The Sanskrit term
A river at Śrāvastī.
One of the ascetic practices known as
A major śrāvaka disciple and personal attendant of the Buddha Śākyamuni during the last twenty-five years of his life. He was a cousin of the Buddha (according to the Mahāvastu, he was a son of Śuklodana, one of the brothers of King Śuddhodana, which means he was a brother of Devadatta; other sources say he was a son of Amṛtodana, another brother of King Śuddhodana, which means he would have been a brother of Aniruddha).
Ānanda, having always been in the Buddha’s presence, is said to have memorized all the teachings he heard and is celebrated for having recited all the Buddha’s teachings by memory at the first council of the Buddhist saṅgha, thus preserving the teachings after the Buddha’s parinirvāṇa. The phrase “Thus did I hear at one time,” found at the beginning of the sūtras, usually stands for his recitation of the teachings. He became a patriarch after the passing of Mahākāśyapa.
A wealthy merchant in the town of Śrāvastī, famous for his generosity to the poor, who became a patron of the Buddha Śākyamuni. He bought Prince Jeta’s Grove (Skt. Jetavana), to be the Buddha’s first monastery, a place where the monks could stay during the monsoon.
One of several types of footwear allowed for Buddhist monks in The Chapter on Leather.
Late June/early July.
One of twelve literary genres found in the Buddhist canon, avadānas (meaning “heroic acts” or “glorious exploits”) relate the past life actions which have culminated in a person’s present life attainments.
Monks who know how to make and repair leather footwear are allowed to keep an awl, a strap, and, according to some sources, a knife to assist them in these tasks.
A wealthy householder, father of Śroṇa Koṭīkarṇa.
A denigratory way to refer to a Buddhist monk.
Site of the Kalandaka Sanctuary.
One of several types of footwear described in The Chapter on Leather.
One of several types of furniture allowed for Buddhist monks mentioned in The Chapter on Leather.
Sandals that resemble a bodhi leaf in shape. One of several types of footwear prohibited in The Chapter on Leather, along with creaking sandals, tinkling sandals, sparkling sandals, ram’s horn sandals, multicolored sandals, and sandals that cost five coins.
One of several types of footwear allowed for Buddhist monks in The Chapter on Leather.
A high-ranking deity presiding over a divine world; he is also considered to be the lord of the Sahā world (our universe). Though not considered a creator god in Buddhism, Brahmā occupies an important place as one of two gods (the other being Indra/Śakra) said to have first exhorted the Buddha Śākyamuni to teach the Dharma. The particular heavens found in the form realm over which Brahmā rules are often some of the most sought-after realms of higher rebirth in Buddhist literature. Since there are many universes or world systems, there are also multiple Brahmās presiding over them. His most frequent epithets are “Lord of the Sahā World” (sahāṃpati) and Great Brahmā (mahābrahman).
The term “breach” does not uniquely correspond to any of the five types of offense a monk should avoid. Instead, context determines which class of offense any specific breach belongs to. See Clarke 2021 p, 71 n. 80.
A calf- or thigh-high boot allowed for monks living in snowy regions. One of several types of footwear allowed for Buddhist monks in The Chapter on Leather.
Ancient capital of Aṅga.
One of several types of leather or hide used in ground-spreads and ground-spread covers in the frontier country of Aśmaka.
Perhaps onomatopoeic. Monks are not allowed to wear creaking sandals. One of several types of footwear prohibited in The Chapter on Leather, along with tinkling sandals, sparkling sandals, ram’s horn sandals, sandals like a bodhi leaf, multicolored sandals, and sandals that cost five coins.
An attendant to Śroṇa Koṭīkarṇa, whose name means “servant.”
One of several types of leather or hide used in ground-spreads and ground-spread covers in the frontier country of Aśmaka.
In the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya, the term dhyāna is used in a general sense to mean “meditation.” Note, however, that in Buddhist literature dhyāna often refers to specific meditative states involving increasing detachment from both sensory and mental objects.
In a Buddhist context, the term
To collect one’s attention and direct it to meditation.
The Mūlasarvāstivādin tradition grouped the Buddha’s early sūtra discourses into four divisions, or
The Sanskrit Chapter on Leather gives this location first in the probably erroneous form
Third stage on the path to becoming an arhat.
Second stage on the path to becoming an arhat.
First stage on the path to becoming an arhat.
