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Newell, ‘Picturing the Goddess’ (2011)

Zo Margaret Newell. ‘Picturing the Goddess: Images and the Imagination of Modern Hindu Religious Identity’. PhD diss., Vanderbilt University, May 2011. 293 pp. [official site / PDF]

From the Abstract

This project inquires into the role of visual print technology in the construction of a pan-Indian sense of religious identity at the end of the colonial era. I take as my starting point the statement by Sri Ramakrishna of Calcutta that “a real Hindu” is someone who has, and worships, pictures of deities — specifically, pictures of the mother goddess — and proceed to the phenomenological and historical consideration of a selected set of images.

Gandhi at war
Zonewell (2010:258 Fig.42). A good man goes to war.
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Shakya, ‘Mañjuśrī in the Kathmandu Valley’ (2011)

Miroj Shakya. ‘Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī in the Buddhist Literature of the Kathmandu Valley (With Special Reference to the Svayaṃbhū Purāṇa)’. PhD dissertation, University of the West, Spring 2011. 261 pp.

From the Abstract

Mañjuśrī is portrayed as a founder of the Kathmandu Valley in the Svayaṃbhū Purāṇa, where he is shown playing a vital role in initiating the Nepalese Buddhist tradition. […] My study will focus on these legends of the Svayaṃbhū Purāṇa associated with Mañjuśrī.

Includes studies of short non-tantric texts related to Mañjuśrī, and texts and translations of various versions of the third chapter (on Mañjuśrī’s fabled draining of the Valley’s pleistocene lake) of the Svayambhūpurāṇa literature.

Mañjuśrī Shrine, Svayaṃbhū Stūpa (p.260)
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Birkenholtz, ‘The Svasthānī Vrata Kathā Tradition’ (2010)

Jessica Lynn Vantine Birkenholtz. ‘The Svasthānī Vrata Kathā Tradition: Translating Self, Place and Identity in Hindu Nepal’. PhD dissertation, University of Chicago, 2010. 337 pp. UMI Number: 3408505.

From the Abstract

This dissertation presents an alternate social and cultural history of Nepal through the lens of a textual-historical study of the Svasthānī Vrata Kathā (SVK). A popular Nepali Hindu textual tradition, the SVK has an unbroken history that spans five hundred years and three languages (Sanskrit, Newar, and Nepali). Beginning in the sixteenth century, the text expanded from a handwritten eight-folio palm-leaf local legend on the origin of the Svasthānī vrat, or ritual vow, into a Purāṇic sourcebook of thirty-one chapters in over four hundred printed pages. The SVK’s medieval-modern historical span, the diversity of forms of its textual (re)production, and its sustained uniform core narrative provide a lens through which both immediate shifts and gradual transformations in Nepal’s literary, linguistic, social, religious, and political history can be viewed and interpreted.


Continue reading “Birkenholtz, ‘The Svasthānī Vrata Kathā Tradition’ (2010)”

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Hunt, ‘Considerations for Devanagari Typography’ (2008)

Paul D. Hunt. ‘Language and region specific considerations for Devanagari typography. Case studies in Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, & Nepali’. M.A. Thesis, University of Reading, September 2008. [PDF]

Reading, England, produces more than just atheist comedians; the University of Reading also awards respected higher degrees in Typeface Design. Hunt’s M.A. thesis, set in elegant Grandia, explores a few of the varied functions that Nāgarī type may be called on perform. It’s potentially useful reading for those working on Sanskrit texts who have dreamed of a better Unicode typeface, and who seek the typographical vocabulary to articulate exactly what they are looking for.

Characteristics of Devanagari script (Hunt 2008, Fig.10 p.14)

The current situation is far from perfect, of course. Of the Unicode Nāgarī faces out there at the moment, I could only recommend two or three, at most, for serious philological typesetting. It is frustrating that adequate faces are not even available to buy, for the most part.
Continue reading “Hunt, ‘Considerations for Devanagari Typography’ (2008)”

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Liland, ‘The transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra’ (2009)

Fredrik Liland. ‘The transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra: The history, diffusion, and influence of a Mahāyāna Buddhist text’. M.A. thesis, Universitetet i Oslo, 2009. [official site/PDF] Supervised by Jens E. Braarvig.

From the Abstract

The thesis is concerned with the 7th Century Mahāyāna Buddhist text Bodhicaryāvatāra (BCA) and its significance as a vehicle for cultural exchange. We trace its history in India and beyond, from its proposed author Śāntideva’s hand, its contemporary influence in India, and its impact in the lands—Nepal, Tibet, China, Mongolia, and beyond—and languages—Sanskrit, Newari, Tibetan, Chinese, Mongolian, and others—where it travelled. The nature of its influence has varied with the times and places where it has found itself, but in all instances it received a prominent place of canonical status, and was mostly revered.
[…]
The BCA has received quite a lot of attention in modern scholarship since the first publication of a critical Sanskrit edition by Minayev in 1889. A large number of new manuscripts of the text have surfaced since then, and a separate chapter is dedicated to philological concerns and the dire need for a new and updated version that will take into account also the new knowledge we now have of the text[‘]s history. A mostly unnoticed commentary, the Bodhicaryāvatāra-ṭippaṇi, also receives i[t]s long overdue attention in this chapter.

Liland’s thesis presents a long over due bibliographically-oriented update to scholarship on the Bodhicaryāvatāra. Two other scholars are said to have been recently working on a critical edition of the text: Daniel Stender and Richard Mahoney. I do not know whether either are proceeding.

