The Buddha Through Yasodhara’s Eyes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.33092Keywords:
hagiography, Yasodharā, storytelling, AśvaghoṣaAbstract
The Buddha-biography does not have a fixed narrative, with one exclusive authoritative rendition, but pulsates with energy, as each community tells the story again in their own way. These many tellings need not always be told from the Buddha’s perspective. Yasodhara, in particular, has received attention from many Buddhist writers. Telling her story may be counted as one of the classical methods for bringing the Buddha’s story to life. In the following article, I reflect on some of my own experiences with writing the Buddha’s story, as I examined his narrative from Yasodhara’s fictionalised point of view. I argue that, while we rely on a number of excellent academic methodologies to do our work, the one method scholars rarely attempt is that of trying to write the story ourselves. My own experiences, however, have shown me how much there is to learn when we become the storyteller.
References
Arnold, Sir Edwin. 1879. The Light of Asia, Or the Great Renunciation. Boston, MA: J. R. Osgoode.
Baker, Chris and Pasuk Phongpaichit. 2019. From the Fifty Jataka: Selections from the Thai Paññasa Jataka. Bangkok: Silkworm.
Burlingame, Eugene Watson, trans. 1999 [1921]. Buddhist Legends: Translated from the Original Pali Text of the Dhammapada Commentary. 3 vols. Delhi: Mushiram.
Collett, Alice. 2013. “Beware the Crocodile: Female and Male Nature In Asvaghosa’s Saundarananda.” Religions of South Asia 7(1–3): 60–74. https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa. v7i1-3.60
Crosby, Kate. 2005. “Only if You Let Go of That Tree: Ordination Without Parental Consent in Theravada Vinaya.” Buddhist Studies Review 22(2): 155–174. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.v22i2.14031
———. 2013. “The Inheritance of Rahula: Abandoned Child, Boy, Monk.” In Little Buddhas: Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts and Traditions, edited by Vanessa R. Sasson, 97–123. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199860265.003.0004
Doniger, Wendy. 1998. The Implied Spider: Politics & Theology in Myth. New York: Columbia University Press.
Eco, Umberto. 1983. The Name of the Rose. Translated by William Weaver. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch.
———. 2011. Confessions of a Young Novelist. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Griffiths, Paul J. 1999. Religious Reading: The Place of Reading in the Practice of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195125771.003.0001
Hallisey, Charles. 2012. “‘It Not the Only One’: Womanist Resources for Reflections in Buddhist Studies.” Buddhist-Christian Studies 32: 73–85. https://doi.org/10.1353/bcs.2012.0025
Hiltebeitel, Alf. 2006. “Asvaghosa’s Buddhacarita: The First Known Close and Critical Reading of the Brahmanical Sanskrit Epics.” Journal of Indian Philosophy, 34: 229–286. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-005-5020-x
Horner, I. B., trans. 1996–2000 [1938–1966]. The Book of the Discipline (Vinaya-Pitaka). 6 vols. Oxford: The Pali Text Society.
Huntington, C. W. 2015. Maya. Boston, MA: Wisdom.
Jayawickrama, N. A. 2011. The Story of Gotama Buddha (Jataka Nidanakatha). Bristol: Pali Text Society.
Johnston, E. H., trans. 1995 [1936]. Asvaghosa’s Buddhacarita or Acts of the Buddha. Delhi: Motilal.
Jones, J. J. 1949–1956. The Mahavastu. 3 volumes. London: Pali Text Society.
Jordan, Mark D. 2010. “Missing Scenes.” Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Summer/Autumn. https://bulletin.hds.harvard.edu/missing-scenes/ Accessed May 10, 2022.
Langenberg, Amy Paris. 2013. “Scarecrows, Upasakas, Fetuses, and Other Child Monastics in Middle-Period Indian Buddhism.” In Little Buddhas: Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts and Traditions, edited by Vanessa R. Sasson, 43–74. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199860265.003.0002
———. 2017. Birth in Buddhism: The Suffering Fetus and Female Freedom. London: Routledge.
Levering, Miriam. 2013. “The Precocious Child in Chinese Buddhism.” In Little Buddhas: Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts and Traditions, edited by Vanessa R. Sasson, 124–156. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199860265.003.0005
Masefield, Peter, trans. 2001. The Udana Commentary (Paramatthadipani nama Udanatthakatha). 2 vols. Oxford: Pali Text Society.