A class of generally benevolent nonhuman beings who inhabit the skies, sometimes said to inhabit fantastic cities in the clouds, and more specifically to dwell on the eastern slopes of Mount Meru, where they are ruled by the Great King Dhṛtarāṣṭra. They are most renowned as celestial musicians who serve the gods. In the Abhidharma, the term is also used to refer to the mental body assumed by sentient beings during the intermediate state between death and rebirth. Gandharvas are said to live on fragrances (gandha) in the desire realm, hence the Tibetan translation dri za, meaning “scent eater.”
This is one of many related terms for an assembly hall that appear in the Kangyur and Tengyur, such as (1) “meditation residence” or “meditation hall” (Tib.
One of several types of leather or hide used in ground-spreads and ground-spread covers in the frontier country of Aśmaka.
In his Chinese translation of The Chapter on Leather, Yijing (T 1447, 1052b12) gives a single term,
A group of monks led by Nanda and Upananda who are consistently portrayed as indulgent and attached to material comforts. See the introduction to The Chapter on Leather.
In Buddhist cosmology, the Heaven of the Thirty-Three is the second lowest of the six heavens in the desire realm (kāmadhātu). Situated on the flat summit of Mount Sumeru, it lies above the Heaven of the Four Great Kings (Caturmahārājakāyika) and below the Yāma Heaven. It consists of thirty-three regions, each presided by one of thirty-three chief gods, and the overall ruler is Śakra. The presiding gods are divided into four groups named in the Abhidharmakośaṭīkā (Toh 4092): the eight gods of wealth, two Aśvin youths, eleven fierce ones, and twelve suns. The thirty-three regions themselves are enumerated and described in The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma, Toh 287, 4.B.2 et seq.).
In a Buddhist context, the term
One of the five or six classes of sentient beings, into which beings are born as the karmic fruition of past miserliness. As the term in Sanskrit means “the departed,” they are analogous to the ancestral spirits of Vedic tradition, the pitṛs, who starve without the offerings of descendants. It is also commonly translated as “hungry ghost” or “starving spirit,” as in the Chinese 餓鬼 e gui.
They are sometimes said to reside in the realm of Yama, but are also frequently described as roaming charnel grounds and other inhospitable or frightening places along with piśācas and other such beings. They are particularly known to suffer from great hunger and thirst and the inability to acquire sustenance. Detailed descriptions of their realm and experience, including a list of the thirty-six classes of pretas, can be found in The Application of Mindfulness of the Sacred Dharma, Toh 287, 2.1281– 2.1482.
The lord of the Trāyastriṃśa heaven on the summit of Mount Sumeru. As one of the eight guardians of the directions, Indra guards the eastern quarter. In Buddhist sūtras, he is a disciple of the Buddha and protector of the Dharma and its practitioners. He is often referred to by the epithets Śatakratu, Śakra, and Kauśika.
The name of an island or group of islands where precious stones and gems were extraordinarily plentiful and easily obtained.
The name of the southern continent in Buddhist cosmology, which can signify either the known human world, or more specifically the Indian subcontinent, literally “the jambu island/continent.” Jambu is the name used for a range of plum-like fruits from trees belonging to the genus Szygium, particularly Szygium jambos and Szygium cumini, and it has commonly been rendered “rose apple,” although “black plum” may be a less misleading term. Among various explanations given for the continent being so named, one (in the Abhidharmakośa) is that a jambu tree grows in its northern mountains beside Lake Anavatapta, mythically considered the source of the four great rivers of India, and that the continent is therefore named from the tree or the fruit. Jambudvīpa has the Vajrāsana at its center and is the only continent upon which buddhas attain awakening.
This site derives its names from the birds whose chirping awoke King Bimbisāra and saved him from the bite of a deadly snake. In gratitude, the king forbade harming the birds in this park. The Sanskrit Chapter on a Schism in the Saṅgha identifies the kalandaka as a bird in its telling of the site’s origins (Toh 1-17, F.77.b–78.a). There, the Sanskrit glosses the site’s name as “the winged ones known as ‘kalandaka’ ”:
The Śākyan capital, home of the Bodhisattva before his renunciation.
Late October/Early November.
Prasenajit’s kingdom and later Virūḍhaka’s.
