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The Pāli Vinaya

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The Pāli Vinaya Promotor Prof. dr. Ann Heirman Vakgroep Talen en Culturen Decaan Prof. dr. Marc Boone Rector Prof. dr. Anne De Paepe Kaftinformatie: “The conversion of the ascetics” Gandhara, 2nd-3rd century AD. Sculpture located within the British Museum. Picture by Tillo Detige. Faculteit Letteren & Wijsbegeerte Claire Maes Dialogues With(in) the Pāli Vinaya A Research into the Dynamics and Dialectics of the Pāli Vinaya's Ascetic others, with a Special Focus on the Jain other Proefschrift voorgelegd tot het behalen van de graad van Doctor in de Oosterse Talen en Culturen 2015 - C’est le temps que tu as perdu pour ta rose qui fait ta rose si importante. - C’est le temps que j’ai perdu pour ma rose …., fit le petit prince, afin de se souvenir. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Le Petit Prince, 1999 (1946) : 78. Expressions of Gratitude I would like to express my upmost gratitude, first and foremost, to my advisor, Ann Heirman, for her enduring enthusiasm and exceptional support throughout this project. The fact that this research received funding from the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), is a testimony to her sharp, patient, and multiple co-drafting of the scholarship application. I benefited greatly from her expert Vinaya knowledge as she carefully read through and commented upon every chapter; every conference abstract; every conference paper; and every draft of every article. The further I progressed in my research, the more I looked forward to our feedback sessions that often turned into long, productive, challenging and agreeable discussions, which led me to refine many of my ideas. Therefore, Ann, thank you for your unfailing support. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Johannes Bronkhorst, Max Deeg, Bart Dessein and Oliver Freiberger for having accepted the invitation to reside in my doctoral examination committee. A special thanks to Max Deeg for having expressed his characteristic enthusiasm in this research project while it was in its infancy. His many insightful comments during the doctoral guidance meetings, his advice on how to approach normative sources, and his constructive feedback on several chapters, enabled me to articulate my ideas in a more nuanced way. Finally, I would like to thank him for the socially entertaining evenings both in Ghent and Taiwan, during one of which he wisely insisted I should consider my PhD “not as an endpoint, but just as a jumping board to other [yet, unwritten] chapters.” A special thanks is also due to Oliver Freiberger for his constructive and encouraging feedback on an earlier draft of my article ‘Flirtation with the other,’ and for having invited me to participate at his “Buddhism’s Boundaries Conference” at the UT at Austin, which was a very enriching experience. While participating at summer schools, workshops, and various conferences, I have been fortunate to be able to benefit from both the insights and warm encouragements of many erudite and wonderful scholars. In chronological order of appearance, I would like to thank Richard Gombrich for his excellent Pāli Summer School conducted at Oxford; Jens Borgland for having from that summer school onwards been a nice vii companion on this PhD road; for his invitation to give a lecture at the Oslo Buddhist Studies Forum; and for having suggested to read Jonathan Z. Smith, a scholar whose writings proved to be very inspiring for my research. I would like to express my gratitude to Shugan Chand Jain, for having accepted my application (though post deadline) to participate at the Fifth International Summer School for Jain Studies during which I could enjoy the excellent teachings of Padmanabh S. Jaini, read parts of the Jain Āyāraṅga Sutta under the expert guidance of Kamal Chand Sogani, and benefit from the knowledge of Priyadarshana Jain who patiently read me through some passages of the Dasaveyaliya Sutta. I also wish to thank Bhagchandra Jain Bhaskar for sharing his knowledge on the Pāli Vinaya. Timothy Helton for his pleasant company during the summer school, and also in Atlanta during the AAR conference. I would like to thank Eva De Clercq, Anna Aurelia Esposito, and Petteri Koskikallio for their instructive Prākrit Summer School held at Würzburg. I owe special and much gratitude to Eva De Clercq for having expressed her enthusiasm in this research project on multiple occasions; for letting me benefit from her profound knowledge on Jainism; for sharing her digital library resources and for having introduced me into the academic world of conferences when asking me to join her to attend a Jaina Studies Workshop at SOAS. Eva also encouraged me to participate at the international conference ‘Jainism through the Ages’ held at Mysore, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I wish to thank Nalini Balbir for having expressed her genuine interest in my conference paper on ekindriya jīvas, and for having invited me to contribute an article to her Bulletin d’Études