The Cosmic Body of the Buddha as a Narrative Motif
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.33099Keywords:
cosmic Buddha, Buddhāvataṃsaka, Buddhist art, Buddhism and Brahmanism, Buddhacarita, VairocanaAbstract
Images in which the world is depicted on the body of a buddha, which we call a “cosmic body” of a buddha, have long been the subject of debate among art historians, notably around the question of the identity of the buddha depicted and the original context in which these depictions were conceived. This contribution addresses the issue from a literary perspective, by studying texts that describe the world appearing on the body of a buddha. We propose that the relevant passages are not representations of a particular
buddha or theological conception, but instances of a motif, i.e., a narrative element that can be inserted into stories for various purposes. It appears that this motif was borrowed from contemporary Brahmanical literature, especially the Mahabharata, and initially had an apologetic function.
References
Auboyer, Jeannine. 1949. Le Trône et son symbolisme dans l’Inde ancienne. Paris: Presses universitaires de France.
Bai Yu. 2023. Études sur les marques corporelles du grand homme (mahapurusa) dans le bouddhisme de l’Inde jusqu’en Chine. Thèse de doctorat, Paris: École Pratique des Hautes Études.
Banerjee, Priyatosh. 1972. “Vairocana Buddha from Central Asia.” Oriental Art 18(2): 166–170.
Bisschop, Peter C. 2018. “Buddhist and Saiva Interactions in the Kali Age: The Sivadharmasastra as a Source of the Karandavyuhasutra.” Indo-Iranian Journal 61(4): 396–410. https://doi.org/10.1163/15728536-06104002
Boccali, Giuliano, and Tiziana Pontillo. 2010. “The Background of the samastavastuvisayarupaka and Its Importance in Early Kavya.” Pandanus 4(2): 109–138.
Bollée, Willem. 2005. “Physical Aspects of Some Mahapurusas: Descent, Foetality, Birth.” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens 49: 5–34. https://doi.org/10.1553/wzksXLIXs5
Braarvig, Jens. 1993. Aksayamatinirdesasutra. Oslo: Solum Forlag.
Buitenen, J. A. B. van. 1978. The Mahabharata: Book 4, The Book of Virata. Book 5, The Book of the Effort. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
———. 1981. The Bhagavadgita in the Mahabharata: Text and translation. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Dharmamitra. 2019. The Ten Grounds Sutra: The Dasabhumika Sutra: The Ten Highest Levels of Practice on the Bodhisattva’s Path to Buddhahood. Seattle, WA: Kalavinka Press.
Eltschinger, Vincent. 2019a. “Asvaghosa and His Canonical Sources (III): The Night of Awakening (Buddhacarita 14.1–87).” Journal of Indian Philosophy 47(2): 195–233. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-018-9376-0
———. 2019b. “Why Did the Buddha Come to Earth?: Monastic Lineage, Interreligious Polemics, and Philosophy.” In Reasons and Lives in Buddhist Traditions: Studies in Honor of Matthew Kapstein, edited by Daniel Anderson Arnold, Cécile Ducher, and Pierre-Julien Harter, 293–306. Somerville: Wisdom Publications.
Ganguli, Kisari Mohan. 1884–1896. The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa. 13 vols. Calcutta: Bharata press.
Goldman, Robert P., Sally J. Sutherland, et al. 1984–2017. The Ramayana of Valmiki: An Epic of Ancient India. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Hahn, Michael. 2010. “The Buddhist Contribution to the Indian Belles Lettres.” Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 63(4): 455–471. https://doi.org/10.1556/AOrient.63.2010.4.4
Hamar, Imre. 2007. “The History of the Buddhavatamsaka-sutra: Shorter and Larger Texts.” In Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism, edited by Imre Hamar, 139-167. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Hara, Minoru. 1980. “A Note on the Buddha’s Birth Story.” In Indianisme et bouddhisme : mélanges offerts à Mgr Étienne Lamotte, 143–157. Louvain-la-Neuve: Université catholique de Louvain, Institut orientaliste.
