Brill ’ s Encyclopedia of Buddhism Volume II : Lives

accounts that Hofinger presents so meticulously, is such a schism mentioned. Rather, perfect concord was seemingly reestablished. It was not until 1955 that we were presented with a reasonable solution to the problem, included as one of the major theses of Andre Bareau's Les Premiers Conciles bouddhiques. We should note, however, that a similar thesis was hinted at but not developed by Pachow in 1951.2 Bareau maintains that yet another council, held in Pataliputra under the Nandin ruler Mahapadma, convened in 137 A.N., resulting in the great schism and precipitated by the above mentioned Mahadeva's five theses. Bareau's hypothesis was arrived at through the very careful and thorough study of all the source materials, as we have come to expect from this great scholar's work, and his proved itself to be a very persuasive one, gaining further acceptance among scholars as each year passes.

Journal of Indian Philosophy, 2000

Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient (Monographies, n° 195), 2017

Speculations about buddhas and bodhisattvas flourished with a remarkable dynamism between the 1st and the 6th century CE. This so-called “Middle Period” of Indian Buddhism is, for instance, characterized by the growth of the Bodhisattvayāna, the movement promoting the path to perfect Awakening (samyaksambodhi), understood as a realisation far superior to that the achieved by arhants. The present book aims at tracing these “buddhological” developments within the literature of the Mahāsāṅghika-Lokottaravāda, a lineage that was influential in Magadha and in the Northwest of South Asia during the period considered. This historical enquiry is rooted in a philological praxis, and, in particular, it is achieved by scrutinising the formation and the vicissitudes of an integral part of the school's Vinayapiṭaka, namely the Mahāvastu. The latter work, dealing with the lengthy bodhisattva career and the last birth of the Buddha Śākyamuni, is vast and composite. The reconstruction of distinct phases in its composition necessarily entails a close examination of the witnesses transmitting the work and, in particular, of its earliest copy, being a 12th century CE palm-leaf manuscript preserved in Nepal. The study, which forms the first part of this book, is therefore grounded on the new annotated edition and French translation of carefully selected sections of the Mahāvastu, featuring as part two. The close study of these key sections allows to uncover the editorial and rhetorical practices of Mahāsāṅghika milieux, as well as some of their core doctrines. This book therefore contributes to furthering our understanding of the monastic lineages, the canonical corpora, and the soteriology of Indian Buddhism. This monograph, recipient of the Collette Caillat Prize in Indology at the Institut de France (2018), has been reviewed by G. Ducoeur in the Revue de l'Histoire des Religions (2021/4): https://doi.org/10.4000/rhr.11617 and by N. McGovern in Religions of South Asia (2021/15.1): https://doi.org/10.1558/rosa.20913. A detailed review article by O. von Hinüber further appeared in the Indo-Iranian Journal (2023, 66/1): https://brill.com/view/journals/iij/66/1/iij.66.issue-1.xml.

Famously, tathāgatagarbha doctrine holds that every sentient being has within the body a womb for Buddhas, or an embryonic Buddha – the potential for full buddhahood. Previous scholars have seen this doctrine as originating in the Tathāgatagarbha-sūtra. In this book, Michael Radich argues that rather, the Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra is most likely our earliest extant tathāgatagarbha text. Radich then argues that tathāgatagarbha ideas originated as part of a wider pattern of docetic Buddhology – ideas holding that Buddhas are not really as they appear. Buddhist docetic texts are clearly troubled by the notion that Buddhas could have flesh-and-blood human mothers. The Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra is one such text, and tathāgatagarbha functions as a better substitute for imperfect human maternity: rather than a putrid, painful human womb, buddhahood springs from a “womb” inherent in every sentient being, which promises final liberation from flesh altogether. This book should interest readers concerned with the history of Buddhist ideas, gender in Buddhism, the early Mahāyāna, the cult of the Buddha’s relics, and relations between Buddhist ideas and practice.

Asiatische Studien/Études Asiatiques, 2010

Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 1999