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The Play of Formulas in the Early Buddhist Discourses

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Abstract

The play of formulas is a new theory designed to explain the manner in which discourses (Suttas, Sūtras) were composed in the early Buddhist tradition, focusing at present mainly on the Dīgha- and Majjhima- Nikāyas (the collections of the Buddha’s Long and Middle-length discourses). This theory combats the commonly accepted views that texts are mainly an attempt to record and preserve the Buddha’s teachings and life events, and that the best way to understand their history is to compare parallel versions of them. By identifying the creative, mainly the literary, vectors alive in the shaping of the texts, the theory explains how discourses are the products of formulas, which themselves are the primary texts of early Buddhism. Formulas combine in order to produce meaningful textual patterns, with little account of historical context and with much interest in aesthetic appeal and emotive potency. Formulas connect according to set narrative designs, in which different types of audiences are represented not only through unique formulas, but also with their specific narrative trajectories and complementing doctrinal emphases. It is not that the early authors were not at all interested in safeguarding the tradition. It is only that there was much more going on, and that thinking about the texts in this way misses their entertaining faces and ignores their beauty. These probably tell us more about what the early discourses actually were for the people that first produced and studied them than dry philosophical doctrine.

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Notes

  1. For an introduction to the main features of this oral literature, see Allon (1997). Among the other important studies are Norman (1998), Wynne (2004), Anālayo (esp. 2007, 2009, 2011, 2017) and Allon (2018).

  2. This is Todorov’s (1975) helpful definition for genre. For a broader discussion of these and other works and issues that relate to the nature of early Buddhist literature, see Shulman (forthcoming), from which this article chooses a number of cogent examples.

  3. This approach argues against some of the new foundationalist tendencies in Buddhist Studies, with more and more studies taking the early discourses as direct remnants of the Buddha’s teachings. See Sujato and Brahmali (2014), Anālayo (2017), Gombrich (2018), Wynne (2019).

  4. Salomon (2011) as well as Pagel (1985).

  5. This means that new texts could offer cogent elaborations on doctrine, a notion that is particularly relevant to the techniques of exposition in the Saṃyutta- and Aṅguttara- Nikāyas. I intend to give this idea focused attention in a future study.

  6. I am here discussing only the prose Nikāyas, sometimes referred to as the major four Nikāyas. For the fifth Khuddaka-Nikāya, see Shulman (2012). Notice that not all texts in the Khuddaka are even, and clearly collections like the Udāna and Itivuttaka, and even ones like the Theragāthā, Therīgāthā and Dhammapada, did not develop in a vacuum so that they share materials, methodologies and patterns of reflection with the Suttas.

  7. See further note 53 below; for bhāṇakas being no less preachers than reciters, see Deegalle (2006), Nance (2008), Drewes (2011), Gummer (2012).

  8. The main exception here is are the Jains and their leader Nigaṇṭha Nāṭaputta, who appear as fierce rivals that maintain a conflictual attitude in face of the Buddha and his students.

  9. For a cogent example, see the narrative framing of the Sāmaññaphala-sutta, and particularly its well-known caricature of the six rival ascetic teachers.

  10. See for example in the DN’s Poṭṭhāda- and Udumbarika- Suttas. The Pāṭika-sutta of the DN (discussed below) is an example of a discourse in which the Buddha leaves too early, goes to visit a paribbājaka teacher, but which does not introduce the theme of noise and quiet through the relevant formula or through the Buddha’s teaching.

  11. For the doctrine of darśan in Indian religion, see Babb (1981) and Eck (1998). Cort (2012) raises the idea that there are different contexts for darśan, beyond the classic one described in these last sources; it would be interesting to analyze the Nikāyas for their take on this theme.

  12. As in the Ambaṭṭha-sutta of the DN and the Brahmāyu- and Sela-Suttas of the MN. For this doctrine see Radich (2007).

  13. See most clearly in the Sāleyyaka- and Verañjaka-Suttas of the MN (nos. 41 and 42). See further Shulman (forthcoming, Chap. 5).

