
12. Called HeraJ?asikhli.
nABS 22.2 288
to proceed primarily through partial Vinaya commentaries and conden-
sations using a 'combination of Pilli and Sinhala.
Newcomers to the sarp.gha were expected to learn the Sinh?la alphabet
and to study a brief account of the Buddha's life. They were also
supposed to study the paritta corpus and the Dhammapada (RATNA-
PALA 1971: 48). In order to be admitted as a novice, they had t() be
trained in the contents of the katikiivatas themselves (50). After becom-
ing a novice, a monk was asked to memorize Hera1Jasikha which is a
Sinhala prose translation of part of the Vinaya containing rules for the
acceptance of novices into the order (GODAKUMBURA 1955: 16-8). He
was also charged to memorize training rules included in the Pii!imokkha
as well as meditation guidelines and accounts of virtuous conduct,13 At
the time of upasampada, the monk was to read the katikiivata itself, and
be taught other sections of the Vinaya rules (RATNAPALA 1971: 50).14
The monk who had received upasampada was expected to memorize
Mulasikkhii and the katikiivatas, as well as to learn the Sikhava!anda-
vinisa fully by heart (50). In order to achieve the title of Nisrayamukta,
or freed from the nissaya, a monk was to memorize the Bhikkhu-and
Bhikkhunf- Pii!imokkhas and Khuddasikkhii, as well as grammatical texts
set by his teacher,15 He was also required to prepare for examination on
portions of these works plus Buddhaghosa's commentary on the Pii!i-
mokkha (51).1
6
A student seeking the title of Thera was required to learn additional
texts. It was only at this point in a monastic career that a student was
expected to become familiar with substantial portions of the Vinaya it-
self. At this stage, the monk was told to study the Bhikku- and Bhikkhu-
nf-vibhaliga, as well as the Khandakavatta and one of the four nikayas
13. The meditation guidelines were Kiigiyasi (inindfulness of the body as described
in the Mahiisatipa!!hiina Sutta) and Satara-kamatahan (the four objects of medi-
tation described in the Mahiisatipa!!hiina Sutta. An account of virtuous conduct
is listed as the Catupansuddhi -sUa.
14. The Sanghadisesa from the Pii!imokkha and the Patiggahanasikha from the
pacittiya.
15. And the Artha-SaTJ'lgraha, perhaps a text on the Abhidhamma. See RATNAPALA
(1971: 203, n.24.3).
16. RATNAPALA later notes that the Andhakavinda, Mahiiriihuloviida, Amba!!ha,
Tisso anumodanii, and Kammiikammavinicchaya were required study for the
title of Nisrayamukta, but these are not mentioned in the katikiivata itself (1971:
290).
BLACKBURN 289
from the Sutta Pitaka (51-52; 204; 290). The candidate was subject to
examination on portions from these texts as well as from the Vinaya's
Parajika and Pacittiya rules (51-2).
We see that junior monks were not expected to study long sections of
the Vinaya. They were, however, required to study specific parts of the
Sutta Pitaka and this is important to my argument here. When we look
in the practical canons of medieval Sri Lanka for texts used to inculcate
monastic discipline we find that particular suttas are consistently men-
tioned. The Mahii Pariikramabiihu Katikiivata singles out the Dasa-
dhamma and Anumiina Suttas for monastic study. It is clear that these
suttas are understood as parts of an education in disciplined monasticism
since the katikiivata mentions them in the same line as it mentions the
study of selected monastic rules (RATNAPALA 1971: 38-9). The
DambadelJi Katikiivata instructs monks to contemplate the Anumiina and
Dasadhamma Suttas regularly: "All [monks] - the sthaviras, the new-
comers and those at the middle level - should concentrate on the
Anumiina-sutta and the Dasadhamma-sutta without distraction at least
once a day" (RATNAPALA 1971: 52).17 Those preparing for the novi-
tiate were told to study the paritta collection (catubhiilJaviira) which
contains the Dasadhamma and (KaralJlya)metta Suttas (48). All of these
educational guidelines were carried over into the first katikiivata pro-
mulgated in the eighteenth century during the reign of King KIrti SrI
Rajasirpha (99, 101).
Looking at these monastic regulations teaches us two things of impor-
tance in our study of monastic discipline and the practical canons of the
Sri Lankan Theravada. First, partial, and often indirect, access to the
Vinaya was the rule rather than the exception. Apart from the Piiti-
mokkha, monks engaged the contents of the Vinaya through partial com-
mentaries, condensations and the katikiivatas themselves until they
reached the final levels of monastic training. Second, the Vinaya and its
condensations and commentaries were not the only way in which monks
were expected to learn about monastic discipline. Consistent references
to certain suttas, including the Anumiina and Dasadhamma Suttas make
it clear that these were understood as an important source of guidance.
Below I explore the suttas used to teach monastic discipline which were
part ofthe practical canon in the 12-13th centuries and the 18th century.
In doing so, I suggest that these suttas were an important part of the
17. Unless otherwise noted, all translation are the author's own.
nABS 22.2 290
practical canon precisely because they provided vivid and highly acces-
sible depictions' of the monastic life.
The katikiivatas' indication that specific PaIi suttas were uS,ed to guide
monastics in disciplined conduct is borne out by a series of letters
written by the eighteenth-century monastic leader, VaIivita SaraI).a.tp.-
kara. In letters of advice and exhortation written by to
monks in Sri Lanka's southern region during his tenure as Sa.tp.gharaja
(leader of the monastic community), SaraI}.ru:p.kara provides valuable
evidence of the way monks were expected to learn monastic discipline.
In his letter written to Vatarakgodha DhammapaIa, head of the
Mulgirigala lineage, in which he gives instructions for training the
monks under DhammapaIa's guidance, SaraI).rupkara indicates that
certain aspects of monastic discipline to be taught with reference to
particular parts of the Sutta Pitaka:
have them learn especially that the virtues of abstention from what is unskillful,
contentment and non-covetousness as they are presented in the KaraI}Iyametta
Siitra, in the Dasadhamma Siitra, in the Dharmadaylida Siitra, in the Mahiirya-
vaxpa Siitra and in the YogIkatha should be practiced, should be done repeatedly
and should be fulfilled by those with the ideas of good people, who like disci-
pline, who are afraid of srupsara, who are afraid of evil, and who have been born
during a period characterized by a Buddha's birth (VACISSARA 1964: 215, ).
This view is supported further by another letter of instruction sent by
SaraI).ru:p.kara to his monastic followers in which he says,
... stick to the ascetic virtues such as non-covetousness and contentment
expressed in siitras like the Dasadhamma Sutra, the Karmffyametta Sutra, and
the Dhammadayada Sutra (VACISSARA 1964: 212, emphasis added).
Here it is important to note that when SaraI).ru:p.kara wants to teach his
students about the "ascetic virtues" he tells them to look at specific suttas
rather at the Vinaya.
If we wish to begin understanding the practices by which monks were
trained in monastic discipline, we must look carefully at these suttas to
see the ways in which their content entered into monastic exhortation
and reflection. In what follows I look closely at three of the suttas con-
sistently mentioned above: the Anumiina Sutta, the Dasadhamma Sutta
and the (Karanfya)metta Sutta. The Dasadhamma and (Karanfya) metta
Suttas are both included within the corpus of paritta texts (or, catu-
bhii1J.aviira) which was referred to in the katikiivatas discussed above.
The katikiivatas also make separate references to the Anumiina and
BLACKBURN 291
Dasadh-amma Suttas. The (KaralJfya)metta and Dasadhamma Suttas
appear in the eighteenth-century monastic letters.
Three Suttas in the Practical Canon
Looking at these suttas as individual Pali texts, and then as Pilii texts
mediated by Pali and Sinhala commentary, I will show why these suttas
were selected to teach monks about disciplined conduct. We find that
each of these three suttas provides a highly realistic depiction of monas-
tic life which challenges the student-monk to monitor three aspects of
his behavior - physical action, verbal action and mental action - and to
attend closely to the demands of monastic authority.
The Anumiina Sutta appears in the Majjhima Nikiiya (M.LlS), and
presents instructions given by Maha Moggallana to a group of monks.
Moggallana describes two scenarios in which a monk is questioned by
other monks about his discipline. In one case, we are told, the monk is
stubborn, illspoken, impatient, and unresponsive to instruction. In the
other, the monk is gentle, wellspoken, calm and responsive to instruc-
tion. The presence of certain qualities creates the first situation and their
absence the second. These qualities are: being influenced by unskillful
desires, being conceited and contemptuous of others, being overpowered
by anger, acting with ill will about the cause of anger, clinging to the
cause of anger, speaking angrily, blaming when blamed, refusing blame
when blamed, returning blame when blamed, avoiding blame when
blamed and creating discontent, failing to explain conduct when blamed,
acting harshly and spitefully, being envious and avaricious, being crafty
and deceitful, being harsh and proud, being wordly and obstinate, and
finding renunciation difficult.
Moggallana continues by saying that when one encounters someone
else with the negative characteristics, one should not follow the instinc-
tive impulse to mirror such undesirable behaviors, but should, instead,
concentrate on behaving differently. Moreover, one should examine one-
self with regard to these characteristics. If they exist, one should strive
to eradicate these unskillful elements and, if not, one should live happily
with the knowledge of their absence. The sutta ends with the following
simile:
Just as a man or a woman or a youngster who likes pretty things reflects on his
or her own image in a clean mirror or a clear bowl of water, sees a stain or
blemish and tries to get rid of it, or sees no such thing and rejoices, so a reflective
monk who sees that these unskillful elements are present in himself should strive
JIABS 22.2 292
to get rid of them, and one who do.es not should live happily, working on the
skillful elements day and night:
The sutta is striking for its enumeration of psychological states which
impede personal liberation. The situations which Moggallana describes
also make a strong case for certain behaviors as necessary for the smooth
functioning of a monastic community. In a community of monks includ-
ing those at all levels of attainment, a monk is charged to heed criticism
and to use the presence of unskilled companions to enhance rather than
impede his own progress.
The Dasadhamma Sutta, found in the Anguttara Nikiiya (A.y.48),
pursues the question of reflective monastic conduct in an interactive,
question-answer style. The sutta tells us that the Buddha preached its
contents in order to instruct a company of monks in ten things "which
should always be reflected upon by a monk." These ten reflections
encompass a full range of mental and physical experience.
A monk should always reflect: "I look different." "My life is dependent on
others," "I should maintain a different deportment." "Don't I censure my own
mental conduct?" "Don't wise people who know me censure [faults in] ascetic
practice?" " will be separated from everything dear to me." " am my own karma,
an heir to karma, a source of karma, bound up with karma, a receptacle for karma.
I inherit the karma I do." "How do I occupy myself, day and night?" "Do I
delight in an empty place?" "Do I have extraordinary qualities? Am I distin-
guished by proper knowledge and vision? At death, questioned by ascetics, will I
be flustered [by questions about my attainments]?"
The ten elements on which the monk is to reflect focus attention on
several different but closely related aspects of monastic life: the physi-
cally distinctive appearance of a monk which identifies him as someone
who has crossed a threshold from lay life, the external conduct of a
monk and; the monk's internal, psychological, development. The monk
is asked to monitor his own behavior and to remain aware of collective
opinion: the ten elements combined present a picture of ideal personal
discipline within the monastic community. The monk's life is identified
as at once markedly different from (" I look different. I should maintain
a different deportment.") and intimately bound to ("My life is dependent
on others.") a community of lay men and women.
The (Kara':!fya)metta Sutta from the Khuddakapathii (Kbp.9) is a
sermon reported to have been preached by the Buddha in order to
protect monks meditating in the forest from disturbances by angry tree
deities. While the second portion of the sutta provides a detailed account
of mettii bhavanii, the Buddha's protective prescription for meditating
BLACKBURN 293
monks, the first portion describes the characteristics which are desirable
for a monk on the path to nibbiina.
What should be done by one skilled in his own development who understands
the peaceful foundation [of nibbiina] is this:
He should be able, upright, very resolute, gentle, of sweet speech and without
pride,
content and easy to support, with few cares and few needs, wise and with calmed
faculties, not bold, not attached to families,
and without an inferior act with regard to proper conduct because of which the
wise should censure him.
These lines of the sutta present a picture of ideal behavior in which
physical, verbal and mental conduct are careful and skilled. The sutta
refers to physical actions such as modesty and the absence of acts which
deserve censure. Verbal conduct - such as sweet speech - and mental
conduct - resolution, humility, calmed faculties - are also identified as
integral parts of progress along the path to nibbana. Many of these
aspects of behavior are appropriate to anyone, whether lay or monastic,
engaged in Buddhist practice. However, the sutta also highlights aspects
of conduct specifically appropriate to the monastic life: the monk,
dependent on others for daily requirements, should be content and easily
supported, with few cares and modest needs. Moreover the monk should
not be bold or aggressive in his dealings with others, nor attached to the
families which provide him sustenance.
The aspects of conduct presented by the Anumiina, Dasadhamma and
the (Karanfya)metta Suttas made them a natural point of reference in the
inculcation of monastic discipline. With their narrative dialogue and
vivid imagery these suttas provide depictions of proper monastic life
which are at once striking and accessible to study and recollection.
Three Suttas Plus Piili Commentary in the Practical Canon of the 12-
13th Centuries
The katikiivatas do not provide definitive evidence that monastic
students in the 12th and 13th centuries were expected to encounter all of
these suttas with commentaries. A reference in the DambadelJi Katikii-
vata to the study requirements for freedom from nissaya (RATNAPALA
1971: 51) indicates that such students were expected to know the
required texts along with their tikii (which RATNAPALA takes to mean
aUhakathii and tikii (1971: 203) ), but this may not have been expected
at earlier stages of study.
JIABS 22.2 294 .
In the case of the Dasadhamma and (Karanrya)metta Suttas, however,
we have more reason to believe that even monastic students at an early
stage in their careers studied sutta and commentary together., This is be-
cause these suttas are part of the paritta collection which became the
object of detailed commentary in the thirteenth century. The first com-
mentary on the paritta collection as a unit, Siiratthasamuccaya, was
composed
1S
at roughly the same time as the DambadeIJi Katikiivata.
That katikiivata included the first explicit katikiivata references to study
of the paritta collection. This suggests thatthe paritta collection entered
educational practice in a more systematic way at that time and that at
least some monastic students studied the Dasadhamma and (Karanfya)
metta Suttas in tandem with their Pali commentaries.
There is thus a strong possibility that the practical canon of the 12th-
13th centuries included not only the Dasadhamma and (Karanfya)metta
Suttas but also their Pali commentaries. The attempt to understand how
monks were disciplined during this time requires, then, that we look
carefully at the ways in which the presence of commentarial elaborations
may have altered the ways in which monks were taught about monastic
norms. Below I offer a close reading of certain commentarial passages in
order to show that study of these suttas along with their commentaries
would have transformed these suttas into even more detailed and evoca-
tive presentations of monastic discipline, appropriate to even a beginner
or to a recalcitrant monk.
It is important to keep in mind, however, that the impact of commen-
tarial content on the student's learning experience was likely determined
in part by the way in which the commentary was made available. When,
as with the Dasadhamma and (Karanfya)metta Suttas, a commentary
was included in the same anthology as the full Pali sutta itself (as in
Siiratthasamuccaya), and a reader could move easily between the sutta's
narrative and commentarial elaboration, commentarial content probably
had a strong impact on the student's experience. If, however, as was
more likely the case with the Anumiina Sutta, the student worked from
separate manuscripts to study the full sutta and its commentary, it is
possible that commentarial elaborations shaped monastic ideas of disci-
pline much less because the movement between sources and the presence
of only fragmentary sutta quotations in the commentary would have
18. Probably by a student of the monastic leader Vanaratana A.nanda (SANNASGALA
1964: 407).
BLACKBURN 295
weakemid the association between any section of the sutta and its
comment.
The commentary provided for the Anumana Sutta in Papaficasudanf
elaborates several phrases from the sutta in ways which provide a more
vivid depictiori of the monastic institutional life to which the sutta
responds and which deepen the connections between the s u t t t a ~ s contents
and meditative practice. The comment on the phrase "apadakkhb}aggahf
anusasani7J1., " for instance, proceeds:
someone who says, "Why do you talk to me? I know [the difference between
what is] profitable and unprofitable, faulty and without fault, and proper and
improper for oneself!" - this person doesn't respond to instruction appropriately;
he responds inappropriately; therefore it says "appadakkhinaggiihf" (66).
The commentary goes on to introduce a gradual perspective on what it
means to destroy unskillful characteristics, indicating the relevance of
the sutta to a monk at any stage along the path (67). Significantly, the
commentary adds the following conclusion:
The Elders called this very sutta the bhikkhu Pii!imokkha. It should be reflected
upon three times a day. In the morning, one sitting down in their own residence
should reflect: ''I possess these defilements [or] not." If he sees that they exist, he
should try to destroy them; if he doesn't see them he should be happy, [thinking]
"I am someone who has renounced well." Sitting down day or night after the
meal this should be reflected upon. In the evening, sitting in one's own residence,
it should be reflected upon. If not three times [a day] then it should be reflected
upon twice. If not twice it should definitely be reflected upon once. They say: "it
should not go unreflected." (67).
Recall that one of the Buddha's admonitions to monks in the
Dasadhamma Sutta asked them to reflect on the distinctiveness of their
appearance. This admonition, already a spur to reflection on the signifi-
cant differences between lay and monastic life, is extended by lines of
Pllii commentary into an epitome of renunciation: '''veva1JIJiya7J1.' - that
state of alteration of appearance, that state of unattractiveness, is a two-
fold alteration of appearance: alteration of the appearance of the body
and alteration of the appearance of the requisites" (SD: 23).1
9
The com-
mentary explains that a monk has altered the appearance of his body by
shaving, and that he has altered the appearance of his requisites by
19. I cite Pili commentary for the Dasadhamma and (Karanfya)metta Suttas as it
appears in Siiriirthadfpanf, the 18th century bilingual commentary on the
catubhii!lllviira discussed on page 22 and following.
JIABS 22.2 296
giving up the comforts of lay life.
2o
After enumerating these changes the
commentary concludes, "pride and anger are abandoned by someone
who reflects in this way" (SD: 23). ,
By linking a change in external appearance to mental refinement
through the abandonment of psychological states like pride and anger,
the commentary emphasizes that the distinctiveness extends from out-
ward appearance to internal dispositions. Adopting a new appearance is
only the first step, one intended to remind the monk of why he has
renounced, i.e. to make more efficient progress along the path.
In the same sutta, the Pali commentary on the reflection, "I should
maintain a different deportment," paints another evocative picture of the
physical and psychological landscape to be traversed by a monk.
It should be reflected: '''I should maintain a different deportment;' this is walking
conduct without a playful manner (stretching the neck and puffing out the chest
like a householder). Thus a different conduct should be followed by me. Living
with restrained walking, pleasantly, like a cart of water on uneven ground,
looking ahead only a short distance, I should go about with a caIrn mind and caIrn
faculties" (SD: 25).
Here a passage from the Dasadhamma Sutta becomes a guide for the
most basic of daily activities - walking. The monks is reminded that he
is expected not to play or flaunt his figure but, instead, to engage in
quiet and careful contemplation.
Descriptions of monastic practice provided by the commentary extend
to the details of collective ritual and education. Extending the reflection,
"How do I occupy myself day and night?," the Pili commentary says:
"[this] means for me the performance of practice and duties, or if not
doing that then discussing the words of the Buddha, or if not doing that
then concentrating the mind (SD: 27)." It is important to note that the
commentanal additions often engage the readerllistener directly, with
phrases like "[this] means for me," "it should be understood" or "it
should be reflected." Thus, the interactive style of the sutta becomes
20. "Here, alteration of the appearance of the body means shaving [one's] hair and
beard. Previously, one dressed in various fine and pleasing clothes, ate different
kinds of excellent tasty food in dishes of gold and silver, lay on beds in fme bed-
rooms, and used ghee, butter and so on as medicine. But after the time of renun-
ciation clothes cut from old robes should be worn, and one should eat the mixed
food provided by donors in iron and clay bowls. One should lie down on grass
mats using the base of trees as seats and beds, or one should lie down on mats
made of skin, and take medicine like cows' urine. Thus, it is in this way that an
alteration in the appearance of the requisites should be understood" (SD: 23).
BLACKBURN 297
even more forceful. As the commentary prods and interrogates the
student the ideal acts and attitudes of day-to-day monastic life increas-
ingly become a part of the student's reading and listening experience.
P ~ i l i commentarial elaborations on the (Karanfya)metta Sutta also
transform the sutta's brief comments on monastic practice into a detailed
depiction of ideal monastic discipline. Recall verse one of the sutta:
"What should be done by one skilled in his own development who
understands the peaceful foundation [of nibbiina] is this." The Pali
commentary on this verse begins with a limited explanation of each
word, and an analysis of certain grammatical relationships. Then the
commentary breaks into a detailed discussion of what should be done
(karaJ}fya1'[L) and what should not be done. I quote this section of the Pili
commentary at length to show the detail with which the commentator
describes desirable and undesirable action. Note that while the canonical
Pali verse speaks only of "what should be done," the commentary insis-
tently emphasizes the negative actions which are to be avoided.
Here are the two trainings briefly: that which should be done with respect to the
aim of development and that which should not be done with respect to the aim of
development. That which should not be done includes failure with regard to sfla,
failure with regard to philosophical views, failure with regard to morality and
failure with regard to livelihood. By this is meant skill with respect to the aim of
development. Here, someone who has gone forth in this stisana and doesn't
properly apply himself is called someone with broken sUa. He lives involved
with the twenty-one-fold impropriety: [accepting] gifts of bamboo, leaves,
flowers, fruits, toothpicks, mouth water, bath water, powder ... [engaging in]
flattery ... acting as a messenger. .. recycling aIms, [practicing] physiognomy and
astrology, predicting auspicious sites, and acting in six-fold wrong conduct:
having contact with courtesans, spinsters, young girls, nuns, eunuchs and
taverns. And, living in contact with kings and royal ministers, with [non-
Buddhist] teachers and [their] followers, having improper conduct with lay
people who are without faith andhappiness ... who desire what's not worthwhile ...
or with such monks ... and nuns ....
But who, in this stisana, renounces and applies himself abandoning impropriety,
and wants to set himself up in the four pure sfla - using requisites with wisdom,
purity of livelihood directed by energy, restraint of the faculties directed by mind-
fulness and restraint in the Pti!imokkha directed by faith - this is someone who is
skilled with respect to development. .. (SD: 59).
Here the commentary transforms a relatively enigmatic verse into a
detailed account of proper and improper monastic life. In this section of
the commentary impropriety is vividly depicted in connection with some
of the most basic aspects of monastic life: accepting alms and interacting
with lay people. The commentary then moves back to the positive pole,
JIABS 22.2 298
describing the way in which a monk acts when he abandons improper
conduct. The relatively straightforward list of desirable behaviors - the
four pure sfla - merges into an evocative set of similes for a monk of
pure conduct. These similes underscore the interdependent relationship
between sfla and pannii, two aspects of practice which must be devel-
oped by a monk on the path to nibbiina.
21
The Pili commentary's thorough elaboration of the sutta continues in
its treatment of verses two and three. See, for instance, the comment on
the quality of being "upright" mentioned in verse two. The three aspects
of conduct - physical, verbal and mental - which must be monitored by
a monk seeking to refine himself are here connected to monastic practice
through a discussion of three-fold "crookedness."
And for someone who is upright, not becoming self-satisfied with his own
upright nature, he should be upright by acting well and by acting without laxity
over and over again, as long as he lives. Or he [should be] upright by not deceiv-
ing [anyone], upright through honesty, or upright by destroying crookedness of
body and speech, upright by destroying mental crookedness. Or upright by not
pretending to have qualities which don't really exist, upright by not accepting
gain because of such [really] nonexistent qualities ... (SD: 60).
The commentary offers a realistic psychological portrayal of monastic
life, stressing the challenges posed by a continued life of discipline and
the temptation to seek benefits and status on account of one's superficial
accomplishments.
This portion of the commentary draws attention to the individual
psychological dimensions of monastic life. In contrast, the commentary
on the phrase "of sweet speech" (also found in verse two of the sutta)
highlights the collective and hierarchical practice of monasticism in
ways reminiscent of the Anumiina Sutta. This is accomplished through
an elaborate portrayal of a monk reprimanded by another member of the
sarp.gha. The commentary spells out the conduct characteristic of one
with "sweet speech" with explicit refyrences to the monastic context,
focusing on the improper temptation to turn away from censure.
21. "Or, as it is said 'just as someone purifies a stained cloth with salt water, a mirror
with ashes, gold with a furnace; so one spurs on sila with knowledge,' one puri-
fies sila if one washes with the water of wisdom. Like a blue jay protecting [her]
egg, a yak [its] tail, a woman her dear and only son, a one-eyed person that eye,
thus one zealously guards one's collected sila. Watching [that person] night and
day one sees not even a minute fault. This is also someone skilled with respect to
development" (SD: 59).
BLACKBURN 299
A person who responds to the admonition "this shouldn't be done" by saying:
"What have you seen? What have you heard? Who speaks of me? .. " or who
causes the [other person] discomfort by being silent, or who accepts the admoni-
tion but doesn't follow it, is a long way from special attainments. But he who,
when admonished, says "It is good, sir. It is well said. My fault is really difficult
for [me] to 'see. Seeing me in a similar state again, advise me soon out of com-
passion. Your admonishment has been accepted." ... is not at all far from special
attainment (SD: 61-62).
Further commentary to this sutta offers guidance on another aspect of
the monastic life, namely correct relations between monks and lay
donors. The comment on the quality of being "easy to support," from
verse three, is a vivid and humorous depiction of lay-monastic dealings.
Here the commentary explains, in no uncertain terms, that a monk must
be modest in the demands placed on lay donors.
[This] means [one] is easily supported, it is said that [such a] one is easily cared
for. A monk who fills his bowl with rice, meat, etc. while acting depressed and
wearing a sad face because of what's been given, and who blames the donors
"Why has this been given as alms? Give it to the novices and the laity!" - that's
someone who's a real burden! Seeing that, people far and wide shun [him]
saying "A burdensome monk can't be supported." That monk who happily
receives alms whether great or small, with a pleased face - that is someone who's
a slight burden. Seeing that, people are exceedingly faithful, agreeing "Our Sir is
a slight burden; he is pleased with just a trifle. We will care for him indeed." And
they do so (SD: 62).
Note the way the commentator makes it clear that lay support is a
resource which must not be squandered by poor conduct. Demanding too
much of one's patron is described as a certain way to lose lay support.
From this discussion of the Anumiina, Dasadhamma and (Karanfya)
metta Suttas, it should be clear that Pilii commentarial responses to these
texts significantly enhanced the potential of the suttas to serve as guiding
sources when teaching monks about monastic discipline. In their
uncommented form these suttas already served as important loci for
normative visions of the monastic life. They were enriched by Pali
commentary to serve as vivid depictions of an appropriately disciplined
monasticism, and of the frailties and improprieties which so easily
impede it. The practical canon of the 12-13th centuries included these
texts as disciplinary works to be used in monastic education.
JIABS 22.2 300
Three Suttas Plus Bilingual Commentary in the Practical Canon of the
18th Century
In the eighteenth century, new developments in Sri Lankan Buddhist
textual practice framed these suttas, and many others, with a new layer
of commentary, altering the contents of the practical canon. This change
in commentarial practice in turn reshaped the potential impact of texts
like the Dasadhamma and (Karanfya)metta Suttas on monastic students.
Eighteenth-century Sri Lanka saw a renaissance in the production of
Sinhala-Ianguage commentaries - called sutra sannayas - on canonical
Pali suttas. The first of these new commentaries to be written took up
the PaIi paritta collection, and therefore included the Dasadhamma and
(Karanfya)metta Suttas. This commentary was written by a monastic
leader named Villivita SaraI).arpkara who initiated the formation of the
Siyam Nikaya, one of the monastic orders in contemporary Sri Lanka.
This commentary, called Sararthadfpanf, was written as a bilingual
commentary. Taking canonical Pali suttas as the roottexts, SaraI).arpkara
drew also on previous Pali commentarial traditions to create his work.
22
In Sararthadfpanf, SaraI).arpkara reproduced the canonical Pali texts
from the catubha1}avara, section by section, providing a brief Sinhala
gloss for each word or phrase. In addition, he added narrative detail to
nearly every section of the sutta in question. In some cases this detail,
which uses Pali and Sinhala, was added within the briefer glossing;
more often it followed the initial brief gloss for the section under com-
ment. Such elaborations were typically presented first in Sinhala. In
some cases this Sinhala comment clearly drew on previous Pali com-
mentarial writings, often presenting a slightly enlarged or more elabo-
rate version of this Pali commentary. From there, SaraI).arpkara's com-
mentary sometimes introduced portions of the Pali commentary directly.
When this occurred it created an element of commentarial repetition.
Sararthadfpanf s readers and listeners therefore encountered suttas like
the Dasadhamma and (Karanfya)metta Suttas through three textual
22. It is not completely clear whether SaraDaqllcara relied only upon the thirteenth-
century Saratthasamuccaya or also on portions of fifth-century Pili commentary
for the separate nikayas. However, close similarities between Saratthasamuccaya
and Sararthadfpanf in the contents of the sections which connect suttas within
the paritta collection, as well as SaraDaqllcara'S introductory reference to a
previous commentary on the catubhalJavara, suggest that SaraDaqllcara drew
substantially on Saratthasamuccaya in his composition of Sararthadfpanf.
BLACKBURN 301
voices: canonical sutta, Pili comment, and Sinhala comment based
partly on Pili comment. The dominant commentarial voice in Siiriirtha-
dfpanfis clearly Saral).atpkara's commentarial voice. It
is this voice which most clearly articulates the unity of the work as an
anthology, creating interpretive links between suttas and between the
Sinhala and Pili commentarial voices on these suttas.
Since Saral).atpkara led a reorganization of Buddhist monastic institu-
tions and established a new curriculum in which his own works played a
role (BLACKBURN 1997), it is very likely that many 18th-century
monastics studied the Dasadhamma and (Karartfya)metta Suttas with this
bilingual commentarial guide. We do not yet have evidence of bilingual
commentary for the Anumiina Sutta, though of course much Sri Lankan
manuscript evidence remains unexamined. There are no references to a
sutra sannaya for this sutta in K. D. SOMADASA's catalogue for the
British Library's Nevill Collection (1995), or in his catalogue of temple
manuscript collections (1959/1964). The bilingual character of Siiriirtha-
dfpanf poses further questions as we attempt to understand the guides to
monastic discipline present in the practical canon of 18th-century Sri
Lanka. How might the bilingual presentation of the Dasadhamma and
(Karanfya)metta Suttas have altered the ways in which monastic readers
and listeners encountered them?23
Composition of bilingual. commentary for suttas such as the Dasa-
dhamma and (Karanfya)metta Suttas altered the ways in which these
suttas could be used in monastic training. This occurred in two ways.
First, through detailed and systematic translations of suttas and PaIi
commentary, bilingual commentaries gave students access to the descrip-
tions of monastic discipline found in PaIi sources. Monastic students
who read the suttas with the help of bilingual commentary encountered
models of monastic life taken from Pili texts at the same time as they
unraveled Pili grammatical structures and enlarged their Pali vocabu-
lary. Second, the combination ofPali sutta and Pili commentary framed
and elaborated by Sinhala commentary often created an intensely repeti-
23. K. D. SOMADASA's list of manuscripts held in Sri Lankan temple collections
(1959/1964) shows that a substantial number of single suttas, as well as collec-
tions of paritta texts, circulated with Sinhala commentary. In addition selections
from the paritta corpus are likely to have been included, possibly with some type
of commentary, in many of the popular bal)a daham pot used to train novice
monks. We do not yet have detailed studies of bal)a daham pot to confirm this. I
do not discuss uses of Sinhala-only commentary in this study.
nABS 22.2 302
tive exposure to images of monastic discipline for students whose skill in
PaIi and literary Sinhala was great enough to assure a fluid movement
through the bilingual text.
This last point is particularly important in our attempt to 'understand
how bilingual commentary on tJ::te (KaralJ-fya)metta and Dasadhamma
Suttas altered their didactic possibilities. We see most clearly the repeti-
tive power of bilingual commentary in longer commentarial sections
such as the one reproduced just below. This section comes from
Siiriirthadfpan'fs commentary on the first lines of the (KaralJ-fya)metta
Sutta (a longer section is included in the Appendix). The Sinhala com-
mentary remains in plain text while the Pili commentary is italicizeo.
In this regard, someone going forth in the sasana wants to establish himself in
pure sfla, leaving aside the twenty-one inappropriate actions, such as giving gifts
which have been censured by the Buddha. [The four pure sfla are listed and
described] ... Further, a person who purifies [himselt] having cleaned the stains of
sfla with the water of wisdom is said to be someone who purifies sfla because of
proper wisdom in this way: as one purifies gold by burning because of [bringing .
it] near a flame, or purifies clothes with water and ash which is said to be acidic,
and who protects his own sfla very zealously like an insect protecting its egg, like
an animal protecting its grass, like a mother protecting her only son, like someone
protecting his sole eye; he reflects day and night and does not show even a smaIl
fault. This is someone who is skilled with respect to aims. Further, someone who
has established sfla which is not scattered, who understands the means of
discarding the klesas, and who produces meditative attainment; that is considered
someone skilled with respect to aims. Someone, having come out of that attain-
ment and reaching arahatship after becoming concentrated by [reflecting] on the
impermanence of the elements; that person is the chief of those who develop
themselves. Such renouncers, because of establishing unscattered sfla, who have
been praised because [they have] accepted the route to the destruction of the
klesas to that extent, they are also skilled with respect to aims. Here, in order to
show what's intended, such as [that] they are clever with respect to development,
with respect to increasing [their attainment] or [that] they are skilled with respect
to aims,
[ ... a: similar section of Pili commentary is then introduced which concludes with
what follows here]
But who, in this sasana, renounces and applies himself, abandons impropriety,
desiring to be established in the four pure sIla [which are listed and elaborated
in the same terms as the comment above in Sinhala] ... This is someone skilled
with respect to aims. Or, saying, "just as someone purifies a stained cloth with
salt water, a mirror with ashes, gold with a furnace, so one spurs sIla with
knowledge,." one purifies sIla if one washes with the water of wisdom. Like a blue
jay protecting her egg, a yak its tail, a woman with a single son her dear and
only son, a one-eyed person that eye; thus one zealously guards one's collected
elements of sIla Watching day and night one sees not even a minute fault. That is
also someone skilled with respect to aims.
BLACKBURN 303
Moreover, one who grasps the way to removing the support of the defilements
through the focused attention to sila, grasps that which is a preparation for
meditation, and produces meditative attainments; this is also someone skilled
with respect to aims. Further, one who comes out from an attainment and again
comes into contact with [other] activities and reaches arahatship; that is the
pinnacle of those skilled with respect to aims. Thus, these [people] - praised be-
cause they pay attention to these restraints, focused on sila to this extent, and
able to understand to this extent the way to remove the support of the defilements
- are skilled with respect to aims. They are meant as "skilled with respect to
aims" in this sense (SD: 57-9).
Note that the commentary in PaIi and Sinhala is nearly identical, and
that this provides double exposure to the similes. These similes empha-
size that a monk's constant attention to the purification of sfla through
wisdom establishes him as "someone who is "skilled with respect to
aims." In addition, the bilingual commentary insists that practitioners at
several levels of development can be considered "skilled with respect to
aims." The beginner who guards his sfla carefully is described through
the similes. Someone who has achieved greater command over conduct,
understands the way to eradicate the defilements and who achieves some
meditative attainments is also lauded. Finally, the monk who moves
from temporary meditative attainments to arahatship is described as "the
chief of those who develop themselves." Commented upon in this way
the (Kara1Jfya)metta Sutta provides a comprehensiv.e and emphatic
account of the goals and strategies of monastic practice, linking the dis-
tinctive sfla of monastic life to the cultivation of wisdom and medita-
tion. It is important to note the power of the similes in suggesting the
psychological intensity with which a monk must guard his sfla, a pre-
cious resource on the path to liberation.
Conclusion
I have suggested a new set of concepts for the study of Theravada
Buddhism: the 'formal' canon and the 'practical' canon. By formal
canon I mean the Pili canon as the ultimate locus of interpretive author-
ity in the Theravada. Practical canon refers to the collection of texts
used in a particular time and place. The practical canon may include
portions of the tipitaka with their commentaries as well as texts under-
stood by their authors and audience as consistent with, but perhaps not
explicitly related to, the tipitaka and its commentaries.
The essay argued that distinguishing between the formal and the prac-
tical canon will allow us to attend more closely to regional and historical
JIABS 22.2 304
differences in studies of Theravadin communities. Providing greater
precision as we explore the ways in which Buddhist identity was, and is,
shaped by encounters with texts, the distinction between ,the practical
and formal canon also provides a framework within which to seek
historical reasons for the patterns of textual composition apparent in the
practical canons. Finally, this distinction between two types of canon in
studies of the Theravada offers a way to look more closely at how
textual authority is articulated and used by Buddhist communities whose
practical canons may differ in significant ways.
The remainder of the essay applied these two views of canon to the
study of monastic disciplinary education in medieval Sri Lanka. I
showed that although there is no displacement of the Vinaya as part of
the formal canon, it is clear the Vinaya was far less important than we
have assumed in the Sri Lankan practical canons of 12-13th and 18th
centuries. Until reaching the highest stage in their education monks were
not expected to engage much of the Vinaya directly. Instead monks
studied condensations and commentaries written for parts of the Vinaya
that were often written in Sinhala rather than in Pilii. Nor were Vinaya-
based texts the primary means through which monks were taught about
disciplined conduct and the collective responsibilities of the sa:rp.gha.
Three suttas - the Anumiina, Dasadhamma and (KaralJlya)metta Suttas
- were used for this purpose.
I have argued that these suttas were used precisely because they pro-
vided vivid and engaging accounts of proper and improper conduct.
Moreover, the power of these suttas as didactic tools was greatly
enhanced by the commentaries - in PaIi and Sinhala - which often
accompanied them. These commentaries include elaborate depictions of
appropriate and inappropriate behaviors. In such depictions similes as
well as simple descriptive prose is used to show the importance of simul-
taneously cultivating control over mental, verbal and physical comport-
ment. The commentaries also emphasize the responsibilities of monks
within the sa:rp.gha and, especially, the ways in which a monk should
acquiesce to reprimand by others.
It is no accident that these suttas and their commentaries were an
important part of the practical canon in Sri Lanka during the 12-13th
and the 18th centuries. We know from the katikiivatas themselves as
well as from other literary and epigraphic sources that these were
periods in which the Sri Lankan monastic community was restructured
under authorities who sought to regulate the standards of monastic
BLACKBURN 305
conduct and to establish a new power structure for the srup.gha.
24
In such
moments of heightened attention to the distinctive qualities of monastic
life and the need to instill discipline, the suttas examined above became
iniportant didactic tools. These texts provided depictions of desirable
and undesirable conduct in which complex ideas about the relationship
between mental development and outward action, as well as about a
monk's responsibilities to the collective, were set out in accessible and
often humorous terms.
Appendix
Example of repetitive exposure to images of monastic discipline.
provided by Sararthadfpanf's bilingual commentary on the (KaralJ-fya)
metta Sutta (the Pili commentary is italicized and the Sinhala commen-
tary remains in plain text):
"SantapadaIp," for the foundation of nirviiI.la which is called the peaceful founda-
tion; "abhisamecca," having arrived at (by investigation); ''yatpkaraJ.lIyrup,'' that
which should be done (by one who wants to live in this way); "atthakusalena,"
with cleverness regarding what should be developed (for oneself); "tru:pkaraI,lI-
ymp," that which should be done.
Here, where it says "that which should be done," it includes what should be
done and what shouldn't be done. In brief, the three-fold training is to be done.
The destruction of sf la, the destruction of right views, the destruction of [good]
conduct lind livelihood, etc. should not be done. Similarly, where it says, "by one
who is skilled with respect to what should be done for the development of one-
self," it means [both] a person who is not clever with respect to what is done for
the development of oneself and a person who is clever with respect to self devel-
opment. Here, if a person doesn't engage himself in the conduct of the sasana
properly, going forth in this sasana, he is someone with broken sfla and he lives
with the twenty-one inappropriate acts. [The acts are listed; see above, p.17-18,
for an abridged account.] ... A monk of that sort, because he is engaged in so
much activity which is harmful to himself, should be understood as someone
skilled in what is useless.
In this regard, someone going forth in the sasana wants to establish himself in the
pure sf/a, leaving aside the twenty-one inappropriate actions, such as giving gifts,
which have been censured by the Buddha. [The four pure sfla are listed and
described.] ... Further, a person who purifies [himself] having cleaned the stains
of sfla with the water of wisdom is said to be someone who purifies sfla because
of proper wisdom in this way: as one purifies gold by burning because of
[bringing it] near a flame, or purifies clothes with water and ash which is said to
be acidic, and who protects his own sfla very zealously like an insect protecting
24. In this regard see, for instance: BLACKBURN 1996, DEWARAJA 1988, GUNA-
WARDHANA 1979, RA'INAPALA 1971 andSANNASGALA 1964.
JIABS 22.2 306
its egg, like an animal protecting its grass, like a mother protecting her only son,
like someone protecting his sole eye; he reflects day and night and does not show
even a small fault. This is someone who is skilled with respect to aims. Further,
someone who has established sfla which is not scattered, who understands the
means of discarding the klesas, and who produces a meditative attainment; that is
considered someone skilled with respect to aims. Someone, having come out of
that attainment and reaching arahatship after becoming concentrated by
[reflecting] on the impermanence of the elements; that person is the chief of those
who develop themselves. Such renouncers, because of establishing unscattered
sfia, who have been praised because [they have] accepted the route to the destruc-
tion of the klesas to that extent, they are also skilled with respect to aims. Here, in
order to show what's intended, such as [that] they are clever with respect to
development, with respect to increasing [their attainment] or [that] they are skilled
with respect to aims,
There, this is the word explanation for the first verse, which says "karalJ-fya-
matthakusalena." "KaralJ-fyalJ'l" means "to be done" or "worth doing."
"Attho" means "attho." This is the word explanation. It is said that "attho" is
said because it brings all that which is a benefit for oneself. Because it brings
[that] it should be approached. It is said that "atthakusalena" means through
skill with respect to aims. "YalJ'l" is an indefinate derivative. "TalJ'l" is a definite
one. Both "yalJ'l" and "talJ'l" are accusative derivative words. "SantalJ'l padalJ'l"
is accusative speech. There, "santalJ'l" refers to its character and "padalJ'l"is
because it should be attained. It is an expression for nibbana. ["abhisamecca"
is omitted in this version but followed by its gloss] means "having understood."
[Word commentary on the second verse follows before the first verse is elabo-
rated further.] ... Here are the two trainings, briefly: that which should be done
with respect to aims and that which should not be done with respect to aims.
That which should not be done includes failure with regard to sfla, failure with
regard to views, failure with regard to conduct, failure with regard to livelihood.
This refers to skill with respect to aims. Here, someone who, goes forth in this
sasana but doesn't properly apply himself is called someone with broken sfla.
He lives depending on the twenty-onejold impropriety, that is: [as above, p. 17-
8]. .. This sort of company is not skilled with respect to aims.
Butwho, in this sasana, renounces and applies himself, abandons impropriety,
desiring to be established in the four pure sfla [which are listed and elaborated
in the same terms as the comment above in Sinhala]. .. This is someone skilled
with respect to aims. Or, saying, ''just as someone purifies a stained cloth with
salt water, a mirror with ashes, gold with a furnace, so one spurs sfla with
knowledge," one purifies sUa if one washes with the water of wisdom. Like a
blue jay protecting her egg, a yak its tail, a woman with a single son her dear
and only son, a one-eyed person that eye; thus one zealously guards one's col-
lected elements of sUa. Watching day and night one sees not even a minute fault.
That is also someone skilled with respect to aims.
Moreover, one who grasps the way to removing the support of the defilements
through the focused attention to sfla, grasps that which is a preparation for
BLACKBURN 307
meditation, and produces meditative attainment::; this is also someone skilled
with respect to aims. Further, one who comes out from an attainment and again
comes into contact with [other] activities and reaches arahatship; that is the
pinnacle of those skilled with respect to aims. Thus, these [people] - praised be-
cause they pay attention to these restraints, focused on sfla to this extent, and
able to understand to this extent the way to remove the support of the defilements
- are skilled with respect to aims. They are meant as "skilled with respect to
aims" in this sense (SD: 57-9). .
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RODERICK S. BUCKNELL
Conditioned Arising Evolves:
Variation and Change in Textual Accounts of the
Paficca-samuppiida Doctrine
The doctrine of "Conditioned Arising" (Pali: paticca-samuppiida) con-
tinues to attract attention in Buddhist studies for several good reasons,
most importantly because it occupies a central place in the Buddhist
doctrinal structure yet presents some formidable problems of interpreta-
tion. One source of these problems is the existence of several different
versions of the doctrine. How this variation might be accounted for is a
question that has been addressed by a succession of scholars throughout
this century. Much remains to be done toward clarifying such issues, and
the present article is a further attempt in that direction. It presents a
comparative analysis of four versions of the PS (paticca-samuppiida)
doctrine found in the Pali sutras and in their Chinese and Sanskrit coun-
terparts, and on that basis it offers an explanation of how those versions
may have developed from earlier forms.!
The standard version
The doctrine of Conditioned Arising is best known in the following
form:
2
- Conditioned by ignorance (avijjii-paccayii) are activities (sali-
khiirii).
L Tbis article is based on a paper presented at the First Joint Australian and New
Zealand Religious Studies Conference at Lincoln University, New Zealand, in
July 1996. I am grateful to Paul Harrison, Choong Mun-keat, and Antonio
Ferreira-Jardirn for directing me to relevant literature.
2. The translations of terms are provisional. The source (one of many available) is
Pali SN 2: 1-4, with Chinese counterpart SA 85a-b and Sanskrit counterpart
Tp 157-164 & 98. Here "Tp" denotes Chandrabhal TRIPATID: Funfundzwanzig
Siitras des Nidiinasarrzyukta (= Sanskrittexte aus den Tuifanfunden VIII), Berlin:
Akademie Verlag 1962. In text references, DN, MN, SN, AN = Pali Dlgha-
nikaya, etc. (PTS editions); DA, MA, SA, EA = Cbinese DIrghagama etc.
(Taisho edition; DA and MA in vol. 1, SA and EA in vol. 2); DA' etc. = extra
Cbinese versions of individual sutras. Identification of counterparts follows
AKANUMA Chizen, The Comparative Catalogue of Chinese Agamas and Piili
Nikiiyas, (1929) DeIhl: Sri Satguru Publications 1990.
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
VOLUME 22. NUMBER 2. 1999
JIABS 22.2 312
Conditioned by activities is consciousness (vifiiiii1J.a).
Conditioned by consciousness is name-and-form (niima-rilpa).
Conditioned by name-and-form is the sixfold .sense-base
(sa!iiyatana) .
Conditioned by the sixfold sense-base is contact (phassa).
Conditioned by contact is feeling (vedanii).
Conditioned by feeling is craving (ta1J.hii).
Conditioned by craving is clinging (upiidiina).
Conditioned by clinging is becoming (bhava).
Conditioned by becoming is birth Uiiti).
Conditioned by birth are aging-and-death Uarii-mara1J.a), 'grief,
lamentation, pain, sorrow, and despair.
Thus is the arising of this entire mass of suffering.
This series of twelve items, linked by the pattern "X-paccayii Y"
(conditioned by X [is/are] Y), purports to explain the origin of suffering
(dukkha). In effect, it is an elaboration of the second noble truth, tracing
the chain of causal dependence back beyond craving (ta1J.hii) to its u l t i ~
mate origin in ignorance (avijjii).3
Often the series is presented in reverse, the causal chain being traced
backward from aging-and-death to birth, from birth to becoming, and So
on to ignorance. Again, the series, whether in forward order or in
reverse, is often stated in negative form: through the ceasing of igno-
rance, activities cease; and so on down to the ceasing of aging-and-death
and of "this entire mass of suffering."4 In such cases, the description
amounts to an elaboration of the third noble truth.
s
Textual presentations of the standard PS formula occasionally include
explanations of its twelve component items. These exhibit a few dis-
agreements between Pall and Chinese/Sanskrit versions of the same
sutra, as shown in the following summary. In cases of disagreement, the
textual sources are indicated; and for ease of presentation, the two com-
ponents of nama-rtipa are separated.
6
3. Identity with the second noble truth is made explicit at AN 1:177.5-14.
4. Reverse and negative formulations atMN 1: 261-4 = MA 768a-c.
5. Negative formulation identified with third noble truth at AN 1: 177.15-26.
6. At MNl: 49-54 = EA797b-c and SN2: 2-4 = SA85a-b = TpI57-164 CTp
defInitions agree with SA).
BUCKNELL 313
1. avijjii: ignorance concerning suffering, its arising, its ceasing, and
the way that leads to its ceasing
2. salikhiirii: activities of body, speech, and mind (citta)
. 3. vinnii1Ja: consciousness associated with eye, ear, nose, tongue,
body, arid mind (mana)
4a. nama:
SN, MN = EA: feeling, perception, volition, contact, mind-work
(vedanii, sannii, cetanii, phassa, manasikiira)
SA: feeling, perception, activities, consciousness (vedanii, sannii,
salikhiirii, vinnii1Ja)
4b. rupa: the four great elements (earth, water, fire, air) and materi-
ality derived from them
5. sa!iiyatana: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind (mana)
6. phassa: contact of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind
7. vedanii:
SN, MN: feeling arising from contact of eye, ear, nose, tongue,
body, mind
SA, EA: feeling that is pleasant, unpleasant, neither-pleasant-nor-
unpleasant
8. ta1Jhii:
SN, MN: craving for forms, sounds, odors, tastes, tactile objects,
mental objects (dhammii)
SA: craving for sensuality, form, the formless (kiima, rupa,
arupa)
EA: craving for sensuality, becoming, non-becoming (kiima,
bhava, vibhava)
9. upiidiina: clinging to sensuality, views, rules and vows, self-
theory
10. bhava: becoming in the realms of sensuality, form, the formless
11. jiiti: birth, rebirth, ...
12. jarii-mara1Ja: aging, decrepitude, ... ; death, decease, ...
In the case of item 4, niima-rupa, there is a partial discrepancy between
the two explanations of niima, on which more will be said later. In the
case of item 7, vedanii, it appears that the two explanations amount to
two different ways of classifying the same mental factor: either accord-
ing to the categories of feeling itself (pleasant, unpleasant, neutral), or
according to the sense organs that give rise to it. No disagreement is
necessarily implied regarding the identity of the item vedanii itself. In
JIABS 22.2 314
the case of item 8, tar;hii, the three explanations differ in how they clas-
sify the possible objects of craving; as before, this does not appear to
signify disagreement about the item itself (tar;h/i). More, substantial
disagreements in some of the definitions are found in other textual
sources; however, they are associated with disagreements about the com-
position of the chain of conditioned arising itself, to which topic we now
tum.
Other versions of the series
The twelve-membered fonnula summarized above is referred to here as
"the standard version" because it is by far the most frequently attested
account of PS. Some less common variations on this basic theme also
claim attention.
A common source of variation is simple abbreviation of the series.
Sometimes the chain that culminates in birth-and-death is made to begin
only at item 5, the sense organs,7 or even at item 9, clinging. 8 It is likely
that abbreviation of this sort merely amounts to a less than complete
representation of the process: only that portion of the series was
described which was relevant in the context within which the discourse
in question was delivered.
9
Such cases will not be considered here. More
in need of attention are cases where items are omitted from within the
series or are listed in a different sequence.!o Three such cases of
substantial departure from the standard sequence will be examined.
The first case is the following, found in just four Pali sutras and their
Chinese/Sanskrit counterparts, most notably the lengthy Mahanidana-
sutta.!1 For ease of comparison, the numbering system of the standard
version is retained in presenting this version.
7. E.g. SN2: 36.30-37.21.
8. E.g. SN3: 94.4-11.
9. Erich FRAuw ALLNER takes such cases as evidence that the standard version is a
combination of two shorter series. Geschichte der indischen Philosophie, vol. 1
(Salzburg: O. Miller 1953), pp.197-199.
10. Sometimes extra items, e.g. sannii and cetanii, are included within the series; e.g.
SA 84a25-b1. Such cases cannot be considered in this brief study.
11. DN2: 55-63 = DA61b = DA'242b-c = MA578b-9c = MA'844b-5b; DN2:30-
35 = Fu32-35(1eft) = DA 7b-c; SN2:112-15 = SA 81a-b = Tp 107-9; SN2:104-
6 = SA 80b-c = Fu 32-35 (right, contra Tp 97-98). ("Fu" = FUKITA Takamichi,
''Bonbun 'Daihonky6' engisetsu no fukugen ni tsuite" [On restoring PS in the
Sanskrit Mahavadlina-siitra], Bukkyo Shigaku Kenkyu 24.2 (1982): 26-43.)
BUCKNELL 315
4. nama-rapa (name-and-form)
3. vififiarta (consciousness)
4. nama-rapa (name-and-form)
[5. sa!ayatima (sixfold sense-base)]
6. phassa (contact)
7. vedana (feeling)
8. talJha (craving)
9. upadana (clinging)
10. bhava (becoming)
11. jiiti (birth)
12. jara-maralJa etc. (aging-and-death etc.)
The bracketing of item 5 is to indicate that this link is not always
present: it is missing in the Mahanidana-sutta (in Pali and in three of the
four Chinese versions)12 but present in the other sources. However, the
main feature of this version of the PS formula is that items 1 and 2 of
the standard list are missing, their place being taken by a repetition of
item 4. For example, in the Mahanidana the Buddha, having traced the
chain back, link by link, from aging-and-death to contact (phassa), then
states that contact is conditioned by name-and-form (nama-rapa), name-
and-form is conditioned by consciousness (vififialJa), and consciousness
is conditioned by name-and-form. Consciousness and name-and-form
are represented as conditioning each other mutually, and this causal loop
is confirmed when the series is reiterated in summary in the forward
direction: 13
Conditioned by name-and-form is consciousness.
Conditioned by consciousness is name-and-form.
Conditioned by name-and form is contact: ...
12. Sa!iiyatana is lacking at DN2: 56.19-26 = DA61b20 = DA'243b5-7 =
MA 579c4-7 but present at MA' 845a24-28. The anomalous inclusion of the
standard version (with sa!iiyatana) at DA60b12-29 is likely to represent a late
addition, according to Tilmann VETTER: "Zwei schwierige Stellen im Maha-
nidanasutta: Zur Qualitat der Uberlieferung im Pali-Kanon," Wiener ZeitschriJt
fiirdie Kunde Siidasiens 38 (1994): 137-160, p.141. VETTER also notes (p.142,
n. 21) that the MA' version of the sutra is relatively late historically and shows
signs of sectarian modification.
13. DN2: 56.31-32 = DA61b20 = DA'243c2-3 = MA580a1-2 = MA' 845bl1-12;
DN2: 32.32-3 = Fu35(left); SN2: 114.18-20; SN2: 104.33-5 = SA80c3-6 =
Fu 35 (right).