King of Vārāṇasī during the time of the Buddha Kāśyapa.
ko lpags kyi gzhi (Carmavastu). Toh 1-5, Degé Kangyur vol. 1 (’dul ba, ka), folios 251.b–277.b.
ko lpags kyi gzhi (Carmavastu). ka’ ’gyur (dpe bsdur ma) [Comparative Edition of the Kangyur], krung go’i bod rig pa zhib ’jug ste gnas kyi bka’ bstan dpe sdur khang (The Tibetan Tripitaka Collation Bureau of the China Tibetology Research Center). 108 volumes. Beijing: krung go’i bod rig pa dpe skrun khang (China Tibetology Publishing House), 2006–9, vol. 1, pp. 585–644.
ko lpags kyi gzhi. Stog Palace Kangyur vol. 2 (’dul ba, ka) folios 359–389.
Kalyāṇamitra. ’dul ba gzhi rgya cher ’grel ba (Vinayavastuṭīkā). Toh 4113, Degé Tengyur vol. 156 (’dul ba, tsu), folios 177.b–326.b.
Dutt, Nalinaksha, ed. Carmavastu of the Vinayavastvāgama of the Mūlasarvāstivādin. In Gilgit Manuscripts, Vol. III, part IV, pp. 159–210. Calcutta: Calcutta Oriental Press, 1950.
Tatelman, Joel. The Heavenly Exploits: Buddhist Biographies from the Divyāvadāna. New York: New York University Press, 2005.
Vira, Raghu and Lokesh Chandra. Gilgit Buddhist Manuscripts. Facsimile edition. New Delhi: 1959.
Allchin, F. Raymond and George Erdosy. The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia : the Emergence of Cities and States. Cambridge University Press, 1995.
Anālayo, Bhikkhu. “Āgama and Aṅga in the Early Buddhist Oral Tradition.” Singaporean Journal of Buddhist Studies 3 (2016): 9–37.
Banerjee, Anukul Chandra. Sarvāstivāda Literature. World Press Private Ltd., 1979. Originally published in 1957.
Bhattacarya, Dipak. “The Vedic Dṛti as Skin Float: AVP 2.19.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 18, no. 3 (2008): 311–26.
Bronkhorst, Johannes. Buddhism in the Shadow of Brahmanism. Brill, 2011.
Buswell, Robert E., Jr., and Donald S. Lopez, Jr. The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Clarke, Shayne (2014). Vinaya Texts. The International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University.
Clarke, Shayne (2015). “Vinayas.” Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism, edited by Jonathan Silk et al., vol. 1., Literature and Languages. Brill, pp. 60–87.
Clarke, Shayne (2016–17). “Lost in Tibet, found in Bhutan: the unique nature of the Mūlasarvāstivādin law code for nuns.” Buddhism, Law & Society 2: 199–292.
Clarke, Shayne (2021). “On Some Curious Cases Where the Buddha Did Not Make a Rule: Palliative Care, Assisted Suicide, and Abortion in an Indian Buddhist Monastic Law Code.” International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture 31 (1): 13–113. https://doi.org/10.16893/IJBTC.2021.06.30.1.13.
Collett, A. (2006). “List-based Formulae in the Avadānaśataka.” Buddhist Studies Review 23 (2): 155–85.
Cowell, Edward B., and Robert Alexander Neil, eds. The Divyāvadāna: A Collection of Early Buddhist Legends. Oriental Press, 1970. Originally published in 1886 by Cambridge University Press.
Edgerton, Franklin. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Grammar and Dictionary. 2 vols. Vol. 2, Dictionary. Munshiram Manoharlal, 2004.
Erdosy, George (1988). Urbanisation in Early Historic India. BAR Publishing.
Erdosy, George (1995). “City States of North India and Pakistan at the Time of the Buddha.” In The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: the Emergence of Cities and States, edited by F. Raymond Allchin with George Erdosy, R. A. E. Coningham, D. K. Chakrabarti, and Bridget Allchin. Cambridge University Press.
Freiberger, Oliver. “Early Buddhism, Asceticism, and the Politics of the Middle Way.” In Asceticism and its Critics: Historical Accounts and Comparative Perspectives, edited by Oliver Freiberger. American Academy of Religion cultural criticism series. Oxford University Press, 2006.
Garfield, Jay. Buddhist Ethics: A Philosophical Exploration. Oxford University Press, 2021.
Hirakawa, Akira. History of Indian Buddhism: From Śākyamuni To Early Mahāyāna. Edited and translated by Paul Groner. University of Hawai’i Press, 1990.
