Will the real Nigantha Nātaputta please stand up? Reflections on the Buddha and his contemporaries
It is a venerable academic tradition that Mahāvīra, the founder of Jainism known in the Pāli literature as Nigantha Nātaputta , was a somewhat older contemporary of the Buddha. This article describes the role of Nigantha Nātaputta in Buddhist literature and how this identification of Nigantha Nātapu...
| Published in: | Journal for the study of religion |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
ASRSA
[2015]
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| In: |
Journal for the study of religion
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| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Mahāvīra ca. 5. Jh. v. Chr.
/ Buddhist literature
/ Jainism
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| RelBib Classification: | BL Buddhism |
| Further subjects: | B
Jainism
B Nigantha Nátaputta B Gotama Buddha B Early Buddhism B Mahávïra |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | It is a venerable academic tradition that Mahāvīra, the founder of Jainism known in the Pāli literature as Nigantha Nātaputta , was a somewhat older contemporary of the Buddha. This article describes the role of Nigantha Nātaputta in Buddhist literature and how this identification of Nigantha Nātaputta and Mahávïra has become accepted in both Buddhist and Jain scholarship. The article then proceeds to demonstrate that there are reasons to doubt this identification - while it is not possible to state categorically that they were different people, the evidence for their identicality is quite meagre and there are textual references that show very different people going under the names of these two Indian religious figures. If we cannot simplistically assume that the figure named Nigantha Nátaputta in Buddhist sources was Mahávïra, then this has chronological consequences for Buddhist studies, but even more so in Jain studies. |
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| ISSN: | 2413-3027 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal for the study of religion
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