Introduction
Anālayo, Ekottarika-āgama Studies (Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts Research Series 7). Dharma Drum Publishing Corporation, Taipei, 2016.
The identity of the translator as well as the school affiliation of the Ekottarika-āgama now found in the Taishō edition as entry number 125 under the title 增壹阿含, translated into Chinese from a Middle Indic original,[n.1] Waldschmidt 1980: 137 comments that the Ekottarika-āgama was translated "from some Middle Indic or mixed dialect of Prakrit with Sanskrit elements". has been a matter of continuous discussion among academics. As far as the first of these two topics is concerned, recent research makes it safe to conclude that the text to which we have now access must for the most part be the translation done by Zhú Fóniàn (竺佛念) in 384 C.E., instead of being a re-translation by Gautama Saṅghadeva.[n.2] Hung and Anālayo 2016 and Radich and Anālayo 2016; a position taken previously by, e.g., Lévi and Chavannes 1916: 191 note 1, Bagchi 1927: 159 and 337, Yìnshùn 1962/1983: 91, Lü 1963: 242, Lamotte 1967: 105, Waldschmidt 1980: 169 note 168, Mayeda 1985: 102, Enomoto 1986: 19, Matsumura 1989: 364–367, Legittimo 2005: 3 note 7, Anālayo 2006: 145f, Nattier 2007: 195f note 48, Lín 2009: 130–136, and Park 2012: 202f. Regarding the school affiliation of the Ekottarika-āgama, I will return to this topic in more detail below (p. 165ff).
Another characteristic aspect of the Ekottarika-āgama collection is its incorporation of textual material and ideas that are distinctly later than those found in other early discourse collections.[n.3] Allon 2014: 24 note 18 points out the similarity between the Ekottarika-āgama and the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya in their tendency to incorporate additional material. This is a topic to which I will come back in subsequent chapters, where I study the tendency of this collection to merge material that elsewhere belongs to distinct discourses (p. 51ff), and the occurrence of material related to emerging Mahāyāna thought in the first of the three appendices.
Contents
The studies in the chapters that follow are revised versions of previously published articles. Each study builds around a partial or complete translation of an Ekottarika-āgama discourse, followed by an examination of aspects that I felt to be of further interest.
In the first chapter (MN 4) I take up the theme of seclusion and fear, drawing on the Buddha's autobiographical report of his pre-awakening practices. In the following chapter I then turn to the notion of the Buddha's lion's roar (MN 11).
With the next two chapters I examine a feature peculiar to the Ekottarika-āgama, which is the merging of what in other collections are distinct discourses (MN 21 & MN 22 as well as MN 65 & MN 66).
The motif of the wheel-turning king and its employment in a tale of a former life of the Buddha is the object of study in the next three chapters (MN 83), of which the last in particular has considerable bearing for assessing the nature of the Ekottarika-āgama extant in Chinese translation.
Then I take up the notion of Paccekabuddhas (MN 116) and the four noble truths (MN 141), two topics that I continue to study in the next two chapters (SN 16.5 and SN 56.11), the second of which examines what according to tradition was the Buddha's first discourse with which he set in motion the wheel of Dharma.
Several Ekottarika-āgama discourses offer significant perspectives on the topic of women in Buddhism, a topic which I begin to explore based on a list of eminent nuns (AN 1.14.5). Next I study the Buddha's special physical marks in relation to the conversion of the brahmin Sela (Sn 3.7).
With the next four chapters I return to the topic of women in Buddhism, examining the story of Subhā (Thī 396f), the passing away of Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī (Ap 17), the former lives of two Bhaddās (Ap 27 & 28), and a past life of the Buddha as a princess (Paññāsa-jā 4.5).
In the three appendices I discuss Mahāyāna elements in the Ekottarika-āgama (appendix 1) and the themes of Hīnayāna (appendix 2) and Theravāda (appendix 3).
Conventions
Since a considerable part of my target audience will be familiar mainly with the Pāli canon, in what follows I employ Pāli terminology, except for anglicized terms like "bodhisattva", "Dharma", or "Nirvāṇa", without thereby intending to take a position on the original language of the Ekottarika-āgama discourses or to suggest that Pāli language is in principle preferable. I hope that this will facilitate access to my studies by those who are more familiar with Pāli terms. For the same reason, I have arranged my studies in the sequence in which the respective discourses are found in the Pāli canon. The original order of the Ekottarika-āgama discourses translated and studied in the present monograph can be seen in table 1 below.
In the case of Ekottarika-āgama discourses that have a parallel in the Majjhima-nikāya, I adopt the paragraph numbering used in the English translation by Ñāṇamoli (1995/2005) in order to facilitate comparison. In the notes to the translations, I discuss selected differences in relation to the Pāli and other parallels. Abbreviations in the translation are usually found as such in the Chinese original. These are reproduced in the translations with an ellipsis. Instructions in the original that indicate the need to recite the elided text are given in italics.
In the translated texts, I use square brackets [ ] to indicate supplementation and angle brackets ⟨ ⟩ to mark emendation. In order to facilitate cross-referencing, I use square brackets in subscript to provide the pagination of the original Chinese text on which the translation is based and to indicate the pagination of the original paper, as well as superscript for its footnote or endnote numbering, whenever these differ from the present annotation.[n.4] Due to revision of the original papers, at times these references to the earlier pagination or footnote numbering are not in sequential order. When quoting various text editions, I have occasionally standardized or adjusted the punctuation.
