The Buddha and the Upanishads

[Alex Passi]

Starting from:
In this strong form, the critique seems simply untenable. We have  
translations in Chinese from the late second century which tell us a  
great deal about what Buddhism taught. That is two centuries or so  
before Buddhaghosa. We even have some Gaandhaarii texts apparently  
from the first century A.D. We have inscriptions and sculptures from  
earlier still.

I must agree here. And what about A'svagho.sa? The Buddha-story is  
very well developed both in the Buddhacarita and the Saundarananda --  
so well developed that there is much reason to believe that this  
biography of the life of the Sage of the 'Sakyas, obviously well- 
known to the poet's contemporaries (NB I would not endorse the  
opinion that it is a "historical" biography in the common meaning of  
the word), comes as an end-product of a fairly long evolution. And,  
together with the tale of the Buddha's life and that of his rather  
simpatico half-brother Nanda, these kaavya-s contain entire sarga-s  
completely dedicated to "hard-core" buddhist teachings, where the  
doctrine, or rather the Way, is explained in much detail.
Nonetheless, the earliest MS fragments of these kavyas probably date  
from the beginning of the C.E., and Johnston's monumental work of  
exegesis seems to point to a date between the Ist century B.C.E. and  
the Ist century after (and I don't give a hoot about the date of  
Kani.ska -- there simply is not enough evidence to tie the poet, an  
Easterner from Oudh, to the great Kushan king!).
Another point indicating an early age for both A'svagho.sa kaavya-s  
(though definitely post-A'soka, in any event!) lies in the difference  
between the Ramayana and Mahabharata legends as we know them now, and  
the state in which they emerge, almost casually, in the "exempla"  
quoted by the poet.
The real problem, IMHO, lies in the fact that we have, as of yet, no  
way of reconstructing the time-line within which both ideas and  
legends evolve. Must we really believe that it took 400 years to  
creat the Great Epic? Or does literary and doctrinal evolution  
proceed in great, non-linear, leaps and bounds?

Alex Passi


Alex (Alessandro) Passi,
Dipartimento Studi Linguistici
e Orientali
Università di Bologna,
Via Zamboni 33
Bologna, 40126, Italy.

a.passi at alma.unibo.it
alexpassi at gmail.com
+39-051-209.8472
cellphone +39-338.269.4933
fax +39-051-209.8443.