One stand-out feature of Liland’s thesis is the attention it pays to Nepalese sources and translations in the Newar (“Newari”) language, which, as regular readers know, are routinely neglected in Buddhist studies, notwithstanding the fact that they originate in direct contact with the Sanskrit original in a South Asian Buddhist setting. Despite this unusual but welcome development, I can point to at least three areas of further improvement:

  1. “Ratna Bahādur Vajrācārya (1893-1955), of whom not much is known” (p.92): in fact, at least four (mostly short) biographies of this outstanding figure are in print, including a dedicated and independently published treatment by Manish Shakya.
  2. No mention of (the many) translations into South Asian vernaculars; here’s one in Nepali. Not all such translations were done from Sanskrit, but some have been.
  3. No reference to manuscripts in private or recently documented collections.

Continue reading “Liland, ‘The transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra’ (2009)”

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Milligan, ‘Inscribed Reliefs & Inscriptions at Sanchi’ (2010)

Milligan, Matthew David. ‘A Study of Inscribed Reliefs within the Context of Donative Inscriptions at Sanchi’. M. A. thesis, University of Texas at Austin, 2010. [official site URI / PDF]

From the abstract

Sanchi stūpa #2 & inscription (p.98)
Inscribed relief art at the early Buddhist archaeological site of Sanchi in India exhibits at least one interesting quality not found elsewhere at the site. […] Two inscribed images of stūpas found on the southern gateway record the gifts of two prominent individuals. The first is a junior monk whose teacher holds a high position in the local order. The second is the son of the foreman of the artisans of a king. Both inscribed stūpa images represent a departure from a previous donative epigraphical habit. Instead of inscribing their names on image-less architectural pieces, these two particular individuals inscribed their names on representations of stūpas, a symbol with a multiplicity of meanings. […] I suggest that these donations were recorded as part of the visual field intentionally, showing the importance of not only inscribing a name on an auspicious symbol but also the importance of inscribing a name for the purpose of being seen.

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Ishida, ‘Dharmottara’s Pramāṇaviniścayaṭīkā 2’ (2011)

Hisataka Ishida. „Dharmottaras Pramāṇaviniścayaṭīkā zum auf der Realität basierenden logischen Nexus“. Ph. D. Dissertation, Philologisch-Kulturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, Universität Wien, 2011. [official site / PDF]

Vienna is producing dissertations on the pramāṇa manuscripts in China at an impressive rate. I note, however, that projects which might have been expected to showcase the cultural achievements of Tibet do not always turn out that way:

From the Abstract

Since the manuscript is a codex unicus, a diplomatic edition is also included, as is an edition of the Tibetan translation. The [necessity of including the] latter is due to the fact that, upon closer examination, it became apparent that the Tibetan translation shows frequent “deviations”, likely due to the free translation style of the Tibetan translator monk rNgog Lotsaba. These deviations cannot be briefly stated in the critical apparatus of the Sanskrit edition in a manner that would be meaningful for the reader, and thus this edition has been added.

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Sciberras, ‘Buddhist Philosophy & Environmentalism’ (2010)

Sciberras, Colette. ‘Buddhist Philosophy and the Ideals of Environmentalism’. Doctoral thesis, Durham University, 2010. [official site / PDF.]

From the Abstract

I argue that the teachings found in the Pāli canon cannot easily be reconciled with a belief in the intrinsic value of life, whether human or otherwise. This is because all existence is regarded as inherently unsatisfactory, and all beings are seen as impermanent and insubstantial, while the ultimate spiritual goal is often viewed, in early Buddhism, as involving a deep renunciation of the world.

Therefore, the discussion focuses mostly on the Mahāyāna, which, I suggest has better resources for environmentalism because enlightenment and the ordinary world are not conceived as antithetical. Continue reading “Sciberras, ‘Buddhist Philosophy & Environmentalism’ (2010)”

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Jones, ‘Of offal & others: 2 works by David-Neel’ (2010)

Robert William Jones, II. ‘Of offal, corpses, and others: an examination of self, subjectivity, and authenticity in two works by Alexandra David-Neel’. Thesis (M.A.) Florida Atlantic University, 2010. [UMI / PDF]

From the Abstract

Kawaguchi & David-Neel, 1916This thesis examines two works (My Journey to Lhasa and Magic and Mystery in Tibet) by Alexandra David-Neel. […] Central to this study is an examination of a claim by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama that David-Neel creates an “authentic” picture of Tibet. In order to do this the first chapter establishes a working definition of authenticity based on both Western philosophy and Vajrayana Buddhism. This project argues that the advanced meditation techniques practiced by Alexandra David-Neel allow her to access a transcendent self that is able to overcome the self/other dichotomy. It also discusses the ways in which abjection and limit experiences enhance this breakdown. Finally, this thesis examines the roles that gender and a near absence of female Tibetan voice play in complicating the problems of self, subjectivity, and authenticity within these texts.

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Wright, ‘The Guhyasamāja Piṇḍikṛta-sādhana’ (2010)

Guhyasamāja Piṇḍikṛtasādhana kumbhastambhas

Roger Wright. ‘The Guhyasamāja Piṇḍikṛta-sādhana and its context’. MA thesis (Religions), School of Oriental and African Studies, 2010. [PDF (‘internet version’)]

From the Abstract (sic)

This paper analyses and comments on the Piṇḍikṛta-sādhana, a ritual practice manual for the Guhyasamāja Highest Yoga Tantra, attributed to Nāgārjuna. It is based on a correlated translation of the Sanskrit and Tibetan versions of the text prepared for the purpose. […]
Particular attention has been given to making the translation of the visualizations of the architecture and the deities themselves clear by providing tables and illustrations. The philosophical background of the text is investigated and the way in which that was subtly altered by subsequent commentators when it no longer fitted the later “philosophical climate” is made clear. The continuity of the practice is discussed, from its inception to the present day.

Guhyasamāja Piṇḍikṛtasādhana kumbhastambhas. Wright p.68