Nagarjunakonda: Monasteries and Their School Affiliations

• Authors: Monika Zin

Abstracts

EN

Narrative representations have not been found in all Buddhist monasteries. In some areas, for instance in the region of modern Sannati in ancient Āndhradeśa, only one stūpa, known today as Kanaganahalli, was decorated with opulent narrative reliefs, while the others display none at all. It appears that some Buddhist schools were interested in narrative representations while others were not. The area now known as Nagarjunakonda – the historical Vijayapurī of the Ikṣvāku dynasty in the 3rd century ce – offers the best opportunity to investigate which monasteries the narrative reliefs came from. Among the approximately 40 Buddhist complexes that have been excavated, some of which actually name the schools the resident monks belonged to, and which were built following different layouts, all narrative reliefs were discovered in only a few of the complexes. All of these complexes show a very similar layout with a stūpa outside the monks’ cells, which are positioned in a U-shape, and two apsidal temples facing each other. One of these complexes gives the name of the related school as Aparamahāvinaśaila. It seems that this school was one of those interested in narrative representations, while all the others mentioned in inscriptions at Nagarjunakonda (Theravādins, Mahīśāsakas, and Bahuśrutīyas) were not.

Keywords

EN

Buddhism; school affiliations; Āndhradeśa; Nagarjunakonda; Mahāvinaśaila

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych PAN
• Journal: Acta Asiatica Varsoviensia
• Year: 2022
• Issue: 35
• Pages: 315-344

Dates

published

2022

Contributors

author

Monika Zin

• Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Leipzig, Germany
• Leipzig Universität, Leipzig, Germany

• https://orcid.org/0000000235395773

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Identifiers

DOI

10.60018/AcAsVa.dbhm1216

Biblioteka Nauki

30040484