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142220 SE Renarration in the Indian Mahayana: Reading the Angulimaliyasutra (2024W)

10.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 14 - Orientalistik, Afrikanistik, Indologie und Tibetologie
Continuous assessment of course work
Th 03.10. 14:30-16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18

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Details

max. 16 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

Classes on the following days will likely have to be rescheduled (more information to follow):
17.10.24
31.10.24
21.11.24

  • Thursday 10.10. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Thursday 17.10. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Thursday 24.10. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Thursday 31.10. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Thursday 07.11. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Thursday 14.11. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Thursday 21.11. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Thursday 28.11. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Thursday 05.12. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Thursday 12.12. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Thursday 09.01. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Thursday 16.01. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Thursday 23.01. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18
  • Thursday 30.01. 14:30 - 16:00 Seminarraum 2 ISTB UniCampus Hof 2 2B-O1-18

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Mahāyāna sūtras, composed in the early centuries of the Common Era, frequently draw upon older Buddhist stories, their events and characters, and reimagine them in the context of the Buddha teaching about the path of the bodhisattva. One particularly creative example is the Mahāyāna Aṅgulimālīya(sūtra), a text that retells the older and (still to the present day) widely celebrated story of the Buddha converting the murderous serial-killer, Aṅgulimāla (‘he with a necklace of fingers’). The Mahāyāna version of the story is a vehicle for a number of particularly novel and radical elements of Mahāyāna teaching: it teaches the ubiquity of buddha-nature (or ‘tathāgatagarbha’) in all sentient beings, and is one of our earliest Indian Buddhist sources to promote vegetarianism. But first and foremost, it is a dramatic and at times borderline psychedelic reimagining of the deeds and transformation of Aṅgulimāla, in dialogue with the Buddha, that puts front and centre the path of the bodhisattva and quest for complete awakening.
In this class we will translate the surviving Tibetan translation of this sūtra (produced in the ninth century), and on occasion compare it to the surviving Chinese translation also (produced in the fifth century – no knowledge of Chinese is required). We will also view the text in comparison to versions of the ‘mainstream’ Buddhist story, and consider the likely source(s) behind the production of a distinctly Mahāyāna take on Aṅgilmāla’s story.

Assessment and permitted materials

Assessment will be based on attendance and participation in class, including translations of passages of Tibetan. A short written assignment may be set towards the end of the course.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Knowledge of Tibetan is required. Weekly preparation will require translation of Tibetan materials that will be shared via Moodle. Given that we are dealing with a translation from Sanskrit, some knowledge of Sanskrit will be beneficial. Knowledge of Chinese will be of benefit also but is by no means required.

Examination topics

Reading list

Our basic text will be the Derge edition of the Tibetan translation of the Aṅgulimālīyasūtra (Tohoku no.213: ’Phags pa sor mo’i phreng ba la phan pa zhes bya ba theg pa chen po’i mdo), passages of which will be shared online via Moodle. The complete text can be accessed via http://www.rkts.org/, for those familiar with this resource.

One should familiarize oneself at very least with a ‘mainstream’ Buddhist version of the Aṅgulimāla story, for example the Pāli Aṅgulimālasutta. Aside from Ñāṇamoli and Bodhi 2009 (see below), another translation is available here: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.086.than.html
Further recommended reading follows. Please see notes, regarding relevance, supplied in square brackets at the end of each entry.

Anālayo, Bhikkhu. 2011. A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya. 2 vols. Vol.I.485–502.Taipei: Dharma Drum Publishing. [Regarding versions of the ‘Mainstream’ Aṅgulimālasutta/sūtra]
Frye, Stanley. 2006. The Sutra of the Wise and the Foolish = Mdo dzaṅgs blun, or, The Ocean of Narratives = Üliger-ün dalai. 180–195. Third edition. Dharamsala, H.P., India: Library of Tibetan works and Archives. [For an unusual variant on the Aṅgulimāla story]
Gombrich, Richard. (1996) 2006. ‘Who was Aṅgulimāla?’ in How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Genesis of the Early Teachings. 135–165. Second Edition. London: Routledge. [A novel(!) set of ideas about the background to the Aṅgulimālasutta]. To be read also with a review: Rospatt and Mudagamuwe. 1998. Indo-Iranian Journal 41.2: 164–179.
Hartmann, Jens-Uwe. 1997–98. ‘Sanskrit Fragments from the Āgamas (I): the Aṅgulimālasūtra.’ Indologica Taurinensia XXIII–XXIV: 351–363. [Regarding versions of the ‘Mainstream’ Aṅgulimālasūtra]
Jones, C.V. 2021. The Buddhist Self: On Tathāgatagarbha and Ātman. 70–96 (see also index). Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. [Regarding our Mahāyāna text, and buddha-nature/tathāgatagarbha]
Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu and Bhikkhu Bodhi (trans.). 2009. The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. Fourth Edition. Boston: Wisdom Publications, in association with the Barre Centre for Buddhist Studies. [Translation of the Pāli Aṅgulimālasutta]
Norman, K.R. (trans.). 1969. The Elders’ Verses I: Theragāthā. London: Luzac and Company for the Pali Text Society. [Aṅgulimāla in the Theragāthā]
Schmithausen, Lambert. 2020. Fleischverzehr und Vegetarismus im indischen Buddhismus bis ca. zur Mitte des ersten Jahrtausends n. Chr. 3 vols. Hamburg Buddhist Studies 12. Vol.I. 229–237. Project Verlag: Bochum/Freiburg. [Regarding our Mahāyāna text, and vegetarianism]
Zin, Monika. 2006. Mitleid und Wunderkraft: schwierige Bekehrungen und ihre Ikonographie im indischen Buddhismus. 101–123. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. [Regarding iconography of Aṅgulimāla]

Association in the course directory

MATB7

Last modified: We 11.09.2024 13:46