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Nepalese Buddhist Rituals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

The document here edited is one of the large collection of papers presented by B. H. Hodgson to the library of the India Office, being vol. 29, no. 8 (34/3), ff. 48–51. At the top of the first page is written, presumably by Hodgson,“Ethics and Ritual of Buddhism”; but the word“Ethics”here refers simply to the fact that the text is followed (ff. 52–53) by the standard lists of the ten kuśalas, the ten pāramitās, the four brahmavihāras, the thirty-seven bodhipāksika-dharmas, and so forth, the first two lists being given also in the body of the text. The main text gives in outline the chief rites of Buddhism, daily, monthly, and annual ceremonies (forming, so to speak, a Buddhist “Church′s Year ”), followed by accounts of the thirteen sacraments.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1948

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References

page 668 note 1 Cf. Cowell, Buddhacarita, preface, pp. iv ff.

page 668 note 2 Hodgson Papers, vol. 82 (28/2). On the title-page: “Grammar of the Nêwâr language. Composed for Mr. Hodgson by Amirta Nanda Bandya.” It is dated A.D. 1831. The manuscript of the Buddhacarita was written in 1830, a date repeated by two of the three known copies (Cowell, loc. cit.).

page 670 note 1 The words in parentheses are a later addition (though by the same hand) in rather smaller writing.

page 671 note 1 Milk, curds, butter, honey, and sugar

page 671 note 2 a,u,m > om.

page 671 note 3 oni mayipadme hūm-

page 671 note 4 The well-known five M′s of the Tantras

page 672 note 1 That is, according as the performer of the rite resides in a monastery or in the world outside

page 672 note 2 This is the famous Astamī-vrata, in honour of Amoghapāśa Lokeśvara, which is the lineal descendant of the old Uposadha ceremony. The text referred to is the Astamī-vrala-māhātmyā, which is extant in a Newari version, and consists mainly of well-known tales of the avadāna type pressed into service in order to illustrate the merits of the observance (Camb. TJniv. lib., Add. 1366). The rite should first be performed in the month Kārttika, and repeated monthly thereafter. For a detailed account of the ritual, see Wilson, Asiatic Researches, xvi, 472

page 672 note 3 The special māhātmya of the Vasumdharā-vrataia the Asvaghosa-nadimukhāvadāna (Ga.mb. Univ. Lib., Add. 1357, I486, 1533; Royal Aśiatic Society, Hodgson MSS., 14). The Sucandrāvadāna (Rājendralāl Mitra, Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal, p. 232) is told in order to praise the Vasumdharā-vrata; but the same story occurs also in the Astamī-vrata-māhālmya to illustrate the other rite.

page 673 note 1 See Wright, History of Nepal (Introductory Sketch), pp. 34 ff., where a rather different list is given, including also a number of non-Buddhist rites.

page 673 note 2 For a somewhat garbled account of the laksa-caitya rite, see R. Mitra, op. cit., p. 229. The śrhgabherī, it seems, is a gilded buffalo-horn, with a deep drum-like note.

page 673 note 3 The name svayambhū, besides being an appellation of the deity (“ Self-produced ”), is also regularly applied to spontaneous natural phenomena such as hot vapours and geysers (cf. Stein, Rā;jataranginī, transl., i, 34, and note). The famous Svayambhu-caitya of Nepal seems to have been built over an eruption of this sort, the svayambhū in question being frequently referred to as jyotirūpa. For its earlier mythical history, see the Svayambhū-purārut, and the Vamśāvaī (Wright′s History of Nepal).

page 673 note 4 Yāma in the sense of a division of the day occurs also in the Buddhacarila supplement, xv, 103.

page 673 note 5 Or, “at appropriate times”(?).

page 674 note 1 For the līrthas and the eight vītārāgas and their shrines, see the Svayambhū-purāna (R. Mitra, op. cit., pp. 253–254).

page 674 note 2 For these, see the Pāpa-parimocana

page 675 note 1 Cf. Wright, History of Nepal, p. 33. As a result of this fictitious marriage, a Newar woman is never a widow.

page 675 note 2 This seems to be simply a repetition of the grhastha-satrwkāra already mentioned in the preceding section.

page 675 note 3 As this is the mantra of Tantric initiation, the writer′s reticence is presumably due not to fear of prolixity, but to fear of disclosure to foreign eyes of esoteric“mysteries ”.

page 676 note 1 Taking kande to be a mere slip of the pen for kanthe