Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T02:17:58.887Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Buddha's Biography: Its Development in the Pagan Murals vs. the Later Vernacular Literature, in the Theravādin Buddhist Context of Southeast Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2017

SAMERCHAI POOLSUWAN*
Affiliation:
Thammasat University, [email protected]

Abstract

An investigation is provided on the narration of the Buddha's biography in Burmese murals of the Pagan Period (eleventh to thirteenth century ce). It detects a development of the complete account on the subject in the oldest murals of the period at the Patho-hta-mya Temple, which probably predate the earliest known literary counterpart in Pāli, the Jinālaṅkāra, which was most likely composed in Sri-Lanka during the mid-twelfth century ce. The comparison is provided between the biographical account of the Buddha illustrated in Pagan murals and those found in the two main groups of much later vernacular texts compiled in Southeast Asia, namely: Malālamkāravatthu-Tathāgataudanadīpanī particularly prevailing in Burma and representing the later Burmese tradition on narrating the Buddha's biography; and, Pathamasambodhi gaining its popularity over several other parts of Southeast Asia (i.e., Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Southwestern China and eastern part of the Shan State). The Pagan narrative on the Buddha's life is shown to be far more associated with the Malālamkāravatthu-Tathāgataudanadīpanī than with the Pathamasambodhi, suggesting the first group of texts to be a later product of the longstanding Buddhist tradition existing in Burma at least since the Pagan Period, and the latter of a separate development.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Laulertvorakul, Anant, The Thai Version of Pathomsombodhikathā by the Supreme Patriarch H.R.H. Prince Paramānujitajinorasa: Content relation to other Biographies of the Buddha (A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Faculty of Art, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, 2003).Google Scholar
Bohmu, Ba Shin, The Lokahteikpan (Rangoon, Burma Historical Commission, Ministry of Union Culture, 1962).Google Scholar
Bautze-Picron, C., The Buddhist Murals of Pagan (Bangkok, 2003).Google Scholar
Bennett, C., ‘Life of Gaudama, a translation from the Burmese book, Ma-la-len-ga-ra Wottoo’, Journal of the American Oriental Studies, 3 (1853), pp. 1164.Google Scholar
Bigandet, P., The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese, 1st edition (Rangoon, 1858).Google Scholar
Bigandet, P., The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese, 2st edition (Rangoon, 1866).Google Scholar
Brown, R. L., ‘Bodhgaya and South-east Asia’, in Bodhgaya, (ed.) Leoshko, J. (Bombay, 1988), pp. 101124.Google Scholar
Culla Buddhaghosa Thera, Sotattagi-mahānidāna, translated into Thai by Banjob Bannaruji (Bangkok, 1983).Google Scholar
Dipeyin Sayadaw Saddhammābhilaṅkāra, Tathāgata-udāna-dīpanī;, 2 Vols (Yangon, Ministry of Religious Affairs, 2008, 2nd edition).Google Scholar
Fausbøll, V., The Jātaka together with its Commentary, Vols. 1-7 (London, 1964).Google Scholar
Geiger, W., Pali Literature and Language (Delhi, 1968).Google Scholar
Tsiang, Hiuen, Si-Yu-Ki: Buddhist Records of the Western World, Vol. 2, translated by Samuel Beal (London, 1884).Google Scholar
Huntington, J.C., ‘Pilgrimage as image: the cult of the Astamahapratiharya, Part I’, Orientations, 18, 4 (1987), pp. 5563.Google Scholar
Huntington, J.C., ‘Pilgrimage as image: the cult of the Astamahapratiharya, Part II’, Orientations, 18, 8 (1987), pp. 5668.Google Scholar
Jayawickrama, N.J. (translator), The Story of Gotama Buddha (Jātaka-nidāna) (Oxford, 1990).Google Scholar
Sinlapākorn, Krom (Fine Arts Department of Thailand), Khampī Lalitavistara Phutthaprawat Fāi Mahāyān (The Lalitavistara: A Mahāyāna Account on Biography of the Buddha), translated from Sanskrit into Thai by Sǣng Monnavithūra (Bangkok, 1969).Google Scholar
Luce, G.H., Old Burma – Early Pagan, Vols. 1-3, (New York, 1969).Google Scholar
Mahāmakutarājavidyālaya, Phra-sūtra Lae Atthakathā Plǣ; (A Translation of the Suttas and their Commentaries), Vols. 6-9, 13, 21, 25, 40-42, 47, 55-64, 73, 75 (Bangkok, 1982).Google Scholar
Malalasekera, G. P., The Pāli Literature of Ceylon, (Colombo, 1958).Google Scholar
Pande, G.C., Studies in the Origin of Buddhism (Delhi, 1974).Google Scholar
Pichard, P., Inventory of Monuments at Pagan, Vols. 1-3 (UNESCO, 1992-1994).Google Scholar
Pe Maung, Tin and Luce, G.H. (translators), The Glass Palace Chronicle of the Kings of Burma (Rangoon, 1960).Google Scholar
Rhys Davids, T.W., The History and Literature of Buddhism (Delhi, 1975).Google Scholar
Saddhammaghosa Thera, Lokapaññatti (Bangkok, 1985).Google Scholar
Samerchai Poolsuwan, ‘After enlightenment: scenes of the Buddha's retreat in the thirteenth century murals at Pagan’, Artibus Asiae, LXXII (2012), pp. 377397.Google Scholar
Saraswati, S.K., Tantrayāna Art: An Album (Calcatta, 1977).Google Scholar
Second Mehti Sayadaw Kavindābhisirīsaddhamma, Mālālaṅkāra-vatthu (Yangon, 2010, 2nd edition).Google Scholar
Stadtner, D., Ancient Pagan: Buddhist Plain of Merit (Bangkok, 2005).Google Scholar
Tun Nyein, Inscriptions of Pagan, Pinya and Ava (Rangoon, 1899).Google Scholar
U Aung Kyaing, Votive Tablets of Burma, Part III, (Myanmar Department of Archaeology, 2011).Google Scholar
Vajirayānavaroros, The Supreme patriarch H.R.H., Phutthaprawat (Biography of the Buddha), Vol. 1 (Bangkok, 1983).Google Scholar
Vanaratana Medhaṅkara Thera, Jinacarita or the Career of the Conqueror, edited and translated with notes by Charles Duroiselle (Rangoon, 1906).Google Scholar
Vogel, J. Ph., ‘Note on a Budhist sculpture from Kandy, Ceylon’, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, XI, 9 (1915), pp. 297303.Google Scholar
von HinÜber, Oscar, A Handbook of Pāli Literature (Berlin, 1996).Google Scholar
Winternitz, M. History of Indian Literature, Vol. I, translated by Jha Subhadra (New Delhi, 1977).Google Scholar
Woodward, H.W. Jr, ‘The Indian roots of the “Burmese” life-of-the-Buddha plaques’, Silk Road Arts and Archaeology, 5 (1997/1998), pp. 395407.Google Scholar