eighteen

[Alfred Hiltebeitel]

-I see that I mis-addressed this yesterday:

On usages of the number 18, see also, for some discussion, Madeleine Biardeau, Le Mahabharata: Un recit fondateur du brahmanisme et son interpretation (Paris: Seuil, 2002), vol. 1, pp. 548-50, 700, 737 and n. 14.

Alf Hiltebeitel
Professor of Religion and Human Sciences
Department of Religion
2106 G Street, NW
George Washington University
Washington DC 20052

----- Original Message -----
From: Martin Straube <straube at STAFF.UNI-MARBURG.DE>
Date: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 4:53 am
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] eighteen
To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk

> Also:
> Lienhard, Siegfried: Lucky Numbers in Ancient Indian Literature, in:  
> 
> Langue, style et structure dans le monde indien. Centenaire de Louis  
> 
> Renou. Actes du Colloque international (Paris, 25 –27 janvier 1996),  
> 
> édités par Nalini Balbir et Georges-Jean Pinault avec la collaboration 
>  
> de Jean Fezas. Paris 1996. (Bibliothèque de l’École des Hautes Études, 
>  
> Sciences Historiques et philologiques, 334), p. 523– 536.
> 
> Martin Straube
> 
> Zitat von Peter Wyzlic <pwyzlic at UNI-BONN.DE>:
> 
> > Am 18.10.2010 um 22:57 schrieb Herman Tull:
> >
> >> I apologize if this question is a terribly ignorant one, but I was  
> 
> >> wondering if there is any scholarly literature or any discussion of 
>  
> >> the significance of the Indic "18" (dominant in the  
> >> Mahabharata--books, days of war, etc., etc., and then reiterated in 
>  
> >> the Puranas in the so-called "major" and "minor" books denotation). 
>  
> >>  This has long seemed to me to be some sort of convenient fiction  
> 
> >> used to tie up loose ends (not unlike the twelve disciples of Jesus 
>  
> >> recalling the twelve tribes of Israel).  However, as I sat in an  
> >> introductory Buddhism lecture today, and was reminded about the  
> >> famed 18 schools of the Mahasanghika(s), I started to think, there  
> 
> >> might be a bit more (or, perhaps no more at all).  Thanks.
> >
> > There is an older article by Otto Stein:
> > Stein, Otto: The numeral 18, in: Poona Orientalist 1 (1936), p. 1-37 
>  
> > and a short sequel, Stein, Otto: Additional notes on the numeral 18, 
>  
> > in: Poona Orientalist 2 (1937), p. 164-165 (both repr. in Otto  
> > Stein: Kleine Schriften / ed. by Friedrich Wilhelm. - Stuttgart :  
> > Steiner, 1985, pp. 515 seqq.).
> >
> > Hope it helps
> > Peter Wyzlic
> >
> > --
> > Institut für Orient- und Asienwissenschaften
> > Bibliothek
> > Universität Bonn
> > Regina-Pacis-Weg 7
> > 53113 Bonn
> >
> >
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Dr. Martin Straube
> 
> Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
> Seminar für Indologie
> Emil-Abderhalden-Str. 9
> D-06099 Halle (Saale)
> www.indologie.uni-halle.de
> 
> Philipps-Universität Marburg
> Fachgebiet Indologie und Tibetologie
> Deutschhausstr. 12
> D-35032 Marburg
> www.uni-marburg.de/indologie