Understanding
Buddhist History in Real Life: the Case of Ancient Andhra by Dr Ian Mabbett;
Devotional Elements in the Sakkapañhasutta of the Dīghanikāya by Dr Greg
Bailey
Our second Victorian AABS Seminar for 2013, in partnership with
STaR (Seminar for Theology and Religion) at Monash University, will be held on
Thursday 6th June from 5:00 to 7:00 pm at the
Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation Seminar Room,
Building H, Level 8, Dandenong Rd, Caulfield Campus, Monash
University.
Dr Ian Mabbett will speak on Understanding Buddhist History
in Real Life: the Case of Ancient Andhra and Dr Greg Bailey will speak on
Devotional Elements in the Sakkapañhasutta of the Dīghanikāya.
We hope
you can attend.
Kind regards
AABS
Executive
Understanding Buddhist History in Real Life: the Case
of Ancient Andhra
The second and third centuries A.D. were a
period of rapid change and growth in the history of Buddhism in the Deccan. The
Sātavāhana dynasty had lost its territories in the north-west but held on to its
dominion over major commercial and urbanized populations in the Andhra region,
along the river Krishna. International trade flourished. Buddhism throve; the
celebrated stūpa at Amarāvatī was a centre of pilgrimage, and the nearby city of
Dhānyakaṭaka was home to many devout Buddhists. After the Sātavahanas collapsed,
the riverine port cities of the Krishna came under the rule of minor but, for a
while, prosperous kingdoms with various religious affiliations. Of particular
note is Nāgārjunakoṇḍa under the Ikṣvākus in the third century, where major
works of brahmanical devotion were sponsored by the men of the royal family,
while the women promoted and inspired a wave of practical Buddhist
devotion.
The paper will offer reflections upon the problems presented
to the student of Buddhism during this period, especially the challenge posed by
the variety of forms that Buddhism took and the new developments manifesting the
birth of Mahāyāna.
Dr Ian Mabbett was educated in
England, and after graduating in Sanskrit and Pāli wrote a doctoral dissertation
on the role and limits of ancient Indian kingship. From 1965 to 2006 (except for
two years at a Japanese university) he worked at Monash University, lecturing
and engaging in research on various aspects of ancient Asian history, with a
special interest in the history and philosophy of
Buddhism.
Devotional Elements in the Sakkapañhasutta of the
Dīghanikāya
The Sakkapañhasutta of the Dīghanikāya (2, 263-289)
is one of the most interesting suttas in this collection as it contains
a love story and a narrative expression of the development of a devotional
relationship between Sakka, king of the gods, and the Buddha. At the climax of
this narrative there is a concentration of technical terms and use of first and
second person pronouns that recur in strongly devotional contexts in texts such
as the Bhagavadgītā and many Purāṇas. The occurrence of verbs derived from
das, payirupa/ās and vand and nouns such as
a|ppaṭipuggalam, saṃbuddha and adjectives such as
anuttara, in a set of stotra like verses (pp. 287-88) are
found here at a point where the Buddha is seen conferring both material and
spiritual benefits, and where Sakka must struggle even to get access to the
Buddha.
In this paper I outline the narrative structure of the text and
present the devotional process Sakka undergoes in order to develop an
enlightening relationship with the Buddha. Then I will compare this with
devotional attitudes in some avadānas and the Saddharmapuṇḍarika where
the kind of intimacy between Sakka and Indra found in the Sakkapañhasutta seems
to be absent. This is conceptually related to the idea of veneration associated
with stūpa worship from the early centuries BCE onwards, but without
having the intimacy demonstrated between the Buddha and Sakka and seemingly
focussed more on the transfer of merit. Much of this mode of worship has to be
inferred, though there are some indications of it both in literary texts and
friezes on stūpa walls.
Dr Greg Bailey is an
Honorary Research Fellow in the Program in Asian Studies, La Trobe University,
Melbourne. He has published translations and studies of the Gaṇeśa Purāṇa,
Bhartṛhari’s Śatakatraya and books on the god Brahmā, early Buddhism,
contemporary Australia, and many articles on Sanskrit literature. At present he
is working on the relationship between early Buddhism and the
Mahābhārata.