JIABS 22.2 316
There exist some instances of equivocation about the beginning of the
series. In one of the sources "cited above, we fmd that where the Pali
sutra has the loop, its Chinese/Sanskrit counterpart has a siJllple linear
series beginning with vififiii1Ja in both backward and forward listings,
i.e. it omits the initial occurrenct1 of niima-rilpa; and then, in a conclud-
ing paragraph the Pali switches to an eleven-membered linear series
beginning with salikhiirii (activities), while the Chinese/Sanskrit has the
full twelve-membered series beginning with avijjii (ignorance).I
4
Another example is provided by two sutras, numbers 49 and 50 in the
Nidana-sarp.yutta of .SN, both of which are titled Ariyasavaka-sutta.l
5
Sutra no. 50 has the standard series beginning at avijjii. No. 49 is identi-
cal with no. 50 except that, in some editions, it begins the series not at
avijjii but at vififiii1Ja (without the loop). In the PTS edition, the editor
states in footnotes to no. 49 that the fIrst two items (avijjii and salikhiirii)
were present in the Burmese source manuscript but not in the two
Sinhalese ones.1
6
Each of these two sutras is represented by the same
counterpart in the Chinese SA, namely SA sutra no. 350.l7 This situa-
tion is not uncommon in the Nikayas/Agamas; even within this same
saYfLyutta one finds two further cases where two consecutive and nearly
identical Pali sutras have a single Chinese counterpart.l
8
The natural
interpretation of such cases is that the two closely similar Pali sutras are
Oivergent derivatives of a single earlier Pali sutra. In the case of the
cited sutras 49 and 50, the divergence evidently arose out of uncertainty
about the beginning portion of the PS series.
As if to deny such cases, some accounts of the looped version state
explicitly that the chain of causation goes no further back than the loop:
i
14. SN2: 106= SA80c12-16=Fu39 (right).
15. SN2:77-79 & 79-80. The uddlina (SN2: 80.17) has dve ariyasa.vake.
16. SN2:78, nn.l & 3; The Book a/the Kindred Sayings, Part II (trans. Mrs. RHYS
DAVIDS, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1982), p. 54, nn.I-3. The Nalanda
edition (SN vol. 2, p. 66, n. 1) says sutta 49 lacks avijja. and salikhtira. in the
Siamese canon.
17. SA98b.
18. SN#12.53 & 54 = SA#285 and SN#12.55 & 56 = SA#284, at SN2:86-89 =
SA 79b-80b. Contrast the situation where two non-identical consecutive Pall
sutras taken together (joined end-to-end) are represented in a single Chinese
sutra; e.g. SN#12.1-2 = SA #298 at SN2:1-4 = SA 85a-b = Tp 157-164 (note 2,
above). Such are the complications involved in identifying Pall-Chinese counter-
parts.
BUCKNELL 317
"This consciousness turns back at name-and-form; it goes no further."19
Yet one can also find this statement followed almost immediately in the
same sutra by a listing of the standard version, in which the series does
go further back.
2o
These contradictions represent a serious problem of
interpretation. .
Of the four instances of the complete looped version,. only one
provides explanations of the individual links, namely the Mahiinidiina-
sutta (in Pali and Chinese). Those explanations agree with the ones cited
earlier for the standard version, except in the cases of vififialJa and
nama-rapa.
21
Whereas the sutras quoted earlier explain vififialJa as
consciousness associated with the sixfold sense-base, the Mahanidana
explains it as consciousness that descends into the mother's womb at the
moment of conception.
22
And where the sutras quoted earlier have, for
nama-rapa, definitions that disagree partially regarding the nama com-
ponent, the Mahiinidiina has no definition at all. Instead it has, in four of
the five cited versions of the sutra, a discussion of the relationship be-
tween nama-rapa and phassa (contact), which will be examined below.
The second of the three alternatives to the standard series to be consid-
ered here might be called "the Sutta-nipata version" because its only
occurrence is in a sutra of the Sn (Sutta-nipadl), one that has no known
Chinese counterpart.
23
This version was early recognized by LA VALLEE
POUSSIN as important in providing possible clues to the early develop-
19. SN 2: 104.30-31 = SA SOc3 = Fu 35 (right); DN2:32 = Fu 35 (left).
20. E.g. SASOc3-4 & 9-16.
21. As regards the explanations of the other items, the Pali Mahanidana agrees with
the Pali sutras cited for the standard version, and the Chinese agree with the
Chinese - except for some discrepancies in the case of tal)hii. The Pali at first
lists six types of tal)hii based on the sense objects (DN2: 5S.12-13), but later
lists three: kama-tal)hii, bhava-tal)hii, vibhava-tal)ha (DN2: 61.27-2S); DA lists
the same three (DA 60c13); and the other Chinese sources list just the first two of
them: kama-tal)ha and bhava-tal)ha (DA' 243a19-20 = MA 579b22 = MA'S45
as-9). In the Chinese, the identification of two kinds of tal)ha is immediately
followed by the phrase "these two dharmas," and in the DN version the
identification of three kinds is incongruously followed by the same phrase (ime
dve dhamma, DN2:61.33). It is likely, therefore, that DN formerly listed just the
two kinds, despite Buddhaghosa's suggestion that the phrase refers to a different
two kinds of tal)hii (SumangalaviHisinI 500).
22. DN2: 63 = DA61b9-12 = DA' 243blS-22 = MA579c17-20 = MA' 845b6-S.
23. Sn139-149, #72S-751.
JIABS 22.2 318
ment of the PS series.
24
The sutra in question says of each item that it is
a condition foi the arising of suffering (dukkha). It does not explicitly
link each item with the next; hgwever, the sequence in whiGh the items
appear in such statements matches closely that of the standard version, as
can be seen from the following s:ummary of the Sn series:
upadhi (substrate)
1. avijjii (ignorance)
2. saitkhiirii (activities)
3. vififiii1J.a (consciousness)
6. phassa (contact)
7. vedanii (feeling)
8. ta1J.hii (craving)
9. upiidiina (clinging)
10. bhava (becoming)
11. jiiti (birth)
12. mara1J.a (death)
iirambhii (exertions)
iihiirii (nutriments)
ifijitii (movements)
This omits 4. niima-rupa (name-and-form) and 5. sa!iiyatana (sixfold
sense-base), and it adds at the ends four items not found in the standard
version.
25
The one remaining version of the PS series to be considered here is
represented in the following formulation, found in much the same
wording in many different sutras.
26
monks, is the arising of suffering?
Conditioned by the eye (cakkhu) and visible forms (riipa) arises eye-conscious-
ness (cakkhu-vififiiilJa).
The coming together of the three is contact (phassa).
Conditioned by contact is feeling (vedanii).
Conditioned by feeling is craving (tal)hii).
24. Louis DE LA V ALLEE POUSSIN: Thiorie des Douze Causes (London: Luzac
1913), pp.I-5.
25. Following ifijitii a further four items are named, but with no reference to causal
dependence; the word paccayii is absent. Thus, ifijitii is where the causal chain
ends.
26. E.g. SN 4: 86.17-87.27 = SA 54c22-25.
Conditioned by craving is clinging (upiidiina).
Conditioned by clinging is becoming (bhava).
Conditioned by becoming is birth (jiiti).
BUCKNELL 319
Conditioned by birth are aging-and-death (jarii-maral}a), ...
Thus is the arising of suffering.
The whole is then repeated in tum with each of the remaining five sense
organs, sense objects, and classes of consciousness: "Conditioned by ear
and sounds, ear-consciousness arises," and similarly for the nose and
odors, the tongue and tastes, the body and tactile objects, and the mind
(mano) and mind objects (dhammas).
The resemblance of this to the three versions already noted becomes
more apparent if we bring together the six repetitions of the passage, and
apply the definitions examined earlier. Eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and
mind are together the sixfold sense-base, i.e. they can be collectively
identified with sa!iiyatana, item 5 of the standard version. The corre-
sponding six classes of consciousness (eye-consciousness etc.) are
together identical with vififiiilJa, item 3 of the standard version. For the
six sense objects (visible forms etc.) a counterpart in the standard
version is not immediately apparent. Despite this, a close overall corre-
spondence exists, as is evident from the following summary representa-
tion of the quoted version using the numbering of the standard version:
5. six sense organs (= sa!iiyatana)
plus six sense objects (= ?)
3. six consciousnesses (= vififiiilJa)
6. phassa
7. vedanii
8. talJhii
9. upiidiina
10. bhava
11. jiiti
12. jarii-maralJa
Clearly, we have here another version of the PS formula. For reasons
that will soon become apparent, it will henceforth be called "the
branched version."
The familiar twelve-membered account of PS is, therefore, just one
among several versions. Alongside this standard version there also exist
the looped version (with or without sa!iiyatana), the Sn version, and the
JIABS 22.2 320
branched version; and one can find in the Nikayas/ Agamas several other
series which differ more markedly from the standard account of PS and
which might be included in a more comprehensive study.
The present examination of just fovr closely similar versions therefore
represents only a partial attempt. to account for such variation.
As regards their content, the versions selected here for study fall natu-
rally into two groups. The standard and Sn versions agree in tracing the
chain of causation back to activities and ignorance; the branched and
looped versions agree in not mentioning those two links. This grouping
is recognized in the analysis that now follows; the branched and looped
versions will be considered together, followed by the standard and Sn
versions.
The branched and looped versions
In the branched version the causal chain originates with the sense organs
and their corresponding objects: "Conditioned by the eye and visible
forms arises eye-consciousness." The subsequent repetitions complete
the set of six senses (the five physical senses and the mind), as shown:
cakkhu (eye) + riipa (form)
sota (ear) + sadda (sound)
ghiina (nose) + gandha (odor)
-7 cakkhu-vififiii1}a (eye-consciousness)
-7 sota-vififiii!la (ear-consciousness)
-7 ghiina-vififiii1}a (nose-consciousness)
jivhii (tongue) + rasa (flavor) -7 jivhii-vififiii1}a (tongue-consciousness)
kiiya (body) + photfhabba (tactile) -7 kiiya-vififiii!la (body-consciousness)
mana (mind) + dhamma (image) -7 mano-vififiii!la (mind-consciousness)
The coming together of the three items in each horizontal set (e.g. eye,
visible forms, eye-consciousness) is equated with contact (phassa, i.e.
eye-contact etc.), which then conditions feeling (vedanii), and so on. It
was briefly noted above that comparison with other versions of PS is
facilitated if one combines the items in each vertical set. Such combina-
tion is recognized explicitly in some textual accounts. For example, the
three sets of six are sometimes referred to as the six internal sense-bases
(cha ajjhatikiini iiyataniini = eye etc.), six external sense-bases (cha
biihiriini iiyataniini = visible forms etc.), and six consciousness groups
(cha vififiiil}a-kiiyii).27 The first of these sets of six is also recognized in
27. E.g. MN3: 280-1 = MA562b-c, DN3: 243-4 = DA'231b-c. The sixfold group-
ing continues as far as ta!lhii. Also cf. the three consecutive saTJIyuttas at SN 3:
225-240, each of which is clearly derived from a single sutra. In each the six
BUCKNELL 321
the widely used term saJ-iiyatana (sixfold sell3e-base). Furthermore, in
the Pali tradition, as seen earlier, accounts of PS which explain the com-
ponent items define vedanii and tm:thii in terms of the six sense fields,
thereby implicitly recognizing the same summation of six separate
series. Such considerations justify recognizing the three sets of six,
shown above, as constituting a single triad: 6 sense organs. + 6 sense
objects -7 6 consciousnesses. Applying this to the branched version
means that it and the looped version compare as shown in Figure 1.
Between the two versions, there is complete correspondence from
phassd to the end of the series; and, as Figure 1 reveals, the items pre-
ceding phassa match up partially. The correspondence between the two
"consciousness" items is actually defective. Accounts of the looped
version explain v i i i i i i i ~ t a as consciousness that descends into the mother's
wombat conception; the definition of viiiiiiilJa in terms of the six senses
is associated not with the looped version but with the standard version.
On the other hand, as noted earlier, sutras dealing with the looped
version often switch between it and the standard version as if there were
little to distinguish them. This suggests that the difference in definition -
sense consciousness versus rebirth consciousness - may be less signifi-
cant than it appears. This question will be re-examined later. For the
present, suffice it to note the broad correspondence evident in Figure 1.
Just one item in each series remains completely unpaired, namely the six
sense objects on the left, and niima-rapa on me right. Accordingly,
attention now focuses on the meaning of the term niima-rapa.
Since accounts of the looped version provide no definition of niima-
rapa, we tum first to the definitions of this item that accompany
accounts of the standard version. These indicate that the second compo-
nent, rapa, refers to the four great elements (earth, water, fire, air) and
their derivatives. This is one of several meanings borne by the word
rapa according to context. In another usage rapa means "visible form,"
i.e. the object of eye-consciousness; this is the case in the opening sen-
tence quoted above: "Conditioned by eye (cakkhul'[!) and visible forms
(rape)."28 However, the definitions indicate that the rapa in niima-rapa
has the other meaning; it denotes physicality, materiality.
senses are covered not by repeating the entire series for each sense field but by
specifying the six sense fields within each item.
28. On the ambiguity of Tupa cf. D. SEYFORT RUEGG: "Some reflections on the
place of philosophy in the study of Buddhism," JIABS 18.2 (1995): 145-181,
p.146.
nABS 22.2 322
As for nama (literally "name"), one of the two available definitions
(that given in SA) equates it with the second to fifth of the five
khandhas, the five aggregates into which the person or, being is often
analyzed. The first of the khandhas is rupa, defined as physicality, as
above; the remaining four, vedana, sanna, safLkhara, vinnalJa (feeling,
perception, activities, conscIousness), are mental. Thus, on this .defIni-
tion nama-rupa represents a classification of the khandhas into mental
and physical. The other definition (given in SN, MN, and EA) equates
nama with vedana, sanna, safLkhiira; phassa (contact), and manasikara
(mind-work), which again are all mental factors. Thus, the available
definitions, despite disagreeing with each other, appear to ju'stify the
common free translation of nama-rupa as "mind and body."29
These textual explanations of nama-rupa are problematic. In addition
to the disagreement regarding the definition of nama, there are discrep-
ancies arising out of the place of nama-rupa in the PS series. Both
definitions indicate that nama encompasses vedana (feeling), yet vedana
is said to arise further down the causal series; and one of the two defini-
tions indicates that nama also encompasses phassa (contact), which again
is further down the series. (In the standard version nama-rupa is item 4,
while phassa and vedana are items 6 and 7.) These discrepancies could
be explained away by suggesting that the causal links are not to be .
understood as strictly ordered, but that would amount to a serious weak-
ening of the notion of causal dependence (idappaccayata), which the PS
doctrine is said to exemplify.
A further anomaly concerning nama-rupa is that, as noted above, the
Mahanidana-sutta, while providing defInitions for all the other items in
the looped version, fails to provide one for nama-rupa; instead it goes
into of the causal connection between nama-rupa and the
next item, phassa (sa!ayatana is omitted). That discussion is dealt with
by REAT (1987) in an instructive study of the notion of nama-rupa.
30
REAT translates the PaIi passage in question as followS:
31
29. E.g. Maurice WALSH: Thus Have I Heard: The Long Discourses o/the Buddha
(London: Wisdom 1987), p. 223 (translation of Pall Mahiinidana-sutta).
30. N. Ross REAT: "Some Fundamental Concepts of Buddhist Psychology,"
Religion 17 (1987): 15-28.
31. DN2: 62 = DA61b =DA'243b = MA579c. Quoted in Dharmaskandha in
Chinese:' T#1537 at T26: 509b16-27 ("T" = TaishO edition); and in Sanskrit:
Siglinde DIETZ: Fragmente des Dharmaskandha: Ein Abhidharma-Text in
Sanskrit aus Gilgit (= Ab'handlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in
BUCKNELL 323
...:. If, Ananda, those qualities, characteristics, signs, and indications by which the
name-group (niima-kiiya) is manifested ... were absent, would there be the mani-
festation of verbal contact (adhivacana-samphassa) in (i.e. "with regard to") the
form-group (rupakiiya)?
- There' would not, venerable sir.
- If, Ammda, those qualities etc. by which the form-group is manifested ... were
absent, would there be the manifestation of sensual contact (pa!igha-samphassa)
in the name-group?
- There would not, venerable sir ....
- And if, Ananda, those qualities etc. by which name-and-form are manifested ...
were absent, would there be any manifestation of (any kind of) contact
(phassa)?
- There would not, venerable sir.
- Therefore, Ananda, this is the cause, the basis, the origin, the condition of
contact, namely name-and-form.
REAT reasons that this identifies nama and rapa as two classes of object
of consciousness: nama is conceptual (adhivacana); rap a is sensory
(pa!igha, literally "impact"). He links this terminology to the general
Indian idea of "the interdependence of concept (nama) and thing
conceptualized (rapa), or name and named," citing the usage of the term
nama-rapa in the pre-Buddhist He concludes that
"adhivacana (verbal) and patigha (sensual), as categories of phassa, are
an alternative to the more commonly enumerated six kinds of phassa,
and thus that nama-rap a is a dual categorization of the six types of
objects of consciousness."33
REAT is saying that the term nama-rapa refers to a grouping of the six
types of sense objects into two categories: the rapa category, comprising
physical sense objects of the five types (visible forms, sounds, odors,
flavors, tactile objects), and the nama category, comprising non-physical
sense objects (dhammas, mind objects). The textual basis for his argu-
ment is strengthened by the fact that the same account of the causal con-
G6ttingen, Philologisch-Historische Klasse, 3. Folge, Nr. 142) (G6ttingen:
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1984), pp.42-43. The passage is lacking in the other
Chinese counterpart, MA' 845, which has the intervening sa!iiyatana. REAT, who
considers only the Pali, elides the third of the four questions, which is fortu-
itously appropriate because the Chinese versions (and Dharmaskandha) lack this
question. They also lack the phrases "in the form-group" and "in the name-
group" (as noted by VETTER, pp. 147-8), which yields a more coherent reading;
e.g.: "If those qualities by which the form-group is manifested were absent,
would there be the manifestation of sensual contact?"
32. REAT, pp.18, 22.
33. REAT, p. 25.
JIABS 22.2 324
nection between nama-rapa andphassa appears in three of the four
extant Chinese' counterparts 6f the Pali Mahanidana-sutta.3
4
The argu-
ment itself is supported by similar conclusions reached by 'YINSHUN in
an earlier (1981) discussion of the same problem of interpreting nama-
rapa, this time in relation to a vmant of the branched version.3
5
YINSHUN, who bases his analysis entirely on Chinese sources, quotes
the following passage from a sutra in the Srupyuktligama:
36
Within the body there is this consciousness (shi = vifi.iiii1;ta), and outside the body
there is name-and-form (ming-se = niima-rilpa). Conditioned by these two arises
contact. Contacted by these six sense-contacts, the ignorant, untaught worldling
experiences painful and pleasurable feelings variously arisen.
YINSHUN draws the natural conclusion: "Consciousness and name-and-
form are opposed as subject and object."37 In other words, the term
nama-rapa denotes the sense objects.
The reference to nama:-rapa as located "outside the body" is in keep-
ing with the terminology noted earlier, in which the sixfold sense-base is
"inside" and the corresponding objects (which would include even the
objects of the mind sense-base, manayatana) are "outside."38 Clearly,
then, the passage that YINSHUN quotes is discussing a variant of the
branched version in which the six senses are combined; the six sense
objects are collectively covered by the term nama-rapa.
34. Also in quotes in Dharmaskandha; see note 31, above. REAT's reasoning (based
only on the Pall) is criticized, but with little foundation, by Peter HARVEY: The
Selfless Mind: Personality, Consciousness and Nirvana in Early Buddhism
(Richmond: Curzon 1995), pp. 131-2; and by Sue HAMILTON: Identity and
Experience: The Constitution of the Human Being According to Early Buddhism
(London: Luzac 1996), p, 126.
35. [Shi] YINSHUN: Weishi-xue tan yuan [Studies in the Origins of the Vijfi1inavada]
(= Miaoyunji No.3) (Taipei: Zhengwen 1981), pp.16-17, 20-22. REAT was evi-
dently unaware of YINSHUN's work.
36. SA 83c25-27 = SN2:24.1-4 = Tp 141-2, my translation. YINSHUN (p. 21) quotes
the original text, but amends the Taish5 punctuation to yield the meaning: " .. :
Within there is this consciousness-body (=viiiiiii1;ta-kiiya), and outside there is
name-and-form ... " However, the Sanskrit (not mentioned by YINSHUN) supports
the Taish5 punctuation (see note 39, below). In any case, the discrepancy does
not affect YINSHUN's argument.
37. YINSHUN, p. 21.
38. MN3: 280-1 = MA562b. On mind objects (dharnmii.) as located externally
(hahirii) cf. MN 1: 191.15-18 = MA467aI3-15.
BUCKNELL 325
The Sanskrit counterpart of the quoted Chinese passage differs only
slightly in meaning. For the first sentence it has: -"Thus, this (is) his
body with consciousness, and outside (is) name-and-form."39 The Pali
counterpart, however, differs significantly. It reads: "Thus indeed, this
(is) the body, and outside (is) name-and-form."4o Lacking the reference
to consciousness, the Pali is less readily recognizable as an account of
the beginning of the branched version. Nevertheless, it confirms the
essential point on which YIN SHUN' s reasoning depends: nama-rapa is
located "outside."
In any case, there is another Pali passage that points to just this inter-
pretation of nama-rapa, a point that was noticed earlier again (1971) by
WATSUJL41 Set in the context of guarding against the false notions of
"I" and "my," this often-repeated passage reads: "Lord, how knowing,
how seeing, is there no I-making, my-making, or tendency to conceit,
with regard to this body with consciousness and, outside, alLnimittas?"42
The italicized phrase parallels "this his body with consciousness, and
outside name-and-form," quoted above from the Sanskrit, but with
nama-rapam replaced by sabbanimittesu (Chinese: yiqie xiang), "all
nimittas." Of the meanings of nimitta given in the Pali-English Dictio-
nary the appropriate one here is certainly "outward appearance, mark,
characteristic, attribute, phenomenon (opp. essence)."43 And the refer-
ence is likely to be to all visible forms, sounds, etc., in other words to
the totality of sense objects.
These observations by W ATSUJI, YINSHUN, and REAT indicate that
nama-rapa, far from signifying "mind-and-body" or something similar,
is a collective term for the six types of sense 'object.
44
(The reference, in
39. ity ayaii casya savijiianakaJ; kayo [ba]hirdhii ca namarupam. Tp 142.
40. iti ayal[! ceva kayo bahiddhii ca namarupal[!. SN2:24.1-2. REAT (p. 18) also
quotes this passage in support of his interpretation.
41. W ATsun Tetsuro: Genshi Bukkyo no Jissen Tetsugaku [practical Philosophy of
Early Buddhism] (Tokyo: Iwanarni Shoten 1971), pp. 228-231.
42. imasmiii ca saviiiiial}ake kaye bahiddhii ca sabbanimittesu; e.g. SN 2: 252 =
SA50c; SN3: 135-7 = SA2:5a-b = SA2:50c-51a; AN 1: 132-3 = SA2:255b-
256a. Cf. the wording in notes 39 and 40, above.
43. PED, p. 367.
44. The same understanding of nama-rupa is taken for granted, without supporting
discussion, by MIZUNO Kogen: Primitive Buddhism (Ube: Karinbunko 1969),
pp.142-144; and YAMADA Ishii: "Premises and Implications of Interdepen-
dence", in Somaratna BALASOORIYA et al. (eds.), Buddhist Studies in Honour of
Walpola Rahula (London: Gordon Fraser 1980: 267-293), p. 272. It is rejected,
JIABS 22.2 326
the case of rupa, is evidently not to the physical objects of the world
around us, but rather to the sense data - patterns of color and shape,
auditory impressions, and so on - that impinge on us via the sense
organs.) None of the three researchers suggests why the definitions of
niima-rupa given in the sutr.as conflict with this interpretation, a
question that will be examined below. Nevertheless the case fot: the
interpretation is strong.
This revised understanding of niima-riipa has implications for the
questions raised earlier concerning the relationship between the branched
and looped versions. If adopted, it makes the correspondence between
the two versions even closer than is shown in Figure 1. A further con-
necting line can now be inserted, joining "6 sense objects" on the left
with "niima-riipa" on the right. There is now a complete pairing of
items between the two versions, though with questions remaining con-
cerning the discrepant definitions of niima-rupa and vififiii1Ja.
The difference in sequence proves, on examination, to be not quite as
Figure 1 may suggest. For the looped version the description follows the
same "X-paccayii Y" pattern throughout, with each item conditioned by
the item preceding it in the list: "Conditioned by name-and-fonn is con-
sciousness. Conditioned by consciousness is name-and-fonn. Condi-
tioned by name-and-fonn is the sixfold sense-base ... " and so on. The
pattern of dependency relationships in the looped version can, therefore,
be represented as shown in Figure 2, section (b). The arrows represent
the conditional relationship: the item ahead of each arrow is conditioned
by, or dependent on, the item behind the arrow. The whole has a simple
linear structure except at its beginning, where the pair of arrows repre-
sents the reciprocal relationship between vififiii1Ja and niima-rupa.
45
again without supporting discussion, by Lambert SCHMITHAUSEN: "The Early
Buddhist Tradition and Ecological Ethics", Journal of Buddhist Ethics 4 (1997),
http://jbe.la.psu.edu/4/schml.html, note 67. Relevant here is a variant of the
standard version of PS at Vibhailga 138.30-32: " ... viiiiilil)apaccayli niima1!l.
niimapaccayli cha!!hiiyatana1!l, cha!!hiiyatanapaccayli phasso, ... " This associ-
ates nlima with "the sixth sense-base" (cha!!hliyatana). It thus supports the
proposition that nlima-rupa represents a classification of sense objects into men-
tal (sensed via the sixth sense-base) and physical (sensed via the other five
bases).
45. Similar notation is adopted by YINSHUN, p. 24; VETTER, p. 144; and Bhikkhu
BODHI: The Great Discourse on Causation: The Mahiinidlina Sutta and Its
Commentaries (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society 1995), p. 43.
BUCKNELL 327
In the case of the branched version the pattern of relationships is less
uniform: "Conditioned by the eye and visible forms arises eye-con-
sciousness. The coming together of the three is contact. Conditioned by
contact is feeling .... " The first two items named, the sense organ and its
object, are not linked by any dependency relationship; neither is said to
be a condition for the other. These two together condition the. arising of
the next item, viiiiiii1Ja (consciousness). Those three together are the next
item, phassa (contact). Phassa conditions the arising of vedanii
(feeling), and so on thereafter in linear series to the end. The pattern of
relationships is, therefore, properly represented by a branching structure,
as ill Figure 2, section (a).
From vedanii to the end the branched and looped versions agree; and,
as demonstrated above, the seeming discrepancies in the composition of
their early portions are largely due to differing terminology. Conse-
quently, an adequate comparison of the early portions of the two
versions can be achieved by applying the terminology of the looped
version to the components of the branched version, and setting the
resulting structures side by side, as in Figure 2.
Between these two structures there is close resemblance but also
substantial difference, difference which is the more noteworthy because
of the emphasis on precise identification of dependency relationships
that characterizes the PS doctrine. This combination of similarity and
difference demands explanation. There are, broadly speaking, two
possibilities:
(a) The two versions accurately represent two distinct teachings im-
parted by the Buddha, which happen to have much in common.
(b) The two versions represent a single teaching imparted by the
Buddha, the present differences between them being due to faulty
transmission of the tradition.
Favoring explanation (a) is the apparent discrepancy in the significance
of vifiiiii"(ta in the two versions. The viiifiii1Ja of the branched version is
the summation of the six types of consciousness associated with the sense
organs, which makes that version read like an account of the psychologi-
cal process of sensory perception. In contrast, the looped version, for
which viiiiiii"(ta is defined as rebirth consciousness, reads like an account
of events associated with the process of physical rebirth.
46
Against this,
46. These two correspond to two different understandings of PS (specifically, of the
standard version) that are current among practicing Buddhists. Prominent Sangha
nABS 22.2 328
however, is the fact, noted earlier, that sutras dealing with the looped'
version often 'switch between it and the standard version, for which
vififili1J-a is defmed as consciousness associated with the six sepses.
As for explanation (b), according to which the branched and looped
versions developed out of a single earlier version through faulty trans-
mission, this is by no means incompatible with the existence of two
different definitions of vififiii1J-a. The postulated rearrangement of the
items preceding phassa (contact) might have been accompanied by a
redefinition of one of those items (i.e. vififili1J-a), or might even have
been the cause of that redefmition. On the other hand, the suggestion
that such rearrangement and redefinition occurred can be taken seriol,lsly
only if the details of the postulated changes can be spelled out and
shown to be reasonable in light of all relevant data.
An evaluation of the relative merits of the two possible explanations
will, therefore, depend crucially on how adequately it can be demon-
strated that the branched and looped versions could have developed out
of a single earlier account - as proposed in explanation (b) - given what
is known of conditions relating to transmission of the memorized
Dharma within the early Sangha. That issue will now be explored.
The simplest form of postulate (b) is that one of the existing versions,
either the branched or the looped, has preserved the source form intact,
while the other represents a modification of it.
47
Near its beginning, the
branched version is specific about the nature of each relationship; it
indicates several different types of relationship, namely those repre-
sented in Figure 2 (a) by the signs +, t, }, =. It is this diversity that
defines the branching structure. The looped version, however, recog-
nizes only one type of relationship, expressed in the fixed formula "X-
paccaYiJ Y" repeated at each linkage, and uniformly represented in
Figure 2 (b) by the arrow sign. It is this uniformity that defines its basi-
cally linear structure.
representatives of the two positions are: for the microcosmic, psychological inter-
pretation, BUDDHADASA Bhikkhu: Paticcasamuppada: Practical Dependent
Origination, Nonthaburi, Thailand: Vuddhidhamma Fund 1992 (e.g. p. 14 ); and
for the macrocosmic, physical interpretation, NYANATILOKA: Buddhist Dictio-
nary (Colombo: Frewin 1972), pp.128-136 (esp. p.131).
47. The "source form" is not supposed to be the form of the doctrine taught by the
. Buddha. It is simply the postulated common ancestor of the two existing versions
and is, in its tum, subject to possible interpretation as derived from some still
earlier form.
BUCKNELL 329
In respect of this feature, it is not hard to see how, in the oral trans-
mission of the teaching, the diverse descriptions in the beginning part of
the branched version could have developed into the uniform descriptions
in the looped version, particularly in situations where the series was
being chanted in reverse order. One can postulate broadly the following
line of development. The "X-paccayii Y" pattern, which applies at each
linkage as one moves backward from jarii-maral}a to jiiti, from jiiti to
bhava, and so on, originally applied only as far as phassa (as in the
present branched version). However, chanting monks, mechanically
repeating the memorized formula with little understanding of its
purport, mistakenly applied the same pattern to the remaining items, all
the way back to the beginning (as in the present looped version). In thus
regularizing the wording of the chanted material, the monks responsible
unintentionally simplified the structure: the branching arrangement
became a simple linear series. ,
A line of development that could have effected the converse structural
change is difficult to envisage. In other words, it is easy to see how the
branched version could have yielded the essentially linear structure of
the looped version by simple loss and regularization, but it is hard to see
how the reverse could have happened. This postulated process of change
is, as yet, vague on detail, but it suffices to make the main point: in
respect of the issues considered thus far, it is more likely that the looped
version developed out of the branched version than that the reverse
happened. This recognized, an attempt will now be made to fill in the
details.
In Figure 2, the branched version is shown with the six senses com-
bined, in order to reveal its relationship with the looped version; e.g.,
the item vififiii1}a (consciousness) in the depiction of the branched
version represents the summation of eye-consciousness, ear-conscious-
ness, etc. Existing textual accounts of the branched version do not
explicitly combine the six senses in this way. They say: "Conditioned by
the eye and visible forms arises eye consciousness .... Thus is the arising
of suffering." And then they go through the entire series again with each
of the five remaining senses. However, given the examples cited earlier
where vififiii1}a and other items are defined in terms of the six senses
collectively, it is clearly reasonable to suggest that such a combined
account might have formerly existed. Its wording would have followed
nABS 22.2 330
the pattern seen in the existing accounts; that is, it would have begun
more or less as follows:
48
a) Sa!iiyatana1J1 ca pa{icca niima-rilpa1J1 ca uppajjaii vififiii1J.a1J1.
(Conditioned by the sixfold sense-base and name-and-form, arises
consciousness. )
b) Ti1J.1J.a1J1 sarigati phasso. (The coming together of the three is
contact.)
c) Phassa-paccayii vedanii. (Conditioned by contact is feeling.)
d) Vedanii-paccayii ta1J.hii. (Conditioned by feeling is craving.)
Now, it is an observable fact that, with one partial exception (discussed
below), accounts of the branched version present it only in forward
sequence, while accounts of the looped version present it initially in
reverse sequence and then in forward sequence. The relationship be-
tween the forward and reverse presentations of the looped version (as
also of the much better attested standard version) is such that the reverse
presentation is obtained from the forward presentation by reversing the
sequence of the separate statements while leaving those statements them-
selves unchanged. For example, where the forward sequence concludes
thus: " ... Bhava-paccayii jiiti. Jiiti-paccayii jarii-mara1J.a1J1." the reverse
sequence begins thus: "Jiiti-paccayiijarii-mara1J.a1J1. Bhava-paccayiijiiti.
"
Let us consider the effect of applying this principle in reversing the
postulated combined branched version (in which the six senses are
brought together). What is involved can be seen in the following
reversed presentation of the above four statements. (Bold is used to
highlight the items whose relationships are being stated.)
d) Vedanii-paccayii ta1}hii. (Conditioned by feeling is craving.)
c) Phassa-paccayii vedanii. (Conditioned by contact is feeling.)
b) Ti1J.1J.a1J1 sarigati phasso. (The coming together of the three is
contact.)
a) Sa!iiyatana1{l ca pa{icca niima-rilpa1{l ca uppajjati viiiiiii1}a1{l.
(Conditioned by the sixfold" sense-base and name-and-form,
arises consciousness.)
48. Modeled on the pattern at SN 4:86.13-17 and many other locations.
BUCKNELL 331
The progression from statement (d) to statement (c) presents no
problem. But to go on from that to statement (b), "The coming together
of the three is contact," would make no sense, because "the three" are
not named until the following statement (a).
At this point, according to the postulate advanced above, monks recit-
ing the formula responded by mechanically applying the same "X-
paccaya Y" pattern to the remaining items (shown bold). This yielded a
variety of results. Along one line of development, TiIJIJa1!L sarigati
phasso was replaced by Sa!ayatana-paccayii phasso, using the first of
the three items from statement (a); and the series was then completed by
continuing similarly with the two remaining items: Nama-riipa-paccayii
sa!ayatana1'(l. Viiiiia1}a-paccayii nama-riipaT[l. Along a second line of
development, saJiiyatana was overlooked, so that TiIJIJa1'(l sarigati phasso
was replaced by Nama-riipa-paccayii phasso, followed by Viiiiia1}a-
paccayii nama-riipa1'(l. In both cases, further uncertainty arose from an
awareness that the new final statement contradicted the imperfectly
remembered source version, according to which niima-riipa was a con-
dition for vififiiiIJa, rather than the reverse. This situation was covered by
adding, usually but not always, one further statement: Nama-riipa-
paccayii viiifiaIJa1'(l. The result was the looped version, with or without
saJiiyatana.
The looped version is attested in sutra collections representing both the
Pali tradition (SN, DN) and the Sarvastivada (SA).49 Consequently, the
developments hypothetically outlined above probably must be supposed
to have occurred before the sectarian split that yielded those two tradi-
tions, i.e. well before the Pali tradition's Third Council in the third
century B.C.5o
The proposed reconstruction supposes that, at the time of the trans-
formation, there existed a variant of the branched version in which the
six senses were combined to yield a single series. Implied is that this
variant employed nama-rilpa as a collective term for all six classes of
sense object. This is an important point because, whereas the terms for
the six individual sense objects are likely to have been well understood
49. The continuing doubts about whether SA (T#99) really is Sarvastivadin have
little effect on the argument, and will not be discussed here. The same applies for
subsequent statements relating to the sectarian affinities of other Chinese agama
texts.
50. Borrowing from one school to another after their separation cannot be ruled out,
making a later date also possible.
nABS 22.2 332
by any Sangha member, the more technical term nama-riipa appears
(from the conflicting definitions' of it) to have been a source of some
confusion since early times. Such confusion would have facilitated
modification of the causal relationships involving nama-riipa. For
example, the obscure "Conditioned by consciousness is name-and-form"
could have enjoyed a plausibility not shared by the transparent and
counterintuitive "Conditioned by eye-consciousness are visible forms."
The proposed reconstruction also implies that the practice of reciting
the causal series in reverse order was an innovation, and indeed that this
new practice was the immediate cause of the distortions. It was earlier
noted in passing that there does exist one partial exception to the
generalization that the branched version is found only in the forward
sequence. This exception occurs in one of the four Chinese counterparts
of the Pali Mahanidana-sutta, namely that contained in DA (the full
Chinese translation of DIrghagama). It will be recalled that the Pali
account describes, initially in reverse sequence, the looped version with-
out the sixfold sense-base (sa!ayatana). The relevant DA account begins
by doing the same; but, having traced the series back to the link between
contact and feeling, it digresses, as follows: 51
The Buddha said to Ananda: "Conditioned by contact is feeling. What is the
meaning of this? Ananda, if there were no eye, no visible form, and no eye con-
sciousness, would there be contact?"
He answered: ''There would not."
"If there were no ear, sound, and ear consciousness, ... no mind, mind object, and
mind consciousness, would there be contact?"
He answered: "There would not."
"Ananda if all beings lacked contact, would there be feeling?"
He jIIlswered: "There would not."
There follow explanations of the link between name-and-form and
contact (corresponding to REAT's quote from the Pali), and of the recip-
rocallink between consciousness and name-and-form.
The quoted section begins with a question about how feeling (vedana)
is conditioned by contact (phassa). Incongruously, however, the answer
given deals mainly with how contact is dependent on the coming
together of each sense organ with its corresponding object and con-
sciousness. In effect, the looped version is here combined with a portion
51. DA61a25-b1.
BUCKNELL 333
of the branched version. While the overall causal sequence is stated in
reverse, the components of each sense triad from the branched version
are named in the original forward sequence (eye, visual form, eye con-
sciousness; etc.). After this digression into the branched version, the
account of the looped version resumes: contact is conditioned by name-
and-form, and so on back to consciousness and again name-and-form.
It is generally accepted that the Chinese DA represents the Dharma-
guptaka school, whose divergence from the Pali tradition probably
happened well after that of the Sarvastivada.
52
This unique variant of the
looped version is, therefore, probably too late historically to be inter-
preted as a transitional form between the branched and looped versions.
It appears, rather, to represent a combining of the branched version with
its already well established looped derivative, perhaps in an attempt to
reconcile two different memorized versions of the Mahanidana known
within the Dharmaguptaka tradition.
The hypothetical reconstruction set out above demonstrates that the
existing looped version, together with its several variants, can be
explained as a distorted derivative of a form of the branched version in
which the six senses were combined. It thereby demonstrates that the
differences between the existing branched and looped versions can be
accounted for in terms of processes of change that could well have
happened in the course of the early oral transmission of the teaching.
Further implications of this finding will be suggested in the course of
examining the two remaining versions of the PS formula identified here
for study.
The standard version and the Sutta-nipata version
The version of the PS formula preserved in the Sutta-nipata agrees with
the standard version in tracing the causal series back beyond vififia1}a
(consciousness) to smikhara (activities) and avijja (ignorance). It differs
from the standard version in omitting nama-rapa (name-and-form) and
sa!ayatana (sixfold sense-base), and adding extra items at the beginning
and end of the series:
52. See Ernst W ALDSCHl\1lDT: "Central Asian Siitra Fragments," in Heinz BECHERT
(ed.), The Language a/the Earliest Buddhist Tradition (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck
& Ruprecht 1980): 136-164, p.136.
JIABS 22.2 334
Standard
avijja
sankhara
v i f i f i a ~ 1 a
nama-rapa
sa!ayatana
phassa
vedana
ta1}ha
upadana
bhava
jati
jarii-mara1}a
Sutta-nipata
upadhi
avijja
sankhara
vififia"(la
phassa
vedana
ta1}ha
upadana
bhava
jati
jarii-mara1}a
iirambha
ahara
ifijitii
The extra items in the Sn version are not attested in any other account of
the PS series. They are, therefore, likely to be relatively late additions,
especially given that several further items are mentioned as following
ifijita (movements) without being made part of the series proper.
53
No
attempt will be made here to interpret these extra items in the Sn
version. In the following discussion they will be passed over, leaving a
series that differs from the standard version only in omitting nama-rapa
and sa!ayatana.
In deriving vififia1}a from sankhara (activities) and avijja (ignorance),
both of!hese versions differ substantially from the branched version, as
shown in Figure 3. However, the standard version, including as it does
niima-rapa and sa!ayatana, differs less markedly from the looped
version, being identical with it from vififiii1}a to the end. Consequently,
53. The linguistically conservative character of Sn does not rule out the possibility
that its contents underwent development over time. There is evidence that the
initial upadhi (also given as upadht) may represent a repetition of upadana; cf.
SN2: 107.28-108.25 = SA 82b9-14 = Tp 124-6, where upadhi replaces upa-
dana. The set of extra items in Sn is roughly matched in the Mahanidana by a
subsidiary series of items (pariyesana, labha,etc.) said to be conditioned by
tal}ha: DN2: 58.31-59.3 = DA60c19-22 = DA'242b18-23 = MA579a1-6 =
MA' 844c16-23.
BUCKNELL 335
the problems considered earlier when the branched version was com-
pared with the looped version present themselves again, in much the
same form, when the branched version is compared with the standard
version. It is clear that much the same response to those problems is
applicable here". That is, one can reason along the same lines that the
existing arrangement of the standard version, in which niima-rupa and
sa!iiyatana follow vififiiil}a in linear series, is likely to have developed
out of an earlier arrangement in which they preceded vififiii1}a, as in the
branched version. The absence of a loop in the present case simplifies
the argument slightly. The presence, in the standard version, of an extra
sub-chain (avijjii -7 smikhiirii -7) feeding into vififiii1}a does not affect
the argument; this sub-chain simply accompanies vififiii1}a throughout the
postulated changes. Consequently, application of the earlier reasoning to
the present case points to hypothetical derivation of the existing standard
version from an earlier form that differed from the branched version
only in having the extra sub-chain. That earlier form is shown in Figure 4 ..
In this postulated earlier form of the standard version the arising of
vififiii1}a is traced to two different sources: on one hand to the sense
organs and their objects (sa!iiyatana and niima-rupa), and on the other
hand to activities (sarikhiirii), which in their turn are conditioned by
ignorance (avijjii). The branched version represents the former source,
and the Sn version is now seen to represent the other source (activities
and ignorance).
This yields the following simple picture of how the different versions
of the PS formula relate to one another: the branched version derives
vififiii1}a from the sense organs and sense objects; the Sn version derives
vififiii1}a from activities and ignorance; and the ancestor of the standard
version derived it from both sources. The ancestor of the standard
version was, in effect, a combination of the pranched version and the Sn
version. To describe it from another perspective, the branched version
fails to mention one of the two sources of vififiii1}a recognized in the
ancestral standard version, while the Sn version fails to mention the
other; each omits one of the two branches leading to vififiii1}a. The Sn
version's omission of niima-rupa and saJiiyatana, appearing as a gap in
the linear series, is thereby explained as simply a by-passing of one of
the two main branches. Also explained is the statement, associated with
the looped version, that the causal series cannot be traced further back
than niima-rupa - this despite the existence (sometimes in the very same
sutra) of the standard version, in which the series does appear to go
JIABS 22.2 336
further back. As Figure 4 p o r t r a y ~ it, nama-rapa is indeed as far as the
causal series can be traced along the branch in question. The statement
that no further cause can be found beyond nama-rapa is npt, after all,
incompatible with the status of avijja as the beginning of the (standard)
series, since nama-rapa and avijja are the tips of two different branches.
The structure represented in Figure 4 thereby resolves some otherwise
puzzling contradictions in the textual accounts. It has considerable
explanatory power.
As regards supporting data, the explanation just advanced for the
development of the standard version differs in one important respect
from that advanced earlier for the development of the looped version.
Whereas the proposed ancestor of the looped version still exists (as the
branched version), the proposed ancestor of the standard version is
nowhere attested as such; we do not find in the Nikayas/ Agamas explicit
descriptions of the structure depicted in Figure 4. However, there does
exist some less direct textual evidence for this structure. It is to be found
within the earliest stratum of the Abhidharma literature, the Suttanta-
bhajanlya portion of the Pali VibhaIiga and its counterparts in the Sari-
putra Abhidharma (Dharmaguptaka) and the Dharmaskandha (Sarvasti-
vada).54
In its section on the PS doctrine the VibhaIiga begins by presenting the
standard version. It then explains the twelve items by reproducing
verbatim the definitions from the Pali sutras cited near the beginning of
this article (SN and MN) - but with one exception: for nama the
VibhaIiga gives a different definition again, equating it with just three of
the four non-physical aggregates (khandha), namely feeling, perception,
54. Consisting largely of nearly verbatim quotes from the Nikayas/Agamas, and
having evidently been put together before the fIrst sectarian split in the Sthavira
tradition, this textual corpus rates as hardly less reliable than the Nikayasl Agamas
themselves in representing early Buddhism. Besides Chinese versions of the
Sanputra Abhidharma and Dharmaskandha, we have a Sanskrit manuscript from
Gilgit containing the section of the Dharmaskandha that dea1s with PS. Sanputra
Abhidharma at T28:525-719#1548;Dharmaskandha at T26:453-514#1537, and
(PS section only) DIETZ (1984; see note 31, above). On these texts, see Erich
FRAUW ALLNER: Studies in Abhidharma Literature and the Origins of Buddhist
Philosophical Systems (trans. Sophie Francis KJ:DD) (1995: Albany, State
University of New York Press), pp.15-21, 43-48, 97-116; also pp.20 & 39,
where their common origin is postulated.
BUCKNELL 337
and activities (vedanii, sannii, and sarikhiirii).55 The Sariputra Abhi-
dhanna does the same, except that it agrees with the Pali sutras in
defining niima as comprising feeling, perception, volition, contact, and
mind-work (vedanii, sannii, cetanii,phassa, manasikiira).56
The Dharmaskandha, the third of our early Abhidhanna sources, is
exceptional as regards treatment of PS. It presents what amounts to the
standard version with two additional causal connections inserted, namely
those marked with * in the following representation (the significance of
Ij[ will be explained shortly).57
avijjii ~ sarikhiirii
Ij[ sarikhiirii ~ vifinii7}a
vifinii7}a ~ niima-riipa
Ij[ niima-riipa ~ vinnii7}a*
niima-riipa ~ sa!iiyatana
Ij[ niima-riipa ~ phassa*
Ij[ sa!iiyatana ~ phassa
Ij[ phassa ~ vedanii
Ij[ vedanii ~ ta7}hii
ta1Jhii
~ upiidiina
etc.
Of the two additional causal connections the first, niima-riipa ~
vifinii7}a, is familiar as .the extra link responsible for the loop of the
looped version; the second, niima-riipa ~ phassa, is as in the Maha-
nidana account of the looped version, which omits sa!iiyatana.
58
The
inclusion of these two additional links was, therefore, probably intended
to make the Dhannaskandha account cover both variants of the looped
version as well as the standard version. (The Sn version appears not to
be attested in the Sarvastivadin corpus.)
55. Vibh 135-138; niima-rupa defined at 136.7-9; probable sources of sutra quotes
suggested on p.437. Perhaps it was felt that vififiiirza, the one remaining non-
physical aggregate, ought to be omitted because it had already been named as the
condition for the arising of niima-riipa. Buddhaghosa gives the same definition at
Vism558.
56. T28: 606a-612b; definition of niima-rupa at 608b9-1O.
57. T26: 505a-513c = DIETZ 24-70; extra links at 507c25-, 509alO- = DIETZ 35-,
40-.
58. At MA579c4-7. MA is thought tobe Sarviistiviidin.
nABS 22.2 338
Whereas the VibhaiJ.ga and the Sariputra Abhidharma explain each. of
the links by quoting the brief sutra definition of the relevant item, the
Dharmaskandha explicates in some detail by quoting lengthier sutra
passages. For six of the causal connections, namely those marked with I
in the above list, the passages quoted are drawn from the sutra account
of the branched version: "Conditioned by eye and visible forms arises
eye-consciousness. The coming together of the three is contact. Condi-
tioned by contact is feeling .... "59 On each occasion the quote covers all
six sense fields and continues as far as. is appropriate for the point
reached in the series. For example, in those cases where the second item
in the causal connection is contact (phassa), the quote goes as far as
contact.
The Dharmaskandha's application of the branched version in explain-
ing the standard and looped versions provides general support for the
essentially similar approach adopted in the present analysis. More
specific support can be found in the pattern of that application, in
particular the Dharmaskandha's conspicuous failure to use the branched
version in explaining vififialJa -7 nama-rapa and nama-rapa -7 sa!-
ayatana. This correlates with the claim implicitly made here that these
two links in the standard version are doctrinally suspect, that they are
artifacts generated as the earlier structure (Figure 4) was mechanically
converted into a linear series.
60
Thus, the Dharmaskandha's treatment of
PS not only resembles the present analysis in interpreting the standard
version in terms of the branched version; it also supports some specific
aspects of the interpretation advanced here.
The above observations indiCate that in the period when the relevant
portion of the Dharmaskandha was being compiled, knowledge of the
standard ,Version coexisted with a residual memory of the branching
structure from which it was derived. For the present this is as close as
we can get to finding direct textual evidence of the inferred ancestor of
the existing standard version, portrayed in Figure 4.
59. Quotes from branched version begin at T26: 507a4, c25, 509alO, b26, c14,
51Oa13 = DIETZ 31, 35, 40, 43, 44, 46. Pali parallels for quoted passages are
indicated in DIETZ's footnotes.
60. This application of the branched version in explaining the standard version
extends only as far as tar,thli; and the classification of items in the branched
version in terms of the SIX sense fields also extends only as far as tar,thii (cf. note
27, above). What principle may underlie this correlation is not immediately
apparent.
BUCKNELL 339
Semantic issues
It remains to consider two outstanding questions relating to the meanings
of.terms: why rtiima-rupa, here interpreted as denoting the six classes of
sense object, is defined in the texts as meaning, in effect, "mind-and-
body"; and why vififiii"!La is defined in the texts sometimes as the six
classes of sense consciousness (the meaning adopted in the present
analysis) and sometimes as rebirth consciousness. It is noteworthy that
niima-rupa and vififiii"!La are two of the three items identified here as
involved in the rearrangement whereby the originally branching struc-
ture became a linear series. (The third is sa!iiyatana, which could hardly
be interpreted as anything other than the six sense organs.) Regarding
the possibility of a causal link between the semantic ambiguity and the
structural rearrangement, the following considerations are relevant.
The branched version in its combined form would have begun thus:
"Conditioned by the sixfold sense-base (sa!iiyatana) and the six sense
objects (niima-rupa) arises consciousness (vififiii"!La)." Applying these
meanings of the terms to the derivative looped version would have
yielded the following understanding of its first three statements: "Condi-
tioned by the six sense objects is consciousness. Conditioned by con-
sciousness are the six sense objects. Conditioned by the six sense objects
is the sixfold sense-base (or contact, in the Mahanidana)." If these
meanings of the terms were known to Sangha members at the time,
some of the statements would have seemed to contradict common sense.
(How could consciousness be the condition for external sense objects?
How could sense objects be the condition for the sense organs?) If, how-
ever, the signification of niima-rupa - literally, and misleadingly,
"name-and-form" - had already been forgotten, then these incongruities
would not have been apparent, thus facilitating the rearrangement, as
suggested earlier.
In either case the natural response would have been to give the
troublesome terms meanings that would make the new causal series
intelligible. Since the end of the series explicitly related to the process of
rebirth in sa7Jlsiira, it was natural to interpret its beginning in the same
terms. Accordingly, vififiii"!La in this context became the consciousness
that descends into the mother's womb at conception, while niima-rupa
became the mind-body complex that then takes shape and, after develop-
ing sense organs (sa!iiyatana), experiences contact (phassa) and so on.
With the terms reinterpreted in this way, the beginning of the rearranged
series would have acquired a seeming coherence and relevance.
JIABS 22.2 340
This discussion has centered on the term niima-rapa and the confusion
it appears to have generated. One is led to ask why the Buddha would
have chosen to denote the totality of sense objects by a word that liter-
ally meant "name-and-form," thus creating a terminology that was
inherently susceptible to misinterpretation.
61
The answer may lie in
REAT's observation that the niima-rapa of early Buddhism was close in
meaning to the niima-rapa of the pre-Buddhist The Upani-
niima-rapa figures in an account of the manifestation of the uni-
verse.
62
Perhaps the Buddha appropriated and adapted this important
term precisely so that his teaching of Conditioned Arising wo,uld be
recognized as a response to the doctrines of his opponents.
63
Conclusions
This examination of four versions of the pa!icca-samuppiida doctrine
has demonstrated that two of the four, those referred to here as the
branched and looped versions, show evidence of being derived from a
single earlier form. One can readily propose a viable hypothetical recon-
struction of the process whereby the looped version could have develop-
ed out of the branched version - more precisely, out of a variant of the
branched version in which the six senses were combined. Crucial to that
reconstruction is the proposition (already advanced by YINSHUN and
REAT, and hinted at by WATSUJI) that niima-rapa was formerly under-
stood as denoting the totality of sense objects.
It has also been shown that application of this finding to the standard
twelve-membered version of the doctrine points to derivation of the
well-known linear series from an earlier structure that was even more
elaborately branching than the "branched version." This further finding
incidentally provides a simple explanation for the differences among the
61. This terminology also had the disadvantage of not conforming to the usual order
of listing the sense objects: elsewhere the convention was to list material objects
(rapa) before mental objects (nama), as in the branched version of PS.
62. 1.4.7; cf. REAT, p. 18.
63. Cf. GOMBRICH's portrayal of the Buddha as consistently implementing such a
strategy, e.g. as identifying a Buddhist counterpart for the "threefold knowledge"
of the Brahmins. Richard F. GOMBRICH: How Buddhism Began: The Condi-
tioned Genesis a/the Early Teachings (= SOAS Jordan Lectures in Comparative
Religion XVII) (London: Athlone 1996), pp. 29-30.
BUCKNELL 341
versions -examined here: it shows the standard version as a combination
of the Sutta-nipata version and the branched version. The analysis has
also identified, as an important element in the process of transformation,
a scholastic reinterpretation of the doctrinal import of the early part of
the causal series, entailing redefi.nition of nama-rupa, and of vififialJ-a as
well in the case of the looped version.
Consideration of relevant historical landmarks indicates that the in-
ferred modifications of the paticca-samuppada formula may have al-
ready been completed before the Pali tradition's Third CounciL However,
because doctrinal borrowing between traditions cannot be ruled out, it is
.also possible that the changes date from a later period, though certainly
from a time when preservation of the canon still depended on oral trans-
mission. In any case, the evidence points to a remarkably early and dras-
tic hiatus in the transmission of this highly esteemed piece of Buddhist
doctrine.
Figure 1. Correspondences in content between branched and looped ver-
sions:
Branched version Looped version
nama-rupa (name-and-form)
6 sense organs vififialJ-a (consciousness)
6 sense objects :> ... :-:::... nama-rupa (name-and-form)
6 consciousnesses [sa!ayatana (sixfold sense-base)]
phassa ----------------------------------- phassa
vedana ------------------------------------ vedana (feeling)
etc. etc.
Figure 2. Contrast in structure between branched and looped versions:
(a) Branched version (b) Looped version
vififiana
,l. t
nama-rupa
,l.
sa!ayatana + nama-rupa}
,l. =phassa
vififialJ-a ,l.
[salayatana]
. ,l.
phassa
,l.
vedana vedanii
,l. ,l.
JIABS 22.2 342
Figure 3. Derivation of vififiiiJ:w in different versions:
(a) Branched version: saJiiyatana + niima-riipa
-L
(b) Standard & Sn versions: avijjii ~ sarikhiirii ~ vififiii1}a
Figure 4. Inferred structure of ancestor of standard version:
saliiyatana + niima-rapa}
. -L
avijjii ~ sarikhiirii ~ vififiii1}a
= phassa
-L
vedanii
-L
MAHINDA DEE GALLE
A Search for Mahayana in Sri Lanka*
Buddhist art, inscriptions, and" coins have
supplied us with useful data, but generally
they cannot be fully understood without the
support given by the texts.
