The 21st Annual Jaina Lecture: The End of the Word

Andrew Ollett (University of Chicago)

Abstract

There are many stories about the transmission of texts in the Jain tradition. Many of them complicate, if not reverse, the binary categories of “preservation” and “loss” as they are usually deployed (in reference, for example, to the beliefs of Śvētāmbara and Digambaras regarding the aṅgas). This talk will review two relatively well known stories of textual loss: that of Sthūlabhadra, from the Śvētāmbara Titthōgālī, and that of Dharasēna, from the Digambara Dhavalā. Preservation accompanies loss in both of these stories, but in different ways, owing in part to a different understanding of the textual object and the medium of its transmission. I close by gesturing to the lessons these stories hold for thinking, in particular, about the continuation of texts in time, with which philologists are professionally concerned, and more generally about conceiving of, and relating to, the inevitable disappearance of traditions of human knowledge.

This conference will be held in-person and the recording will be made available on this web page.

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Registration

This event is free and open to all, but registration is required. Registration Form

Organiser: Peter Flügel (SOAS Centre of Jaina Studies)

Contact email: Peter.Flugel@soas.ac.uk