RELIGST 3UU3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Hungry Ghost, Stra, Manjushri
18 Jan 2017
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Document Summary
To understand the reasons for the emergence of mah y na buddhism (from week 2) To understand the doctrinal developments of mah y na buddhism. To see some of these developments in the lotus s tra. To understand the chinese context at the time when buddhism spread to china. Lotus s tra is an indic text (composed in s. asia) Asoka (maurya empire) adopted buddhism and sent out missionaries: empire has fallen by 0ce. Regional empire - kushan empire: lotus s tra composed during this time in around this kingdom. It survives in gandhari (a vernacular of sanskrit), sanskrit (used similar to how latin was in europe) Sanskrit contains both prose and verse sections: verse repeats the prose, verse sections are older, and prose was a commentary. Overtime both became essential parts of the text. Rendered in chinese 6 times: 255 ce | 286 | 290 | 335 | 406 | 601. 290 version translated by dharmarak a (a monk)
