Prof. Dr. Richard Salomon (University of Washington, emeritus): The Case of the Missing Buddha

24 November 2021

17:00 November 24, 2021. Due to the coronavirus pandemic conducted online via Zoom.

The oldest list of the six buddhas who preceded Gotama/Śākyamuni, beginning with Vipassi/Vipaśyin, as presented most prominently in the Mahāvadāna-sūtra/Mahāpadāna-sutta is maintained consistently across Buddhist traditions. But the longer lists of earlier buddhas vary widely among various geographical, sectarian, and linguistic traditions. In particular, a comparison of certain buddha lists in Sanskrit, Chinese, and Gāndhārī reveals a marked pattern of inconsistency between and even within individual texts regarding the positions of the three buddhas Arthadarśin, Tiṣya, and Puṣya who immediately preceded Vipaśyin. It will be argued that this problematic section reflects various attempts to reconcile the common original tradition of lists of seven buddhas from Vipaśyin to Śākyamuni with the various later lists of the previous buddhas. Some scribal peculiarities of the unique Gāndhārī manuscript of the *Bahubuddhaka-sūtra (held in the Library of Congress, Washington DC) are shown to reflect the prevailing uncertainty about this problematic node in the lineage, thereby providing some clues about the history of the formation of the various Buddha lists.

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The lecture is held online via Zoom. For those who whish to participate, please write a short mail to Prof. Dr. Wangchuk: dorji.wangchuk@uni-hamburg.de

Prof. Dr. Dorji Wangchuk (Director)

Khyentse Center for Tibetan Buddhist Textual Scholarship (KC-TBTS)
Abteilung für Kultur und Geschichte Indiens und Tibets, AAI, Universität Hamburg
Alsterterrasse 1, D-20354 Hamburg