Yehan Numata Program Lecture: "Defining Avadāna and the Reformation of the Buddhist Canon"
When and Where
Speakers
Description
Yehan Numata Program in Buddhist Studies 2024-25
Abstract
In posing themselves the question, “what is an avadāna?”, monastic scholars in the Indic Northwest (eastern Afghanistan and Pakistan) of the early Common Era opted to define this emergent narrative mode as an “analogy” (dṛṣṭānta) in the monastic legal code (vinaya) or canonical discourses (sūtra). They therefore considered avadāna to be a form of figuration designed to illuminate a specific shade of the Law (dharma), whether as a “precedent” when justifying the application of monastic rules or more widely as an “exemplum” when illustrating an item of Buddhist doctrine. But their purpose was not merely definition. They moreover sought to affirm avadāna as one of three newly formed genres (aṅga) of the recently devised twelve-fold canon (dvādaśāṅga). The claim, therefore, was to have discerned a distinct tonality to the very words of the Buddha (buddhavacana) and realised in this move was nothing less than a radical reshaping of the Buddhist canon and the very notion of canonicity. This presentation shall offer some reflections on the historical emergence of avadāna, on the role of analogy in Buddhist literature of the period, and the effects the definition ofavadāna as analogy had on the reformation of the Buddhist canon.
About the speaker
Henry Albery is currently a JSPS International Fellow hosted by the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia at The University of Tokyo. His research considers the emergence of Buddhist monasticism in the Indic Northwest (eastern Afghanistan and northern Pakistan) around the turn of the Common Era, with a present focus on the formation of the monastic legal codes and the emergence of new narrative genres, such as avadāna. He is also a project member of An English Translation of a Sanskrit Yoga Manual from Kučā, funded by The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation.
For questions and the reading group materials, please contact Christoph Emmrich at christoph.emmrich@utoronto.ca.
Join on Zoom Passcode: 989442
- Associated reading group, December 12, “Immeasurable Joy: One Meditation of a Vaibhāṣikā Yogācāra”
- See 2024-25 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS FOR YEHAN NUMATA PROGRAM IN BUDDHIST STUDIES