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Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism
A puzzle in the sociolinguistic history of Sanskrit is that texts with authenticated dates first appear in the 2nd century CE, after five centuries of exclusively Prakrit inscriptions. Various hypotheses have tried to account for this fact. Senart (1886) proposed that Sanskrit gained wider currency through Buddhists and Jains. Franke (1902) claimed that Sanskrit died out in India and was artificially reintroduced. Lévi (1902) argued for usurpation of Sanskrit by the Kshatrapas, foreign rulers who employed brahmins in administrative positions. Pisani (1955) instead viewed the “Sanskrit Renaissance” as the brahmins’ attempt to combat these foreign invaders. Ostler (2005) attributed the victory of Sanskrit to its ‘cultivated, self-conscious charm’; his acknowledgment of prior Sanskrit use by brahmins and kshatriyas suggests that he did not consider the victory a sudden event. The hypothesis that the early-CE public appearance of Sanskrit was a sudden event is revived by Pollock (1996, 2006). He argues that Sanskrit was originally confined to ‘sacerdotal’ contexts; that it never was a natural spoken language, as shown by its inability to communicate childhood experiences; and that ‘the epigraphic record (thin though admittedly it is) suggests … that [tribal chiefs] help[ed] create’ a new political civilization, the “Sanskrit Cosmopolis,” ‘by employing Sanskrit in a hitherto unprecedented way’. Crucial in his argument is the claim that kāvya literature was a foundational characteristic of this new civilization and that kāvya has no significant antecedents. I show that Pollock’s arguments are problematic. He ignores evidence for a continuous non-sacerdotal use of Sanskrit, as in the epics and fables. The employment of nursery words like tāta ‘daddy’/tata ‘sonny’ (also used as general terms of endearment), or ambā/ambikā ‘mommy; mother’ attest to Sanskrit’s ability to communicate childhood experiences. Kāvya, the foundation of Pollock’s “Sanskrit Cosmopolis”, has antecedents in earlier Sanskrit (and Pali). Most important, Pollock fails to show how his powerful political-poetic kāvya tradition could have arisen ex nihilo. To produce their poetry, the poets would have had to draw on a living, spoken language with all its different uses, and that language must have been current in a larger linguistic community beyond the poets, whether that community was restricted to brahmins (as commonly assumed) or also included kshatriyas (as suggested by Ostler). I conclude by considering implications for the “Sanskritization” of Southeast Asia and the possible parallel of modern “Indian English” literature.
A puzzle in Sanskrit’s sociolinguistic history is that texts with authenticated dates first appear in the 2nd century CE, after five centuries of exclusively Prakrit inscriptions. Various hypotheses have tried to account for this fact. Senart (1886) proposed that Sanskrit gained wider currency through Buddhists and Jains. Franke (1902) claimed that Sanskrit died out in India and was artificially reintroduced. Lévi (1902) argued for usurpation of Sanskrit by the Kshatrapas, foreign rulers who employed brahmins in administrative positions. Pisani (1955) viewed the ‘Sanskrit Renaissance’ as a brahmins’ attempt to combat these invaders. Ostler (2005) attributed Sanskrit victory to its ‘cultivated, self-conscious charm’; his acknowledgment of prior Sanskrit use by brahmins and kshatriyas suggests that he did not consider the victory a sudden event. The early-CE public appearance of Sanskrit as a sudden event hypothesis is revived by Pollock (1996, 2006). He argues that Sanskrit was originally confined to ‘sacerdotal’ contexts; that it never was a natural spoken language, shown by its inability to communicate childhood experiences; and that ‘the epigraphic record (thin though admittedly it is) suggests ... that [tribal chiefs] help[ed] create’ a new political civilization, the “Sanskrit Cosmopolis,” ‘by employing Sanskrit in a hitherto unprecedented way’. Crucial is his claim that kāvya literature was foundational to this new civilization and that kāvya has no significant antecedents. I show that Pollock’s arguments are problematic, as he ignores evidence for a continuous non-sacerdotal use of Sanskrit, as in the epics and fables. The employment of nursery words like tāta ‘daddy’/tata ‘sonny’ (also used as general terms of endearment), or ambā/ambikā ‘mommy; mother’ attest to Sanskrit’s ability to communicate childhood experiences. Kāvya, the foundation of Pollock’s “Sanskrit Cosmopolis”, has antecedents in earlier Sanskrit (and Pali). Most importantly, Pollock fails to show how his powerful political-poetic kāvya tradition could have arisen ex nihilo. To produce their poetry, the poets would have had to draw on a living, spoken language with all its different uses, and that language must have been current in a larger linguistic community beyond the poets, whether that community was restricted to brahmins (as commonly assumed) or also included kshatriyas (as suggested by Ostler). I conclude by considering implications for the “Sanskritization” of Southeast Asia and the possible parallel of modern “Indian English” literature.
