The poetical strategy of Aśvaghoṣa: the Brahmanical image of phena ‘foam’ in a doctrinally inspired Buddhist poetry
Keywords:
kāvya, Buddhist poetics, Brahmanical epics, topos woman-river
Abstract
This article aims to explore the new poetical strategy devised by the famous poet Aśvaghoṣa (2nd CE), a Brahmin converted to Buddhism, in order to promote the Buddhist doctrine: his works represent that cultural syncretism, which was supported by the policy of the Kuṣāṇa dynasty, spanning over three centuries in the northern India. Such a cultural environment stimulated new communicative strategies, especially on occasion of doctrinal debates, which must be held between the promoters of the Brahmanical counter-reformation movement, developed since the last centuries BCE – as assumable from the Brahmanical epics, especially the Mahābhārata –, and the challenging innovative Buddhist currents, such as the (Mūla)Sarvāstivāda school, attested in the Mathurā region, with which also Aśvaghoṣa must be affiliated. Against such a cultural background, the learned Aśvaghoṣa elaborated a sophisticated poetics, consisting not only of mere ornamentation, according to the earlier kāvya models, represented by the Brahmanical Rāmāyaṇa, but also of deeply complex inter-textual connections, made of flowing analogical suggestions, even inconsistent, producing a sort of ‘multistable’ perception of reality. Thus, an innovative kāvya poetry was shaped, fascinating and disorienting the educated audience at the same time. In fact, the manifold layers of reality, resulting from multi-meaning poetic expressions, suggest the main Buddhist principle which is exactly counterposed to the Brahmanical ontology: the phenomenal existence is devoid of a unique ‘essence’ itself (ātman), and is therefore ultimately unsubstantial.
This peculiar poetical strategy is here probed by means of the reconstruction of the textual network of the occurrences of the term phena, meaning ‘foam, froth’, and their literary contexts. Aśvaghoṣa adopts this Sanskrit term, drawing it and the correlated imagery from the Brahmanical textual repertoire (Vedic corpus, and epics) and Buddhist scriptures (Pāli canon), so that multifaceted meanings referring to different codified literary languages are implied by the single term phena. However, an ultimate value emerges from Aśvaghoṣa’s works: it paradoxically fulfils and consummates the previous inconsistent meanings, since in the Buddhist perspective the evanescence of the foam prefigures the supreme awareness of unsubstantiality.
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References
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Covill, Linda (2009), A Metaphorical Study of the Saundarananda, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass.
Deleanu, Florin (2019), ‘How Gnosis Met Logos: The Story of Hermeneutical Verse in Indian Buddhism’, Journal of International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies 23, 184-222.
Durante, Marcello (1976), Sulla preistoria della tradizione poetica greca. Risultanze della comparazione indoeuropea, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto per gli studi micenei ed egeo-anatolici, Roma, Ed. dell’Ateneo.
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Eltschinger, Vincent (2017), ‘Why did the Buddhists adopt Sanskrit?’, Open Linguistics 3, 308-326, (accessed 11/02/2020).
Eltschinger, Vincent (2018), ‘Aśvaghoṣa on Kings and Kingship’, Indo-Iranian Journal 61, 318-352.
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Fitzgerald, James L. (2012), ‘The Sāṃkhya-Yoga ‘Manifesto’ at MBh 12.289-290’, in Brockington, John (ed.), Battles, Bards, Brāhmins (Papers of the 13th World Sanskrit Conference), vol. II, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 185-212.
Gerow, Edwin (1971), A Glossary of Indian Figures of Speech, The Hague-Paris, Mouton.
Goldman, Robert P.; Sutherland-Goldman, Sally (2018), The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic in Ancient India, Volume VII, Uttarakāṇḍa, Princeton-Oxford, Princeton University Press.
Hamilton, Sue (1996), Identity and Experience. The Constitution of the Human Being According to Early Buddhism, London, Luzac Oriental.