J. W. De Jong
Was Mahayana ever in Sri Lanka? What evidence is available for its
historical existence? If one wants to study Mahayana in Sri Lanka, what
sources will one use? What are the strengths and weaknesses of available
sources? Giving a supreme authority to 'texts' as suggested by DE
raNG,! should one rely only on written texts? If Sri Lankan literary
sources, for example, the two Pilii chronicles, the Dfpava'!2sa and the
Mahiiva'!2sa, had distorted the actual facts - or, in other words, if they
had misrepresented the actual events related to Mahayana as a religious
movement - what are we going to do with them? If literary sources are
distorted, what alternative sources will one use for one's research? With-
holding DE raNG's claim because of obvious limitations,2 in this paper,
I examine only one alternative source - a few relevant Sri Lankan sculp-
tures - for the study of Mahayana in Sri Lanka.
"This island of Lailka belongs to the Buddha himself."3 These are the
faithful words of a medieval Buddhist monk Buddhaputra. Buddhaputra
* I am grateful for three eminent scholars - Professor Gadjin M. Nagao, Professor
Y oneo Ishii, and Professor Katsumi Mimaki - for their generous support and
advice during my research at Kyoto University, 1995-96.
1. DE JONG 1975: 14.
2. For an important discussion on the relative merits of literary sources against non-
literary materials see Gregory SCHOPEN's (1997: 1-3) discussion in "Archaeol-
ogy and Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of Indian Buddhism."
3. "me lmikCidvfpaya budunge ma tunuruvan bha1}agCirayak vanna" (BUDDHA-
PUTRA Thera 1930: 699). The same text states in another place as "budun satu
lakdivin ... " (1930: 746). The notion that Sri Lanka belongs to the Buddha and
Buddhists is very much rooted in the historical consciousness of ancient Sri
Lanka. Before the PujCivaliya, the tenth century JetavanCirCima slab-inscription
(No.2) of Mahinda IV (956-972 C.E.) vividly expressed this idea as "none but
the B6dhisattas would become kings of prosperous LaiJka" (siri la(khi) no bosat
hu no rajvanhayi ... " (WICKREMASINGHE 1912: 234, 237, 240).
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
VOLUME 22 NUMBER 2. 1999
JIABS 22.2 344
Thera, the author of the Piijiivaliya (The Garland of Offerings, c. 1266
C.E.),4 was not alone in holding such a devotional motto. Many of his
Sri Lankan contemporaries held similar mottoes and co;nposed reli-
giously inspired texts. In Ancient Sri Lanka, both in composing texts
and creating artistic objects, that belief functioned as the central guiding
principle. Whether it was stone or wood, all came into the service of the
Buddha. Hiss themes were Buddhist and what he created were also
Buddhist with one important exception - the Sigiriya.
6
Perhaps, the Sri
Lankan artist was less concerned with whether certain ideas or themes
belonged to either Theravada or Mahayana. Doctrinal and sectarian
biases did not obstruct his artistic vision. Once an idea was born, he used
it to express his artistic ability by transforming a stone to a beautiful
statue like the Avukana Buddha.? His mind centered on 'one theme':
everything in his creative hand should be 'in the service of the Buddha.'
The notion of service to the Buddha seems to have ruled out everything
4. For a discussion on Mahayana ideas within Theravada with special reference to
the Pajtivaliya, see DEEGALLE 1998b.
5. I have no knowledge of any female who produced any artifact in ancient Sri
Lanka; at least, there are no records left which show such female involvement.
Ancient SriLanka seems to have been exclusively a male dominated place.
Because of this, I am forced to use here male specific language such as 'his
themes,' and 'his mind.' I think that future research should examine female
involvement in religious and literary activities in ancient Sri Lanka.
6. Among all archaeological sites in Sri Lanka, the most profane and non-religious
but equally important site is the rock fortress of SIgiriya (Lion's Rock). SIgiriya
built by Kassapa 1(473-491 C.E.) is known for its female paintings found at a
spot halfway up the western face of the rock. It gives an impression of what
sOme Sinhala kings in ancient Sri Lanka thought about a pleasure garden. It is
widely believed that there were more paintings there in the past than the ones that
exist today. The following poem written on the Mirror Wall aptly demonstrates
an observer's emotions towards the paintings (REYNOLDS 1970: 30-1):
"Since she held flowers in her hand,
My passion was aroused,
Her body catching my eyes
As she stood in silence."
7. Avukana is located in KaIavava, Anuradhapura District, North Central Province.
The monumental standing Buddha (h. 12.5 m) belongs to eighth or early part of
the ninth century at the latest. The right hand of the image is in abhaya mudrti
('gesture of fearlessness') which is peculiar to Sri Lanka, and its left hand holds
the edge of the robe. Monumental Buddha statues like this which attempts to
express Buddha's superhuman qualities are conceived as evidence of Mahayana
impact.
DEEGALLE 345
else. The result is a rich cultural heritage: a vast collection of artistic
objects with religious and aesthetic sensibilities.
ContestedAvalokiteSvara: Healing and Compassion in Sri Lanka
Let's look at a well preserved Bodhisattva statue which has puzzled
previous scholars raising identification problems. This Bodhisattva statue
(h. 3.6 m)8 popularly known as (Leper King's Rock)lO
at Viiligama
ll
is carved on a rock in an arched niche of three feet deep.12
This Bodhisattva statue stands in 'samabhanga'13 while the right hand
14
displays the 'gesture of argumentation' (vitarkamudrii) and the left hand
the 'gesture of calling' (iihviina mudrii).15 It is in 'royal garb' and wears
8. PREMATILLEKE 1978: 170; while DOHANIAN (1977: 147) gives its height as
'about' fourteen feet, VON SCHROEDER (1990: 294) gives as 3.6 meters.
9. At present, this is the most often used Sinhala name to identify this Bodhisattva
statue as well as its geographical location. The Sinhala term for 'leprosy' is
written in two ways - kus!a and (SORATA Thera 1970: 288); its Pali and
Sanskrit equivalents are ku!!ha and respectively (APTE 1986: 590; RHyS
DAVIDS and STEDE 1986: 219). To identify this place, PREMATILLEKE uses
'
10. See below for PARANAVITANA's documentation of a local tradition which
contains a legend of healing a king who suffered from leprosy. In the Northern
Buddhist traditions, AvalokiteSvara was also known for his efficiency in healing
patients afflicted with leprosy.
11. is located about 550 meters from the sea on the Old Matara Road
just near the railway crossing at Viil.i.gama, Matara District, Southern Province.
12. While PREMATILLEKE (1978: 174) states that the statue belongs to Agrabodhi
Mahavihara, VON SCHROEDER (1990: 221) strangely calls this place
jagala Natha Deville' though such a place for divine worship does not exist here.
13. Samabhaliga is a standing iconographic posture in which the body is straight
without any bends and equal weight is placed on both feet. This posture
expresses tranquillity and equilibrium (BUNCE and CAPDI 1997: 259).
14. PARANAVITANA (1928: 49) wrongly states that one of the hands held a lotus.
Though DOHANIAN (1977: 72-73) mentions that "not in the hand" but just above
"the right shoulder" on the rock is carved "the bud of a lotus," when I visited the
site in 1997 I was not able to verify it.
15. For the fIrst time, SIRISOMA's (1971: 146-9) study has delineated the difference
between iihviina mudrii ('gesture of calling' which he identifIes as 'summoning
or beckoning') and ka!akahasta mudrii ('ring-hand gesture'). The Sanskrit term
iihviinaf!! ('calling') derives from the root .,Jhve ('to callout') (APTE 1986: 379,
1758; WILLIAMS 1971: 74). Until SIRISOMA's study, most scholars seem to have
misinterpreted iihviina mudrii as ka!akahasta mudrii. Except VON SCHROEDER
(1990: 702) who followed SIRISOMA (but subsequently coined the iihviina
JIABS 22.2 346
a 'cloth round the waist' (dhott}; the 'ornamental loops and folds of the
dress' fall on either side; the triple-banded girdle is found at the level of
the dhotf; the bare upper part of the body is decorated with a broad and
long necklace (hiira), and a 'wide belt' (udarabandha) worn at the
waist; both arms of the Bodhisattva are adorned with amulets and
bracelets; the ears are decorated with nakrakU"!}I;lala.
16
On the basis of
stylistic features, it is dated to the eighth or ninth century.17
Though this image is widely believed to be a statue of A valokitesvara
(J. Kannon) disagreements exist among scholars. Among Sri Lankan
Bodhisattva statues, it stands out because of several peculiar icono-
graphic features in the headdress. Its composition does not agree in all
details with any textual description of A valokitesvara as found in icono-
graphical canons such as the Sadhanamalii,18 and the
vall.
19
Early scholarship recognized only one dhyanf Buddha in the
'gesture of meditation' (samadhi mudra) in the headdress of the Bodhi-
sattva Avalokitesvara. The most significant feature in this Bodhisattva
statue is its headdress. The headdress contains four miniature dhyanf
Buddhas,2o all in samadhi mudra - two in front (one above the other)
and two on left and right. For the first time, in 1914, E. R. AYRTON,
mudra as 'gesture of discourse or argument'), all others wrongly identify the
mudra of its left hand as 'ka!akahasta' (DOHANIAN 1977: 71; PREMATILLEKE
1978: 170). Some other Bodhisattva statues with vitarka mudra in the right hand
and ahvana mudra in the left hand are: (i) the bronze image of a Bodhisattva (h.
0.370 m), which was discovered on April 6, 1983 at Girikag<;laka Vihara,
Tiriyaya, Trincomalee District, belongs to eighth century (VON SCHROEDER
1990: 258); (ii) the bronze image of Maitreya (h. 0.215 m), which was discov-
ered in 1934 at Kankayan6<;lai, Batticaloa District, also belongs to the eighth
century (VON SCHROEDER 1990: 258); and (iii) the image of Saman Deiyo (h.
2.650 m) at Dambulla Rajamahavihara, Matale District belongs to 1187-1196
C.B. (VON SCHROEDER 1990: 404-5). An image of Tara (h. 0.190 m.) from
Tiriyaya (7th-8th c.) also bears ahvana mudra in the left hand.
16. PREMATILLEKE 1978: 170.
17. While PREMATILLEKE (1978: 170) dates it to the eighth or ninth century, VON
SCHROEDER (1990: 221) gives as the ninth or tenth century. Seeing early Chola
style in the image, its closeness "to the Pallava style of Ceylon," and certain char-
acteristics of South Indian sculpture of tenth century in the costume, DOHANIAN
(1977: 72-3) prefers a late tenth century date.
18. BHATTACHARYYA 1925.
19. ABHAyAKARAGUPTA. The to 11th-12th centuries.
20. VON SCHROEDER (1990: 294) affirms that the four identical Buddhas in dhyana
mudra are Buddha Amitabha.
DEEGALLE 347
recognized these four miniature Buddha effigies in the headdress.
21
For
a while, it was considered "the only extant Mahayana image" in Sri
Lanka found with four dhyiinf Buddhas in the headdress.
22
This icono-
graphical innovation has been praised by previous scholars. It is hailed
as "not a copy of an Indian prototype" but "an independent, local icono-
graphical variation of A valokitesvara"23 which aptly demonstrates the
innovation and creative spirit of the Sinhala artist of the past. Compari-
son with Indian iconography is conceived as "often misleading" and
scholarly opinion rests on the conviction that the image at
gala "should be accepted as a more or less independent development of
Sinhalese Mahayana Buddhism."24
For a moment, let's examine scholarly contestations on this Bodhi-
sattva statue. While AYRTON25 identified this statue as "Naladevi,"26
P ARAN A VIT AN A 27 proposed it as an image of A valokitesvara
28
by
demonstrating his argument with a theory of two traditions - a popular
'local tradition'29 of healing a foreign leper king30 and a 'tradition' of
21. See PREMATILLEKE 1968: 170; AYRTON 1920: 90.
22. PREMATILLEKE 1978: 170; VON SCHROEDER (1990: 221) notes that the com-
positions of this statue is 'unique' and "does not relate to any of the various
forms and emanations of AvalokiteSvara known from Sri Lanka or elsewhere."
Note that this image contains only four dhyiinf Buddhas; the image of Adi
Buddha or Vajradharma (8th-9th c.) in vfriisana (h. 0.161 m) discovered on
April 6, 1983 at GirikaI.l<;laka Vihiira, Tiriyaya, Trincomalee District, however
contains five dhyiinf Buddhas - Amitabha, Amoghasiddhi, Ratna-
saIp.bhava and Vairocanain the headdress (VON SCHROEDER 1990: 290-1).
23. VON SCHROEDER 1990: 221.
24. Ibid., p. 294.
25. AYRTON 1920: 90.
26. Perhaps this is a wrong spelling for Natha (=AvaloliteSvara). For Natha and
Avalokitesvara, see HOLT 1991: 10-11.
27. PARANAVITANA 1928: 49-50.
28. VON SCHROEDER (1990: 221) also agrees by maintaining that it is "a form of
Avalokitesvara."
29. PARANAVITANA (1928: 49) outlined what he called popular 'local tradition':
"[T]his figure represents a foreign king who left his native country because he
suffered from leprosy, landed at VaI.igama [a coastal place] and was cured by a
local physician. This tradition seems to preserve in a distorted way some facts
regarding the Bodhisattva Avalokita." PREMATILLEKE (1978: 173) adds: "Local
legends agree that the figure was caused to be carved by either a foreign king or a
local potentate who was afflicted with leprosy and was cured by the divine
munificence of a god." In addition, PARANAVITANA, rightly points out that this
JIABS 22.2 348
educated Sri Lankan Buddhists who believed that the statue was that of
the god Natha:. Rejecting its identity as A valokitesvara and SiqJhanada,
DOHANIAN31 has suggested that it represents Bodhisattva MafijusrI as
'the princely offspring' of the five mystical Buddhas' (pancavfra-
kumiira). Because of the four miniature dhyiinf Buddhas in the head-
dress, VAN LOHUIZEN-DE LEEUW
32
thinks that it represents the Adi
Buddha Samantabhadra in his dharmakaya ('law body') aspect.Dis-
agreeing with the Adi Buddha aspect suggested by V AN LOHUIZEN-DE
LEEUW, PREMA TILLEKE argues that it is "not impossible" to represent
"Samantabhadra in his Sambhoga-kaya aspect" and concludes suggesting
a possible confusion in the history of iconographic of
Mahayana Bodhisattvas in Sri Lanka: "The image" may
"well be a representation" of Samantabhadra "in his Sambhoga-kaya
aspect." But one should not lose sight of the fact that Samantabhadra
came to be identified with Sinhala deity Saman and also "corresponded
with A valokitesvara" who was a healer of diseases as identified with the
image at Valigama.
33
While PARANAVITANA main-
'local tradition' is 'later than' the sculpture which characteristically differed from
similar statues in Northern Buddhist traditions which held the belief that
Avaloitesvara heals leprosy. Though the CuZaval'[lsa (ch. 46: 35) mentions that a
Sri Lankan king - Aggabodhi IV (667-683 C.E.) - died afflicted with an
incurable disease and the RiijiivaUya states that this king lived in this part of the
island as the ruler of Rohana, they cannot be taken as evidence for the origin of
this statue without any substantial proof.
30. In light of the legend of a foreign king who is believed to have constructed this
image, one wonders what kind of symbolism prevails around this statue when
one reflects for a moment why a few foreigners have been buried just across
from the Bodhisattva statue. An inscription on one of such recent tomb reads: "In
loving memory of Thomas Goauder, born 25th August 1825 and died 10th
August 1907, Jesus Our Peace." When a fence was constructed at the site on
June 21, 1980, with auspicious of Major Montague Jayawickreme, Member of
Parliament for Weligama and E. L. B. Hurulle, Minister of Cultural Affairs, it
was constructed enclosing the tombs. Just across the newly constructed fence to
the right of the statue still remains a Christian cemetery.
31. DOHANIAN 1977: 71-2.
32. VAN LOHUIZEN-DE LEEUW 1965: 253-261.
33. PREMATILLEKE 1978: 179-180.
DEEGALLE 349
tains th'at A valokitesvara and Natha are identical,34 PREMA TILLEKE
suggests an equation between Sinhala deity Saman and Mahayana
Bodhisattva Samantabhadra and Avalokitesvara in the image at
rajagala. Thus, this statue at embodies the conflated
representations of three Bodhisattvas
35
- A valokitesvara, S amantabhadra
and Sinhala deity Natha - in the history of iconography and religious
legacies in Sri Lanka.
Tantric Buddhism in Theraviida Guise?
Parakramabahu I (1153-1186 C.E.) constructed the rock temple Gal
Vihara (or Uttararama), Polonnaruva enclosing four statues
36
- (i) a
colossal statue of the Buddha (h. 4.980 m) seated on a vfriisana
37
in the
samiidhi mudrii ('gesture of meditation'),38 (ii) to its right in a cave a
seated statue of the Buddha (h. 1.400 m) in the same mudrii, (iii) to its
right a standing statue popularly believed to be of Ananda (h.
6.920 m),39 and (iv) at its extreme, a gigantic recumbent statue of the
34. P ARANAVITANA (1928: 53) writes that Natha is "only a shortened form of the
fuller epithet" of Lokesvara Natha and that the epithet Lokesvara is "one of the
most familiar of the many names of AvalokiteSvara." Then he states that the
modem belief that "Avalokitaof VaJigama is Natha provides further circumstan-
tial evidence of the identity of the two."
35. Here 'three Bodhisattvas' only if I am permitted to include Natha in the category
of Bodhisattvas.
36. Butthe CUlavaf!lsa (ch. 78: 73-75) records that Parakramabahu I constructed
only three grottoes in the Uttararama (GEIGER and RICKMERS 1973: 111;
GEIGER and RICKMERS 1980: 430): (a) the Vijjiidharaguhii, (b) the NisinnapaJi-
miilel}a (a cave with an image in sitting posture), (c) NipannapaJimiiguhii (a cave
with a recumbent image). While the Pili terms guhii and lel}a means a cave, the
term vijjiidhara means a 'knower of charms' (RHyS DA vms and STEDE 1986:
618). It is worth noting that the Culavaf!lsa fails to mention the standing statue.
37. The vfriisana is synonymous with sattvaparyafzkiisana. Its earliest occurrence is
at AmaravatJ: (c. 150-200 C.E.). In this sitting posture, the right leg is placed upon
the left and the sole of the right foot is completely visible. This vfriisana posture
is not identical with vajriisana in which legs are crossed and interlocked display-
ing both soles of the feet upwards. While VON SCHROEDER (1990: 368) identi-
fies the two samiidhi statues at Gal Vihara as in vfriisana, FERNANDO (1960: 50)
and MUDIYANSE (1967: 107) wrongly consider the sitting posture as vajriisana.
38. Also identified as dhyiinfmudrii in which the hands and the entire body display
the sitting meditation posture.
39. GEIGER 1973: 111; scholars have identified this standing statue variously - some
as that of A.nanda, the attendant of the Buddha and some as the Buddha himself.
As early as 1894, in The Buried Cities of Ceylon, S. M. BURROWS suggested
nABS 22.2 3 ~ 0
Buddha (h. 14.1 m) - on a rock boulder rising about thirty feet and
stretching from south-west to north-east.
Though many things can be said about the artistic merit of these
magnificent pieces,4o my focus here is not on those statues themselves
but rather on vajra symbolism found at the site. Vajra (1. kongosho) is
an attribute of Vajrapfu].i ('thunderbolt-bearer'), Vajradhara ('thunder-
bolt-holder'), Vajrasattva ('thunderbolt-being'), and Indra (P. Sakka).
Before becoming a liturgical symbol in Buddhism, among the earliest
archaeological artifacts, iconographically, vajra was already found as a
symbol in the right hand of Indra. In the development and expansion of
Buddhism within Asia, vajra has become a liturgical symbol of both
Mahayana and Tantric Buddhism. While a variety of vajras are found -
one-pronged, three-pronged and five-pronged - the five-pronged vajra
is believed as a representation of the Five Wisdoms and the Five
Buddhas.
41
Among Sri Lankan cultural artifacts, several statues with vajra
42
sym-
bols have been found. For example, in 1952, during the restoration
works near the lotus pedal of the A vukana Buddha, archaeologists dis-
covered an image of Indra (h. 0.169 m), the guardian of the east,
that it was a statue of Ananda. In Old Ceylon (1908: 199), R. FARRER main-
tained that it was the future Buddha Maitreya. In over a century and a half, there
is a rich scholarly literature on this topic. For an extensive bibliography of those
interpretations see VON SCHROEDER 1990: 370.
40. P. E. E. FERNANDO (1960) has already argued for Tantric influences in these
sculptures. WIth reference to 'the full and round face' of these statues,
FERNANDO has suggested even Chinese influences (in particular, see p. 51 and
footnote no. 9). Arguing against FERNANDO's thesis on Chinese influences on
GaFVihiira, Nandasena MUOIYANSE (1967: 108) suggests possible Bunnese
influences by maintaining that 'facial types' are not 'distinctly Chinese.'
41. GAUUER 1987: 48. The five tathiigatas (J. gochinyorai) of the five wisdoms are:
(1) Mahavairocana (Dainichi), (2) Alajobhya (Ashuku), (3) RatnasaI!lbhava
(Hosho), (4) Amitayus (Muryoju), and (5) Amoghasiddhi (Fukiijoju) (INAGAKI
1992: 66-67; Japanese English Buddhist Dictionary 1991: 86; TACHIKAWA
1989: xxxi).
42. Vajra (thunderbolt) is a Buddhist and Hindu iconographic device which repre-
sents indestructibility, or wisdom which destroys passion. In Buddhist traditions,
as a symbol, the five-pronged vajra represents the five Buddhas. As a symbol, it
is masculine. While in the Hindu tradition it is associated with Agni, Hayagriva,
Indra and others, in the Buddhist traditions it is associated with Adi Buddha
(Vajradhara), Achala, Rudhira-varna-Rakta-Karma-Yama and others (BUNCE
and CAPDI 1997: 324)
DEEGALLE 351
holding a vajra in his'right hand.
43
Iconographically, both Indra and
Vajrapfu.1,i hold a vajra in the hand and represent east. Vajrapfu).i is one
of the eight principal Bodhisattvas enumerated in the Sildhanamillil.
44
Bodhisattva Vajrapfu).i, an emanation of the dhyilnf Buddha
holds a vajra. In Sri Lanka, there are two known Vajrapfu).i statues:
45
(1)
in 1988, a statue of VajrapaI).i (h. 0.390 m) was near
Ratkaravva Purfu.1,avihara, four miles north-east of KuruI).agala town,
Central Province;46 and the other is found (2) at Buduruvagala.
47
The
VajrapaI).i statue at Ratkaravva is dated to 750-850 C.E. and its right
hand is in vitarka mudril ('gesture of argumentation') while the left is in
katakahasta mudril ('ring-hand gesture') holding a three-pronged vajra.
Also a bronze image of Adi Buddha Vajrasattva (h. 0.156 m) in vfril-
sana holding a visva vajra in the right hand and displaying samildhi
mudrilwith the left hand was discovered by S. PARANAVITANA at
Miidirigiriya Vatadage in 1940S.
48
Galvihara contains two samildhi Buddha statues. A Sri Lankan scholar
who has strongly argued for Tantric influence at Gal Vihara, has pointed
out with specific reference to the larger samildhi statue "several features"
which were not found in earlier Sri Lankan Buddha statues.
49
The
throne on which the two statues are placed contain vajra symbolism. In
43. VON SCHROEDER 1990: 302-3.
44. BHATIACHARYYA 1925: 49.
45. The Coomaraswamy collection of the Boston Museum also contains a ninth cen-
tury copper image of VajrapiiI,ri (h. 11.1 cm) from Sri Lanka (MUDIY ANSE 1967:
61-62).
46. VON SCHROEDER 1990: 222, 258.
47. Buduruvagala is perhaps the most important existing archaeological site in Sri
Lanka which proves historical existence of Mahayana. Including a gigantic statue
of the Buddha Dlpailkara, it contains the statues of Avalokitesvara, Tara,
Maitreya, Sudhanakumara (or Maiijusri) and VajrapiiI,ri. For a detailed analysis of
Buduruvagala, see DEEGALLE 1998a
48. While WIJESEKERA (1984: 105) and VON SCHROEDER (1990: 290) have
assigned a 8th-9th century date, following DEVENDRA (1957), MUDIYANSE
(1967: 62) has given a 5th century date.
49. FERNANDO 1960: 53; MUDIYANSE, however, has argued against FERNANDO's
thesis. For any reader who seriously wants to know Mahayana and Tantra in Sri
Lanka, it would be essential to compare the opinions of these two scholars.
Reading FERNANDO (1960: 53-57) and MUDIYANSE (1967: 109-112) side by
side will produce a balanced picture of both the uniqueness and indebtedness of
Gal Vihiira.
JIABS 22.2 352
the recessed dado of the pedestal. of the larger samadhi Buddha statue,
viiva vajra is carved vertically50 by alternating five vajras
51
with six
lions. When this site is compared with Pala sculptures,?2 a notable
difference appears; PaIa sculptures contained only a single vajra rather
than a viiva vajra. Though the Sadhanamala advises to place the vajra
on a double lotus on the main asana, no such representation is found
here.
53
The dado of the small samadhi Buddha statue in the vijjadhara-
guha
54
is also decorated by alternating three vajras with two lions.
Though the double lotus seat is found here, it is not marked with the
vajra. FERNANDO strongly believes that the small samadhi Buddha
statue in the vijjadharaguha is also "on the lines of a Tantric stele.;'55
FERNANDO's study was one of the earliest on Tantric Buddhism in Sri
Lanka. Using two archaeological sites - Gal Vihara and Tantrimalai -
FERNANDO forcefully argued for two things: (1) Tantric influences in
medieval Sri Lankan archaeological sites and (2) the existence of Tantric
Buddhism as a 'living force' in Sri Lanka in the twelfth century when
Parakramabahu I constructed the Gal Vihara. Since his pioneering work,
scholars are in possession of many archaeological objects for proving
and disproving his theories. One important contribution which attempts
to deconstruct FERNANDO's theories on Tantric influences in Sri Lanka
50. However, MUOIYANSE (1967: 109) attempts to suggest that "one might mistake
it to be a flame like emblem."
51. In The Buried Cities of Ceylon, S. M. BURROWS (1894: 109) refers to these
vajras as "a pair of dragons' heads."
52. Pala refers to an iconographical style which developed during the Pala dynasty
(765"1175 C.E.) under the patronage of Pilla kings such as Dharmapala (769-809
C.E.) who, in particular, was devoted Buddhism and constructed monuments at
Nillanda (SIVARAMAMURTI 1977: 227). Other archaeological sites which depict
Pilla style of art are VikramaSIla, Uddanpur, and Paharpur. Peculiar Pilla style art
developed around Bengal with some influences from the Gupta traditions
(ZIMMER 1984: 15).
53. "Tasyopari vivapadmay[! vajraY[! ca tatra sthitaY[!" (BHATTACHARYYA 1925:
20).
54. VON SCHROEDER (1990: 368) raises the possibility whether this statue can be a
representation of Buddha Alqobhya. This may be due to the belief that vajra is
often associated with Alqobhya. Note also his interpretation of the two fly-whisk
bearers beside -the Buddha as MafijusrI and VajrapaJ?i because these two
Bodhisattvas are considered as emanations of Buddha
55. FERNANDO 1960: 60.
DEEGALLE 353
comes from another Sri Lankan historian Nandasena MUDIYANSE.56 In
his study, MUDIY ANSE uses exact headings and subheadings which
FERNANDO used but comes up with completely different explanations
and conclusions. While MUDIY ANSE57 finds both agreements and dis-
agreements in comparing Gal Vihara with Tantric stelae, he asserts that
one should be cautious in considering "the whole sculpture" at Gal
Vihara was "meant to be a Tantric maI).<;lala." He
58
raises a valid and an
important question: "Our sculptures are almost contemporaneous" but
why is there no "agreement with the Sadhanas" if "the artist who
executed them was influenced by Tantric iconography?" According to
MUDIY ANSE, the aim of the Gal Vihara sculptors was "not to create
Tantric sculptures" since such need was not found in Sri Lanka at that
time. Arguing thus MUDIY ANSE maintains that Tantrism had already
"ceased to be a living force" in Sri Lanka.
For affirming possible Mahayana or Tantric influences at Gal Vihara,
the unique elaborate decorations behind the larger samiidhi Buddha
statue are relevant. Three horizontal bars on either side of the Buddha
constitute six makara heads. This makara tora1}a, a unique Sri Lankan
production, is conceived as having some resemblances to the Jaina
makara tora1}a at Mathura.
59
Behind the Buddha's head is an oval circle
of flames (prabhiima1}aZa). An arch (tora1}a) decorated with lotuses en-
circles the Buddha's aureole. The outer arch is the most fascinating part;
it leads one to wonder whether this is an imagined Sri Lankan ma1}aZa.
The four miniature representations of the stupa, whose shape is unusual
for Sri Lanka, are carved on either side of the arch. In carving these
stupas, the artists seem to have followed the votive stupas at Naga-
paginam, South India rather than the common models found in Anura-
dhapura.
6o
These features are seen as Tantric influence on Sri Lankan
artistic works. The four vimiinas ('heavenly palaces'), two on either side
of the arch, are carved with four miniature Buddhas in samiidhi mudra.
These effigies are believed to be "identical representations of Amita-
56. MUDIYANSE 1967.
57. Ibid., p. 112.
58. Ibid., p. 109.
59. FERNANDO 1960: 54.
60. FERNANDO 1960: 56 discusses the stilpa not just as a 'representation' as
MUDIYANSE 1961: 111 suggests but the very unusual shape of the Gal Vihara
stilpas.
JIABS 22.2 354
bha."61 The four Buddha effigies in samadhi mudra with Sakyamuni
Buddha at the center have been interpreted along Tantric lines as
representing a malJ.cj,ala "in concrete form" "intended". for Tantric
followers in Sri Lanka.
62
Thoughts for Reflection
In light of the complexities in interpreting Sri Lankan Buddhist sculp-
tures, there is no doubt that time has arrived for us to recognize that Sri
Lankan sculptures should be considered and evaluated with some open-
ness to ingenuity. They represent unique innovations and characterize
the serene mind of the Sri Lankan artist. All iconographical canons
which apply to India should be used for Sri Lankan objects with caution
knowing their limitations.
In previous scholarship, one encounters enormous biases. The evalua-
tion often begins with an assumption: "This particular sculpture should
be a 'deviation.'" The result is a negative attitude. For example, in com-
parison with the sadhanas, the four miniature Buddha effigies in sama-
dhi mudra at Gal Vihara are seen negatively as "inconsequential devia-
tions."63 Even FERNANDO,64 a scholar who eagerly asserted Tantric
influences at Gal Vihara, calls the sculptures "a deviation from the usual
features laid down in the Sadhanamala." In another instance, he states
that the "deviation" was a "a concession."65 I am not sure here whether
there is anything solid at Gal Vihara except the sculptures themselves to
deviate from. How can one be so sure that the Sadhanamiila was known
and available for Sri Lankan sculptors at Gal Vihara in the twelfth
century? To my knowledge, there is no single reference to the
Sadhanamala in Sri Lankan inscriptions. Most of the rhetoric seems to
be just mere hypotheses and assumptions which cannot be materialized.
One should be cautious in speaking of mere 'concessions' to popular
piety or poor 'deviations' from unknown canons. The rhetoric of
deviation represents the 'received wisdom.' It definitely leads the reader
61. VON SCHROEDER 1990: 368.
62. MUDIYANSE (1967) has rightly objected FERNANDO's this interpretation (1960:
55) and has pointed out the necessity of a little 'rethinking' by maintaining that it
is "difficult to imagine that a Buddha should have around his head representations
of the five Dhyani-Buddhas" (MUDIYANSE 1967).
63. FERNANDO 1960: 60.
64. Ibid., p. 55.
65. Ibid., p. 59.
DEEGALLE 355
astray and undermines the real artistic creation. These assumptions aptly
demonstrate that orthodoxy and narrow sectarianism are still in
operation in interpreting genuine visual arts. Heavy reliance on literary
documents should be suspected and questioned in light of hard material
evidence. Let us take actual conditions in actual Buddhist communities
in Asia into serious consideration.
The epigraphical, artistic, symbolic and liturgical artifacts so far found
provide ample evidence for the prevalence of Mahayana in ancient Sri
Lanka. This search for material evidence has demonstrated that in Sri
Lanka one discovers not only statues of some prominent Bodhisattvas
such as A valokiteSvara but also a variety of Mahayanic and Tantric
symbols. They prove the wide prevalence of Mahayana in Sri Lanka
from the eighth to eleventh centuries. In the Theravada case, it was an
important historical period between two important events - (1) the
writing down of the Pali commentaries by Buddhaghosa and other
commentators from the fifth to eighth centuries and (2) the twelfth
century reform of Parakramabahu 1(1153-1186 C.E.) which unified the
sangha and Buddhist monastic establishments in Sri Lanka.
66
An important question arises: What happened to Mahayana after the
twelfth century? What was the nature of this prosperous religious move-
ment after the unification? What were the obstacles for its continuity in
Sri Lanka? Two events seem to have determined the future of Sri Lan-
kan Mahayana after twelfth century: (1) the disappearance of Buddhism
from India as a result of Islamic invasions and aggressive assimilation of
distinctly Buddhist notions by Hindus and (2) the unification movement
of Parakramabahu I. These two historical events seem to have weaken
the influence of Mahayana after the twelfth century. It should be noted,
however, that Mahayana did not die completely. After twelfth century,
Mahayana kept a low profile. In the form of ideas, Mahayana legacy can
be discerned in Sinhala balJapot literature such as the Piijiivaliya which
were composed in the thirteenth century and the following.
66. For more information on the unification of the sangha by Parakramabahu see
BECHERT 1993.
JIABS 22.2 356
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JONATHAN A. SILK
Marginal Notes on a Study of Buddhism, Economy and
Society in China *
Jacques GERNET is well known as one of the leading contemporary
scholars of Chinese history, especially religious and social history, and
several of his studies have already become classics. I The work under
consideration here is one such classic, a landmark contribution to the
Western study of Buddhism in China and more especially to the study of
the place of Buddhism within the broader Chinese social and economic
sphere. Originally published in French more than forty years ago/ this
* Remarks on Jacques GERNET: Buddhism in Chinese Society: An Economic
History from the Fifth to the Tenth Centuries. Translated by Franciscus VERELLEN.
New York: Columbia University Press 1995. An English translation of Les
aspects economiques du bouddhisme dans la societe chinoise du Ve au Xe
siecle. Publications de l'Ecole Fran9aise d'Extreme-Orient 39 (Saigon: Ecole
Fran9aise d'Extreme-Orient 1956).
I am indebted to the comments and corrections of a number of colleagues. I
follow their wishes, however, in omitting their names here, but nevertheless
express, albeit anonymously, my gratitude for their assistance.
These remarks were written while I was teaching at Western Michigan Uni-
versity, in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which I hope explains my lack of access to a
number of relevant materials, as mentioned below. I have been able to add a
small number of references subsequently, but I regret I have been unable to
revise my comments fully in light of improved library resources.
1. For example, one immediately thinks of A History of Chinese Civilization,
originally published in French in 1972, translated into English by J.R. FOSTER
in 1982, with a second, revised edition in 1996 by J.R. FOSTER and Charles
HARTMAN (Cambridge/New York: Cambridge University Press), Daily Life in
China on the Eve of the Mongol invasion, 1250-1276, originally published in
French in 1959, translated into English by H. M. Wright in 1962 (London:
George Allen & Unwin/New York: Macmillan), and China and the Christian
Impact: A Conflict of Cultures, originally published in French in 1982, translated
into English by Janet Lloyd in 1985 (Cambridge !New York: Cambridge
University Press/Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme).
2. Important and appreciative reviews of the 1956 work include: D. C. TwrrCHETT,
"The Monasteries and China's Economy in Medieval Times," Bulletin of the
School of Oriental and African Studies 19 (1957): 526-49; Kenneth CH'EN,
Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 20 (1957): 733-40; and Arthur F. WRIGHT,
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
VOLUME 22. NUMBER 2. 1999
JIABS 22.2 360
work has now appeared in English.
3
It is to be hoped and expected that
this English version will contribute to promoting an awareness among
both non-specialists as well as those particularly interested ,in Chinese
history and society of the important role Buddhism played in Chinese
economic, social and institutional history. It would also make an important
contribution if, as might also be hoped and expected, it were to raise the
consciousness of those, again non-specialists and scholars alike, for whom
the terms "Buddhism" and "Buddhist history" continue to be a shorthand
for "Buddhist doctrine" and "the history of Buddhist doctrine." That
Buddhism, broadly understood, means much more than Buddhist philo-
sophy is still, it unfortunately seems, a fact in need of constant reemphasis.
GERNET's work, by spanning the time frame of the fIfth to tenth centuries,
essentially covers the period of the growth and flowering of a true Chinese
Buddhism, from the Northern Wei up through the T'ang dynasty. In
surveying this period, GERNET deals primarily with the role that Buddhist
institutions played in the development of certain Chinese economic insti-
tutions and patterns, such as the use of contracts, the evolution of a cash
economy, loans, and banking. For GERNET all of this can be understood
as part of the Buddhist contribution to what he calls, perhaps somewhat
incautiously, "capitalism." He has, in addition, given particular attention
to a number of more specialized problems such as the growth of a "non-
productive" class, the Buddhist monks. Several hypotheses are advanced
by GERNET;4 the following may be an interesting example: The growth
of economic power of the Buddhist monasteries was linked to a great
complex of factors, among which the ability of the monasteries to exploit
"The Economic Role of Buddhism in China," Journal of Asian Studies 16
(1957): 408-14.
Apparently less well known is Alexander W. MACDONALD's "Bouddhisme
et Sociologie," Archives de Sociologie des Religions, Juillet-Decembre 1956,
no. 2 (1956): 88-97.
3. I have so far run across the following reviews of the present English translation:
Alan COLE, Journal of Asian Studies 55/1 (1996): 149-50; Daniel L. OVERMYER,
Pacific Affairs 68/4 (1995-96): 596-97; T. H. BARRETI, The China Quarterly
145 (1996): 225-27; and John KIESCHNICK, China Review International 312
(1996): 418-22.
Some time after writing these remarks I came across the review of Henrik H.
S0RENSEN, Studies in Central and East Asian Religions 8 (1995): 122-26,
which briefly offers a number of observations similar to those I have made at
some length here.
4. A concise summary of the more important of GERNET's suggestions, laid out in
sixteen points, was presented by WRIGHT, "The Economic Role," pp. 409-10.
SILK 361
otherwise poor lands,therefore expanding the available arable territory,
is significant. In addition, the gifting of private lands to monasteries
effectively removed them from the tax rolls, which encouraged the expan-
sion of B u d d h i ~ t monastic holdings. The donors of these lands, moreover,
in this way also received the guarantee of perpetual care of their deceased
ancestors (p.1l8 ff.). Arguments such as this effectively emphasize the
degree to which Buddhist institutions came to be integrated into the
Chinese economy. The book is also filled with interesting and valuable
information, such as the following, selected almost at random: "Generally,
official ordinations - which rarely benefited laymen - did not increase
the actual number of monks and nuns; rather, they allowed certain religious
to regularize their status." (p. 10). "The majority of the monks under the
T'ang came from the well-to-do peasantry." (p.58). "The beginnings of
Buddhism in China were characterized by a proliferation of small sanctu-
aries and an extreme dispersion of the monastic community. From the
Northern Wei to the T'ang, governments endeavored to put some order
into this anarchy by favoring large establishments. Purges were almost
invariably accompanied by a consolidation of monks who had not been
returned to lay life into larger communities. The economic development
was to accord with imperial policy, leading in the long term to the elim-
ination of small communities in favor of large ones that were wealthier
and better equipped to survive. Under the Sung and Ylian, large Buddhist
communities and large landed estates became the rule." (p. 141).
In addition to strictly Sinological concerns, GERNET has also tried to
trace some of the Indian antecedents of Chinese Buddhist ideologies, as
well as institutions, especially through an examination of Chinese transla-
tions of Indian vinaya literature. In fact, one of the leading contemporary
experts on Indian Buddhism, Gregory SCHOPEN, has recently suggested
that "though dealing primarily with China, GERNET's study is still probably
the best thing we have on the economic structures of Indian Buddhist
monasteries as they are described in texts of Indian origin.,,5 This work
5. Gregory SCHOPEN, "On avoiding ghosts and social censure: monastic funerals
in the Miilasarvastivada-vinaya." Journal of Indian Philosophy 20 (1992): 25,
note 13. SCHOPEN's comment, however, is true only if one leaves out of consid-
eration all of the work available in Japanese. It is unfortunate that Japanese
language sources on Indian Buddhism, which are voluminous, are often simply
invisible to non-Japanese scholars. GERNET, who of course does cite Japanese
scholarship but can obviously not be expected to be familiar with works on
Indian Buddhism, carefully added the following note to the bibliography of his
1956 work: "Many Japanese works, which deal with the economic history of
JIABS 22.2 362
should, therefore, be of interest to a broad range of readers including
those who wa'ni to approach East Asian or even Indian Buddhism in its
social, and ndt simply its philosophical or doctrinal, aspects. ,
This is a valuable book, without question, for the questions that it
raises and the materials it examines, and its appearance in English is
certainly welcome. But for a number of reasons this is not the best book
it could have been. Sinology and Buddhist studies have made great strides
in the years intervening between the original publication of this book and
its translation. Two things can be done in such a case: a work can be left
as it is, and presented, as it were, as an artifact, a picture of the author's
views at the time the work was written. Another alternative is for the
work to be brought up to date, even if this requires some degree of
rewriting or new research. In the present case, a version of the first
course has been selected. An "Additional bibliography" has been added,
6
for instance, which attempts to list more recent work, but the publications
it lists seem to have been taken into account only rarely in both the main
Buddhism in China but to which I have not had access, are not included in this
bibliography." This note has not been repeated in the English translation.
Among the most important works dealing with Indian materials is one which
is found in (both versions ot) GERNET's bibliography: TOMOMATSuEntai
Bukkyo Keizai Shiso Kenkyu: Indo kodai bukkyojiin shoyu ni kansuru
gakusetsu [A
Study of Buddhist Economic Thought: A Theory Concerning the Possessions of
Buddhist Monasteries in Ancient India] (Tokyo: ToM shoin 1932).
Unfortunately, as far as I have noticed, GERNET never actually refers to this
work Perhaps even more apropos would be reference to the two volumes of
TOMOMATSU's Bukkyo ni okeru Bunpai no Riron to Jissai: Bukkyo keizai shiso
kenkyu . [The Theory
and Practice of Distribution in Buddhism]. (Tokyo: Shunjusha 1965,
1970). Given the interests of GERNET's' investigations, one might also refer to.
another paper of TOMOMATSU's: "Mujinzai to Buha" c!::'$im [The
Inexhaustible Gift and Sectarian Buddhism]. In Sato Mitsuo Hakase Koki Kinen
RonbunshU Kankokai ed., Sato Hakase
Koki Kinen: Bukkyo Shiso Ronso . (Tokyo:
Sankibo Busshorin 1972): 191-200. Those scholars whose works
should certainly be referred to in the context of the study of Chinese materials
relevant to Indian Buddhist economic and social history include SlDZUTANI
Masao HIRAKAWA Akira TSUKAMOTO KeisM
and SATO Mitsuo to list only a few of those better known.
6. Credited on p. XII to Mme. Kuo Li-ying
SILK 363
text and the notes.
7
The translation is a close rendering of the original
text, with some small changes and improvements, but a large number of
old errors remain, and a substantial number of new ones are introduced.
Moreover, the structural revisions have not always been for the better.
The French original, for instance, was more conveniently arranged, with
footnotes rather than endnotes, a carefully annotated table of contents,
and Chinese characters in the text rather than in a character giossary, as
they are now.
8
Despite a few changes, then, this is not a new work.
9
It
7. In some places, further updating would have been welcome. For example, on
p. 136, in discussing the origin of eighth century Japanese sh6i/ estates, GERNET
refers only to a single publication of 1916. A note on the term shain the French
edition on p. 120, n. 3, is missing from the English translation.
8. In many ways, the index of the French edition is also more helpful. Although
the English index, prepared by the translator, is fuller, it lacks entries on, for
example, "contracts" and "slaves," to pick at random two items of interest to
me, while it has long entries such as "Buddhism, in China," which one would
think should refer to almost every page in the book. A number of important
names are also missing. The English volume also lacks any list of Tun-huang
manuscripts cited (found in the French index under "manuscrits chinois de
Touen-houang").
On the other hand, it is should certainly be easier to fmd many of the references
to Chinese texts in the modem (mostly PRC) editions quoted in the English
version. As Denis TwrrCHETT pointed out in "The Monasteries and China's
Economy," p. 549, in the French version "bibliographies are lacking in all
indication of the editions employed, so that the reader is unable to follow the
author's page references." Lacking access to an adequate research library, I
have not been able to consult any of these Chinese materials (with the exception
of the TaishO Tripitaka), including the Dynastic Histories, which are quite
helpfully now quoted in the standard Peking editions.
9. For an example of another approach to such a project, one might look at the
recent publication in English of Rolf STEIN's The World in Miniature: Container
Gardens and Dwellings in Far Eastern Religious Thought (translated by Phyllis
BROOKS [Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990]), also a classic work, this
one originally published in 1943. During the intervening years Prof. STEIN has
continued to return to these research interests, and the English version is based
on a 1987 revision published in French by STEIN himself. The English version,
which also contains much entirely new material, is an important contribution in
its own right. GERNET's classic study would have benefited from receiving a
similar careful treatment.
The appearance of GERNET's work might also serve to stimulate thought on
broader issues. Although not necessarily true of Chinese or Tibetan Buddhist
studies, it seems that at least in terms of Indian Buddhist Studies some of the
more "major" works to appear in English lately are little more than translations
of generally rather old works. I think for instance of E. LAMOTTE's 1958 work,
JIABS 22.2 364
would be unfair, therefore, to treat it as if it were. On the other hand, in
anticipation that the availability and accessibility of this study in English
will garner it considerable attention, and ill the belief that the ,questions it
raises will and should continue to stimulate the imagination and creativity
of scholars, I would like to offer a few notes concerning several aspects
of GERNET' s work that might be corrected or, in a revised edition, expanded
upon. While it would also be possible to deal here with corrections or
additions that others have already suggested, but which seem to have
been overlooked in the translation process,1O for the most part I will
discuss new issues. I will concentrate my remarks on the following: First,
I will try to point out what appear to be errors in the book, those of the
original that stand uncorrected in the translation, as well as new errors
and oversights of the translation itself. Second, I will point out places in
the work where GERNET seems to have rather uncritically adopted the
prejudices and biases of his Chinese sources or of mid-twentieth century
Europe. While such presentations cannot properly be called errors, they
are aspects of the work that require some notice. Third, I will remark on
some spots in which relevant materials published in the 40 years intervening
between the original study and the English translation, and a few published
since, might usefully be taken into account in bringing GERNET's obser-.
vations up to date. Finally, I will raise some questions concerning the
Histoire du Bouddhisme Indien, translated by Sara WEBB-BOIN as History oj
Indian Buddhism (Louvain: Institut Orientaliste de l'Universite Catholique 1988),
and HIRAKAWA Akira's 1974 Indo Bukkyoshi -{:/ 1, translated in
1990 as A History of Indian Buddhism (Hawaii: The University of Hawaii
Press). Both of these are, in their own ways, valuable works to be sure, but
neither can be called up-to-date or fully in tune with the findings of recent
research.
10. For example, in 1970 Paul DEMIEVILLE (GERNET's teacher) published a survey
on "Recents travaux sur Touen-houang" in T'oung Pao 56 (1970): 1-95. To
mention just one of the many works he discussed (p. 17-18), he briefly summarized
CmKUSA Masaaki's (misprinted by DEMIEVILLE 1'rtplftl'jOC) study
on the she *, that is the Buddhist associations ("Tonka shutsudo 'sha' monjo
no kenkyii" lcmll f*J )cifO)1i}fJl:,in ToM GakuM"W:jj*R 35 [1964]:
215-288 [not 228 as DEMIEVILLE misprinted].). DEMIEVILLE explicitly pointed
out (p. 18, note 1) that some of the sources referred to by CmKUSA "escaped
the attention of Gernet." DEMIEVILLE's article, to which no reference is made
by GERNET, apparently did not bring CHIKUSA's work to his attention. (A
reference to CmKUSA's 1982 Chiigoku bukkyo shakaishi kenkyu is entered in
the "Additional bibliography," and the study of. she is included in this volume
[on pp. 477-557]. However, as far as I have noticed, outside of the bibliography
CmKUSA's book is nowhere referred to in the volume).
SILK 365
care with
O
which the translation was carried out Throughout, some of my
remarks will deal with Indic aspects of the work, others with more purely
Sinological concerns.
1 would like to emphasize that the following is in no way intended as a
review of GERNET' s work as a whole; it is, as the title indicates, merely a
collection of marginalia. It ignores almost entireiy the comprehensive
plan of GERNET's work, its many valuable contributions, and in general
the tremendous amount this book has taught me personally and that, I
believe, it would teach most readers. More balanced appreciations of the
study as a whole may be found in the reviews cited in notes 2 and 3,
above.
* * *
No author, and most especially one who ranges widely over materials of
varying genre, age, and so on, can escape factual mistakes. But it still
comes as something of a surprise to encounter, in the very first line of
GERNET's Introduction (page XIII), a rather serious error, uncorrected
from the French original. The sixth century "Parthian" merchant with
whose story GERNET begins his study is no Parthian at all - in fact, the
Parthian empire ceased to exist in the fIrst quarter of the third century - ,
but rather a Sogdian, a man from K' ang-chti kuo 11 The significance
of the merchant's nationality lies in the fact that the Sogdians were the
great traders between China and lands west in medieval times. In fact, in
a recent study, Nicholas SIMS-WilLIAMS has explored the status of the
Sogdians as merchants whose travels linked China not only with Central
Asian states but even directly with India itself, concluding that "Sogdians
were engaged both in the trade between India and Sogdiana and in that
between India and China. ... the Sogdians may have had an effective
monopoly of the trade on both routes .... ,,12 For a study such as GERNET's
that seeks among other things to clarify the economic influences of Buddhist
and Indian ideas and practices on the greater Chinese society, the Sogdians
and their connection with India are far from incidental.
11. Hsu Kao-seng chuan T. 2060 (L) 651a5.
12. Nicholas SIMS-WILLIAMS, "The Sogdian Merchants in China and India," in
Alfredo CADONNA and Lionello LANCIOTTI, eds., Cina e Iran: da Alessandro
Magno alta Dinastia Tango Orientalia Venetiana 5 (Florence: Leo S. Olschki
Editore 1996): 45-67. Page 56.
JIABS 22.2 366
Such a beginning might put us on our guard and indeed, a few spot
checks of GERNET's translations of Chinese materials have revealed several
other places in which correction is called for. 13 For instance, Qn p. 198, at
the bottom, the rather short quotation from the Hsiang-fa chiieh-i ching
(T. 2870 [LXXXV] 1337b27-c6) contains a number ofprob-
lems. In the first sentence, the expression "[at the time of the Counterfeit
Law (pratirupakadharma)]" is placed within brackets, while the Chinese
text **1lt ("in a future age") is not rendered at all in the translation. It
is, by the way, not clear to me what it adds to provide a (totally hypothetical)
Sanskrit equivalent here, especially since the text is; as GERNET notes,
obviously a Chinese apocrypha.
14
In the sentences "Some will engage in
commerce in the marketplace in order to enrich themselves. Others will
traffic by the roadside for a living," the phrases "to enrich themselves"
and "for a living" must be reversed. Mter the sentence "There will be
[sic for see below] who will preach false teachings to
please the people," an entire sentence is missing, viz.: "Some will use
spells to cure diseases of others." Finally, the following sentence reads
"There will be those who shall pretend to be devotees of Dhyana, even
though they are incapable of concentrating their minds." This renders the
Chinese - It.". There is nothing here about pretending;
the sentence means "Some shall cultivate dhyiina, but be unable to
concentrate their minds."
On p. 215, two quotations are given, one from the Buddhiivatarhsaka,
the other from the Vimalakfrti; both are translated as prose. In neither
case is it specified that the original passages are in fact in verse (although
the French suggested this by its typography). The Buddhiivatarhsaka
passage is from T. 278 (IX) 437c12-13.
15
GERNEr translated the verse as
follows in the French original (p.210):
13 As above, in most cases I have not had access to the relevant Chinese
texts, and have thus been unable to check the translations.
14. Some interesting remarks on this text are given by Mark Edward LEWIS, "The
Suppression of the Three Stages Sect: Apocrypha as a Political Issue," in Robert
E. BUSWELL, Jr., ed., Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha (Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 1990): 207-38.
15. The text reads: ,gJ,1l!fli'i'iiGM!i:::::. Em
This corresponds to T. 279 (X) 77a9-1O: XMcJIGljijil::kllt
Thomas CLEARY (The
Flower Ornament Scripture: A Translation of the Avatamsaka Sutra. Volume I
[Boulder & London: Shambala 1984]: 352) rendered the latter: "It also radiates
a light called 'great wealth' / Which causes the poor to gain treasure. / Giving
unlimited things to the Buddha, Teaching, and Community, / Is how this light
can be made."
SILK 367
Les Bodhisattva emettent une radiance qui s'appelle la revelatrice des Joyaux,
qui fait que les pauvres et les gens demunis de tout decouvrent des tresors.
C'est par les dons qu'ils font aux Trois Joyaux, grace a leur Tresor inepuisable
(wou tsin tsang), qu'ils acquierent cette radiance revelatrice des joyaux.
The English has this as:
The bodhisattva emit a radiance named "revealer of jewels" that enables the
poor and destitute to discover treasures. It is by their gifts to the Three Jewels
and thanks to their Inexhaustible Treasury (Wu-chin tsang) that they acquire
this radiance capable of revealing jewels.
This verse is found in the Tibetan translation of the A vatarhsaka in the
Derge Kanjur (phal chen, ka, 230a3-4) as follows: 'od zer nor ston rab tu
dgye
16
byas shing II phongs pa rin chen gter rnams thob par 'gyur II
gnas dang gter rnams mi zad dkon mchog gsum II gsol bas nor ston 'od
zer de thob bo II.
In light of this, I would like to suggest the following as a possible
translation of the Chinese text of the verse:
[The samadhi - which is the subject here, not the bodhisattvas _]17 emits a
radiance called "revealer of jewels" that causes the poor to obtain stores of
treasure. By giving inexhaustible treasures to the Three Jewels, they obtain that
jewel-revealing radiance.
The Vimalakfrti passage is found in LAMOTTE's translation at VII 6.34/
8
where he also quotes the extant Sanskrit text. He has moreover given a
note there indicating the importance of these two passages for the Three
Stages Sect, citing this very discussion of GERNET.
As mentioned above, GERNET's work is valuable not only for what it
says about China but also for the suggestions he has made about Indian
Buddhism, based usually on Chinese sources or Indian sources in Chinese
translation. Some of his statements, however, are in need of modification.
In a very interesting discussion concerning how monastic slaves were
16. Note Mahavyutpatti 519, in which 'od zer rab tu 'gyed pa = rasmi-pramukta,
/iY.J'G. The Derge spelling dgye, which is followed by a space with three tshegs,
indicating that perhaps the blocks were originally carved with dgyes, should
probably be considered an error. But I regret I have not been able to check other
Kanjurs.