Hikata Ryusho. 1966. ‘Memyo no Busshogyo san to sono yoei [Asvaghosa’s Buddhacarita and Its Influence]’. In Kanakura hakushi koki kinen: Indogaku Bukkyogaku ronshu, edited by Hakushi Koki Kinen Ronbunshu Kankokai, 337–357. Kyoto: Heirakuji Shoten.
Hiltebeitel, Alf. 2006. “Asvaghosa’s Buddhacarita: The First Known Close and Critical Reading of the Brahmanical Sanskrit Epics.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 34(3): 229–286. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-005-5020-x
Howard, Angela F. 1986. The Imagery of the Cosmological Buddha. Leiden: E. J. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004646551
———. 2010. “Rethinking the Cosmological Buddha.” In From Turfan to Ajanta: Festschrift for Dieter Schlingloff on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday, edited by Monika Zin and Eli Franco, 399–412. Bhairahawa, Rupandehi: Lumbini International Research Institute.
———. 2018. “A Case of Identity: Who Is the Cosmological Buddha?” Rivista Degli Studi Orientali 91(1): 181–209.
Huard, Athanaric. 2022. Recherches sur les textes de méditation en tokharien. Thèse de doctorat, Paris: École Pratique des Hautes Études.
Huard, Athanaric and Bai Yu. forthcoming. Fragments d’une traduction koutchéenne du Buddhacarita de Vajrapani: édités et commentés à l’aide du Fó benxíng jing, Leiden: Brill.
Jamison, Stephanie W., and Joel P. Brereton. 2014. The Rigveda: The Earliest Religious Poetry of India. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Johnston, Edward Hamilton. 1932. The Saundarananda or Nanda the Fair. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kern, Hendrik. 1884. The Saddharma-Pundarika or the Lotus of the True Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Laine, James W. 1989. Visions of God: Narratives of Theophany in the Mahabharata. Vienna: Institut für Indologie der Universität Wien, Sammlung De Nobili. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004646032
Lamotte, Étienne. 1944–1980. Le traité de la grande vertu de sagesse (Mahaprajñaparamitasastra). Louvain-la-Neuve: Université de Louvain, Institut orientaliste.
———. 1962. L’enseignement de Vimalakirti (Vimalakirtinirdesa). Louvain: Publications universitaires: Institut orientaliste.
Leach, Maria, and Jerome Fried, eds. 1949–1950. Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
Makransky, John J. 1997. Buddhahood Embodied: Sources of Controversy in India and Tibet. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Matsumoto Eiichi. 1937. Tonko-ga no kenkyu [Research on the Dunhuang paintings]. Tokyo: Toho bunka gakuin.
McGovern, Nathan. 2016. “On the Origin of the 32 Marks of a Great Man.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 39: 207–247.
McMahan, David. 2002. Empty Vision: Metaphor and Imagery in Mahayana Buddhism. London: RoutledgeCurzon.
Meisig, Konrad. 1988. Das Sutra von den vier Ständen: das Aggañña-Sutta im Licht seiner chinesischen Parallelen. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Miyaji Akira. 1993. “Uchunushi to shiteno Shaka-butsu: Indo kara Chuo-Ajia, Chugoku e [Buddha Sakyamuni as Cosmic Lord: From India to Central Asia and China].” In Mandara to rinne: sono shiso to bijutsu, edited by Musashi Tachikawa. 235–269. Tokyo: Kosei Shuppansha.
