Overview

Many Buddhas, One Buddha introduces a significant section of the important early Indian Buddhist text known as the Avadanasataka, or ""One Hundred Stories"", and explores some of its perspectives on buddhahood. This text, composed in Sanskrit and dating to perhaps the third to fifth centuries of the Common Era, is affiliated with the Sarvastivada or Mulasarvastivada, and thus provides important evidence of the ideas and literatures of lost non-Mahayana schools of Indian Buddhism. The text is a rich literary composition, in mixed prose and verse, and includes some elaborate devotional passages that illuminate early Indian perspectives on the Buddha and on the role of avadana texts. The book introduces the first four chapters of the Avadanasataka through key themes of these stories, such as predictions and vows, preparations for buddhahood, the relationship between Sakyamuni and other buddhas, and the relationship between full buddhahood and pratyekabuddhahood. The study of these stories closes with an argument about the structural design of the text, and what this tells us about attitudes towards different forms of awakening. The second part of the book then presents a full English translation of stories 1-40.

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9781781798966

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The Avadānaśataka is a centrally important text for understanding non-Mahāyāna Sanskrit Buddhism. Naomi's introduction presents some significant new points about the work as a whole and her translation is accurate, and closely follows the syntax and phrasing of the original Sanskrit. Yet the English flows easily. In my opinion, this a wonderful achievement, for it gives the reader a feel for the way such Buddhist legends sound--how they are worded and put together--in addition to what they mean. This volume will be well received by scholars in the discipline and much appreciated by students and general readers with an interest in Buddhism or just in some good stories. John S. Strong, Charles A. Dana Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, Bates College

The Avadanasataka is a centrally important text for understanding non-Mahayana Sanskrit Buddhism. Naomi's introduction presents some significant new points about the work as a whole and her translation is accurate, and closely follows the syntax and phrasing of the original Sanskrit. Yet the English flows easily. In my opinion, this a wonderful achievement, for it gives the reader a feel for the way such Buddhist legends sound--how they are worded and put together--in addition to what they mean. This volume will be well received by scholars in the discipline and much appreciated by students and general readers with an interest in Buddhism or just in some good stories. John S. Strong, Charles A. Dana Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies, Bates College

Author Information

Naomi Appleton is Senior Lecturer in Asian Religions at the University of Edinburgh. Her primary research interest is the role of narrative in early South Asian religions. She is the author of Jataka Stories in Theravada 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 a number of articles on Buddhist and Jain narrative.

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