The Sociology of Philosophies

(Wang) #1

  1. Manu Smriti 2:3. In contrast, ca. 150 b.c.e. Panini’s grammar (4:6) had merely
    defined nastika as a non-believer in the other world, excluding only the materialist
    element philosophers.

  2. The Ramayana depicts the Buddhists in the guise of demons inhabiting Sri Lanka,
    who are defeated by an expedition to the island, headed by a warrior-hero who is
    identified with one of the gods of the Hindu pantheon.

  3. See the accounts of Lamotte (1958: 571–606); Conze (1962: 119, 123, 195);
    Hirakawa (1990: 110–118); Raju (1985: 147, 154–156); Nakamura (1980); Dutt
    (1962).

  4. Theological issues are those of concern only to believers in particular religious
    tenets; these may be highly particularistic, such as the name and distinctive identity
    of God, or local traditions of stories, rituals, and memberships; for instance, the
    Christian dispute over the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, or Hindu
    arguments over the relative standing of Shiva or Vishnu. Theological issues may
    also develop more abstract questions, such as the relations among the Trinity, or
    the existence of cosmic bodies of the Buddha. Philosophical issues are those which,
    although they may arise in a theological context, are potentially detachable from
    it and of interest to a wider range of argument. Many issues entwine between
    theology and philosophy; this is one reason why theological controversies give rise
    to philosophy, even if the theologians are opposed to it, as was the case in early
    Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam alike.

  5. Hirakawa (1990: 302–303). Mahayana emerged at the same time (100 b.c.e.–100
    c.e.) that scribes were taking the place of the oral reciters who specialized in
    memorizing particular classes of texts (Dutt, 1962: 30, 149).

  6. Willis (1979: 52–53). There seem to have been two Vasubandhus, the Yogacara in
    the mid-300s (designated Vasubandhu I), and the Sarvastivadin a century later
    (Vasubandhu II). This interpretation is supported by Frauwallner (1953–56), Dutt
    (1962: 270, 281–282), Potter (1976), and Nakamura (1980: 109), although the
    traditional identification of the two is maintained by some scholars.

  7. Conze (1962: 166–171); Nakamura (1980: 129); Guenther (1972: 59, 132). A
    thousand years later, a similar inflation of enlightenment took place in the Zen
    school in its late scholasticizing phase in Japan.

  8. Cut off from these developments in the north was a flurry of Buddhist philosophy
    in Sri Lanka in the mid-400s, where Buddhaghosa combined all the schools into
    a Theravada master text (Conze, 1962: 203; Kalupahana, 1992: 206–216). It was
    a syncretism characteristic of defensive periods, at a time when Buddhism was
    closing down in south India. Its survivors migrated to Sri Lanka, where the king
    fought off a Tamil invasion from the mainland.

  9. Old geopolitical bases reappeared in the newer religious-intellectual rivalries.
    Mithila was apparently in old Videha, the rival of the Magadha capital in the time
    of the Buddha and Mahavira (OHI, 1981:77).

  10. The Samkhya-sutras, however, were not manufactured until around 1400, during
    the period when the “six darshanas” rubric was adopted among orthodox Hindus
    (EIP, 1987: 327).

  11. A brief guide to this entire period appears in Chapter 15 under the heading “The


966 •^ Notes to Pages 211–228

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