Moggallana’s Journey to Another Buddha-field: How a Mahayana Narrative Crept into the Ekottarika Agama (T 125)
The Chinese Ekottarika Agama (EA) stands out among the four Pali Nikayas and the corresponding four Chinese Agamas, which are supposed to be collections of early Buddhist texts. My study of anomalies in a sutta of EA reveals that it is a composite of various textual sources. The original translation...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Equinox
2019
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| In: |
Religions of South Asia
Year: 2019, Volume: 13, Issue: 1, Pages: 24–50 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Aṅguttaranikāya
/ Sanskrit language
/ Translation
/ Chinese language
/ Moggallāna ca. 6 BC./5. Jh.
/ Trip to the beyond
/ Reinterpretation
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| IxTheo Classification: | BL Buddhism KBM Asia |
| Further subjects: | B
Mahāyāna
B Zhu Fonian B Āgama B Ekottarika B Dharmarakṣa B Nikāya |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The Chinese Ekottarika Agama (EA) stands out among the four Pali Nikayas and the corresponding four Chinese Agamas, which are supposed to be collections of early Buddhist texts. My study of anomalies in a sutta of EA reveals that it is a composite of various textual sources. The original translation of this sutta, presumably non-numerical, was merged with a much shorter, numerical sutta in the process of forming the extant sutta. Zhu Fonian was not satisfied with his original translation of EA, which was carried out under difficult circumstances. As time went by, he had access to other Indic sources and Chinese translations, which could have enabled him to improve this translation. On the other hand, he modified part of his translation in such a creative way that it deviates significantly from the Indic original. Thus our sutta incorporated some new elements, including an episode adapted from a passage in Dharmaraksa’s translation of a Mahayana text. Therefore, Moggallana’s travel to the Brahma Heaven in the original translation was turned into a journey to another buddhafield in the revised version. The religious milieu may have prompted Zhu Fonian to draw upon the Mahayana texts, especially those translated by Dharmaraksa, when revising his translation of EA. |
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| ISSN: | 1751-2697 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religions of South Asia
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/rosa.19247 |