Abstract
Through the great Buddhist hell, Mahāniraya, there flows a great caustic river known as Vetaraṇī. Its waters are bitter and sharp as razors. Those who enter it are slashed up by swords and similar sharp weapons standing hidden along the river bank.1 According to the Saṃkicca Jātaka, those who oppress the weak and those who are guilty of abortion (gabbhapātiyo) are reborn in this hell and cannot escape Vetaraṇī’s cutting waters.2
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Notes
For a thorough discussion of this issue as it applies to the Hindu texts, see Julius J. Lipner, ‘On Abortion and the Moral Status of the Unborn,’ in Hindu Ethics: Purity, Abortion, and Euthanasia ed. Harold G. Coward, et al. (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), 53–57.
Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, history and practices (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 202
and Trevor Ling, ‘Buddhist Factors in Population Growth and Control,’ Population Studies, Vol. 23, 58 as cited by Damien Keown, Buddhism and Bioethics (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995), 96.
For text and commentary, see Dr. Rewatadhamma, editor: Buddhaghosācariya’s Visuddhimaggo with Paramatthamañjūsāñīkā of Bhadantācariya Dhammapāla (Varanasi: Research Institute, Varanaseya Sanskrit Vish-wavidyalaya, 1969 [B.E. 2513]), Vol. II, 1126.
The reference to the gabbhaparihāra is on 79, where the translator has veiled the reference: ‘In time she conceived, and all due attention having been given her [gabbhaparihāra] her, she brought forth a son…’ Also see V. Fausböll, ed. and trans. The Dasaratha Jātaka (Copenhagen, 1871).
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Dancing with Śiva: Hinduism s Contemporary Catechism, 4th edition (Concord, CA: Himalayan Academy, 1993), 269 [Maṇḍala 19, śloka 91, bhāṣya].
Cf. Margaret and James Stutley, Harper’s Dictionary of Hinduism (New York: Harper & Row, 1977).
For a detailed treatment of this concept, see James P. McDermott, Development in the Early Buddhist Concept of KammalKarma (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1984), 141–142.
Mohan Wijayaratna, Buddhist Monastic Life according to the texts of the Theravāda tradition, translated by Claude Grangier and Steven Collins (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 122. Square brackets mine.
Kośa IV. 103. I have used the edition of Swami Dwarkidas Shastri, Abhidharmakośa & Bhāsya of Acharya Vasubandhu with Sphuṭārtha Commentary of Ācārya Yasomitra, 4 vols. Bauddha Bharati Series 5–7 & 9 (Varanasi: Bauddha Bharati, 1971), Part II, 730–731.
J.R. Haldar, Medical Science in Pali Literature (Calcutta: Indian Museum, 1977), 29. Haldar outlines the entire process.
Saṃghabhadra as quoted in Louis de la Vallée Poussin, L’Abhidharmakośa de Vasubandhu, Tome 3 (Paris: Paul Geuthner, 1924), 213–214, fn. 5 [translation mine].
Cf Padmanabh S. Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), 7–9.
For a detailed treatment of this and related ideas, see Steven Collins, Selfless Persons: Imagery and Thought in Theravāda Buddhism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982).
On the concept of the gandhabba, see O.H. De A. Wijesekera, ‘Vedic Gandharva and Pali Gandhabba,’ University of Ceylon Review, Vol. III (April, 1945), 73–107.
On the intermediate-state dispute, see Alex Wayman, ‘The Intermediate-State Dispute in Buddhism,’ Buddhist Studies in Honour of I.B. Horner (Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1974), 227–237.
See André Bareau, Les Sectes Bouddhiques du Petit Véhicule (Paris: École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 1955), 283.
James P. McDermott, ‘Karma and Rebirth in Early Buddhism,’ in Wendy Doniger O’Flaherty, editor, Karma and Rebirth in Classical Indian Traditions (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980), 169.
LaFleur, Liquid Life (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992).
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McDermott, J.P. (1998). Abortion in the Pāli Canon and Early Buddhist Thought. In: Keown, D. (eds) Buddhism and Abortion. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-14178-4_8
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