著者

Shobha Rani DASH

出版者

Japanese Association of Indian and Buddhist Studies

雑誌

印度學佛教學研究 (ISSN:00194344)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.54, no.2, pp.872-869,1324, 2006-03-20 (Released:2010-07-01)

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A palm leaf manuscript of the Oriya Mahabharata written by the famous Oriya poet Sudramuni Srisaraladasa of the mid 15th c. was transmitted to Tsusima-cho of Ehime prefecture in Japan during the 18th century A. D. It ia ssumed that the manuscript was transcribed in the beginning of the 17th c. It was written in the medieval Oriya language using the medieval Oriya script except the invocation to Lord Ganesa, which is in Sanskrit. It consists of 221 leaves (transcribed on both sides), a few blank leaves and a bamboo cover. In the beginning and the end of the manuscript it mentions clearly that it is the first part of the Aranyakaparba of the Mahabharata. It is a typical manuscript of Orissa, an Eastern state in India. The most interesting point to note is that it is not just an Oriya translation of the Sanskrit Mahabharata, but is an Oriya version of it. Since 2001, I have been working on its romanized edition and Japanese translation along with Mr. Nobuyuki Kashiwahara and Prof. Hojun Nagasaki as the chief. A new relationship between Orissa and Japan is expected to be explored from the research of this manuscript.

著者

Shobha Rani DASH

出版者

Japanese Association of Indian and Buddhist Studies

雑誌

印度學佛教學研究 (ISSN:00194344)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.55, no.2, pp.1024-1020,1290, 2007-03-20 (Released:2010-07-01)

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Previous studies state that a number of Buddhist canonical texts suggest discrimination against women, such as the Buddha's reluctance to allow women to enter the Sangha, the subordinate status of the bhikkhunis under the eight strict conditions (attha garudhamma), the inferior terms used for the women in the canonical texts, the five obstructions of a woman, her incapability to become a Buddha etc. How these discriminatory expressions gradually became hindrances to ordination of womenfolk is discussed in this paper.In this paper, the possibilities of the misreading of Buddhist texts have been examined. When reading a text, we sometimes consider the subject matter just from its ostensible meaning. This ultimately leads us into a quick mire. The problem does not lie in the scriptures themselves; rather, it is our misleading interpretation that often grows out of nuances in translation. What has come down to us today as the problem of bhikkhuni ordination or gender discrimination is possibly the outcome of misinterpretations that grew out of the socially defined realities of the times and the places where the texts were written and the linguistic demands of the target languages. This has been discussed by a close examination of key passages from Pali, Sanskrit and Chinese texts.