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Document Details : Title: Why was Bodhisattva Born in a Park? Subtitle: Dohada as a Possible Explanation from Buddha's Biographies Author(s): KOMISSAROV, Dmitrii A. Journal: Journal Asiatique Volume: 311 Issue: 1 Date: 2023 Pages: 29-42 DOI: 10.2143/JA.311.1.3292221 Abstract : Unusual desires of a pregnant woman, which must be fulfilled by her husband, were a popular motif in ancient Indian narrative literature. It can also be found in the ancient biographies of the Buddha. Queen Māyā, pregnant with a Bodhisattva, suddenly expressed a desire to go to the park. With this motif, the compilers of the ancient texts tried to explain why queen Māyā had given birth to her son, Siddhārtha, in the Lumbinī grove. In different Buddha’s biographies, this motive takes on different forms, but we find its most developed version in the Saṅghabhedavastu. There, the whims of the pregnant queen are presented in the form of a list in which the desire to take a walk in the park is mentioned side by side with the intention to perform various virtuous deeds. The article attempts to show how the motif developed in the Buddhist hagiographic tradition and how the desire to go to the park can be associated with the intention to follow the Dharma. The research is based on Sanskrit, Pāli and Chinese sources. |
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