It Is What It Is (Or Is It?)
Further Reflections on the Buddhist Representation of Manuscripts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/post.v6i1-3.101Keywords:
Buddhist Images, visual representationsAbstract
Books are a common motif in the art of medieval Indian Buddhism. The questions addressed in this article are: What are these Buddhist images of books? What are they images of? Or, more to the point, are they images of anything at all? This article suggests that such images are like sculptural snapshots. These are not images not to be worshipped—although the main goddesses or bodhisattvas presented in the images were certainly objects of veneration—but they are images of worship. As such, they may be evidence of this worship, but they may also be rhetorical or polemical statements about the importance of the book in the Buddhist communities that produced them.
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———. 1987. “Burial ‘Ad Sanctos’ and the Physical Presence of the Buddha in Early Indian Buddhism: A Study in the Archaeology of Religions.” Religion 17: 193–225. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0048-721X(87)90116-3
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A??as?hasrik?prajñ?p?ramit?. 1960. Edited by P.L. Vaidya. Buddhist Sanskrit Texts 4. Dharbhanga: Mithila Institute.
Argan, Giulio Carlo. 1980. “Ideology and Iconology.” In The Language of Images, edited by W.J.T. Mitchell, 15–23. Chicago. IL: University of Chicago Press.
Bagchi, Sitansusekhar S. 1967. Suvar?aprabh?sas?tra. Dharbhanga: Mithila Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and Research in Sanskrity Learning.
Brown, Bill. 2001. “Thing Theory.” Critical Inquiry 28: 1–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/449030
Conze, Edward. 1973. The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines and its Verse Summary. Bolinas: Four Seasons.
Derrida, Jacques. 1974. Of Grammatology. Translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press.
Drewes, David. 2007. “Revisiting the Phrase ‘sa p?thiv?prade?a? caityabh?to bhavet’ and the Mah?y?na Cult of the Book.” Indo-Iranian Journal 50: 101–143. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/000000007790085815
Eck, Diana. 1989. Darsan: Seeing the Divine Image in India. New York: Columbia University Press.
Foucher, Alfred. 1917. “The Beginnings of Buddhist Art.” In The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology, 1–29. Paris: Paul Geutherner.
Freedberg, David. 1989. The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. 1975. Truth and Method. New York: Seabury Press.
Huntington, Susan L. 1990. “Early Buddhist Art and the Theory of Aniconism.” Art Journal 49: 401–408. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/777142
Kinnard, Jacob N. 1999. Imaging Wisdom: Seeing and Knowing in the Art of Indian Buddhism. London: Routledge.
———. 2002. “On Buddhist ‘Biblioters’: Representing and Worshiping the Book in Medieval Indian Buddhism.” The Eastern Buddhist 34: 94–116.
———. 2008. “Amaravati as Lens: Envisioning Buddhism in the Ruins of the Great Stupa.” In Buddhism in the Krishna River Valley of Andhra, edited by Sree Padma and Tony Barber, 81–103. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Lewis, Todd. 2000. Narratives and Rituals of Newar Buddhism. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Marion, Jean Luc. 1991. God Without Being. Translated by Thomas Carlson. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
McMahan, David. 1998. “Orality, Writing, and Authority in South Asian Buddhism: Visionary Literature and the Struggle for Legitimacy in the Mah?y?na.” History of Religions 37: 249–274. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/463504
———. 2002. Empty Vision: Metaphor and Visionary Imagery in Mahayana Buddhism. London: Routledge.
Mitchell, W.J.T. 2005. What Do Pictures Want: The Lives and Loves of Images. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ni?pannayog?val?. 1962. Edited by B. Bhattacharyya. Gaekwad’s Oriental Series 59. Baroda: Oriental Institute.
Ricoeur, Paul. 1976. Interpretation Theory: Discourse and the Surplus of Meaning. Abilene: Texas Christian University Press.
Safire, William. 2006. “It is What is Is.” New York Times. March 5.
Schopen, Gregory. 1975. “The Phrase ‘sa p?thiv?prade?a? caityabh?to bhavet’ in the Vajracchedikaa: Notes on the Cult of the Book in the Mah?y?na.” Indo-Iranian Journal 27: 147–181. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00221011
———. 1987. “Burial ‘Ad Sanctos’ and the Physical Presence of the Buddha in Early Indian Buddhism: A Study in the Archaeology of Religions.” Religion 17: 193–225. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0048-721X(87)90116-3
———. 1988. “On the Buddha and His Bones: The Conception of a Relic in the Inscriptions of N?g?rjuniko??a.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 108: 527–537. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/603142
———. 1990. “Archaeology and the Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of Indian Buddhism.” History of Religions 31: 1–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/463253
Smith, Jonathan Z. 1982. Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Waghorne, Joanne, Norman Cutler, and Vasudha Narayana, eds. 1985. Gods of Flesh/Gods of Stone. New York: Columbia University Press.
Published
2012-06-27
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Kinnard, J. (2012). It Is What It Is (Or Is It?): Further Reflections on the Buddhist Representation of Manuscripts. Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts, 6(1-3), 101-116. https://doi.org/10.1558/post.v6i1-3.101
