Celestial seductresses and hungry ghosts : preta narratives in early Indian Buddhism
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In this dissertation I examine tales about the departed (Sanskrit: preta) composed in Sanskrit and Pāli from approximately the third century BCE to the sixth century CE. I argue that the body of the preta was essential to the construction of a Buddhist cosmology rooted in a socio-karmic discourse that is fundamentally physio-moral in nature. Through the body, I trace the transformation of the departed preta to the preta as a ghost constituting a separate realm of rebirth in the Buddhist cosmos. By telling stories about pretas, whose bodies are constituted by their prior actions and simultaneously restrict their ability to act toward soteriological goals, Buddhist authors created and illustrated their understanding of moral law of cause and effect. Additionally, the Buddhist saṅgha's claim to be able to transform abject preta bodies into divine ones allowed monks to elevate themselves as the superior mediators between humans and non-humans. While all men and women in these stories act immorally, their depiction is influenced by a social system that upheld the patriarchal householder structure and by a monastic institution that guarded itself against sensual desires and attachment to the body. For this reason, preta tales produce an ideological discourse of the body.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2019; ©2019 |
| Publication date | 2019; 2019 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | McNicholl, Adeana Shel |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Harrison, Paul M. (Paul Maxwell), 1950- |
| Thesis advisor | Harrison, Paul M. (Paul Maxwell), 1950- |
| Thesis advisor | Kieschnick, John, 1964- |
| Thesis advisor | Gin Lum, Kathryn |
| Thesis advisor | McDaniel, Justin |
| Degree committee member | Kieschnick, John, 1964- |
| Degree committee member | Gin Lum, Kathryn |
| Degree committee member | McDaniel, Justin |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Religious Studies. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Adeana McNicholl. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Religious Studies. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2019. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2019 by Adeana Shel McNicholl
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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