Nattier, Jan. 2007. “Indian Antecedents of Huayan Thought: New Light from Chinese Sources.” In Reflecting Mirrors: Perspectives on Huayan Buddhism, edited by Imre Hamar, 109-138. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Nichols, Michael D. 2019. Malleable Mara: Transformations of a Buddhist Symbol of Evil. Albany: State University of New York. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781438473239
Otake Susumu. 2012. “Sakyamuni and Vairocana.” In Avatamsaka Buddhism in East Asia: Huayan, Kegon, Flower Ornament Buddhism, edited by Robert M. Gimello, Frédéric Girard, and Imre Hamar, 37–52. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Peng Jie. 2008. “The Great Controversy: Vairochana in a Predominantly Hinayana Context.” In Kizil on the Silk Road: Crossroads of Commerce & Meeting of Minds, edited by Rajeshwari Ghose, 116–27. Mumbai: Marg Publications.
Radich, Michael. 2010. “Embodiments of the Buddha in Sarvastivada Doctrine: With Special Reference to the *Mahavibhasa.” Annual Report of the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology 13: 121–172.
Regamey, Constantin. 1971. “Motifs vichnouïtes et sivaïtes dans le Karandavyuha.” In Études tibétaines dédiées à la mémoire de Marcelle Lalou, 411–32. Paris: A. Maisonneuve.
Rhi Juhyung. 1991. Gandharan Images of the “Sravasti Miracle”: An Iconographic Reassessment. PhD Thesis, Berkeley: University of California.
Rotman, Andy. 2008. Divine Stories: Divyavadana. Part 1. Boston, MA: Wisdom Publications.
Sadakata Akira. 1997. Buddhist Cosmology: Philosophy and Origins. Tokyo: Kosei.
Sander, Lore. 2012. “Early Prakrit and Sanskrit Manuscripts from Xinjiang (Second to Fifth/Sixth Centuries C.E.): Paleography, Literary Evidence, and Their Relation to Buddhist Schools.” In Buddhism across Boundaries: The Interplay of Indian, Chinese, and Central Asian Source Materials edited by John R. McRae and Jan Nattier, 26–49. Sino-Platonic Papers 222. Philadelphia: Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Pennsylvania.
Schlingloff, Dieter. 1999. “Das Mahapratiharya in der zentralasiatischen Hinayana-Kunst.” Indologica Taurinensia 23/24: 175–194.
———. 2015. Die übermenschlichen Phänomene: visuelle Meditation und Wundererscheinung in buddhistischer Literatur und Kunst: ein religionsgeschichtlicher Versuch. Düsseldorf: EKO-Haus der Japanischen Kultur.
Schopen, Gregory. 1983. “The Generalization of an Old Yogic Attainment in Medieval Mahayana Sutra Literature: Some Notes on Jatismara.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 6(1): 109–147.
Skilling, Peter. 1992. “Symbols on the Body, Feet, and Hands of a Buddha, Part I-Lists.” Journal of the Siam Society 80(1): 67–79.
———. 1996. “Symbols on the Body, Feet, and Hands of a Buddha, Part II-Short Lists.” Journal of the Siam Society 84(1): 5–28.
Srinivasan, Doris Meth. 1997. Many Heads, Arms and Eyes: Origin, Meaning and Form of Multiplicity in Indian Art. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004644977
Stache-Rosen, Valentina. 1975. “The Temptation of the Buddha.” Bulletin of Tibetology 12: 5–19.
Teiser, Stephen F., and Jacqueline I. Stone, eds. 2009. Readings of the Lotus Sutra. New York: Columbia University Press.
Williams, Joanna. 1973. “The Iconography of Khotanese Painting.” East and West 23(1/2): 109–54.
Xing, Guang. 2005. The Concept of the Buddha: Its Evolution from Early Buddhism to the Trikaya Theory. London; New York: RoutledgeCurzon.
Yoshimura Rei. 1959. “Roshana hokai ninchuzo no kenkyu” [A Study on Image of Vairocana [representing] the Dharma realm in a human (form).] Bijutsu Kenkyu 203: 14–28.
Zhu, Tianshu. 2019. Emanated Buddhas in the Aureole of Buddhist Images from India, Central Asia, and China. Amherst: New York Cambria Press.
