Showing posts with label Indian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indian. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 24, 2022

The Lotus Sutra

THE LOTUS SUTRA (Indian Buddhism, c. 1st century BCE-2nd century CE)

The Lotus Sutra (in Sanskrit, the Saddharma Pundarika Sutra, or "Sutra on the White Lotus of the True Dharma") is one of the most influential sutras of Mahayana Buddhism, particularly important in the Chinese Tiantai (Jp. Tendai, Kr. Cheontae) sect, as well as Japanese Nichiren Buddhism. (The Chinese call it Fahua Jing; the Japanese, Myoho Renge Kyo or Hoke-kyo for short.) Some east Asians consider it the highest, final teaching of the Mahayana or "Great Vehicle." It teaches the doctrine of the One Vehicle (all Buddhist schools and practices are "skillful means" leading to Buddhahood); that all beings can become Buddhas; and that the lifespan of the Buddha is immeasurable, so he only appeared to pass on into final Nirvana (death)--he is still teaching the Dharma.

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Monday, May 16, 2022

The Mahabharata

THE MAHABHARATA (Vyasa?, Indian, before 200 CE)

The Mahabharata (meaning, perhaps, "The Great [Epic of] India") is one of the country's two great epics, the other being the Ramayana. The Mahabharata tells of a dynastic struggle between two groups of cousins, with a gambling game as the MacGuffin that gets the struggle going. The five Pandavas (our heroes) and their wife (it's complicated) lose to their Kaurava cousins (whom some believe cheated) and undergo 12 + 1 years of exile. Many folktales are incorporated into their years of wandering. The struggle at last comes to a head in the great 18-day Kurukshetra War (occupying 1/4 of the book), which the five Pandavas win (all surviving) though the moral complexity of slaughtering kin makes the victory somewhat hollow, a point we'll discuss when we reach the Bhagavad Gita, which is imbedded in this much larger work.

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Thursday, May 12, 2022

The Mahapuranas

THE MAHAPURANAS (Indian, unknown dates, perhaps from c. 250 CE)

The Puranas (a Sanskrit word meaning "ancient") constitute a vast genre of Indian literature on a wide range of topics, mostly related to the gods and their activities, including the Mahabharata; holy places and festivals; cosmology and the world; genealogies of various dynasties; and the practice of Yoga. Out of the many, 18 have been designated Maha ("great") puranas (though the texts included may vary depending on the source). The shortest purana is 9,000 verses; the longest, 81,100; many individual verses appear in more than one purana. Most of the Mahapuranas are named for Hindu gods. One list has: Brahma, Padma, Vishnu, Shiva, Bhagavata, Narada, Markandeya, Agni, Bhavishya, Brahmavaivarta, Linga, Varaha, Skanda, Vamana, Kurma, Matsya, Garuda, and Brahmanda.

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Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Shudraka

SHUDRAKA (Indian, unk. date, perhaps 3rd or 5th century CE)

Three extant Sanskrit plays are attributed to one Shudraka, who may have been a king (perhaps in the Abhira dynasty, which lasted from 203-315 or 370 CE), or could be a mythical figure. But the plays are real:

  • Mrichchhakatika (The Little Clay Cart), a ten-act drama in which a noble but impoverished young Brahmin (priest) falls in love with a wealthy courtesan, but their relationship is threatened by an aggressive rival.
  • Vinavasavadatta, a nine-act play (only eight survive) in which a king tries to "match" his daughter with another king; when the prospective groom refuses, the father imprisons him to break his pride--and it works!
  • Padmaprabhritaka, a bhana--a short one-act monologue in which one actor may take many parts.


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Tuesday, May 10, 2022

Lalitavistara Sutra

LALITAVISTARA SUTRA (Mahayana Buddhist, 3rd century CE)

The Lalitavistara Sutra is a 27-chapter Sanskrit Mahayana Buddhist text, and a partial "autobiography" of the historical Buddha from the time he came down from the Tushita heaven (where he resided before being reborn on Earth as Prince Siddhartha Gautama) until his first sermon (after his Enlightenment) in the Deer Park near Varanasi, which launched his public mission. It covers his (re)birth and childhood, education, courtship, palace life, departure and search, asceticism, temptation, and attainment. It is portrayed in a series of reliefs at Borobudur.