Hiltebeitel, Alf (2005), ‘Buddhism and the Mahābhārata. Boudary Dynamics in Textual Practice’, in Squarcini, Federico (ed.), Boundaries, Dynamics and Constructions of Tradition in South Asia, Firenze, Firenze University Press, Munshiram Manoharlal, 107-131.
Hiltebeitel, Alf (2006), ‘Aśvaghoṣa’s “Buddhacarita”: The First Known Close and Critical Reading of the Brahmanical Sanskrit Epic’, Journal of Indian Philosophy 34 (3), 229-286.
Hinüber, Oskar von (1989), ‘Origin and Varieties of Buddhist Sanskrit’, in Caillat, Colette (ed.), Dialects dans les Littératures Indo-Aryennes, Paris, Collège de France Institut de Civilisation Indienne, 341-367.
Johnston, Edward Hamilton (19752) [1936], The Saundarananda of Aśvaghoṣa, Critically edited and translated with notes, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass.
Johnston, Edward Hamilton (19842) [1928 / 1932], Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita, or Acts of the Buddha, Complete Sanskrit Texts with English Translation, I-II Part, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass.
Kuiper, Franciscus B.J. (1950), ‘An Austro-Asiatic Myth in the Rigveda’, Mededelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandsche Akademie van Wetenschappen XXIII (7), 163-183.
Lam, Raymond (2013), ‘Kuṣāṇa Emperors and Indian Buddhism: Political, Economic and Cultural Factors Responsible for the Spread of Buddhism through Eurasia’, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 36 (3), 434-448.
Larson, Gerald J.; Bhattacharya, Ram S. (1987), Sāṃkhya. A Dualist Tradition in Indian Philosophy, vol IV, Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Delhi-Varanasi-Patna-Madras, Motilal Banarsidass.
Lienhard, Siegfried (1975), ‘Sur la structure poétique des Theratherīgāthā’, Journal Asiatique 263 (3- 4), 375-396.
Lubotsky, Alexander (1988), The System of Nominal Accentuation in Sanskrit and Proto-Indo European, Leiden-New York-København-Köln, E.J. Brill.
Lusthaus, Dan (2009), ‘The Two Truth (Saṃvṛti-satya and Paramārtha-satya) in Early Yogācāra’, Journal of Buddhist Studies (Sri Lanka) VII, 101-152.
Mayrhofer, Manfred (1992-2001), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen (EWA), Bd. I IV, Heidelberg, Carl Winter – Universitätsverlag.
Norman, Kenneth Roy (1971), The Elders’ Verses II Therīgāthā, Translated with an Introduction and Notes, London, Pali Text Society-Luzac.
Norman, Kenneth Roy (1997), The Word of the Doctrine (Dhammapada), Translated with an Introduction and Notes, London, Pali Text Society.
Norman, Kenneth Roy (2001), The Group of Discourses (Sutta-nipāta), Translated with an Introduction and Notes, Oxford, Pali Text Society.
Ollett, Andrew (2019), ‘Making It Nice: Kāvya in the Second Century’, Journal of Indian Philosophy 47 (2), 269-287.
Olivelle, Patrick (1998), The Eerly Upaniṣads, New York, Oxford University Press.
Olivelle, Patrick (2009), Life of the Buddha by Aśvaghoṣa, New York, New York University Press.
Olivelle, Patrick (2019), ‘Aśvaghoṣa’s Apologia: Brahmanical Ideology and Female Allure’, Journal of Indian Philosophy 47, 257-268.
Passi, Alessandro (1979), Le gesta del Buddha (Buddhacarita canto I-XIV), Milano, Adelphi.
Passi, Alessandro (1985), Nanda il Bello (Saundarananda-mahākāvya), Milano, Adelphi.
Pollock, Sheldon I. (2005), Ramayana. Book Two. Ayodhya by Valmiki, New York, New York University Press.