17. If I am not mistaken; seeT. 278 (IX) 436a20-21.
18. Etienne LAMOTTE, L'Enseignement de Vimalakfrti (Vimalakfrtinirdda). Biblio-
tbeque du Museon 51 (Louvain: Universite de Louvain, Institut Orientaliste
1962): 298. The English version of this is The Teaching ojVimalakfrti, translated
by Sara Boin. Sacred Books of the Buddhists 32 (London: The Pali Text Society
1976): 186.
JIABS 22.2 368
recruited, for instance, GERNET says (p. 127) "The Buddha households
were drawn from convicts who had been sentenced to death or forced
labor, and from the official slaves." However, the subsequent,suggestion
(p.l28), that "The currency of the same practice in India may have
served as a model," is less sure. The only evidence GERNET offers for
this suggestion is a reference to the vinaya story of King Bimbisara
presenting the sangha with "five hundred brigands who merited capital
punishment" Now, it might be that the precedents of Buddhist literary
sources served as a model for the Chinese practice, and if so this would
be very interesting. But while vinaya texts, which have their own .very
special agendas and aims, may tell us quite a bit about Buddhist ideology,
regrettably they do not provide any evidence at all of actual practices,
and thus one cannot tum to them for proof of the currency of any practice
in India. GERNET goes on to say that "It is also possible that analogous
customs from Central Asia inspired the Wei sovereigns .... Yang Hsuan-
chih reports that the king of Khotan assigned four hundred families to the
service of a great Buddhist monastery for 'sprinkling and sweeping. '"
Actually, what the Lo-yang ch'ieh-lan chi (T. 2092 [U]
10l8c18) of Yang Hsuan-chih says is that the king of Khotan "built a
stUpa, for which four hundred households were assigned to take care of
sprinkling water and sweeping the grounds.,,19 There is no indication that
the people here were under judicial sentence or in any way enslaved.
(There is also perhaps an important difference between "a great Buddhist
monastery," which the text does not mention, and a stUpa, which it does.)
On the other hand, it was quite common in India and the Indian world for
the tax duties of a locality to be assigned to a religious institution, whether
Brahmanical or Buddhist. It seems, although this is not quite as clear,
that the right (which the government always maintained) to extract forced
labor from the populace was transferred along with the right to collect the
tax from the land or village. (Some endowments explicitly specify the
provision "with the right to extract forced labor
[corvee] therefrom.,,)2o What this suggests is that Buddhist monastic
institutions almost certainly did employ forced labor, and very probably
19. Translated in Yi-t'ung WANG, A Record of Buddhist Monasteries in La-yang,
by Yang Hsuan-chih (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1984): 219. The
Chinese text reads fiPiEam:MlIYs P 1.fI<iIIiW.
20. I will discuss this issue in a study of slavery in Indian Buddhism, now in
progress.
SILK 369
also slave labor. I know of no evidence, however, for the use of convict
labor.
On pp. 75-76, GERNET quotes a long passage from I-ching's "Record
of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India and the Malay Archipelago"
(Nan-hai nei-fa chuan literally: Record of
Buddhism sent home from the Southern Seas), which he asserts (p.76)
"provides rare evidence of later practices ... among Indian Buddhist
communities." What GERNET has not realized is that this passage, as
some others in I-ching's work, is not a report of his observations on the
ground in India but a direct quotation from the Millasarvastivada Vinaya
(which I-ching, of course, translated into Chinese)?lWhatever else this
and other similar passages in the "Record" provide us, it certainly is not a
window into later Indian Buddhist practice. This causes GERNET to make
several statements in the following discussion that must now be corrected.
His assertion, apparently on the basis of I-ching, that (pp. 76-77) "During
the period contemporaneous with the development of Buddhism in China,
the wealthy communities in India, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia were
no longer faithful to the letter of the interdictions pronounced by the
Vinaya" is revealed to be without a substantial basis when one realizes
that the evidence used to support this statement is a passage from the
Millasarvastivada Vinaya itself.22
21. This was pointed out, not for the first time, by G. SCHOPEN in "Monastic law
meets the real world: a monk's continuing right to inherit family property in
Classical India," History of Religions 35,2 (1995): 119, n.41. The passage in
question was translated from the Sanskrit text of the Miilasarvastivada Vinaya
by SCHOPEN in "Deaths, funerals, and the division of property in a monastic
code," in D. S. LOPEZ, ed., Buddhism in Practice (Princeton: Princeton University
Press 1995): 498-500.
22. It is another question why GERNET thinks that anyone was ever "faithful to the
letter of the interdictions pronounced by the Vinaya," which is itself rather
problematic. This is, by the way, a good illustration of the problems (discussed
below) caused by the translator's habit of not using English plural -s with
Sanskrit words. The French version is quite clear that what is in question here is
the Vinaya-s, plural. The clear implication of the English is that Vinaya should
be understood as a singular. The translator has created an unnecessary confusion
in this way.
On p. 221,1. 12-15, another passage from I-ching within quotation marks is
not a quotation but a paraphrase of T. 2125 (LIV) 231alO-11; see TAKAKUSU
Junjir6, A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in Indian and the
Malay Archipelago (A.D. 671-695) by I-Tsing (Oxford: The Clarendon Press
1896): 193.
nABs 22.2 370
Some Indian technical terms have meanings in Indian texts in Chinese
translation significantly different from those they acquired in China, and
in such cases it is important to distinguish these senses. On p.70 and
elsewhere the term ching-jen is "pure men (or: man)." In
an Indian context this is incorrect. As GERNET points out in n. 26 on
p. 336, A renders kappiyakiiraka
23
or Sanskrit kalpikiiraka. The Indic
term means something like "kasherer," one who makes something kosher.
The point is that ching here is to be understood in its verbal sense; the
compound means a man
24
who makes [sOmething] pure, a "purifying
man"; is not an adjective. However, the Chinese seem to have
the term as "pure man," which is interesting and deserves to be further
investigated. In the block quotation on the bottom of p. 88, the term
t'u-p'i *.m
25
does not mean exactly "funeral," but refers rather to crema-
tion; see Anna SEIDEL's detailed study in the H6bi5girin, s.v. dabi.
Some references to Indian terms in Indian languages also need to be
corrected. On p. 86 the Sanskrit term given as jiiaptidvitfyam karamaviicii
(read: karmaviicanii) is translated "double solemn declaration." However,
the procedure in question entails a single declaration and a single
announcement (or: one motion, and one proclamation), one of two types
of legal declaration in Buddhist ecclesiastical business, the other being
the jiiapticaturtham karmaviicanii, the triple declaration. Some Sanskrit
equivalents may also need reconsideration. On p. 67 the term
"property of the sarhgha of the four directions," is given the Sanskrit
equivalent caturdisasarhghasya (in which, in any case, the genitive case
ending is hard to understand). This is probably wrong. The attested equiv-
23. kappyakiiraka is a misprint; the French edition is correct. In the same note, krita
is an error for krfta; this has been carried over from the French.
24. I do not recall ever having run across a reference to a female ching-jen.
25. The reading ch'a-p'i is questionable, and the character on p. 385 likewise
seems to be less preferable. See on this problem SEIDEL p. 574a. (She appears
here to have overlooked the remarks on the term by HlKATA Ryilsh6
"Bonkan Zasso (2)" (2) [Miscellaneous Remarks on Sanskrit and
Chinese 2], in FUKUI Hakase Sh6ju Kinen Ronbunshii Kank6kai
ed., Fukui Hakase ShOju Kinen Taya Bunka Ronshil tj
[Tokyo: Waseda Daigaku Shuppanbu .!f!.flliEB
1979]: 23-34.) I do not, by the way, know where GERNET's Sanskrit
equivalent savya comes from, nor am I even sure if it is ever used in Buddhist
texts; I have been able to find savya only in 4.15.5, where it
is glossed by Sailkara with the unhelpful savakarma.
SILK 371
alent (from the Ratnariisisutra IV. 10, quoted in the is
ciiturdisasiirhghika. Just below that, in discussing the Mahlsasaka-Vinaya,
GERNET mentions that violation of a quoted provision "constituted a
'grave (thullaccaya)." I am not sure why, in discussing
this Vinaya, one would quote a PaIi equivalent. The Sanskrit form is
sthuliityaya, although there is no guarantee this would correspond to the
language of the original either. While we cannot be certain that the MahI-
sasakas used Sanskrit, we can be certain that they did not use Pali. On
p.202, in paragraph 2, and elsewhere yii-lan-p'en %M:mt is given the
Sanskrit equivalent avalambana, but this equivalence is not entirely trouble
free?? It is not pointed out on p. 213, in paragraph 3, or elsewhere, that
the point of the reference to bowls :mt here is the understanding that
somehow yii-lan-p' en refers to bowls.
On p. 217, 1. 5-6 fb,28 the forms dharmatyiiga and are both,
as far as I know, unattested. The correct forms are almost certainly
dharmadiina and In n. 135 on p. 332, the term hsiang-shui W
7l< is given the Sanskrit equivalent gandhaviiri. No source is provided,
and the term seems unattested. At least according to Oda's dictionary,29
hsiang-shui is equivalent to yen-ch'ieh IM!{!JO, which renders arghya (better
argha?), an oblation, often of water. GERNET probably found the form
26. Edited in my doctoral thesis, "The Origins and Early History of the Mahiiratnaku!a
Tradition of Mahayana Buddhism, with a Study of the Ratnariisisutra and
Related Materials." Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Michigan 1994: 445,
597. The Sanskrit is found in the (Cecil BENDALL, (:ikshii-
samuccaya: A Compendium of Buddhistic Teaching Compiled by (:iintideva,
Chiefly from Earlier Mahiiyiina-sutras. Bibliotheca Buddhica 1 [St. Petersbourg:
Imperial Academy 1897-1902. Reprint: Osnabriick, Biblio Verlag 1970]: 56.7-8;
for the Chinese, see T. 1636 (XXXII) 86b9-12, and T. 310 (XI) 643c5).
27. Despite what is sometimes implied, Paul PELLIOT (in the Bulletin de l'Ecole
Franfaise d'Extreme-Orient 1 [1901]: 277-78) did not fully commit himself in
favor of this form. He was concerned more to reject several clearly impossible
suggestions of others. See also his remarks in T'oung-pao 28.3-5 (1931): 429-30.
On the etymology of yu-Ian-p' en, see the bibliography in Stephen TErSER, The
Ghost Festival in Medieval China (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1988):
21, note 29. GERNET's discussion in n. 25 on p. 365 on the "development of this
festival of the dead and of filial piety in China" might also have mentioned
'fErsER's book.
28. Here and below fb means "from the bottom of the page."
29. aDA Tokun6 Bukky6 Daijiten (1917; New Corrected
Edition: Tokyo: Daiz6 shuppan :f;:i.illJt& 1974): 178b.
JIABS 22.2 372
gandhavari in MOCHIZUKI's dictionary,30 a source that is not noted in
the bibliography. In n.91 on p.340, alaka (so in the French as well)
should be sataka. On this topic one may refer to Hubert DURT's excellent
article in the Hobogirin, S.v. chil.
In n.84 on p. 379, pai-ni is rendered in Sanskrit as bhaka, a
printing error for the intended (the diacritical letters have vanished,
as happens in a large number of spots in the book). A reference in the
French to "Cf. Hob6girin, s.v. does not appear in the English.
In any case, the correct reference would be s.v. bombai, p.93a, where
DEMrEVILLE offers as a possible equivalent for pai-ni .. This
appears to be correct.
31
On p.215, 1. 1-2, and elsewhere, the term ching-t'ien :/iltES, "field of
reverence," is given a Sanskrit equivalent and "field
of compassion" pei-t'ien 1JES is rendered As noted
in the French version, but not in the English,32 the division into two
fields of merit probably goes back to the Ta Chi-tu lun the
Sanskrit equivalences are evidently based on Lamotte's reconstruction in
his translation of that text.
33
However, LAMOTTE gave no evidence for
30. MOCmZUI<I Shinko Bukkyo Daijiten (Tokyo: Sekai
Seiten Kanko Kyokai 1932-36): 1063b.
31. WOGlliARA Unrai Kanyaku TaishO Bonwa Daijiten
::kJli'i"!J!1. (Tokyo: Suzuki Research Foundation, 1964-74), s.v. bhaIJaka, gives
pai-ni as an equivalent, citing l-ch'ieh-ching yin-i --f;JJff,ll!{f
In the text I have (Taipei: Hsin-wen-feng ch'u-pan-she 1980):
450, which cites the term from the third chUan of the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya
(Jlli5t1$, T. 1428 [XXll] 582bI7), there is no indication of any reading bhtiIJaka.
See also the nearly identical entry in the l-ch'ieh-ching yin-i of
Hui-lin T. 2128 (UV) 699c10. Both texts offer the translation tsan-t'an
According to the kindirlformation of Karashima Seishi ii!;;, however,
the Dharmaguptaka Vinaya passage corresponds to Pali Vin. iv.67,27, which
contains the term bhtiIJaka, He also informs me that while the character pai
itself, which seems to be glossed by Hsiian-ying and Hui-lin with p' o-shih
aiJl, refers to Sanskrit the compound pai-ni refers to bhaIJaka. The
equivalents suggested for pai-ni by NAKAMURA Hajime !:f:tH:7[; (Bukkyogo
Daijiten [Tokyo: Tokyo Shoseki 1981]: 1100b),
and ODA (1442b), pti!haka, are wrong.
32. In the French on p. 216, n. 1, a note which is missing in the English version but
which would have been found corresponding to the text in English on the
bottom of p. 220.
33. Etienne LAMOTIE, Le Traite de la grande Vertu de Sagesse II. Bibliotheque du
Museon 18 (Reprint: Louvain: Universite de Louvain 1981. Publications de
l'Institut Orientaliste de Louvain 26): 723.
SILK 373
his reconstructions, which are not, as far as I know, attested in Sanskrit.
Even today ma.ny scholars persist in offering Sanskrit equivalents for
terms that were evidently purely Chinese. While Sanskrit is, perhaps
rightly, the liriguafranca of Buddhist Studies, it seems at the very least
misleading to invent hypothetical Sanskrit equivalents for terms that one
cannot show to have existed in the Indian world. (These forms are rarely
starred to mark them as hypothetical; no forms in GERNET's book are
starred, just as LAMOTTE did not star his reconstructions.)
Finally, a few other oversights might be mentioned. On p.256, 1. 15,
fan-pai is something more than "Indian chants." Paul DEMIEVILLE
rendered the term "psalmodie: recitation psalmodiee ou chantee des textes
sacres" in Hobogirin s.v. bombai (pages 93-113, with pp.95-97 devoted
to the history of the term and idea in China). On p.291, 1. 9 tb, I think it
is not accurate to refer to Tantra asa "school" ("esoteric and magical
school") in the context of calling Amoghavajra a "great master of Tantra."
In n. 10 on p.335, the statement that Tao-hsuan's Vinaya commentaries
comment on the Dharmaguptaka-Vinaya (not Dharmagupta-, as the trans-
lator has written everywhere y4 is misleading. These texts quote extensively
from all the Vinayas available to Tao-hsuan, as GERNET himself indicated
in the following n. 17.35 In n. 45 on p. 373, partly because the only reference
34. I think the form Dharmaguptaka must be correct for the Vinaya text, but actually
the correct name of the sect itself has occasioned some confusion in the scholarship,
probably because the sources seem to be inconsistent. Both forms, Dharmaguptaka
and Dharmagupta, seem to be used as the name of the sect: Mahavyutpatti 9081
and Abhidharmakosavyakhya (ed. WOGIHARA, 542.19) give Dharmaguptiil;1,
and Dfpavamsa vA7 Dhammagutta, while Mahiivamsa v.8 has Dhammaguttika.
Some Chinese sources of Indian origin support Dharmagupta (T. 397 [XIll]
and others Dharmaguptaka (T. 1465 [XXIV] 900c4 itmJffi
Likewise, inscriptions contain both forms. According to Richard
SALOMON, Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Gandhara: The British Library
Fragments (Seattle: University of Washington Press 1999): 169 and
176, we can find DhaIinnagutaka, Dharmagutaka, Dhamaiitea, Dharmaiitaa,
Dharmaiitaka, and probably Dharmaguptika - all from the northwest. See also
SHIZUTANI Masao ShOjo Bukkyoshi no Kenkyu
(Kyoto: Hyakkaen 1978): 44, 173-200. (To my.surprise, I cannot find
the form Dharmaguptaka in a Buddhist Sanskrit literary source.)
35. In this regard, one may refer to the valuable studies of KAWAGUCHI Kofii JII P
"Shibunritsu GyojishO ni arawareta in'yo tenseki no kenkyii: Kyoronbu"
12Y:$}$:f1*tJ>IL<b . ilImfii$ [Scripture quotations
in the Ssu1en-lii shan1an pu-ch 'iieh hsing-shih ch' ao
Siitra and sastra]. SOtoshil Kenkyain Kenkyusei Kenkyukiyo
6 (1974): 132-114 (sic), and "Shibunritsu GyojishO ni arawareta
JIABS 22.2 374
given is not found in the bibliography ("Julien, Histoire, p.374."See
below), it is not at all clear that this note is quoting Hstian-tsang, T. 2087
(Ll) 873b19-21.
36
On p.396, s.v. su (koumiss) ., some of the sources
quoted by GERNET, at least, write m. Whether this term really means
koumiss is another question, concerning which one might with profit
consult Anna SEIDEL's entry again in the Hobi5girin.37 In n.ll on
p.335, at least in Indian materials the theory of upaya does not mean, as
GERNET states, that "the end justifies the means," at least as that expression
is understood in American English. And in n. 9 on p. 356, GERNET states
that the Pili Vinaya talks about "a particularly pure monk ... " (emphasis
in the original). There is no word in the Pali for "pure"; the good qualities
of the monk in question are listed, that is all.
* * *
in'yo tenseki no kenkyii: Ritsubu"
. #$ [Scripture quotations in the Ssu-fen-lU shan-fan pu-ch'iieh hsing-shih
ch'ao: Vinaya]. Komazawa Daigaku Daigukuin BukkyiJgaku Kenkyukai NenpiJ
9 (1975): 25-59.
36. See Samuel BEAL, Si-yu-ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World (London:
Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co. 1906. Reprint: New York: Paragon Book
Reprint Corp. 1968): 1.52.
37. A few more minor points concerning Chinese materials might be mentioned.
On p. 197, 1. 24, paraphrasing the "Treatise on Buddhism and Taoism" from the
Wei shu, GERNET writes that" ... Shih-hsien transformed himself into a lay
physician." This is not exactly what the passage says: W"l'Ji:
HURVITZ translated this "[Shih-hsien] ostensibly practised medicine and
retUrned to the laity, but he kept the Way and did not change." See Leon
HURVITZ, Wei Shou: Treatise on Buddhism and Taoism: An English translation
of the original Chinese text of Wei-shu CXlV and the Japanese annotation oj
Tsukamoto Zenryu. In MIZUNO Seiichi 7l<JfM-- and NAGAHlRO Toshio
fit-l eds., Yiin-kang, The Buddhist Cave-temples of the fifth century A.D. in
North China / UnkiJ sekkutsu: Seireki goseiki ni okeru Chugoku hokubu BukkyiJ
Kutsuin no kiJkogakuteki chiisa hiikoku tt.Q $1PlI
Volume 16 (Kyoto: Iinbun kagaku
kenkyiijo 1956): 71. TSUKAMOTO Zenryii upon whose Japanese
rendering HURVITZ's English was based, translated the passage as follows: pili
-? '"Cilm. Wb{J,.)i'd:'''l'-? '"Cat6fJtJ::O"'-? te.. See
TSUKAMOTO Zenryii, Gisho Shaku-RiJ shi Toyo Bunko *r$xJ!I"i
515 (Tokyo: Heibonsha 3jlfL* 1990): 218. In n. 6 on p. 335, the quotation
from the Wei shu is abridged, without any indication. See HURVITZ, p. 55.
SILK 375
Although this study is filled with a vast amount of data and relies on a
large body of evidence, when it comes to interpretation GERNET' s approach
occasionally reminds one of the age aIid the culture in which the study
was first written. For example, the claim (p.70) that "The reason why
fully ordained monks did not work was undoubtedly that they may devote
themselves entirely to pious activities" seems to be contradicted by what
we know of the lives of Chinese monks,38 and perhaps to reflect a somewhat
romanticized view of Buddhist monasticism. Scholars are becoming
increasingly aware of the mythological rhetoric of religious propaganda,
and of the necessity to confront romantic mythologized images with
verifiable social realities. Similar in tone is the statement (p. XV) that
"Confucianism is to a much greater extent an attachment to a mode of
thinking and traditional rites than a religion." Without a definition of
"religion," which is nowhere offered, it is of course not possible to
objectively evaluate such a claim, but at least as the term "religion" is
often understood these days, many Sinologists do find much religion in
the Confucian tradition.
39
Perhaps GERNET disagrees with these ap-
proaches to the study of religion and the Confucian tradition, but if so
only a clear statement of the definition of religion he is adopting here
would enable others to properly consider his claims.
A similar kind of difficulty occasionally extends to economic issues as
well. On page 178, GERNET says that "Buddhist establishments, whose
revenues were essentially assured by placements at interest, by the offerings
of the faithful, and by the operation of real estate (shops and mills), made
no contribution to production. Theirs was a parasitical economy that
nevertheless had its place in this country of agricultural civilization.,,40
38. In this regard, it is odd that there is no reference in this volume to Johannes
PRIP-M0LLER's landmark study Chinese Buddhist Monasteries: their plan and
its function as a setting for Buddhist monastic life (Copenhagen: G. E. C. Gads
Forlag ILondon: Oxford University Press 1937; Reprint: Hong Kong: Hong
Kong University Press 1967), or to Holmes WELCH's The Practice of Chinese
Buddhism: 1900-1950 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1967).
39. In this context one might just mention Rodney L. TAYLOR, The Religious
Dimensions of Confucianism (Albany, New York: State University of New
York Press 1990). I ignore here the additional problem that "Confucianism" is
likewise not defmed, no time or space limitations are placed on the generalization,
and so on.
40. It is interesting that the French original contains, between the two sentences
here quoted, the additional sentence: "Les terres ne sont pas la source principale
de richesses."
JIABS 22.2 376
At least as I understand these tenus, I fInd GERNET's study as a whole to
present very eloquent eVidence that the Buddhist monasteries in fact
. made a quite significant, one might even say key, contribution to production.
At other times, GERNET appears to' accept old sets of biases, some of
which were biases widely shared a generation ago, others the original
biases of his Chinese sources, whether Buddhist or Confucian. As an
example of a statement probably influenced by the sociology and anthro-
pology of 40 years ago, on p. 299 GERNET writes (emphases added) "It is
self-evident that those raised in the classical tradition could not be fervent
Buddhists. Their rationalism restrained them from adopting common beliefs
and superstitions. Noblewomen, by contrast, female members of the great
families, self-made men, and commoners had no such protection against
religious faith." On p. 250 we fInd the suggestion (emphases added) that
" ... it is tempting to see in the peasant or, more generally, popular fonus
of Buddhism in China by and large a complex of magical practices applied
to private, individual, or family ends. On the whole, they represented a
degradation of the authentic Buddhism practiced in the great sanctuaries."
On the other hand, on p.286 we fInd the following, which probably
reflects an uncritical acceptance of the attitudes of the Chinese historians
upon whose work GERNET relied. He wrote (emphases added):41
The complicity of the women at court and the emperor's kin in general with the
Buddhist clergy explains why so many measures that would have been necessary
to deal with the plethora of monks and nuns, with exorbitant expenditures
under the pretext of Buddhist piety, were revoked and why so many reform
decrees that are preserved in the official histories were never implemented. It
should be noted, moreover, that it was -the most reprehensible aspects of Buddhism
that the women and high personalities at court defended with the greatest passion.
For their interests were best served by the religious retainers with whom they
were'closely involved: monk-magicians, fortune-tellers, and traffickers.
I mentioned above the problem of the status of Indian Buddhist texts, and
what sort of evidence they give us about Buddhist practice in India. On
p. 96 GERNET writes that "The fact is that Buddhism in China was not
the essentially monastic religion represented by the Vinaya." An equally
41. In various places in the book GERNET seems to advocate the idea that, at least
as far as the court went, women, who are apparently not critical and rationalist,
were patrons of Buddhism, while rational males were sometimes pressured into
supporting Buddhism by their wives or consorts. It is certainly possible that,
broadly speaking, women offered greater patronage to Buddhism than did men,
but whether one can put this down to their uncritical and irrational nature is
surely a different matter.
SILK 377
important point to emphasize here is that Indian Buddhism was also "not
the essentially monastic religion represented by the Vinaya." The relation
between real communities and texts is Jar from clear, but one thing is
quite certain: I i l ~ i a n Buddhist texts are not objective reports of what went
on in Indian Buddhist communities. Therefore, when, again on p.96,
after quoting a passage concerning land tenure from a Miilasarvastivada
Vinaya text, GERNET says ''This tenure system was in fact applied in the
communities that we know from the Vinaya," his evidence must be carefully
considered. Unfortunately, however, the "evidence" for this, which
GERNET presents in another quotation, comes from the Sarvastivada
Vinaya. Such textual parallelism can in no way tell us anything about
what "was in fact applied," nor does it help us understand what sort of
communities a Vinaya text might help us to know. What we do learn is
that two passages in, respectively, a Miilasarvastivada and a Sarvastivada .
text agree with each other on a certain point. To be sure, given that we
are still unsure of the exact relation between these two schools, any
observation about their mutual agreement or disagreement puts us one
step closer to understanding this relation. But the mutual agreement of
texts tells us nothing about what any actual communities actually did, or
how (or if) they applied Vinaya rules.
A similar uncritical acceptance of traditional attitudes can be seen on
p. 152. "Under the influence of converts from the merchant milieu,"
GERNET wrote, "certain sects of the Lesser Vehicle increasingly took
recourse to profane practices. As a result, an originally austere attitude
gradually softened, and in the end commerce became fully integrated into
the devout activities of the samgha." Setting aside the issue of the use of
"Lesser Vehicle" (= HInayana) as if it referred to some institutionally
identifiable group (it does not; it is a polemical label),42 scholars have
come to realize the historical indefensibility of the claim that early
Buddhism was austere and later gradually came to be "dumbed down." A
related issue might be raised with regard to the following statement on
p.180: "From the beginning of the development of Buddhist communities
in China, .practices that contravened the teachings of the Vinaya were
accepted. These were no doubt encouraged by the example of the religious
of Central Asia whose monasteries served as staging posts for caravans
and as important banking centers." And again on p. 196, "Indian Buddhism
as we know it from the treatises on discipline, only gradually made room
42. On p. 223, GERNET contrasts practices in China with those in "countries of the
Lesser Vehicle." To what nations this could refer is not clear to me.
JIABS 22.2 378
for commercial practices, and with much reluctance." The historical fact
is that in India itself monasteries were often located on trade routes and
served as banking centers; there is also ample indication that, far from
being reluctant, Buddhist monks were often eager to participate in trade.
43
The key point here might just be this: "Indian Buddhism as we know it
from the treatises on discipline," to use GERNET's expression, is not the
Indian Buddhism of history, but an Indian Buddhism created to serve an
ideology (or ideologies); it is a fiction. This of course does not mean that
such texts as the Vinayas are useless as sources - far from it. But we
must be careful to understand what they are sources for: a history of
ideas and perhaps ideals, but not a history of practices.
A related issue might be raised when, in the context of the Mabasamgbika
Vinaya, GERNET writes that (p.166) "The expansion of financial operations
was undoubtedly encouraged by that of cult activities, for if the requirements
of the monks needed to remain modest, those of the cult were not subjected
to the same constraints." GERNET is certainly not alone even today in
repeating the romantic fiction of the poor and simple monk, but this
construction is simply not supported by the evidence.
44
It is doubly
problematic that such a bias should be found in a study of economy, in
which one would have hoped such assumptions would be called into
question.
There are other times when GERNET seems to be overly dogmatic, or
when one simply cannot agree with his historical or logical reasoning. On
p. 7 he states (emphases added) that " ... the explanation for the considerable
fluctuation in the size of the monastic community and the construction of
religious houses mustbe political: the favors granted Buddhism by certain
emperors are the only cause for the increase in monasteries and monks
and persecutions the one and only reason for their decrease." While the
factors listed are no doubt important, this formulation is surely too emphatic.
The reasoning offered on p.234 is likewise questionable:
43. On this point, see two very interesting studies: Hirnanshu P. RAY, Monastery
and Guild: Commerce under the Siitaviihanas (Delhi: Oxford University Press
1986), and Ximu LIU, Ancient India and Ancient China: Trade and Religious
Exchanges AD 1-600 (Delhi: Oxford University Press 1988).
44. Further on the same page 166 GERNET suggests that "All things considered, the
institution does not occupy an important place in the treatise on discipline, and
that is not surprising: inexhaustible property was sustained by little else than the
sale of flowers or the produce from stiipa lands or by precious metals relinquished
by monks at fault." GERNET offers no support for this claim, which seems
inherently unlikely.
SILK 379
The Buddhist faithful competed in spending, and ruined themselves in the process.
It cannot be said that this claim represents simply a literary formula, for it
recurs too frequently, in official memorials, decrees, and even in stele inscriptions.
It must therefore be assumed that these competitions in wastefulness reveal a
trait that is peculiar to the religious phenomenon itself.
It is hard to accept that something being written in stone, or being repeated
frequently, makes it less likely to be false. GERNET's conclusion - that
"the Buddhist faithful competed in spending, and ruined themselves in
the process" - may well be true, but the reasoning he offers here cannot
be convincing to a historian.
45
As another example, in a discussion of
wandering monks who "spread a vast popular religious movement" (p. 248),
GERNET says "In reality, it has little to do with Buddhism, yet it embedded
itself within the Buddhist movement, which cannot be understood as a
whole without taking this particular current into account." It would probably
be helpful in such contexts to distinguish between Chinese Buddhism and
Buddhism in China. GERNET seems to assume the existence of a pure
Buddhism (in China), and even if one were to grimt this (which seems of
course to require the reification of an abstract idea), it still seems reasonable
to suggest that something "embedded ... within the Buddhist movement"
might be a part of Chinese Buddhism. Is not this a formulation that
would avoid the contradiction GERNET seems to see here?
Some generalizations seem unwarranted. For example, GERNET writes
on p.235, at the top, that "Buddhism is known as a learned religion in
which abstract speculation occupies an important place. At least one
thinks of it primarily as a doctrine, and it is presumably in that form that
it was first introduced into China." Actually, there is every indication that
the initial introduction of Buddhism into China had in fact very little to
do with formal doctrine. As one example, recent studies of Buddhist
artifacts from southern Chinese tombs from the Han period and slightly
later strongly suggest that Buddhism entered China, at least in this area,
primarily as a mortuary cult.
46
The connections between Buddhism and
45. On this and related points, one may consult with great profit and pleasure David
Hackett FIsCHER, Historians' Fallacies: Toward a Logic of Historical Thought
(New York: Harper and Row 1970).
46. See for example YAMADA Meiji JlJ EEl "Gedatsu to ShOten - Kanan mew
no shoki Butsuza ni tsnite" - -
[Buddhist Liberation and Birth in the Heavens: The significance of the earliest
Buddhist icons found among grave objects in China's Yangtze river region],
Nihon bukkyo gakkai nenpo 13 59 (1994): 65-78; and IRISAWA
Takashi "Butsu to rei - Kanan shutsudo Busshoku konpei ka" c!::
JIABS 22.2 380
the treatment of the dead are not investigated by GERNET, although it is
probably fair to say that the economic and social role of Buddhism as a
mortuary cult is prominent in almost every Buddhist land at almost every
period of history.
Finally, sometimes one would simply like a claim explained. For instance,
in discussing Tun-huang manuscript P. 2187, a slave document from the
year 944, GERNET comments (p. 107) "The prohibition to marry externally
applied to the households held in perpetuity, the fact that the monasteries
claimed the offspring in the event of 'illegitimate' births, and the hereditary
nature of the families' dependence on the Buddhist establishments
indicate that this was a class of serfs. Despite their strict subjection,
however, they were not slaves (nu-pz)." If I properly understand GERNET's
suggestion here, the last sentence means that such people were not legally
slaves. If this is correct, some reference to T' ang laws on slavery would
have been welcome, since GERNET may well have in mind aspects of the
law that would allow one to say that persons in such circumstances are
not legally nu_pi.
47
- - [Buddha and Spirit: Burial vessels ornamented with
Buddha images excavated from sites in the Yangtze river area], RyiJ.koku daigaku
ronshiJ. 444 (1994): 233-71. (An English version of YAMADA's
paper is forthcoming in Wisdom, Compassion and the Search for Understanding:
The Buddhist Studies Legacy of Gadjin M. Nagao, to be published by the
University of Hawaii Press.) GERNET does say on p. 283 that "Buddhists were
called upon to perform mortuary services from a very early date," but the
earliest evidence he cites is from the Northern Wei.
47. The manuscript in question here, P. 2187, has been published in facsimile by
Wu Chi-yu in "Les manuscrits de Touen-houang concernant l'esclavage sous
les T'ang et au Xe siecle." In Michel SOYMIE, ed., Contributions aux Etudes
sur Touen-houang. Centre de Recherches d'Histoire et de Philologie de la IVe
Section de l'Ecole pratique des Hautes Etudes IT, Hautes Etudes orientales 10
(Geneve-Paris: Librarie Droz 1979): 161-167, with four plates. In matters of
legal definitions, it would have been possible to refer for example to the important
publication of Wallace Johnson, The T'ang Code. Volume I, General Principles
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979). For a short recent Western language
introduction to T'ang slavery, see Thomas TIllLO, "Sklaverei im China der
Tang-Zeit," Orientalishe Literaturzeitung 83.3 (1988): 261-67, a review of LI
Chi-p'ing *Zj1:5f, T'ang-tai nu-pi chih-tu (Shang-hai Jen-min
Chu-pan-she 1986). With special regard to Buddhism and
slavery in China, one may see the detailed studies of MICIDHATA RyushO,
mentioned in GERNET's "Additional bibliography."
(The term pi of nu-pi is sometimes read pei in modern Chinese, partly in
order to avoid homophony with a common obscenity.)
SILK 381
*
*
*
Perhaps nothing shows better how this book could have profited from
taldng into more recent studies, including those mentioned in its
own "Additional bibliography," than its treatment of the Empress Wu
Chao (Wu Tse-t'ien and her reign, the Chou mJ dynasty
(690-705), an interregnum in the T'ang. The empress and her times have
been extensively studied by, among others, Richard GurSS048 and, with
special attention to Buddhism, Antonino FORTE,49 the latter in nuanced,
detailed and careful studies dating back to the early 1970s.
50
In his
discussions of the empress, however,GERNET seems to still accept the
image of her perpetuated by the official hlstorians of the T' ang. He
writes (p. 281; emphases added) 'The usurper Wu Tse-t'ien is remembered
in history for her cruelty, her lack of scruples, her megalomanic tastes,
and the favors she heaped on Buddhism.,,51 This is true in so far as
"history" means the history written not by modern critical scholars but by
48. Richard W. L. GUISSO, Wu Tse-t'ien and the Politics of Legitimation in T'ang
China. Western Washington University, Program in East Asian Studies, Oc-
casional Papers 11 (Bellingham, Washington: Western Washington Upiversity
1978). This work is nowhere mentioned in GERNET's book.
49. Although GERNET has himself published a review of FORTE'S latest book on
the Ming-t'ang of the Empress Wu, the only reference to this study in the
present work is a few new notes. See GERNET's review of Antonino FORTE,
Mingtang and Buddhist Utopias in the History of the Astronomical Clock: the
tower, statue and armillary sphere constructed by Empress Wu. Serie Orientale
Roma 59 !Publications de I'E.F.E.O 145 (Rome: Istituto Italiano per il Medio
ed Estremo Oriente /Paris: Ecole Franyaise d'Extr6me-Orient 1988) in T'oung
Pao 76 (1990): 337-40. The main references in GERNET's study to FORTE'S
book - p. 381, notes 5 and 6 - do not appear to refer to the correct locations in
the work. Note 5 refers to FORTE's pages 75-84, which should perhaps be
82-91. I do not know what discussion is intended by the reference in n. 6 to pp.
156-59, which does not, in any case, refer to any natural division in FORTE'S
discussion.
50. On p. 288, we read the following sentences: "The role of prophecies in the
accession of Wu tse-t'ien is amply known. This form of propaganda, practiced
by Buddhist monks, was plainly very effective." There is no reference here to
FORTE's Political Propaganda and Ideology in China at the End of the Seventh
Century (Naples: Istituto Universitario Orientale, Seminario di Studi Asiatici
1976), although the entire book is devoted only to this issue, and it is listed in
GERNET's "Additional bibliography."
51. On pp. 285 and 297, he again refers to her simply as "the usurper Wu." Further
examples of such vocabulary are found in the summation on p. 297.
JIABS 22.2 382
the traditional c;hinese, basically Confucian, elite. 52 This one-sided view
of the empress can be seen in more specific contexts as well. In the next
paragraph GERNET refers to a memorial from 707 - after the de facto
restoration of the T' ang, and therefore of course rather explicitly "victor's
history" - which asserts that the Empress Wu's ''building projects involved
the destruction of entire forests and gigantic terracing works." It seems
unlikely that we should take this claim at face value. 53 FORTE's study on
the Ming-t'ang Jm1!t offers detailed hypotheses concerning the building
projects of the empress, and just what some of them might have entailed
in terms of materiel. .
In a discussion on pp. 286-87 of the T'ai-p'ing Princess, the details of
her affair with "a barbarian monk," the "plot" they "hatched" together,
and "imperial authorization to take her own life" are related. It is not
until another discussion altogether on p.290 that readers learn that the
T' ai-p'ing Princess was in fact the daughter - and indeed close confidane
4
- of the much-hated and undoubtedly still feared (in memory) Empress
Wu, who had succeeded for a time in overthrowing the T'ang Dynasty.
What then should we think when, in 713, the Emperor Hsiian-tsung of
the restored T' ang makes an effort to rid himself of the child of the
woman who very nearly put a final end to his dynasty? In fact, this
happened in the seventh month of the second year of Hsien-t'ien :$\:;:::R,
and in the twelfth month of the same year HSlian-tsung inaugurated the
K'ai-yiian reign period, in part at least signifying the solidification
of his assumption of Imperial power. 55 Mentioning these circumstances
would no doubt have clarified for readers the historical and political
52. The story of the historiographical treatment of Wu Tse-t'ien has been treated in
detai). by GUIsSO.
53. In the same context see too the block quotation from Ssu-ma Kuang on p. 296,
which GERNET appears to be citing as reporting historical facts.
Let us also remember that modem environmentalist sensibilities were not
shared by medieval Chinese, so the impact that such a statement might have on
a present day reader is unlikely to resemble the flavor of the original.
54. See GUISSO, p. 218, n. 34.
55. See page 29 of the article by TONAMI Mamoru, "Policy towards the Buddhist
Church in the Reign of T'ang Hsiian-tsung," in Acta Asiatica 55 (1988): 27-47.
The Japanese original of this article is listed on p. 421 in the "Additional
bibliography," where no mention is made of the English version. The Japanese
is also available in TONAMI's Todai Seiji Shakaishi Kenkyu
(Kyoto: D5b5sha 1986), Part N, Chapter 1, section iii, from which
the English was translated.
SILK 383
context of these actions. Again, on p.291 GERNET suggests that "The
reign of the Empress Wu and the period between the restoration and
accession of Hstian-tsung ". were marked by a corruption of political
ethics." Certainly the T'ang historians and many of their successors saw
in the reign of the Empress Wu a challenge to traditional authority and
power, and so perhaps a "corruption of political ethics." But of course
this can be true only from the point of view of the orthodox, elite ideologue.
Without a clear discussion of what might constitute legitimate political
ethics in T' ang China, it is difficult to talk of their corruption. In point of
fact, what seems most realistically to have happened - in an over simplified
nutshell - is that a clever and resourceful leader who favored certain
factions managed to wrest imperial control away from the previously
entrenched powers, which naturally were not pleased by this. That the
leader was a woman and the factions she favored Buddhist were both
weighty reasons for the "orthodox" to vilify her and her reign. And when
the previously defeated factions regained power after her brief 15 year
reign,56 they proceeded, to some degree systematically, to demonize the
Empress Wu and her reign, and portray all she did as excessive, zealous
and even evil. Whether or not scholars agree with the details of the
reconstructions GUISSO and FORTE have offered concerning this crucial
period of Chinese and Buddhist history, their opinions and arguments can
hardly be ignored by any history of the period that wishes to be considered
up-to-date.
57
56. The empress of course in practice ruled for a much longer time, but her dynasty,
the Chou, existed only from 690 until 705.
57. A few other remarks of GERNET might be pointed out in this context. On p. 44
mention is made of the Empress Wu's order that Ta-ytin ssii (Great
Cloud Monasteries) be established in every prefecture. In fact the naming of
monasteries is a very important indicator of policy; this issue has recently been
studied in some detail by FORTE, "Chinese State Monasteries in the Seventh
and Eighth Centuries," in KUWAYAMA Shoshin ed., EchO Ogoten-
jikkoku-den Kenkya [Huichao's Wang Wu-Tianzhuguo
zhuan: Record of Travels in Five Indic Regions] (Kyoto: Kyoto Daigaku Jinbun
Kagaku Kenkyujo 213-58. One example of
the corrections that should be made in this context is GERNET's dating of the
naming of Lung-hsing ssii monasteries to 705. FORTE (p. 231-35) has
shown that the correct date is 707. (By the way, one should be careful with the
vocabulary of this issue. The "establishment" of a monastery has nothing to do
with construction. Existing monasteries were regularly renamed, and thus the
expression GERNET used with regard to the Lung-hsing ssii, "naming," is
preferable to that used with respect to the Ta-ytin ssii, "establishing.")
JIABS 22.2 384
Another area in which updating would have been welcome is the treatment
of Tun-huang, given the remarkable advances in this field, and the fact
that large parts of GERNET's work deal with manuscript materials from
the site and discuss the life and economy cif the region itself. 58 When
GERNET first wrote his book he had a privileged access to the Paris
Tun-huang collections, the so-called Fonds Pelliot.
59
Although others
had also worked on this material, in many respects GERNET's studies
were ground breaking, at least in terms of Western language publications,
and they were certainly among the first Western publications to bring the
socio-economic questions raised by the documents into wide public view.
But today the Paris materials, as well as the London and Peking Tun-huang
Chinese manuscript collections, are widely available on microfilm and in
published facsimiles,60 and there is an entire area of research specialization
58. On p. XIV, we find (identical with the earlier French text): "The documents on
paper recovered in Chinese Turkestan and, principally, in Tun-huang constitute,
by virtue of their precision and authenticity, a source of exceptional value that
has hardly begun to be exploited as a whole." In some sense this is still certainly
true; the bulk of these materials has still "hardly begun to be exploited as a
whole." Nevertheless, the amount of scholarship to appear in the last 40 years is
impressive.
Restricting the references only to Chinese and Japanese studies on Tun-huang
and Turfan studies which make direct reference to the manuscript documents, a
recent bibliography lists more than 3000 books and articles. I could not speculate
on how much more has been published in other languages, or more generally on
medieval Chinese Buddhism, but the amount is surely substantial. See Tadaishi
(Tonka bunken) kenkyu iinkai ed., Toroban-
Tonka shutsudo kanbun monjo kenkyu bunken mokuroku .
of Studies on Turfan and Tun-Huang Doc-
uments (Tokyo: Taya Bunko *i$Jt* 1990). On the documents to which
GERNET refers there are literally hundreds of relevant studies listed in this
bibliography (which has an index according to manuscript number), most of
them published after 1956.
59. He also worked to catalogue the collection, as noted on p. 317, n. 2. I do not
know what might have been responsible for the delay, but as GERNET says in
the same note, although a catalogue of the first portion of the collection was
completed in 1957, it was not published until 1970.
60. This seems to have been tacitly acknowledged by the decision not to include the
photographs of twelve Tun-huang manuscripts which were added to the end of
the French study, but the republication of which is now clearly unnecessary.
Mention might have been made of the massive (140 volume) collection of
photographs of Tun-huang manuscripts published by Huang Yung-wu jilUktEt,
Tun-huang pao-tsang (Taipei: Hsin-wen-feng ch'u-pan-she *JTJtm
1IJltiit 1981-86), although other useful and sometimes more reliable editions
are also being published.
SILK 385
in Tun-huang Studies, with work being carried out all over the world.
Turfan studies is another area that has advanced tremendously in recent
years, another change that might have been taken into account in an
updating of GERNET's book.
61
GERNET's extensive utilization of Tun-huang manuscripts in speaking
about "Chinese Buddhism" per se is also problematic. It is generally
accepted today that the Tun-huang manuscript sources inform us much
more specifically about a regional Tun-huang Buddhism than they do
about the Buddhism of the political and cultural center of China. This is
an important distinction because Tun-huang Buddhism was in many senses
far from typical of the mainstream of Chinese Buddhism. As a heavily
Buddhist outpost town, on the one hand it was distanced from the cultural
and political capitals of China, and closer to Central Asian influences,
while on the other hand the density of the Buddhist presence there was
much greater than the average in China as a whole. The regional character
of Chinese Buddhisms - plural - is well known, and this factor could
have been more clearly taken into account in GERNET's study.
There are also many cases in which one could add additional references
to those already supplied by GERNET, including some published after the
preparation of the English translation but directly relevant to issues raised
there. To the discussion (p.242, and 373, n. 30) on autocremation, one
might refer to a paper written by Jean Filliozat in response to GERNET's
own "Les suicides par Ie feu": "La mort volontaire par Ie feu et la tradition
bouddhiqueindienne," Journal Asiatique 251 (1963): 21-51, now available
in English as "Self-immolation by fire and the Indian Buddhist tradition"
in Religion, Philosophy, Yoga: A Selection of Articles by Jean Filliozat,
trans. Maurice SHUKLA (Delhi: Motilal Barnarsidass, 1991): 91-125. The
vinaya text studied in Chinese by GERNET on pp. 160-61 has now been
translated from the Indic text and studied by G. SCHOPEN, "Doing Business
for the Lord: Lending on Interest and Written Loan Contracts in the
Miilasarvastivada- Vinaya." Journal of the American Oriental Society 114
(1994): 527-54. SCHOPEN's study is of great interest in providing an
Indian background for GERNET's discussions of loans and interest-bearing
investments in a Buddhist context. In n. 22 on p. 375, GERNET refers to
61. For instance, one might now refer in this context to the accessible study of
Valerie HANSEN, Negotiating Daily Life in Traditional China: How Ordinary
People Used Contracts 600-1400 (New Haven: Yale University Press 1995).
Many of the more interesting examples of contracts studied by HANSEN come
from grave sites in Turfan.
JIABS 22.2 386
"Indian Buddhist cults ... superimposed upon local cults," referring to
Paul Mus (on which, see below). In fact, there is clear evidence that
Buddhist stilpas in India were often built over old, pre-Buddhist burial
sites, concerning which one may now consult SCHOPEN's "Immigrant
Monks and the Proto-historical Dead: The Buddhist Occupation of Early
Burial Sites in India," in Festschrift Dieter Schlingloff, Friedrich Wilhelm,
ed. (Reinbek: Verlag fUr Orientalistische Fachpublikationen, 1996): 215-
38. On pp.257ff., with reference to the discussion of the chai ., one
may refer to the long article by A. FORTE and J. MAY in Hobogirin, s.v.
chOsai.
*
* *
The reviews mentioned above in note 2 pointed out what the reviewers
found to be general theoretical and conceptual weaknesses in GERNET's
arguments, or made observations about some general issues that the
reviewers wish GERNET had dealt with more fully. That this translation
has not addressed those issues is understandable, since no attempt was
made to comprehensively rewrite or even re-cast the study. A problem
does arise, however, in several cases in which the translator has taken
special notice of corrections offered by reviews of the French original.
While Denis TWITCHETT's review article, "The Monasteries and China's
Economy," is mentioned in the "Additional bibliography," and in several
places in the notes, Kenneth CH'EN's review finds mention nowhere in
the volume. Both reviews offered a number of specific corrections, mostly
to the translations of Chinese terms or documents, and both have obviously
been carefully studied, and their suggestions incorporated. However, the
manner in which this has been done is sometimes problematic.
Pages 737-39 of CH'EN's review contain a number of suggested
corrections to readings, dates, references and translations in GERNET's
1956 French original. Every single one of these corrections relevant to
the present volume
62
has been incorporated, but without any notation of
the source of the corrections. In addition, some changes are more radical.
Correcting p. 293 of the French edition, CH'EN (p. 739) wrote as follows:
"Enfin, il ne devait pas subsister plus de quatre monas teres dans les prefectures
administrees par des prefets (ts'eu-che)." Chinese text:
62. In one or two places, quotations in Chinese or references are not included in the
English version, and so CH'EN's corrections were no longer relevant. Approx-
imately fifteen separate corrections appear to have been taken into account.
SILK 387
"As for the rest of the prefectures administered by prefects, they are not permitted
to have temples." Thus there is no mention of four temples being permitted in
each. In the following sentence, the character 1m "four" is present, but it refers
to the censors sent out to see that the edict was carried out: rl1m1JlP!E.:fTxl"
..
On page 304 of the English, we find "As for the other prefectures under
the administration of prefects (tz'u-shih), they are not permitted to have
temples."
Again correcting the same page 293 of the French edition, CH'EN
(p.739) wrote as follows:
"n y a, dans l'empire, des missionnaires imparfaits qui vivent en parasites sur
notre pays. Vous, mes ministres, vous Ie savez de reste. - Depuis Tsou-tsong,
repond I' un d' eux, Ie bouddhisme a pris un immense developpement .... " Chinese
text: fflMlfB, tll.*B
*, .... "'There are (Buddhist) monks who are of no benefit to the
religion and who live as parasites on our country. 0 ministers, you speak about
them fully.' One of them replied, 'Since the time of our ancestors, Buddhism
has flourished ... .'''
On p. 305 of the English, we fInd:
"There are Buddhist monks who are of no benefit to the religion and who live
as parasites on our country. Oh ministers, you speak about them fully." One of
them replied, "Since the time of our ancestors, Buddhism has flourished."
Again, in a number of places TWITCHETT's suggestions are also
incorporated without notation, or with only minimal notation that does
not properly indicate the degree of debt. A good example is p.143, and
p. 353, n. 6. The discussion has been revised in light of TWITCHETT's
comments, but the note reads only:
Hulling or grinding, depending on the cereals, required different techniques and
devices. On methods employed in Ming times, see T'ien-kung k'ai-wu, Yabuuchi
ed., pp. 258-67. Cf. TWITCHETT, "Monasteries and China's Economy," p. 534-35.
Strictly speaking "cf." is an abbreviation of Latin confer, which means to
compare. It does not mean "consult for further information," but "for a
different point of view, see .... " But even if we are to understand it to
mean "see," as most writers today seem to do, there is no indication in
this note that the discussion has been modifIed in the light of TWITCHETT' s
critique.
On p. 36, with p. 325, n. 33, TWITCHETT's comments are incorporated,
and several of his remarks are quoted, but again it will not be clear to the
reader how much of the current presentation is due to TWITCHETT's
research, not the author's own. In the revision of a translation of a memorial
JIABS 22.2 388
by Li Te-yu on pp. 58-59, in n. 162 on p. 333 again all we have is, afteI
several other references, "Cf. TWITCHETT, 'Monasteries and China's
Economy,' p. 546-47." In fact, TWITCHETT suggested that ' ~ t h e translation
.'. stands in need of extensive corrections." The account on p. 139 has
been modified, without any note at all, in light of TWITCHETT's p.547,
which spoke of "the author's careless handling of statistical material." I
am afraid, however, that it gets worse.
On p.186, in translating a contract from Tun-huang (P. 3155),63 an
entire passage from TWITCHETT's review has been incorporated verbatim,
without acknowledgment. TWITCHETT p.548 wrote "There ~ e some
mistakes in the translation of the document P. 3155 and it seems ... that
the author may have missed a line in transcribing the document." He then
offered the following translation:
The foregoing land is rented out to Yiian-tzu to work and sow for 22 years. At
the end of the period from the present i-ch'ou year to the following ping-hsiu
year (905-26), it shall revert to the original owner. All the taxes and impositions
levied on this land with the exception of the ti-tzu shall be collected from the
owner. The ti-tzu shall be paid annually by Yiian-tzu (the occupier). The labour
dues for work on the canals and waterways shall be halved between the two
families.
TWITCHETT went on the say "M. GERNET has entirely missed the signif-
icance of the term ti-tzu 1i!!-1-. This was the tax levied on produce of the
land, as opposed to the tax on the value of landed-property which was
incorporated in the hu-shui? m." Below, TWITCHETT wrote "M. GERNET
is also incorrect in calling the tu-yii-hou Lu a 'witness.' ... The tu-yii-hou
was in fact the legal representative of the Provincial Governor, at first
mainly occupied with military discipline, but, by the tenth century, the
most important figure in local legal administration."
The English version on p.186 has the following, in the block quotation:
He [the monk Ling-hu Fa-hsing - JAS] rents (tsu) the aforementioned land to
Chia Yiian-tzu to work and sow for twenty-two years. At the end of the period
from the present i-ch' ou year to the following ping-hsii year (905-926), it shall
revert to the original owner. All the taxes and impositions levied on this land
with the exception of the land tax (ti-tzu) shall be collected from the owner. The
ti-tzu shall be paid annually by Yiian-tzu (the occupier). The labor dues for
work on the canals and waterways shall be halved between the two households.
At the end of the document the last line reads, in the English, "The legal
representative of the provincial governor (tu-yii hou), Lu." Note 154 on
63. On this document, see now also HANSEN, Negotiating Daily Life, pp. 67-68.
SILK 389
p. 363 reads, in its entirety, "The ti-tzu is the tax levied on the produce of
the land, as opposed to the tax on the value of landed property that was
incorporated in the hu-shui." Note 156 on the same page, which refers to
the end of the quotation of the contact on p. 186 reads, in its entirety,
P. 3155 VO 2. Edited by NIIDA Noboru, Tasa hOritsu, pp.351-53 and, with
some inaccuracies, in NABA Toshisada, "Chubanto jidai ni okeru giranso, "
pp.161-63, and "To shahon," p. 76-78. See also TwrrCHETI, "The Monasteries
and China's Economy," pp. 548-49.
This unfortunate lack of proper acknowledgment of sources is an oversight
that must be corrected in future printings of the book.
64
There is ample additional evidence of the lack of care given to the
translation.
65
On p.165, in the last paragraph, there are eight types of
trees (as in French), not five, in this passage from which the reference
has disappeared (found in the French, p.161, n. 3; T. 1425 [XXII] 498a25-
b9). In several places - pp.184, l. 12,26,33; 185 l. 6; 208 l. 26; 315 l.
13; and 367, n. 59 - the same Chinese word is found. TWITCHETT
has pointed out ("The Monasteries and China's Economy," p.531,
paragraph 4) that the rendering "satin" used by GERNET is too specific.
Of the seven references just quoted, 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7 are rendered "satin"
while 2 and 6 are rendered "raw silk." On p.201, at the top, between the
last item on p.200 and the first on p.201, one item found in the French is
missing: "[Fee for] recitations of siitras [made at the request
of] lay families."
Some modifications in the translation seem ill-advised. On p.244,
GERNET has quoted a colophon from a Tun-huang PrajfHiparamita
64. On the issue of responsibility for proper documentation and acknowledgment of
sources, see the very interesting work by Marcel CHOTKOWSKI LAFOLLETTE,
Stealing into Print: Fraud, Plagiarism, and Misconduct in Scientific Publishing
(Berkeley: University of California Press 1992).
