Sanskritic civilization · Tantric studies · Newar & Nusantaran Buddhism
Lee, Eun-Su. On defining Buddhist art in Bengal: the Dhaka region. PhD Dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, May 2009. 498 pp. [official site / PDF (224.3 MB)]
This dissertation addresses the significance of regional developments in Indian art, focusing on the Buddhist art tradition of the Dhaka region in East Bengal from approximately the seventh to twelfth century CE.
Marina Toumpouri [academia.edu]. ‘L’illustration byzantine du Roman de Barlaam et Joasaph’. 3 vols., 792 pp. PhD diss., Université Charles de Gaulle (Lille), 2010.
A worthy study of some real Western Buddhism:
The Barlaam and Joasaph tale is a text of Buddhist inspiration which tells the story of the son of an Indian king, Joasaph, who, tired of mundane pleasures, is converted by the monk Barlaam and eventually becomes a monk. The Greek version of the Barlaam and Joasaph Romance, the work of Euthyme the Athonite (+1028), monk of Georgian origin, is datable between 975 and 987. The text is known to us in hundred and fifty nine manuscripts, among which six were illustrated, produced between the eleventh and the sixteenth century. The present work is dedicated to the study of the illustrated manuscripts.
Nancy Grace Lin. ‘Adapting the Buddha’s Biographies: A Cultural History of the Wish-Fulfilling Vine in Tibet, Seventeenth to Eighteenth Centuries’. PhD diss., University of California at Berkeley, 2011. 319 pp. ISBN 9781267228482, ProQuest ID 928450843.
The Wish-Fulfilling Vine of Bodhisattva Avadānas (Skt. Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā, Tb. Byang chub sems dpa’i rtogs pa brjod pa dpag bsam gyi ’khri shing) by Kṣemendra is an eleventh-century Sanskrit anthology of stories about the previous existences of the Buddha and his disciples, along with events from the Buddha’s final life. Translated into Tibetan circa 1270 and incorporated into the Tibetan Buddhist canon, by the seventeenth century the Vine occupied a place of high prestige in Tibet. I argue that adaptations of the Vine—condensed literary digests, paintings, and woodcuts—constitute sophisticated forms of commentary that reveal the ingenuity and concerns of their producers. […]
In Chapter One I trace how the Fifth Dalai Lama (1617-1682) and his court popularized the Vine through public instruction, paintings, and literary activities. These conspicuously cultured displays promoted renewed interest in Sanskrit and the Indic origins of Buddhism, while contributing to broader projects of knowledge production and state-building. In Chapter Two I demonstrate how the lay Pho lha dynasty (r. 1728-1750) appropriated the Vine, sponsoring two large-scale multimedia productions while developing models for lay kingship and patronage. In Chapter Three I argue that Si tu Paṇ chen Chos kyi ’byung gnas (1700-1774), an influential monk of Sde dge in eastern Tibet, articulated his vision of the ideal monastic through the design of Vine paintings and other literary and visual productions on the Buddha’s life. In Chapter Four I study Zhu chen Tshul khrims rin chen (1697-1774), court chaplain of Sde dge, and his work on the Vine as commentaries on cultural production.
Giovanni Verardi (appendices by Federica Barba). Hardships and Downfall of Buddhism in India. Nalanda-Sriwijaya Series 4. Delhi/Singapore: Manohar & Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2011. 523 pp.
Not a very catchy title, but I doubt that something more direct (say, The Hindu Extermination of Buddhism) would have been very appealing to Singapore’s Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, the book’s publisher.
This book is an extraordinary achievement, all the more so for it relying only indirectly, for the most part, on scriptural and epigraphic sources. Verardi’s contribution is based on something at least as useful: first-hand observation of the key sites and remains, clearly articulated in terms of long-term patterns. It is by far one of the most important contributions to the study of Buddhism in India published in a long time — though I don’t agree with everything in it, by any means. (Given the chance, I will expand on that later.) The omission of any discussion of the Theravādins’ catastrophic role, painstakingly explained in Peter Schalk’s 2002 Buddhism among Tamils volumes, has to be regarded as particularly puzzling — at least until one sees Peter Skilling’s name in the acknowledgements. But let me be clear: Verardi, who has pursued his line of inquiry for over three decades, has succeeded in making sense out of a slew of data in a way that is unlikely to be bettered for some time.
Niels Gutschow. Architecture of the Newars: A History of Building Typologies and Details in Nepal. 3 volumes. Serindia, November 2011. 1030 pp. USD$450 (excluding postage). ISBN 978-1-932476-54-5 [official site]
Architecture of the Newars by Niels Gutschow presents the entire history of architecture in the Valley of Kathmandu and its neighbours over a period of 1,500 years — right up to the present. It is a rare tribute to an urban culture which has preserved fascinating lifestyles to this very day. Gutschow first travelled to Nepal in 1962, returning in 1970 after reading architecture, and has constantly worked since then on the connections between ritual and the city. Since 1980 he has worked with measured drawings to identify the various building typologies, which are documented in three volumes with 862 photos and 939 drawings.
The first volume presents the complexity of the sacred landscape of the Valley and the urban context as well as the early periods, Buddhist votive structures (caityas), architectural fragments and temples from the early periods (5th–14th century). The second volume presents the Malla period (1350–1769) with a host of drawings documenting caityas, maths, tiered temples, shrines and monasteries. The third volume presents the modern period with temples and palaces of the Shaha kings and the Ranas; a variety of new caitya types; domestic architecture of the early 20th century; modern architecture and urban planning. The final chapter presents selected architectural details populated by airborne spirits in a transcultural perspective.
[preview]
Update: Book signing by the author at Vajra Books, Kathmandu, 2pm 14 December 2011.