Публикуются письма известного историка, богослова, государственного и общественного деятеля к его другу, переехавшему незадолго до этого из Франции в США. Письма хранятся в Бахметевском архиве Колумбийского университета. Главное место в них отведено характеристике условий публикации книги А.В. Карташева «Воссоздание Святой Руси», что позволяет четко воспроизвести организационно-финан-совый контекст ее выхода в свет. В предисловии к публикации отмечается важность для понимания замысла и значения содержания книги общественно-политического, церковно-религиозного и академического контекстов, лишь намеченных в письмах. Среди других тем корреспонденции, значимых для изучения истории Свято-Сергиев-ского богословского православного института и биографии А.В. Карташева, публикатор выделяет изменение состава учащихся в институте и его роль в подготовке свя-щенников для православных церквей, а также вакации историка, использовавшиеся им для написания итоговых книг по истории Русской православной церкви и о Вселенских соборах. Особо отмечается мемориальное осмысление историком прошлого института, с которым оказалась неразрывно связанной его судьба в эмиграции.
Letters of a famous historian, theologian, statesman and public figure to his friend, who had recently moved from France to the United States, are published. The letters are kept in the Bakhmeteff archive of Columbia University. The main place in them is given to the characteristics of the organizational and financial contexts of the publication of A. V. Kartashev’s book Reconstruction of Holy Russia. The preface to the publication notes also the importance of socio-political, church-religious and academic contexts, only outlined in the letters. In their totality they will allow to understand the author’s intention and the meaning of the book’s content. Among other topics of the correspondence that are significant for the study of the history of St. Sergious Theological Orthodox Institute and the biography of A. V. Kartashev, the publisher highlights the change in the composition of students at the institute and as a result of this its increased role in training priests for Orthodox churches, as well as the historian’s vacation, which he used to write the final books on the history of the Russian Orthodox Church and on the Ecumenical Councils. Finally, the publisher underlines the special significance of the historian’s memorial comprehension of the past of the institute, with which his fate in emigration was inextricably linked.
В статье рассматривается эволюция историографии и методологии истории медицины от антропологического поворота прошлого века до эпидемиологического поворота современности. История медицины долгое время писалась врачами-«труэнтами». В 1970-е гг. в связи с антропологическим поворотом появляются «новая история ме-дицины» и «медицинская антропология», происходит расширение «профессиональной базы» историков медицины: помимо медиков на эту область исследований стали все больше претендовать в широком смысле «антропологи», в т.ч. археологи, социологи, философы, этнологи, демографы, культурологи, психологи, литературоведы, феминистки и журналистки. Со временем и историки подключились к исследованиям по социальной истории медицины. История эпидемий долгое время рассматривалась как составная часть истории болезней или (еще шире) истории медицины. Но именно антропологическое измерение истории демонстрирует особенности изучения истории эпидемий. Публикации последних двух-трех лет в отечественной историографии свидетельствуют о вспышке интереса к исторической эпидемиологии и формировании в ее русле нескольких пересекающихся тематических полей.
The article examines the evolution of historiography and methodology of the history of medicine from the anthropological turn of the last century to the epidemiological turn of the present. For a long time, the history of medicine has been written by «truant» doctors. In the 1970s, due to the anthropological turn, the "new history of medicine" and "medical anthropology" appeared. The "professional base" of medical historians was expanding: in addition to physicians, "anthropologists", including archaeologists, sociologists, philosophers, ethnologists, demographers, culturologists, psychologists, literary scholars, feminists and journalists began to apply for this field of research. Over time, historians also joined in research on the social history of medicine. The history of epidemics has long been regarded as an integral part of the history of diseases or (even more broadly) the history of medicine. But it is precisely the anthropological dimension of history that demonstrates the peculiarities of studying the history of epidemics. The publications of the last two or three years in Russian historiography indicate an outbreak of interest in historical epidemiology and the formation of several intersecting thematic fields in its mainstream.