65. Some examples of the lack of care, of course, are originally GERNET's. In the
note to the chart on p. 6 listing the number of clergy and number of monasteries
in China from the Chin through the Yuan, we read that "Figures preceded by an
asterisk are estimates." But all the figures are clearly nothing more than (extremely
general) estimates. On p. 136, speaking of Koyasan, GERNET says "Founded in
816 by the monk Kobo, the Koya-ji .... " When referring to him as monk, his
monastic name Kukai should be used. Kobo Daishi is a
posthumous honorific title. The temple which Kukai founded in 816 is the
Kongobu-ji None of the sources I have been able to consult call it
the Koya-ji. On p. 164, in a quotation from Sylvain LEVI, the term kiihapal}a
appears. This Middle Indic term for a unit of Indian currency (Sanskrit
the value of which is not stable, is nowhere defined by GERNET.
nABs 22.2 390
manuscript in the Stein collection in London. In the French version,
GERNET evidently had translated the colophon himself, but here in the
English Lionel GILES's old translation is followed.
66
This is unfortunate,
since GERNET's French translation is on several points clearly superior.
In particular, GILES's rendering of with "since he
lives in Mo-chieh in danger of his life" is inferior to GERNET's "en cette
p6riode cosmique finale, exc6d6 des renaissances et des morts," and
is not "male and female servants," but "esclaves.,,67
Sometimes strange things happen in the translation. Sanskrit terms like
Vinaya (see p. 69 for some special confusion this can cause), etc.,
the number of which was clear in French from the pronoun, are now
found without the English plural -s, making identification sometimes
hard. This is especially important because the arguments GERNET offers
take into account the Vinayas from a number of sects. When scholars
refer in English to "the Vinaya," they most usually mean the Pilii Vinaya.
That GERNET does not mean this - and his access to the Vinayas of
several traditions is an important strength of his work - is most unfortunately
obscured by this practice of the translator.
68
The translator also appears
to have tripped up in n. 8 on p. 384. There a few proverbs are translated,
of which one has been made into two. As Kenneth CH'EN pointed out in
his review (p. 737-38), in the French version GERNET misunderstood the
following proverb: . 69 This is found
in C. H. PLOPPER, Chinese Religion seen through the Proverb (on which,
see below), p.206, item 1209. (Item 1210 consists of only the second
half, . ) CH'EN pointed out that the proverb should be
rendered "When the blind man sees money, he opens his eyes; when the
monk sees money, he sells his scriptures." FLOPPER had already offered
66. In addition to the 1935 article by GILES from which the English translation is
evidently taken, the Chinese text of the colophon and the same English version
are found in Lionel GILES, Descriptive Catalogue of the Chinese Manuscripts
from Tunhuang in the British Museum (London: The Trustees of the British
Museum 1957): 33 (serial number 1396 = S. 4528). The latter volume is missing
from the English version's "Additional bibliography."
67. To be sure, nu-pi p)l.f;Jlj! is often rendered by historians of China as "bondsmen
and bondswomen," but be that as it may, "servant" is entirely inappropriate.
68. On p. 179,9 fb, the expression "According to the 'least rigorous of the treatises
on discipline" makes it sound as though one particular treatise is being referred
to. In fact, the French alerts us to the.!act that "least rigorous" is plural.
69. GERNET (p. 297) had rendered "S'ils apen;:oivent une sapeque, l'aveugle ouvre
l'oeil et Ie moine psalmodie ses sutra." GERNET perhaps mistook.
SILK 391
"A glimpse of money makes the blind man see; makes the Bonze dispose
of his breviary," or for the second half only (item 1210) "When a priest
sees money he will sell his sutras." The English translation has (punctuation
and quotation ~ a r k s as in the original): "A glimpse of money makes the
blind man see"; "When a monk sees money, he will sell his sutra." These
should be rendered, obviously, as one expression.
70
One may also point to other rough spots in the translation. Some have
to do with English vocabulary or not entirely appropriate translation
equivalents. Throughout the volume the French term religieuse (religieux)
is rendered "religious." This term, while strictly speaking not impossible
as a noun, is usually found as an adjective in contemporary English. The
problem is that at least in contemporary Catholic usage, from which its
nominal usage appears to be borrowed, the term refers to those who have
taken religious orders, and therefore is not strictly equivalent to either
"monk" or "clergy." On the other hand, given its frequent appearance in
the text, the more common English "clergy" might well have been prefer-
able.
71
On p.15 we find " ... the number of those who lived the trade of
the religious ... ," where "trade" renders metier, here rather "profession"?
In n. 151 on p. 333, in the expression "is presented with all reserves,"
probably some expression with "reservation" is intended. In n. 158 p.350,
at the end we read "it must be admitted that en-tzu is not a current term."
The French "Ie term ... n'est pas courant" means that the term is not in
common use. On p.200, 1. 8, French thaumaturgie is not well rendered
with English "magic"; "wonder working" would be much better. On
p. 292, 1. 23, the word "psalmody" is not a verb in English. Other problems
with English include the frequent misuse of punctuation with the colon.
In addition, more than a few sentences lack a verb, and some are quite
incomprehensible. For example, one finds on p.15: "For an inclination to
luxury, artistic pleasure in some, prodigality, and religious needs as such
accord with one another and respond to a general tendency that is, in a
sense, economic in nature." On p.241, 4-5 fb: "In great festivals, one
spends and one spends oneself." This does not seem to make very good
sense in English. The French reads "on depense et on se depense." The
following sentence also does not make sense, on p. 268 in the block
70. Here again there is no acknowledgment that CH'EN has corrected GERNET's
earlier error, and PLOPPER's work is referred to only with another "cf.", which
does not properly indicate the source of these proverbs.
71. In the chart on page 6 the term is in fact rendered "clergy," while in the "note"
at the foot of the chart we find again "religious."
JIABS 22.2 392
quotation: "Yet suddenly he dares to behold upon their somber path,
finally recompensed for their kindness." I do not have access to the
Chinese text (P. 3216), but the same sentence in French (p.260) reads:
"Mais soudain, sur cette route de tenebres [ou ils sont], i1 ose enfm les
voir recompenses de leur bienfaits." Should we read ''behold them"?
There are also a very large number of misprints, oversights and other
assorted errors in the book. Among other things, the printer seems to
have had trouble with diacritical marks, and in many cases the Chinese
characters for which readings are given in the text are missing in the
character glossary. Sometimes Sanskrit or Pili words are written as two
(the French edition is always correct in these cases): p. 68:
piisiidikii Samantapiisiidikii; p.269, 2 fb: dharma dhiitu dharma-
dhiitu; p. 368, n. 90: samgraha vastu samgrahavastu; Sometimes this
extends to other languages: at p.137, 1. 4, nyu do is to be written as one
word in Japanese. In addition to those mentioned above, I have detected
the following errors (plus several others that seemed too obvious to point
out):
On p. 36, 8 fb: ! :. On p.39, seng wei-lan wei-Zan seng. On p. 82, in the 2nd
paragraph in the block quotation, we find kya. This is not a Burmese word, as one
might guess, but rather minus all of its diacritical letters. On p. 90, 13 fb, the
form which is intended for Silqanf which is found in the French, should 1
suspect be silqamiil;zii. On p. 145, 1. 16 remove the comma after "installed." On
p.153, last line: -sparsana. On p. 154, 1. 1, rupika-vyahiira -vyavahiira (the error
is in the French). On p. 157, 3 fb: rupika-vikraya kraya-vikraya (French has
rilpika-vyahiira [sic]). On p.167, 1. 7, remove the comma after "monks." On p. 204,1.
11: (correct in the French). On p.205, 3 fb: that who (French
qUI). On p.206, 1. 1: " ... were to take place .... " On p.216, 1. 18: Avatasaka
Avatamsaka. On p.222, l. 7: Seryyo Seryo-in. On p. 285, 1. 17: led lead. In n.
68 on p. 329, the close quotes are missing after "existences." In n. 16 on p. 335: a"]"
must be placed after item 4, plantations. In n. 56 on p. 338: S. Levi. In n. 76 on p. 339,
Manu Vaan should be Manu Va!l!l!Znii. In n. 77 on p. 346: bukky shi bukkyoshi. In
n. 20 on p. 357, the cross references are missing. In n. 131 on p. 362: Taklarnaldi
Taklamakan. In n. 140 on p.363: Kharakhja Kharakhoja. In n. 22 on p.365:
Siddhartha Siddhartha. In n. 129, l. 2, on p. 370: were was. In n. 49, 1. 10, on
p.373: toots roots? (I donot have to the Chinese text.) In n. 96 on p. 380:
Ta tz'u-en ... Ta T'ang tz'u-en .... In n. 100 on p. 380: Toshisada Naba. In n.
10 on p. 381: reign reigns. In n. 6 on p. 384: Michima Mishima On p. 398, s.v.
tzu-i: the reference should be to p. 60, not p. 59. On p. 402, s.v: Cullavagga, the 1964
date is a reprint. Anyway, no pUblication data other than "Pali Text Society ed.
London: Luzac" is given. The entry on p. 404 for Mahiivagga lists only "H. OIdenberg
ed., Vinaya Pi!akam." Neither of these are complete or correct citations. On p. 402,
S.V. Hsii kao-seng chuan, the author is Tao-hsiian, not Ta-hsiian. On p.405, s.v
Ssu-fen Iii and elsewhere, this text is called the Dharmaguptavinaya. This is wrong:
SILK 393
the form is Dharmaguptaka (correct in the French edition). On p. 407, s.v Yu-p'o-sai
chieh ching: Updsakasila Updsakatfla. On p. 407, s.v. Aoyama: chinoshi chihoshi.
On p.408, s.v. CH'EN, the name Yin-k'e is to be read Yin-k'o, as it is in fact
elsewhere in this book. On p. 409, s.v. KatO, the author's frrstname is read Shigeru,
not Shigeshi (corr,ect in n. 57 on p. 359.) In the characters for his third article read ...
'l{f(: ..... On p. 410, the name read here Michibata is more usually read Michihata (as
it was in French). In this author's second article the ni tsuite in the title is problematic.
I do not have access to the study in question, but those words are not found in the
original French citation, and such a title sounds a bit odd. On p. 410, s.v. Mishima,
article 3, and elsewhere: probably is to be read ichi kosatsu, not ikkosatsu. On
p. 410, s.v. Naba, article 2: bunda-shi bunka-shi. In the next article, the date 1983
is obviously a misprint for 1938. In the following article read ... ....
In the next entry, hitotsu should probably be read ichi, (as in French). On the top of
411, nengai tengai, and the characters 1i1i1J 1i1iliJi. On p.4ll, s.v. Ogasawara,
article 2: ... bukkyo to shakai .... On p.412, s.v Takeuchi: kenkyo kenkyu. On
p.415, s.v. Harata K5do, the author's name is Harada Hiromichi.72 On p.415, s.v.
Hattori, article 4: kattei katei. Article 5:kozo gyozo. On p.416, s.v. Ikeda On,
Chugoku kodai sekichO .... The publisher is given as Toyobunka kenkyujo; correctly
this is Tokyo Daigaku Toyo Bunka Kenkyujo. The third item (the full title of which
is Tun-huang and Tuifan Documents Concerning Social and Economic History ill:
Contracts [AD is not a publication of Ikeda alone but in collaboration with Yamamoto
Tatsuro In fact, this 1987 publication is only one part of a multi-volume
series presented also with Okano Makoto Dohi Yoshikazu and
Ishida Yusaku The publisher of this series is not "Toyo bunka" but the
well-known ToyoBunko. Onp.417, s.v. Kamata: bukkyo kyodan? On
p.417, s.v. Kanei, the author's name is perhaps to be read Kanai? On p.417, s.v.
Katsumata: Daicho Daijo. Onp.417, s.v. Koji, the author's name is read Kochi.
On p.417, s.v. Koto, the author's name is read Kondo. On p.418, s.v. Mizuno
Seiichi, there are a number of errors in this bibliographic citation. See note 37 above,
for the correct citation. On p. 419, s.v. Ogasawara: shutsuto shutsudo. The same is
found in item 2 on p. 420. In item 3 on that page, read arawaretaru. On p.420, s.v.
Sakurai: The author's first name is read Shuyu. On p.420, s.v. Seiryo ShUni: The
author's name is Seiryu Soji. On p. 421, s.v. Takeuchi: The author's first name is read
Rizo. On p. 422, s.v. Yoshimoto: read ... gll#ftfct-Hr .... On p. 422, s.v Zdun:
Meteriaux Materiaux. There are several places in which the term Jtilf appears in
citations of Japanese works. While the reading given in this book, bunsho, is possible,
it is probably to be read monjo in all cases here.
72. In this and the following I have relied generally on the membership list of the
Indogaku Bukkyo Gakkai, in which members list their own names, indicating
thereby their own preferred readings. However, Japanese names are a notoriously
tricky business, and in this regard often, unless one personally knows the party
in question, it is difficult to be sure.
nABS 22.2 394
Finally, there are a large number of works (approximately twenty) referred
to in the notes by short references that are absent from the bibliographies.
In several of these cases a more complete reference was given in the
French volume. The following references are missing: 73
In p. 321, n. 63, "Hsii Chung-shu, 'On Some Agricultural Implements;' p. 1159." This
refers to the Chinese article "Lei-ssii k'ao" by Hsu Chung-shu in the
Bulletin of the Institute of History and Philology of the Academia Sinica 211 (May
1930): 11-59, the Chinese title of which is Kuo-ii chung-yang yen-chiu-yilan ii-shih
yil-yen yen-chiu-so chi-k' an IIlL r:p i'ii
In n. 72 on p. 339, and passim, Tun-huang to-so. This work was published in three
parts by Liu Fu Tun-huang to-so (Nanjing: Chung-yang yen-chiu-yiian
li-shih yti-yen yen-chiu-so i'ii 1925, 1934, 1935). It appeared
in the series Kuo-ii chung-yang yen-chiu-yiian ii-shih yii-yen yen-chiu-so chuan k'an
2, and it was reprinted in Peking in 1957 by
the Chung-kuo k'o-hsiieh-yiian k'ao-ku yen-chiu-so as
volume 5 of K'ao-ku-hsiieh t'e-k'an and in volume 15 of Huang Yung-wu
.7kiEt ed., Tun-huang ts'ung-k'an ch'u-chi (Taipei: Hsin-wen-feng
ch'u-pan-she 1985).
In n. 4 on p. 353, "See Needham, 'Mechanical Engineering'." The reference is to
Joseph NEEDHAM and Wang LING, Science and Civlization in China. Volume 4,
Physics and Physical Technology, Part II: Mechanical Engineering (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press 1965).
In n. 6 & 7 on p. 353: In n. 6, Yabuuchi's edition of the "T'ien-kung k'ai-wu" is
referred to. This is duly found in the bibliography, under this Chinese title. In n. 7,
however, the reader is referred for an illustration to "Yabuuchi ed., Tenkokaibutsu no
kenkyu, p. 262, 'shui-t'ui.'" How is the reader to know that this is the same work as
that referred to in n. 6? -
In n. 33 on p. 355, the reference to Naba Toshisada's "article in Toa keizai ronso
1.3 and 4 (1941) and 2.2 (1942)" is to the article listed in the bibliography at the top
of page 411 with the following reference: "Kyoto teikoku daigaku keizaigakubu,
keizai kenkyujo 1 (1941): 23-51; 87-114; 2 (1942) 165-86." I do not know if the Toa
keizai ronso was published by the Kyoto teikoku daigaku keizaigakubu,
keizai kenlcyiijo, the Seminar on Economics of the Faculty of Economics of Kyoto
Imperial University, but anyway the latter is not the name of any publication. (By the
way, the title should read ... ni tsukite -C, not ni tsuite.)
In n. 10 on p. 356, and passim: "Mochizuki Shinko, Bukkyo daijiten," refers to the
work cited above in note 30.
73. It is also interesting to note that absent from the volume is any reference to the
numerous Sinological works of GERNET's teacher Paul DEMIEVILLE, although
several of his works on Chinese translations of Indian works are listed. (GERNET
published an appreciation of DEMIEVILLE in "Notice sur la vie et les travau;" de
Paul Demieville," Comptes Rendus des Seances de I'Academie des Inscriptions
et Belles-Lettres [Juillet 1986]: 595-607.) Likewise there is no reference to the
series of volumes on Tun-huang studies published from Paris under the general
editorship of Michel S OYMIE.
SILK 395
In n. 54 on p.358, "Smith, Village Life in China," refers to an often reprinted
work, Arthur Henderson SMITH, Village Life in China: a Study in Sociology. I have
not been able to determine when it was first published, but a fourth edition was
already available in 1899. Most of the editioris to which I have seen reference have
the same pagination, but not all. It would be nice to know to what edition GERNET
was referring. .
In n. 2 on p. 364, "Gemet, 'Biographie du maitre de dhya1ia Cheri-houei,'" refers
to GERNET's own paper in Journal Asiatique 259 (1951): 29-68. The title is, however,
misquoted. The correct title is ''Biographie du Maitre Chen-houei de Ho-tso (668-760):
Contribution a l'histoire de l' ecole du Dhyana."
In n. 41 on p. 366, and passim: "Tun-huang shih-shih hsieh-ching t'i-chi yii Tun-
huang tsa-Iu" refers to Hsu Kuo-lin WfilB, ed., Tun-huang shih-shih hsieh-ching
t'i-chi yii Tun-huang tsa-Iu (Shanghai: Commercial
Press, 1937). This was reprinted in volume 10 of Huang Yung-wu _7klit, Tun-huang
ts'ung-k'an ch'u-chi (Taipei: Hsin-wen-feng ch'u-pan-she
1985). .
In n. 162 on p. 371, Swann, Food and Money in Ancient China," refers to Nancy
Lee SWANN, Food & money in ancient China: the earliest economic history of China
to A.D. 25, Han shu 24, with related texts, Han shu 91 and Shih-chi 129 (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1950).
In n. 25 on p. 372, "Granet, Danses et tegendes" refers to Marcel GRANET, Danses
et tegendes de la Chine ancienne. This work has gone through a number of editions,
the first of which appeared in 1926. GERNET does not tell us to which edition he
referred. .
In n. 41 on p. 373, "Wieger, Textes historiques" is Leon WIEGER, Textes historiques.
The first edition of this work seems to be that of 1903-05 in three volumes, but it was
subsequently reprinted at least twice (1922-23 and 1929). These reeditions were in
two volumes. Again, GERNET does not specify to which edition he referred.
In n. 45 on p. 373, "Julien, Histoire" refers to Stanislas JULIEN, Histoire de la Vie
de Hiouen-Thsang et de ses voyages dans l'Inde, depuis l'an 629 jusqu'en 645 par
Hoei-Ii et Yen-thsong (paris: Impr. Imperial 1853).
In n. 53 on p. 374, "Wieger, Folklore chinois moderne" refers to Leon WIEGER,
Folk-Lore chinois moderne (Paris: E. Guilmoto I Sierihsien: Impr. de la Mission
catholique 1909).
In n. on p.375, "Mus, La lumiere sur les six voies" refers to Paul Mus, La
lumiere sur les Six Voies: tableau de la transmigration bouddhique. Universite de
Paris, Travaux et Memoires de I'Institut d'Ethnologie 35 (paris: Institut d'Ethnologie
1939).
In n. 63 on p. 377, "Kanda Kiichiro, TonkO hisekiryushinhen" (note that the title is
misprinted) refers to KANDA Kiichiro Tun-huang mi-chi liu-chen hsin-
pien I TonkO hiseki ryashin shinhen first published in two volumes
in 1947 by the Kuo-li Tai-wan Ta-hsiieh illiil'l'!t*"", and reprinted in volume 13
of Huang Yung-wu _7klit, Tun-huang ts'ung-k'an ch'u-chi (Taipei:
Hsin-wen-feng ch'u-pan-she 1985).
In n. 73 on p. 378, "Pelliot, 'Une bibliotheque medievale,'" refers to Paul PELLIOT,
"Une bibliotheque medievale retrouvee au Kan-sou," Bulletin de Franfaise
d'Extreme-Orient 8 (1908): 501-29.
nABS 22.2 396
In n. 83 on p.379, "R. Maunier, Coutumes algeriennes (Paris 1935)" refers to
Rene MAUNIER, Courumes aigeriennes (paris: Domant-Montchrestien 1935). In the
same note, the full reference for "L. Gernet, 'Droit et pn!doit en Grece ancienne,'
Annee sociologique (1951)" is Louis GERNET, "Droit et predoit en Grece ancienne,"
in L'Annee sociologique, 3rd series (1948-49): 21-119. It is reprinted in Louis GERNET,
Anthropologie de la Grece antique (Paris: Franois Maspero 1968); 175-260.
In n. 11 on p.381, "Deloustal, 'La justice dans I' ancien Annam'" is Raymond
DELOUSTAL, "La justice dans l'ancien Annam," Bulletin de i'Ecole Franr,:aise
11 (1911): 25-66. This is one part of a multi-part translation that
began in volume 8 of the same journal.
In n. 50 on p. 382, "Granet, Lafeodalite chinoise" refers to Marcel GRANET, La
feodalite chinoise (Oslo: Aschehoug / Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1952;
Paris: Editions Imago 1981). .
In n. 8 on p. 384, ''Plopper, Chinese Religion" is Clifford Henry PLOPPER, Chinese
Religion seen through the Proverb (Shanghai: The China Press 1926), with various
reprints.
It would be unfortunate if these remarks were to give the impression that
this is not a good book, for overall the work is excellent. As noted at the
outset, it is filled with materials and insights readily available in few
other places, and it is certainly the type of study that, were it available in
paperback, one would want to recommend to many different types of
readers, or even assign to students in a number of different courses. The
appearance of such a paperback editionowould also present an excellent
opportunity for the correction of some of the problems noted above.
DONALD K. SWEARER
The Bangkok Conference on Buddhist Studies
An international conference on the state of the field of Buddhist studies
during the past twenty-five years was held at Chulalongkorn University,
Bangkok, Thailand, from December 16-18, 1997. The Center was
founded in 1992 with the purpose of stimulating research in various
aspects of Buddhism - textual, doctrinal, and empirical. To promote
these goals both nationally and internationally the Center publishes a
journal, Phutasiisanasu 'ksii (Buddhist Studies), offers lecture series in
both English and Thai, and has been instrumental in founding an M.A.
in Buddhist Studies at Chulalongkorn University open to international
and Thai students.
The conference was organized by Dr. Wit Wisadavet, Director of the
University's Center for Buddhist Studies. Eleven countries were repre-
sented - Canada, England, France, Germany, India, Japan, Korea,
Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and the United States. Conference
papers were presented by Bruce Matthews, Acadia University; Richard
Gombrich, Oxford University; Louis Gabaude, Ecole
Eli Franco, Hamburg University; Sanghasena Singh,
University of Delhi; Kiyotaka Kimura, Tokyo University; Jae-ryong
Shim, Seoul National University; Than Thun, Yangon University;
Asanga Tilakaratne, Post-Graduate Institute of Pali and Buddhist
Studies; Somparn Promta, Chulalongkorn University; and Frank E.
Reynolds, University of Chicago. Yijie Tang, Beijing University, who
prepared a conference paper, was unable to attend. Although the confer-
ence had broad international representation, greater attention was given
to Indic, Theravada, South and Southeast Asian Buddhist traditions with
particular attention to textual studies as stipulated in the conference
guidelines. While scholars from some countries, for example, Belgium,
Switzerland, and Austria, were not represented at the conference,
Buddhist studies in these countries were included in the papers prepared
by Gabaude and Franco. For various circumstantial reasons, several
nations, notably Australia, New Zealand, Italy, and Russia, were absent.
For this reason the forthcoming volume of conference proceedings
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
VOLUME 22 NUMBER 2 1999
JIABS 22.2 398
represents a selective rather than an inclusive review of the state of
Buddhist studies internationally.
Each conference paper included substantial information regarding the
state of Buddhist studies in that country. The Center will publish the
proceedings in Thailand, and plans are underway to establish a web site
where they will also be made available. Collectively the papers consJi-
tute an important body of bibliographic and descriptive information.
They also reveal substantive disagreement regarding the nature and
method of Buddhist studies among different countries. Three different
approaches to the study of Buddhism defmed the conference debates: (1)
the study of Buddhism as .an empirical, objective, critical, scientific field
of inquiry grounded in the texts, languages, and traditions of a particu-
lar, historical field of study, especially the history of ideas; (2) Buddhist
studies as an examination of Buddhist texts and traditions by adherents
of the tradition or scholars who approach the study of Buddhism primar-
ily from the perspective of its normative truth claims; (3) Buddhist
studies as a dynamic, methodologically eclectic, and context-sensitive
field that includes descriptive, analytical, and comparative approaches to
a broad range of subjects including texts and rituals and with increasing
attention being given to the non-elite or popular livedlliving tradition.
The conference presentations and discussions demonstrated that the
differences among these approaches are not absolute and frequently
intersect both within and among particular countries. To the degree that
each of these orientations to the study of Buddhism was represented by
the conference presentations, the first is most closely identified with the
academic traditions of England and Germany, the second with the
Buddhist countries of Asia, and the third with the United States and
Canada. The French speaking world has had a strong tradition of histor-
ical and textual studies and the work of Paul Mus, in particular, has had
a strong influence on the Chicago school of the history of religions. It
should be emphasized that these distinctions are fluid and imprecise, for
example, Japan and Sri Lanka have adopted the European and British
tradition of Buddhist studies, thereby problematizing any facile charac-
terization of the study of Buddhism either in general or within a partic-
ular country. Obviously, like any field of inquiry, Buddhist Studies is
not static. It continues to evolve with new historical data as well as the
development of new methodologies including the important impact of
computer technology. Several of the conferees voiced their deep concern
about the increasing threat to historical evidence including both texts and
SWEARER 399
artifacts; and the negative impact of an increasingly commercialized
global ethos on support for Buddhist studies.
The following papers by Eli Franco and Frank E. Reynolds each offer
a valuable survey of the development of Buddhist studies over the past
twenty-five years in Germany and the United States, respectively.
Omitted from Franco's paper is an appended extensive bibliography that
will be included in the published volume. Among the many excellent
papers that will constitute the conference proceedings, the two included
here offer an insight into differing approaches to the field of Buddhist
studies debated at the conference.
ELI FRANCO
Buddhist Studies in Germany and Austria 1971-1996*
with a contribution on East Asian Buddhism by Michael Friedrich
I. BUDDHIST STUDIES IN GERMANY
O. Preliminary remarks
1. Generalia
a. Bibliographies
b. Dictionaries
c. Organs of publication
d. Periodicals
e. Catalogues
f. The Nepal Research Center and the Nepal-German Manuscript
Preservation Project
2. Pili and canonical Buddhism
3. The Turfan discoveries in Sanskrit and Central Asian languages
4. Abhidharma
5. Narrative and poetic literature
6. Epistolary literature
7. Madhyamaka
8. Yogiiciira
9. Pramiina
10. Tibetan Buddhism
11. East Asian Buddhism, by Michael Friedrich, Hamburg
a. Generalia -
b. History and intellectual history
c. Philosophy and schools of Buddhism
d. Practice
e. Art
f. Literature and theory of translation
g. East Asian Buddhism in modem times
II. BUDDHIST STUDIES IN AUSTRIA
[III. APPENDICES]
* I would like to thank my friends Lore Sander, Burkhard Quessel and Helmut
Tauscher for reading the chapters on the Turfan discoveries, Tibetan Buddhism
and Buddhist studies in Austria respectively, and my wife Karin Preisendanz for
reading the entire manuscript with her usual thoroughness. Their helpful com-
ments have significantly improved this survey in various ways. I would also like
to express my gratitude to Prof. Ronald Emmerick for some references to works
that were not available to me, to Anne MacDonald for additional information on
the NGMPP and for improving my English, to Prof. Donald Swearer for making
valuable suggestions on different aspects of the paper, and to Prof. Michael
Friedrich for taking precious time from his busy schedule to contribute the
section on East Asian Buddhism.
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
Volume 22. Number 2 .1999
JIABS 22.2 402
I. BUDDHIST STUDIES IN GERMANY
o. Preliminary remarks
Before beginning with the actual survey I would like to make three
preliminary remarks. First, in presenting this survey to you I am aware
above all of its shortcomings. Due to the enormous number of publica-
tions, scholarly and popular, that deal with Buddhism in one way or
another, I did not dare even to aspire to completeness, and I had to apply
very rigid criteria as to what to include and what to exclude. The most
problematic and arbitrary limitation that I imposed upon myself wll;s to
confille this survey, by and large, to books and monographs. I would be
the last to dispute that certain scholarly articles are far more important
than some books, or that certain books advance our knowledge of
Buddhism even less than a mediocre article. Nevertheless, I hope that
this necessary limitation will not diminish the general value of this
survey. Furthermore, the Verzeichnis lieferbarer Bucher, the German
equivalent of Books in Print, lists some 600 books under the topic of
Buddhism. Even when one deletes the translations (most of them from
English, almost none from other European languages) from this list and
disregards publications prior to 1971, one is still confronted with
hundreds of books on Buddhism that were published in Germany in the
last 25 years. Obviously, I could not include them all in this survey, and
I had to limit myself to what I consider to be the most important publi-
cations. Consequently, even though I have tried to be impartial in my
evaluations, an element of subjectivity in the choice of books included in
and excluded from this survey could not be entirely avoided. To com-
pensate for this inevitable state of affairs, I include as an appendix a
bibliographical list, imperfect though it is, of current books in print on
Buddhism.
Second, a few words are necessary to define of the scope of this
survey. Because the title of this representation was given as "Buddhist
Studies in Germany" rather than "in the German language" or "by
Germans" the work of German citizens who are working in non-German
countries has been excluded from this survey; on the other hand studies
authored by non-German citizens who conducted their research in
Germany, notably Japanese scholars who completed their Dr. phil. dis-
sertations at German universities, have been included. I must add that it
was not possible to investigate the citizenship of every author mentioned
here, and it is therefore quite possible that some of the authors who are
FRANCO 403
referred to in the bibliographical lists are in fact Swiss or Austrian,
especially in the. case of popular and comparative works that are listed
below in the appendix.
l
Let me assure you that such an erroneous inclu-
sion has no political ideology of Anschluss behind it.
Third, my perspective has been throughout Indo-centric. This is no
doubt partly a reflection of my own interests and of my perception of
the role of Indian Buddhist texts as most central to the history of
Buddhism, but it also reflects the division of labour within German aca-
demic structures. Buddhist studies in Germany are mainly conducted in
institutes for Indology, unlike, for instance, North American universities
where departments of South Asian studies are rare and more oriented
towards contemporary studies, and where most scholars of Buddhism are
employed by departments of religious studies. This Indo-centrism, how-
ever, is balanced by Michael FRIEDRICH's contribution on East Asian
Buddhism.
1. Generalia
a. Bibliographies
It may be useful to begin with general tools of research such as bibli-
ographies, dictionaries and catalogues. To my knowledge there are five
German bibliographies concerned with Buddhist studies. The first one
was published in 1916 by Hans Ludwig HELD. It contains 2544 entries,
and even though it is clearly out of date it is an indispensable source for
the history of Buddhist scholarship.2
Another more recent bibliography by Roland KRETSCHMER dates
from 1988, but unfortunately it has only 400 entries and is of rather
poor quality.3 For instance, prominent scholars like Lambert SCHMIT-
HAUSEN and Heinz BECHERT are not even mentioned in it.
1. [For reasons of space the appendices to this survey are not reprinted below. They
will be published in the proceedings of the conference.]
2. Cf. H. L. HELD: Deutsche Bibliographie des Buddhismus. Eine Ubersicht uber
deutschsprachliche buddhistische und buddhoiogische Buchwerke, Abhand-
lungen, Vortriige, Aujsiitze, Erwiihnungen, Hinweise und Rezensionen mit aus-
schliesslicher Berucksichtigung des Buddhismus als Religionswissenschajt.
Mlinchen/Leipzig 1916.
3. Cf. R. KRETSCHMER: Bibliographischer Fuhrer durch die Buddhismus-Litera-
tur. 1. Lieferung: Buddhismus als Philosophie und Religion. Wolfenblittel1988.
JIABS 22.2 404
More useful is GRONBOLD's bibliography of the Buddhist canon.4
The bibliography is divided into five sections: 1) editions of Buddhist
canons; 2) old catalogues of the canon; 3) modem catalogues of the
canon; 4) catalogues of the Tibetan Bon canon; 5) secondary literature.
The bibliography is especially good for the Tibetan canons, but some-
what limited for the Chinese canon. Peter PFANDT compiled an exten-
sive bibliography of Mahayana texts translated into European languages
which is quite thorough and very usefu1.
5
Of interest is also the bio-
bibliography of German Buddhists compiled by Hellmuth HECKER. It
contains biographical data of prominent Austrian and German Budqrusts
such as Georg GRIMM, NYANATILOKA, Lama GOVINDA, Karl NEU-
MANN, etc., together with lists of their publications and many references
to book-reviews of their works.6
b. Dictionaries
Two dictionaries concerned with Buddhist texts are currently being
compiled in Germany and both are based on the Turfan discoveries (cf.
below); the one deals with the Sanskrit manuscripts, the other with those
in Uigur. The Sanskrit-Worterbuch der buddhistischen Texte aus den
Turfan-Funden was conceived by Ernst WALDSCHMIDT and is being
edited by Heinz BECHERT. The pace of publication of this dictionary has
been considerably accelerated in recent years, and although only nine
fascicles covering lemmata beginning with the vowels and k have been
published, it is planned to be completed by the year 2010.7 The dictio-
nary contains the complete vocabulary and detailed quotations of all the
published Turfan texts with the exception of scientific literature (gram-
4. Cf. ci GRONBOLD: Der buddhistische Kanon. Eine Bibliographie. Wiesbaden
1984.
5. Cf. P. PFANDT: Mahiiyiina Texts translated into Western Languages. K5ln
21986.
6. Cf. H. HECKER: Lebensbilder deutscher Buddhisten. Ein bio-bibliographisches
Handbuch. Band I: Die Griinder. Band II: Die Nachfolger. Konstanz 1990
[21996], 1992. [The second volume could not be consulted.] On Buddhism in
Germany cf. also K.-J. NOTZ: Der Buddhismus in Deutschland in seinen Selbst-
darstellungen: eine religionswissenschaftliche Untersuchung zur religiosen
Akkulturationsproblematik. Frankfurt am Main/New York 1984.
7. Cf. Sanskrit-Worterbuch der buddhistischen Texte aus den Turjan-Funden.
Begonnen von Ernst Waldschmidt. Herausgegeben von der Akademie der
Wissenschaften in Gottingen unter der Leitung von Heinz Bechert. Gottingen
1973-.
FRANCO 405
mar, metrics, astronomy, medicine), Mahiiyiinasutras, kiivya and drama.
It is thus an extremely important tool for the study of the phraseology of
Buddhist Sanskrit as used in the canonical texts of the Sarvastivada
school. 8 Most of the canonical texts found in Turfan belong to that
school. The dictionary is so detailed that, except in the case of extremely
common words like bhagavat and b h i k ~ u or atra and atha, it Can also be
used as a concordance. So far eight fascicles have appeared totaling
more than 500 pages.
Klaus Michael ROHRBORN of the University of G6ttingen is engaged
in compiling an Uigur-German dictionary of which five fascicles have
appeared so far.
9
The dictionary will be a thesaurus of all published
tJigur manuscripts and blockprints. In addition, the fragments of
Xuanzang's (Hsuan-tsang's) biography and of the Maitrisimit are also
being taken into account systematically, as are occasionally fragments of
the SuvanJaprabhiisasutra. The dictionary contains a very exhaustive
bibliography of both primary texts and of secondary literature that deals
with Uigur texts. The bibliography is updated in every new fascicle. The
importance of Old Turkish literature for the study of Buddhism in
Central Asia cannot be overemphasized. Furthermore, the Uigur texts
are often unique, that is, they conserve works, or fragments of works,
that are not available in other languages of Buddhism, either because
they are lost or because Turkish Buddhism went its own way.
In this connection one should also mention the Critical Piili Dictio-
nary. Even though it is published by the Royal Danish Academy of
Sciences and Letters, I feel justified to mention it here because promi-
nent German scholars have worked as editors-in-chief of this invaluable
project, namely, Ludwig ALSDORF and Oskar VON HINOBER, the latter
now serving as co-editor-in-chief together with Ole PIND. One may add
that the second volume comprises materials collected by Wilhelm
GEIGER. The last instalment of this monumental work was published in
1994 and reached compounds starting with kambu-.
8. The texts of the Sarvastivada school were completely ignored by EDGERTON in
his Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit dictionary and grammar because morphologically
their language does not differ from correct classical Sanskrit. Yet in their syntax
and style these texts are very close to and reflect the Middle Indic of the original
canonical texts from which they were translated.
9. Cf. K. ROHRBORN: Uigurisches Worterbuch. Sprachmaterial der vorislam-
ischen turkischen Texte aus Zentralasien. Fasc. 1-5 [a-amgiiklik). Wiesbaden
1977-1994.
JIABS 22.2 406
Of negligible importance is a Sanskrit-German dictionary by Klaus
MYLIUS.lO It is of rather mediocre quality and hardly ever used. No
independent lexicographical work seems to have been done by MYLIUS
who merely compiled and translated into German selective entries and
materials from other Sanskrit dictionaries.
c. Organs of publication
One of the conspicuous characteristics of scholarly German publications
in general and of Buddhological publications in particular is that practi-
cally all books are published in series. In some series like "Indica et
Tibetica" all publications are relevant to Buddhist studies. In the major-
ity of the series, however, this is not the case.
ll
The following are the
most important series in which Buddhist studies form an essential part:
10. Cf. K. MYLIUS: Warterbuch Sanskrit-Deutsch. Leipzig 1975. This dictionary
was reprinted after the Gennan unification and it is now sold, for an exorbitant
price, as a Langenscheidt dictionary.
11. Of varying relevance are the following series:
Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Gattingen, philosophisch-
historische Klasse
Alt- und Neu-Indische Studien
Asiatische Forschungen
Beitriige zur ZentralasienJorschung
Berliner Turjantexte
Frankfurter Chinastudien
Freiburger Beitriige zur Indologie
Gattinger Asiatische Forschungen
Indian Philology and South Asian Studies
Indica et Tibetica
Marburger Studien zur Afrika- undAsienkunde
Mitteilungen der Gesellschaftflir Natur- und Valkerkunde Ostasiens
Monumenta Serica Monograph Series (Steyler Verlag)
Munchner Ostasiatische Studien
Opera Sinologica
Religionswissenschaft (Peter Lang)
Sanskrit- Warterbuch der buddhistischen Texte aus den TurJan-Funden,
Beihefte
Schriften des Instituts flir Asienkunde Hamburg
Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, philosophisch-
historische Klasse, Neue Folge
Studia Tibetica
Studien zur Japanologie
Studies in Oriental Religions
Studia Tibetica, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
FRANCO 407
1) "Alt- und Neu-Indische Studien" (Steiner, 47 volumes): This is
one of the oldest Indological series, published by the Institut fur
Kultur und Geschichte Indiens und Tibets, Universitat Hamburg.
The Buddhist studies published in this series over the last 25 years
are all outstanding dissertations prepared under the guidance of
Lambert SCHMITHAUSEN; they deal with Yogacara, Abhidharma
and pramal}a texts.
2) "Asiatische Forschungen" (Harrassowitz, 130 volumes): This is a
monograph series on the history, culture and languages of the
people of East and Central Asia published by the University of
Bonn. It contains important studies on Mongolian and Turkic
Buddhism and occasionally on Tibetan Buddhism as well.
3) "Indica et Tibetica" (30 volumes): This series is published
privately by Michael HAHN; it contains much of his own work
and that of his students as well as important contributions by
scholars such as Johannes SCHNEIDER, Adelheid METTE, J.W. DE
JONG, etc.
4) "Freiburger Beitrage zur Indologie" (Harrassowitz, 27 volumes):
The Buddhist studies in this series deal with Asoka's rock-edicts,
the Sramal}yaphalasutra, and the so-called
Tibetan book of the dead.
5) "Monographien zur indischen Archaologie, $unst und Philologie"
(published by the Stiftung Ernst Waldschmidt; volumes 1-6 by
Steiner, later volumes by Dietrich REIMER, Berlin): This series
was established in 1979; it contains some reprint volumes of
papers by Heinrich LODERS, Ernst WALDSCHMIDT and Helmut
HOFFMANN as well as the more recent work by Petra KIEFFER-
PULZ on sfma, Leo BOTH's translation and study of the Kapzsa-
vadana, and Ute HUSKEN's study of the monastic rules of the
Theravada nuns.
6) "Mtinchener Ostasiatische Studien" (Steiner, 73 volumes): The
Buddhist studies in this series deal with Chinese and Japanese
Buddhism.
Veroffentlichungen des Seminars fur Indologie und Buddhismuskunde der
Universitiit G6ttingen
Veroffentlichungen der Societas Uralo-Altaica
Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland
Vinaya ForschungenI Vinaya research (hrsg.: Studienstiftung fiir Tibetischen .
Buddhismus)
JIABS 22.2 408
7) "Sanskrittexte aus den Turfanfunden, Abhandlungen der
Akademie der Wissenschaften in Gottingen" (Vandenhoeck &
Ruprecht, 13 volumes): As its name indicates, the series contains
editions, translations and studies of Sanskrit texts discovered at
Turfan.
8) "Schriften zur Geschichte und Kultur des alten Orients, Berliner
Turfantexte" (Akademie-Verlag, Berlin, 19 volumes): This series
contains important results of the Turfan-research conducted in the
D.D.R. ("East Germany"), notably, several monographs by Peter
ZIEME on Uigur Buddhist texts.
9) "Tibetan and Indo-Tibetan Studies" (Steiner, 5 volumes): This is
a relatively new series published by the Institut fiir Kultur und
Geschichte Indiens und Tibets, Universitat Hamburg; it was
established in 1989 by David SEYFORT RUEGG.
10) "VerOffentlichungen der Societas Uralo-Altaica" (Harrassowitz,
45 volumes; edited by Wolfgang VEENKER and Klaus ROHR-
BORN): Some volumes in this series, mostly by ROHRBORN
himself or edited by him, deal with Turkic Buddhism. Of special
interest is a five-volume study of the life and work of Xuanzang
in which the Old Turkic translation of his biography is used.
11) "Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland,
Supplementbande" (Steiner, 35 volumes): This series consists of
supplementary volumes to the Catalogue of Oriental Manuscripts
in Germany. (On the Catalogue itself, cf. below.) Among the
volumes published in this important and prestigious series quite a
few are relevant to Buddhist studies, notably Lore Sander's work
on palreography, Klaus JANERT's study of Asoka's inscriptions,12
and Ronald EMMERICK's edition and translation of the medical
text Siddhasiira by Ravigupta.
13
Klaus WILLE has studied the
manuscript tradition of the Vinayavastu of the Miilasarvastivada
(cf. below).
12. K.L. JANERT: Abstiinde und Schlussvokalverzeichnungen in Asoka-Inschriften.
1972 (= vol. 10 in the series).
13. Ronald E. EMMERlCK: The Siddhastira of Ravigupta. Vol. 1: The Sanskrit text.
Vol. 2: The Tibetan version with facing English translation. 1980-1982 (= vols
23.1-2 in the series).
FRANCO 409
d. Periodicals
There is no scholarly journal in Germany that is devoted exclusively to
Buddhist studies, and there are only two Indological journals in which
articles on Buddhism appear frequently: Studien zur Indologie und
Iranistik, edited by Albrecht WEZLER et al., and Berliner Indologische
Studien, published by the Institute for Indian Philology and Art History
of the Free University, Berlin (both published by the Dr. Inge Wezler
Verlag). To these one should add the Orientalistische Literaturzeitung
that is well-known mainly for its book reviews. Important papers on
Buddhism appear regularly in the Austrian journal Wiener ZeitschriJt flir
die Kunde (formerly Wiener ZeitschriJt fur die Kunde Sud-
und Ostasiens) established by Erich FRAUWALLNER and later on edited
by Gerhard OBERHAMMER.
e. Catalogues
Under the auspices of the German Oriental Society (Deutsche Morgen-
Hindische Gesellschaft) Wolfgang VOIGT established the renowned series
of catalogues under the title Verzeichnis der orientalischen HandschriJten
in Deutschland (Catalogue of the Oriental Manuscripts in Germany).
The current general editor is Hartmut-Ortwin FEISTEL from the State
Library in Berlin; the series is commissioned by the Academy of
Sciences in Gottingen. To date oriental manuscripts in more than 30 lan-
guages have been catalogued or are in the process of being catalogued.
Among the materials that are relevant to Buddhist studies one may men-
tion Indian manuscripts in 12 volumes (though only few Buddhists texts
are catalogued in them) (vol 2.1-12), Thai manuscripts (9.1-2), Sanskrit
texts from the Turfan discoveries (10.1-7), Tibetan manuscripts (vol.
11.1-11), Old Turkic (vol. 13.9-10), Singhalese (vol. 22.1-3), Burmese
(vol. 23.1-3), Laotian (vol. 32), and Nepalese manuscripts (vol. 33.1).
The Sanskrit dictionary of the Sanskrit texts discovered at Turfan also
has supplementary volumes (Beihefte) which contain the series "New
Discoveries and New Editions" with contributions by Jens-Uwe HART-
MANN, Claus VOGEL, Klaus WILLE, Bhikkhu PASADIKA, and others.
Beiheft 5 contains a catalogue of the Gottingen collection of prints of
the Sanskrit manuscripts photographed by Rahula
during his 1934-1938 Tibet expeditions, compiled by Frank BANDUR-
SKJ.14
14. Sanskrit-Worterbuch der buddhistischen Texte aus den Turfan-Funden, Beiheft
5, Untersuchungen zur buddhistischen Literatur. Gottingen 1994.
JIABS 22.2 410
David JACKSON's handlist of the Tibetan texts in the collection of the
Bihar Research Society,Patna, appeared as volume 2 of "Tibetan and
Indo-Tibetan Studies."
Two important catalogues were reprinted as part of the "Nepal
Research Centre Publications":Hari Prasad SastrI's catalogue of the
Durbar Library, supplemented by a concordance to the microfilms of the
NGMPP, and the Bendall catalogue of the Buddhist manuscripts at
Cambridge.
f. The Nepal Research Centre and The Nepal-Gennan Manuscript
Preservation Project
15
The Nepal Research Centre, established in 1959, is the oldest German
cooperative project on Nepalese soil. A large number of projects were
undertaken under the auspices of the NRC in the last 25 years; perhaps
the most important of these is the Nepal-German Manuscript Preser-
vation Project (NGMPP). This is a joint venture of the Nepalese govern-
ment and the German Oriental Society and it is designed to preserve on
microfilm Nepal's extraordinary wealth of manuscripts and historical
documents. To date, about 170,000 manuscripts comprising nearly
5,000,000 folios have been microfilmed throughout Nepal. Of each
original negative film two positive copies are made, the one kept in the
National Archives, Kathmandu, the other in the State Library at Berlin.
Thus, many texts have become available for the first time outside a
rather limited area of dissemination. In the Sanskrit section 113,000
manuscripts were microfilmed and are now in the process of being cata-
logued in Hamburg. Nearly all genres of Hindu and Buddhist literature
are represented in these manuscripts. Among the important Buddhist
Sanskrit manuscripts that have been identified so far one can mention
several manuscripts of the Mahavastu and the Prasannapada of Candra-
kIrti as well as many manuscripts of narrative and poetical works by
Aryasllra, Gopadatta, Haribhatta, Ratnakarasanti and the
latter have been studied and some of them published by Michael HAHN
at the University of Marburg. Christoph COPPERS has prepared an
exemplary edition of the ninth chapter of the Samadhirajasiitra on the
15. The following information is taken, sometimes verbatim, from: K.-D. MATHES,
Nepal Research Centre, An Updated Report on its Activities (1960-1997),
Kathmandu 1997, and A. Wezler, "Geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung in
Nepal," Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenliindischen Gesellschaft 136.1 (1986):
*2*-*14*.
FRANCO 411
basis of twelve Nepalese manuscripts. In the area of Buddhist medical
texts, five of the six manuscripts used by EMMERICK for the edition of
the Siddhasiira by Ravigupta were microfilmed by the NGMPP. A
considerable number of Buddhist tantric texts have also been micro-
filmed, but I am not aware of any publications on them. The manu-
scripts in Tibetan language constitute the second major focus of the
NGMPP. Thousands of manuscripts from all over Nepal, sometimes
from most inaccessible regions, are being microfilmed and are also in
the process of being catalogued.
The NRC is responsible for several series of publications: 1) "Nepal
Research Centre Publications" (NRCP), edited by Albrecht WEZLER. 2)
Journal of the Nepal Research Centre (JNRC), also edited by WEZLER;
various volumes of this journal include the Nepalese National Bibliogra-
phy of 1980-89. 3) "Publications of the Nepal German Manuscript
Preservation Project," in cooperation with the National Archives, Kath-
mandu, edited by WEZLER. 4) "Nepalica," edited by Bernhard KOLVER
and Siegfried LIENHARD.
2. Piili and canonical Buddhism
Pilii language studies in Germany are associated above all with the name
Oskar VON HINUBER of the University of Freiburg. In the last ten years
alone he has published, in addition to a considerable number of scholarly
papers, no less than seven monographs. In his magisterial survey of
older Middle Indic languages (Pilii and PraIqt) he succeeds, on some 200
dense pages, not only to summarize the new results of research in this
area in the 70-80 years since PISCHEL and GEIGER wrote their gram-
mars, but also to provide an introduction to the questions and problems
of the historical grammar of these languages.
16
Next VON HINUBER
published in quick succession five monographs in the transactions of the
Academy of Sciences and Literature [Akademie der Wissenschaften und
Literatur] at Mainz, three of which form the series "Investigations
towards the Linguistic History and Palreography of Pali" [Untersuchun-
gen zur Sprachgeschichte und Handschriftenkunde des Pali]. In the
Linguistic History of Piiii as Mirrored in the Tradition of South-East
Asian Manuscripts, 17 VON HINUBER shows that in some cases the Thai
16. Cf. O. VON HlNOBER: Das altere Mittelindisch im Uberblick. Wien 1986.
17. Cf. O. VON HlNUBER: Die Sprachgeschichte des Ptili im Spiegel der sudostasia-
tischen Handschriftenuberlieferung. Untersuchungen zur Sprachgeschichte und
Handschriftenkunde des Pili I. Mainz/Stuttgart 1988.
JIABS 22.2 412
manuscripts preserve better readings than the Sn Larikan and Burmese
manuscripts. Since Pilii as we know it today is a rather late product of
the 12th century, it is of crucial importance to obtain the earliest possi-
ble manuscripts, especially those that were not "modernized," in order to
grasp the historical development of the language and to gain a better
understanding of the texts. In The Oldest Pali Manuscript
18
VON
HINUBER makes available a facsimile and a transliteration of, accompa-
nied by a long introduction to, four folios of the Vinayapi!aka discov-
ered by Cecil BENDALL which comprise and remain the only Indian PaIi
manuscript. In his investigation into the orality of Middle Indic texts,
VON HINUBER identifies colloquial remnants in the P ~ i l i canon and
draws conclusions from them about the early language of the Buddhists.
Of special interest is his suggestion that maya is not the personal name
of the Buddha's mother, but a colloquial form of "mother" (i.e., maya
derived from mata). Thus, the personal name of the Buddha's mother,
just as that of his stepmother, has not been transmitted to US.
19
In The Beginning of Writing and Early Literacy in India, VON
HINUBER also examines the implications of these two factors for the
transmission of the Buddhist canon. For instance, he affirms that with
the exception of the long forgotten Indus Valley script, writing was un-
known in India prior to Asoka's time and consequently, that those parts
of the canon where writing is mentioned must be of relatively late ori-
gin.
2o
In Development of Language and Cultural History, VON HIN-
UBER investigates two aspects of the material culture of early Buddhist
18. Mainz/Stuttgart 1991 [=Untersuchungen zur Sprachgeschichte und Hand-
scbriftenkunde des Pili II].
19. Cf. O. VON HINOBER: Untersuchungen zur Miindlichkeit friiher mittelindischer
Texti der Buddhisten. (Untersuchungen zur Sprachgeschichte und Hand-
schriftenkunde des PaIi ill). Mainz/Stuttgart 1994. On the Buddha's mother's
name, cf. pp. 13-14.
We are not in a better position in respect to the name of the wife of the
Buddha; in the entire Niktiya/ Agama corpus the name Yasodhara is mentioned
only in a single sutra of unknown sectarian origin, and only in its Chinese trans-
lation; the parallel passage in Pili mentions neither Yasodhara, nor Rahula' s
mother. Cf. A. BAREAU: "Un personnage bien mysterieux: l'epouse du
Bouddha," in Recherche sur la Biographie du Bouddha dans les Sutrapi!aka et
les Vinayapi!aka anciens. ill. Articles complementaires, Paris 1995, pp. 119-147.
20. Cf. O. VON HINUBER: Der Beginn der Schrift und friihe Schriftlichkeit in Indien.
Mainz/Stuttgart 1989. On this topic cf. also the exhaustive survey by H. FALK:
Schrift im alten Indien. Ein Forschungsbericht mit Anmerkungen. Tiibingen
1993.
FRANCO 413
monasteries, the one concerning doors, locks, bolts and keys, the other
begging bowls and staffs.21
While VON HINUBER's object of study is primaJily the P ~ i l i language
and his chief tool of investigation is Middle lndic philology, a different
approach was applied by the analytical philosopher Claus OETKE.
OETKE's "Ich" und das Ich is perhaps the single most important contri-
bution to the interpretation of the Weltanschauung of canonical
Buddhism. DE JONG, who is usually quite reserved in his praise, called
this study the most important book ever published on the controversy
about an atman.
22
OETKE provides a thorough analysis of previous
research which brings to light the enormous diversity of scholarly opin-
ions on the subject. As a result of this analysis, it becomes clear that
most, if not all, scholars who have written on the subject have reached
their respective, sometimes diametrically opposed, theories through
failing to make the most basic of distinctions, such as between the con-
cept of a person (sometimes termed pudgala, but also referred to by the
word atman without metaphysical implications) and a permanent sub-
stantial self or soul (also termed atman, but in relationship to brahmani-
cal or other metaphysical speCUlations). The assumption, advanced again
and again, that the canonical texts betray the radical negation of a sub-
ject of experience, etc., is highly improbable, and as far as the oldest
parts of the canon are concerned, it is without any basis. There is no
evidence against the acceptance of a "common-sense" "psycho-physical"
subject, which can be subsumed under the concepts of man, person,
living being, etc.; in other words, even a complete negation of a meta-
physical atman would not imply the negation of such a subject. There is
no indication that the canonical authors considered everyday statements
involving the personal pronoun "1" to be problematic, let alone false;
such statements do not involve, as was thought by later Buddhists, any
profound error. On the other hand, the assumptions that the Buddha
accepted a "meta-empirical" atman (V. PEREZ-REMON) or an Upani-
~ a d i c atman (K. BHATTACHARYA) are equally unfounded. Although
there are passages where the absolute cessation of the Tathagata, or of a
liberated monk, after death is clearly denied, this too does not imply that
the Buddha accepted the reality of an litman because nowhere are these
21. Cf. O. VON HINOBER: Sprachentwicklung und Kulturgeschichte. Ein Beitrag zur
materiellen Kultur des buddhistischen Klosterlebens. MainzlStuttgart 1992.
22. Cf. Ill, 1991, p. 147.
nABS 22.2 414
statements applied to the iitman; they only refer to a liberated monk or
to the Tathagata. Nor is it said anywhere that the iitman cannot be
grasped, but only that the Tathagata, etc., cannot be grasped.
23
The most prominent historian of early Buddhism is undoubtedly Heinz
BECHERT, perhaps the most prolific writer among German Buddhist
scholars. Many of his articles, however, have appeared in little-known
journals and other organs of publication, and it is extremely difficult to
keep track of his entire work. Fortunately, a complete bibliography of
his writings has been published recently.2
4
Therefore, I mention here
only his monumental study on Buddhism, state and society in the Thera-
vada countries.