  14. As in the MN’s Apaṇṇaka-sutta (no. 60).

  15. An influential view in Buddhist studies has been that there was a “free-floating” stage in which ideas circulate before they were standardized in formulas; see Geiger (1978), Frauwallner (1956, epilogue), and Wynne (2004). However, as suggested by Rhys Davids (1911), there is reason to believe that texts were delivered in the formulized form to begin with, so that the formulas are the original texts of the tradition. With this understanding we may pursue a history of the early tradition in its different dimensions based on an analysis of formulas.

  16. The question of schools, which has received much scholarly ink, may not merit so much consideration, as suggested by Hartmann (2020).

  17. Leading studies under this paradigm include Anālayo’s vast research, especially his comparative studies of the full MN and of numerous DN discourses (2011, 2017). Important earlier studies include Lamotte (1988 [1958]), Waldscmidt (1950-51) and Minh Ciau (1991), while much of the research in the volumes edited by Dhammdinnā (2014, 2017, 2020) conform to this paradigm. These studies are clearly valuable and necessary, but are limited by a conservative theoretical framework.

  18. The Pāli texts are normally earlier than their counterparts in other languages. See for example Bronkhorst (2011, 3.3) and Salomon (2018, p. 61). This should not be applied as a rule to any specific text, but can probably be trusted as a general inclination and for systematic analyses of larger groups of texts. The Pāli texts also represent a full collection composed in an Indic language, even if this is still a Theravāda version, and perhaps a Sinhalese one, as we have been taught by Collins (1990).

  19. For this analysis, I rely on translations, and especially on the work of my research assistant Gadi Eimerl, to whom I offer my heartfelt thanks. Our joint analysis of the Udumbarika-sutta and its counterparts forms a major part of Shulman (forthcoming, Chap. 1). More such studies will hopefully follow.

  20. Schmithausen’s (1990) influential approach is worthy of mention in this case, which sees texts as composed of layers that return to different developmental stages. This again assumes the primacy of the full discourse and takes it as a clearly defined entity that went through discernable changes.

  21. See further Huizinga (1949); Schechner (1993, Chap. 2).

  22. The leading study in this respect has been Allon (1997), who was followed by authors such as Wynne (2004) and Anālayo (2007, 2011).

  23. Collins (1990) argued that the oral aspect of texts continued to be active even after the texts were submitted to writing; here we surmise a similar relationship between fixed and more fluid phases of the literature.

  24. See Rhys Davids and Rhys Davids (1921, p. 8), Bapat (1926, p. 13) and Walsche (1995 [1987], p. 597, n. 732). See, however, Hartmann (2014, pp. 157–161), who thinks that the humorous aspects of this text may lead us to appreciate unstudied dimensions of sutta materials.

  25. The idea of texts as versions relates in this particular context also to the Pāṭika’s folkloric nature; for the significance of versions in folkloristics, see for example in Ben-Amos (1982, Chap. 1) and Dundes (1999, p. 5). Among the folkloric elements in this discourse beyond the entertaining storytelling we may include the re-telling of Jātakas (see below), and what seems to be a local element of this text which relates to popular ideas in the Vesāli area.

  26. For the idea of literature, I rely on Booth (1961), as well as Alter (1981), in order to speak of the texts as being composed from a particular authorial perspective, which has its own rhetorical strategies and general emaphses. See further Shulman (2017c).

  27. For more comprehensive treatment of this text, see Shulman (forthcoming, Chap. 4).

  28. For another reference to practitioners who act like dogs, see the MN’s Kukkuravatika-sutta (MN 57).

  29. The Kevaddha-sutta (DN 11) is often quoted as expressing early Buddhism’s disinterest in magic; in actuality, this text is quite fascinated with the miraculous. See Shulman (forthcoming, Chap. 2).

  30. DN III.19: ‘kiṃ su nāma te, āvuso pāthikaputta, pāvaḷā su nāma te pīṭhakasmiṃ allīnā, pīṭhakaṃ su nāma te pāvaḷāsu allīnaṃ?

