The Buddhacarita was completed in Sanskrit by Aśvaghoṣa probably in the 2nd century C.E. It consists of 28 cantos, and was one of the earliest complete narratives that featured the story of the Buddha in its entirety, from his birth to his nirvāṇa. As such, it is ideal for our study of whether the text is chiasmic. As a literary structure, chiasmi are widely found in ancient literature, from the Hebrew bible to Greek epics like the Odyssey. It is distinct from other literary structures in that parts of the narrative are found to be ordered in a reversely paralleled fashion, and are transformed around a central climax. The central climax serves as a hermeneutical device to better understand the relationship between other paralleled parts of the narrative. In the Buddhacarita, this central climax was identified as the first 92 verses of the 14th canto titled “Enlightenment”, and describes the process by which Sarvārthasiddha becomes enlightened. In identifying this central climax, the prologue and conclusion of the Buddhacarita was thoroughly analyzed, and yielded hints that enlightenment was potentially the point of transformation. Subsequently, analyses of the parts closer to the enlightenment were found to be structured in tight correspondence to one another, leaving the 92 verses as an independent unit at the center of all the surrounding parallels. Thus, these verses were identified as the central climax. The next step to take is to then explore how the paralleled units are transformed around the central climax. This process yielded interesting results, and found that there were three structural markers that were found at the three locations of the prologue, conclusion, and close to the central climax of the Buddhacarita. These three were the occurrence of miraculous events, the appearance of Māra, and, the teaching of the Buddha being transformational for non-Buddhist spiritual adepts. These parallels were also found to be meaningful interpreted when placed against the backdrop of enlightenment. Closer to the center, parts of the narrative concerning the king Śreṇya, the five ascetics, food offerings made to the Buddha, and, the recognition of the Buddha’s accomplishment of his spiritual goal, were all found to be transformed around the point of enlightenment.
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ABSTRACT i CHINESE ABSTRACT 摘要 iii DEDICATION iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v CONTENTS viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Problem Statement 1 1.2. The Buddhacarita 4 1.2.1. The History and Characteristics of the Buddhacarita 5 1.2.2. Studies of the Buddhacarita to Date 7 1.3. The Theory of Chiasmus 9 1.4. Limitations of This Study 18 1.5. Overview 19 CHAPTER 2: A BROAD LOOK AT CHIASMUS IN THE BUDDHACARITA 21 2.1. Chapters in the Buddhacarita 21 2.2. Correspondences Found at the Macro Level–Triangles in the Text 28 2.2.1. A Preliminary Look at which Cantos Correspond to Each Other 29 2.2.2. Chiasmic Triangles in the Text 33 2.3. Prologue to the Buddhacarita 34 2.3.1. Order of Events in the Prologue 36 2.3.2. Literary Structure of the Prologue 38 2.4. Conclusion to the Buddhacarita 48 2.4.1. Order of Events in the Conclusion 49 2.4.2. Chiasmus in the Conclusion 54 CHAPTER 3: WORKING TOWARDS THE CENTRAL CLIMAX OF THE BUDDHACARITA 73 3.1. King Śreṇya 76 3.2. The Five Mendicants 79 3.3. Food Offerings 83 3.4. Naga-s: Of Serpents and Mendicants 84 3.5. The Central Climax Identified: Sarvārthasiddha’s Enlightenment 86 CHAPTER 4: INTEPRETING THE BUDDHACARITA THROUGH ITS CENTRAL CLIMAX–SARVĀRTHASIDDHA’S ENLIGHTENMENT 93 4.1. Correspondences Between Naga-s 94 4.2. Correspondences Between The Offering of Food 98 4.3. Correspondences In The Two Encounters With The Five Mendicants 101 4.3.1. The Five Mendicants Meet and Serve the Buddha(-to-be): A Case of Direct or Similar Correspondences 104 4.3.2. The Humility and Curtness of the Five Mendicants: A Case of Contrasting Correspondences 106 4.3.3. The Five Mendicants go from Leaving the Buddha to Knowing His Knowledge: A Case of Transformative Correspondences 109 4.4. Correspondences in the Two Meetings with Śreṇya 114 4.5. Correspondences Found Between the Birth of Sarvārthasiddha and the Nirvāṇa of the Buddha 121 4.5.1. Supernatural Events 122 4.5.2. Asita and Subhadra 124 4.5.3. Māra 127 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 130 BIBLIOGRAPHY 138 Primary Sources 138 Secondary Sources 138
