Re: [INDOLOGY] Vajrasūcī

[Roland Steiner]

Dear colleagues,

> I am in fact very much inclined to see an ironic/sarcastic touch in it.

> A variant-reading of the stanza can be found in  
> "Kalpadrumavadanamala, based on the text appended to P.L. Vaidya's  
> edition of the Avadanasataka

Another example of possible irony towards Brahmins in Buddhist  
narrative literature may be found in the following pair of verses from  
Āryaśūra's Jātakamālā (ĀJM):

hataś ca yajñe tridivaṃ yadi vrajen
nanu vrajeyuḥ paśutāṃ svayaṃ dvijāḥ
yatas tu nāyaṃ vidhir īkṣyate kva cid
vacas tad eṣāṃ ka iva grahīṣyati (ĀJM 10.13)

atulyagandharddhirasaujasaṃ śubhāṃ
sudhāṃ kilotsṛjya varāpsarodhṛtām
mudaṃ prayāsyanti vapādikāraṇād
vadhena śocyasya paśor divaukasaḥ (ĀJM 10.13)

"If one goes to heaven by being killed in sacrifice,
surely brahmins themselves would become sacrificial animals.
But since one never sees this practiced,
who would accept the words of such men?

Would the gods reject their pure nectar, served by fine nymphs,
incomparable in scent, richness, flavor, and potency,
and take joy in the slaughter of a pitiful animal
to feed off its intestines and other parts?" (transl. Justin Meiland)

(Āryaśūra must have lived by the beginning of the 5th century CE at  
the latest, but possibly earlier.)

With best regards,
Roland Steiner