An opaque pun: tentative notes on Kāsyapaparivarta § 68
Various interpretations of Kāsyapaparivarta §?68 have been attempted in the Yogācāra-Vijñānavāda tradition. This passage, which consists in a simile likening a magician devoured by his own creation to a monk involved in meditation practice, appears prima facie absurd, insofar as the similarity...
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| Format: | Article (Journal) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
10 Dec 2018
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| In: |
Indo-Iranian journal
Year: 2018, Volume: 61, Issue: 4, Pages: 369-395 |
| ISSN: | 1572-8536 |
| DOI: | 10.1163/15728536-06104005 |
| Online Access: | Verlag, lizenzpflichtig, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1163/15728536-06104005 Resolving-System: https://brill.com/view/journals/iij/61/4/article-p369_3.xml 
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| Author Notes: | Ruixuan Chen |
| Summary: | Various interpretations of Kāsyapaparivarta §?68 have been attempted in the Yogācāra-Vijñānavāda tradition. This passage, which consists in a simile likening a magician devoured by his own creation to a monk involved in meditation practice, appears prima facie absurd, insofar as the similarity between the tenor and the vehicle is not readily apparent. This article mainly consists of two parts: The first part examines the received interpretations of the simile and reconstructs their interrelationship from a historical perspective. The second part explores the literary dimension of the simile and argues that its ostensible absurdity is rooted in a pun which is visible only in Middle Indo-Aryan and seems to serve no purpose. Coming to terms with the opaque and pointless pun, this essay is aimed at a new interpretation of Kāsyapaparivarta §?68 and, it is hoped, a deeper understanding of the literary playfulness inherent in the making of the Kāsyapaparivarta as a so-called early Mahāyāna sūtra against the backdrop of the Sanskritization of Buddhist sūtra literature. |
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| Physical Description: | Online Resource |
| ISSN: | 1572-8536 |
| DOI: | 10.1163/15728536-06104005 |