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Muldoon-Hules (2011), Brides of the Buddha [Avadānaśataka VIII]

Karen Maria Muldoon-Hules. ‘Brides of the Buddha and Other Stories: Reading the Women’s Stories of the 8th “Varga” of the “Avadānaśataka” in Context’. PhD dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles, 2011. 455 pages. ISBN: 9781124885032; ProQuest document ID 2462477631.

author: @ UCLA. Book: 2017. Brides of the Buddha: Nuns’ Stories from the Avadanasataka. ISBN 9781498511452 [official site]

From the Abstract

There has been little in the way of systematic examinations of the evidence on marriage customs among Buddhists, and our understanding of the lives of early Buddhist women is still quite limited. Much of what has been published on early Buddhist women is based on Pali texts from Sri Lanka. Fortunately, ten stories or avadanas about women in the Avadānaśataka, a north Indian text probably compiled 2nd-4th century C.E., offer a chance to nuance [sic] that understanding. These stories provide evidence for marital customs among north Indian Buddhists during this period, customs that show significant Brahmanical influence. In addition, these ten avadānas hint at a changing position for Buddhist nuns that may have been related to an increasingly conservative view of women emerging in the Brahmanical tradition and a revamping of the asrama system into sequential life-stages for men.

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Kwan, ‘From Abhidharma to Pramāṇa School’ (2010)

Kwan, Siu-Tong. ‘From Abhidharma to Pramāṇa School: A Critical Hermeneutics of their Epistemology and Philosophy of Language’. PhD dissertation, University of Hong Kong, 2010. 258 pp. [official site / PDF]

From the Abstract

This thesis attempts to trace the continuous philosophical developments, if any, from the Abhidharma to Pramāṇa thoughts.

Notable Quotation

Hattori’s […] precise exposition of those passages and phrases had, in fact, greatly relieved us from the hardship of reading Dignāga’s thought.
[p.18]

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Administrivia: Hiatus & Linkdump

Visits have almost tripled this year. Nonetheless, save some of that bandwidth: Jinajik will be on hiatus while I do stuff for the next two weeks or so. Some nidhi to fill the break:

Dissertations & Papers

Erich Gundlach and Matthias Opfinger (2011). ‘Religiosity as a Determinant of Happiness’. https://www.econstor.eu/dspace/handle/10419/48360 [“Our interpretation of the empirical results is that the indifference curves for religiosity and other commodities of the utility function are hump-shaped.”]

Kevin McCraney (2011). ‘You’re A Bodhisattva All The Time: An Exploration of Buddho-Catholic Syncretism in the Works of Jack Kerouac’. https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/handle/1811/48976

Matthew Roe Dasti (2010). ‘Rational belief in classical India: Nyaya’s epistemology and defense of theism’. http://hdl.handle.net/2152/ETD-UT-2010-05-757

Jenny Hua-Chen Lin (2010). ‘Crushed pearls: The revival and transformation of the Buddhist nuns’ order in Taiwan’. http://hdl.handle.net/1911/61955

Hyne, Amy Louise (2009). ‘Ascetics behaving madly: on the role of the unmatta in ancient Indian ascetic traditions’ [unpublished M.A. thesis] http://catalog.lib.utexas.edu/record=b7261598~S29

A. Fadzakir (2001). ‘The Muslims of Kathmandu: A study of religious identity in a Hindu Kingdom’. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/5288

Books:

林光明(編著) (2011)《梵漢對音初探》 [A survey on Sino-Sanskrit transcription] http://www.books.com.tw/exep/prod/booksfile.php?item=0010502929

立川武蔵 (2011) 『曼陀羅のほとけたち』 https://www.senri-f.or.jp/FS-Shop/wwb/item/199-139123.html

Other:

本庄良文先生作成 チベット語訳『倶舎論実義疏』ノート http://www2.otani.ac.jp/~akio/wiki/index.php

Last, but by no means least:

Luther Obrock (2005). ‘Honor and Shame in Greek and Sanskrit Epics’.
http://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_interstp3/52

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Dinnell, ‘Sāmrājyalakṣmīpīṭhikā: An Imperial Tantric Manual from Vijayanagara’ (2011)