佐久間 留理子 『インド密教の観自在研究』 山喜房佛書林 10.5.2011 A5 17,000円
Sakuma, Ruriko. Indo Mikkyō no Kanjizai Kenkyū [*Studies on Avalokiteśvara in Indian Tantric Buddhism]. Tokyo: Sankibo Busshorin, 2011. 620 pp. ISBN 978-4-7963-0015-5.
Contents (目次)
第１部
研究目的、及び、研究対象の成立背景
１）研究目的と先行研究
２）成就法の成立背景
３）観自在の展開
第１章 文献学的研究
１）研究目的と先行研究
２）『サーダナ．マーラー』のサンスクリット写本
３）バッタチャルヤ校訂本とサンスクリット写本と関係
第２章 図像学的研究
１）観自在の種類
２）聖観自在のタイプ
３）密教的聖観自在のタイプ
第３章 宗教実践方法の研究
１）成就法の構造
２）成就法における二種の映像
３）身体技法としての成就法
結論
第２部
翻訳研究
略号
1 ローカナータ（世門主）成就法
2 カサルパナ（空行）世自在成就法
3 ヴァジュラダルマ（金剛法）成就法
4 シャダクシャリー（六字）世自在成就法
5 シンハナーダ（獅子吼）世自在成就法
6 ニーラカンタ（青頸）聖観自在成就法
7 ハーラーハラ世自在成就法
8 パドマナルッテーシュヴァラ（蓮華舞自在）成就法
9 ハリハリハリヴァーハナ生起成就法
10 トラーイロークヤヴァシャンカラ（三界制御)世自在成就法、及び、トラーイロークヤヴァシャンカラ（三界制御)の教えのブグマ世自在成就法
11 ラクタ（赤）世自在成就法
12 ローケーシュヴァラ（世自在）敬愛儀軌
13 マーヤージャーラクラマ（幻化網次第）観自在
14 供養を伴うマーシャムカの陀羅尼
15 スガティサンダルシャナ（善趣示現）世自在
16 プレータサンタルピタ世自在成就法
17 スカーヴァティー(極楽）世自在成就法
作例表
（Ａ）聖観自在のタイプ
(A.1) ローカナータ（世門主)
(A.2) カサルパナ(空行)世自在
(A.3) ヴァジュラダルマ（金剛法）
（Ｂ）密教的観自在のタイプ
(B.1) シャダクシャリー（六字）世自在
(B.2) シンハナーダ（獅子吼）世自在
(B.3) ニーラカンタ（青頸）聖観自在
(B.4) ハーラーハラ世自在
(B.5) パドマナルッテーシュヴァラ（蓮華舞自在）
(B.6) ハリハリハリヴァーハナ世自在
(B.7) トラーイロークヤヴァシャンカラ (三界制御)世自在
(B.8) ラクタ（赤）世自在
(B.9) マーヤージャーラクラマ（幻化網）観自在
(B.10) スガティサンダルシャナ（善趣示現）世自在
(B.11) プレータサンタルピタ世自在
(B.12) スカーヴァティー（極楽）世自在
参考文献
あとがき
索引
A recent post on H-Buddhism from Dr. Hidenori Sakuma (佐久間秀範) questions the identity of two authors called Asvabhāva: one a commentator on the Mahāyānasutrālaṅkāra, another a commentator on Kambala’s Ālokamālā.
Not wanting to brave H-Buddhism’s shaky moderation — as seen, for example, in the oblivious reposting of Sakuma’s apparently private replies — I responded off-list. My main observation was this: the strong likelihood that the Ālokamālā belongs to a much later era of the Mahāyāna is reflected in the fact that only late authors cite it. Only tantric authors from the tenth century or later, such as Puṇḍarīka and Abhayākaragupta, know about the Ālokamālā. [Edited, 2011/09/23: ninth-century Āryadeva also knows about Kambala, though he refers to a different work.]
Moreover, there is the striking fact that it is cited by name by Śaiva tantric authors who were active in this period. Utpala’s Spandapradīpikā quotes Ālokamālā 141cd and 142, with a couple of variants, and the latter verse appears in Kṣemarāja’s commentary on the Spandakārikās, the Spandanirṇaya.*
The point here is not that this high-level form of Śaivism has such a profound intellectual debt to Buddhism that it must clarify its ideas through direct engagement with Buddhist authors. That is surely old news in this field, if rarely acknowledged in scholarship nowadays. Rather, I want to observe that the Ālokamālā is regarded as a vital tract in this particular period, and no earlier — certainly not in the fifth century, as posited by Chr. Lindtner (and repeated in Potter’s Encyclopedia). This date is probably about half a millennium400 years too early.
It could also be argued, perhaps by someone with more time and resources than myself, that the authors of the Mahāyānasutrālaṅkāra and Ālokamālā in some ways address themselves to different concerns which, it might also be surmised, are characteristic of different eras. The former is conscious of a threat from the Hīnayāna — a phenomenon which it defines with a particular clarity, seemingly lost on many scholars who have fretted about this term — and became a work of almost incontestable authority among Buddhists in India. The Ālokamālā, on the other hand, has other priorities, as did those late tantric authors who found a place for it in their own writings.
* Dyczkowski, The doctrine of vibration, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1989, p.248, n.31. The verse numbers in the Ālokamālā are supplied by myself.
Christian Luczanits. 2014&ndash. ‘Homepage of Christian Luczanits’ [before 2014: Indian and Tibetan Buddhist Art (ITBA) at the University of Vienna]. http://www.luczanits.net.
NB: a large and well-documented collection of photographs from sites in the Himalayas and South Asia including Alchi, Ladakh, Kanganhalli, Kinnaur and Lahaul-Spiti.
