Abstract
In addressing this audience it is hardly necessary to state that it is a most hazardous undertaking to resume the discussion of the brahman problem after it has been subjected to numerous scholarly inquiries and so much has been stated and asserted, argued and conjectured about it; the more so as the prospect of arriving at definite results and at a concord of opinions on the most important points is not at all hopeful. If, nevertheless, I venture to set foot on this dangerous ground, I do so in view of the fact that, from whatever side the problem has been tackled and elucidated, archaeology so far has played the part of a Cinderella left alone in her dusty corner. Now, to this Cinderella I personally feel indebted because she not only first brought me into contact with the fascinating brahman problem, but also showed me a way leading to it from a new angle. This does not mean that, when following this way, I intend to increase the text material collected by my predecessors or to subject it once more to a critical examination.
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References
Notes on brahman, 1950, pp. 3–8, 57, and the literature quoted there. Recently, the brahman-problem once again came up for discussion in the interesting article on Aksara by J. A. B. van Buitenen (JAOS 79, 1959, pp. 176–187). Unfortunately, this article did not come to my notice until after my lecture was held.
Die Religion des Veda 2, 1917, p. 65, Anm. 1; cp. Die Weltanschauung der Brāhmaṇa Texte, 1919, pp. 131, 140.
Sur la notion de bráhman, JA 237, 1949, pp. 7–46; cp. L’Inde classique, I, 1947, p. 336.
Varuṇa, 1951, pp. 13–27.
Op. cit., p. 15 sqq.
Bráhman, ZDMG 102, 1952, pp. 91–129.
Loc. cit., p. 7.
Op, cit., p. 47.
For more details of this find see W. F. Stutterheim, OV, 1925, p. 165; Oudheden van Bali, 1929, I, pp. 34 sq. ; II, Pl. 3.
Beal, Buddh. Records, II, p. 146.
Takakusu, A record of the Buddhist religion, p. 150.
Legge, A record of Buddh. kingdoms, pp. 44 sq. — Votive stūpas of the kind in question have been brought to light in great numbers from the remains of large-sized stūpas explored by Aurel Stein during his expeditions in Turkestan, amongst others at Khara-koto (Innermost Asia, p. 445) and at So-yang-ch’êng (Serindia, p. 1105, Pl. XXXIX). Unfortunately it does not appear from the descriptions of these finds whether clay tablets were found in the interior of these votive stūpas.
Records, pp. 155 sq.
Hirananda Sastri, Excavations at Kasia, ASI-AR. 1910–11, pp. 74 sq.; F. E. Pargiter, ibid., pp. 74 sq. — A famous find of a similar kind was made in 1931 near Gilgit in Kashmir. From the stūpa remains in that place, not only-miniature stūpas and other votive objects, but also a large number of manuscripts were recovered containing buddhist texts in Sanskrit. According to Stein, JRAS, 1931, pp. 863–5: “...the practice of placing large deposits of sacred manuscripts and other sacred offerings in stūpas is curiously illustrated by one of the fine Buddhist paintings on silk recovered... from the caves of the Thousand Buddhas at Tun-huang”. — To my regret, I have not found a reproduction of this, no doubt very interesting, painting in any of Stein’s works.
J. G. de Casparis, Prasasti Indonesia, II, 1956, pp. 47 sq.
Op. cit., pp. 63, 105.
Grünwedel, Mythologie, p. 110. Cp. J. L. Moens, TBG 58, 1919, pp. 507 – 554; Poerbatjaraka, OV, 1921, pp. 28 sq.
L’art gréco-bouddh. du Gandhāra, pp. 58 sq. The same explanation is given by G. Combaz, L’évolution du stūpa en Asie I, 1933, p. 72.
P. Mus, Barabudur, BEFEO XXXIII, 1933, pp. 599 sq.
L. de La Vallée Poussin, The tree bodies of a Buddha, JRAS, 1906, pp. 143 sq.; id., La siddhi de Hiuan-tsang, II, 1929, pp. 762–813; P. Mus, Le Buddha paré, BEFEO XXVIII, 1928, pp. 243–244; id., Barabudur, Introduction, pp.*237 sq.; id., BEFEO, XXXIV, 1934, pp. 276–314.
Essays, pp. 72, 113; cp. Sylvain Lévi, La doctrine du sacrifice, p. 160; H. Kern, Over den aanhef eener Buddh. inscriptie uit Battambang, VMKAW, 1899 (= Verspreide Geschriften III, pp. 291 sq.).
M. and W. Geiger, Pāli Dhamma, 1921, p. 77 ; P. Demiéville, Les versions chin. du Milindapanha, BEFEO, XXIV, 1924, p. 69; De la Vallée Poussin, La Siddhi II, 1929, p. 765.
P. Mus, Introduction, pp.*236 sq.
For a much more circumstantial discussion of the akṣara-concept I refer to Van Buitenen’s article quoted in note 1.
Cp. J. W. Hauer, Die Dhāraṇī im nördl. Buddhismus, 1927. In his definition of dhāraṇī as ‘Meditationsstütze’ [support to meditation] and as ‘Trägerin eines Gottes, eines Buddha, einer Idee, einer Lehre’ [female bearer of a god, a Buddha, an idea, a doctrine] (pp. 5, 7), this author comes very near to the above explanation.
Cp. Combaz, op. cit., II, p. 97; III, p. 92.
A. K. Coomaraswamy, Yakṣas I, 1928, pp. 5 sq.; II, 1931, pp. 1 sq.; id., The Yakṣa of the Veda and Upaniṣads, Quarterl. J. of the Myth. Soc., XXVIII, 1937–38, pp. 231 sq.
Gött. Nachr., 1916, p. 13.
Mus, Barabuḍur, BEFEO XXXII, 1932, p. 280.
E. Chavannes, Les inscriptions chin, de Bodh-Gayā, RHR, XXXIV, 1896, pp. 1–58; Mus, BEFEO, XXXIV, 1934, p. 290.
JA 237, 1949. p. 13.
The following quotations from the RV are borrowed from Thieme, loc. cit., pp. 110 sq.
Obviously, in these cases the meaning ‘fashioning’ attached to the word brahman by Thieme does not hold good since the brahman-hymns being spoken, sung or heard represent the finished products of the fashioning by the priest, not the fashioning itself.
F. B. J. Kuiper, De goddelijke moeder in de Voor-Indische religie, 1939, p. 10.
Varuṇa, pp. 13–27.
E. Berneker, Slav. etym. Wb. I, p. 70. — Professor Kuiper kindly drew my attention to this etymology.
Oldenberg, loc. cit., p. 734.
Whitney, Sanskr. Grammar, § 1153.
Loc. cit., p. 734.
A History of Ind. literature, I, 1927, p. 225.
P. Deussen, Allg. Gesch. d. Phil., I, ii, p. 258.
Amongst others: Stella Kramrisch, The Hindu temple, 1949, pp. 19–85; Mus, BEFEO XXXIII, 1933, pp. 599–699.
Essai sur la légende du Buddha, p. 203.
Lalitavistara, p. 357.
K. F. Johansson, Ueber die Etymologie des sanskr. védi-, Le monde oriental XII, 1918, p. 247.
Records II, p. 116; Life, p. 103.
Mus, BEFEO, XXXIV, pp. 178 sq.
J. Auboyer, Le trône et son symbolisme dans l’Inde ancienne, 1949, pp. 147 sq.
W. B. Kristensen, De ark van Jahwe, MKAW, 76, 1933.
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Bosch, F.D.K. (1961). An Archaeological Approach to the Brahman Problem. In: Selected Studies in Indonesian Archaeology. Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-6006-5_7
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