  • The name has been translated "The Play in Full," hinting that the Buddha's last incarnation was a performance given for the benefit of the beings in this world.

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Wednesday, May 4, 2022

Nagarjuna

NAGARJUNA (Indian Buddhist, c. 150-250 CE)

An Indian Mahayana Buddhist scholar, he is widely considered one of the most important Buddhist philosophers. He is credited as founding the Madhyamaka or "Middle Way" School. To "prove" that all existence is "empty" (that is, devoid of self-existence, or that all things are dependent on all others) he employed what has been called the tetralemma (like a dilemma, but with four choices):

  1. A is A. [affirmation]
  2. A is not A. [negation]
  3. A is both A and not A. [double affirmation]
  4. A is not A nor not not A. [double negation]
    [Therefore, all is empty]

An oversimplified, homely example:

  1. A rose is a rose.
  2. A rose is not a rose (e.g. it is made up of constituent parts).
  3. A rose is both a rose and not a rose (1 & 2).
  4. A rose is not a rose nor not not a rose (2 & 1).
    [Therefore, all is empty]

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Tuesday, April 26, 2022

The Milinda Panha

THE MILINDA PANHA (Indian Buddhist, 100 BCE-200 CE)

The Questions of [King] Milinda is a Buddhist text from sometime between 100 BCE and 200 CE, in which the Indo-Greek king of Bactria, Menander I (called in Pali Milinda), questions the great Indian Buddhist sage Nagasena about the Buddha's teachings. Milinda is historical; he reigned in the 2nd century BCE. Nagasena seems to be unknown outside of this dialogue, which is almost largely fabricated. Nevertheless, it is included in the canons of Burma and, in an abridged form, China; Thai and Sri Lankan Buddhism do not accept it as such. After each question has been addressed, the king responds (in one translation), "Well answered, Nagasena!" Tradition says Nagasena's answers were indeed effective: after the discussion, Milinda took refuge in the Buddha and turned his kingdom over to his son. Further tradition says he ultimately attained enlightenment.

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Monday, April 25, 2022

Ilango Adigal

ILANGO ADIGAL (perhaps late 2nd or early 3rd century CE)

Ilango Adigal was a monk of the Jain sect; a prince of the Chera dynasty of Kerala, India; and a poet traditionally credited with writing Silappatikaram, one of the Five Great Epics of Tamil literature. Its 5,730 lines of poetry tells a tragic love story about an ordinary couple, Kannaki and her husband Kovalan. One scholar has said it is to the Tamil culture what the Iliad is to the Greek. In a prologue, Ilango Adigal identifies himself as the brother of a famous king named Senguttuvan--but Ilango may in fact be mythical. Anyway, his "biography" says he was a prince who chose to forgo the royal life; internal evidence suggests instead the Silappatikaram was written by a Jaina scholar, and that a more likely date for the epic is the 5th or 6th century CE.

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Thursday, April 21, 2022

Vimalakirti Nirdesha

VIMALAKIRTI NIRDESHA (Mahayana Buddhist, c. 100 CE)

Tradition says that Vimalakirti was a Buddhist layperson from the Buddha's time who achieved a level of enlightenment that (some said) was second only to that of the Buddha himself. The Vimalakirti Nirdesha (a word meaning "teachings") is one of the major Mahayana sutras. The Mahayana branch of Buddhism embraces layperson and monastic alike, and Vimalakirti's attainment may have been making a point. In one chapter he schools Manjushri, a Bodhisattva said to embody wisdom. In another, he feigns illness so, when sympathetic people come to visit, he can teach them. The sutra seems to have been more popular in East (where the Mahayana is prevalent) than in South Asia.