Pollock, Sheldon I. (2006), The Language of the Gods in the World of the Men, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London, University of California Press.
Salomon, Richard (1983), ‘The Buddhist Sanskrit of Aśvaghoṣa’s Saundarananda’, Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens 27, 92-117.
Salomon, Richard (2009), ‘Aśvaghoṣa’s Saundarananda IV-VI: A Study in the Poetic Structure of Buddhist Kāvya’, Indo-Iranian Journal 52 (2/3), 179-196.
Salomon, Richard (2015), ‘Narratives and Long Poetry: Aśvaghoṣa’, in Silk, Jonathan A. (ed.), Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Leiden, Brill, 507-514.
Salomon, Richard (2018), The Buddhist Literature of Ancient Gandhāra: An Introduction with Selected Translations, Somerville, Wisdom Publications.
Shulman, Eviatar (2018), ‘Aśvaghoṣa’s Viśeṣaka: The Saundarananda and Its Pāli “Equivalents”’, Journal of Indian Philosophy 47, 235-256.
Tremblay, Xavier (2007), ‘The Spread of Buddhism in Serindia - Buddhism among Iranians, Tocharians and Turks before the 13th century’, in Heirman, Ann; Bumbacher, Stephan Peter (eds.), The Spread of Buddhism, Leiden-Boston, E.J. Brill, 75-129.
Turner, Ralph L. (1962-1985), A Comparative Dictionary in Indo-Aryan Languages, Oxford University Press;
Tzohar, Roy (2019), ‘A Tree in Boom or a Tree Stripped Bare: Ways of Seeing in Aśvaghoṣa’s Life of the Buddha’, Journal of Indian Philosophy 47, 313-326.
Yamabe, Nobuyoshi (2003), ‘On the School Affiliation of Aśvaghoṣa: “Sauntrāntika” or “Yogācāra”’, Journal of International Association of Buddhist Studies 26 (2), 225-254.
Warder, Anthony K. (1974), Indian Kāvya Literature, vol. II, Origins and Formation of the Classical Kāvya, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass.
West, Martin L. (2007), Indo-European Poetry and Myth, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
AVP Atharvaveda Paippalādasaṃhitā: Bhattacharya, Dipak (ed.) (1997-2017) Paippalāda Saṃhitā of the Atharavaveda, 4 vols., Calcutta, The Asiatic Society.
AVŚ Atharvaveda Śaunakīyasaṃhitā: Roth, Rudolf von; Whitney, William Dwight (eds.) (1856), Atharva Veda Sanhita, hrsg. von R. Roth und W.D. Whitney, Berlin, Ferd. Dümmler’s Buchhandlung.
BṛhUp Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad: Olivelle, Patrick (ed.) (1998), The Early Upaniṣads, New York, Oxford University Press.
Dhp Dhammapada: Hinüber, Oskar von; Norman, Kenneth Roy (eds.) (1995), Dhammapada, Oxford, Pali Text Society, 1995.
BC Buddhacarita: Johnston, Edward Hamilton (ed.) (19842) [1928/1932], Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita, or Acts of the Buddha, Complete Sanskrit Texts with English Translation, I-II Part, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass.
GDhp Gāndhārī Dharmapada: Brough, John (ed.) (1962), Gāndhārī Dharmapada, edited with an Introduction and Commentary, London, New York, Toronto, Oxford University Press.
MBh Mahābhārata: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (Pune) (1937-1964), Electronic text, on the basis of the text entered by Muneo Tokunaga et al., revised by John Smith, Cambridge
MN Majjhima-Nikāya: Trenckner, Vilhelm; Chalmers, Robert (eds.) (1993-1994), Majjhima-Nikāya, 3 vols., London, Pali Text Society.
R Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa: Baroda Oriental Institute (1960-1975), vol.1-7; Electronic text, on the basis of the text entered by Muneo Tokunaga, revised by John Smith (Cambridge),
ṚV Ṛgvedasaṃhitā: Nooten, Barend A. van; Holland, Gary B. (eds.) (1994), Rig Veda: a metrically restored text with an introduction and notes, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press.
Saund Saundarananda: Johnston, Edward Hamilton (ed.) (19752) [1936], The Saundarananda of Aśvaghoṣa, Critically edited and translated with notes, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass.
ŚB Śatapathabrāhmaṇa, Gardner, J. Robert (electronically ed.) (2012), Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, Mādhyandina recension,
SN Saṃyutta-Nikāya: Feer, Leon M. (ed.) (1884-1898), Saṃyutta-Nikāya, 5 vols., London, Pali Text Society.
Sn Sutta-nipāta: Andersen, Dines; Smith, Helmer (eds.) (1913), Sutta-Nipāta, Oxford University Press, Pali Text Society.
ŚvetUp Śvetāśvetara Upaniṣad: Olivelle, Patrick (ed.) (1998), The Early Upaniṣads, New York, Oxford University Press.
TB Taittirīyabrāhmaṇa: Fushimi, Makoto (electronically ed.) (2012), Taittirīya Brāhmaṇa, corrections by Ahlborn, Matthias,
Thī Therīgāthā: Oldenberg, Hermann; Pischel, Richard (eds.) (1883), Thera- and Therī gāthā: Stanzas ascribed to Elders of the Buddhist Order of Recluses, London, Pali Text Society.
Biardeau, Madeleine; Porcher, Marie-Claude (eds. et al.) (1999), Le Rāmāyaṇa de Vālmīki, Paris, Gallimard.
Biardeau, Madeleine (2002), Mahābhārata I et II, Paris, Le Seuil.
Bloomfield, Maurice (1893), ‘Contributions to the Interpretation of the Veda’, Journal of the American Oriental Society 15, 143-188.
Boccali, Giuliano (1999), ‘Rain Poems and the Genesis of Kāvya’, in Vacek, Jaroslav; Knotková Capková, Blanka (eds.), Pandanus ’98. Flowers, Nature, Semiotics. Kāvya and Sangam, Prague, Signeta, 13-41.
Boccali, Giuliano; Pontillo, Tiziana (2010), ‘The Background of the samastavastuviṣayarūpaka and its importance in early Kāvya’, Pandanus’10 4 (2), 109-138.
Brereton, Joel; Jamison, Stephanie (2014), The Rigveda: the Earliest Religious Poetry of India, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Bronkhorst, Johannes (2011), Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism, Leiden-Boston, E.J. Brill.
Buitenen, Hans van (1975), The Mahābhārata. Book 2: The Book of the Assembly Hall. Book 3: The Book of the Forest, Chicago, University of Chicago Press.
Covill, Linda (2007), Handsome Nanda by Aśvaghoṣa, New York, New York University Press.
Covill, Linda (2009), A Metaphorical Study of the Saundarananda, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass.
Deleanu, Florin (2019), ‘How Gnosis Met Logos: The Story of Hermeneutical Verse in Indian Buddhism’, Journal of International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies 23, 184-222.
Durante, Marcello (1976), Sulla preistoria della tradizione poetica greca. Risultanze della comparazione indoeuropea, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto per gli studi micenei ed egeo-anatolici, Roma, Ed. dell’Ateneo.
Eggeling, Julius (1894), The Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa, according to the text of the Mādhyandina School, Part III, in Müller, Max (ed.), The Sacred Book of East, vol. XLI, Oxford, Clarendon Press.
Eltschinger, Vincent (2013), ‘Aśvaghoṣa and His Canonical Sources I: Preaching Selflessness to King Bimbisāra and the Magadhans (Buddhacarita 16.73–93)’, Journal of Indian Philosophy 41 (2), 167-194.
