The Multi-life Stories of Gautama Buddha and Vardhamana Mahavira
Issued Date: 13 Jul 2012
Abstract
Like Buddhist traditions, Jain traditions preserve many stories about people’s past lives. Unlike Buddhist traditions, relatively few of these stories narrate the past lives of the tradition’s central figure, the jina. In Jainism there is no equivalent path to the bodhisatt(v)a path; the karma that guarantees jinahood is bound a mere two births before that attainment, and the person who attracts that karma cannot do so willfully, nor is he aware of it being bound. There is therefore no Jain equivalent to the ubiquitous jātaka literature. In this paper I will explore what the absence of a jātaka genre in Jain traditions tells us about the genre’s role in Buddhism. Focusing upon the multi-life stories of Gautama Buddha and Vardhamāna Mahāvīra, I will ask how these two strikingly similar narratives betray some fundamental differences between Buddhist and Jain understandings of the ultimate religious goal and the method of its attainment.
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DOI: 10.1558/bsrv.v29i1.5
References
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Appleton, Naomi. Forthcoming. ‘Jinas-to-be and Bodhisattvas: Paths to Perfection in Jain and Buddhist Narratives.’ In Jaina Narratives, edited by Peter Flügel and Olle Qvarnström. SOAS Jaina Studies Series, Routledge.
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Horner, I.B., trans. 1975. The Minor Anthologies of the Pali Canon Part III: Chronicle of Buddhas (Buddhavaṃsa) and Basket of Conduct (Cariyāpiṭaka). Oxford: The Pali Text Society.
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Jaini, P.S. 1979. The Jaina Path of Purification. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Jaini, P.S. 1981. ‘Tīrthaṅkara-Prakṛti and the Bodhisattva Path.’ Journal of the Pali Text Society 9: 96–104.
Jaini, P.S. 2003. ‘From Nigoda to Mokṣa: The Story of Marudevī.’ In Jainism and Early Buddhism: Essays in Honor of Padmanabh S. Jaini, edited by Olle Qvarnström, 1–27. Fremont CA: Asian Humanities Press.
Jayawickrama, N.A. (trans.) 1990. The Story of Gotama Buddha: The Nidāna-kathā of the Jātakaṭṭhakathā. Oxford: The Pali Text Society.
Johnson, Helen M. (trans.) 1931–1962. Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacaritra, or, The Lives of Sixty-Three Illustrious Persons by Ācārya Śrī Hemacandra, 6 vols. Baroda Oriental Institute.
Jones, J.J., trans. 1949. The Mahāvastu, Volume 1. London: Luzac & Company.
Senart, É., ed. 1882. Le Mahāvastu, Tome Premier. Paris: L’Imprimerie Nationale.
Morris, R., ed. 1882. The Buddhavaṃsa and the Cariyāpiṭaka. London: The Pali Text Society.
Nagraj, Rashtrasant Muni Shri. 2005. Āgama Aura Tripiṭaka: A Comparative Study of Lord Mahāvīra and Lord Buddha. English translation by Muni Shri Mahendra Kumarji and K. C. Lalvani. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company.
Ohira, Suzuko. 1994. ‘The Twenty-Four Buddhas and the Twenty-Four Tīrthaṅkaras.’ In Festschrift Klaus Bruhn zur Vollendung des 65. Lebensjahres dargebracht von Schülern, Freunden und Kollegen, edited by Nalini Balbir and Joachim K. Bautze, 475–488. Reinbek: Verlag für Orientalistische Fachpublikationen.
Appleton, Naomi. Forthcoming. ‘Jinas-to-be and Bodhisattvas: Paths to Perfection in Jain and Buddhist Narratives.’ In Jaina Narratives, edited by Peter Flügel and Olle Qvarnström. SOAS Jaina Studies Series, Routledge.
Chakravarti, A. 1994. Neelakesi. Jaipur: Prakrit Bharati Academy.
Cowell, E.B. and R.A. Neil, eds. 1886. The Divyāvadāna. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Doniger, Wendy. 1993. Purāṇa Perennis. Albany NY: State University of New York Press.
Dundas, Paul. 2002. The Jains. London : Routledge. 2nd edn.
Endo, Toshiichi. 1997. Buddha in Theravada Buddhism. Dehiwela, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Cultural Centre.
Fausboll, V., ed. 1877. The Jātaka together with its commentary being tales of the anterior births of Gotama Buddha, volume 1. London: Trübner.
Gombrich, Richard. 1980. ‘The Significance of Former Buddhas in the Theravādin Tradition.’ In Buddhist Studies in Honour of Walpola Rahula, edited by Balasooriya et al., 62–72. London: Gordon Fraser.
Granoff, Phyllis, ed. 2008. The Clever Adultress and Other Stories: A Treasury of Jain Literature. Oakville: Mosaic Press.
Horner, I.B., trans. 1975. The Minor Anthologies of the Pali Canon Part III: Chronicle of Buddhas (Buddhavaṃsa) and Basket of Conduct (Cariyāpiṭaka). Oxford: The Pali Text Society.
Jaini, P.S. 1977. ‘Bhavyatva and Abhavyatva: A Jaina Doctrine of “Predestination”’. In Mahāvīra and His Teachings, edited by A. N. Upadhye et al., 95–111. Bombay: Bhagvān Mahāvīra 2500th Nirvāṇa Mahotsava Samiti.
Jaini, P.S. 1979. The Jaina Path of Purification. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Jaini, P.S. 1981. ‘Tīrthaṅkara-Prakṛti and the Bodhisattva Path.’ Journal of the Pali Text Society 9: 96–104.
Jaini, P.S. 2003. ‘From Nigoda to Mokṣa: The Story of Marudevī.’ In Jainism and Early Buddhism: Essays in Honor of Padmanabh S. Jaini, edited by Olle Qvarnström, 1–27. Fremont CA: Asian Humanities Press.
Jayawickrama, N.A. (trans.) 1990. The Story of Gotama Buddha: The Nidāna-kathā of the Jātakaṭṭhakathā. Oxford: The Pali Text Society.
Johnson, Helen M. (trans.) 1931–1962. Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacaritra, or, The Lives of Sixty-Three Illustrious Persons by Ācārya Śrī Hemacandra, 6 vols. Baroda Oriental Institute.
Jones, J.J., trans. 1949. The Mahāvastu, Volume 1. London: Luzac & Company.
Senart, É., ed. 1882. Le Mahāvastu, Tome Premier. Paris: L’Imprimerie Nationale.
Morris, R., ed. 1882. The Buddhavaṃsa and the Cariyāpiṭaka. London: The Pali Text Society.
Nagraj, Rashtrasant Muni Shri. 2005. Āgama Aura Tripiṭaka: A Comparative Study of Lord Mahāvīra and Lord Buddha. English translation by Muni Shri Mahendra Kumarji and K. C. Lalvani. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company.
Ohira, Suzuko. 1994. ‘The Twenty-Four Buddhas and the Twenty-Four Tīrthaṅkaras.’ In Festschrift Klaus Bruhn zur Vollendung des 65. Lebensjahres dargebracht von Schülern, Freunden und Kollegen, edited by Nalini Balbir and Joachim K. Bautze, 475–488. Reinbek: Verlag für Orientalistische Fachpublikationen.
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