Автор рассматривает роль образа России в построении национальной идентичности у молодёжи эмиграции «первой волны» (1920–1930-е гг.). Данный образ рассматривается, как с позиции детей, так и со стороны педагогов, пытавшихся направлять процесс конструирования идентичности у своих подопечных. На основе анализа педагогических и публицистических изданий эмиграции «первой волны» и сочинений самих детей выявлены ключевые аспекты восприятия России детьми русского зарубежья (золотой век – позор и разорение – возвращение и возрождение). Сделан вывод, что эффективность образа России в конструировании национального самосознания определялась тем, что он апеллировал одновременно и к прошлому, и к будущему нации.
The article examines the role of the image of Russia in the construction of national identity among the youth of the emigration of the "first wave" (1920s-1930s). This image is considered both from the perspective of children and from the side of teachers who tried to guide the process of constructing identity in their wards. The main sources of the work were pedagogical and journalistic publications of the emigration of the "first wave", as well as the writings of the children themselves. The main results of the study include the identification of key aspects of the perception of Russia among children of the Russian diaspora (the golden age – shame and ruin – return and rebirth). On the basis of this, the thesis is proposed that the image of Russia was effective in constructing national consciousness for the reason that it appealed both to the past and to the future of the nation.
Статья посвящена реакции городской среды на христиан в период эпидемий и бедствий. В частности, предпринята попытка связать эпидемию середины III в., известную как Чума Киприана, с усилившимися антихристианскими преследованиями. Автор обращает внимание на городские конфликты, которые разгораются в разных городах Империи, и делает предположение что обострившиеся нападки язычников на христиан были спровоцированы подозрением в виновности перед богами, насылающими бедствия. При этом очевидно, что имперские власти и власти городские преследуют разные цели. Последние ориентированы в большей степени на умиротворение городской среды через осуждение «безбожных» христиан, в то время как имперское правительство вынуждено ориентироваться на экономическую эксплуатацию верующих и конфискации дабы возместить потери, которые принесла эпидемия. В этой ситуации Церковь демонстрирует лояльность именно на местном уровне, помогая жителям городов и демонстрируя любовь к ближнему.
The article analyses the view of the urban environment on the Christians during the period of epidemics and disasters. In particular, an attempt is made to link the epidemic of the middle of the third century, known as the Plague of Cyprian, with the intensified anti-Christian persecution. Attention is drawn to the urban conflicts that flare up in different cities of the Empire, and it is suggested that the aggravated attacks of the pagans on Christians were provoked by suspicion of their guilt before the gods sending disasters. At the same time, it is obvious that the imperial authorities and the city authorities pursued different goals. The latter were focused more on pacifying the urban environment through the condemnation of "godless" Christians, while the imperial government was forced to act more cautiously, focusing on the economic exploitation of believers and confiscations in order to compensate for the losses caused by the epidemic. In this situation, the Church demonstrated loyalty at the local level, helping residents of cities and demonstrating love for their neighbors.
Статья представляет собой рецензию на книгу Г. Янсена «Скрытые внутри историзма: темпоральные режимы после 1700 г.» Вступая в полемику с лидерами теоретической историографии рубежа XX–XXIвв. Р. Козеллеком и Ф. Артогом, Янсен ставит под вопрос гомогенность устремленного в будущее (по мнению Козеллека) темпорального режима модерна и выделяет как минимум четыре разных его модификации. Во-вторых, Янсен оспаривает радикальный разрыв современного «презентистского» темпорального режима с историзмом XIXв. и убедительно показывает гибридизацию или переплетение его модификаций в современном историописании. Кроме того, он подчеркивает важность социального измерения историографической полемики и ее неразрывную взаимосвязь с ростом алармистских настроений и неопределенности в современном мире. В этом контексте вопрос о соотношении пространства исторического опыта и горизонта ожиданий приобретает новую актуальность.
В фокусе статьи находится кельтологический аспект деятельности известного филолога, переводчика, редактора Александра Александровича Смирнова (1883–1962). В отличие от исследований биографического вектора автор анализирует трансформацию теоретическогобазиса концепций Смирнова о классификации, дефиниции, особенностях кельтских литератур, их контактами с континентальной традицией. Отдельное внимание уделено внутренней рефлексии ученого относительно процессов глобальной кельтологии, достижений отечественных и зарубежных коллег.
The article focuses on the celtological oeuvre of the famous philologist, translator and editor Alexander Alexandrovich Smirnov (1883–1962). Aside from the well-known prosopographical approach, the author concentrates on the analysis of Smirnov's theoretical basis in Celtic Studies: his views related to classification, definition, features of the Celtic Literatures and their connotations with the Old French tradition. The connections between A. Smirnov and international Celtic schools are also thoroughly examined.
