Two Buddhists, two jackals and a flying stupa : examination of the Buddhists in the Jain Dharmaparīkṣā

Jain narratives, with their instructive tendency, often point out the rights and wrongs by referring critically to other traditions. The satirical narrative Dharmaparīkṣā, by the Digambara monk Amitagati, written at the beginning of the 11th century, does this explicitly as it criticises Jainism’s opponents through narrative. Although this work emphasises the faults and flaws of the Purāṇic tradition, some space is also reserved for Buddhists. They appear as characters in one of the sub-stories of the Dharmaparīkṣā and are explicitly attacked at the end of the text. This paper will discuss in detail what is said about Buddhists in the Dharmaparīkṣā and why it is so important to mention them in a text that was composed when Buddhism was already declining in India. I will show that, by opposing Buddhists, Amitagati puts them within the philosophically relevant world for the Digambara Jain community, and that his characterisation of them reveals more about his own community than about Buddhists themselves.

ISBN:9781789252828

Publication year:2019

Accessibility:Closed