This thesis proposes a new approach to reading and understanding a Buddhist literary work as a form of practice relying on aesthetic pleasure to engage readers on a textual path that gradually awakens understanding. Its starting point is the claim of Aśvaghoṣa, the first known author of the genre of classical Sanskrit literature known as mahākāvya, that he has told truth in literary form in order to reach an audience interested only in pleasure and not liberation. My investigation of his second century CE works, Buddhacarita and Saundarananda, through the lens of this statement, together with traditional Indic commentaries on dramatic and poetic literature and contemporary theories of pleasure and textuality, suggests that the literary features of such works perform important functions in introducing Buddhist insights to their readers by focusing their attention in reading practices that may resemble and introduce more traditional forms of Buddhist training. Through my exploration of the formal strategies Aśvaghoṣa's works rely on to engage readers on a literary path to truth, this thesis seeks to contribute to the development of new methodologies for reading Buddhist literary works. While scholars have increasingly recognized the need to address the prominence of literary features in Buddhist textual traditions, many in Buddhist Studies continue to view the formal features of a text as distinct from what is presumed to be its content and repository of the meaning their interpretations seek. The literary methods I propose for reading Buddhacarita and Saundarananda challenge this assumption that the truth or meaning of a work can be extracted from its form as a whole and highlight the signifying powers of the poetic, dramatic and narrative features of these works, which actively engage readers in the production of meaning. Adopting methods that enable us to better read Buddhist literary texts in this way thus not only improves our analysis of how such signifying features operate to provoke insight but also promises to refine our scholarly understanding of what both emerging and classic works in the field have to say to us today.
目次
Chapter 1: Introduction 1 I. What do Buddhist Literary Texts do? Reading is an Experience Buddhist Practice/Literary Practice II. Ways of Reading Orientalism and the Philological Approach Recent Philological Work on Aśvaghoṣa Recent Readings of the Literary Texts of Aśvaghoṣa III. A Literary Reading of Aśvaghoṣa Reading is Translation and Translation is Reading Literary vs. Literal Translation Reading with (Asian) Theory Reading with (Western) Theory Reading with a Global or Planetary Lens Reading through the Lens of Aśvaghoṣa's Statement Chapter Outline
Chapter 2: Buddhism, Language and Literary Form 48 I. Buddhist Views of Language The Buddha’s Silence Buddhist Philosophical Views of Language Silence is Not Completely Silent Ways of Saying II. The Development of Buddhist Literary Practices The Brahmanical Inheritance Kāvya and Buddhist Discourse Literary Lives of the Buddha III. Buddhism in the Early First Millennium C.E. Textualization & Transformation Paths, Practices & Presence IV. Poetics as a Vehicle The Mirror of Literature VI. Literature (kāvya) and Literary Form in Aśvaghoṣa The Heroic Character & Theme Poetic Expertise & Imagination Metrical Composition
Chapter 3: The Pleasures in and of the Text 104 I. The Pleasure of Courtly Culture II. The Erotics of the Middle Way III. Textual Erotics: Rasa IV. Practices of the Pleasure of the Text V. Mahākāvya as a Practice of Cultivation VI. Other Practices of Textual Pleasure
Chapter 4: Telling Truth 140 I. The Buddha and the Poet II. The Path of Narrative III. The Structure of Mahākāvya’s Dramatic Narrative IV. The Drama of Mahākāvya Stages of the Path in Saundarananda Rhythms of the Plot Stages of the Path in Buddhacarita, Act I Stages of the Path in Buddhacarita, Act II V. Practices of the Pleasure of the Text on its Path
Chapter 5: The Form (or Guise) of Literature 176 I. Poetry and Truth Truth, Lies, and the Guise of Reality II. Seeing Through Figures Bridges Mirrors Action Figures Activations Integrations
Chapter 6: Liberation 206 I. Seeing the Truth Seeing Bridges Darśan, Recollection & Recognition II. From Pleasure to Liberation Seeing as Mirror Mokṣa Seeing Actions Seeing and Becoming Seen Seeing the Buddha Buddhist Seeing The Stages of the Path of the Buddha’s Awakening III. Seeing the Scene IV. Breaking Through/The Break in the Text “Grasping” Meaning or Recognition?
Appendix I: Awakening: Buddhacarita, Canto XIV 252 Appendix II: Notes on a Literary Translation 277 Appendix III: Important Terms 284 Bibliography 288
