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Cited by 4Indian and Buddhist StudiesFolklore, Mythology, and Literature StudiesStudy and Philosophy of Religion

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 11 of the 12 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Animal Doubles of the Buddha

Open access
Ohnuma, Reiko·2016·Humanimalia
DOI 10.52537/humanimalia.9664
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Abstract

Two centuries’ worth of work on the rich narrative traditions surrounding the life of the historical Buddha have thus far failed to pay any attention to the episodes in his live involving close interactions with animals. This article draws from premodern Indian Buddhist sources in Sanskrit and Pāli to look at two animal characters who play significant roles within the Buddha’s life-story— the horse Kanthaka and the elephant Nāḷāgiri. I argue that both animals constitute “doubles” or shadows of the Buddha — illuminating his character through identification, contrast, or parallelism with an animal “other.” More specifically, the horse Kanthaka serves as a scapegoat for the Buddha, absorbing some of the sin and blame that are due to him, yet without tainting his perfect character. The elephant Nāḷāgiri, on the other hand, serves as a billboard for the Buddha’s power and charisma, allowing these features of the Buddha’s character to be publicly displayed to the cosmos at large.

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  • What matters in both cases, Aśvaghoṣa is telling us, is whether the transformations suffering has wrought on them have removed them from the kind of community in which alone suffering acquires sense, to say nothing of the possibility of redress.

    “What matters in both cases, As ´vaghos ˙ a is telling us, is whether the transformations suffering has wrought on them has removed them from the kind of community in which alone suffering acquires sense, to say nothing of the possibility of redress (see Ohnuma 2016).”

    From After the Unsilence of the Birds: Remembering Aśvaghoṣa’s Sundarī (2019) · cites this paper as Ohnuma 2016

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1 of the 12 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 7

  1. Beal, Samuel, trans. The Romantic Legend of Sȃkya Buddha: From the Chinese-Sanscrit. London: Trübner & Co, 1875.
  2. Gummer, Natalie. "Sacrificial Sūtras: Mahāyāna Literature and the South Asian Ritual Cosmos." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 82.4 (2014): 1091-1126.
  3. Horner, I. B., ed. Madhuratthavilāsinī nāma Buddhavaṃsaṭṭhakathā of Bhadantâcariya Buddhadatta Mahāthera. Oxford: Oxford UP (for the Pali Text Society), 1946.
  4. Johnston, E. H., ed. and trans. The Buddhacarita or Acts of the Buddha, by Aśvaghoṣa. 1936. New enlarged ed. 2 vols. in one. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984.
  5. Jones, J. J., trans. The Mahāvastu. 3 vols. Sacred Books of the Buddhists, Vols. 16, 18, and 19. London: Luzac, 1949-56.
  6. Marvin, Garry. Bullfight. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1988.
  7. O'Flaherty, Wendy Doniger, trans. The Rig Veda. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981.

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Metadata

Authors
Ohnuma, R.
Affiliations
Dartmouth College (US)
Corresponding author
Ohnuma, Reiko
Venue
Humanimalia
Publisher
Humanimalia, Utrecht University
Published
2016-03-20
Volume
7
Issue
2
Pages
1-34
ISSN
2151-8645 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.52537/humanimalia.9664
OpenAlex
W4242648660
Cited by
4
References
12
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2019: 1
FWCI
5.10
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Humanimalia (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Indian and Buddhist Studies
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Study and Philosophy of Religion
Keywords
Buddha, scapegoat, Sanskrit Buddhist texts

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