[INDOLOGY] Enkidu and Ṛṣyaśṛṅga

[Matthew Kapstein]

I am not sure that there is an important spatial distance - it's quite direct from Mesopotamia to the Indus and beyond via the sea route. Recall that the Baveru JAtaka makes clear that seafaring to Babylon (Babbilu) was well-known to early Buddhists. And there are other cases in which apparently Near Eastern tales are found in Buddhist materials - another is Solomon's judgement, which has a well-known parallel in "Mahosadha's judgement," from the commentary on the MahomaggajAtaka and conveniently given in Andersen's Pali Reader.

Matthew T. Kapstein
Professor emeritus
Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL Research University, Paris

Numata Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies Emeritus
The University of Chicago Divinity School

Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

https://ephe.academia.edu/MatthewKapstein

https://vajrabookshop.com/product/the-life-and-work-of-auleshi/

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501716218/tibetan-manuscripts-and-early-printed-books-volume-i/#bookTabs=1

https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501771255/tibetan-manuscripts-and-early-printed-books-volume-ii/#bookTabs=1

https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/60949

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On Monday, October 19th, 2026 at 7:40 AM, Hélène de Brux via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Dear Valerie,
>
> You may look into Giacomo Benedetti’s 2015 article in the Journal of Asian Civilizations 38(1) “The story of Ekaśṛṅga in the Mahāvastu with its parallels,” where he discusses its similarity with the story of Enkidu and its line of transmission, as well as refers to previous studies on the subject.
>
> With best wishes,
>
> Hélène
>
> Dr. Hélène de Brux
> Postdoctoral fellow
> École française d'Extrême-Orient, Paris
>
> On Mon, Oct 19, 2026 at 12:54 AM Valerie Roebuck via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> Dear Colleagues
>>
>> While listening recently to a dramatisation of the Epic of Gilgamesh on BBC Radio 4, I was very struck by the similarity of the story of the taming of the wild man Enkidu with that of the (temporary) taming of the sage Ṛṣyaśṛṅga/Ekaśṛṅga (Pali Isisiṅga) found in the Mahābhārata and the Jātakas. In view of the rather large disparity in space and time between these accounts, is there any possibility of a common influence? Has anyone looked into this?
>>
>> Thank you
>>
>> Valerie J Roebuck
>> Manchester, UK
>>
>> Sent from my iPad
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