25
In addition to his numerous publications, BECHERT has organized four
conferences that have become milestones in the historical research on
early Buddhism. The topics of these conferences were: Buddhism in
Ceylon and studies on religious syncretism in Buddhist countries,26 the
language of the earliest Buddhist tradition,27 the school affiliation of
works belonging to Hlnayana literature,28 and the dating of the historical
Buddha.
29
The publications of the proceedings of these conferences
23. Cf. C. OETKE: "Ich" und das Ich: Analytische Untersuchungen zur buddhis-
tisch-brahmanischen Atmankontroverse. Stuttgart 1988.
24. For a bibliography up to 1992 (containing 305 items and 108 book reviews) cf.
B. GRUNENDAHL, I.-U. HARTMANN and P. KIEFFER-PDLz (eds): Studien zur
Indologie und Buddhismuskunde. Festgabe des Seminars fiir Indologie und
Buddhismuskunde fiir Professor Dr. Heinz Bechert zum 60. Geburtstag am 26.
Iuni 1992. Bonn 1993, pp. 3-51. For a continuation of this bibliography up to
1997 cf. P. KIEFFER-PDLz and J.-U. HARTMANN (eds): Bauddhavidyasudha-
karaJ:!. Studies in Honour of Heinz Bechert on the Occasion of his 65th Birthday.
S w ~ s t t a 1 - Odendorf 1997, pp.17-24.
25. Cf. H. BECHERT: Buddhismus, Staat und Gesellschaft in den Liindern des
Theravada-Buddhismus. 3 vols. Frankfurt a. M.lBerlin 1966-1973.
26. Cf. H. BECHERT (ed.): Buddhism in Ceylon and Studies on Religious Syncretism
in Buddhist Countries. Symposien zur Buddhismusforschung 1. Gottingen 1978.
27. Cf. H. BECHERT (ed): Die Sprache der iiltesten buddhistischen Uberlieferung I
The Language of the Earliest Buddhist Tradition. Symposien zur Buddhismus-
forschung II. Gottingen 1980.
28. Cf. H. BECHERT (ed.): Zur SchulzugehOrigkeit von Werken der Hfnayana-
Literatur. Symposien zur Buddhismusforschung III. 2 vols. Gottingen 1985-
1987.
29. Cf. H. BECHERT (ed.): The Dating of the Historical Buddha / Die Datierung des
historischen Buddha. Symposien zur Buddhismusforschung IV. Vol. 1 and 2,
Gottingen 1991-1992, vol. 3 in preparation. For an Indian reprint of some of the
FRANCO 415
contain iinportant contributions by leading scholars from all over the
world. (For BECHERT's work cf. also the section on the Turfan discov-
eries.)
BECHERT's former student Petra KIEFFER-PULZ studied the vinaya
rules that deal with the boundaries of the community of monks (sfmii).
These rules are particularly important for the ordination of monks be-
cause unless ten monks can be found in the area of a community (or five
in the neighbouring community) new monks cannot be ordained.
KIEFFER-PULZ's study contains three parts; the one deals with the
Vinaya, the other with the later Pali commentatorial tradition (Vinaya-
1fkiis), the third with the of the Malasarviistiviidavinaya.
30
BECHERT's assistent, Ute HUSKEN, published her dissertation on the
monastic rules of Theravada nuns, which unfortunately was not available
to me.
31
From 1972-1974 the German Research Council (DFG) funded a pro-
ject to set up a microfilm collection of manuscripts representing the
Northern Thai indigenous tradition. Some 1000 manuscripts from 95
monastic, as well as private, libraries were microfilmed. A preliminary
handlist of the texts contained in the microfilm collection was prepared
by Harald HUNDIUS, Passau, and is available upon request from the
author. The microfilms are available in the National Library, Bangkok,
Chulalongkorn University (Department of History), Chiang Mai Univer-
sity (Department of Thai), and in Germany at the Universities of Kiel
and of G6ttingen. As indicated by its title, the project focuses on indige-
nous Northern Thai literature; p.evertheless forty-eight Pali texts have
been included in the collection because of their exceptional value. Some
of these manuscripts represent the oldest manuscripts of Thailand and
Southeast Asia, others represent Pali works of Southeast Asian origin
including works that have been composed by scholars of Lan Na. A
number of manuscripts were microfilmed because of their rarity or be-
cause they contain previously unknown texts. Out of the forty-eight,
eighteen short texts were identified as belonging to the category of texts
papers cf. H. BECHERT (ed.): When Did the Buddha Live? The Controversy on
the Dating of the Historical Buddha. Delhi 1995.
30. Cf. P. KIEFFER-PULZ: Die Sfma. Vorschriften zur Regelung der buddhistischen
Gemeindegrenze in iilteren buddhistischen Texten. Berlin 1992. For the
cf. also the study by HU-VON HlNOBER mentioned below.
31. Cf. U. HUSKEN: Die Vorschriften jar die buddhistische Nonnengemeinde im
Vinaya-Pitaka der Theraviidin. Reimer 1977.
JIABS 22.2 416
used in Buddhist ritual and ceremonies (SUU! mon), and can be found
virtually in each and every monastery in the North. The colophons of
the other thirty texts have been translated and studied by Harald
HUNDIUS.32 '
3. The Turfan discoveries in Sanskrit and Central Asian languages
Between 1902-1914 four German (or more precisely, Prussian) expedi-
tions, under the directorship of Albert GRUNWEDEL and Albert VON LE
COQ, were sent to the Central Asian Silk Road in the area called Eastern
Turkestan and Chinese Turkestan. A fifth expedition was already in the
planning stages when World War I broke out and brought with it the
termination of German activities in that part of the world.
33
As is well
known, the expeditions were extremely successful and returned with rich
booty, including most beautiful murals removed from cave walls in their
entirety; many of them, however, were destroyed by Allied bombing
during World War II. Some of the surviving works were removed from
the German collection and transported mainly to the U.S.S.R., but also
to the U.S.A., as Beutekunst. The German expeditions were also success-
ful in recovering large quantities of manuscripts and block-prints, usu-
ally fragmentary or incomplete, in various Central Asian languages such
as Uigur (Old Turkic) and Tocharian, as well as in Sanskrit.
The first study based on the "Turfan discoveries"34 was published al-
ready in 1904 by Richard PISCHEL, who is remembered today above all
through his grammar of the PraJqt languages, which although somewhat
outdated, has not been superseded. This first publication was entitled
"Fragments of the Sanskrit Canon of the Buddhists from Idykutsari"
("Bruch stucke des Sanslaitkanons der Buddhisten aus Idykutsari").
Later it was established that the Sanskrit canon referred to in this title is
that of the Sarvastivada, and indeed almost all the "Turfan canonical
32. Cf. H. HUNDIUS: "The Colophons of 30 PilIi manuscripts from Northern
Thailand." Journal of the Pilli Text Society XIV, 1990: 1-174. The information
above is taken, partly verbatim, from pp. 15, 20 of this paper.
33. The best popular introduction to the Indo-British, Russian, Japanese, German,
Swedish and American expeditions to the Silk Road can be found in P.
HOPKIRK: ForetgnDevils on the Silk Road. London 1980.
34. This is a common but not entirely accurate designation, for none of the discover-
ies was actually made in Turfan itself; it would be more accurate speak of the
these discoveries as mainly made on the Northern Silk Road not too far from
Turfan.
FRANCO 417
texts" identified so far belong to the Sarvastivada school. A few frag-
ments from the Dharmaguptaka canon were identified by Ernst W ALD-
SCHMIDT.35 It is now generally assumed that there were three successive
phases of Buddhist missionary activity in Central Asia: The oldest one
carried out by Dharmaguptaka monks, who were followed by Sarvasti-
vadins, who were, in their tum, succeeded by Miilasarvastivadins.
36
Since then a considerable number of excellent scholars have worked
with the Turfan materials e.g., Dieter SCHLINGLOFF, outside Germany
better known by his monumental study of the Ajanta paintings, Herbert
HARTEL, primarily known as an archreologist and art historian, Heinz
BECHERT, who also manages the project of cataloguing the manuscripts,
and Lore SANDER, whose palreographical study forms the standard work
in this field;3? one should also not forget the important contributions of
non-German scholars such as Junkichi IMANISHI and Fumio ENOMOTO.
Since PISCHEL published his above-mentioned paper the number of
publications dealing directly with the Turfan Sanskrit manuscripts has
grown to well over a hundred. A list of these publications up to 1991
was compiled by different scholars who contributed to various volumes
of the catalogue of the Sanskrit manuscripts from the Turfan
discoveries. As is well known, the two most important scholars who
dominated this field for the better part of this century are Heinrich
LODERS and Ernst WALDSCHMIDT. An excellent general survey of this
vast and fascinating field of studies was prepared by Lore SANDER for
the Encyclopedia of Buddhism;38 unfortunately, however, this survey
ends practically where ours begins.
More than a thousand Sanskrit texts, or fragments of texts, have been
identified so far. It is impossible to mention them all by name here)9
35. Cf. E. WALDSCHMIDT: Sanskrithandschriften aus den Turfanfunden. Vol. 1,
Wiesbaden 1965, catalogue no. 656; cf. also E. W ALDSCHIvlIDT: Drei Fragmente
buddhistischer Sutras aus den Turfanhandschriften, Gottingen 1968, pp. 3-16.
36. Cf. Ch. WILLEMEN, D. DESSEIN & c. Cox: Sarvtistivada Buddhist Scholasti-
cism. Leiden/New York/K61n 1998, p. 126. The above statement, however, is
perhaps too sweeping, and one also has to differentiate between the Buddhist
missionary activity on the Northern and on the Southern Silk Roads.
37. Cf. L. SANDER: Paliiographisches zu den Sanskrithandschriften der Berliner
Turfansammlung. Wiesbaden 1968.
38. Cf. Encyclopedia of Buddhism, ed. by J. DHIRASEKERA, vol. VI, [Colombo]
1979, pp. 52-75, ~ . v . "Buddhist Literature in Central Asia."
39. Complete lists of the identified texts can be found in the respective volumes of the
Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland. Vols 10.1-7.
nABS 22.2 418
All I can note here is that a large portion of manuscripts belongs to the
Vinaya of the Saivastivada, but that there are also sCitras, narrative texts
(avadiinas), Abhidharma and philosophical texts, ritual texts
dhiirm;.fs, mantras), Mahayanasutras, poetic texts, plays, and grammati-
cal and medical texts. A number of manuscripts belong to the
period (1st-3rd century), i.e., these fragmentary manuscripts are consid-
erably older than Indian manuscripts.
Although numerous papers dealing with the Turfan texts have been
published over the last 25 years, I know of only three monographs that
belong to this period, excepting, of course, the seven volumes of the
catalogue and the fascicles of the dictionary. BECHERT studied the. so-
called Marburg fragments of the SaddharmapulJrj.arfkasutra. He re-
establishes that the Sdhp. has only two, not three, recensions (Nepalese-
Kashmirian and Central Asian) by showing that the Gilgit manuscripts
represent an earlier stage of the Nepalese recension. He also discovered
that five incomplete Central Asian manuscripts belonged to a single
manuscript, different portions of which were sold by the locals to the
Russian, English, German and Japanese expeditions.
4o
Another impor-
tant conclusion of this study is that the SaddharmapulJrj.arfka was origi-
nally a Middle Indic text, but that the original was transmitted orally and
a process of Sanskritisation had started already with the first redaction.
The study also contains strong criticism of Franklin EDGERTON's con-
ception of so-called Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit as forming a dialectal
unity; furthermore, BECHERT points out that EDGERTON's grammar and
dictionary do not account for the special language and history of the
Sdhp.41
Jens-Uwe HARTMANN prepared an excellent edition of the Sanskrit
fragments ,of the VarlJiirhavarlJastotra of the popular poet Maq-ce!a,
accompanied by an edition of the Tibetan translation and a careful and
reliable translation. HARTMANN was able to use 73 new fragments and
thus improve significantly upon previous work by Sh. BAILEY, PAULY,
COUVREUR, etc.
42
Klaus SCHMIDT reconstructed the badly corrupt final
40. 1) The Kashgar manuscript in the collection of Petrovsky; 2) four leaves edited
by Liiders; 3) The Marburg fragments; 4) a manuscript in the British Museum; 5)
six leaves in the Otani collection.
41. Cf. H. BECHERT: Uber die 'Marburger Fragmente' des SaddharmapUly;iarfka,
mit einem Beitrag von Jongchay Rinpoche. Ernst Waldschmidt zum 75.
Geburtstag am 15.7.1972. GOttingen 1972.
42. Cf. J.-U. HARTMANN: Das Van:zarhavan:tastotra des Matrce!a. Gottingen 1987.
FRANCO 419
portion (15 verses) of the PriitimokoJasiitra of the Sarvastivadins on the
basis of Sanskrit and Tokharian manuscripts.
43
Although it is outside the scope ofthis survey, I would also like to
point out the work of Georg VON SIMSON (Oslo) who edited the frag-
ments of the PriitimokoJasiitra of the Sarvastivadins on the basis of tran-
scriptions prepared by Else LODERS and Herbert HARTEL.44
Further, one has to mention here the outstanding contributions of
Klaus WILLE and Haiyan HU-VON HINUBER, even though they are
based on the Gilgit manuscripts (in contradistinction to the Turfan
manuscripts). WILLE's study of the manuscripts of the Vinayavastu of
the Miilasarviistiviidavinaya
45
contains a very useful detailed description
of the Gilgit manuscripts of the Vinayavastu that are dispersed all over
the world. Wille also discovered and edited new fragments and prepared
a survey of the MiHasarvastivada fragments discovered at Turfan. Hu-
VON HINUBER provides us with a reliable critical edition and careful
translation of the Sanskrit text (and of the Tibetan translation for the
missing portions) of the POoJadhavastu of the Vinaya of the MiHa-
sarvastivada school. The edition and translation are preceded by a very
learned investigation into the special characteristics of the language and
terminology of the POoJadhavastu.
46
A note on Buddhist texts in Central Asian langua.ges
Of course the Turfan discoveries include manuscripts not only in San-
skrit but also in Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian and various Central Asian
languages such as Uigur. Most of the Buddhist Uigur texts were discov-
ered by the Turfan expeditions. Among studies in this field one should
note, in addition to the Uigur-German dictionary mentioned above, sev-
eral works on the famous Maitreya text Maitrisimit that was translated
into Uigur from Tocharian. Annemarie VON GABAIN, the 'mother-
43. Cf. K.T. SCHMIDT: Der Schlussteil des der Sarvastivadins:
Text in Sanskrit und Tocharisch A verglichen mit den Parallelversionen anderer
Schulen. Gottingen 1989.
44. Cf. der Sarvastivadins. Nach Vorarbeiten von Else Luders und
Herbert Hiirtel herausgegeben von Georg von Simson. Teil I. Gottingen 1986.
45. Cf. K. WILLE: Die handschriftliche Uberliejerung des Vinayavastu der Mala-
sarvastivadins. Stuttgart 1990.
46. Cf. H. HU-VON HINUBER: Das Vorschriften jur die buddhis-
tische Beichtfeier im Vinaya der Malasarvastivlidins. Reinbeck 1994.
nABs 22.2 420
figure' of Old Turkic studies in Germany,47 has published a facsimile
edition of this text, which is, surprisingly enough, attributed to the Vai-
school in the colophon.48 TEKIN transliterated and trans-
lated the text.
49
Jens Peter LAUT's study of early Turkic Buddhism and
its literary monuments also centers on it.5
0
Finally, the first five chapters
of the Hami version (found not in Turfan, but in Sangirn and Murtuq)
of the Maitrisimit were edited and translated by GENG Shimin and
Hans-Joachim KLIMKEIT.51
Over the last decade the German Research Council has financed a
major project on the life and work of Xuanzang (600-664) on the basis
of his most important Chinese biography Cien zhuan as well as itsOld
Turkic translation. So far five volumes have appeared as the outcome of
this project.
52
The biography was translated into Old Turkic approxi-
mately in the 10th century, and the Turkic text is used for clarification
of problematic passages in the Chinese original.
An important centre for Vigur studies has been the Central Institute
for Ancient History and Arch::eology of the (East) German Academy of
Sciences (Zentralinstitut fur alte Geschichte und Archaologie, Deutsche
Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin). After World War II most of
the ca. 8,000 Turkic fragments of the Turfan collection came to be held
47. Cf. P. ZIEME: "Annemarie v. Gabain und die Turfanforschung," in Turfan,
Khotan und Dunhuan. Vortrage der Tagung 'Annemarie v. Gabain und die
Turfanforschung,' veranstaltet von der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der
Wissenschaften in Berlin (9.-12.12.1994), ed. R.E. Emmerick, W. Sunderrnann,
I. Warnke and P. Zieme, Berlin 1996.
48. Cf. A.v. GABA1N: Maitrisimit. Faksimile der aZtturkischen Version eines Werkes
der buddhistischen Wiesbaden 1957.
49. TEKIN: Maitrisimit nom bitig. Die uigurische Ubersetzung eines Werkes
der buddhistischen SchuZe. Teil 1: Transliteration, Ubersetzung,
Anmerkungen; Teil2: Analytischer und rticklaufiger Index. Berlin 1980.
50. Cf. J.P. LAUT: Der fruhe tUrkische Buddhismus und seine literarischen Denk-
miiZer. Wiesbaden 1986.
51. Cf. G. SHIMIN and H.-I. KLlMKEIT: Das Zusammenttreffen mit Maitreya. Die
ersten funf Kapitel der Hami- Version der Maitrisimit. Teil I: Text, Dbersetzung
und Kommentar. Teil II: Faksimiles und Indices. Wiesbaden 1988.
52. Cf. A. L. MAYER and K. ROHRBORN: Xuanzangs Leben und Werk. 5 vols.
Wiesbaden 1991-1996. [I could consult only three of these volumes.]
For a further "by-product" of this project cf. FRANKENHAUSER's study of the
introduction of Buddhist logic to China.
FRANCO 421
in East Berlin,53 and the series published by the above mentioned
Institute (Schriften zur Geschichte und Kultur des alten Orients, Berliner
Turfantexte) contains some important studies of Turkic Buddhism that
are based on materials from the Turfan collection. The central figure in
these studies is Peter ZIEME, who in addition to his own independent
publications,54 also collaborated with Georg HAZAI on the edition and
the translation of "Jin' gangjing and the Gathas of Master FU"55 and with
Gyorgy KARA (from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences) on Uigur
translations of the "Deep Way" by Sa skya paJ).<;lita and the Mafijusrf-
namasaf!1gfti.56 The collaboration between the East German and the
Hungarian Academies of Sciences made possible another joint publi-
cation by ZIEME and KARA concerned with Naropa's teachings in Uigur
translations from the Tibetan.
57
Dieter MAUE has recently edited and
transliterated Old Turkic documents in Brahmi and Tibetan script.
58
Among collective works one should note the lectures presented at the
Hamburg Symposium on the languages of Buddhism in Central Asia,59
and the volume edited by LAUT and ROHRBORN on narrative literature
53. Cf. P. ZIEME: "Die Turfan-Sammlung der Deutschen Akademie der Wissen-
schaften zu Berlin. Die tiirkischen Texte," in Orientalistische Bibliotheken und
Sammlungen, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin 1970, pp. 39-53.
54. Cf. P. ZIEME: Zur buddhistischen Stabreimdichtung der Uiguren. Berlin 1985
(Habilitationsschrift). Cf. also his Altun Yaruq Sudur. Vorworte und das erste
Buch. Edition und Ubersetzung der altturkischen Version des Goldglanzsatra.
Turnhout (Belgium) 1996. ZIEME's work is not limited to Buddhist studies alone;
cf. his Manichiiisch-turkische Texte. Berlin 1975.
55. Cf. G. HAZAI and P. ZIEME: Fragmente der uigurischen Version des "lin' gang-
jing mit den Giithiis des Meister Fu," nebst einem Anhang von T. lnokuchi.
Berlin 1971.
56. Cf. G. KARA and P. ZIEME: Die uigur:ischen Ubersetzungen des Guruyogas
'Tiefer Weg' von Sa-skya PaflrJita und der MaiijusrfniimasaT[lgfti. Berlin 1977.
57. Cf. P. ZIEME und G. KARA: Ein uigurisches Totenbuch: Naropas Lehre in
uigurischer Ubersetzung von vier tibetischen Traktaten nach der Sammelhand-
schrift aus Dunhuang, British Museum Or. 8212 (l09). Bibliotheca Orientalis
Hungarica 22. Budapest 1978. Cf. also G. KARA: Fragmente tantrischer Werke
in uigurischer Ubersetzung, mit 82 Faksimiles auf 49 Tafeln. Berlin 1976.
58. Cf. D. MAUE: Altturkische Handschriften Teil I. Dokumente in briihmf und
tibetscher Schrift. Stutgart 1996.
59. Cf. K. ROHRBORN and W. VEENKER (eds.): Sprachen des Buddhismus in
Zentralasien: Vortriige des Hamburger Symposions vom 2. luli bis 5. luli 1981.
Wiesbaden 1983.
JIABS 22.2 422
and hagiography in the Turkic tradition.
6o
Japanese studies 011 Turkic .
Buddhism have gained in importance since World War II; a useful guide
to this literature has been provided by LAUT and ROHRBORN.61,
As for the Iranian Central Asian languages, the authority in this area is
Ronald EMMERICK at the University of Hamburg. A complete bibli-
ography of his pUblications up to 1993 can be found in the appendix to
his own A Guide to the Literature of Khotan.
62
In the course of his
research on the Khotanese fragments of the Suvan;aprabhiisottamasutra
he also prepared a translation of the Sanskrit text.
63
For Iranian studies
one should further mention the work of David Neil MACKENZIE. A
complete bibliography of his publications up to 1991 has been compiled
in his felicitation volume. 64
David UTZ has published a very useful survey of Buddhist Sogdian
studies.
65
He points out that between 1942 and 1974 no work was done
in Sogdian studies and that most of the material in the Turfan collection
remains unpublished.
66
Most of the Sogdian texts were translated from
the Chinese, probably in the 7th and 8th centuries during the T' ang
domination of Central Asia, and they reflect the unsettled condition of
the Chinese canon in this period.
A survey of Tocharian studies has been provided by Werner
THOMAS.67
4. Abhidharma
Vasubandhu's naturally occupies a very
central position in Abhidharma studies. Bhikkhu PASADIKA studied
60. Cf. J.P. LAUT, and K. ROHRBORN (eds.): Buddhistische Erziihlliteratur und
Hagiographie in tUrkischer Uberlieferung. Wiesbaden 1990.
61. Cf. J.P. LAUT and K. ROHRBORN: Der tUrkische Buddhismus in der japanischen
Forschung. Wiesbaden 1988.
62. R. EMMERICK: A Guide to the Literature of Khotan, 2nd revised and enlarged
edition. Tokyo 1992, pp. 53-6l.
63. Cf. R.E. EMIVIERICK: The Satra of Golden Light, 3rd revised ed., Oxford 1996.
64. Cf. Corolla lranica. Papers in honour of Prof Dr. David Neil MacKenzie on the
occasion of his 65th birthday on April 8th, 1991, ed. R.E. EMMERICK and D.
WEBER. Frankfurt, Bern, New York, Paris 1991, pp. vii-xviii.
65. Cf. D.A. UTZ: A Survey of Buddhist Sogdian Studies. Tokyo 1980.
66. Cf. op. cit., p. 6.
67. Cf. W. THOMAS: Die Erforschung des Tocharischen (1960-1984). Wiesbaden
1984. Unfortunately, this work is not available to me.
FRANCO 423
some 536 canonical quotations in the and
demonstrated with a high degree of probability that the texts quoted by
Vasubandhu belong to the Sarvastivada and MiHasarvastivada tradi-
tions.
68
Yoshihito MUROJI prepared a precise edition and translation of two
chapters, the Sa1JtskaravibhaJiga and the Vijfianavibhaliga, of the Pratf-
tyasamutpadavyakhya of Vasubandhu. In his book he also inyestigates
the introduction of the concept of alayavijfiana into Vasubandhu's
"system" and appends parallel passages from one Tibetan and two Chi-
nese translations of the Karmasiddhi dealing with the nature of the body
and karman as well as with the meaning of the words designating
them.
69
In this connection I would also like to draw attention to the useful
work by Marek MEJOR on the commentaries of the Abhidharmakosa
preserved in the Tanjur; MEJOR conducted his research partly in Bonn
and Hamburg, in part also in Budapest, Oxford, Cambridge and
London.
7o
For the earlier period, prior to Vasubandhu, mention must be made of
the recent valuable study of momentariness by Alexander VON ROS-
PATT.7
1
Although this doctrine has often been the object of study in its
forms posterior to Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosa, especially as it is
presented in the late prama1}a texts dating from the 7th to the 11 th cen-
turies, its form and development before Vasubandhu have not been the
focus of significant work since de LA V ALLEE POUSSIN collected the
relevant materials in 1937.72 VON ROSPATT enlarged the scope of the
enquiry, notably, by a thorough investigation of early Yogacara sources.
He also translated two long sections on anityata and the proof of
momentariness from the fourth chapter of the Hsien-yang sheng-chiao
68. Cf. Bhikkhu PAsADlKA: Kanonische Zitate im des
Vasubandhu. Gottingen 1989.
69. Cf. Y.G. MUROn: Vasubandhus Interpretation des PratItyasamutpada. Stuttgart
1993.
70. Cf. M. MEJOR: Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakosa and the Commentaries Pre-
served in the Tanjur. Stuttgart 1991.
71. Cf. A. VON ROSPATI: The Buddhist Doctrine of Momentariness. A Survey of the
Origins and Early Phase of this Doctrine up to Vasubandhu. Stuttgart 1995.
72. Cf. L. DE LA V ALLEE POUSSIN: "Document de l' Abhidharma: La Controverse
du Temps. III: Notes sur Ie moment des et des
Sautrantikas." Melanges Chino is et Bouddhiques V, 1937, pp. 134-158.
nABS 22.2 424
lun attributed to Asailga. After examining several hypotheses for the
origin of the doctrine of momentariness, VON ROSPATT rejects the sup-
positions that the concept of the momentariness of matter derived
from that of the momentariness of mind and that the driving force be-
hind this doctrine was a spiritual practice such as smrtyupasthiina. The
most likely hypothesis, according to VON ROSPATT, is that the doctrine
of the momentariness of matter follows from the denial of substance. '
Siglinde DIETZ edited the fragments of the Gilgit manuscript of the
Dharmaskandha, one of the seven early Abhidharma works that formed
the Abhidharmapitaka of the Sarvastivada. Most of the fragments deal
with the twelve members of pratltyasamutpiida. DIETZ describes the
manuscript from a palreographical point of view, points out the gram-
matical peculiarities of the text in declension, conjugation, compounds
and syntax, analyses the structure of the work and identifies quotations
of the text in later Abhidharma works.7
3
5. Narrative and poetic literature
Research in narrative literature is conducted primarily by Michael
HAHN.74 Among his numerous studies in this area, one may mention his
edition, in collaboration with Gudrun BUHNEMANN, of the Mahaj-
jiitakamiilii.7
5
The MJM is one of the longest texts in the corpus of
Buddhist literature; it consists of 9277 stanzas in 50 chapters. Unfortu-
nately, some parts of the text are missing. Had the manuscripts been
complete, the text would have contained 11,000 stanzas. The main
sources of this compilation are the KarufliipU/:ujarlka, the Jiitakamiiliis of
Aryasura, Haribhana and Gopadatta, and the
73. Cf. S. DIE1Z: Fragmente des Dharmaskandha. EinAbhidharma-Text in Sanskrit
aus Gilgit. G6ttingen 1984.
74. Beside being the foremost authority on Buddhist narrative and gnomic literature
in Germany, HAHN is also the author of the most successful textbook for the
study of classical Tibetan. Cf. M. HAHN: Lehrbuch der klassischen tibetischen
Schrijtsprache. 5. verbesserte Auflage. Bonn 1985. First published in 1971. The
revision of this popular primer is unfortunately not as thorough as it should have
been, and important problems raised in discussions of the book were not taken
into account. In the preface, HAHN announces his intention to address these
problems in a forthcoming English translation.
75. Cf. M. HAHN: Der grosse Legendenkranz (Mahajjiitakamiilii). Eine mittelalter-
liche buddhistische Legendensammlung aus Nepal. Nach Vorarbeiten von
Gudrun Blihnemann und Michael Hahn herausgegeben und eingeleitet von
Michael Hahn. Wiebaden 1985.
FRANCO 425
kathti. In his learned introduction, HAHN places the MJM in the context
of Buddhist narrative literature, summarizes the contents of the text, and
describes the development of Buddhist literature from the 1st to the 11th
centuries. Of particular importance are his notes on Haribhaga and
Gopadatta which Were the object of-a separate earlier study.7
6
HAHN also edited and translated the Lokananda of Candragomin.17
The Lokananda is a stage adaptation of the popular legend of Prince
Mal).icuqa; with the notable exception of Nagananda it is
the only complete, Le., not fragmentary, Indian Buddhist drama to have
survived, albeit only in Tibetan (and Mongolian) translation. HAHN
argues for the identity of Candragomin the dramatist with the author of
CandravyakaralJa and This supposition has recently been
criticized by Thomas OBERLIES in his study of the CandravyakaralJa.
78
HAHN also edited the Tibetan text and translated the Prajfiasataka
attributed to Nagarjuna.19 In an earlier study, Hahn demonstrated that
this text had exercised a strong influence on Sa skya pal).qita when he
composed the In the introduction HAHN argues in
detail, against LINDTNER's view, that the author of the PrajfiiiSataka is
identical with Nagarjuna the Madhyamika, on the basis of certain simi-
larities of the text with the Suhrllekha and the Ratnavall. However, be-
cause the attribution of these two works to Nagarjuna is also doubtful a
definitive conclusion regarding this issue is not possible (cf. also the
Madhyamaka section below).
6. Epistolary literature
Epistolary literature is a relatively minor genre of Buddhist literature,
and it is not surprising that only one important work can be pointed out
76. Cf. M. HAHN: Haribha!!a and Gopadatta: Two Authors in the Succession of
Aryasura. On the Rediscovery of their liitakamiiliis. Tokyo 1977.
77. Cf. M. HAHN: Candragomins Lokiinandaniitaka. Nach dem tibetischen Tanjur
herausgegeben und ubersetzt. Ein Beitrag zur klassischen indischen Schauspie/-
dichtung. Wiesbaden 1974.
78. Cf. T. OBERLIES: Studie zum Ciindravyiikaral}a. Eine kritische Bearbeitung von
Candra IVA.5-148 und V.2. Stuttgart 1989. Cf. also HAHN's thoughtful reply,
which raises important methodological issues, in "Uber den indirekten Beweis
bei literaturhistorischen Fragestellungen." Wiener ZeitschriJt fur die Kunde
Sudasiens 36 (1992): 91-103.
79. Cf. M. HAHN: Hundert Strophen von der Lebensklugheit. Niigiirjunas Prajiiii-
sataka. Bonn 1990.
JIABS 222 426
in this area, namely, DIETZ's Die buddhistische Briefliteratur Indiens.
8o
This is an important contribution to the genre of Indian literature known
as lekha. Of the twelve surviving letters, only one lekha is preserved in
the original Sanskrit, namely, Candragomin's and remains
unedited; the others are all available in Tibetan translations, and one also
exists in Chinese, namely, Nagarjuna's Suhrllekha. DIETZ edited and
translated nine letters in this book. Editions and translations of the re-
maining three are currently under preparation either by DIETZ herself or
by Michael HAHN, her doctoral supervise!. In her introduction DIETZ
discusses the development of the lekha genre in India and Tibet Without
the original Sanskrit being available, the vocabulary of the Tibetan
translations is sometimes very difficult to grasp, and in some cases Dietz
uses the Mongolian translation of the Tanjur to elucidate the meaning of
Tibetan words.
7. Madhyamaka
Madhyamaka studies are relatively neglected in Germany. If we disre-
gard the few years that David SEYFORT RUEGG spent in Hamburg, Max
W ALLESER seems to have been the last Madhyamaka specialist in
Germany before Felix ERB. Nevertheless, some important work has
been accomplished in this area as well, notably, HAHN's edition of the
Ratniivalf.81 Out of some 500 verses almost 300 (exactly 298 %) are
extant in the original Sanskrit The question of the authorship of this
text is not yet settled. In spite of LINDTNER's view to the contrary,82
there is no compelling reason to accept the attribution of this work to
Nagarjuna; many scholars have voiced serious doubts as to whether this
work could have been written by the author of the Mulamadhyamaka-
kiirikiL HAHN's student Yokihiro OKADA edited the Tibetan translation
of the commentary Ratniivalrtfkii by Ajitamitra.
83
Bhikkhu PASADIKA
prepared a critical edition of the Tibetan translation of the Sutrasamuc-
caya
84
which he claims to be an authentic work by the author of the
80. S. DIETZ: Die buddhistische Briefliteratur Indiens. Nach dem tibetischen Tanjur
herausgegeben, iibersetzt und erliiutert. Wiesbaden 1984.
81. Cf. M. HAHN: Niigiirjuna's Ratniivalf. Vol. I: The basic texts (Sanskrit, Tibetan,
Chinese). Bonn 1982.
82. Cf. Ch. LINDTNER: Niigiirjuniana, repro Delhi 1987, pp. 163-169.
83. Cf. Y.OKADA: Die Ratniivalf!fkii des Ajitamitra. Bonn 1990.
84. Cf. Bhikkhu PAsA.DIKA: Niigiirjuna's Satrasamuccaya: A Critical Edition olthe
Mdo Kun Las Btus Pa. Kiilbenhavn 1989.
FRANCO 427
Malamadhyamakakarika; he promises to discuss this and other topics in
a forthcoming study.
The only Madhyamaka philologist who is currently active in Germany
is Felix ERB who specializes in the works of Candrakilti. Even though
he has been working in this field for many years his first publication
appeared only this year (1997). It consists of an edition and translation
of Candraklrti's extremely difficult commentary on the first 14 verses of
Nagarjuna's Sanyatasaptati.
85
However, the most important contribution to the interpretation of
Nagarjuna's thought is a series of articles by Claus GETKE in which he
proposes a new interpretation of Nagarjuna's philosophy. For lack of a
better term one may call it a nihilist interpretation. However, this inter-
pretation is not a revival of older nihilist interpretations like the one
proposed by de LA V ALLEE POUSSIN. Rather, GETKE's new interpreta-
tion of Nagarjuna's philosophy rests above all on a rigorous new analy-
sis of the "mechanism" of Nagarjuna's proofs of non-existence. 86
85. Cf. F. ERB: Sunyatiisaptativrtti. Candrakfrtis Kommentar zu den "Siebzig
Versen uberdie Leerheit" des Niigiirjuna [Kiiriktis 1-14]. Stuttgart 1997. In this
connection I also want to point out ERE's Dr. phil. thesis: Die Sunyatiisaptati des
Niiga.rjuna und die Sunyata.saptativrtti [Verse 1-32}. Hamburg 1990. This
dissertation has not been commercially published and thus cannot be purchased,
but according to the academic regulations for unpublished dissertations 175
copies were delivered to the Faculty of Oriental Studies for the purpose of distri-
bution.
86. So far the following articles have been published: .
1) "Die metaphysische Lehre Nagarjunas," Conceptus, Jahrgang XXII, Nr. 56
(1988): 47-64.
2) "Rationalismus und Mystik in der Philosophie Nagarjunas," Studien zur
Indologie und Iranistik 15 (1989): 1-39.
3) "On some non-formal aspects of the proofs of the Madhyamakakarikas," in
Earliest Buddhism and Madhyamaka, ed. D. SEYFORT RUEGG and L. SCHMIT-
HAUSEN, Leiden 1990, pp. 91-109.
4) "Remarks on the interpretation of Nagarjuna's philosophy," Journal of Indian
Philosophy 19 (1991): 315-323.
5) "Pragmatic Implicatures and Text-Interpretation. (The Alleged Logical Error of
the Negation of the Antecedent in Miilamadhyamakakarika)," Studien zur
Indologie und1ranistik 16 (1992): 185-233.
6) '''Nihilist' and 'non-nihilist' interpretations of Madhyamaka" (Review article
of T.E. WOOD, Na.ga.rjunian Disputations. A Philosophical Journey through an
Indian Looking-Glass. Honolulu 1994), Acta Orientalia 57 (1996): 57-104.
Strictly speaking, only the first two or three papers should count as part of
German Buddhist studies; the rest shouldbe considered as Swedish studies since
OETKE's appointment to the Chair of Indology at the University of Stockholm.
JIABS 22.2 428
In this connection one may also m\!ntion that a large number of addi-
tional manuscripts of CandrakIrti's Prasannapadii was found recently in
Nepal; these manuscripts have been microfilmed and are available
through the Nepal German Manuscript Preservation Project. Aflne MAC-
DONALD at the University of Hamburg is currently preparing an new
edition and translation of the crucial first chapter of the Prasannapadii
on the basis of these and further manuscripts. .
8. Yogiiciira
The absolute authority on Yogacara texts is Lambert SCHMITHAUSEN,
who is undoubtedly one of the greatest Buddhist scholars of this centliry.
He has a vast and detailed knowledge of Buddhist texts in all the major
Buddhist languages (Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Mongolian, Chinese and
Japanese), as well as of modem Buddhist scholarship. SCHMITHAUSEN
has written important studies - his papers often constituting small mono-
graphs - on canonical Buddhism, Asokan inscriptions, Abhidharma,
Mahayanasutras and pramii(1a-literature. His specialty, however, is the
Yogacara school. Soon after completing his Dr. phil. thesis on the
theory of error in Indian philosophy, which centers on MaI).qanamisra's
Vibhramaviveka,87 SCHMITHAUSEN shifted his focus of interest to early
Yogacara. His first major publication in this field was an edition and
thoroughly annotated translation of the so-called NirvaI).a-section of the
Viniscayasaf!tgraha(1! of the Yogiiciirabhumi with extracts from Tao
Lan's commentary Yil-ch'ieh-shih-ti-Zun-chi. In his major work, AZaya-
vijfiiina,88 SCHMITHAUSEN attempted to determine the reasons for the
assumption of the existence of an iiZayavijfiiina by Yogacara authors. He
advances the hypothesis that the iiZayavijfiiina was postulated in order to
account for the re-emergence of consciousness after states such as
nirodha-samiipatti in which consciousness seems to be interrupted.
AZayavijfiiina in the "Initial Passage" (SCHMITHAUSEN's term for the
passage in the Yogiiciirabhumi which he takes to represent the literary
and conceptual starting point of the iiZayavijfiiina theory) would thus
mean "the mind [that is characterized by] sticking [in the material sense
87. Cf. L. SCHMITHAUSEN: Mmxlanamisra's Wien 1965. Apart
from an edition and translation of this difficult and partly corrupt text, the book
contains a superb study of the theory of error in Indian philosophy from its very
beginning in the philosophical siitras until the post-MaJ.lQana period.
88. Cf. L. SCHMITHAUSEN: Alayavijfiana. On the Origin and Early Development of
a Central Concept of Yoga car a Philosophy. 2 vols. Tokyo 1987.
FRANCO 429
faculties]."" SCHMITHAUSEN also discerned a strong SatJkhya influence
in the choice of the tenn iilaya for this fonn of the unconscious mind:
iilaya and pravrtti are analogous to praZaya and vrtti. The iiZayavijfiiina
was then used to solve further problems. It was identified with vijfiiina,
the third member of pratrtyasamutpiida, and connected to the theory of
karman; thus it became "the mind to which [all (polluted) dhannas]
stick [as its effects]" or "the mind which sticks [to all (polluted) dharmas
as their cause]."89 Consequently, the iiZayavijfiiina was devalued and
associated with notions such as "badness" (daU4!huZya).
After the completion of AZayavijfiiina, SCHMITHAUSEN merged his
scholarship with his increasing concern about the large-scale and system-
atic destruction of the environment. He published two monographs and a
large number of papers on Buddhism and nature,' in the hope that
Buddhist ethics and Weltanschauung might provide an alternative to the
ruthless exploitation of plants, living beings and the environment in
general by the human species.
90
SCHMITHAUSEN's investigations into early Yogacara were continued
by his student Hidenori SAKUMA who wrote his dissertation on the con-
cept of iisrayaparivrtti in the Yogiiciirabhilmi.
91
SAKUMA showed that
the "transfonnation of the base" is interpreted in certain sections as a
psychological transfonnation due to which the ''base'' becomes free from
"badness" and filled with "ease" (prasrabdhi); in other sections "bad-
ness" stands in opposition to power or control (vasitii), and in still others
"badness" is opposed to wisdom (vidyiidhiitu).
The latest important contribution to Yogacara studies is by Klaus-
Dieter MATHES with his study of the Dharmadharmatiivibhiiga.
92
MATHES edited and translated this important text together with Vasu-
bandhu's Dharmadharmatiivibhiigavrtti and the modem Tibetan com-
mentary by Mi pham 'jam dbyans rnam rgyal rgya mtsho (1846-1912).
89. Cf. L. SCHMTIHAUSEN: Alayavjifiiina, 3.13.8.
90. Cf. L. SCHMITHAUSEN: Buddhism and Nature. Tokyo 1991. - The Problem of
the Sentience of Plants in Earliest Buddhism. Tokyo 1991. Cf. also Buddhism
and Nature. Proceedings of an International Symposium on the Occasion of
EXPO 1990. Tokyo 1991.
91. Cf. H.S. SAKUMA: Die Asrayaparivrtti-Theorie in der Yogiiciirabhiimi. Stuttg!ll1
1990.
92. Cf. K.-D. MATHES: Unterscheidung der Gegebenheiten von ihrem wahrem
Wesen (Dharmadharmatiivibhiiga). Swisttal-Odendorf 1996.
JIABS 22.2 430
9. Pramii1}a
Immodest as this may sound, I believe that I am currently the only
"German scholar" who specializes in Buddhist philosophy.93 Although
Lambert SCHMITHAUSEN is one of the foremost specialists also in this
field, he has not been actively engaged in pramii1}a studies for many
years now. SCHMITHAUSEN's vast knowledge, philosophical acumen
and scrupulousness are reflected in one of the fIrst dissertations he super-
vised, that of Takashi Iw ATA.94 In this thesis IWATA studied the well-
known argument for idealism: Because an object, such as a blue color,
and its cognition are always perceived together, the object and its cogqi-
tion are not different from each other. IWATA presented with great care
and precision the different interpretations of this argument by all the
important logicians from DharmakIrti onwards (Devendrabuddhi,
Sakyabuddhi, Dharmottara, Kamalaslla, Prajfiakaragupta, Ratnakara-
santi, Jitari, etc.) as well as the ramifications this argument has for
crucial issues such as the distinction between a means of knowledge and
its result (pramii1}a and pramii1}aphala), and the controversy whether a
cognition has a form of its own or not (siikiira- vs. niriikiiravijiiiina-
viida). Iw A T A's superb study has been hitherto almost completely
ignored, and I am glad to have this opportunity to draw attention to it.
More recently, Iwata published a monograph on the technical terms
prasanga and prasangaviparyaya which reflect different employments of
reductio ad absurdum.
95
IWATA is also engaged in a translation of the
third chapter of Dharmaklrti's Pramii1}aviniscaya; he has already
published two instalments in the Wiener ZeitschriJt flir die Kunde Siid-
asiens. One hopes, however, that the pace of publication of this impor-
tant work will be accelerated in the future.
93. I use "philosophy" here in the technical sense as equivalent to pramiil}asiistra.
Some scholars may wish to consider Abhidharma or Yogaciira texts as philo-
sophical texts. I cannot enter into this topic here; I merely want to make clear how
I use the word "philosophy" in the present context.
94. Although IWATA's dissertation was submitted in 1979, it was published only in
1991; cf. T. IWATA: Sahopalambhaniyama: Struktur und Entwicklung des
Schlusses von der Tatsache, dass Erkenntnis und Gegenstand ausschliesslich
zusammen wahrgenommen werden, auf deren Nichtverschiedenheit. 2 Vols.
Stuttgart 1991.
95. Cf. T. IWATA: Prasanga und Prasangaviparyaya bei Dharmakfrti und seinen
Kommentatoren. Wien 1993.
FRANCO 431
In this connection mention must be made of two studies by Claus
OETKE of the theory of inference, one concerning the doctrine of trai-
riipya, the other - which is quite unreadable - the sattviinumiina.
96
How-
ever, according to the criteria adopted here, these should count as
Swedish publications.
Finally, my own research on Buddhist philosophy is mainly contained
in two books. The first is a study of the sceptical Carvaka philosopher
Jayarasi, and about half of it is devoted to his devastating criticism of
Dignaga and DharmakIrti; the second is concerned primarily with the
proofs of rebirth adduced by DharmakIrti and Prajfiakaragupta.
97
In the
post-DharmakIrti period there were two towering figures in Buddhist
philosophy: Dharmottara and Prajfiakaragupta. While Dharmottara's
work has received much attention in Western scholarship from early on
and several of his works have been translated into various European lan-
guages, namely, Apohaprakaral}a, Nyiiyabindu!,fkii,
Paralokasiddhi and Prajfiakaragupta's work has
been hitherto almost completely ignored. In fact, my above-mentioned
book contains the first attempt to translate and study in detail a part of
his writings. Motoi ONO, who studied in Vienna, translated Prajfiakara-
gupta's comments on Pramii1}aviirttika 2.1-6. His dissertation is due to
appear soon in the "Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismus-
kunde."
10. Tibetan Buddhism
98
Tibetan studies throughout the world have undergone great changes
during the last 25 years.
99
Tibetan Buddhism is no longer studied as a
mere tool for a better understanding of Indian Buddhism, but in its own
96. Cf. C. OETKE: Bemerkungen zur buddhistischen Doktrin der Momentanheit des
Seienden. Dharmakfrtis sattvanumanam. Wien 1993. - Studies on the Doctrine of
trairiipya. Wien 1994.
97. Cf. E. FRANCO: Perception, Knowledge and Disbelief. A Study of Jayariisi's
Scepticism. Stuttgart 1987, Delhi 21994. - Dharmakfrti on Compassion and
Rebirth. Wien 1997.
98. No attempt has been made here to impose consistency in the transliteration of
Tibetan names and terms; the transliterations below follows the usage of the
respective authors.
99. One may obtain a reliable notion of current trends in Tibetan studies from the
Proceedings of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan
Studies, Graz 1995, eds. H. Krasser, T. Much, E. Steinkellner and H. Tauscher,
Wien 1997.
JIABS 22.2 432
right and as part of Tibetan civilisation. The changing perception of
Tibetan Buddhism is also reflected in the choice of texts studied. Less
attention is paid to canonical Tibetan texts while indigenous Tibetan
writers increasingly occupy the center of the stage. One also notices an
increase in historical studies at the expense of philosophical and religious
studies. This shift of perspective is clearly reflected in the work of
Dieter SCHUH who for many years has been the most prominent
Tibetologist in Germany. Among his many accomplishments, one may
first note his ground-breaking volume on the different systems of the
Tibetan calender,Ioo which remains the standard work on this technical
subject. He also continued the work begun by Manfred TAUBE of cata-
loguing Tibetan manuscripts in German libraries.
IOI
Furthermore,
SCHUH has accomplished the formidable task of publishing historical
and diplomatic documents (Urkunden) that are crucial for our under-
standing of Tibetan history.lo2 SCHUH also edits a series on oral
100. Cf. D. SCHUH: Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der tibetischen Kalender-
rechnung. Wiesbaden 1973.
101. Cf. D. SCHUH: Tibetische Handschriften und Blockdrucke sowie Tonbandauf-
nahmen tibetischer Erzahlungen. Teil 5 (= Verzeichnis der orientalischen
Handschriften in Deutschland, Band XJ.5). Wiesbaden, 1973. - Tibetische
Handschriften und Blockdrucke. Teil 6. Gesammelte Werke des KOIi-sprul Blo-
gros mtha' -yas. (= Verzeichnis der orientalischen Handschriften in Deutschland,
Band Xl. 6). Wiesbaden 1976.
The fIrst four volumes by M. TAUBE deal with Tibetan manuscripts in what
used to be the German Democratic Republic (DDR), i.e., in Altenburg, Dresden,
Berlin, Halle and Herrnhut. Cf. also vol. 7 by F. Wilhelm and Jampa LOSANG
PANGLUNG (1979); vol. 8 and 9 by D. SCHUH (1981,1985); vol. 10 and 11 by
P. SCHWIEGER (1990,1995). For SCHWIEGER's work ct. also P. SCHWIEGER:
Ein tibetisches Wunschgebet um Wiedergeburt in der Sukhiivatf. St. Augustin
1978.
102. Cf. D. SCHUH: Erlasse und Sendschreiben mongolischer Herrscher fur tibet-
ische Geistliche. Ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Urkunden des tibetischen Mittel-
alters und ihrer Diplomatik. St. Augustin 1977. - Urkunden und Sendschreiben
aus Zentraltibet, Ladakh und Zanskar. Teil I: Faksimiles. St. Augustin 1976. -
and L.S. DAGYAB: Urkunden, Erlasse und Sendschreiben aus dem Besitz
sikkimesischer Adelshiiuser und des Klosters Phodang. St. Augustin 1978. -
and J.K. PHUKHANG: Urkunden und Sendschreiben aus Zentraltibet, Ladakh
und Zanskar. Teil II: Edition der Texte. St. Augustin 1979. - Grundlagen
tibetischer Siegelkunde. Eine Untersuchung uber tibetische Siegelaufschriften in
'Phags-pa-Schrift. St. Augustin 1981. - Das Archiv des Klosters bKra-sis-
bsam- gtan-glin von sKyid-gron. Teil I: Urkunden zur Klosterordnung, grund-
legende Rechtsdokumente und demographisch bedeutsame Dokumente,
FRANCO 433
narrative literature in various Tibetan dialects to which he contributed
the first volume.
103
Each volume is dedicated to a different dialect and
contains also a sketch of the particular features of the dialect.
SCHUH's work may be contrasted with that of Helmut EIMER which is
exemplary for the way philologists with a Sanskrit background approach
Tibetan studies. EIMER began to study the history of the transmission of
the Kanjur at a time when "Kanjurology" as an area of study did not yet
exist. However, with the continuing discovery of old Kanjurs, such as
most recently the one in Tabo (cf. the survey on Austrian Buddhism
below), Kanjur studies have become one of the most pressing tasks for
"emancipated"104 Tibetan philology, and EIMER's numerous meticulous
studies make him an authority in this area.
10j
Before he made Kanjur
studies his area of specialisation, EIMER contributed several volumes on
the life of Atisa (982-1054), who played a key role in the revival of
Buddhism in Tibet in the 11th century. His disciple 'Brom-ston rGyal-
ba'i byun-gnas (1005-1064) was the founder of the bKa'-gdams-pa
school; this school was perceived by Tson-kha-pa to have been renewed
by himself as the new bKa' -gdams-pa school, later called Ge-lugs-pa
school, that by the 17th century, under the leadership of the Dalai lamas,
became the dominant spiritual and political factor of Lamaist
Buddhism.106 Incidentally, EIMER has argued that the correct spelling is
Findbticher. St. Augustin 1988. The above volumes were published in the series
Monumenta Tibetica Historica. Abteilung III: Diplomata et Epistolae. Vols. 1-6.
103. Cf. D. SCHUH: Marchen, Sagen und Schwanke vom Dach der Welt. St.
Augustin 1982. To date 12 volumes appeared in the series "Beitrage zur tibet-
ischen Erzahlforschung" authored by M. KRETSCHMAR, S. HERMANN, P.
SCHWIEGER, M. CAUSEMANN and others.
104. This adjective is used by STEINKELLNER in his preface to the collection of
EIMER's papers. [I am not quite sure what it means.] Cf. H. EIMER: Ein
lahrzehnt Studien zur Uberliejerung des tibetischen Kanjur. Wien 1992.
105. For a complete list of EIMER's publications cf. M. HAHN et al. (eds.): Suhrl-
lekhiiJ:!. Festgabe fur Helmut Eimer. Swisttal-Odendorf 1996, pp. XIII-XXIII.
106. Cf. H. EIMER: Berichte uber das Leben des Atisa (Dfpa7[!karasrfjiiiina). Eine
Untersuchung der Quellen. Wiesbaden 1977. - Bodhipathapradfpa: Ein Lehr-
gedicht des Atisa (Dfpa7[!karasrfjiiiina) in der tibetischen Uberliejerung.
Wiesbaden 1978 This is a companion volume to the earlier Berichte; it contains a
critical edition and translation of the Bpp.; cf. also H. EIMER: rNam thar rgyas
pa, Materialien zu einer Biographie des Atisa (Dfpa7[!karasrfjiiiina). 2 vols.
Wiesbaden 1979.
JIABS 22.2 434
Atisa, and not AtIsa, because the name must be derived from Sanskrit
atisaya.
The University of Bonn, to which SCHUH and EIMER are affiliated, is
the largest center for Tibetan studies in Germany and also responsible
for the particular German scholarship which combines Tibetology with
Mongolian and Central Asian studies. Even though the towering
achievements of Annemarie VON GABAIN and Walther REISSIG are not
recent enough to be included in this survey, their influence and the
direction they gave to scholarship of this type are still very powerful and
noticeable. Rudolf KASCHEWSKY wrote his dissertation on the life of
Tson-kha-pa under HEISSIG's supervision.
I07
KASCHEWSKY also 'co-
authored with Perna TSERING a translation and study of a Buddhist play
from north-eastern Nepal, and an episode from the Gesar Epic.
108
Other
outstanding dissertations from the Bonn school include that of Karl-
Heinz EVERDING on the "existence-line" of the Mongolian Tulkus
called ICail skya Qutuqtus,109 and that of Karenina KOLLMAR PAULENZ
on the relatively small and little-known gCod-school of Tibetan
Buddhism, both supervised by Klaus SAGASTER. SAGASTER is also the
editor of a monumental series on iconography and symbolism of Tibetan
Buddhism.
llo
Five volumes have appeared so far in this series. The
iconographical descriptions use a scheme of 23 (in vol. 5 only 19) cate-
107. Cf. R. KASCHEWSKY: Das Leben des lamaistischen Heiligen Tshongkhapa Blo-
bzan-grags-pa (1357-1419), dargestellt und erHiutert anhand seiner Vita "Quell-
ort allen Gliickes". 2 Vols. Wiesbaden 1971.
108. Cf. R. KASCHEWSKY and P. TSERING: Das Leben der Himmelsfee 'Gro-ba
bZQ/i-mo. Ein buddhistisches Theaterstiick. Wien 1975. - Die Eroberung der
Burg vqn Sum-pa. 2 vols. Wiesbaden 1987.
109. Cf. K-H. EVERDING: Die Praexistenzen der lCali skya Qutuqtus. Unter-
suchungen zur Konstruktion und historischen Entwicklung einer lamaistischen
Existenzlinie. Wiesbaden 1988.
110. Cf. /konographie und Symbolik des tibetischen Buddhismus. Ed. K SAGASTER.
Asiatische Forschungen 77a 77b [1983],78 [1983],96 [1987], 99 [1986], 114
[1991]. Wiesbaden. Vol. 1a-b by Loden Sherap DAGYAB and and Narngyal
Gonpo RONGE describes the siidhanas from the collection of Ba-ri Brgya-rtsa.
Vol. 2 by Ursula TOYKA-FuONG provides a detailed description and photo-
graphs (in black and white) of the sculptures of the important collection of
Werner Schulemann in the Museum of East Asian Art in K6ln (63 items). Vol.