  31. See Thompson (1956, p. 396), Thompson and Balys (1958, p. 156), and Rajkhowa (1973, p. 146). I thank Ülo Valk for these references.

  32. See in the Ambaṭṭha-sutta (DN I.95), or in the Cūḷasaccaka-sutta (MN I.231).

  33. For the concept of a “telling”, which relates to a particular, contextual version, see Ramanujan (1994).

  34. For discussions of the reliefs that relate this story in Gandharan art, I rely on Taddei (1985) and Brancaccio (1993).

  35. See also MN 105, DN 6,7.

  36. This is perhaps a case that works well with Joy Maneé’s (1990) interesting suggestion that the DN is a collection aimed for converts, while MN texts are designed for monks. While I do not think that this idea works in all cases, it offers an interesting way to think about these texts.

  37. MN I.69-70: … yathābhūtaṃ pajānāti… atītānāgatapaccuppannānaṃ kammasamādānānaṃ ṭhānaso hetuso vipākaṃ… sabbatthagāminiṃ paṭipadaṃ… sattānaṃ nānādhimuttikataṃ.

    All translations from Pāli are my own, texts are taken from VRI and compared to PTS.

  38. Gethin (1986); Harvey (1995, Chap. 8). For further analysis see Shulman (2014, Chap. 2.1, 2017a).

  39. The Cūḷamāluṅkhyaputta-sutta (MN 63), which presents the famous simile of the arrow, and which has greatly influenced the presentation of this theme in introductions to Buddhism, is somewhat different, but still relates to the context of the afterlife and in no way shuns metaphysics; see Shulman (2017a). Besides this text, the main presentations of this doctrine are in the texts analysed here from the MN and SN, although there are others, among them further discourses in the Abyākata-saṃyutta of the SN, and the AN’s Abyākata-sutta (7.54).

  40. MN I.486.11: diṭṭhigatan’ti kho, Vaccha, apanītam etaṃ Tathāgatassa. diṭṭhañ hetaṃ, Vaccha, Tathāgatena – ‘iti rūpaṃ, iti rūpassa samudayo, iti rūpassa atthaṅgamo; iti vedanā, iti vedanāya samudayo, iti vedanāya atthaṅgamo; iti saññā, iti saññāya samudayo, iti saññāya atthaṅgamo; iti saṅkhārā, iti saṅkhārānaṃ samudayo, iti saṅkhārānaṃ atthaṅgamo; iti viññāṇaṃ, iti viññāṇassa samudayo, iti viññāṇassa atthaṅgamo’ti. tasmā Tathāgato sabbamaññitānaṃ sabbamathitānaṃ sabbaahaṃkāramamamakāramānānusayānaṃ khayā virāgā nirodhā cāgā paṭinissaggā anupādā vimuttoti vadāmīti.

  41. In discourse no. 9, the Buddha explains why other teachers declare the afterlife destinations of their students, while he cannot do so, due to his students having “no remainder of grasping” (anupadānassa). He the proceeds to offer a less elegant version of the simile of the fire. In discourse no. 10, Vacchagotta asks the Buddha whether there is or is not a Self (atth’attā, natth’attā), and the Buddha remains silent. Answering Ānanda’s inquiry, the Buddha provides a valuable explanation for what an answer may have entailed. In discourse no. 11, a young student of the Buddha’s offers Vacchagotta a marvellous explanation for why the Buddha cannot explain his afterlife state.

  42. Norman (1982); see further Shulman (2014, esp. Chap. 4).

  43. Bodhi (2012) has raised attention to methods of elaboration upon Suttas in the Aṅguttara Nikāya, while Gethin (2020) has questioned their function in the SN. Here my attention is directed mainly to the literary aspects of these elaborations, which hinges on the notion that textual innovation is an inherent part of textual production in a way that is not yet assumed by these authors. The distinct patterns of elaboration that are particular to each Nikāya are a theme I hope to address in future research that will question the so called “bhāṇaka-system.”

  44. Anālayo (2011, pp. 203–204); For a fuller assessment of Anālayo’s approach to the early texts, see Shulman (forthcoming, Chap. 5).

