Brides of the Buddha: Nuns' Stories from the Avadanasataka PDF
Preview Brides of the Buddha: Nuns' Stories from the Avadanasataka
Brides of the Buddha Brides of the Buddha Nuns’ Stories from the Avadānaśataka Karen Muldoon-Hules LEXINGTON BOOKS Lanham • Boulder • New York • London Published by Lexington Books An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB Copyright © 2017 by Lexington Books All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available ISBN 978-1-4985-1145-2 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4985-1146-9 (electronic) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America Contents Preface vii Abbreviations xi 1 Buddhist Women in Early India 1 2 Marriage and Meaning in Late Vedic and Classical Hinduism 23 3 Marriage and Meaning in Indian Buddhism 41 4 How Should a Daughter Renounce? 61 5 Suprabhā, Kāśisundarī, and the Indic Svayaṃvara 91 6 Other Women, Other Walks of Life 121 7 Some Conclusions and Observations 159 Appendix 1: Dating the Avadānaśataka 179 Appendix 2: Sectarian Affiliation of the Avś 187 Glossary 191 Bibliography 197 Index 221 About the Author 227 v Preface This book focuses on an underused Buddhist resource from the northern part of the Indian subcontinent. The time it reflects is roughly 2,000 to 1,500 years ago, yet some of the issues reflected in it still have an impact in today’s world and may be of interest to those who study culture and religion in early India, gender and religion, and early Buddhist women. This book is there- fore designed to reach two quite different audiences, scholars who work on Buddhism and India, and more general readers, including students, with an interest in these areas. This leaves an author with the difficult task of trying to serve two masters and perhaps pleasing neither, but one has to take one’s chances and hope the project will succeed in reaching one or both of these audiences effectively. At least three major debts must be acknowledged for this book, though they are beyond repayment. Thanks are due, first and foremost, to Gregory Schopen, my advisor at UCLA through two degrees. In part, it is his fault that I entered this discipline: his course, taken when I was stranded without work after 9/11, opened an unexpected and tempting door. Later as advisor and mentor, he challenged and encouraged me, and read drafts of various proj- ects, including the dissertation on which this volume is based. He generously shared his unpublished transliteration and rough translation of the Gilgit MSV-vinaya version of Kacaṅgalā’s tale, referenced in chapter 5 and in my Religions of South Asia article, though any flaws in the translation here are mine alone. He continues to provide a remarkable paradigm of scholarship to follow. My thanks also go to Alice Fleming, whose humor and warmth are always much appreciated. The second major debt is owed to Stephanie Jamison for an impeccable introduction to Sanskrit and intriguing classes on life in Vedic India. She vii viii Preface provided patient coaching in the intricacies of a beautiful language, an impec- cable model of scholarly work, and a number of opportunities. Prof. Jamison read through a middle draft of this book and offered sound advice, which I’ve tried to incorporate. A third debt is owed to William Bodiford for any number of stimulat- ing courses in Japanese Buddhism, which enriched my study at UCLA and provided the missing context for things experienced during my six years in Japan. Prof. Bodiford taught me the value of meticulous scholarship and organization, however imperfectly applied here. He has kindly offered me a number of teaching opportunities during his tenure as chairman of the Asian Languages and Cultures Department at UCLA. Robert L. Brown, also at UCLA, taught a wonderful, eye-opening class on Indian art history. Jonathan A. Silk introduced me to Mitsuyo Demoto and Michael Hahn and their individual work on avadānas, as well as assisting in other ways. The breadth of his publications and knowledge remains inspir- ing. Robert Buswell, David Schaberg, Natasha Heller, and Jack Chen have all encouraged and helped me at various points, and Carol Bakhos of the Study of Religion program provided further teaching opportunities. My sempai in grad school, Shayne Clarke now of McMaster University, spent a great deal of time helping a new grad student find her footing. Over the years, Nick Morrissey, Sherin Wing, Minku Kim, Wayne Bass, Jason Combs, Hengyi Shr, Ritika Prasad, Hanmee Na Kim, Nathaniel Isaacson, Noriko Day, Hijoo Son, and more recently Tyler Cann and Ryoji Kishino extended their friendship and spent time in countless discussions. Alexander von Rospatt and Paramil Patil provided useful feedback on conference papers related to this project. Jan Nattier read and commented on an earlier draft of the first chapter, which has changed shape considerably, and untangled some of my misconceptions about early Chinese translators (discussed in appendix 1). Thanks are also owed to Naomi Appleton, Alice Collett, Laurie Patton, Brian Black, Dermot Killingly, Reiko Ohnuma, Oskar von Hinüber, and Andrew Rotman. Gratitude is properly owed to the University of California, Los Angeles, whose resources and funding made this project and the training leading up to it possible. I benefitted from grants for Non-Senate Faculty, and earlier during my degree work from the UCLA Graduate Division (and thus the tax- payers of this great state); the Asian Languages and Cultures Department; the Herbert and Helen Kawahara Fellowship for Japanese Studies (administered by the UCLA Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies); and the U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship for East Asian Studies (administered by the UCLA Asia Institute). Preface ix I am grateful to the American Language Center at UCLA Extension, whose steady flow of first-career employment has put food on the table in the lean spells. Many thanks to Patrick Colabucci, Tara Neuwith, Bella Anikst, Mi- chael Thomas, Judy Tanka, and the rest of the LBC and 614 folks. I’m not sure why it is the custom to leave family members to the end of these sections. After all, they are the ones who must endure the daily ups and downs, triumphs, defeats, and uncertainties of one’s career (and in my case, of two careers). I thank my husband, Endre Hules, for his encouragement and warmth through all the challenges and consolations of the married estate, and for keeping a firm eye on the clock. Farther from home, my father and my siblings and their spouses have encouraged and supported me, even if they didn’t always understand why I was doing this. Finally, special thanks are due to my children—a label they have quite outgrown—for putting up with a sometimes distracted mother and still somehow, miraculously, turning out to be great young people. May all your own endeavors prosper as mine have with your love and support.
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