3, also by TOKYA-FUONG, describes the sculptures of the collection of Ernst
Senner (105 sculptures). Vol. 4 by DAGYAB deals with the siidhanas of the
collection of Snar-thaiJ. Brgya-rtsa and vol. 5, also by DAGYAB, presents the
siidhanas of the collection of Sgrubs-thabs 'Dod-jo.
FRANCO 435
gories, such as gender, appearance, head, face, hair, eyes, mouth, arms,
gesture, attributes, legs, position, jewellery, costume, basis and com-
pany. This series constitutes an courageous attempt to find a path
through the jungle of Tibetan iconography.111
Next to Bonn; a few professorships for Tibetan studies have recently
been established in Hamburg, Leipzig and Berlin. The first appointee at
. Hamburg was Gediin LODRO who unfortunately died just a few weeks
after the beginning of the appointment. David SEYFORT RUEGG became
his successor in this position. RUEGG remained in Hamburg only for a
short period between 1984-1990. During this time he delivered and
published his brilliant Jordan lectures.
1l2
In this set of five lectures,
RUEGG undertook a "topological" study of a pair of opposing and com-
plementary themes for which he uses the etic terms "nature" and
"nurture:' These etic terms are specified and illuminated by a rich
variety of emic terms such as tathagatagarbha, sunyatii, and above all,
krama and yaugapadya, with special reference to the Great Debate at
bSam yas.
RUEGG's successor, David JACKSON, is one of the most prolific and
versatile writers in Tibetan scholarship. In the last twenty years he has
published more than thirty scholarly papers and no less than ten
books.l
13
His most recent bookis a major study of the history of Tibetan
111. For the overall plan for this project cf. K. SAGASTER and L.S. DAGYAB, "Zum
Plan einer Sammlung von Materialien zur tibetischen Ikonographie. Zentral-
asiatische Studien 12 (1978): 359-411.
112. Cf. D. SEYFORT RUEGG, Buddha-nature, Mind and the Problem of Gradualism
in a Comparative Perspective. On the Transmission and Reception of Buddhism
in India and Tibet. [Reprint] Delhi 1992.
113. Cf. D.P. JACKSON, Gateway to the Temple. Manual of Tibetan Monastic
Customs, Art, Building and Celel:Jrations. Text and translation of bsTan 'dzin
mkho deb of Chogay Trichen Rinpoche. Kathmandu 1979.
- The Mollas of Mustang. Historical, Religious and Oratorical Traditions of the
Nepalese-Tibetan Borderland. Dharmasala 1984.
- Tibetan Thangka Painting Methods and Materials. London 1985. Rev. Ausg.
1988. [with J. A. Jackson]
- The Entrance Gate for the Wise (Section III). Sa-skya Pa!lljita on Indian and
Tibetan Traditions of Pramli!IQ and Philosophical Debate. 2 parts. Wien 1987.
- Rong-ston on the Prajfiiipiiramitii Philosophy of AbhisamayiilaTflkiira. His
Subcommentary on Haribhadra's 'Sphu!iirthii'. A Facsimile Reproduction of
the Earliest Known Blockprint Editionfrom an Exemplar Preserved in the Tibet
House Library, New Delhi. Kyoto 1988 [together with S. ONODAl
- The "Miscellaneous Series" of Tibetan Texts in the Bihar Research Society,
nABs 22.2 436
painting. In this pioneering work, JACKSON presented for the first time
many historical documents that provide invaluable information on indi-
vidual Tibetan painters from the 12th to the 20th century as well as on
different styles of painting. JACKSON naturally focuses on central (and
Central) Tibet, but also adds informative notes on regional styles such as
those of Amdo, Khams, Bhutan, Ladakh, etc. JACKSON is a phenome- .
nally broad reader and has an exquisite control over a wide variety of
sources. Although he is primarily an historian, he also accomplished
important work in the field of prarntil}a in which he continued and
partly superseded earlier pioneering studies by Leonard VAN DER KUIJP.
V AN DER KUIJP, now a professor at Harvard, was the first scholar to
devote a book-length study to the so-called New Epistemology of Tibet
(tshad rna gsar rna as opposed to tshad rna rnying rna of the 10th and
11th century).1l4 It consists of four extremely informative essays on the
leading figures of the period between the 11th and the l3th century,
namely, Rngog 10 tsa ba blo Idan ses rab, Phya pa Chos kyi seng ge, Sa
skya paI).<;lita and Go ram pa. In presenting the life and work of these
seminal figures, VAN DER KUIJP relates the story of how the old episte-
mology based on PrarntilJaviniscaya commentaries was swept aside by
Sa skya paI).<;lita's shift of attention to the PrarntilJavtirttika. Further
salient work in Hamburg was accomplished by Franz-Karl EHRHARD,
whose study of a rDzogs-chen collection of poems is of special interest
also for its methodological reflections on the way of approaching and
interpreting such texts. In his notes EHRHARD attempts to combine
philological and hermeneutical approaches with literary criticism.
ll5
Patna. AHandlist. Stuttgart 1989.
- The Early Abbots of' Phan-po Na-Iendra. The Vicissitudes of a Great Tibetan
Monastery in the 15th Century. Wien 1989.
- Two Biographies of Stikyasrfbhadra. The Eulogy by Khro-phu lo-tsti-ba and
its Commentary by bSod-nams-dpal-bzang-po. Text and Variants from Two
Rare Exemplars in the Bihar Research Society, Patna. Stuttgart 1990.
- Enlightenment by a Single Means. Tibetan Controversies on the "Self-
Sufficient White Remedy" (dkar po chig thub). Wien 1994.
-A History of Tibetan Painting. The Great Painters and their Traditions. Wien
1996.
114. L.W.J. VAN DER Kuup: Contributions to the Development of Tibetan Buddhist
Epistemology. From the eleventh to the thirteenth century. Wiesbaden 1983.
115. Cf. F.-K. EHRHARD: "FlUgelschliige des Garua." Literar- und ideen-
geschichtliche Bemerkungen zu einer Liedersammlung des rDzog-chen.
Stuttgart 1990.
FRANCO 437
Jens-Uwe HARTMANN and Per SORENSEN were appointed professors
of Tibetology in 1995 at the Universities of Leipzig and Berlin
(Humboldt-UniversiUit) respectively. HARTMANN is a specialist in the
Turfan manuscripts and has written an important monograph on Maq--
ceta (cf. the section on the Turfan dIscoveries above). Among SOREN-
SEN's publications in the period for which he would count as a German
Tibetologist, one should mention his translation of the important popular
chronicle rGyal-rab gsal-ba'i me-long compiled by Bla-ma dam-pa
bSod-nams rgyal-mtshan, which begins with the genesis of the universe
and ends at the time of Atisa.l
16
Another important and rare chronicle,
the Me-tog Phren-ba by Nel-pa PaI).<;fita, which quotes long passages
from older, otherwise unknown texts, and which is particularly informa-
tive for the early period of the spread of Buddhism in Tibet, was edited
with facsimiles of the manuscript and translated by Helga UEBACH.ll7
As is clear from the above, the emphasis in Tibetan studies during the
last 25 years has not been on canonical Tibetan sources. However, to
conclude I may mention two important studies of the language of canon-
ical translations into Tibetan, both of which supplement the earlier
achievement of the Norwegian scholar Nils SIMONSSON.118 Heinz
ZIMMERMANN investigated the factors that are responsible for "mis-
taken" translations from Sanskrit to Tibetan.l
19
He also analyses the
structure of the Tibetan sentence and thus deals with a relatively neglect-
ed aspect of Tibetan grammar. He distinguishes between two fundamen-
tal structures: fan structure (Facherstruktur) and circular structure (Ring-
struktur), and shows how complicated sentences can be constructed by
116. Cf. P.K. S0RENSEN: Tibetan Buddhist Historiography. The Mirror Illuminating
the Royal Genealogies. An Annotated Translation of the XIVth Century Tibetan
Chronicle: rGyal-rabs gsal-ba'i me-long. Wiesbaden 1994.
117. Cf. H. UEBACH: Nel-pa PaJ:ufitas Chronik Me-tog phren-ba: Handschrift der
Library of Tibetan Works and Archives. Tibetischer Text in Faksimile, Ti"ans-
kription und Ubersetzung. Miinchen 1987.
118. Cf. N. SIMONSSON: Indo-tibetische Studien. Die Methoden der tibetischen
Ubersetzer, untersucht im Hinblick aUf die Bedeutung ihrer Ubersetzungenjiir
die Sanskritphilologie. Upsala 1957.
119. Cf. H. ZIMMERMANN: Die (dem Aryasura
zugeschrieben) und ihre tibetische Ubersetzung. Ein Vergleich zur Darlegung
der Irrtumsrisiken bei der Auswertung tibetischer Ubersetzungen. Wiesbaden
1975.
JIABS 22.2 438
means of these minimal elements.
l2O
OETKE, on the other hand, studied
translations of the Suvarf}aprabhiisasutra from Chinese to Tibetan and in
this connection made essential observations on the use of auxiliarY verbs
in classical Tibetan.
12l
11. East Asian Buddhism (contributed by Michael FRIEDRICH122)
Because there is not a single permanent position designated for the study
of East Asian Buddhism at academic institutions in the German-speaking
world, research in this area is not conducted in a systematic manner.
123
The bulk of the contributions is constituted by Dr. phil. dissertations in
Sinology, Japanology or religious studies motivated by individual inter-
ests, and by-products of the research project on the life and work of
Xuanzang directed by Klaus ROHRBORN at the University of G6ttingen.
Furthermore, exhibitions of East Asian Buddhist art regularly result in
major catalogues. Occasionally, one finds important articles in the main
scholarly journals concerned with Asian studies, but their number still
reflects the wide-spread lack of interest in Buddhism in East Asian
studies. In view of the contemporary relevance of Buddhism in the area
this situation is untenable. It is to be hoped that recent innovations such
as an interdisciplinary M.A. course in Buddhist studies (including East
and Southeast Asian studies) at the University of Hamburg will establish
a foundation to be built upon in the future.
Even if one disregards popular works and translations from other
European languages as well as contributions to the "Christian-Buddhist
dialogue" and publications by East Asian Buddhist communities or net-
works in the West, the following account is still far from complete and,
due to unsatisfactory research tools, to some extent incidental. In those
cases where I have not been able to consult a work I just provide the
bibliographical information.
120. Cf. H. ZIMrvIERMANN: Wortlaut und Sprachstruktur im Tibetischen. Wiesbaden
1979.
121. Cf. C. OETKE: Die aus dem Chinesischen iibersetzten tibetischen Versionen des
Suvan:taprabhtisasutra. Philologische und linguistische Beitriige zur klassi-
fizierenden Charakterisierung iibersetzter Texte. Wiesbaden 1977.
122. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Herbert Worm and J6rg Plassen,
M.A., both Hamburg, for providing some helpful information.
123. For earlier achievements of German-language research on East Asian Buddhism
one may consult the bibliographies cited in section 11.a. of this survey.
FRANCO 439
a. Generaiia
The majority of studies concerns China and Japan; Korea is - as always
- under-represented although her importance in linking these two cul-
tures andin the innovation of Buddhism is commonly acknowledged.
124
There are no bibliographies specialized in German-language studies on
East Asian Buddhism. Students have to rely on the bibliographical tools
generally in use in East Asian studies.1
25
After HACKMANN's manu-
script of a Chinese-Sanskrit-German Dictionary (certainly superior to
that by SOOTHll..L and HODOUS) was published by Johannes NOBEL126
no further lexicographical projects were undertaken, but some of the
monographs on texts translated from Indian languages into Chinese
contain useful glossaries.1
27
There is no academic German-language
journal devoted solely to East Asian Buddhism, though occasionally
124. The best introduction to Korean Buddhism is still to be found in Fr. YOs: Die
Religionen Koreas. Stuttgart 1977. Furtbermore, two dissertations are helpful:
U. WISSINGER: Geschichte und Religion Koreas im Spannungsfeld der groJ3en
Religionen und Reiche Ostasiens. Schamanistische, buddhistische, taoistische
und konJuzianistische Grundlagen for die soziale und kulturelle Entwicklung des
Landes. Unpublished Dr. theol. diss. Freie Universitat Berlin; Sang-Woo HAN
(Regensburg): Die Suche nach dem Himmel im Denken Koreas. Eine reli-
gionswissenschajtliche und -philosophische Untersuchung zur Hermeneutik des
Menschen zwischen Himmel und Erde. Frankfurt am Main 1987.
125. Besides the Bibliography of Asian Studies, published yearly by the Association
for Asian Studies in Ann Arbor, and the Annual Bibliography of Oriental
Studies (Toyogaku bunken rokumoku), published by the Institute for Research in
the Humanities of Kyoto University, the following tools are useful for Chinese
Buddhism: L.G. THOMPSON: Chinese Religions in Western Languages. A Com-
prehensive and Classified Bibliography of Publications in English, French, and
German through 1980. Tucson 1985; L.G. THOMPSON and G. SEAMAN (eds):
Chinese Religions. Publications in Western Languages 1981 through 1990, Ann
Arbor 1993; for Japanese Buddhism cf. S. FORMANEK and P. GETREUER:
Verzeichnis des deutschsprachigen lapan-Schrifttums 1980-1987. Wien 1989;
P. GETREUER: Verzeichnis des deutschsprachigen lapan-Schrifttums 1988-
1989. Wien 1991; K. KLEIBER: Verzeichnis des deutschsprachigen lapan-
Schrifttums 1990-1991. Wien 1995.
126. H. HACKMANN: Erkliirendes Worterbuch zum chinesischen Buddhismus
Chinesisch-Sanskrit-Deutsch. Ed. J. Nobel. Leiden [?1960].
127. E.g., K. MEISIG: Das Srama1:zyaphala-Satra. Synoptische Ubersetzung und
Glossar der chinesischen Fassungen verglichen mit dem Sanskrit und pali.
Wiesbaden 1987.
JIABS 22.2 440
related articles are published in the major European series.
128
Gerhard
SCHMITT has published a catalogue of Chinese Buddhist text fragments
presumably of the Turfan holdings of the State Library at Berljn. It is
listed as the first volume of a series, but no further volumes seem to
have appeared.129 A long article on the mythology of Chinese Buddhism
by Franz J. MEIER in the Worterbuch der Mythologie provides a general
introduction to this aspect of Chinese Buddhism.130
b. History and intellectual history
Herbert FRANKE (born 1914), emeritus of Munich University, has time
and again, in teaching and writing, dealt with Buddhism. One of the few
German-speaking Sinologists who has command not only over East
Asian tongues, but also over a wide range of Central Asian and Indian
languages, he has in many articles studied aspects of Buddhism under the
Mongolian Yuan dynasty (1280-1367). Two of his more recent studies
are concerned with the consecration of the White Stupa in 1279 in
Peking and its history under the Yuan,131 and with a Chinese non-
canonical Buddhist text translated into Uigur, Mongolian, and Ti-
betan.1
32
In 1996 a collection of three studies appeared, dealing with the
influential Tibetan monk Tan-pa, the Tripitaka catalogue compiled
under Qubilai, and a collection of anecdotes describing Qubilai as a
faithful Buddhist.133
Helwig SCHMIDT-GLINTZER, FRANKE's successor in Munich and
now director of the Herzog August Bibliothek inWolfenbuttel, has
studied the history of Chinese Buddhism in two major works. His
Munich Dr. phil. dissertation is a study of the Hongming ji, the oldest
extant compilation of Buddhist apologetic literature by the monk
128. Asia Major 3rd ser.; Asiatische Studien; Monumenta Serica; Nachrichten der
Gesellschaft flir Natur- und Volkerkunde Ostasiens; Oriens Extremus; T' oung
Pao.
129. G. SCHMITT: Katalog chinesischer buddhistischer Textfragmente. Berlin n. d.
130. Fr. J. MEIER: "Die Mythologie des chinesischen Buddhismus," in Worterbuch
der My tho logie, vol. 4, Stuttgart 1988, pp.441-735.
131. H. FRANKE: "Consecration of the 'White Stiipa' in 1279," Asia Major 3rd ser.
7, 1994: 155-183.
132. H. FRANKE: "The Taoist Elements in Buddhist Great Bear Sutra (Pei-tou
ching)," Asia Major 3rd ser., 1990: 75-111.
133. H. FRANKE: Chinesischer und tibetischer Buddhismus im China der Yiianzeit.
Drei Studien. Miinchen 1996.
FRANCO 441
Sengyou (445-518).134 In his habilitation thesis aI! attempt is undertaken
to situate the universal histories of Chinese Buddhism during the Song
dynasty (960-1279) in the social and intellectual milieu of their time.135
Hannelore EISENHOFER-HALIM has written on the Japanese monk
D6sh6 (629-700) and Sino-Japanese relations.l
36
Iso KERN, a Swiss philosopher with a strong interest in Chinese
thought, has studied the Buddhist critique of Christianity in 17th-century
China. Following an informed introduction, he presents translations of
texts by one lay Buddhist and four monks of the late Ming (1368-1643)
who were reacting to the spread of the Christian mission.
137
c. Philosophy and schools of Buddhism
German-language studies of East Asian Buddhism have a strong inclina-
tion towards philosophy as well as the history of ideas ("Geistes-
geschichte"). Although the traditional partition in indigenous schools
may be misleading in some respects, it is still used for identifying dif-
ferent ways of thought and exegesis.
Bruno PETZOLDT (1874-1949), who spent the second half of his life
in Japan, has left voluminous manuscripts, some of which have recently
been edited. Although not literate in Chinese or Japanese, he drew on the
help of well-known Buddhist scholars who supplied him extensive infor-
mation. Shohei ICHIMURA, one of his Japanese students who became a
well-known scholar of Chinese Buddhism himself, has edited PET-
ZOLD's monumental study on the Buddhist doxographical systems.
138
The editor has added a bibliography and glossary which increase the size
of the volume to more than 1,000 pages. The result is the most complete
134. H. SCHMIDT-GLINTZER: Das Hung-ming chi und die Aufnahme des Buddhis-
mus in China. Wiesbaden 1976.
135. H. SCHMIDT-GLINTZER: Die Identitiit der buddhistischen Schulen und die
Kompilation buddhistischer Universalgeschichten in China. Ein Beitrag zur
Geistesgeschichte der Sung-Zeit. Wiesbaden 1982.
136. H. EISENHOFER-HALIM: Dosho (629-700). Leben und Wirken eines
japanischen Buddhisten vor dem Hintergrund der chinesisch-japanischen
Beziehungen im 7. lh. Frankfurt am Main 1995.
137. I. KERN: Buddhistische Kritik am Christentum im China des 17. lahrhunderts.
Bern 1992.
138. Br. PETZOLD: The Classification of Buddhism Bukkyo Kyohan. Comprising the
Classification of Buddhist Doctrines in India, China and lapan. Ed. Shohei
ICHIMURA in collaboration with ShinshO HANAYAMA, Wiesbaden 1995.
JIABS 22.2 442
account of the different schools' attempts to classify Buddhist doctrines
ranging from Indian beginnings to Chinese and Japanese classifications.
- a. Nichiren School
The Tendai monk. Nichiren (1222-1282), founder of a school relying
heavily on the teachings of the Lotus Siitra and opposed to the popular
beliefs of Amitabha-Buddhism, has been studied ill the Munich Dr. phil.
dissertation by Margret VON BORSIG; it was published in 1976.1
39
Her
German translation of the Lotus Siitra on .the basis of KumarajIva's
Chinese text was published in 1992.I
4o
- Tiantai/Tendai and Huayan/Kegon
In his monumental study of Tiantai/Tendai,141 PETZOLD not only gives
a detailed account of its doctrines in China and Japan, but also relates
them to influences from indigenous traditions su.ch as Taoism. By draw-
ing on European philosophers and mystics as well, PETZOLD focuses
mainly on comparative issues. Even though this work is outdated in
several respects, it remains the most comprehensive study of this school
in any European language.
Peter FISCHER, in his Hamburg Dr. phil. dissertation, has studied the
Japanese eschatological text Mappo-tomyo-ki attributed to the Tendai
monk. SaichO (767-822).1
42
The translation of the text is accompanied by
a useful sketch of the development of the concept of Endzeit in
Buddhism and a thorough discussion of historical and textual problems
which results in the confirmation of the traditional attribution of the text
and and its date (801).
Another important contribution not only to Tiantai, but also to Huayan
is the by Robert Klaus HEINEMANN on the relation of prac-
'"
139. M. v. BORSIG: Leben aus der LotosblUte. Nichiren Shonin: Zeuge Buddhas.
Kampfer Jilr das Lotos-Gesetz. Prophet der Gegenwart. Ein Beitrag zu den
Beziehungen zwischen ostasiatischer und westlicher Geistigkeit und zum
Verstiindnis des modemen Japan. Freiburg im Breisgau 1976.
140. M. V.BORSIG (tr.): Lotos-Sutra. Sutra von der Lotosblume des wunderbaren
Gesetzes. Gerlingen 1992.
141. Br. PETzOLD: Die Quintessenz der T'ien-t'ai-(Tendai-)Lehre. Eine komparative
Untersuchung. Ed. H. lIAMMITZSCH. Wiesbaden 1982.
142. P. FISCHER: Studien zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Mappo-Gedankens und
zum Mappo-tomyo-ki. Hamburg 1976.
FRANCO 443
tice to the goal of awakening.l
43
He attempts to show that the strict
gradual progression of the Bodhisattva's practice in earlier Buddhism is
slowly dissolved and replaced by a different concept identifying the pro-
cess of practice with the goal. According to HEINEMANN, the main
stages in this development are the Chinese translation of the Huayan jing
(Avataf!lsaka-siltra), works of the Chinese monks Zhiyi (538-597) and
Fazang (643-712), founders of the Tiantai and Huayan schools, and
finally the work of D6gen (1200-1253), the famous Japanese Zen monk
and founder of the Japanese S6t6 (Chinese: Caodong) school. Although
one may object to some of HEINEMANN's conclusions, the work has
given a fresh perspective on the characteristics of East Asian Buddhism.
The philosophy of the famous Korean monk Wonhyo is the subject of
a Wiirzburg Dr. phil. dissertation by Yung-kye KANG.l44
Finally, a complete translation of the shorter Huayan jing has to be
mentioned, even though it is sensu stricto outside the scope of this
survey. Torakazu DOl's German version was financed and published by
the TOdaiji in four volumes.l
45
- 'Y. Chan / Zen
The supposedly unorthodox traditions of Chinese Chan and Japanese Zen
have continually attracted the attention of scholars and laymen alike.
Undoubtedly, the doyen of Zen studies is Heinrich DUMOULIN S.J.
(born 1905), emeritus of Sophia University, Tokyo. Besides numerous
books on general topics of Buddhism and on its present situation, he has
published a comprehensive history of Zen Buddhism in two volumes
which is the only work of its kind in a Western language.l
46
Among his
books on Zen, one has to mention those on its spiritual path,147 on the
143. R. Kl. HEINEMANN: Der Weg des Ubens im ostasiatischen Mahayana. Grund-
formen seiner Zeitrelation zum Ubungsziel in der Entwicklung bis Dagen. Wies-
baden 1979.
144. Yung-Kye KANG: Prinzip und Methode in der Philosophie Wonhyos. Hildes-
heim 1981.
145. T. DOl (tr.): Das Kegon Sutra. 1m Auftrag des Tempels Tadaiji aus dem chine-
sischen Text abersetzt. 4 vols., Tokyo 1978-1983.
146. H. DUMOULIN: Geschichte des Zen-Buddhismus. Vol. 1: Indien und China, vol.
2: Japan, Bern 1975 (2nd ed. 1985, 1986).
147. H. DUMOULIN: Der Erleuchtungsweg des Zen im Buddhismus. Frankfurt am
Main 1976.
nABS 22.2 444
development of Chinese Zen [I] after the sixth patriarch,148 and on Zen
in the 20th century.i
49
Further, he has contributed a translation of 'one of the two mos! influ-
ential compilations of "public cases" (gonganl koan) of Wumen Huikai's
(1182-1260) Wumen guan, in 1975;150 Walter LIEBENTHAL, another
German-born scholar of renown, published his version of the same work
in 1977.
151
The other important compilation of gongan is the volumi-
nous Biyan lu by Yuanwu Keqin (1063-1135). In 1973, the third and
last part of the huge translation by the noted Japanologist Wilhelm
GUNDERT (1881-1971) was published posthumously; although far from
being complete, it is to date the most serious attempt to do justice to the
text in a Western language.1
52
It contains not only the cases proper, but
also all the commentaries by Xuedou Chongxian (980-1053) and
Yuanwu himself.
The collected sayings of the Chan master Linji/Rinzai (?-866) are the
subject of a Hamburg Dr. phil. dissertation by Robert Christian MORTH.
In addition to a complete translation, he has presented an attempt to
systematize the text known as Linji lu.1
53
The topic of a Frankfurt Dr.
phil. dissertation by Gerhard A. DOHRN is a contemporary collection of
Chan poems from the 7th up to the 16th century. The book, published in
1993, mainly consists of'selected translations with some notes and
general remarks on comparative aspects.1
54
148. H. DUMOULIN: The development of Chinese Zen after the sixth patriarch. Taipei
[ca. 1990].
149. H. DUMOULIN: Zen im 20. lahrhundert. Mtinchen 1990.
150. H. DUMOULIN (tr.): Mumon Kan, die Schranke ohne Tor. Meister Wu-men's
Sammlur;g der achtundvierzig Koan. Mainz 1975.
151. W. LIEBENTHAL (tr.): Ch'an-tsung Wu-men kuan. Zutritt'nur durch die Wand.
Heidelberg 1977. - Yet another translation is by Koun YAMADA, Mumonkan:
Zen-Meister Mumons Koan-Sammlung. Die torlose Schranke. Miinchen 1989.
LIEBENTHAL has earlier translated the work of Sengzhao, disciple of
Kumarajlva: Chao Lun. The Treatises of Seng-chao. Hong Kong 1968.
152. W. GUNDERT (tr.): Bi-Yiin-Lu. Meister Yuan-wus Niederschrift von der
Smaragdenen Felswand. Vol. 1: Munchen 1960, vol. 2: Munchen 1967, vol. 3:
Munchen 1973. A paperback issue of all three volumes in one appeared
Munchen 1983.
153, R. Chr. MORTH: Das Lin-chi lu des Ch'an-Meisters Lin-chi Yi-hsuan (+866).
Der Versuch einer Systematisierung des Lin-chi lu. Hamburg 1987.
154. G.A. DOHRN: Kurzgedichte chinesischer Chan-Meister. Frankfurt am Main
1993.
FRANCO 445
An interesting topic forms the subject of a Zurich Dr. phil. dissertation
by Claudia FRITZ. She studies the administrative structure of Chan-
temples in late Yuan time (1280-1367) and, besides a copiously anno-
tatedtranslation of chapter IV of the Chixiu Baizhang qinggui (1343),
provides a helpful 'overview of the development of rules and regulations
in Zen institutions, drawing heavily on Japanese research.
155
.
Helmut BRINKER of the Rietberg Museum in Zurich has studied
Chan/Zen in East Asian art and edited the papers of an International
Symposium on Zen in East Asia at Zurich University in 1982 which
finally appeared in 1985.1
56
The same year saw the appearance of his
monograph on Zen in the art of painting.
157
An exhibition on Zen and
Japanese culture at the Museum fUr Volkerkunde in Berlin in 1993/94 is
documented in a catalogue with articles by most German-language
scholars of Zen. It also contains 100 photographs documenting the archi-
tecture and everyday life of the famous temple Tenryuji in Ky6to.1
58
- o. Xuanzang and Yogacara .
The above-mentioned project on the life and work of Xuanzang (600-
664) (cf. section 3 above) has yielded, besides studies of the Old Turkic
versions of his biography, helpful translations of two chapters of the
Chinese biography of Xuanzang, the Datang daciensi sanzang fashi
zhuan begun by Huili (born 615) and completed by Yancong (fl. middle
of the 7th century). Chapter vn was translated by Alexander Leonhard
MAYER,159 and the following chapter by Uwe FRANKENHAUSER.160
Copious notes along with the discussion of textual problems make these
volumes valuable tools for further research. In 1992, MAYER published
his work on Xuanzang as "translator and sage," an account of the activi-
ties of this famous monk.1
61
FRANKENHAUSER's Dr. phil. dissertation
155. Cl. FRITz: Die Verwaltungsstruktur der Chan-KlOster in der spiiten Yuan-Zeit.
Das 4. Buch der Chixiu Baizhang qinggui, abersetzt, annotiert und mit einer
Einleitung versehen. Bern 1994.
156. H. BRINKER (ed.): Zen in China, Japan, East Asian Art. Papers of the Internat.
Symposium on Zen, Zurich University, I6.-IB.1I.19B2. Bern 1985.
157. H. BRINKER: Zen in der Kunst des Malens. Bern 1985.
158. CI. MOLLER (ed.): Zen und die Kultur Japans. Klosteralltag in Kyoto. Berlin
1993.
159. AL. MAYER: Cien-Biographie vn. Wiesbaden 1991.
160. U. F'RANKENHAUSER: Cien-Biographie VllI. Wiesbaden 1995.
161. A.L. MAYER: Xuanzang. Ubersetzer undHeiliger. Wiesbaden 1992.
JIABS 22.2 446
(Gottingen) deals mainly with the introduction of Buddhist logic
(yinming) into China, but also covers later developments.
162
Further, the
Swiss philosopher KERN has published articles on the philosqphy of
Xuanzang.
163
- E. Jingtu I J6d6 ("Pure Land")
Amitabha Buddhism has played an important role in China at the latest
from the 4th century onwards. In Japan, the various Amitabha schools
increasingly gained importance since Kamalrura times (1192-1333), and
they still represent the most numerous group today. Their supposed
founder H6nen (1133-1212) is studied in the Marburg Dr. phil.
tion by Christoph KLEINE.1
64
Relying on his background in religious
studies, KLEINE attempts to answer the question whether H6nen was
proposing reform, reformation or heresy. He opts for the last. Christian
SlEINECK has translated short texts by three famous proponents of J6d6:
next to H6nen, Shinran (1173-1262) and the mendicant monk Ippen
(1239-1289) are represented.
165
In a study and translation of a pictorial
scroll containing an account of Ippen's life, Franziska EHMCKE has
provided an introduction to J6d6 and Ippen.t66 Volker ZOTZ has written
a study on Shin-Buddhism, one of the Amitabha-denominations.
167
- Shingon (''True Word")
Esoteric Buddhism has survived in Japan up to the present and is known
as Shingon or Mikky6 ("Secret Teaching"). Its introduction to Japan is
162. U. FRANKENHAUSER: Die Einfiihrung der buddhistischen Logik in China.
Wiesbaden 1996.
163. I. KERN:.';The structure of consciousness according to Xuanzang," Journal of
the British Society for Phenomenology, vol. 19, no. 3 (1988): 282-295; "Object,
Objective Phenomenon and Objectivating Act According to the 'Vijiiaptimatra-
siddhi' of Xuanzang (600-664)", in D. P. CHATIOPADHYAYA, L. EMBREE and
I. MOHANTY (eds), Phenomenology and Indian Philosophy, New Delhi 1992,
pp.262-269.
164. Chr. KLEINE: Honens Buddhismus des Reinen Landes. Reform, Reformation
oder Hiiresie? Frankfurt am Main 1996.
165. Chr. STEINECK: Quellentexte des japanischen Amida-Buddhismus. Wiesbaden
1997.
166. Fr. EHMCKE: Die Wanderungen des Monchs Ippen. Bilder aus dem mittelalter-
lichen Japan. K5ln 1992.
167. V. ZOTZ: Der Buddha im reinen Land. Shin-Buddhismus in Japan. Mlinchen
1991.
FRANCO 447
traditionally attributed to the monk KUkai (774-835), or KobO Daishi,
who brought it to Japan upon his return from his studies in China. Four
short texts of his have been translated into German.
168
The catalogue of
a 1988 Cologne exhibition of the art of Shingon covers all aspects of
Shingon and contains some valuable essays.169 Dietrich SECKEL has
published a monograph on Buddhist temple names in Japan.
170
d. Practice
A Munich Dr. phil. dissertation examines the reception and the cult of
an esoteric dhiira1}fin China; Maria Dorothea REIS-HABITO has given a
very comprehensive account of the Mahiikaru1}ikacittadhiira1}f which
was translated into Chinese by the Indian Bhagavaddharma around 650
and is still recited today on Taiwan. In addition to presenting a transla-
tion of the text containing the dhiiralJf, she discusses different versions
of the text and supplementary materials from Tun-huang. Drawing on
historical and literary sources, REIS-HABITO highlights the spread of the
dhiira1}f and its role in confessional rituals.l7l Marcus GONZEL has
studied another aspect of Buddhist practice still alive today. His
G6ttingen Dr. phil. dissertation deals with the liturgical texts recited in
the morning and evening classes. These texts have been in use since the
late 16th century.172
e.Art
Gunhild GABBERT has compiled a catalogue of the Buddhist sculptures
originating from China and Japan in the Museum fur Ostasiatische Kunst
at Cologne.
173
Roger GOEPPER, the former director of the museum, has
168. M. Eiho KAWAHARA and C. YaM JOBST: KobO Daishi Kakai. Ausgewiihlte
Schriften. Miinchen 1992.
169. R. GOEPPER (ed.), Shingon. Die Kunst des Geheimen Buddhismus in Japan.
Koln 1988; cf. also R. GOEPPER: Das Kultbild im Ritus des esoterischen
Buddhismus Japans. Opladen 1983.
170. D. SECKEL: Buddhistische Tempelnamen in Japan. Stuttgart 1985.
171. M.D. REIS-HABITO: Die Dhiiral}f des Grofien Erbarmens des Bodhisattva
A valokiteSvara mit tausend Hiinden und Augen. Ubersetzung und Untersuchung
ihrer textlichen Grundlage sowie Erforschung ihres Kultes in China. Nettetal
1993.
172. M. GONZEL: Die Morgen- und Abendliturgie der chinesischen Buddhisten.
Gottingen 1994.
173. G. GABBERT: Buddhistische Plastik aus China und Japan. Bestandskatalog des
Museums flir Ostasiatische Kunst der Stadt Koln. Wiesbaden 1972.
JIABS 22.2 448
edited a catalogue accompanying the exhibition of calligraphies of c o ~
temporary Japanese monks.
174
Fausta NOWOTNY has written on the Pili
canon and East Asian art.l75
f. Literature and theory of translation
Marion MEISIG has written a study on the well-known narrative of King
Sibi and the dove which is found in different versions in the Maha- .
bharata and has been adopted by Jainas and Buddhists alike.
176
She ex-
amined all extant versions in the Chinese Buddhist canon, established a
stemma and extensively discussed textual and interpretational problems.
Furthermore, the Chinese glossary of 101 pages will be of great assis-
tance in further research.
In his Cologne Dr. phil. dissertation Axel HELD has studied Yancong's
(557-610) theory of translation.
177
In a short artic1e
178
he has rejected
the common opinion that Daoan (312/4-385), in one of his forewords,
gave a general recommendation for translators, and relates the principles
of translation proposed there to the concrete text the foreword was
written for.
g. East Asian Buddhism in modern times
Chinese Buddhism in the 20th century has been the object of two
studies. In the first years of the Republic, quite a few scholars turned to
Chinese Yogacara traditions in order to find new orientations. Important
figures in this movement were the monk Taixu and the layman Ouyang
Jingwu who are studied in the Munich Dr. phil. dissertation by Gotelind
MULLER.179 Xiong Shili (1885-1968), another representative of that
current, exerted some influence with his "New Idealism" (Xin weishi
174. R. GOEPPER: Worte des Buddha. KaUigraphien japanischer Priester der
Gegenwart, Sammlung Seiko Kono, Abt des Daian-ji, Nara. K6ln 1982.
175. F. NowoTNY: Piili-Kanon und ostasiatische Kunst. K6ln 1975.
176. M. MEISIO: Konig Sibi und die Taube. Wandlung und Wanderung eines Erziihl-
stoffes von Indien nach China. Wiesbaden 1995.
177. A. HELD: Der buddhistische Monch Yen-Ts'ung (557-610) und seine Uber-
setzungstheorie. Unpublished Dr. phil. dissertation, K6ln 1972.
178. A. HELD: "Enthalt Tao-an's Vorwort in CSTCC 8, 1 wirklich 'Leitsatze fUr die
Ubersetzer'?", Nachrichten der Gesellschaftfar Natur- und Volkerkunde Ost-
asiens 127-128 (1980): 111-119 ..
179. G. MULLER: Buddhismus und Modeme. Ouyang Jingwu, Taixu und das Ringen
um ein zeitgemiises Selbstverstiindnis im chinesischen Buddhismus des frahen
20. lahrhunderts. Stuttgart 1993.
FRANCO 449
[un). The Dr. phil. dissertation by Qingxiong ZHANG (Freiburg im
Uechtland) deals with his philosophy.1
80
The Cologne Dr. phil. dissertation by Gwan-yeon CHO is concerned
with the interaction between popular Buddhism in Korea and new reli-
gious movements)81
Peter FISCHER has .edited a volume on Buddhism and nationalism in
modern Japan.1
82
In his Erlangen Dr. phil. dissertation Andreas
NEHRING has studied one of the contemporary "New Buddhist" reli-
gions in Japari.
183
The Heidelberg habilitation thesis by Ulrich M. DEHN
on the "historical perspective of Japanese Buddhism" is concerned with
the historian Uehara Senroku (born 1899).1
84
180. Q. ZHANG: Xiong Shilis Neue Nur-Bewusstseins-Theorie. Yom Yogiiciira-
Buddhismus zum neuen Konfuzianismus. Bern 1993.
181. Gwan-yeon CHO: Die Entstehung und Entwicklung des Volksbuddhismus und
der neuen religiosen Bewegungen in Korea und ihre Wechselbeziehungen.
Unpublished Dr. phil. dissertation Universitat Koln 1995.
182. P. FISCHER (ed.): Buddhismus und Nationalismus im modernen Japan.
Bochum 1979.
183. A. NEHRING: Rissho Kosei-kai. Eine neubuddhistische Religion in Japan.
Erlangen 1992.
184. U.M. DEHN: Die geschichtliche Perspektive des japanischen Buddhismus. Das
Beispiel Uehara Senroku. Ammersbek 1995.
JIABS 22.2 450
ll. BUDDHIST STUDIES IN AUSTRIA 1971-1996
185
Buddhist studies in Austria are practically identical with Buddhist studies
in Vienna, because the University of Vienna is the only Aust:n'an uni-
versity that has established chairs in Indology, Tibetology and Buddhist
studies. One can trace the beginning of Indology in Austria back to 1845
when the first Sanskrit classes were offered by Anton Boller.
186
Typically for that period, the study of Sanskrit was not an independent
discipline, but only a part of comparative linguistics. However, after the
nomination in 1880 of Georg BUHLER to the newly created chair for
Altindische Philologie und Altertumskunde, Austrian Indology attaineo
international reputation and Vienna became one of the most important
centres in Europe for Sanskrit and Indian studies. After BUHLER's tragic
death in 1898,187 Indology in Austria underwent an eclipse. Yet one may
say that the seeds of its future flourishing were already sown because
Erich FRAUWALLNER (1898-1974) was born that very same year.
FRAUWALLNER has been a dominant figure in the field of Indian and
Buddhist philosophy for the better part of this century and his influence
is likely to continue well into the next century. Therefore, even though
FRAUWALLNER's major publications on Buddhism were written be-
tween the twenties and the sixties and thus precede the period with
which we are mainly concerned here, they need to be taken into account.
FRAuw ALLNER was a versatile scholar whose interest and competence
were by no means restricted to Buddhism. He studied texts as widely
185. Just as ip the previous section on Buddhist studies in Germany, I limit myself
here to scholarly books and monographs. Papers, albeit extremely valuable,
remain with a few exceptions outside the scope of this survey; similarly com-
parative studies and popular introductions for the general readership are also not
mentioned here. As an exception to the rule, however, I would like to mention
several works by Volker ZOTZ: Zur Rezeption und Kritik des Buddhismus im
deutschen Sprachraum von Fin de Siecle bis 1930. Wien 1986. - Erleuchtung
im Alltag. Miinchen 1990. - Der Buddha im reinen Land. Miinchen 1991. -
Buddha. Reinbek 1991. - Geschichte der buddhistischen Philosophie. Reinbek
1996
186. For the early history of Indology in Vienna cf. E. F'RAUW ALLNER: "Geschichte
und Aufgaben der Wiener Indologie," Anzeiger der phiL-hist. Klasse der oster-
reichischenAkademie der Wissenschaften, Jg. 1961, Nr. 10, pp. 77-95.
187. Bmn.ER drowned when a sudden storm on Lake Constance overturned his boat.
FRANCO 451
apart as the and Navya-Nyaya works.
188
In the realm of
Buddhist studies as well his achievements were in various fields, such as
Vinaya
l89
and Abhidharma.
190
His specialty, however, was the pramii,!a-
school. As early as 1929 he published his first short study of the Sanskrit
fragments of Dignaga
l9
! where some of the typical characteristics of his
later work are already present, notably, the use of Tibetan and Jaina
materials for the reconstruction of portions of lost Sanskrit texts. His
studies of Dignaga culminated in the seminal paper "Dignaga, sein Werk
und seine Entwicklung,"192 which remains, some forty years after its
publication, the best study of Dignaga's thought. FRA UW ALLNER' s
datings of Indian philosophersl
93
have also proved to be of astonishing
longevity and in spite of occasional challenges
l94
remain widely accept-
ed. His epoch-making articles on DharmakIrti, whom he recognized as
the central figure for the history of Indian philosophyl95 also remain un-
superseded. FRAUW ALLNER' s incredible erudition, rigorous philological
method and unfailing intuition for the history of ideas provided not only
188. For an almost complete list of FRAUW ALLNER's publications cf. Wiener Zeit-
schriftfar die Kunde Sad- und Ostasiens 20 (1976): 5-17. More recently, two
volumes of posthumous documents were published; cf. E. FRAUW ALLNER:
Nachgelassene Werke, Aufsiitze, Beitriige, Skizzen. Ed. E. STEINKELLNER. Wien
1984. - Nachgelassene Werke. Philosophische Texte des Hinduismus. Ed.
G. OBERHAMMER and Ch. WERBA. Wien 1992.
189. Cf. especially The Earliest Vinaya and the Beginning of Buddhist Literature.
Roma 1956.
190. Recently his Abhidharma studies were translated into English; cf. E. FRAu-
WALLNER: Studies in Abhidharma Literature and the Origins of Buddhist Philo-
sophical Systems. Translated from the German by Sophie Francis KIDD under
the supervision of Ernst STEINKELLNER. Ithaca 1995.
191. Cf. Wiener Zeitschriftfor die Kunde des MorgenZandes 36 (1929): 136-139.
192. Cf. Wiener Zeitschriftfor die Kunde Sad- und Ostasiens 3 (1959); 83-164.
193. Cf. "Landmarks in the History of Indian Logic." WZKSO 5 (1961): 125-148.
194. Most recently FRAUWALLNER's dating of Dharmakirti (600-660) was chal-
lenged by KIMURA on the grounds that Dharmakirti is already mentioned by
DharmapaIa. It is too early yet to pronounce a judgement on KIMURA's argu-
ments (his paper was read at the Third International Dharmaldrti. Conference held
in Hiroshima in November 1997 and will appear in the Proceedings to be
published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences). It is clear that if Dharmakirti's
dating will be changed, a considerable number of related datings will have to be
modified as well.
195. Cf. Kl. Sch., p. 689: "No one is mentioned as often by the representatives of the
most diverse schools. No one has had such a lasting influence as he,"
iIABS 22.2 452
the first mapping and broad outlines of the historical development of
Buddhist philosophy, but also a firm foundation for further studies by
his disciples and the disciples of his disciples. Among his direct disciples
one has to mention Lambert SCHMITHAUSEN, Ernst STEINKELLNER,
Tilmann VETTER, and although tolesser degree, Yuichi KAJIYAMA. His
indirect disciples are too numerous to be mentioned here.
Gerhard OBERHAMMER, FRAUWALLNER's successor at the chair of
Indology in Vienna, had only a marginal interest in Buddhism, and the
tradition of Buddhist studies would have disappeared completely from
Austrian academic life had not a new Institute for Tibetology
Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna been founded in 1973.
Ernst STEINKELLNER was appointed its first director, and under his
inspiring leadership the institute has grown to a major centre for
Buddhist studies, both Indian and Tibetan. Like FRAUWALLNER,
STEINKELLNER specializes in Buddhist pramiil/-a studies; however, his
work reflects the more advanced stage of this field. After the broad
mapping of whole schools of thought and their mutual relationship had
been accomplished by FRAUWALLNER, "the Viennese project" could
turn to editions and translations of the major philosophical works as well
as to more detailed investigations of the philosophical concepts that were
developed by Dignaga, DharmakIrti and the later Buddhist logicians.
STEINKELLNER's initial studies concentrated on DharmakIrti's logic. His
edition and annotated translation of DharmakIrti's Hetubindu is not only
the definitive work on this text, but also unfolds DharmakIrti's episte-
mological concepts both in their relation to DharmakIrti's other works
and in their relations to Dharmaldrti's predecessors and successors.1
96
Another important result of this endeavour is the edition and annotated
translation' of the Sviirthiinumiina chapter of the Pramiil/-aviniscaya.
197
However, STElNKELLNER's work is certainly not restricted to Dharma-
kIrti's logic. With the notable exception of the topic of perception
there is hardly any topic treated in the pramiil/-a texts
196. Cf. E. STEINKELLNER: Dharmakfrti's HetubinduJ:!. Teill. Tibetischer Text und
rekonstruierter Sanskrit-Text. Teil II. Ubersetzung und Anmerkungen. Wien
1967.
197. Cf. E. STEINKELLNER: Dharmakfrti's PramiiIJaviniscayaJ:!. 2. Kapitel: Sviirthii-
numiinam. Teil 1: Tibetischer Text und Sanskrit-Texte. Teil II: Ubersetzung und
Anmerkungen. Wien 1976, 1979.
198. However, STEINKELLNER together with I. CHU, H. KRASSER, M. ONO, H.
LAsle, E. PRETS and various other scholars are currently engaged in a major
FRANCO 453
upon which he has not published some pioneeling contribution. During
the 80' s he dealt extensively with the topic of proofs of rebirth (para-
lokasiddhi) on which he published two monographs and a number of
papers.1
99
Beside accomplishing his own remarkable work, STEINKELLNER has
closely supervised a large number of Ph.D. dissertations, many .of which
appeared in the series "Wiener Studien zur Tibetologie und Buddhismus-
kunde" which was founded in 1977 and in which some forty volumes of
high scholarly standards have already appeared.
2oo
The fIrst dissertation
at the Institut fUr Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde was penned by
Gudrun BUHNEMANN, now a professor of South Asian Studies at the
University of Wisconsin, Madison. It consists mainly in an annotated
translation of Ratnaldrti's Sarvajfiasiddhi.
201
BUHNEMANN's facility in
deciphering Sanskrit manuscripts (cf. also her collaboration with HAHN
mentioned above) has led to two further publications in the same series,
one of minor texts by Jitari, the other of two siidhanas.
202
Other out-
standing dissertations include Torsten MUCH's edition and annotated
study of perception in Dignaga's Pramlil)asamuccaya and Iinendrabuddhi's
Vislillimalavan.
199. Cf. E. STEINKELLNER: Dharmottaras Paralokasiddhi. Nachweis der Wieder-
, geburt, zugleich eine Wiederlegung materialistischer Thesen zur Natur der
Geistigkeit. Wien 1986. -Nachweis der Wiedergeburt. Prajiiiisenas 'Jig rten
pha rol sgrub pa. Ein friiher tibetischer Traktat aus Dunhuang, mit seinen
Glossen diplomatisch herausgegeben, iibersetzt und mit Anmerkungen
versehen. Teil I: Texte. Teil II: Ubersetzung. Wien 1988. This latter work also
deserves special mention because it is, I believe, the only diplomatic edition of
any Buddhist philosophical text.
200. A list of books pilblished in this series is appended to this paper. Practically all
Austrian scholarly publications on Buddhism appear either in this series or in the
Verlag der osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaft, notably, in its two
series Beitriige zur Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens and Veroffent-
lichungen der Kommission fur Sprachen und Kulturen SUdasiens. Note,
however, that the latter two series also contain many volumes that are not
concerned with Buddhist studies.
201. Cf. G. BOFINEMANN: Der Allwissende Buddha. Ein Beweis und seine Probleme.
RatnakIrti's Sarvajiiasitidhi. Wien 1980.
202. Cf. G. BOFINEMANN: Jitliri, kleine Texte. [Description of a manuscript from the
Bihar Research Society with 10 small texts of Iitan, and the edition of the
following texts in Sanskrit: Vediipriimlil)yasiddhi, Sarvajiiasiddhi, Nairlitmya-
siddhi, Jlitinirli/q"ti, *!svaraviidamatapan7qli.] Wien 1982. 21985. - *Slidhana-
sataka and Slidhanasatakapaiicasikli. Two Buddhist Slidhana Collections in
Sanskrit Manuscript. Wien 1994.
JIABS 22.2 454
translation of DhannakIrti's late work on public philosophical-religious
debate (veida), and Helmut KRASSER's edition and annotated translation
of Dharmottara's short treatise on general validity of cognition.
203
KRASSER has recently completed his Habilitationsschrift on the refuta-
tion of the existence of God by DhannakIrti and his commentators. He is
presently employed at the new institute called "Institut flir Kultur- und
Geistesgeschichte Asiens," founded in 1992.
Next to his focus on the field of pramiilJa, STEIN KELLNER also has a
strong interest in Madhyamaka. Even though he did not publish in this
field (except for a popular translation of the Bodhicaryiivatiira
204
), one
of the flrst dissertations he supervised, by Helmut TAUSCHER, continues
DE LA V ALLEE POUSSIN's work on the influential Madhyamaka text
Madhyamakiivatiira of Candraklrti.205 TAUSCHER is presently one of
the foremost Madhyamaka specialists in Europe and has recently
lished a magnum opus on the doctrine of two realities in TsoIi-kha-pa's
works.206
A reliable indicator for the outstanding quality of an academic institu-
tion is its ability to attract graduate students and young scholars from all
over the world. The geographical and historical position of Vienna
facilitates the contacts of the institute with East European scholars.
Furthermore, an increasing number of students from traditionally
Buddhist countries, especially from Japan, have made the Vienna insti-
tute the place of their preferred choice for graduate work. Among the
dissertations that were published so far I will mention only three. TofU
FUN A YAMA published an excellent study of the concept of kalpanii-
porjha in the Tattvasa7[!graha which is unfortunately very difficult to
203. Cf. T. MUCH: Dharmakfrtis Viidanyiiya. Teil I: Sanskrit-Text. Teil II: Uber-
setzung und Anmerkungen. Wien 1991. H. KRASSER: Dharmottaras kurze
Untersuchung der Galtigkeit einer Erkenntnis. Teil I:
Tibetischer Text und Sanskrit Materialien. Teil II: Ubersetzung. Wien 1991. Cf.
also E. STEINKELLNER and H. KRASSER: Dharmottaras Exkurs zur Definition
giiltiger Erkenntnis im Pramiil)aviniscaya. Wien 1989.
204. Cf. E. STEINKELLNER (tr.): Siintideva, Eintritt in das Leben zur Erleuchtung.
Poesie und Lehre des Mahiiyiina- Buddhismus. Miinchen 1989.
205. Cf. H. TAUSCHER: Candrakfrti - Madhyamakiivatiiral} und Madhyamakiivatii-
(Kapitel VI, Vers 166- 266). Wien 1981.
206. Cf. H. TAUSCHER: Die Lehre von denzwei Wirklichkeiten in Tson kha pas
Madhyamaka-Werken. Wien 1995.
FRANCO 455
obtain.
207
Shunzo ONODA contributed a valuable study on monastic
debate in Tibet,208 and Chizuko YOSHIMIZU describes the fascinating
and unexpected epistemology of the *Prasangika-Madhyamaka.
209
Apart from its ongoing activities in pramalJa and Madhyamaka studies
the Institut fUr Tibetologie und Buddhismuskunde has a common com-
mitment with the Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente
(IsMEO) to further Tibetological and Buddhist studies in the form of
joint projects concerning mainly southern Asia. This agreement between
the two institutes has made it possible for a group of scholars to partici-
pate in an expedition to the Tibetan monastery at Ta pho (Tabo) in
Himachal Pradesh in 1991. A special number of East and West (44.1,
March 1994) was devoted to the results of this joint mission, on which
various disciplines, such as history, art history, epigraphy and philology,
were brought to bear on this hitherto little-known place which now
seems to be of crucial importance for future Tibetan and Buddhist
studies. STEINKELLNER reports on the "Kanjur" of Ta pho: "After the
first day of work, when we opened fourteen bundles and found their
contents to be an unbelievable mixture of numerous manuscripts mainly
of Prajiiaparamita and Satra texts by numerous hands, from very differ-
ent periods with very different formats, many seemingly rather old, but
many also considerably later, we decided first to scan through the whole
collection of altogether sixty bundles. It took us four tiring days. The
impression was overwhelming. We had seen a veritable treasure: alto-
gether 38,000 folios, presumably written between the 11th and the 17th-
18th centuries. "210
207. Cf. T. FUNA YAMA: A Study of kalpanapoc;lha. A Translation of the Tattva-
sarp.graha vv. 1212-1263 by and the Tattvasarp.grahapafijika by
Kamalasfla on the Definition of Direct Perception. Reprinted for private
circulation from Zinbun: Annals of the Institute of Research in the Humanities.
Kyoto University. No 27, 1992.
208. Cf. S. ONODA: Monastic Debate in Tibet. A Study of the History and Structures
ofbsDus grwa Logic. Wien 1992.
209. Cf. Ch. YOSHIMIZU: Die Erkenntnislehre des Priismigika-Madhyamaka nach
dem Tshig gsal ston thun gyi tshad ma'i rnam Mad des 'Jam dbyans biad pa'i
rdo rje. Wien 1996.
210. Cf. E. STEINKELLNER: "A Report on the 'Kanjur' of Ta pho," East and West
44.1 (1994): 115-138, at p. 117. Cf. also E. STEINKELLNER: Sudhana's Miracu-
lous Journey in the Temple of Ta Pho. The inscriptional text of the Tibetan
GaJ}.c;lavytihasiitra edited with introductory remarks. Roma 1995.
JIABS 22.2 456
The existence of an independent West Tibetan Kanjur has already been ,
proved by HAHN's study of the Phudrag-Kanjur.2
ll
TAUSCHER studied
afragment of the together with Dharmaldrtj's auto-
commentary and an additional commentary by VinItadeva found in the
Ta pho library. His study clearly indicates that an independent West
Tibetan textual tradition existed for the Tanjur too. The text of the
pho manuscript is independent of the four major canonical editions
(peking, Derge, Narthang and Cone) and thus reflects a version probably
prior to the compilation of the canon in the early 14th century.212 The
importance of Ta pho for art history can be gleaned from a recent
volume edited by Deborah KLIMBURG-SALTER, who was appointed
Professor of extra-European art history at the University of Vienna in
1996, the year that concludes our survey.213
211. Cf. M. HAHN: "Bemerkungen zu zwei Texten aus dem Phudrag-Kanjur," in
Indology and Indo-Tibetology, ed. H. EIMER, Bonn 1988, pp. 53-80.
212. Cf. H. TAUSCHER: "Tanjur Fragments from the Manuscript Collection at Ta pho
Monastery. with its Commentaries Vrtti and pkii," East and
West 44.1 (1994): 173-184.
213. Cf. D. !{LIMBURG-SALTER: Tabo, A Lamp for the Kingdom. Early Indo-
Tibetan Buddhist An in the Western Himalaya. Milan 1997. This work contains
contributions by Christian LuCZANITS, Luciano PETECH, Ernst STEINKELLNER
and Erna W ANDL; all, except PETECH, are members of the Vienna Institute.