Indiennes periodical. I further wish to thank Paul Nietupski for his invitation to co-organise a panel for the IABS conference at Vienna, and Jens Schlieter for his constructive feedback on an earlier draft of my article on ekindriya jīvas, as well as for having shown his keen interest in my research on several occasions. I am also very grateful to Anna Akasoy and Georgios Halkias for having organised and led the excellent Summer School Eurasian Religions in Contact, at Bochum. The many thought stimulating discussions enabled me to approach my research in a much more creative way than I would have been able to do otherwise. My special thanks are also to Georgios Tsourous, a fellow participant of the course, for having introduced me to the writings of Mikhail Bakhtin. He predicted that the concept of ‘dialogue’ would become a useful tool to approach my sources, and rightfully so: the term ‘dialogue’ even slipped into my dissertation’s final title. I would further like to thank Vincent Tournier for having cross-checked the reading of some Mahāvastu verses for me, and Lauren Bausch for her detailed and insightful comments on a paper I presented at the IABS conference in Vienna. I also would like to express my gratitude to my Sanskrit and Prākrit university teachers, Eddy Moerloose and Frank Van Den Bossche, and to H.L. Chandrashekara and Sheshagiri Rao for their excellent classes on Indian philosophy, at Mysore University. viii I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues at the Department of Languages and Cultures of South-and East-Asia for their engaging comments, (practical) advice, support, enjoyable coffee or lunch breaks, or simply very entertaining small-talk. In (near) geographical order (from elevator to end of the hall, and from right to left, to the right again): Nathalie Demeester (for always being helpful when it comes to library issues), Christoph Anderl, Andreas Niehaus, Michaël Hauspie, Brigitte Van Wambeke, Noor van Brussel, Tine Vekemans, Marie-Hélène Gorisse, Mathieu Torck, Tine Walravens, Christian Uhl (especially for having encouraged me to read ‘outside the box’), Inge Claerhout, Klaus Pinte, and Tom De Rauw. A special thanks to Li Man, Mieke Matthijsen, Ady Van den Stock, and former colleague Julia Schneider for the, few but highly interesting, group reading sessions. My grateful thanks to Chiu Tzu-Lung and Chang Chin-Yin for the quality time in Taiwan, during the sixteenth IABS congress. A special thanks also goes to Ayla Joncheere for having taken the trouble to convince me to join the group writing sessions. These turned out to not only be very productive sessions, but also to be socially very agreeable ones! Many thanks are also due to Iris Vandevelde for having read with great interest a chapter of this dissertation, and for being a wonderful, inspiring and solidary teaching colleague. I am further greatly indebted to Tillo Detige. I consider many of my ideas expressed in the first section of this research ‘Scholarly Frameworks, Past and Present,’ to be the outcome of our many engaging talks on the subject of nineteenth century scholarship. I have a very fond memory of our discussion on my earlier draft of this section that took place in a coffee house in Oostende with such lovely sea views. I also wish to thank him for providing me with many reading references; with the cover photo of this dissertation (and for having hunted the sculpture a second time for me in the British Museum), and last but not least, for having brought some of his excellent music collection to the office! Finally, I would like to take the time to thank my former colleague and good friend Stefanie Rotsaert for her unwavering help, supportive attitude and for having shared her excellent cooking skills on more than one occasion. For helping me out during stressful computer related problems, I owe many thanks to the ICT helpdesk staff: Peter De Smet for being able to retrieve, almost, all data from my crashed computer (yes, it does happen), Frederic Lamsens and especially Gitte Callaert for helping me installing a new computer when mine got stolen (yes, this too, does happen) and Gitte again for patiently helping me with the layout of this dissertation, something I found somehow nerve-racking. Outside academia, I would like to thank – in alphabetical order! – Erica Abi-Karam (for having been supportive of this project from its very inception onwards and for having unjustly collected a parking ticket while helping me finding my way through both the British and SOAS library), Véronique Allaert, John Camara, Geoffrey Carpentier (I loved our Friday nights climbing!), Prasit Chara, Anne Debusschere, Piyali Das, Patricia Delaere, Finn Killen, Frédérique Lagae, R. Nagaraj, Elke Oplinus, Lien Oplinus, Riet ix Schouwenaars, Thijs Vandenabeele (especially for the adrenaline rushing game nights), Sophie Vanonckelen, and Iris Verwee, for having provided me, each in their own way, lots of great moments! A special thanks is greatly due to my much beloved friend, mi alma gemela, Lariza Niebla Ibarra.
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