concluding stutis

[jfstaal]

OM STUDHVAM!

Frits Staal

>===== Original Message From "Ulrich T. Kragh" <utkragh at HUM.KU.DK> =====
>Dear fellow members,
>I am writing a piece on the concluding verses in the various writings of the
>7th century Buddhist author Candrakirti. These verses express the author's
>sources, intent of writing, a dedication of merit and often also a homage,
>and are occassionally very poetic. In one of the colophons, such verses are
>referred to as a stuti, a term which also appears for the same kind of
>concluding verses in the later Tibetan tradition of Buddhist commentaries,
>where they in Tibetan are called "bstod pa." In the case of Candrakirti, the
>genre of the texts is philosophical commentary (vRtti).
>
>My questions are:
>(1) is there a specific Sanskrit term for such concluding verses?
>(2) are they prescribed, defined or characterized anywhere, e.g., in the
>poetic tradition or any work outlining the standard features of a shastra or
>a vrtti?
>(3) in case of the Buddhist Madhyamaka-tradition, such concluding stutis
>first seem to become a standard feature in the 6th-7th century. Can that be
>generalized or what are the important precursors for this feature?
>
>With best wishes,
>Ulrich Timme Kragh
>Harvard University.

Frits Staal

http://philosophy.berkeley.edu