Darry Dinnell. ‘Sāmrājyalakṣmīpīṭhikā: An Imperial Tantric Manual from Vijayanagara’. M. A. Thesis, McGill University, 2011. 142 pp. [official site]

From the Abstract

This thesis examines the Sāmrājyalakṣmīpīṭhikā, a tantric manual for kingship created during the rule of the Vijayanagara Empire of early sixteenth-century South India. After establishing the plural, inclusive nature of religion at Vijayanagara in this period, this study identifies two crucial ways in which the text’s titular goddess Sāmrājyalakṣmī rewards kings who correctly propitiate her: firstly, by helping them to actualize god-like status on earth, and secondly, by allowing them to absolve themselves of sin (pāpa) without curbing their ability to perform the violence necessitated by their caste affiliation. In this way, Sāmrājyalakṣmīpīṭhikā articulates a solution to the classical Indian quandary of kingly dependence upon (and inferiority to) Brahmins, in the process offering kings unprecedented ritual power which translates directly into political power and, ultimately, universal overlordship (sāmrājya). The text provides another example of how tantric practices can be and were central to Indian society, aiding in statecraft and kingship.

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Madsen, Digitization in Tibetan and Himalayan studies (2010)

Christine McCarthy Madsen. ‘Communities, innovation, and critical mass: understanding the impact of digitization on scholarship in the humanities through the case of Tibetan and Himalayan studies’. D.Phil. diss., Oxford University, 2010. 345 pp. [official site / PDF]

From the Abstract

The author presents detailed evidence of how digitization is changing the inputs, practice, and outputs of scholarship in this field, as well as the characteristics of digitization that have led to these changes. Importantly, these findings separate out the success of individual projects from the success of digitization across the field as a whole.

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Kittay, ‘Interpreting the Vajra Rosary’ (2011)

David R. Kittay. ‘Interpreting the Vajra Rosary: Truth and Method Meets Wisdom and Method’. PhD diss., Columbia University, 2011. xxii+820 pp. ISBN: 9781124782362. ProQuest document ID: 2428776231.

Abstract

This essay, accompanied by the first full English translation of the Vajramālā or Vajra Rosary, one of the explanatory Tantras of the Buddhist Guhyasamāja, or Secret Community, Tantric system, and a partial translation of Alaṃkakalaśa’s Commentary, sets out a novel hermeneutic method by which twenty-first century scholars of religion might approach the interpretation of the Tantra and other texts.

Add a punctuation mark to improve this paragraph (p.783).
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Young, ‘The 14th Dalai Lama, Nationalism, and Ris med‘ (2011)

Young, Elena. ‘The Boundaries of Identity: The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Nationalism, and Ris med(non-sectarian) Identity in the Tibetan Diaspora’. M.A. thesis, McGill University, 2011. 107 pp. [official site]

Will Tuladhar-Douglas had a theory that the Ris med pas drew their inspiration from Lhasa Newars. Until we hear more on that, there’s Elena Young’s Masters’ thesis:

From the Abstract

This thesis examines the complex process by which Tenzin Gyatso (Bstan ‘dzin rgya mtsho), the fourteenth Dalai Lama, has publicly and consciously sought to rise above traditional structures of sectarianism in order to forge a coherent Tibetan identity in exile. […] I argue in this thesis that this “non-sectarianism” can be historically traced back to the nineteenth century ris med (“non-bias” or “non-sectarian”) movement, a trend spearheaded in the eastern region of Khams, Tibet. In this way, the current Dalai Lama’s efforts to unify Tibet under a rubric that delineates a non-sectarian identity, indeed parallels an earlier moment in the story of Tibet, one that was equally unstable and yet central to the historical narrative of Khams. Employing a historical and textual analysis based on primary and secondary sources, this thesis is a study of the fourteenth Dalai Lama’s appropriation of the historical ris med model, and an investigation of the techniques and modes of “non-sectarian” representation adopted and disseminated by this leader and his administration-in-exile.