Eltschinger, Vincent (2017), ‘Why did the Buddhists adopt Sanskrit?’, Open Linguistics 3, 308-326,
Eltschinger, Vincent (2018), ‘Aśvaghoṣa on Kings and Kingship’, Indo-Iranian Journal 61, 318-352.
Eltschinger, Vincent (2019), ‘Aśvaghoṣa and His Canonical Sources (III): The Night of Awakening (Buddhacarita 14.1-87)’, Journal of Indian Philosophy 47, 195-233.
Falk, Harry (2015), ‘A New Gāndhārī Dharmapada (Texts from the Split Collection 3)’, Sōka daigaku kokusai bukkyōgaku kōtō kenkyūjo nenpō 18, 23-62.
Fitzgerald, James L. (2012), ‘The Sāṃkhya-Yoga ‘Manifesto’ at MBh 12.289-290’, in Brockington, John (ed.), Battles, Bards, Brāhmins (Papers of the 13th World Sanskrit Conference), vol. II, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 185-212.
Gerow, Edwin (1971), A Glossary of Indian Figures of Speech, The Hague-Paris, Mouton.
Goldman, Robert P.; Sutherland-Goldman, Sally (2018), The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic in Ancient India, Volume VII, Uttarakāṇḍa, Princeton-Oxford, Princeton University Press.
Hamilton, Sue (1996), Identity and Experience. The Constitution of the Human Being According to Early Buddhism, London, Luzac Oriental.
Hiltebeitel, Alf (2005), ‘Buddhism and the Mahābhārata. Boudary Dynamics in Textual Practice’, in Squarcini, Federico (ed.), Boundaries, Dynamics and Constructions of Tradition in South Asia, Firenze, Firenze University Press, Munshiram Manoharlal, 107-131.
Hiltebeitel, Alf (2006), ‘Aśvaghoṣa’s “Buddhacarita”: The First Known Close and Critical Reading of the Brahmanical Sanskrit Epic’, Journal of Indian Philosophy 34 (3), 229-286.
Hinüber, Oskar von (1989), ‘Origin and Varieties of Buddhist Sanskrit’, in Caillat, Colette (ed.), Dialects dans les Littératures Indo-Aryennes, Paris, Collège de France Institut de Civilisation Indienne, 341-367.
Johnston, Edward Hamilton (19752) [1936], The Saundarananda of Aśvaghoṣa, Critically edited and translated with notes, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass.
Johnston, Edward Hamilton (19842) [1928 / 1932], Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita, or Acts of the Buddha, Complete Sanskrit Texts with English Translation, I-II Part, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass.
Kuiper, Franciscus B.J. (1950), ‘An Austro-Asiatic Myth in the Rigveda’, Mededelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandsche Akademie van Wetenschappen XXIII (7), 163-183.
Lam, Raymond (2013), ‘Kuṣāṇa Emperors and Indian Buddhism: Political, Economic and Cultural Factors Responsible for the Spread of Buddhism through Eurasia’, South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies 36 (3), 434-448.
Larson, Gerald J.; Bhattacharya, Ram S. (1987), Sāṃkhya. A Dualist Tradition in Indian Philosophy, vol IV, Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Delhi-Varanasi-Patna-Madras, Motilal Banarsidass.
Lienhard, Siegfried (1975), ‘Sur la structure poétique des Theratherīgāthā’, Journal Asiatique 263 (3- 4), 375-396.
Lubotsky, Alexander (1988), The System of Nominal Accentuation in Sanskrit and Proto-Indo European, Leiden-New York-København-Köln, E.J. Brill.
Lusthaus, Dan (2009), ‘The Two Truth (Saṃvṛti-satya and Paramārtha-satya) in Early Yogācāra’, Journal of Buddhist Studies (Sri Lanka) VII, 101-152.
Mayrhofer, Manfred (1992-2001), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen (EWA), Bd. I IV, Heidelberg, Carl Winter – Universitätsverlag.
