Mahāyāna Without the Concept of Mahāyāna: Evidence From an Early Kharoṣṭhī Manuscript from Gandhāra
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
5:30 pm to 7:00 pm
- Venue
- TBA
- Event type
- Lecture
About this event
The Kharoṣṭhī manuscripts from Gandhāra are the earliest surviving documents of Buddhist literature, dating from the 1st century BC to the 2nd century AD.
Among them are several Mahāyāna texts, some of which we already know from later transmissions or translations into Chinese and Tibetan. For some, however, we have not yet found any parallel.
The longest of these, written on an originally 2.50 m long birch bark (BC 2), is the Devaputravyākaraṇa, also known as the Bajaur Mahāyāna Sūtra. The frame story is a dialogue between the Buddha and Śāriputra about non-conceptualization and emptiness, followed by an instruction to a group of devaputras who wish to be taught in the training of bodhisattvas.
Based on the Buddha's teachings, they attain the liberating insight that nothing ever arose (dharmakṣānti) and receive the prophecy that they will become buddhas in the future, with their own buddha field resembling the current one of Akṣobhya. The lecture will present the content of the manuscript (its structure and the details of the teaching), discussing parallels and the broader context within Mahāyāna literature.
Attending the event
This event is free and open to all.
Sponsor and organiser
The Buddhist Forum series is kindly sponsored by the Khyentse Foundation. It has been organised by the SOAS Centre of Buddhist Studies.
About the speaker
Andrea Schlosser is a scholar of Indic Buddhist literature specialising in early Kharoṣṭhī and Brāhmī manuscripts from Gandhāra and Central Asia. She is the author of Three Early Mahāyāna Treatises from Gandhāra (2022) and a member of the long-term project Buddhist Manuscripts from Gandhāra at LMU in Munich.
At present, she is engaged in the editing of two significant birch-bark scrolls, a lengthy Mahāyāna sūtra and an early rājanīti verse text, both of which are part of the Bajaur collection of Kharoṣṭhī manuscripts. Her research interests include Buddhist instructions on meditation and happiness, various aspects of palaeography and typography, manuscriptology and digital editions, as well as Indian art and iconography.
Image Credit: Part of scroll no. 2 of the Bajaur Collection of Kharoṣṭhī manuscripts (BC 2). Reconstruction: Andrea Schlosser.
