[INDOLOGY] Numbers --- # 1

[Artur Karp]

Dear Lubomir,

Thank you for the link. But - but I do not find in the paper the answer for
the question --- why, ultimately, eighty-four?

The inner structure of the number: 7 x 12

Is it a result of some numerological game?

Best,

Artur

2016-06-18 22:51 GMT+02:00 Lubomir Ondracka <ondracka at ff.cuni.cz>:

> Dear Artur,
>
> on the number 84 000 in Buddhist (and Jaina) sources, see this very
> interesting study:
> Ruth Satinsky, "What can the lifespans of Ṛṣabha, Bharata, Śreyāṃsa, and
> Ara tell us about the History of the concept of Mount Meru?", International
> Journal of Jaina Studies 11.1 (2015) 1-24.
>
> It is available on-line:
> https://www.soas.ac.uk/research/publications/journals/ijjs/file100251.pdf
>
> Lubomir
>
>
> On Sat, 18 Jun 2016 14:12:55 +0200
> Artur Karp <karp at uw.edu.pl> wrote:
>
> > 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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