Karma

Further Reading

further reading For a discussion of the difficulties connected with translation, an issue touched upon in the Preface, see The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation by Lawrence Venuti (second edition, New York: Routledge, 2008). The warning against modern speculative opinions about karma comes from Peter Gaeffke, “Karma in North Indian Bhakti Traditions,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 105:2 (1985), p. 273. The belief in rebirth and karmic retribution covers many aspects of Indian religious and philosophical thought. This has the consequence that there are numerous publications about this or that specific aspect of this belief, but few about the phenomenon in general. One of the rare exceptions is The Doctrine of Karma: Its Origin and Development in Brahmanical, Buddhist and Jaina Traditions by Yuvraj Krishan (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1997), a book rich in information to be read with a critical eye. The origin of the belief in rebirth and karmic retribution and its relationship with Vedic religion has been much debated. By and large, there are two opposing camps: either this belief arose in and out of Vedic religion, or it originated elsewhere and subsequently affected Vedic religion. I have argued for the second position in my book Greater Magadha: Studies in the Culture of Early India (Leiden: Brill, 2007), and this is the position I have presented in the early chapters of the present book. Representative of the first position is, for example, The Vedic Origins of Karma: Cosmos as Man in Ancient Indian Myth and Ritual by Herman W. Tull (State University of New York Press, 1989). The special position of Buddhism, also with respect to the special twist it gave to the belief in rebirth and karmic retribution , is explained in my Buddhist Teaching in India (Boston: Wisdom , 2009). The consequences of a close reading of the oft-repeated canonical passage presenting the path of the Buddha are explored in my Absorption: Two Studies of Human Nature (part 2; http://www .bronkhorst-absorption.info/). 124 Further Reading The role played by karma in religious life is a topic that receives attention in a volume called Karma and Rebirth in Classical Indian Traditions edited by Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty (University of California Press, 1980). This volume contains a dozen contributions by different scholars dealing with karma and rebirth in Hinduism, Buddhism , and Jainism. Similar, but concentrating on more recent developments inside and outside the Indian subcontinent, is Karma and Rebirth: Post Classical Developments, edited by Ronald W. Neufeldt (State University of New York Press, 1983), with contributions by eighteen different authors. An overview of the ways in which Indian philosophers dealt with the belief can be found in Karma und Wiedergeburt im indischen Denken by Wilhelm Halbfass (Kreuzlingen-Munich: Hugendubel, 2000). This work has not been translated into English, and unfortunately no book in English of comparable scope is known to me. The extensive elaborations that the karma doctrine underwent in Jainism in particular receive attention in most scholarly presentations of this religion, such as The Jaina Path of Purification by Padmanabh S. Jaini (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1979, esp. pp. 111–133), The Jains by Paul Dundas (second edition, London and New York: Routledge, 2002, esp. pp. 97–105), and The Doctrine of the Jainas, Described after the Old Sources by Walther Schubring (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2000, esp. pp. 172-195); see further Harmless Souls: Karmic Bondage and Religious Change in Early Jainism with Special Reference to Umasvati and Kundakunda by W.J.Johnson (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass , 1995). The struggles of Indian philosophers to make sense of the undeniable teleological elements that are associated with karmic retribution have been presented and analyzed in my Karma and Teleology: A Problem and Its Solutions in Indian Philosophy (Tokyo: The International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 2000). For Ajivikism , History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Canished Indian Religion by A.L.Basham (reprint, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1981) remains a classic, even though further progress has meanwhile been made regarding the role of karma in this religion. For overviews of the issue of “transfer of merit,” two authors in particular should be mentioned: Minoru Hara (“Transfer of Merit in Hindu Literature and Religion,” The Memoirs of the Toyo Bunko 52 Further Reading 125 [1994], pp. 103–135) and Albrecht Wezler (“On the Gaining of Merit and the Incurring of Demerit through the Agency of Others, I: Deeds by Proxy,” Lex et Litterae: Studies in Honour of...