  45. Presumably, this understanding relies on the fact that the monks have reached the state of cessation; but the text does not state that the monks are liberated and this fact should not be assumed.

  46. Anālayo (2011, p. 205): “The visit to the same group of monks in the Upakkilesa-sutta would then have to be placed at an earlier occasion, when these three monks had not yet reached the level of meditative proficiency attributed to them in the Cūḷagosiṅga-sutta. On this assumption, perhaps, due to an error in the transmission of the Cūḷagosiṅga- and Upakkilesa-suttas, the Buddha’s encounter with the park keeper was doubled and came to be part of the introductory narration to both meetings. As this doubling is found in the Majjhima-nikāya and in the Madhyama-āgama, it would presumably have taken place at some time before the Theravāda and Sarvāstivāda reciter traditions separated from each other, but already after the Ekottarika-āgama reciter tradition had begun to transmit its version of the Cūḷagosiṅga-sutta independently.”

  47. Shulman (2017c; forthcoming-b, Chaps. 1, 2).

  48. Anālayo (2011, p. 4) and Endo (2013, p. 48) both explain that this is the one collection the reciters of the MN were expected to memorize, after which they could also move further in the collection; this reflects the primacy of this section.

  49. In the present context, I avoid discussing the thorny question regarding the relation between Sutta and Vinaya. In my interpretation, there are a number of Vinaya narratives that are used to structure discourses in the MN, such as the Alagaddūpama-, Bodhirājakumāra-, and Sela- Suttas (MN 22, 85, 92). A more thorough treatment of this issue is in order, yet this will require a better appreciation of the literary dimensions of Vinaya; for more details, see Shulman (forthcoming, Chap. 5). The most sober discussion of the relation between Sutta and Vinaya I have encountered is still Oldenberg (2013 [1879]), while for a general appreciation of textual development, Rhys Davids’ (1911, Chap. 10) account is still compelling.

  50. The ongoing attempt to find hard evidence for the historical Buddha, as in Drewes (2017), is asking too much of history. The fact that the Buddha of the Nikāyas is not represented in a historically reasonable matter, does not imply that there was no such person; indeed, if there wasn’t, we probably wouldn’t have been holding this discussion.

  51. Shulman (2019; forthcoming, Chap. 6).

  52. This assessment is shared by Anālayo (2011, p. 186).

  53. I refrain from offering a comprehensive discussion of editing in this context. Yet it is clear that editors did much more than place texts in collections—a nice example from the opening 50 discourses of the MN is the manner in which the two last texts in the collection, the Brahmanimantita- and Māratajjanīya- suttas, offer humoristic counter-images to the first two seminal texts in the collection. The first of these offers a version of the key formula of the Mūlapariyāya-sutta, the opening discourse of the MN, placing it in the context in which the Buddha demonstrates his supremacy over an assembly of Brahma- (creator-) gods. In the second of these, the magical monk Moggallāna offers an entertaining application of correct attention (yoniso manasikāra), paradigmatically introduced in the second text of the MN, the Sabbāsava-sutta. In the Māratajjanīya, Moggallāna’s stomach hurts, and he identifies a certain Māra in his stomach. There are many other funny images in this text, such as a Buddhist monk who attained cessation being burned alive, or a description of meditating monks as similar to animals searching for prey on the banks of a river. Placing these texts at the opening and closing of the collection is beyond chance, and shows that texts could be designed to fit the logic of the collection, rather than being simply placed wherever they seemed to fit. There are many other examples of this phenomena, and especially from the SN and the AN.

  54. For valuable steps in this direction, see Gethin (2020), and especially the concluding section, as well as Shulman (forthcoming, Chap. 7).

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Acknowledgements

This study was support by the Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 1087/17). I am thankful to the ISF for its generous support. I also wish to thank the participants in the conference on “The Idea of Text in Buddhism”, and especially Paul Harrison and Mark Allon, for their helpful engagement with these materials.

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  1. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Eviatar Shulman

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Shulman, E. The Play of Formulas in the Early Buddhist Discourses. J Indian Philos 50, 557–580 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-021-09491-0

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