FRANK E. REYNOLDS
Coming of Age: Buddhist Studies
in the United States from 1972 to 1997*
Historical Overview.
During the early stages in the development of modern-style Buddhist
Studies in the 19th century and the first five to six decades of the 20th
century, very little first rate Buddhist studies scholarship was generated
in the United States. For example, when Edward CONZE reviewed the
history and then-present state of Buddhist studies in the 1960's, he iden-
tified three basic approaches that had been developed in the western
world. These three he labeled, following an earlier classification by
Constantin REGAMEY, the Franco-Belgian, the Anglo-German and the
Russian. Only a few Buddhist studies scholars in the United States had,
up to that point, attained a level where they received serious recognition
in international circles.!
During the 1950's and 1960's, however, three developments began to
gather steam - developments that constituted the background and subse-
quently the context for a rapid expansion and up-grading of Buddhist
studies in the United States. The first was a rapidly increasing inter-
action between Buddhism on the one hand, and American religion, cul-
ture and society on the other. With the emergence and extension of
multi-cultural sensitivities, long established communities of Buddhist
immigrants gradually gained greater visibility and voice. Over the years
* My thanks to the Department of Buddhist Studies at Chulalongkom University
that sponsored the "Buddhist Studies: 1972-1997" conference for which the
original version of this paper was prepared; and especially to Acham Wit
Wisadavet who very adroitly managed all the details. I am also grateful for the
comments and suggestions made by Chatsumarn Kabilsingh in her formal
response to the paper; to the many participants who made contributions during
the course of the discussions that followed; and to Jason Carbine, my research
assistant in Chicago, whose substantive suggestions and library skills were
essential.
1. "Recent Progress in Buddhist Studies" in Edward CONZE, Thirty Years of
Buddhist Studies (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press 1968), pp. 1-32.
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
VOLUME 22 * NUMBER 2.1999
JIABS 22.2 458
many new communities of Budd.lrist immigrants have been established in
many different parts of the country. As these immigrant groups have
become more integrated into the American mainstream, they haye begun
to produce and support Buddhist studies scholars.
At the individual level many Asian Buddhist scholars have taken up
residence in the United States and have taught, either temporarily or
permanently, at many American universities. Asian philanthropic groups
such as the Japanese Numata foundation have supported Buddhist studies
programs, including the funding of visiting professorships at various
American universities. Beyond the university Zen Buddhism, Tibetan
Buddhism, and Theravada Buddhism have all had powerful representa-
tives of Asian origin who have made an important impact on the
American scene. These representatives have attracted significant num-
bers of committed practitioners, and have evoked considerable interest
among many other well-positioned individuals as well. Several of these
converts and sympathizers have become Buddhist studies professionals.
Many others have provided an interested (and often very supportive)
audience.
These increasing and multifacted incursions of Buddhism into
American religion, culture and society have contributed to the rapid
emergence of Buddhist studies in universities and colleges all across the
country. But in order to gain a more adequate understanding of the pro-
cess that has occurred we must also to take into account two very impor-
tant institutional/structural developments that have occurred in higher
education in the United States beginning in the 1950's and the 1960's.
The first of these two institutional/structural changes is closely asso-
ciated with the appearance, following the end of the second world war,
of a new kind of American concern and involvement in world affairs.
Fueled by the cold war, this new interest led to the establishment of a
number of Asian area studies centers at major American universities.
These centers were generously funded by the U.S. government and by
major private foundations. Especially important is the fact that these
centers have provided - along with their admittedly strong emphasis on
the social sciences - a great deal of support for the teaching and study of
modem Asian languages.
In a significant number of cases these new Asian studies centers
meshed with previously established "orientalist" programs that focused
primarily on the study of classical languages and classical texts. In many
of these rapidly developing Asian studies contexts, classically oridnte.d
REYNOLDS 459
Buddhist studies scholars found a new acadeIPic home that provided a
level of material support that greatly facilitated their research. In this
situation many of these Buddhist studies scholars were challenged to
branch out into important new areas of research. As a result of this same
interaction, many contemporary oriented social scientists came to
recognize the importance and relevance of the materials and issues that
concerned their Buddhist studies colleagues. .
The second major development in American higher education that has
influenced both the expansion and the character of Buddhist studies
scholarship has been the emergence of the study of religion as a signifi-
cant, broadly recognized academic discipline. This process was actually
initiated by the establishment of a number of university level positions
in the comparative / historical study of religion in the late 19th and early
20th centuries. But until the 1960's progress was very slow, if indeed
the term progress is appropriate at all.
In 1963, a major turning point came when the United States Supreme
Court rendered an important decision regarding religious instruction.
Though the actual facts are much more complicated, the decision came
to be broadly understood as one in which a fundamental distinction was
made between teaching of religion (which was confessional in character
and therefore prohibited in any state supported school because it violated
the prohibition against the government establishment of religion), and
teaching about religion (which was allowed in state supported institu-
tions and acceptable in private schools that sought to maintain their secu-
lar identity). Armed with an understanding of this problematic but im-
portant distinction between the teaching of religion and the teaching
about religion, the discipline of religious studies developed very
rapidly.2
As new religious studies programs and departments began to expand,
they needed to clearly demonstrate that they were not teaching in a con-
fessional vein. As a result they found it useful as well as appropriate to
give an important place to the study of religions other than those that
were the dominant traditions in the West. In this situation many of these
new programs and departments incorporated a significant Buddhist
2. See Frank REYNOLDS and Sheryl BURKHALTER, eds., Beyond the Classics?
Essays in Religious Studies and Liberal Education (Atlanta, Ga.: Scholars Press
1990). This collection contains an important essay by W. Royce CLARK entitled
"The Legal Status of Religious Studies Programs in Public Higher Education"
(pp.109-l41).
JIABS 22.2 460
studies component. Over the course of time, these programs and depart-
ments have become major sites at which Buddhist studies scholars are
being trained. Even more important, religious studies programs ~ n d de-
partments have come to provide the institutional and intellectual contexts
in which the great majority of U.S. Buddhist studies scholars spend their
academic careers. Clearly the religious studies ethos and disciplinary .
orientation have had a very profound influence on the way in which
Buddhist studies in the United States has come to be understood and
implemented. 3
Before turning attention to the more specific developments that have
taken place in Buddhist studies during the past twenty five years, it will
be useful to reflect on the extent of the expansion that has taken place,
and on the general character of the intellectual transformation that can
< be discerned. The extent of the expansion can perhaps best be measured
by noting the rapid growth of Buddhist studies participation in two
major professional associations - the Association for Asian Studies
which is the primary professional association for scholars involved in
area studies focused on various Asian regions, and the American
Academy of Religion which is the primary professional association for
scholars involved in the study of religion.
In the early 1970's Buddhist studies was represented in both associa-
tions by a very small number of individual scholars. Moreover, these
small groups of scholars had virtually no organizational presence.
Though I have not had the time to carry through any kind of full scale
study of the process of expansion, I have spoken to Matthew KAPSTEIN,
the Chair of the Buddhist Studies Development Committee of the
Association for Asian Studies, and to John STRONG, the Co-Chair of the
Buddhist Studies Committee of the American Academy of Religions.
KAPSTElN' estimates that there are now approximately 200 active
Buddhist studies scholars who participate in the Association for Asian
Studies. He reports that his Committee each year organizes a major
panel that is presented at the national meeting, and that in recent years
that panel has regularly drawn an audience of approximately 80 people.
He adds that at each year's national meeting four to five other area-
3. In order to avoid distracting repetition I will, from this point forward, use the
term Buddhist studies to refer to Buddhist studies as carried out in the United
States from ca. 1972 to the present. When I use the term in a different or broader
sense, this will be specifically indicated in the text.
REYNOLDS 461
studies panels are presented that deal primarily with Buddhist studies
issues.
4
STRONG reports the development of an even stronger Buddhist studies
presence in the American Academy of Religion. The Buddhist Studies
Committee which"he co-chairs publishes a newsletter to which about 250
members of the AAR subscribe. (Since many Buddhist scholars belong
to both associations, it is difficult to determine the total number who
participate in at least one. My own very rough estimate is approximately
300). According to STRONG, the Buddhist Studies Committee received
over twenty excellent proposals for panels to be presented at the AAR's
annual meeting in November 1997. Since the Committee presently has a
quota of five panels, only one fourth of the proposals that were com-
petitive could actually be selected. STRONG expects that, given the
quality and popularity of the presentations that have been made in recent
years, the AAR governing council will soon increase the number of
panels that the Buddhist Studies Committee is allowed to sponsor.5
Turning from the extent of the expansion of Buddhist studies to the
intellectual profile of the field, the kind of change that has occurred is
equally dramatic. The tradition of modern Buddhological studies that
was dominant in the early 1970's - a tradition that had developed pri-
marily in Europe and Japan over the period from the early 1800's to the
1970's - had several rather easily identifiable characteristics. There were
a number of Buddhologists who worked within this inherited tradition
whose reseiU"ch orientation and conclusions deviated from the general
norm.
6
And it also true that some intimations of future trends were al-
ready visible on the horizon.
7
However there was a broadly accepted
4. Personal communication, November 13, 1997.
5. Personal communication, Nov. 2, 1997.
6. Perhaps the most important Buddhologist who - during the fIrst six decades of
the 20th century - worked at the edges of the dominant paradigm is the great
French scholar Paul Mus. In the 1960's, during the last stages of his long and
illustrious career, Mus taught for half the academic year at Yale University in the
United States. Mus's Buddhological work, much of which was published in the
late 1920's and early 1930's, anticipates many of the themes and emphases that
have been taken up by U.S. Buddhist scholars in the 1980's and 1990's.
7. Three American scholars whose contribution in this regard should be noted are
Winston KlNG, Melford SPIRO and Holmes WELCH. In 1964 KlNG published In
Hope of Nibbana: An Essay on Theravada Buddhist Ethics (La Salle, 11.: Open
Court) and A Thousand Lives Away: Buddhism in Contemporary Burma
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press). In 1970 Melford SPIRO's Buddhism
JIABS 22.2 462
paradigm that had been inherited from the past, and a widespread em-
phasis on the kind of research that was considered worthwhile.
This traditional paradigm is quite familiar in Buddhist s t u d i ~ s circles.
It is a paradigm that places a strong emphasis on the study of texts and
the intention of their presumed author; on the search for origins; on the
primacy of the South Asian Sanskrit I Pali traditions; on the central irq.-
portance of doctrines and scholastic systems; and on special attentiveness
to the voices of monastic and social elites. Methodologically this tradi-
tional paradigm privileges a language-centered philological approach,
gives little attention to the historical context and usage of texts, empha-
sizes the production of authoritative critical editions and translations,
and tends toward a positivistic view of historical methods and historical
facts.
In the early 1970's when Buddhist studies in the United States began
to gain momentum, this paradigm still retained a dominant position.
However it soon became apparent that new developments were in the
making. New questions were being asked, new aspects of the tradition
were being explored, and new approaches were being developed. It is
certainly true that over the past twenty five years many aspects of the
inherited Buddhological paradigm have persisted, and that the modes of
scholarship that this paradigm encourages have been further honed and
advanced. But it is also the case that much of the most interesting and
important work in Buddhist studies has been generated by scholars who
have set out in new directions.
8
In the following review I will try to
maintain a balance between these two trends that in the U.S. context
have come to coexist in an uneasy but creative tension.
9
and Sotiety; A Great Tradition and Its Burmese Vicissitudes was published in
New York by Harper and Row). For WELCH's important late 1960's work on
Chinese Buddhism, see footnote 19.
8. Some of the relevant items that are included in this essay are also cited in J. W.
DE JONG, A Brief History of Buddhist Studies in Europe and America (Tokyo:
Kosei Publishing Company 1997). However the understanding of Buddhist
studies that DE JONG employs is more closely attuned to the Buddhist studies
approach that has been maintained in Europe than to the more expansive approach
that has taken shape in the U.S ..
9. Constraints of space seriously limit the range of materials that can be covered in
the discussions that follow. In adjusting to these limits I have tried to achieve
relatively equal coverage for various Buddhist areas of the world and various
historical time periods. I have also tried to achieve a balance between mentioning
books published at various periods within the twenty five year time span that is
REYNOLDS 463
Manuscripts and Translations
From the very beginnings of modem Buddhist studies in Europe in the
early 19th century the collection and editing of manuscripts, and the
translation and of important texts have been foundational
for the entire enterprise. As Buddhist studies has taken root in the United
States, American scholars have joined in the task. The following are a
few examples taken from various regional/linguistic contexts.!O
Among the most interesting manuscript projects is one that is presently
being conducted by Richard SALOMON and Collett Cox at the Univer-
sity of Washington. This project focuses on a collection of manuscript
fragments that have recently been discovered in the Gandhara region in
the northwestern segment of the Indian sub-continent. These fragments,
which are the earliest Buddhist manuscript materials that we possess (1st
century C.E.), include segments of scholastic texts, abhidharma com-
mentaries, avadiinas, and sutra commentaries. The project involves tran-
scription, translation and efforts to provide a context for interpretation.!!
Translations of Buddhist texts have been numerous and very diverse.
Turning first to the Buddhist scholarship on South Asia, Buddhist
studies scholars have translated highly philosophical treatises as well as
more accessible narrative texts. For an instance of the former, see
Malcolm David ECKEL's Jiiiinagarbha's Commentary on the Distinction
Between the Two Truths (Albany: SUNY Press 1987). John STRONG's
Legend of King Asoka: A Study and Translation of the Asokiivadiina
(Princeton: Princeton University Press 1983) provides an example of the
latter.
Scholars who specialize in the study of Theravada Buddhism have also
translated a number of important texts produced within particular
Theravada traditions. John Ross CARTER, working with Mahinda
being surveyed, and focusing attention on books that are still of more than histor-
ical interest. I am well aware that, as a result, my survey is far from complete, and
apologize for any important imbalances or omissions that the reader may note.
10. In the discussions that follows I will- with the exception of several references to
journal articles in the concluding section - refer only to books. The books that
will be mentioned have been produced by scholars who - whether or not they
were born and I or trained in the U.S. -have held (and if they remain active con-
tinue to hold) long-term, full-time appointments in U. S. colleges and universities.
I will also include references to books produced by some younger scholars from
other countries who are presently residing in the U.S.
11. Personal communication from Collett Cox, September 1997.
nABS 22.2 464
P ALIHA W ADANA, has produced an i,nnovative translation of the "canon-
ical" Dhammap"ada along with portions of the very ancient Dhamma-
pada Commentary (Paperback Edition; New York: Oxford Vniversity
press 1998). An example from medieval Sri Lanka is Ranjini OBEYE-
SEKERE's Jewels of the Doctrine: .Stories of the Saddharma Ratnavaliya
(Albany: SUNY 1991). .
Three Worlds According to King Ruang: A Thai Buddhist Cosmology
has been translated by Frank and Mani REYNOLDS (Berkeley: Asian
Humanities Press 1982). Bonnie BRERETON's translation of several Thai
versions of the Phra Malai Sutta was published in 1996 in Tempe by the
Program in Southeast Asian Studies at Arizona,State University. Two of
the most important translations of contemporary Theravada texts are also
renditions from the Thai. They are Donald SWEARER's translation of
selected essays of Bhikkhu BUDDHADASA (Me and Mine published in
Albany by SUNY Press in 1989) and Grant OLSON's English version of
the first edition of Buddhadhamma written by Ven. Prayudh P A YUTO
(Albany: SUNY Press 1995).
During the past twenty five years, as Tibetan Buddhist studies have
expanded, a number of Tibetan Buddhist texts have been translated.
Robert THURMAN's Tsong kha pa's Speech of Gold in the Essence of
True Eloquence (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1984) makes
available in English a text authored by the 15th century reformer who
established the dominant Dge-Iugs-pa order. Jose CABEZON has
followed with an annotated translation of another foundational Dge-
lugs-pa text (see Dose of Emptiness published in Albany by SUNY Press
1992). An otherwise rather neglected Tibetan tradition is represented by
the translation of a relatively recent sectarian history by Matthew
KAPSTEIN)n cooperation with Gyurme DORJE (The Nyingma School of
Tibetan Buddhism in 2 volumes published in Boston by Wisdom books
1991).
Luis GOMEZ is involved in a major project that centers around the
translation of both the Sanskrit and the Chinese versions of the Sukha-
vativyooa Sutras. The first of three projected volumes contains an intro-
duction to the Sanskrit and the Chinese versions, and what GOMEZ calls
"free" translations of both. Entitled The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of
the Buddha of Measureless Light, this book was published in Honolulu
by the University of Hawaii Press 1996. The second volume will pro-
vide the Sanskrit text accompanied by a technical translation complete
with detailed annotations. The third volume, which will employ the
REYNOLDS 465
same kind of specialist-oriented format, will present and translate the
Chinese version.
In the 1990's Columbia University Press (New York) has published
two important translations of Chinese texts by Burton WATSON, The
Lotus Sutra (1993) and The VimaZakfrti Sutra (1997). Texts drawn from
a very different genre of Chinese Buddhist literature have been trans-
lated by Kathryn Ann TSAI in Lives of the Nuns: Biographies of Chinese
Nuns from the Fourth to Sixth Centuries (Honolulu: Hawaii University
Press 1994).
Robert BUSWELL has published The Korean Approach to Zen
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press 1983) which contains an extend-
ed introduction followed by lengthy translations of the collected works
of Chinul. A basic Japanese Zen text, Dogen's Pure Standards for the
Zen Community, has been translated by Taigan Daniel LEIGHTON and
Shohaku OKUNURA (Albany: SUNY 1996). Yoshito HAKEDA's Kukai:
Major Works (New York: Columbia University Press 1972) remains to
this day a basic source for the study of the Japanese Shingon tradition.
Most anthologies of translations that have been published have been
designed as introductions. An important exception, however, is Donald
LOPEZ, ed., Buddhism in Practice (Princeton: Princeton University
Press 1995). Because of its focus on previously neglected texts dealing
with religious practice, LOPEZ' collection makes a distinctive and timely
contribution.
Thus it is quite clear that during the past twenty five years American
scholars have produced many important works that fall within the domi-
nant paradigm in European Buddhological studies. They have carried on
the task of basic textual research and translation. They have given signif-
icant attention to the advancement of "classical" studies. And they have
broken new ground both geographically (focusing more than their pre-
decessors on texts that were produced in so-called peripheral areas) and
temporally (moving the center of gravity of their work forward into
more recent phases in the history of various Buddhist traditions.)
South and Southeast Asia
Though it is very difficult to construct the appropriate categories to use
in organizing a review of Buddhist studies, there is an obvious linguistic
justification for distinguishing studies of Buddhist traditions in South
and Southeast Asia as a relatively discreet unit for discussion. The fact
that Sanskrit and Pali have been the primary sacred languages used by
JIABS 22.2 466
Buddhists throughout the South I Southeast Asian region establishes a
special kind of continuity among the traditions themselves. In addition,
that same commonality of sacred languages helps to facilitate more
intensive interaction among the scholars who study thesetraditions.
12
Within the South Asiaarea a strong emphasis on doctrinal and medi-
tation-oriented studies has been maintained. In the Theravada context
noteworthy monographs include John Ross CARTER: Dhamma: Western
Academic and Sinhalese Buddhist Interpretations (Tokyo: Hokuseido
Press 1978) and George BOND: The Word of the Buddha: The Tripitaka
and Its Interpretation in Theraviida Buddhism (Colombo: Gunasena
Publishers 1982). A particular ethical strand of the canonical tradition
has been identified and analyzed by Grace BURFORD in Desire, Death
and Goodness: The Conflict of Ultimate Values in Theraviida Buddhism
(New York: Peter Lang 1991). A rather different component has been
explored by Winston KING in Theraviida Meditation: The Buddhist
Transformation of Yoga (University Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State
University press 1980).13
The teachings of other Hlnayana schools have also received serious
attention. Collet cox, Bart DESSEIN and Charles WILLEMEN have col-
laborated to produce a major work on Sarviistiviidin Buddhist Scholasti-
cism (Leiden: E. J. Brill 1997). Focusing on a more particular theme,
Jan NATTIER has contributed an intriguing book that bears the equally
intriguing title Once Upon a Future Time: Studies in a Buddhist
Prophecy of Decline (Nanzan Studies in Asian Religions I; Berkeley:
Asian Humanities Press 1991). .
A number of doctrinal studies treat both Hlnayana and Mahayana
materials. Randy KLOETZLI has published an innovative discussion of
Buddhist Cosmology: From Single World System to Pure Land: Science
12. It is important to note that the older Buddhological paradigm in which leading
figures in the field were expected to know and use a broad range of classical lan-
guages (usually Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Chinese, and sometimes Japanese) has in
recent years become less dominant. This is largely due to the fact that many
Buddhist studies scholars are now seriously engaged with work in one or more
disciplines beyond Buddhology itself; and it is also closely related to the fact that
many Buddhist studies scholars fmd it necessary / useful to learn the vernacular
language(s) of the area(s) in which they do their specialized work.
13. I have not included a reference to Steven COLLINS' Selfless Persons: Imagery
and Thought in Theraviida Buddhism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
1982). At the time this book was published, COLLINS was still teaching in
England.
REYNOLDS 467
and Theology in the Images of Motion and Light (Delhi: Motilal
Bamasidass 1983). A very different topic has been explored by Paul
GRIFFITHS in a philosophically sophisticated study entitled On Being
Mfndless: Buddhist Meditation and the Mind-Body Problem (LaSalle,
n.: Open Court 1986).
Among the various doctrinal studies that focus more directly on
Mahayana texts, many different approaches are represented. In 1986
David KALUPAHANA published a controversial study of Niigiirjuna:
The Philosophy of the Middle Way (Albany: Suny Press). Three years
later C. W. HUNTINGTON (with Geshe NAMGYAL) contributed The
Emptiness of Emptiness: An Introduction to Early Indian Madhyamika
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press).
Paul GRIFFITHS, in On Being Buddha: The Classical Doctrine of
Buddhahood (Albany: SUNY Press 1994), combines a consideration of
Mahayana Buddhalogy with an important discussion of the use of doc-
trine as a comparative category in the study of religion. Malcolm David
ECKEL, in To See the Buddha: A Philosopher's Quest For the Meaning
of Emptiness (San Francisco: Harper 1992), generates a number of
original insights by highlighting the role of the senses in understanding
and appropriating Buddhist philosophical teachings.
Buddhist studies scholars working on South Asian materials have, in
addition to their interpretations of doctrines and meditational patterns,
also produced numerous studies of various aspects of Buddhist com-
munity life. For example, the monastic ideals of different Buddhist
schools have received considerable attention. Charles PREBISH con-
tributed a study of Buddhist Monastic Discipline: The Sanskrit Priiti-
m o ~ a Siltras of the Mahiisii1!Lghikas and Millasarviistiviidins (University
Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press 1975). John HOLT,
focusing on the Pali / Theravada tradition, has provided a more interpre-
tative and still useful study of Discipline: The Canonical Buddhism of
the Vinayapi!aka (Delhi: Motilal Bamasidass 1981).
Reginald RAY's Buddhist Saints in India (New York: Oxford
University Press 1994) is a large, richly documented historical study that
focuses on the specifically religious dynamics of the development of the
Buddhist community in India. In this book RAy mounts a strong argu-
ment for his thesis that forest monks were at the heart of the earliest
Buddhist community. He also argues very forcefully that it was the later
bearers of this forest monk tradition who, in their resistance to llmayana
JIABS 22.2 468
monasticism, developed specifically Mahayana approaches to Buddhist
teaching and practice. .
Gregory SCHOPEN's Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks (Studies in
the Buddhist Traditions Series; Honolulu: University of Hawaii 1997) is
a collection of twelve historically focused essays published at various
times over the past fifteen years. In this provocative collection of essays.
SCHOPEN sharply challenges the validity of using primarily textual evi-
dence to reconstruct South Asian Buddhist history, particularly monastic
history. He calls instead for an approach that takes archceological and
epigraphic evidence as primary. Using this strategy, SCHOPEN demoIl;-
strates (among many other things) a deep monastic involvement in
activities such as merit making, image worship, and the like that other
scholars have associated primarily if not exclusively with the laity.14
Although much of the best work on South Asian Buddhist art is avail-
able only in the form of articles, several important books have been
published. Sheila WEINER's Ajanta: Its Place in Buddhist Art (Berkeley:
University of California Press 1977) is one of the best examples from
the 1970's. More recently Geri MALANDRA has contributed Unfolding a
Mandala: The Buddhist Cave Temples at Ellora (Albany: SUNY Press
1993). In this important study MALANDRA argues, on the basis of art
historical evidence, that there existed at Ellora an early (7th / 8th century
C.E.) form of Tantric Buddhism that was subsequently disseminated
throughout South Asia and beyond.
During the twenty five year period that we are considering, literary
and historical studies focused on women and gender in South Asian
Buddhism have become increasingly common. Liz WILSON's Charming
Cadavers (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1996) explores a South
Asian monastic story tradition in which male desire is extinguished
through horrific encounters with deformed female bodies and corpses.
Diana PAUL's Women in Buddhism: Images afthe Feminine in Maha-
yana Tradition (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press 1979. 2nd ed.,
Berkeley: University of California Press 1985) covers materials not only
from South Asia, but from East Asia as well.
14. Donald LOPEZ, in his Preface to Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks, indicates
that a second collection of SCHOPEN' s essays will soon be published in the same
series. TIlls collection, which will be at least as innovative and challenging as the
first, will have as its theme the rise of the movement(s) that have come to be
classified as Mahayana.
REYNOLDS 469
Paula RICHMAN has made a different kind of contribution with her
study of Women, Branch Stories and Religious Rhetoric in a Tamil
Buddhist Text (South Asia Series #12; Syracuse: Maxwell School of
Citizenship and Foreign Affairs 1988). The text that she presents and
analyzes narrates' a complex and fascinating story in which a Buddhist
nun is the protagonist. Miranda SHAW's highly controversial Passionate
Enlightenment (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1994) makes the
claim that - contrary to the received scholarly tradition - women played
a central role in founding the Buddhist Tantric movement; and that these
women and their successors made major contributions to the Tantric
Buddhist understanding of enlightenment on the one hand, and of gender
and sexuality on the other.
Many Buddhist studies scholars have focused their attention on
particular aspects of the long and on-going history of Buddhism in Sri
Lanka. Already in 1972 Gananath OBEYESEKERE, Frank REYNOLDS
and Bardwell SMITH - in a coauthored book, Two Wheels of Dhamma:
Essays on the Theraviida Tradition in India and Ceylon (Chambersburg,
Pa.: American Academy of Religion 1972) - called attention to the early
and persistent presence of a Buddhist ideal of religio-political authority.
Several years later Bardwell Smith edited a follow-up volume entitled
Religion and the Legitimation of Power in Sri Lanka (Chambersburg,
Pa.: Anima Books 1978).
In 1984 Gananath OBEYESEKERE published a study of The Cult of The
Goddess Pattani (Chicago: University of Chicago Press) in which he de-
scribes the incorporation of an ancient goddess cult into the Sinhalese
Buddhist tradition. John HOLT's Buddha in the Crown (New York:
Oxford University Press 1991), a winner of a prestigious American
Academy of Religion book prize, traces the role that the Bodhisattva
A valokitesvara and his various transformations have played, and con-
tinue to play, in the history of Sinhalese Buddhism.
ls
HOLT has also
contributed The Religious World of Kirti Sri (New York: Oxford 1996)
in which he demonstrates the role of art and "visual liturgy" in the reli-
gio-political activity of an important Sri Lankan king who ruled in the
18th century.
During the last two years two younger scholars have entered the dis-
cussion. In 1996 Jonathan WALTERS came on the scene with a short but
15. The award was given for the best historically oriented study of religion published
by an American scholar in 1991.
JIABS 22.2 470
important book on The History of Kelaniya (Colombo: Social Science
Association) in which he generates new insights into important aspects
of Sri Lankan Buddhist history by placing that history within a,broader
South Asian geo-political and religio-political context. In 1997 Kevin
TRAINOR followed with a more practice-oriented historical discussion
entitled Relics, Ritual and Representation in Buddhism: Rematerializing
the Sri Lankan Theraviida Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press 1997).
A number of religio-historical and anthropological studies deal with
different aspects of modern Buddhist developments in Sri Lanka. Two
books that provide rather different survey treatments are George
BOND's The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka: Tradition, Reinterpretation
and Response (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press 1988) and
Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka written by
Gananath OBEYESEKERE in cooperation with Richard GOMBRICH
(Princeton: Princeton University Press 1988) The revival of the early
Buddhist tradition of female renunciation is described by Tessa
BARTHOLOMEUSZ in Women under the Bo Tree: Buddhist Nuns in Sri
Lanka (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1994).
The development of modern, Buddhist-oriented nationalism in Sri
Lanka has attracted the attention of a number of historians and anthro-
pologists. Much important background is provided by Steven KEMPER
in The Presence of the Past: Chronicles, Politics and Culture in Sinhala
Life (Ithaca: Cornell University Press 1991). A treatment of this topic
that has aroused a great deal of controversy is Stanley TAMBIAH's
Buddhism Betrayed?: Religion, Politics and Violence in Sri Lanka
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1992).
As we move from South Asia to Southeast Asia, four books provide
highly useful bridges. John STRONG, in The Legend and Cult of Up.,a-
gupta: Sanskrit Buddhism in North India and Southeast Asia (princeton:
Princeton University Press 1992), combines literary, historical and
ethnographic approaches to identify important connections between
northern India on the one hand, and neighboring areas of Southeast Asia
on the other. Steven COLLINS' Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1998) explores what he calls
the Pali imaginaire. Drawing his materials from all across the Theravada
world, COLLINS integrates an insightful interpretation of Theravada
doctrine on the one hand, and an equally insightful interpretation of
Theravada imagery and narrative on the other.
REYNOLDS 471
Two other especially significant books that bridge the South / South-
east Asia divide are collections of essays. The first, edited by Donald
SWEARER and Russell SIZEMORE, is entitled Ethics, Wealth, and
Salvation: A Study of Buddhist Social Ethics (Columbia: University of
South Carolina 1990). The second, edited by Juliane SCHOBER, recounts
and analyzes Sacred Biography in the Buddhist Traditions of South and
Southeast Asia (Honolulu: University of Hawaii 1997). Both volumes
contain some essays on South Asian traditions, some that focus on
Southeast Asian materials, and some that deal with narratives and
correlated issues that cut across both areas.
I6
Though contributions by U.S. scholars to the early history of
Buddhism in Southeast Asia have been minimal, two books deserve
mention. Barabudur: History and Significance of a Buddhist Monument
edited by Luis GOMEZ and Hiram WOODWARD (Berkeley: Asian
Humanities Press 1981) contains a number of useful essays. But clearly
the most significant work on early Buddhist developments in Southeast
Asia is Robert BROWN's The Dvaravati Wheels of the Law and the
Indianization of Southeast Asia (Leiden: E. J. Brill 1996). Utilizing
primarily art historical sources, BROWN makes a strong argument for
the distinctiveness of the first expressions of Buddhism that can be iden-
tified in the Cambodian/Thai regions on which his research is focused.
Donald SWEARER's The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia (Albany:
SUNY Press 1995) provides a well balanced introduction to later devel-
opments in the region. Buddhism and the Legitimation of Power in
Thailand, Laos and Burma edited by Bardwell SMITH (Chambersburg,
Pa.: Anima Books 1978) contains a number of important essays that deal
with religio-political dynamics that were operative during the medieval
and modern periods. Michael MENDELSON's Sangha and State in
Burma: A Study of Monastic Sectarianism and Leadership edited by
John FERGUSON (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press 1974) concen-
trates on similar issues. For an in depth, multi-dimensional study of
single Theravada temple, see Donald SWEARER's Wat Haripunjaya: A
Study of the Royal Temple of the Buddha's Relic, Lamphun, Thailand
16. Both of these edited volumes contain essays by a least one scholar who is not a
part of the U.S. Buddhist studies community. In the decision to refer to these
volumes - and to other edited volumes that will be mentioned below - the criteria
that I have used to justify their inclusion is that the editor(s) and the majority of
contributors are U.S. scholars in the sense described in footnote 10.
nABS 22.2 472
(AAR Studies in Religion, No. 10, Missoula, Mont.: Scholar's Press
1976).
During the twenty five year period that concerns us in the present
essay, Stanley TAMBIAH has published two major books on modem
Thai Buddhism: World Conqueror r;;md World Renouncer: A Study of
Buddhism and Polity in Thailand against a Historical Background.
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1976) and The Buddhist Saints
of the Forest and the Cult of Amulets: a Study in Charisma, Hagiog-
raphy, Sectarianism, and Millennial Buddhism (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press 1984). This last book, which utilizes a basically state-
centered approach to the study of the forest monk tradition, has an inter-
esting counterpoint in the "view from the periphery" provided by
Kamala TIYA V ANICH in Forest Recollections: Wandering Monks in
Twentieth Century Thailand (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press
1997).
Tibet, East Asia, and the West
The textual traditions of Buddhism in Tibet display both continuity and
discontinuity with the textual traditions that had developed in the Indian
Buddhist monasteries toward the end of the first and the beginning of
the second millennium C.E .. Three studies that specifically explore the
development of this Indo-Tibetan tradition are Alex WAYMAN's The
Buddhist Tantras: Light on Indo-Tibetan Esoterism (New York: Samuel
Weiser 1973.); Donald LOPEZ' The Heart Sutra Explained: Indian and
Tibetan Commentaries (Albany: SUNY 1988); and LOPEZ' more con-
textualized rendition of that same textual trajectory in Elaborations on
Emptiness: Uses of the Heart Sutra (Princeton: Princeton University
Press 1996). " ..
Other studies that explore this Indo-Tibetan tradition are Georges
DREYFUS, Recognizing Reality: Dharmakfrti's Philosophy and Its
Tibetan Interpretation (Albany: SUNY 1997); John MAKRANSKY,
Buddhahood Embodied: Sources of Controversy in India and Tibet
(Albany: SUNY Press 1997); and Janet GYATSO, ed. In the Mirror of
Memory: Reflections on Mindfulness and Remembrance in Indian and
Tibetan Buddhism (Albany: SUNY Press 1992).
Among the scholars who have focused on the study of Tibetan
Buddhism itself, the great majority have, at least until very recently,
been primarily concerned with Tibetan Buddhist philosophy. To be even
more specific, these scholars have devoted their primary attention to the
REYNOLDS 473
scholastic texts produced and preserved by the dominant Dge-lugs-pa
school.
One of the major publications of Jeffrey HOPKINS, who has been a
prime mover in this effort, is Meditation on Emptiness (London:
Wisdom Publications 1983). Daniel PERDUE has contributed a detailed
study of Debate in Tibetan Buddhism (Ithaca: Snow Lion Publications
1992) which includes the translation of a basic training text as well as an
extensive introduction and commentary. In addition to single-authored
volumes, collections of essays also contain useful material. See, for
example, R. DAVIDSON and S. GOODMAN, eds. Tibetan Buddhism:
Reason and Revelation (Albany: SUNY Press 1992).
From the point of view of a comparativist, the most interesting book
devoted to Tibetan Buddhist thought is Jose CABEZON's Buddhism and
Language: A Study of Indo-Tibetan Scholasticism (Albany: SUNY Press
1994). In this study of Dge-lugs-pa philosophy CABEZON combines a
nuanced treatment of Buddhist materials with a careful clarification and
exploration of scholasticism as a religious studies category.
First rate studies of Tibetan Buddhism as a religion that has been
practiced "on the ground" have been less numerous. However two useful
books were published in 1978: Steven BEYER's Magic and Ritual in
Tibet (Berkeley: University of California Press) and Sherry ORTNER's
Sherpas through Their Rituals (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press).17 A more recent and quite distinctive contribution has been made
by Rebecca FRENCH in The Golden Yoke: The Legal Cosmology of
Buddhist Tibet (Ithaca: Cornell University Press 1995). Working
primarily with legal texts, oral histories taken from Tibetan refugees,
and a Tibetan instructor who was a former legal practitioner, FRENCH
reconstructs both the theory and the practice of the Buddhist tradition of
secular law that was operative in Tibet prior to the Chinese invasion of
1959.
Since the Chulalongkorn conference for which the original version of
this paper was written, two important books have appeared that deal
with Tibetan Buddhism. The first is Janet GYATSO's Apparitions of the
Self: The Secret Autobiography of a Tibetan Visionary (Princeton:
Princeton University Press 1998). The second, edited by Matthew
KAPSTEIN and Melvyn GOLDSTEIN, is a well balanced collection of
17. ORTNER's book was based on field work done in a Tibetan community actually
located in Nepal.
JIABS 22.2 474
essays on the very timely and highly contested topic, Buddhism in
Contemporary Tibet (Berkeley: Uriiversity of California Press 1998)
The East Asian group of Buddhist traditions is extremely cC?mplex,
encompassing as it does the Buddhisms of China, Korea, much of
Vietnam and Japan. Despite some important cross-over activity, most_
American Buddhist studies scholarship on East Asia can be classified in
terms of a focus on China, Korea or Japan. Unfortunately American
scholars have done very little work on Buddhist traditions in Vietnam.
(For a recent exception, see Cuong Tu NGUYEN, Zen in Medieval
Vietnam: A Study and Translation of the Thien Uyen Tap Anh (Hono-
lulu: University of Hawaii Press 1997.)
The long-standing Buddhological interest in the acculturation of
Buddhism in China has persisted in U.S. Buddhist studies. An important
book that has tackled this problem from a doctrinal / philosophical per-
spective is Peter GREGORY's Tsung-Mi and the Sinification of
Buddhism (princeton: Princeton University Press 1991). A more unusual
approach to the topic has been developed by Victor MAIR in his ground-
breaking work on Painting and Performance: Chinese Picture Recita-
tion and Its Indian Genesis (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press 1988).
Particular doctrinal aspects of Chinese Buddhism are discussed by
Francis COOK in Hua-Yen Buddhism: The Jewel Net of Indra (Univer-
sity Park, Pa.: Pennsylvania State University Press 1977). Doctrinal
issues as well as matters of practice are explored by contributors to two
collections edited by Peter GREGORY - Sudden and Gradual:
Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought and Traditions of
Meditation in Chinese Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press
1987 and 1996). Quite different issues concerning text and authority
have been investigated in a collection of essays edited by Robert
B US WELL under the title Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press 1990).
Chan is by all odds the Chinese Buddhist school that has received the
most attention from Buddhist studies scholars. The many excellent
studies of Chan include John MCRAE, The Northern School and the
Formation of Early Ch' an Buddhism (Honolulu: University of Hawaii
Press 1986), and two books by Bernard FAURE -The Rhetoric of
Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan / Zen Buddhism and Chan
Insights and Oversights: An Epistemological Critique of the Chan
Tradition (Princeton: Princeton- University Press 1991 and 1993).
FAURE's analyses are organized around the distinctive interplay between
REYNOLDS 475
Chan / Zen's characteristic rhetorical emphasis on the immediacy of
Buddhist experience on the one hand, and its usage of a broad and fasci-
nating range of mediating practices and modes of knowing on the other.
Analytically erudite, with many comparative references, these books
make a significant contribution not only to Buddhist studies, but to the
history of religions more generally. _
Among other books on Chinese Buddhism that are especially con-
cerned with "religion on the ground" there are four that I find especially
interesting. John KIESCHNICK's The Eminent Monk: Buddhist Ideals in
Medieval Chinese Hagiography (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press
1997) provides important insight into the behavioral norms that were
operative within at least some medieval monastic communities.l
8
Steven
TEISER, in The Ghost Festival in Medieval China (princeton: Princeton
University Press 1988) and Scripture of the Ten Kings and the Making of
Purgatory in Medieval Chinese Buddhism (Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press 1994), explores the operative beliefs and practices of large
segments of the Chinese Buddhist community, both monastic .and lay.
Daniel OVERMYER's Folk Buddhist Religion: Dissenting Sects in Late
Traditional China (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1976)
remains a useful source concerning an often neglected dimension of
Chinese Buddhism.
The important topic of Buddhism and the Chinese political establish-
ment has been addressed by Stanley WEINSTEIN in Buddhism under the
T' ang (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1987). Turning to a
later period when Buddhism had lost much of its political influence,
Chun-fung Yu has contributed a highly informative study of The
Renewal of Buddhism in China: Chu-hung and the Late Ming Synthesis
(New York: Columbia University Press 1981). This is a book that
clearly demonstrates the resilience of Chinese Buddhism and its persis-
tence in Chinese religious and cultural life. The Chinese Buddhist expe-
rience in the modem period is explored by Holmes WELCH in Buddhism
Under Mao (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press 1972).19
18. KIEsCHNICK's book can be usefully paired with Kathryn Ann TSAI's The Lives
of Nuns mentioned in the section on "Manuscripts and Translations."
19. Buddhism Under Mao is the third book in a trilogy that includes The Practice of
Chinese Buddhism: 1900-1950 and The Buddhist Revival in China (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press 1967 and 1968). Since these two earlier books
were published prior to the time period covered by the present essay, they are not
included in the main body of the text. Nevertheless it is worth noting that, taken
JIABS 22.2 476
It is safe to say that scholarship on. Korean Buddhism has not been
especially rich. Robert BUSWELL, who has been by far the most prolific
scholar in this field, followed his book on Chinul (see the "Manuscript
and Translation" section above) by publishing The Formation oj Ch' an
Ideology on China and Korea: The Vajrasamadhi Satra, A Buddhist
Apocryphon (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1989) and Zen.
Monastic Experience (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1992).
Though Sun Bae PARK takes a very different approach in his Buddhist
Faith and Sudden Enlightenment (Albany: SUNY Press 1983), his a t t e ~
tion is also focused on the Chan segment of the Korean tradition.
The only really high quality Buddhist studies book on Korean
Buddhism that is not explicitly oriented toward Chan is Francisca CRO
BANTLY's Embracing Illusion: Truth and Fiction in The Dream of the
Nine Clouds (Albany: SUNY Press 1996). In this study of a famous 17th
century novel, CRO BANTL Y deftly defends her innovative and chal-
lenging thesis that the author of The Dream of the Nine Clouds uses
fiction as an effective mode - perhaps the most effective mode - of ex-
pressing key Buddhist attitudes toward reality and illusion.
Buddhist studies scholars in the area of Japanese Buddhism have been
both numerous and productive. In 1974 and 1976 Daigan and Alicia
MATSUNAGA published Foundations of Japanese Buddhism (Los
Angeles: Buddhist Books International), a two volume set that deals with
the history of Japanese Buddhism through the medieval period. A more
recent and much different insight into medieval Japanese Buddhism is
provided by William LAFLEUR in The Karma of Words: Buddhism and'
the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan (Berkeley: University of California
Press 1983). LAFLEUR's book remains to this day a classic.
Over the years Buddhist studies scholars have produced a number of
books focused on particular sectarian traditions. As in the case of China
and Korea, the Chan I Zen tradition has received a disproportionate
amount of attention. Four studies that stand out in different ways are:
Thomas KASULIS, Zen Person, Zen Action (Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press 1981); Carl BIELEFELDT, Dogen's Manuals of Zen
Meditation (Berkeley: University of California Press 1988); William
BODIFORD, Soto Zen in Medieval Japan (Honolulu: Hawaii University
together, WELCH's three books remain unrivaled resources for anyone interested
in exploring the persistence and crises of Chinese Buddhism during the fIrst six
decades of the 20th century.
REYNOLDS 477
Press 1993); and Martin COLLCUTT, Five Mountains: The Rinzai Zen
Monastic Institution in Medieval Japan (Cambridge: Harvard University
Press 1981).
IIi. the late 1970's Minoru KIYOTO published Shingon Buddhism:
Theory and PraCtice (Los Angeles: Buddhist Books Internationa11978).
More recently James DOBBINS has focused on important aspects of the
Pure Land tradition in Jodo Shinshu: Shin Buddhism in M e d i e ~ a l Japan
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press 1989).
Other scholars working on Japanese Buddhism have concentrated their
attention on individual Buddhist figures. In 1984 Paul GRONER con-
tributed Saicho: the Establishment of the Japanese Tendai School
(Berkeley: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of California
at Berkeley, Institute of Buddhist Studies). George TANABE followed
with Myoe the Dreamkeeper: Fantasy and Knowledge in Early Kama-
kura Buddhism (Harvard: Harvard University Press 1992). Finally, in
1996, Bernard FAURE published Visions of Power: Imagining Medieval
Japanese Buddhism (Princeton: Princeton University Press), a rich
interpretation of the mental world of a Soto Zen patriarch who lived in
the late 13th / early 14th centuries.
Other topics that have received some attention are the ways in which
Buddhist texts have been employed, and the role of Buddhist art. In
1989 George and Willa TANABE published an edited collection of essays
on The Lotus Sutra in Japanese Culture (Honolulu: Hawaii University
Press). In 1992 Susan TYLOR presented a fascinating look at visual
symbolism in The Cult of Kasuga Seen Through Its Art (Ann Arbor:
Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan).
The Buddhist experience in early modem / modem Japan has been
treated in many publications covering many different topics. Certain
aspects of the re1igio-political experience of Buddhism have been
depicted and analyzed in an exciting new way by James KETELAAR in
Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji Japan: Buddhism and Its Persecution
(Princeton: Princeton University Press 1990). Later religio-political
aspects were taken up in a well attended panel on "Buddhism and
Imperialism" that was presented at the November 1997 meeting of the
American Academy of Religion. The members of this panel documented
a wide range of Buddhist involvements in the Japanese nationalist chau-
vinism that developed during the first half of the 20th century.
At least two books that extend beyond the explicitly religio-po1itical
domain deserve to be included in any overall survey. A Buddhist-
JIABS 22.2 478
oriented "new religion" is described and analyzed by Helen HARDACRE .
in Lay Religion in Contemporary Japan: Reiyukai Kyodan (Princeton: .
Princeton University Press 1984). Focusing on a very different ~ u b j e c t
William LAFLEUR - in Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan
(Princeton: Princeton University Press 1992) - does a masterful job of
describing and analyzing the historiCal background and contemporary
character of Buddhist involvement in the Japanese abortion debate, and
in the creation of Buddhist practices related to the memorialization of
aborted fetuses. Liquid Life makes an ethics-oriented contribution to
Buddhist studies research that is virtually unique. At the same time, it
addresses issues that concern a much wider audience as well. .
During the 19th and 20th centuries Buddhism has become firmly
established in the West and has had particular success in the United
States. However serious book-length studies of the processes through
which this success has been achieved and of the communities that have
been established are few and far between. Among the books that
appeared early on in the twenty five year period we are considering, the
most comprehensive overview of the American Buddhist scene was
provided by Emma MCCLOY LAYMAN in her Buddhism in America
(Chicago: Nelson-Hall Publishers 1976). In 1992 Rick FIELDS published
the third edition of his informative survey entitled How the Swans Came
to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America (Boston:
Shambala Publications 1992).20
In the last two years two books have been published that break impor-
tant new ground. The first is Paul David NUMRICH's sociologically
based study of Old Wisdom in the New World: Americanization in Two
Immigrant Theravada Buddhist Temples (Knoxville: University of
Tennessee Press 1996.) The second is Donald LOPEZ' Prisoners of
Shangri-La: Tibetan Buddhism and the West (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press 1998).
20. For an interesting book that correlates developments in America and Sri Lanka in
the late 19th century see Stephen PROTHERO's The White Buddhist: The Asian
Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott (Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press
1996).
REYNOLDS 479
Concluding Reflections
Like any appropriate framework that might have been adopted, the area-
b y ~ a r e a structure that has been employed in organizing the present essay
has made it possible to highlight certain crucial aspects of the topic
under consideration. From the discussion that has been developed using
this area-by-area strategy, at least three important conclusions can be
drawn.
Clearly our review of U.S. Buddhist studies scholarship over the past
twenty five years has demonstrated that American scholars have increas-
ingly shied away from any attempt to identify the origins of Buddhism
(Ray's book is a notable exception), or to postulate any kind of pure or
uniquely authentic Buddhist tradition.
21
The correlate of this turn away
from concerns with matters of origin and essence has been an increasing
emphasis on the study of the later phases of Buddhist history, and on the
almost infinite diversity of Buddhist beliefs, practices and modes of
communal life.
It is also evident that during this same time period there has been a
move away from a primary interest in purely philological methods and
doctrinal issues toward a much greater emphasis on many various forms
of Buddhist expression, including especially those that have been most
deeply implicated in the everyday life of ordinary Buddhist practition-
ers. These other forms include narrative and story-telling, artistic and
iconographic expressions, ritual performances (both monastic and lay),
and the involvement and influence of Buddhism in various forms of
political, economic, and social activity.
Our discussion has also highlighted a strong surge in the production of
feminist scholarship. This is apparent in the growing corpus of works
that deal with the role that feminine dimensions and symbols have
played in the structure and dynamics of Buddhist doctrine, meditation,
narrative and teaching. It is even more evident in the extensive attention
that has been given to the achievements of women (especially but not
exclusively female renunciants), and to the roles that women have
played in the life of the Buddhist community.
21. In recent years the long-standing debate between those who consider the history
of Buddhism to be the story of a degeneration from a pure (Theravada or
Theravada-like) origin, and those who see that history as the story of a progres-
sive development culminating in one or another form of Mahayana or Vajrayana
has virtually disappeared from the American Buddhist studies scene.
JIABS 22.2 480
But at the same time that this area-by, area organizational strategy has
facilitated the identification of a number of significant developments,
other important trends have been left in the shadows. In order to xound
out the discussion, it will be useful to consider four dimensions of recent
American Buddhist studies scholarship that this area-by-area approach
has tended to hide from view.
The first of these innovative developments is the increasing use of
computer technology for facilitating more rapid communication within
the U.S. and beyond, and for generating new resources for research. An
example of the more formalized use of computer technology for
scholarly communications is the Journal of Buddhist Ethics - an
electronic publication founded by Charles PREBISH and Dameon
KEOWN that has its primary base of operations at Pennsylvania State
University.
American Buddhist studies scholars have also taken the initiative in the
development of computerized data bases that include not only textual
materials, but visual and audial materials as welL Here the most active
and productive scholar on the American scene has been Lewis
LANCASTER, the chair of the American Academy of Religions Electron-
ic Publications Committee. Prof. LANCASTER has been actively in- ,
volved in several data base projects designed to make available different
Buddhist "canonical" collections. Working in cooperation with Mahidol
University, LANCASTER has already facilitated the production of a CD
Rom that contains all of the items that are included in the Thai version
of the Pali canon. This CD Rom is now available from Scholars Press,
Atlanta Ga ..
The second of these four dimensions of recent Buddhist studies
scholarship that has been neglected is the production of communally
generated research and publications that provide a counter-weight to the
tendency to emphasize and isolate area-defIDed patterns of specialization.
The basic publication genre in which these efforts to resist the fragmen-
tation of Buddhist studies scholarship have been implemented is the
edited volume. Three well crafted examples of this genre are: Donald
LOPEZ, ed., Buddhist Hermenutics (Honolulu: University of Hawaii
Press 1988); Robert BUSWELL and Robert GIMELLO, eds., Paths to
Liberation: The Marga and Its Transformations in Buddhist Thought
REYNOLDS 481
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press 1992); and Jose CABEZ6N, ed.
Buddhism, Sexuality and Gender (Albany: SUNY Press 1992),.2
2
Somewhat different cross-area topics are considered in Helen Hardacre
and Alan Sponberg, eds., Maitreya: The Future Buddha (New York:
Cambridge University Press 1938) and in an On Mandalas special issue
of the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies (VoL
19, no. 2 published in Winter 1996). This latter collection of essays,
generated from a University of Chicago conference entitled "Mandalas
on the Move: 750-850 C.E.," contains essays dealing with roughly 8th/
9th century Buddhist materials from India, Indonesia, China, and Japan.
Also in 1996 Chris QUEEN and Sallie KING published an edited
collection of essays that examine a variety of widely separated contem-
porary developments that fit under the rubric Socially Engaged
Buddhism (Albany: SUNY Press).
The third trend that our area-by-area approach has kept in the shadows
IS the emergence of serious Buddhist studies scholarship that is primarily
concerned to generate new kinds of Buddhist understandings that are
directly and explicitly related to contemporary issues of religious
practice and social involvement. It is difficult to differentiate between
normatively oriented modes of study and those that are descriptively
oriented. And it is also not easy to draw a clear distinction between
scholarship that is intellectually distanced and critical, and that which is
primarily confessional and/ or apologetic. However that may be, it is
certainly the case that in the United States an increasing number of
Buddhist studies books are being produced that combine an explicitly
normative (and often activist) orientation with a high level of scholarly
competence and sophistication.
Serious Buddhist studies scholarship of t4is particular kind is being
carried on with special intensity by Buddhist practitioners who have
strong interests in inter-religious dialogue, in feminist causes, and in
ethical issues related to the environment and social justice. Examples
that immediately come to mind are Joanna MACY, Mutual Causality in
Buddhism and General Systems Theory: The Dharma of Natural Systems
(Albany: SUNY Press 1991) and Dharma and Development West
Hartford, Ct.: Kumarien Press 1983); Rita GROSS, Buddhism After
22. Those interested in the issues raised in the CABEz6N volume should also consult
Bernard FAURE's recent Red Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality
(Princeton: Princeton University Press 1998)
nABS 22.2 482
Patriarchy (Albany: SUNY Press 1993); and Anne KLEIN, Great Bliss
Queen: Buddhists, Feminists and ihe Art of Self (Boston: Beacon Press
1995).23
The last of the recent trends that I wish to highlight is a crucial though
belated recognition of the importance of theory and method. The best
known and most influential book that represents this trend, particularly .
as it is expressed in a critique of various forms of orientalist scholarship,
is Donald LOPEZ, ed. Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism
under Colonialism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press 1995). In an
earlier study Andrew TUCK provided a critical examination of westefr:t
interpretations of the Buddhist philosophy attributed to Nagarjuna (see
Comparative Philosophy and the Philosophy of Scholarship: On the
Western Interpretation of Niigiirjuna published in New York by Oxford
University Press in 1990). Galen AMSTUTZ has subsequently carried the
discussion forward in his study entitled Interpreting Amida: History and
Orientalism in the Study of Pure Land Buddhism (Albany: SUNY Press
1997).
The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, in its
Winter 1995 issue (VoL 18, no. 2), published two thought provoking
essays that raised a related but rather different set of theoretical and
methodological issues. These essays, written by two of the leading
figures in the American Buddhist studies community, address the urgent
need to explore the problems and possibilities of conceptualizing
Buddhist studies as a full fledged academic "field" or "discipline." The
first, written by Luis G6MEZ, is entitled "Unspoken Paradigms:
Meanderings through the Metaphors of a Field" (pp. 183-230). The
second, by Jose CABEz6N, considers "Buddhist Studies as a Discipline
and the Role;of Theory" (pp. 231-268). These two essays mark an
important new stage in the maturation of American Buddhist studies
scholarship.
It should be evident from all that has been reported that the Buddhist
studies community in the United States has, over the past twenty five
years, made remarkable progress. Clearly it has grown immensely in
23. Due to limitations of space, works devoted to Buddhist-Christian dialogue have
not been included in this essay. However it is important to note that this kind of
dialogical scholarship has been and is being pursued by many U.S. scholars. One
of the more important institutional settings for the systematic' cultivation of
scholarship devoted to Buddhist-Christian dialogue are the Religious Studies
program at Temple University and the Society for Buddhist I Christian Studies.
REYNOLDS 483
terms of the number of scholars involved and the volume and quality of
the research that is being produced. Buddhist studies has assumed an
important place in the U.S. academy,not only as a significant compo-
nent in its own right, but also as an important contributor to a wide
range of other academic disciplines. And it has also taken on a signifi-
cant role within the international community of Buddl;tist studies
scholars. Given this evidence of growth and progress, it seems reason-
able to conclude that Buddhist studies in the United States has, after a
long period of marginal existence, finally "come of age."
nABS 222 485
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