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The Emotionology of Anger in Early Buddhist Literature: Through the Lens of a Gāndhārī Verse Text Michael Butcher a Disser

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The Emotionology of Anger in Early Buddhist Literature: Through the Lens of a Gāndhārī Verse Text Michael Butcher a Disser The Emotionology of Anger in Early Buddhist Literature: Through the Lens of a Gāndhārī Verse Text Michael Butcher A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2020 Reading Committee: Richard Salomon, Chair Collett Cox Prem Pahlajrai Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Asian Languages and Literature ©Copyright 2020 Michael Butcher University of Washington Abstract The Emotionology of Anger in Early Buddhist Literature: Through the Lens of a Gāndhārī Verse Text Michael Butcher Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Richard Salomon Department of Asian Languages and Literature This dissertation examines the early Buddhist attitude toward anger (G kros̱ a, OIA krodha) through the lens of an unpublished verse text, hereafter referred to as the *Kros̱ a-gas̱ a, from a newly discovered collection of Buddhist texts in the Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣṭhī script. At the microscopic level I offer an edition, translation, metrical analysis, and textual notes of the manuscript with chapters on the text’s morphology, orthography, paleography, meter, and phonology, using the format and conventions of the Gandhāran Buddhist Texts series. At the telescopic level I rely on the notion of emotionology to study the collective emotional attitudes toward anger found within early Buddhist literature by looking at key passages within the *Kros̱ a-gas̱ a in comparison with canonical texts. These passages betray the attitudes that argued for and maintained the appropriate expression of anger and the ways in which those responsible for producing and circulating such texts encouraged their understanding of and viewpoint toward this emotion. One such passage stresses the social isolation that comes from lashing out at people in anger. A second compares anger to a deadly poison, while others echo common Buddhist tropes that being angry leads to becoming ugly in a future rebirth, or possibly being reborn as a pig. In this way I show that the *Kros̱ a-gas̱ a, and early Buddhist literature, characterizes anger as an absolutely negative phenomenon that one should shun even at the cost of one’s life. i Contents List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. viii List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. x Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... xi Dedication .................................................................................................................................... xiii List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................... xiv Transcriptional Conventions ........................................................................................................ xvi PART I: THE EMOTIONOLOGY OF ANGER ............................................................................ 1 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................. 1 1.1. Gandhāran Buddhist Manuscripts ........................................................................................ 1 1.2. Anger in Popular Literature ................................................................................................. 2 1.3. Anger in Scholarly Literature .............................................................................................. 4 1.4. Scope of the Dissertation ..................................................................................................... 5 1.5. Zooming In: The *Kros̱ a-gas̱ a............................................................................................. 8 1.6. Zooming Out: Anger and Emotionology in Early Buddhist Literature ............................... 9 1.6.1. Emotionology .............................................................................................................. 10 1.6.2. Anger and Bodily Factors ........................................................................................... 12 1.7. Range of Literature ............................................................................................................ 13 1.8. Structure of the Dissertation .............................................................................................. 14 CHAPTER 2: WHAT IS ANGER? .............................................................................................. 16 2.1. What Are Emotions? .......................................................................................................... 16 ii 2.2. The Five Aggregates .......................................................................................................... 17 2.2.1. Vedanā ........................................................................................................................ 18 2.2.2. Saṃkhāra .................................................................................................................... 19 2.3. Cetasikas ............................................................................................................................ 21 2.4. Krodha ............................................................................................................................... 22 2.5. Dosa ................................................................................................................................... 23 2.6. Paṭigha ............................................................................................................................... 26 2.7. Āghāta ................................................................................................................................ 27 2.8. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER 3: ANGER MAKES YOU UGLY ............................................................................. 30 3.1. Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 30 3.2. Beauty and Spiritual Purity ................................................................................................ 31 3.3. Krodha and Ugliness in Suttas, Commentaries and Jātaka Tales ...................................... 34 3.3.1. Rohiṇī .......................................................................................................................... 34 3.3.2. Queen Mallikā ............................................................................................................. 36 3.3.3. Jātaka Tales – Pañcapāpā and the Paccekabuddha ..................................................... 37 3.3.4. Jātaka Tales – The Bodhisattva ................................................................................... 38 3.3.5. Subha ........................................................................................................................... 40 3.3.6. Sakka and the Anger-Eating Yakkha .......................................................................... 41 3.4 The Buddhist Mahākāvya Tradition ................................................................................... 43 3.5. Saṃkhāras and the Mechanics of Being Reborn Ugly ...................................................... 44 iii 3.6. Krodha and Ugliness Outside of Mainstream Buddhism .................................................. 47 3.7. Buddhism, Foucault, and the Body .................................................................................... 48 CHAPTER 4: AN EMOTION WORSE THAN DEATH ............................................................ 51 4.1. Introduction: What to Do About Anger ............................................................................. 51 4.2. The Simile of the Saw ........................................................................................................ 52 4.3. Anger Management in the Visuddhimagga ....................................................................... 54 4.4. Models of Anger Management .......................................................................................... 64 4.4.1. Sakka, devānāṃ indra ................................................................................................. 64 4.4.2. The Bodhisattva .......................................................................................................... 75 4.4.3. Angerless Monks ........................................................................................................ 81 4.5. Conclusion: The Buddhist Emotionology of Anger .......................................................... 82 PART II: THE *KROSA-GASA .................................................................................................. 86 CHAPTER 5: PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE MANUSCRIPT ....................................... 86 5.1. Description of the Manuscript (Figures 2, 3, and 4) .......................................................... 86 5.2. Reconstruction of the Scroll............................................................................................... 92 5.2.1. Size and Format .......................................................................................................... 92 5.2.2. The Reconstructed
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