Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies (CJBS)
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The muṇḍa/muṇḍaka crux: What does the word mean?
No full textThis article examines previous scholarship on the genealogy of muṇḍa/muṇḍaka and concludes that it is of non Indo-Aryan origin. The primary meaning of the word is usually taken to mean “bald,” but it also has many additional connotations which do not appear to be connected with this primary meaning. It also occurs as a proper name, the name of an ethnic or tribal group, in place names and in a technical vocabulary associated with agriculture, architecture, chariot and wagon construction, torture, etc. The word muṇḍa is cognate with the Puṇḍra tribe of pre-Buddhist India, and possibly with the Mallas, the sub-Himalayan tribe who hosted the Buddha’s funeral. If one takes muṇḍa/muṇḍaka as an ethnic or tribal cognomen, many of the heretofore-unexplained meanings of the word are explainable, although the precise meaning still eludes us
Inherited Buddhists and Acquired Buddhists
No full textThe face of Buddhism in the West has come to be diverse and complex, going beyond the traditional geographic and/or ehtnocultural boundaries. Pointing out the ‘descriptive inadequacy’ of the current labeling such as, e.g., ‘Ethnic Buddhist’ and ‘Western Buddhist’, this paper suggests an alternative terminology, ‘Inherited Buddhist’ and ‘Acquired Buddhist’, using four criteria: choice, exposure, knowledge and motivation. In addition to Buddhism, it draws upon studies in language acquisition, intelligence and spirituality. It is suggested that if the proposed terminology may be applicable to other lands and other times in relation to Buddhism, it may also be applicable to other religious communities
Vedhamissakena: Perils of the Transmission of the Buddhadhamma
No full textComparing parallel P āli and Sanskrit versions of the Buddha’s teachings reveal an underlying linguistic stratum which is a common source for both. Although we may never be able to ascertain the exact words of the Buddha, we know his teachings were transmitted orally by bhāṇakas (reciters) in one or more middle-Indic dialects. As the religion spread into different regions of India the words also changed, adapted to local dialects. When the teachings were committed to writing around the first century B. C., the Pāli and Buddhist Sanskrit forms were sometimes contradictory, reflecting the redactors’ different interpretations of the oral transmission. By comparing these different forms, it is possible to isolate a proto-form which explains the ambiguities and is closer to the original transmission. This is a case in point, comparing an incident from the Pāli Mahāparinibbāna sutta and its Sanskrit parallel, the Mahāparinirvāṇa sūtra
The Vicissitudes of Memory and Early Buddhist Oral Transmission
No full textWith the present paper, I attempt to develop a new perspective on the dynamics behind oral transmission in early Buddhism, in order to account for its two chief aspects of variation and similarity. For that purpose, I examine the early Buddhist oral tradition against its Vedic background and then turn to the findings of modern psychological research on the functiong and short-comings of memory, in order to apply these findings to the case of early Buddhism