Norman, Kenneth Roy (1971), The Elders’ Verses II Therīgāthā, Translated with an Introduction and Notes, London, Pali Text Society-Luzac.
Norman, Kenneth Roy (1997), The Word of the Doctrine (Dhammapada), Translated with an Introduction and Notes, London, Pali Text Society.
Norman, Kenneth Roy (2001), The Group of Discourses (Sutta-nipāta), Translated with an Introduction and Notes, Oxford, Pali Text Society.
Ollett, Andrew (2019), ‘Making It Nice: Kāvya in the Second Century’, Journal of Indian Philosophy 47 (2), 269-287.
Olivelle, Patrick (1998), The Eerly Upaniṣads, New York, Oxford University Press.
Olivelle, Patrick (2009), Life of the Buddha by Aśvaghoṣa, New York, New York University Press.
Olivelle, Patrick (2019), ‘Aśvaghoṣa’s Apologia: Brahmanical Ideology and Female Allure’, Journal of Indian Philosophy 47, 257-268.
Passi, Alessandro (1979), Le gesta del Buddha (Buddhacarita canto I-XIV), Milano, Adelphi.
Passi, Alessandro (1985), Nanda il Bello (Saundarananda-mahākāvya), Milano, Adelphi.
Pollock, Sheldon I. (2005), Ramayana. Book Two. Ayodhya by Valmiki, New York, New York University Press.
Pollock, Sheldon I. (2006), The Language of the Gods in the World of the Men, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London, University of California Press.
Salomon, Richard (1983), ‘The Buddhist Sanskrit of Aśvaghoṣa’s Saundarananda’, Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens 27, 92-117.
Salomon, Richard (2009), ‘Aśvaghoṣa’s Saundarananda IV-VI: A Study in the Poetic Structure of Buddhist Kāvya’, Indo-Iranian Journal 52 (2/3), 179-196.
Salomon, Richard (2015), ‘Narratives and Long Poetry: Aśvaghoṣa’, in Silk, Jonathan A. (ed.), Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Leiden, Brill, 507-514.
Salomon, Richard (2018), The Buddhist Literature of Ancient Gandhāra: An Introduction with Selected Translations, Somerville, Wisdom Publications.
Shulman, Eviatar (2018), ‘Aśvaghoṣa’s Viśeṣaka: The Saundarananda and Its Pāli “Equivalents”’, Journal of Indian Philosophy 47, 235-256.
Tremblay, Xavier (2007), ‘The Spread of Buddhism in Serindia - Buddhism among Iranians, Tocharians and Turks before the 13th century’, in Heirman, Ann; Bumbacher, Stephan Peter (eds.), The Spread of Buddhism, Leiden-Boston, E.J. Brill, 75-129.
Turner, Ralph L. (1962-1985), A Comparative Dictionary in Indo-Aryan Languages, Oxford University Press;
Tzohar, Roy (2019), ‘A Tree in Boom or a Tree Stripped Bare: Ways of Seeing in Aśvaghoṣa’s Life of the Buddha’, Journal of Indian Philosophy 47, 313-326.
Yamabe, Nobuyoshi (2003), ‘On the School Affiliation of Aśvaghoṣa: “Sauntrāntika” or “Yogācāra”’, Journal of International Association of Buddhist Studies 26 (2), 225-254.
Warder, Anthony K. (1974), Indian Kāvya Literature, vol. II, Origins and Formation of the Classical Kāvya, Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass.
West, Martin L. (2007), Indo-European Poetry and Myth, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Published
2019-12-31
How to Cite
Rossi, P. (2019). The poetical strategy of Aśvaghoṣa: the Brahmanical image of phena ‘foam’ in a doctrinally inspired Buddhist poetry. Rhesis. International Journal of Linguistics, Philology and Literature, 10(2), 91-111. https://doi.org/10.13125/rhesis/5688
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Articoli