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Sunday, April 17, 2022

The Buddhacharita

THE BUDDHACHARITA (Sanskrit, early 2nd century CE)

The Buddhist monk Ashvaghosha (c. 80-150 CE) was born in northern India, and is believed to have been the first Sanskrit dramatist; but today he is best remembered for the Buddhacharita or "Acts of the Buddha," an epic poem written in Sanskrit (previous Buddhist works had largely used Pali or another vernacular of Sanskrit) in the early second century CE on the life of Gautama Buddha. Only the first half survives complete in Sanskrit (fragments of the latter half remain), but Chinese and Tibetan translations were made early on. Dealing with the "miracles" in a restrained style (for the time at least) he tells of the Buddha's birth and youth, his flight, austerities and training, enlightenment, life with his followers, and death.

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Monday, April 4, 2022

The Pali Canon

THE PALI CANON (perhaps 483 BCE)

The Pali Canon is sort of the "Bible" of Southern (Theravada) Buddhism. It was compiled from the recollections of the Buddha's closest followers at the First Buddhist council (perhaps 483 BCE) after his death; but it was preserved orally and wasn't written down until centuries afterward. Many say it contains the oldest and most authentic collection of the words of the historic Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. The entire Canon is long: one edition runs to over 2.7 million words in Pali, a language (similar to Sanskrit) which is close to the one in in which the Buddha actually taught. Printed editions run to around 40 volumes.

  • The Pali Canon is divided into three parts--Vinaya, Sutta, Abhidhamma; in Pali, it's called Tipitaka ("three baskets").
  • The Vinaya Pitaka deals with rules for monks; the Sutta Pitaka is the sayings of the Buddha (the largest "basket"); and the Abhidhamma is a later, psychologizing expansion of the teachings.

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Monday, March 21, 2022

Bhasa

BHASA (Indian, before the 1st century BCE)

Although his dates are very uncertain, the great Indian playwright Bhasa was already well-known by the 1st century BCE; at the earliest, he lived in the later days of the Mauryan Empire (322-185 BCE). Thirteen plays have been connected to him, but were all lost until manuscripts were rediscovered around 1910. Bhasa's plays are generally short compared to later Indian plays. Three of those plays are based on the Ramayana, and seven on the Mahabharata. Another is a fairy tale, and two are based on the life of a legendary king who lived at the time of the Buddha. Two of his plays are the only known tragedies written in Sanskrit in ancient India; later, the guidelines for plays considered sad endings inappropriate.

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Sunday, March 20, 2022

The Laws of Manu (Manusmriti)

THE LAWS OF MANU (Manu, Indian, 200 BCE-200 CE)

The first Manu (called "Swayambhuva Manu," son of the god Brahma, and in some sense the first human) had a discussion with Bhrigu, a rishi (enlightened person) who was one of the Saptarshis, the Seven Great Sages. Their topics were the proper duties, rights, laws, conduct, virtues, and so on. This talk is the basis of the Manusmriti or Laws [better, "Written Texts"] of Manu, the earliest Hindu legal text, and one of the first Sanskrit texts to be translated into English. The East India Company used in the making their administrative law code.

  • Over fifty ancient manuscripts of the Manusmriti are known.
  • It has long been known outside of India, and used in ancient Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia.

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Sunday, March 13, 2022

The Panchatantra

THE PANCHATANTRA (Vishnusharma?, Indian, about 200 BCE)

The Panchatantra ("Five Treatises") is a collection of fables that shares a style and a few stories with the Jataka Tales and Aesop. It's also the source of some stories in the Arabian Nights and other works. Like that later work, the stories are arranged in an embedded "Russian Doll" structure. The (probably fictitious) author, Vishnusharma, is named in the Introduction. Unlike Aesop, each of the five books has a frame story that provides a loose theme.

