Monks; Merchants; Moral economy; Visual culture; Faith; Divyavadana; India; Buddhist
摘要
The Indian Buddhist narratives collected in the Divyavadana ("Divine Legends") are didactic stories written in Sanskrit from the early centuries of the Common Era that were intended for the edification of monastics and the laity. In addition to demonstrating the inexorability of the law of karma, these stories also map out a world in which seeing is an integral part of Buddhist morality. Much of what constitutes religious practice in these stories is not reading, praying, or meditating, but visually engaging with certain kinds of objects. In trying to make sense of this connection between the moral and visual economies of the text, I first focus on the practices of sraddha and prasada --terms often, though problematically, translated as "faith." These practices invariably involve acts of seeing, believing, and giving, and this matrix creates a gift economy that offers unique insight into Buddhist ethics. The Divyavadana also explains how the Buddha can be seen after he has passed into final nirvana. By elaborating various ways of seeing and objects of sight that allow for this to occur, the text offers rationales for pilgrimage and the veneration of images, and these may help to explain early practices at Buddhist monuments and shrines. While I base my work on a close reading of the stories in the Divyavadana , I present a context for understanding Buddhist notions of belief as well as a sociology and epistemology of Buddhist visual practice that provide insight more generally into early Indian Buddhism.
