haunting the buddha indian popular religions and the formation of buddhism sep 2004

Haunting the Buddha: Indian Popular Religions and the Formation of Buddhism ROBERT DECAROLI OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Haunting the Buddha This page intentionally left blank Haunting the Buddha Indian Popular Religions and the Formation of Buddhism robert d ecaroli 1 2004 1 Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Sa˜o Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Copyright ᭧ 2004 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data DeCaroli, Robert. Haunting the Buddha : Indian popular religions and the formation of Buddhism / Robert DeCaroli. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-516838-0 1. Buddhism—India—History. 2. Art, Buddhist—India. 3. Gods, Buddhist, in art. 4. Art and mythology. I. Title. BQ336 .D43 2004 294.3'0934—dc22 2003019860 987654321 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper For my parents This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments This work, which deals with supernatural beings of immense gener- osity and insight, owes its creation to beings who, although perhaps less divine, are equally remarkable in their generosity. This book is the culmination of a long process and over the years it has under- gone many phases and incarnations. None of it would have been re- motely possible if not for the guidance, patience, and support of Robert L. Brown and Gregory Schopen. No doubt any matter of in- terest or merit in the following chapters is in some way attributable to their instruction and advice. I am also grateful for the careful reading and helpful comments made by Susan Downey, Katherine Harper, Lewis Lancaster, Hartmut Scharfe, Walter Spink, and Lothar von Falkenhausen, all of whom were instrumental in shaping the early stages of this project. I wish to thank the Asian Cultural Council and the Edward A. Dickson Fellowship committee for providing the monetary support that made all of my fieldwork in India and the subsequent period of writing possible. I also wish to acknowledge the support of the George Mason University Research Grant, which facilitated my work in Southeast Asia, and the Mathy Junior Faculty Award, which af- forded me the time needed to incorporate my new research into the manuscript. Over the years many individuals have been kind enough to read various portions of this project; their comments have helped rescue me from many overlooked errors, and their suggestions have been a viii acknowledgments welcome source of inspiration. In particular, I would like to recognize Kurt Behrendt, Pia Brancaccio, Joan Bristol, Michael Chang, Steven DeCaroli, Jef- frey Durham, Bindu Gude, Santhi Kavuri, Paul Lavy, Janice Leoshko, John R. McRae, Tobie Meyer-Fong, Randolph Scully, Akira Shimada, Monica Smith, and Ellen Todd. Each of these individuals took the time to make suggestions or offer critiques that ultimately served to strengthen the work. For their efforts and their insights, I am deeply grateful. I am also very appreciative to Sylvia Fraser-Lu, Alexandra Green, and Donald Stadtner, all of whom were willing to share with me their expertise on Burmese art and history. Their knowledge and advice has proven to be an invaluable resource. I would like to express my gratitude to the skillful editors at Oxford Uni- versity Press (USA). In particular, I would like to thank Cynthia Read, Theo Calderara, Christi Stanforth, and Margaret Case for all of their good advice and persistent efforts in seeing the book through to production. Likewise, I wish to thank the Archaeological Survey of India under the guidance of Director General R. S. Bisht and Director of Monuments R. C. Agrawal, who generously gave me permission to photograph the numerous and spectacular sites that were relevant to my project. I also wish to express my gratitude to the curators at the Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, Mumbai, who kindly made photographs of their excellent collections available to me. And, ultimately to my family and friends who provided an unlimited source of encouragement, support, and welcome diversions, I give my heartfelt gratitude. Contents 1. Coming to Terms, 3 2. Making Believers, 31 3. Set in Stone, 55 4. Ghost Stories, 87 5. The Politics of Enlightenment, 105 6. Policing the Monastery, 121 7. Passage from India, 143 8. Confronting Their Demons, 173 Notes, 189 Bibliography, 211 Index, 221 [...]... From the simplicity which reigns through the whole of the caves at Canara, and the total want of those monstrous figures which we meet with in the others; I think it probable that the former are the coming to terms 7 most ancient of the whole, and that the others have not been constructed till both the taste and the mythology of the people began to be corrupted.15 These ideas were prevalent, powerful, and. .. fi 14 haunting the buddha or a man The Buddha answers “no” to each of these options and finally states “I am a Buddha, brahman, a Buddha. ”47 In this passage the Buddha is defining himself as something new and altogether different from the options listed by the brahman Just as in the Hindu and Jain sources, the Buddha is forced to explain his identity by placing it in contrast to the practices of popular. .. yakkhas) and the serpent deities, the nagas On the one fi ¯ ¯ hand, the Buddha incorporates and presides over a preexistent mythology of nature In so doing the new religion of Buddhism is able to more readily meet the needs of an unlettered laity.22 Rather than simply dismiss these spirit religions as reluctant concessions to the masses, however, it is essential that we try to understand them and the nature... community and the spirit-deities, this position runs the risk of viewing the samgha as clever manipulators playing the public for the fi sake of greater donations I believe that such a view greatly oversimplifies the process and fails to recognize that the monks and nuns themselves were participants in the culture that surrounded them Nevertheless, I am indebted to both of these scholars, and others, for their... veritable Biblia Pauperum, Buddhism and Jainism had passed beyond the circle of monasticism, and be- 10 haunting the buddha come popular religions with a cult These figures of fertility spirits are present here because the people are here.21 Similarly, Gail Hinich Sutherland writes: an important dialectic is set up between the morality and spirituality of the perfected Buddha and various nonhuman deities... Specifically, one of the consequences of telling Indian history in terms of decline is that Buddhism could in no way be portrayed as dependent on or derivative of the popular religious practices that pervaded a great deal of life in ancient India All evidence of contact between Buddhism and popular spirit religions1 7 of the time (seen as even more degraded than Hinduism in the eyes of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century... at the beliefs and practices of early Indian popular religion Despite the important insights provided by this text, however, Coomaraswamy fails to break with many of the problematic nineteenth-century views and thereby perpetuates some of the earlier, unfounded assumptions about the nature of spirit religions in India Speculation over the racial origins of various aspects of popular terminology and. .. (at least in the West) and what the art informs us about the actual Buddhist monastic world It is within this rupture between the physical and the textual, the worldly and the monastic that this work finds its origins To a large degree the seeming disjuncture between textual Buddhism and early Buddhist art is a byproduct of the way Buddhism has traditionally been studied in the West Many of the most commonly... understanding the nature of these beings Unfortunately, these collective terms are rarely used in conjunction with the names of specific types of supernatural beings and, even then, they seem to be used with very little consistency This inconsistency also affects the vocabulary used to refer to the individual beings themselves Sutherland notes the frustrating fact that the designation yaksa is often... precedes any examination of the art In this summary the student is told how the Buddhist monks separate themselves from society, and practice poverty and chastity while pursuing the independent goal of enlightenment As true as this may be, none of it even remotely prepares the student to understand the vibrant, often cacophonous, im- 4 haunting the buddha agery that decorates the earliest Buddhist monuments . Haunting the Buddha: Indian Popular Religions and the Formation of Buddhism ROBERT DECAROLI OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Haunting the Buddha This page intentionally left blank Haunting the Buddha Indian. the others; I think it probable that the former are the coming to terms 7 most ancient of the whole, and that the others have not been con- structed till both the taste and the mythology of the. prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data DeCaroli, Robert. Haunting the Buddha : Indian popular religions and the formation of Buddhism / Robert