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Turenne, ‘Śākya mchog ldan & 5 treatises of Maitreya’ (2011)

Philippe Turenne. ‘Interpretations of unity: Hermeneutics in ŚĀKYA MCHOG LDAN’s Interpretation of the Five Treatises of Maitreya’. PhD diss., McGill University, 2011. 271 pp. [official site/PDF (may not work)]

Includes a partial translation of the Byams chos lnga’i nges don rab tu gsal ba of Śākya mchog ldan.

From the Abstract

This dissertation is a study of the process through which Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, by synthesizing doctrines and texts into consistent models, integrates views of reality within doctrinal and soteriological systems. […] the dissertation surveys and analyzes Tibetan interpretation of the set of texts referred to as the Five Treatises of Maitreya (byams chos sde lnga), and at the way those interpretations deal with the doctrinal tensions found in that set of text[s]. In addition to providing a recension of major interpretations of the Five Treatises developed between 1100 and 1500, a detailed account is given of the model of interpretation given by gSer mdog Paṇ chen Śākya mchog ldan, a famous teacher of the Sa skya school of Tibetan Buddhism.

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Mozaffari-Falarti, ‘Kedah: foundations of Malay kingship’ (2009)

Mozaffari-Falarti, Maziar. ‘Kedah: the foundations and durability of Malay kingship’. PhD thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2009. 343 pp. [official site/PDF]

Mozaffari-Falarti’s thesis treats the conversion of Kedah, an important part of the premodern Southeast Asian world, and briefly treats vague (but nonetheless worthy of investigation) references to Buddhism and tantrism in the rulership of the pre-Islamic era.

Kedah, incidentally, has been proposed as the possible site of Dīpaṅkaraśrījñāna’s extended stay of study in the region in an article in the Journal of the Siam Society — the full reference eludes me — by Peter Skilling. (I have no opinion on that proposition — yet.)

From the Abstract

The thesis examines traditional sources of power, control and indigenous socio-political systems in the Malay world. In doing so, it looks at the north-western Malaysian kingdom of Kedah, acknowledged as the oldest unbroken Malay royal line and one of the oldest in the Muslim world. The study explores Kedah’s unique geopolitical, spiritual and environmental features. It argues that Kedah does not follow, and in fact, often seems to contradict what has been commonly accepted as the “typical model” of the traditional Malay state.

From the Introduction (pp.6–7)

The Kedah sultanate is one of the oldest unbroken independent kingship lines in the ‘Malay world’ with 1,000 years of history, and arguably one of the oldest in the Islamic world. In this study I examine key geopolitical and spiritual attributes of Malay kingship that have traditionally cemented the ruler, the peoples, and the environment. […]
I also examine issues related to religion — particularly the coming of Islam […]

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Valerio-Baumann, ‘Die Bedeutung weiblicher Gottheiten im ikonographischen Programm des Vaitāl Deul’ (2011)

Valerio-Baumann, Sabine. ‘Die Bedeutung weiblicher Gottheiten im ikonographischen Programm des Vaitāl Deul. Eine Kritische Analyse unter Berücksichtigung der Devī-Darstellungen von Śakti-Tempeln in Orissa.’ Diplomarbeit (Magistra der Philosophie), Universität Wien. 2011. 140 pp. [official site/PDF]

From the Abstract

This thesis focuses on the significance of the female goddesses in the iconographic program of one of the most important Śakti-temple in Orissa – the Vaitāl Deul. This monument is situated in the city of Bhubaneśvar and was built during the reign of the Bhauma-Karas-dynasty. […] While a large number of devīs can be found on the temple walls and inside the sanctum, male figures are rare but situated on important positions of the building, e.g. in the caitya-medallions of the gaṇḍi or inside the shrine. Part of this thesis focuses on the sociohistorical and religious background of the Vaitāl Deul. By means of a comparative analysis, I studied the relation of the iconographic program of the Vaitāl Deul both with Sanskrit-śilpa-manuscrip[t]s (Śilpa-Prakāśa and Śilparatnakośa) and with the iconographic programs of other, representative Śakti-temples of Orissa. These analyses have shown that every Śakti-Temple has its own independent iconographic program. […]

(Fortunately, this Orissan masterpiece is still standing. It helps to be on the right side of history in Hindustan — not like these guys.)

Abb. 7 Südansicht des deul (© WHAV 2009). (Valerio-Baumann 2011:87)