[INDOLOGY] Numbers --- # 1

[Artur Karp]

Dear List,

*84 000*.

The number appears in Buddhist texts, most intensively in the
*Sudassana-sutta*, where it serves to contain in itself the final, perfect,
model shape of reality - in its various perceivable aspects .

In the Buddhaghosa's *Sumangala-vilasini* Asoka plans to divide the relics
of the Buddha into 84 000 portions, to be placed in 84 000 stupas - planned
to be built throughout his kingdom.

Is there somewhere in the Buddhist tradition a mention of the idea of *human
body* numbering 84 000 elements?

Why 84 000? And not, for example - 100 000?

Thanking you in advance,

Artur Karp (ret.)
Chair of South Asian Studies
University of Warsaw
Poland


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