The Six-Tusked Elephant across Indian Buddhist Texts and Art (Seminar)

Dr Naomi Appleton, Dr Chris Clark (University of Edinburgh)

Abstract

In the seminar we will read some “versions” of stories about the Buddha’s past life as a six- tusked elephant who willingly gives away his tusks to a hunter. Versions will be pre-circulated in Sanskrit and Pāli (with translations also provided), and participants with the relevant language skills may also want to explore versions in Chinese or Tibetan (references can be provided). Alongside the textual sources we will also discuss visual “versions” of the story, and try to tease out some of the larger questions about the role of jātaka stories in early India.

Bio

Naomi Appleton is Senior Lecturer in Asian Religions at the University of Edinburgh. Her primary research interest is the role of stories in the construction, communication and challenge of religious ideas in South and Southeast Asia. She is the author of Jātaka Stories in Theravāda Buddhism (Ashgate 2010), Narrating Karma and Rebirth: Buddhist and Jain Multi-life Stories (CUP 2014) and Shared Characters in Jain, Buddhist and Hindu Narrative (Routledge 2017), as well as numerous articles on related themes. She has recently returned to researching jātaka literature, with a Leverhulme-funded project exploring the genre across early Indian Buddhist texts and art. 

Chris Clark is a Research Assistant at the University of Edinburgh, working on the creation of an online searchable database of Jātaka stories in the texts and art of South Asia. Prior to joining the University of Edinburgh, he was a Research Assistant at the University of Sydney, and taught at the Australian National University and Deakin University. His various publications explore a range of research interests, including Pāli language and literature, Sanskrit language and literature, and Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia.