The Buddha in the ‘Wild West’: The Localization of Jatakas in Gandhara and the Ramayana
The starting point of this article is the observation that three Jataka narratives, the Visvantara-jataka, the Syama-jataka and the Ekasrnga-/Rsyasrnga-jataka, localized in the ancient northwest Indian region of Gandhara by the Chinese Buddhist travellers Faxian, Song Yun and Xuanzang, have parallel...
| Published in: | Religions of South Asia |
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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: |
Equinox
2022
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| In: |
Religions of South Asia
Year: 2022, Volume: 16, Issue: 2/3, Pages: 220-248 |
| Further subjects: | B
Gandhāra
B Song Yun B Rāmāyaṇa B Xuanzang B localization of narratives B Jātaka B Faxian |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The starting point of this article is the observation that three Jataka narratives, the Visvantara-jataka, the Syama-jataka and the Ekasrnga-/Rsyasrnga-jataka, localized in the ancient northwest Indian region of Gandhara by the Chinese Buddhist travellers Faxian, Song Yun and Xuanzang, have parallels in the epic Ramayana (and the latter two in the Mahabharata). The article analyses the different version of these narratives in the Buddhist and Hindu sources and their possible relation, and reaches the cautious conclusion that the localization of the Buddhist Jatakas in the northwest may have been a reaction to the popularization of the Ramayana in a full and mature form which included the narratives corresponding to the Buddhist Syama-jataka and Rsyasrnga-jataka in the more central parts of India in the Gupta period. |
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| ISSN: | 1751-2697 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religions of South Asia
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/rosa.24402 |