В статье рассматривается концепция консьюмеризма П. Стернса. Анализируются этапы формирования общества потребления и консьюмеристской культуры; обозначаются социальные группы, выступавшие инициаторами данных изменений. Проблематизируются современные противоречия общества потребления: исчерпание его экономического потенциала, растущий разрыв между доходами высшего и низшего класса, кризис модели «догоняющего развития», подчинение будущего ин-тересам настоящего (презентизм). Важная часть анализа этих противоречий у Стернса – выявление тех социальных групп, которые выступают за сохранение общества потребления или его ограничение. Показано, что в современном обществе консьюмеризм становится, с одной стороны, главным терапевтическим средством, позволяющим справиться с растущими индивидуальными и коллективными рисками, с другой – источником структурных противоречий в социокультурной сфере.
The article deals with the concept of consumerism by Peter Stearns. The stages of the formation of a consumer society and consumerist culture are analyzed. The social groups that initiated these changes are identified. The main contemporary contradictions of the consumer society are problematized: the exhaustion of its economic potential, the growing gap between incomes of upper and lower classes, the crisis of the “catch-up development” model, the subordination of the future to the interests of the present (presentism). An important part of the analysis of these contradictions by P. Stearns is their social aspect: identification of social groups that advocate the preservation of the consumer society or its limitation. It is proved that in contemporary society consumption becomes, on the one hand, the main therapeutic tool to cope with growing individual and collective risks, and on the other hand, a key source of a number of structural contradictions in the socio-cultural sphere.
Während alle übrigen groβen Religionen in jüngster Zeit verstärkt in den Verdacht geraten sind, gewalttätige Konflikte zu begründen, zu schüren oder zu verschärfen, wird der Buddhismus in der Öffentlichkeit weiterhin als eine Religion des Friedens wahrgenommen. Dabei ist hinlänglich bekannt, dass in der Geschichte auch mVertreter und Institutionen dieser Religion[en] immer wieder aktiv an gewaltsamen Auseinandersetzungen beteiligt waren; als Beispiel werden hier die so »Mönchskrieger« des mittelalterlichen Japan herangezogen. Die »kognitive Dis sonanz«, die aus dem Widerspruch von historischem Tatbestand und Klischee re sultiert, wird zumeist mit Hilfe des »Dekadenztopos« verarbeitet, demzufolge Ge walthandlungen im Namen des Buddhismus als Verfallserscheinung und als eine Abweichung vom grundsätzlich friedlichen Wesen dieser Religion gewertet werden, die keinesfalls aus der Lehre und der Ethik des Buddhismus selbst heraus zu rechtm fertigen seien. Ich versuche demgegenüber zu zeigen, dass im Mahayana- mus schon recht früh ethische Postulate eingeführt wurden, die Gewalt bis hin zur physischen Vernichtung von Menschen ausdrücklich rechtfertigen und die Gebote gegen das Töten relativieren. Diese ethischen Grundsätze wurden zudem mit onto logischen Theorien wie der Lehre von der Substanzlosigkeit alles Seienden, der Nicht-Dualität usw. vermengt, wodurch Gewalt gegen Feinde des Buddhismus zu einer legitimen, mit den Grundsätzen der Religion relativ problemlos zu vereinba renden Option wurde.
Embodying the Dharma explores the centrality of relic veneration in Asian Buddhist cultures. Long disregarded by Western scholars as a superstitious practice reflecting the popularization of original Buddhism, relic veneration has emerged as a topic of vital interest in the last two decades with the increased attention to Buddhist ritual practice and material culture. This volume includes studies of relic traditions in India, Japan, Tibet, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, as well as broader comparative analyses, including comparisons of Buddhist and Christian relic veneration.
Introduction Aśoka's reign ushered in an era of major transformations in India's religious life. The 6th to 4th centuries BCE had witnessed, in the plains around the Ganges and Jumna rivers, the emergence of the first urban centers in South Asia since the Indus Valley Civilization. While the precise reasons and mechanisms for this development are not fully understood, it has long been taken for granted that it is not mere coincidence that it was accompanied by equally dramatic changes in the sphere of religion —especially the rise to prominence of ascetical movements. Although the precise origins of such movements are unknown, they appear on the scene in two species: one emerging from within the Brahmanical priestly religion that was already more than half a millennium old, and another comprising self-consciously anti-Brahmanical doctrines traced back to legendary teachers whose authority resided in their personal accomplishments (Gotama the Buddha, the ‘Enlightened’; Mahāvīera the Jina, the ‘Victor’). As this story is generally told, it is the Buddhists and the Jains who are in the limelight, bringing new ideas to an old world, challenging the cant and rigid orthodoxy of the brahmin priesthood, just as the early Christians were said to have exposed the hypocrisy and superficiality of Pharisaic piety. And rather as the new Christian vision was embraced and established in the Roman Empire by Constantine, the emperor Aśoka Maurya proclaimed the Buddha's dharma to be the religion of this new world.