Hofinger, M. Le congrès du lac Anavatapta (vies des saints bouddhiques): extrait du Vinaya des Mūlasarvāstivādin Bhaiṣajyavastu. Vol. 1. Légendes des anciens (Sthavirāvadāna). Institut Orientaliste, 1982.
Horner, Isaline Blew. The Book of the Discipline, Volume IV. Luzac & Company Ltd., 1962. First edition in 1951.
Jäschke, H. A Tibetan-English Dictionary. Curzon Press, 1998. Reprint of the edition published in London, 1881.
Kragh, U., ed. The Foundation for Yoga Practitioners: The Buddhist Yogācārabhūmi Treatise and Its Adaptation in India, East Asia, and Tibet. Harvard University, Department of South Asian Studies, 2013.
Lamotte, E. History of Indian Buddhism from the Origins to the Śaka Era. Translated by Sara Webb-Boin [sic]. Institut Orientaliste, 1988.
Law, Bimala Churn. Geography of Early Buddhism. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1932. Ebook accessed at “Ancient Buddhist Texts,” January 2024.
Malalasekera, G. Dictionary of Pali Proper Names. Buddhist Publication Society, 1937. Accessed October 1, 2021.
Monier-Williams, M. A Sanskrit-English Dictionary. Clarendon Press, 1979.
Oldenberg, Hermann, trans. (1879). The Vinaya Piṭakaṃ: One of the Principal Buddhist Holy Scriptures in the Pali Language. Vol. 1. The Mahāvagga. London: Williams and Norgate.
Oldenberg, Hermann, trans. (1882) Vinaya Texts. Part 2. The Mahāvagga, 5–10; The Cullavagga, 1–3. In The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 17, edited by F. Max Müller. Clarendon Press.
Olivelle, Patrick (2007). “Explorations in the Early History of Dharmaśāstra.” In Between the Empires: Society in India 300 bce to 400 ce. Oxford University Press.
Olivelle, Patrick. (2018). “Ascetics: vānaprastha, pravrajita.” In Hindu Law: A New History of Dharmaśāstra. Oxford University Press.
Panglung, J. Die Erzählstoffe des Mūlasarvāstivāda-Vinaya analysiert auf Grund der tibetischen Übersetzung. Tokyo: Reiyukai Library, 1981.
Prebish, C. A Survey of Vinaya Literature. Jin Luen Publishing House, 1994.
Roach, Susan. “ ‘The Qualities of the Purified’: Attitudes Towards the Dhūtaguṇas in the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya.” PhD diss., SOAS, University of London, 2020. [Available as PDF on academia.edu.]
Rotman, Andy (2008). Divine Stories: Divyāvadāna Part 1. Wisdom Publications, 2008.
Rotman, Andy (2021). Hungry Ghosts. Wisdom Publications, 2021.
Schopen, Gregory. (2000) “Hierarchy and Housing in a Buddhist Monastic Code: A Translation of the Sanskrit text of the Śayanāsanavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya. Part One.” Journal of Buddhist Literature vol. 2: 92–196.
Schopen, Gregory (2006). “A Well-Sanitized Shroud: Asceticism and Institutional Values in the Middle Period of Buddhist Monasticism.” In Between the Empires: Society in India 300 bce to 400 ce, edited by Patrick Olivelle. Oxford University Press.
Schopen, Gregory (2014). “The Learned Monk as a Comic Figure: On Reading a Buddhist Vinaya as Indian Literature.” In Buddhist Nuns, Monks, and Other Worldly Matters. University of Hawai’i Press.
Schopen, Gregory (2015). “The Fragrance of the Buddha, the Scent of Monuments, and the Odor of Images in Early India.” In Bulletin de l’Ecole française d’Extrême Orient, vol. 101: 11–30.
Schopen, Gregory (2022). “The Monk Mūlaphalguna and the Nuns: Biography as Criticism.” Hualin International Journal of Buddhist Studies 5.1: 313–33.
Skorupski, T. A Catalogue of the Stog Palace Kanjur. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 1985.
Strauch, Ingo. “Lost in Translation? Canonical Languages and Linguistic Diversity of Early Versions of the Prātimokṣasūtra.” In Evolution of Scriptures, Formation of Canons: The Buddhist Case, edited by Orna Almogi. Indian and Tibetan Studies Series 13. Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg, 2022.
Wörterbuch der tibetischen Schriftsprache. Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Kommission beim Verlag C. H. Beck, 2005.