Early Indian Religions: Interactions

An Evans-Wentz Conference
Sponsored by
Department of Religious Studies
Asian Religions and Cultures Initiative

October 9-10, 1999

Donald Kennedy Room, Haas Center for Public Service
562 Salvatierra Walkway, Stanford University

Campus Report coverage

This year the Religious Studies Department's Evans-Wentz Symposium focused on the religions of South Asia. Eight scholars of Buddhism, Brahmanisim/Hinduism, and Jainism presented papers that reflected on the ways in which these traditions in the early periods of their formation shared common ground, defined themselves, and interacted across boundaries that were often fluid. The papers addressed texts, practices, and histories ranging from approximately the 10th century BCE to the early centuries CE. The conference was organized and moderated by Linda Hess, Visiting Professor of Religious Studies.

Speakers and Papers

Our distinguished group of presenters included a number of very eminent senior scholars as well as some scholars in earlier stages of their careers. Following are the titles and brief descriptions of their papers.

WENDY DONIGER, Mircea Eliade Professor of the History of Religions, and Distinguished Service Professor, University of Chicago.
"Revisions of Hell and Moral Responsibility: The Interaction between Early Buddhist and Hindu Tales ."
Examines attitudes towards moral culpability in episodes from the Mahabharata, Jataka, and Kalidasa's Sakuntala; also considers Mahabharata and Puranic treatments of the problem of merit transfer in hell.

P.S. JAINI, Professor (Emeritus), Dept. of South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley.
"States of Happiness in Buddhist Heterodoxy."

PATRICK OLIVELLE, Professor and Chair, Dept. of Asian Studies, and Director, Center for Asian Studies, University of Texas, Austin.
"From Rigveda to Asoka: A Brief History of Dharma."
Olivelle's The Dharmasutras: Law Codes of Ancient India has been published this year by Oxford University Press. In his discussion of the dharma text as a new genre, he will also refer to Buddhist literature focused on dharma.

GREGORY SCHOPEN, Professor, Dept. of East Asian Languages and Literatures, UCLA. From fall 2000: Professor, Dept. of Religious Studies, Stanford.
"On Buddhist Rules and Brahmanical Values."
Shows how certain Buddhist monastic rules, especially related to water and purity, are clearly responses to Brahmanical values and standards.

FRED SMITH, Asoociate Professor, Dept. of Asian Languages and Religion, University of Iowa.
"The Illusion of Orthodoxies: Loss and Recovery of Possession in Sanskrit Literature."
Argues that possession is the most common kind of religious/spiritual experience in India, even in the earliest periods, but it has been understudied because of the bias of various orthodoxies against it. Presents material on possession that is common to Vedic religion, Buddhism, and possibly Jainism. This sheds light on (a) the nature of early Indian religious/spiritual experience; (b) the ways orthodoxies dealt with it; (c) interactions of classical and folk cultures; (d) the Indian construction of self-identity.

FRITS STAAL, Professor (Emeritus), Dept. of South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley.
"Moving Imperceptibly from West to East: Middle-Vedic to Buddhist."
Geographical and historical movements shed light on the interpenetration of Brahmanical and Buddhist traditions.

KRISTI WILEY, Ph.D. spring 2000, Dept. of South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley.
"Gotra Karma in Jainism: Family or Conduct?"
On Jain karma theory regarding the karma of clan/caste; whether and how it continues through rebirths.

LIZ WILSON, Associate Professor, Dept. of Religion, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio.
"Beggars Can Be Choosers: Mahakassapa as a Selective Eater of Offerings"
Identifies a specifically Buddhist pattern of selectivity within an overall profile of the early Indian renouncer's indifference with regard to food. Explores variant accounts of how Mahakassapa, a former brahmin, went out of his way to receive highly unpalatable, brahmanically impure food from a very poor elderly woman donor. In eating her food in preference to what divine donors such as Indra and others offer him, Mahakassapa intentionally favors disadvantaged donors. In this way he allows those who have little to give to enjoy the fruits of being a dana-pati, a generous donor. Discussion refers to Indian theories of the gift, of Vedic sacrifice, eating, and transferring karma.