Table of Contents
- WORKSHOP> Summer Workshop on Jain Sources in
Indian Historiography, July 29-Aug 2, 2019
- NEW BOOK> Pure Lands in Asian Texts and
Contexts: An Anthology
- JOURNAL> Pacific World: new address
WORKSHOP>
Summer Workshop on Jain Sources in Indian Historiography, July 29-Aug 2, 2019
by A. Charles Muller
Re-posted from H-Asia:
by Steven Vose
Hello colleagues!I am writing to bring your attention to a week-long workshop I will be conducting at the University of Toronto-Mississauga from July 29 to August 2, 2019. Luther Obrock and Ajay Rao will be hosting what we hope will be a series of annual summer workshops on the languages and literatures of Jainism. This, the first workshop, will focus on the Sanskrit and Prakrit Jain prabandhas, narrative texts composed in the 13th-14th centuries that deserve the attention of textualists and historians of late medieval, early modern, and Islamicate South Asia. This workshop will be an opportunity to read and investigate several portions of this body of texts and to take stock of the issues concerning the genre and their use as sources in the historiography of South Asia. A longer description follows below. I hope to have a diverse mix of scholars, historians, literature folks and others join in for the week. No prior knowledge of Jainism is necessary.
I will be joined by Sarah Pierce Taylor, a historian of Digambara Jainism and Kannada literature, as well as Shalin Jain of the University of Delhi, whose recent book, Identity, Community and State (Delhi: Primus, 2017) focuses on Jain communities in the Mughal era. My own work focuses on Jains in the Delhi Sultanate, the re-imagining of the Svetambara tradition in that period (much of which carries on to the present), and the implications a greater consideration of Jain sources would have on the broader historical narratives we write of the period.
Best regards,
Steven M. Vose
Bhagwan Mahavir Assistant Professor of Jain Studies
Director, Jain Studies Program
Department of Religious Studies
Florida International University
11200 SW 8th St., DM 302
Miami, FL 33199
He/him/his
The First Annual Summer School on Languages of Jainism, University of Toronto-Mississauga
The First Annual Summer School on Languages of Jainism will take place in at the University of Toronto from July 29th to August 2nd, 2019. The First Summer School will focus on reading and contextualizing the prabandha literature, a rich archive of Jain histories, biographies, and stories composed mainly in Sanskrit and Prakrit. These narratives often display a historical consciousness rarely seen in other genres of Sanskrit literature, making them essential resources for the social and religious history of the period. This year’s Summer School will survey the breadth of themes, figures and places in the Jain prabandha literature and to consider the historiographical challenges and potential rewards of writing the history of late medieval India using these sources. Daily reading sessions will examine themes emerging in a number of sources, such as Jain views of kingship; the roles of monks and laymen as social and political leaders; Jain technologies of power of mantras, tantras, and alchemy; the re-imagining of sacred space and sacred geography; and the relations between Jains and Islamicate polities.
The workshop will be led by Steven M. Vose, the Bhagwan Mahavir Assistant Professor of Jain Studies and Director of the Jain Studies Program at Florida International University in Miami, Florida, an expert in Jainism and a historian of medieval and early modern western India, whose research proposes new ways to use Jain prabandha literature as historical sources. Invited faculty include Shalin Jain and Sarah Pierce Taylor.
Each day will consist of three sessions: A morning reading session, an afternoon lecture or discussion, and an afternoon reading session. Readings will be mainly in Sanskrit with some in Prakrit, and an intermediate knowledge of Sanskrit is encouraged. Each day will also have a lecture and discussion meant to familiarize the participant with the debates spurring the field.
There are no fees associated with attending the workshop itself, and room and board will be provided gratis to a limited number of initial participants. Travel stipends may also be available for a few student participants; however, it is recommended that participants apply to their home institutions for financial aid before asking for travel accommodation assistance.
For registration details and additional information or inquiries please contact Luther Obrock (luther.obrock@utoronto.ca)
NEW
BOOK> Pure Lands in Asian Texts and Contexts: An Anthology
by Richard Payne
We are pleased to announce the
publication of:Pure Lands in Asian Texts and Contexts: An Anthology, Georgios Halkias and Richard K. Payne, eds., Pure Land Buddhist Studies Series, University of Hawai'i Press, 2019, 808 pp.
https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/pure-lands-in-asian-texts-and-contexts-an-anthology/
The anthology is organized thematically so as to facilitate future research that reaches across the existing categories of scholarship.
