13.04.2022Transcultural Narrative Exchanges of Buddhist Birth Stories in Literary and Visual Cultures between Gandhara and Central Asia: A Case Study of the Pūrvayoga of Sudaṣṇa (Viśvantara Jātaka)

Lecturer

Jason Neelis, Wilfrid Laurier University

Date and Time

13 April 2022, 15:00–16:00 CET

Location (online and on-site)

To attend online via Zoom, please register by submitting the registration form.

The lecture will also be held as an on-site event: University of Zurich, Room SOD-1-104, Schönberggasse 9, 8001 Zürich

Organization

Research project «Sino-Indo-Iranica rediviva», Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies – Chinese Studies

Abstract

Stories and storytellers circulated via long-distance trade routes between South Asia, Central Asia, and China along with traders in exotic commodities. Buddhist birth stories labelled as Pūrvayogas and Avadānas in Gāndhārī manuscripts from the first century CE provide very early literary evidence for the development of narrative genres, while a global survey of so- called Jātakas in Gandharan art reflects alternative patterns of selection. Somewhat surprisingly, the only attested example of an overlap between literary and visual cultures of Gandharan rebirth narratives is a Gāndhārī version of the Sudaṣṇa Pūrvayoga, which corresponds with depictions of the widely-known Viśvantara Jātaka in Gandharan sculptures. This talk will aim to look beyond Gandhara at versions of this narrative transmitted in a Sogdian Buddhist text and localized in Gandhara by Chinese visitors, who drew upon their own sources. The transmission of visual narratives of Buddhist birth stories at nodes of Upper Indus capillary networks and in the Tarim Basin will also be examined in order to showcase transcultural exchanges of Buddhist images in different media.