Dharma

Chapter 10: Reimagining the Dharma Hero: The Adventure of the Buddha

CHApTEr 10 Reimagining the Dharma Hero The Adventure of the Buddha Chapter6raisedthepossibilityofviewingtheepics’portrayalsofRāma and Yudhiṣṭhira as moral biographies. We now come to a text that may do just that: Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita, “The Adventure of the Buddha,” which offers a dharma biography of a prince who becomes a Buddha. This chapter argues the following: (1) that Aśvaghoṣa’s likely first- or second-century CE date makes the question of his reading of the two Sanskrit epics “close” historically, and “critical” from his standpoint as a Buddhist who is reputed to have been a Brahmin convert ; and (2) that he probably was familiar with both epics in much the same form as we know them today—citing from both, where it suited him, to show that they presented cases of bad precedent in dharma. Aśvaghoṣa refers early to Vyāsa and Vālmīki as poet precursors (Buddhacarita 1.42–43).But he treats the Mahābhārata differently from the Rāmāyaṇa, being nearly silent on the Mahābhārata’s main story and never mentioning such chief characters as Arjuna, Yudhiṣṭhira, Draupadī, Duryodhana, or Karṇa. Given that fact, we can say that he is not really interested in touching base with any of this epic’s high dramas , as he is, explicitly, with Rāma’s departure from Ayodhyā. Still, he does refer to Pāṇḍu (4.79); to Bhīṣma, Rāma, and Rāma Jāmadagnya as exemplars of doing deeds to please one’s fathers (9.25); and to “the entire destruction of the Kurus” (11.31). Finally, in the last canto, when seven kings are ready to go to war over the Buddha’s bones and cite as epic justifications several catastrophic Mahābhārata episodes and Rāvaṇa’s infatuation with Sītā (28.28–31),the point could not be clearer that heroic precedents from the Brahmanical epics are dangerous. Aśvaghoṣa’s stance on precedent is most vivid, however, on the crucial point of the prince’s decision not to return home from the forest after his Great Departure.The prince dispenses with royal prec- Reimagining the Dharma Hero 143 edents for doing so,including the precedent of Rāma,by saying to one of his father’s emissaries, “And as for your quoting the instances of Rāma and the others to justify my return [home], they do not prove your case; for those who have broken their vows are not competent authorities in deciding matters of dharma” (Buddhacarita 9.77). We are not told what vows Rāma may have broken, but the main point remains clear: Rāma may offer precedent, but he is not an “authority” or “standard” on dharma! Aśvaghoṣa thus has a point in making epic and other Brahmanical mythological allusions.It is to bring across a realization that,no matter how illuminating heroic, sagely, and divine precedents may be as parallels , they are ultimately irrelevant to the achievement of the Buddha. The Centrality of Dharma in Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita It is a surprising point to have to make that Aśvaghoṣa would be centrally concerned with dharma, but others seem to have missed it. Scholars have tended to focus on his virtuosity as a poet; his refutation of Brahmanical philosophical positions current in his own time; a scholastic interest in early Buddhist doctrine, including the idea of “no self”; and a use of bhakti idioms when emphasizing faith in the Buddha.I will argue instead that the unfolding of dharma from a Buddhist perspective is probably his central concern. First, Aśvaghoṣa clearly rehearses many of the varied Buddhist and Brahmanical meanings of dharma likely to have been known to him. On the Brahmanical side, while giving direct reference to social class only in passing (4.18) and spinning out debates about life-stage dharma without ever precisely calling it that, he provides special moments for dharma in the Triple Set along with Wealth and Pleasure (10.28–38, 11.58); clan or family dharma (10.39); the three debts a man owes to his ancestors, the seers, and the gods (9.65); and criticism of the wavering of traditional authorities on custom (see 4.83, 7.14, 9.76; 13.49). On the Buddhist side, along with the “Turning of the Wheel of the Dharma” (15.54–55), Aśvaghoṣa also rehearses many...