We want to thank the Institute of Buddhist Studies and BDK America for providing support for the publication, also thank Stephanie Chun, Emma Ching and the other members of the University of Hawai'i Press who encouraged us to go ahead with this project, and who provided critical support at tough times in its production, as well as thanking all of the contributors who made this possible.
Richard K. Payne,
Associate Professor,
Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations,
University of Chicago
Contents
Series Editor’s Preface, Scott A. Mitchell
Editors’ Introduction, Georgios T. Halkias and Richard K. Payne
I. Ritual Practices
Overview
1 The Consecration Scripture Spoken by the Buddha on Being Reborn in
Whichever of the Pure Lands of the Ten Directions You Wish, Ryan Richard
Overbey
2 Esoteric Pure Land in Kakuban’s Thought, Anna Andreeva
3 Akṣobhya Homa: Fire Offerings for the Buddha of the Eastern Pure Land,
Richard K. Payne
4 Nenbutsu Practice in Genshin’s Ōjōyōshū, Robert F. Rhodes
5 Visions of the Pure Land from the Mind Treasury of Namchö Migyur Dorje,
Georgios T. Halkias
II. Contemplative Visualizations
Overview
1 Liberating Desire: An Esoteric Pure Land Text by Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna,
Georgios T. Halkias
2 Maitreya’s Tuṣita Heaven as a Pure Land in Gelukpa Forms of Tibetan
Buddhism, James Apple
3 Amoghavajra’s Amitāyus Ritual Manual, Thomas Eijō Dreitlein
4 Dōhan’s Compendium on the Secret Contemplation of Buddha Fascicle One,
Aaron P. Proffitt
III. Doctrinal Expositions
Overview
1 Answers to Forty-Eight Questions about Pure Land (Selections), Charles B.
Jones
2 Itō Shōshin: The Role of Buddhism in Emperor Worship, Fabio Rambelli
3 “The Future of American Buddhism”, Michihiro Ama
4 Naikan’s Path, Clark Chilson
5 Wŏnhyo’s Commentary on the Amitābha Sūtra, Richard D. McBride II
IV. Life-Writing and Poetry
Overview
1 Seeking the Pure Land on Mount Kōya in Medieval Japan: Biographies from
the Accounts of Those From Mount Kōya Who Have Attained Birth in a Pure Land,
Ethan Lindsay
2 Contemporary Pure Land Miracle Tales, Natasha Heller
3 In Praise of His Mighty Name: A Tibetan Poem on Amitābha from Dunhuang,
Jonathan A. Silk
4 Pure Land Devotional Poetry by a Chan Monk, Natasha Heller
V. Ethical and Aesthetic Explications
Overview
1 Religion and Ethics in the Thought of Kiyozawa Manshi, Jacques Fasan
2 The Pure Land and This World in Hishiki Masaharu’s Shin Buddhist Ethics,
Ugo Dessì
3 Toward a Pure Land Buddhist Aesthetics: Yanagi Sōetsu on the Vow of
Non-Discrimination between Beauty and Ugliness (Muu kōshu no gan), Elisabetta
Porcu
4 A Confucian Pure Land? Longshu’s Treatise on Pure Land by Wang Rixiu,
Daniel Getz
5 Tanaka Chigaku on “The Age of Unification”, Jacqueline I. Stone
VI. Worlds Beyond Sukhāvatī
Overview
1 The Divine Scripture on the Rebirth in the Pure Land of the Highest
Cavern Mystery of Numinous Treasure, Henrik Sørensen
2 A Manichaean Pure Land: The Buddhicized Description of the Realm of Light
in the Chinese Manichaean Hymnscroll, Gábor Kósa
3 Śambhala as a Pure Land, Vesna Wallace
Contributors
Index
JOURNAL>
Pacific World: new address
by Richard Payne
Dear Friends and Colleagues,Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies continues to develop new ways to better serve the Buddhist studies community. Pacific World has always been Open Access, and as previously announced, the Editorial Committee has established a blind peer review system beginning with the 2019 issue, which is now open for submissions. Author guidelines here: https://pwj.shin-ibs.edu/information-for-authors. Submissions should be sent to Dr. Natalie Quli natalie@shin-ibs.edu, Senior Editor.
In addition, Pacific World now has its own website, allowing for more direct access to the online archive: https://pwj.shin-ibs.edu/. All of the content, dating back to the re-estabishment of Pacific World in the early 1980s is available there for free download.
We wish to also take this opportunity to again publicly express our appreciation for the longstanding support provided to Pacific World—historically by Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai, and currently by BDK America. Their support enables Pacific World to be a venue for the publication of professional scholarship by and for the Buddhist studies community.
sincerely yours,
Richard K. Payne,
Chair, Editorial Committee