Translation Terminology
When translating Ekottarika-āgama discourses, I have attempted to stay close to the terminology adopted by Bhikkhu Bodhi in his renderings of the Pāli equivalents, to facilitate comparison. In the case of 苦, equivalent to dukkha, however, I simply keep the Pāli term, which at times does stand for outright "pain", but on many an occasion refers to "unsatisfactoriness", where translations like "suffering" or "pain" fail to convey adequately the sense of the passage in question.[n.5] Cf. below p. 291. The standard rendering of bhagavant in the Ekottarika-āgama is 世尊, literally "World Honoured One", in which case I follow Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of the corresponding Pāli term and adopt the rendering "Blessed One". For 慈 I use the Pāli equivalent mettā, and for 漏, corresponding to āsava, I employ the rendering "influx".[n.6] For a more detailed discussion of the term āsava cf. Anālayo 2012i: 80–82.
Of the four Āgamas preserved in Chinese, the Ekottarika-āgama is perhaps the most challenging to translate, wherefore my renderings in the following pages are at times only tentative, which holds especially for reconstruction of proper names.
| EĀ no.: | Pāli no.: | Pāli title: |
|---|---|---|
| EĀ 5 | AN 1.14.5 | Etadagga-vagga |
| EĀ 12.6 | SN 16.5 | Jiṇṇa-sutta |
| EĀ 19.2 | SN 56.11 | Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta |
| EĀ 23.1 (& 52.2 ) | Ap 27& 28 | Bhaddā-apadāna |
| EĀ 27.1 | MN 141 | Saccavibhaṅga-sutta |
| EĀ 27.2 | MN 11 | Cūḷasīhanāda-sutta |
| EĀ 29.6 | AN 4.77 | Acinteyya-sutta |
| EĀ 31.1 | MN 4 | Bhayabherava-sutta |
| EĀ 38.7 | MN 116 | Isigili-sutta |
| EĀ 38.9 | Thī 396f | Subhā-therīgāthā |
| EĀ 43.2 | Paññāsa-jā 4.5 | Padīpadāna-jātaka |
| EĀ 49.6 | Sn 3.7 | Sela-sutta |
| EĀ 49.7 | MN 65 & 66 | Bhaddāli-sutta |
| EĀ 50.4 | MN 83 | Makhādeva-sutta |
| EĀ 50.8 (& 43.5) | MN 21 & 22 | Kakacūpama-sutta |
| EĀ 52.1 (& 38.11) | Ap 17 | Gotamī-apadāna |
Titles of the original publications: "Beautiful Eyes Seen with Insight as Bereft of Beauty – Subhā Therī and Her Male Counterpart in the Ekottarika-āgama" (2014a); cf. below p. 345ff.
"The Buddha's Past Life as a Princess in the Ekottarika-āgama" (2015b); cf. below p. 413ff.
"The Chinese Parallels to the Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta (2)" (2013a); cf. below p. 267ff.
"The Conversion of the Brahmin Sela in the Ekottarika-āgama" (2011d); cf. below p. 325ff.
"Discourse Merger in the Ekottarika-āgama (1), The Parallel to the Bhaddāli-sutta and the Latukikopama-sutta, Together with Notes on the Chinese Translation of the Collection" (2015e); cf. p. 87ff.
"Discourse Merger in the Ekottarika-āgama (2), The Parallels to the Kakacūpama-sutta and the Alagaddūpama-sutta" (2014/ 2015); cf. p. 51ff.
"The Ekottarika-āgama Parallel to the Saccavibhaṅga-sutta and the Four (Noble) Truths" (2006); cf. p. 239ff.
"The Hīnayāna Fallacy" (2014f); cf. p. 473ff.
"Karma and Female Birth" (2014g); cf. p. 381ff.
"The Lion's Roar in Early Buddhism – A Study Based on the Ekottarika-āgama Parallel to the Cūḷasīhanāda-sutta" (2009d); cf. p. 31ff.
"Living in Seclusion and Facing Fear –The Ekottarika-āgama Counterpart to the Bhayabherava-sutta" (2011e); cf. p. 9ff.
"Mahāyāna in the Ekottarika-āgama" (2013c); cf. p. 443ff.
"Miracle-working Nuns in the Ekottarika-āgama" (2015g); cf. p. 359ff.
"A Note on the Term Theravāda" (2013d); cf. p. 497ff.
"Outstanding Bhikkhunīs in the Ekottarika-āgama" (2014i); cf. p. 301ff.
"Paccekabuddhas in the Isigili-sutta and Its Ekottarika-āgama Parallel" (2010d); cf. p. 215ff.
"Pratyekabuddhas in the Ekottarika-āgama" (2015h); cf. p. 249ff.
"The Tale of King Ma(k)hādeva in the Ekottarika-āgama and the Cakravartin Motif" (2011i); cf. p. 113ff.
"The Tale of King Nimi in the Ekottarika-āgama" (2012j); cf. p. 141ff.
"Two Versions of the Mahādeva Tale in the Ekottarika-āgama, A Study in the Development of Taishō No. 125" (2013i); cf. p. 165ff.
Acknowledgement
I am indebted to Naomi Appleton, Rod Bucknell, Adam Clarke, Lance Cousins, Max Deeg, bhikkhunī Dhammadinnā, Richard Gombrich, Friedrich Grohmann, Paul Harrison, Peter Harvey, Tsefu Kuan, Jan Nattier, K.R. Norman, Reiko Ohnuma, Antonello Palumbo, bhikkhu Pāsādika, Todd LeRoy Perreira, Michael Radich, Mike Running, Lambert Schmithausen, Martin Seeger, Syinchen Shi, Jonathan Silk, Peter Skilling, Judith Snodgrass, Ken Su, and Monika Zin for comments and suggestions made in regard to one or more of the articles collected in this volume, and to the editors of the respective journals and volumes for their kind permission to reprint the material. I apologize for any shortcomings in the following pages.