The chapters in this volume resulted from an international conference held at the University of Texas at Austin on April 3-6, 2003. The conference explored the period between roughly the 4th century bce and the 5th century ce, a period that saw unparalleled developments within the Indian subcontinent, developments that defined classical Indian culture and society. The conference was dubbed Between the Empires, because the heart of the period falls between the decline of the first major Indian empire, that of the Mauryas (whose last king died in the early 2nd century bce), and the rise of the Gupta Empire (beginning in the 4th century ce). The aim of the conference was to bring together scholars pursuing advanced research relating to this period and to provide them the opportunity to interact with each other over a two- or three-day period. The participants included archeologists, art historians, numismatists, historians, experts in literature, law, and linguistics, philosophers, and historians of religion. © 2006 by The South Asia Institute at the University of Texas. All rights reserved.
The characteristics of the various underworlds, particularly depth and darkness, and of the beings associated with and consigned to them in the Vedic conceptual cosmology are treated through a survey of pre-Upaniṣadic passages.
From about the second century onwards, principalities ( is probably the wrong word in all the earlier cases) began to appear in Southeast Asia, first along the isthmus of the Malay Peninsula, round the coast of the Gulf of Siam and of the southern part of Vietnam, later in the archipelago and eventually spreading throughout the area now known as Southeast Asia except for the north of Vietnam and parts of the archipelago in the east. These principalities are assigned to the historical record by inscriptions using Indian languages and scripts, stone remains attesting Hindu and Buddhist cults, and foreign accounts, mostly Chinese, indicating various features of Indian culture. Two of the questions which underlie historical studies of this evidence are: how did Indian influence spread through Southeast Asia? and, how far did Indian influence dominate Southeast Asia? In principle, these questions may be answered independently of each other, the first being chiefly concerned with the discussed in an earlier article, the second with . Attention will be directed here chiefly to the first, and to the second primarily only to the extent that is entailed by examination of the first. Various conflicting views have been advanced by historians; the purpose here is to suggest that, in the absence of convincing evidence for any one of them, an eclectic interpretation is not only legitimate but cogent.
Sinhalese Buddhists state that their religion was founded by the Buddha, who was a human being and is now dead. Cognitively this position is held by every Buddhist from the most learned monk to the most ignorant layman. Yet they usually behave as if the Buddha appears to them as a powerful and omnibenevolent god, a supreme being who is still in some way present and aware. (Perhaps we might say that cognitively the Buddha is dead, but affectively he is alive.) For instance, if assailed by dangerous demons a pious Buddhist will recite the qualities of the Buddha and thus keep any malevolent forces at bay. If asked to explain the apparent inconsistency, Buddhists say that the gods and demons are restrained by respect for the Buddha—but it is respect for his memory or for his doctrine, not for his active power. Moreover, Buddhists have dealings with the Buddha in which they behave as if he were at least numinously present; in particular, offerings are made before statues of the Buddha.
“In order to decide whether one can speak of a caste system in a society, one must ask: are status and power completely dissociated, can one find the equivalent of a Brahman/Ksatriya relationship? This question, though it may appear improper, has the virtue of immediately fixing a limit to Indian influence in South-East Asia. Important as this influence has been from the cultural and even social point of view, it would seem, roughly speaking, that nowhere in Indochina and Indonesia has the king been dispossessed of his religious prerogatives.”
This claim concerns the important question of the degree to which the Indian caste system can be, or has been, exported—a question that elicits deep-rooted and contentious problems inhering in our understanding of the nature of the caste system itself. Two propositions may here be identified and distinguished. The first is that, in India, kings—however powerful politically—did not formally possess religious or ritual authority; whereas in Indochina, however weak they were, kings formally possessed religious as well as political prerogatives. This is the contention cited above. The second is that, the first being true, it is also true that in Indochina kings possessed and exercised a degree of real control over social organization, by virtue of their ritual position (which was foreign to India): they were social engineers. In brief, they were oriental despots. The first proposition does not entail the second, but the two tend to go together; many writers have shown an inclination to accept the second, sometimes on the evidence of the first, sometimes on the evidence of facts about Indochinese kingdoms.