Aśvaghoṣa's views on the authority of the Buddha and the Buddhist Scriptures

Doz. Dr. Vincent Eltschinger (Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna)

Starting from the Buddhist epistemologists' and late Mādhyamikas' views on the evaluation of scriptural authority, this lecture will consider the origin, in Aśvaghoṣa's Buddhacarita, of a famous simile meant to encapsulate the Buddhist attitude toward reasoning and scripture. Tracing the history of this simile provides an opportunity to get an idea of the Indian Buddhists' changing apologetic agendas and targets while elaborating on the authenticity and authority of Buddhist as well as non-Buddhist scriptures.