The Five Books:

  • Book 1, "The Loss of Friends": 30+ fables about Damanaka, a wily jackal serving a lion king; the longest book, making up 45% of the whole
  • Book 2, "The Winning of Friends": 10 fables about four friends: a crow, a mouse, a turtle, and a deer (22%)
  • Book 3, "On Crows and Owls": 18 fables, mainly about war and peace (26%)
  • Book 4, "Loss of Gains": 13 fables with morals (7%)
  • Book 5, "Ill-Considered Action": 12 fables with cautionary morals, mainly featuring human characters (?%, but short)

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Saturday, March 12, 2022

The Ramayana

THE RAMAYANA (Valmiki, Indian, perhaps 5th century BCE)

The Ramayana is the shorter of the two great Sanskrit epics of ancient India, the other being the Mahabharata. Said to have been written by the sage Valmiki, it tells the story of Prince Rama, considered by worshipers of Lord Vishnu to be an avatar (material incarnation) of that supreme deity. Through the machinations of his stepmother, Rama undergoes a fourteen-year exile, along with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. Much of the story is taken up with the kidnapping of Sita to Sri Lanka by the demon Ravana, and her rescue (with the help of Hanuman, a divine monkey and devotee of Lord Rama) before the prince's return to his city and reclaiming of his throne.

  • The Ramayana contains nearly 24,000 verses in seven chapters.
  • The oldest parts of the story date to the 7th-4th centuries BCE, the latest up to the 3rd century CE.

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Saturday, March 5, 2022

The Jataka Tales

THE JATAKA TALES (Indian, 300 BCE-400 CE)

In Buddhism, the Jataka Tales are considered to be stories of the previous lives of the Buddha (Jataka means "birth"), with around 550 of them in one collection. Whenever the Buddha tells one, he identifies who he was (always a virtuous figure), and which characters in the story were which of his disciples. But the stories are, for the most part, more like Aesop, the 1,001 Nights, or the Indian Panchatantra. One of the most famous tells of a prince giving his body to feed a dying tiger, saving both her and her seven cubs. The prince, of course, is the Buddha-to-be. In another, he is captain of a ship who--as the lesser of two evils--kills a robber who plans to kill 500 merchants, even though this will be a setback to his attainment of enlightenment.

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Sunday, February 27, 2022

The Brahma Sutras

THE BRAHMA SUTRAS (attributed to Badarayana or Vyasa, Indian, c. 450 CE)

The Sanskrit text called the Brahma Sutras (also known as the Vedanta Sutra) may have been composed between 500 and 200 BCE, but was finalized about 400-450 CE. It systematizes and summarizes the ideas in the Upanishads, and is foundational to the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. Its four chapters are made up of 555 aphoristic verses about the nature of human existence and universe, and about the Ultimate Reality called Brahman.

  • The four chapters of the Brahma Sutras contain:
    • Chap. 1: the metaphysics of Absolute Reality
    • Chap. 2: objections raised by competing schools of Indian philosophy including Buddhism and Jainism
    • Chap. 3: epistemology and the path to gaining liberating knowledge
    • Chap. 4: why such a knowledge is important

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Thursday, February 3, 2022

The Upanishads

THE UPANISHADS (India, c. 700-500 BCE)

This 4th section of The Vedas is also called the Vedanta, the end--both in time and purpose--of The Vedas. They contain more Hindu philosophy than the older portions and thus are better known and more accessible to the average reader. One story summarizes the intention of the texts when it says "You are That," identifying the inquirer with the Atman, the Highest Self. About 108 Upanishads are known, 12 or so of them being most important. Schopenhauer called them "the most profitable and elevating reading... possible in the world."

  • The Brhadaranyaka, Katha, Kena, and Mundaka Upanishads are of special interest.

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Tuesday, February 1, 2022

The Vedas

THE VEDAS (India, c. 1500-900 BCE)

The Vedas are the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. There are four: the Rigveda: probably the best known in the west, a collection of hymns; the Yajurveda: prose mantras for worship rituals; the Samaveda: melodies and chants, largely taken from the Rigveda; and the Atharvaveda: religious procedures for everyday life. Each Veda is further divided into four parts: the Samhitas (the main, metrical texts), the Brahmanas (commentaries on the Samhitas); the Aranyakas (meditations on the Samhitas by forest mystics); and the Upanishads (philosophical works).

  • Veda means "knowledge."

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