Obeyesekere, Ranjini. 2009. Yasodhara: The Wife of the Bodhisatta: The Sinhala Yasodharavata (The Story of Yasodhara) and the Sinhala Yasodharapadanaya (The Sacred Biography of Yasodhara). Albany: State University of New York Press.
Ohnuma, Reiko. 2012. Ties that Bind: Maternal Imagery and Discourse in Indian Buddhism. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199915651.001.0001
Olivelle, Patrick, trans. 2008. Life of the Buddha by Asvaghosa. Clay Sanskrit Library. New York: New York University Press.
Péri, N. 1918. “Les femmes de Cakya-muni.” Bulletin de l’école Française de l’Extrême Orient 18(2): 1–37. https://doi.org/10.3406/befeo.1918.5886
Pollock, Sheldon. 2006. The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India. Berkeley: University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520932029
Ramesh, Jairam. 2021. The Light of Asia: The Poem that Defined the Buddha. Gurugram, Haryana: Penguin Random House.
Rotman, Andy. 2008. Divine Stories: Divyavadana Part I. Boston, MA: Wisdom.
———. 2017. Divine Stories: Divyavadana Part II. Boston, MA: Wisdom.
———. 2023. “The Vow that Starts the Story.” In The Buddha: A Storied Life, edited by Vanessa R. Sasson and Kristin Scheible, 14–39. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197649466.003.0002
Sasson, Vanessa R. 2007. The Birth of Moses and the Buddha: A Paradigm for the Comparative Study of Religion. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press.
———. 2013. “Maya’s Disappearing Act: Motherhood in Early Buddhist Literature.” In Family in Buddhism, edited by Liz Wilson, 147–168. Albany: State University of New York Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781438447544-008
———. 2020. “A Buddhist Lovestory: The Buddha and Yasodhara.” Buddhist Studies Review 37(1): 53–72. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.18496
———. 2021. Yasodhara and the Buddha. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Sasson, Vanessa R., ed. 2013. Little Buddhas: Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts and Traditions. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197649466.001.0001
Sasson, Vanessa R. and Kristin Scheible, eds. 2023. The Buddha: A Storied Life. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Shaw, Sarah. 2018. “Yasodhara in Jatakas.” Buddhist Studies Review 35(1–2): 261–278. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.36763
Strong, John S. 1997. “A Family Quest: The Buddha, Yasodhara, and Rahula in the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya.” In Sacred Biography in the Buddhist Tradition of South and Southeast Asia, edited by Juliane Schober, 113–128. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824864217-006
———. 2001. The Buddha: A Short Biography. Oxford: Oneworld.
Tatelman, Joel. 1998. “The Trials of Yasodhara: The Legend of the Buddha’s Wife in the Bhadrakalpavadana.” Buddhist Literature 1: 176–261.
Temple, Emily. 2019. “Go with What’s Alive and Other Writing Advice from Philip Roth.” March 19. https://lithub.com/go-with-whats-alive-and-other-writing-advice-from-philip-roth/ Accessed April 5, 2022.
Tieken, Herman. 2014. “On Beginnings: Introductions and Prefaces in Kavya.” In Innovations and Turning Points: Toward a History of Kavya Literature, edited by Yigal Bronner, David Shulman, and Gary Tubb, 86–108. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Tubb, Gary. 2014. “Baking Uma.” In Innovations and Turning Points: Toward a History of Kavya Literature, edited by Yigal Bronner, David Shulman and Gary Tubb, 71–85. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Walshe, Maurice. 1995. The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of the Digha Nikaya. Boston, MA: Wisdom.
Wilson, Liz. 2013. “Mother as Character Coach: Maternal Agency in the Birth of Sivali.” In Family in Buddhism: Buddhist Vows and Family Ties, edited by Liz Wilson, 169–186. Albany: State University of New York Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781438447544-009
Zelliot, Eleanor, 1992. “Buddhist Women of the Contemporary Maharashtrian Conversion Movement.” In Buddhism, Sexuality and Gender, edited by José Ignacio Cabezón, 91–107. Albany: State University of New York Press.
