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The Literary Abhidhamma Text: Anuruddha's Manual of Defining Mind and Matter (Namarupapariccheda) and the Production of Pali Commentarial Literature in South India

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The Literary Abhidhamma Text: Anuruddha's Manual of Defining Mind and Matter (Namarupapariccheda) and the Production of Pali Commentarial Literature in South India By Sean M. Kerr A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in South and Southeast Asian Studies in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Alexander von Rospatt, Chair Professor Robert P. Goldman Professor Robert H. Sharf Fall 2020 ABSTRACT This dissertation is a study of the ancillary works of the well-known but little understood Pali commentator and Abhidhamma scholar, Anuruddha. Anuruddha's Manual of Defining Mind & Matter (namarupapariccheda) and Decisive Treatment of the Abhidhamma Ultimates (paramatthavinicchaya) are counted among the “sleeping texts” of the Pali commentarial tradition (texts not included in standard curricula, and therefore neglected). Anuruddha's well-studied synopsis of the subject matter of the commentarial-era Abhidhamma tradition, the Compendium of Topics of the Abhidhamma (abhidhammatthasangaha), widely known under its English title, A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma, came to be regarded as the classic handbook of the orthodox Theravadin Abhidhamma system. His lesser-known works, however, curiously fell into obscurity and came to be all but forgotten. In addition to shedding new and interesting light on the Compendium of Topics of the Abhidhamma (abhidhammatthasangaha), these overlooked works reveal another side of the famous author – one as invested in the poetry of his doctrinal expositions as in the terse, unembellished clarity for which he is better remembered. Anuruddha's poetic abhidhamma treatises provide us a glimpse of a little- known early strand of Mahavihara-affiliated commentarial literature infusing the exegetical project with creative and poetic vision. In this dissertation I examine this genre, the literary abhidhamma text, and reconsider the historical context of the production of Pali exegetical literature in South India. This dissertation presents translation and analysis of major sections of Anuruddha's two minor works, the Manual of Discerning Mind & Matter (namarupapariccheda) and the Decisive Treatment of the Abhidhamma Ultimates (paramatthavinicchaya) and queries the significance and extent of influence of the South Indian Pali exegetes' peripheral localization (with respect to the Mahavihara-based interpretive tradition) on the formation of the Theravada commentarial tradition as we know it. 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS i INTRODUCTION [gantharambhakatha] iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xxii PART I CHAPTER 1: Contested Contexts..........................................................................1 On the Historiography of Anuruddha and the Production of Pali Commentarial Literature in South India [The Complicated Backstory] Sec. I...................................................................................................................2 ▪ Neglected Texts and a Vanished Genre: the literary or aesthetic Abhidhamma text ▪ The Enigmatic Figure, Anuruddha 2 ▪ Lost in the Interstices: Anuruddha's historical context and the loss of a regional legacy 3 Sec. II..................................................................................................................9 ▪ The "Alankarification" of Objects of Prestige 9 • Rethinking Ornaments Like Buddhaghosa 12 CHAPTER 2: Anuruddha's Works & The Literary Abhidhamma Text.................28 Expanding or Contracting Doctrinal Compendia?: toward a relative chronology [Weddings] Sec. I...................................................................................................................28 ▪ Is it possible to determine a relative chronology of the three works? 29 ▪ The Hermeneutics of "Sara" ("heartwood, essential core") 38 ▪ The Climate of Orthodoxy 39 Sec. II..................................................................................................................44 ▪ Multiple Iterations of Subject Matter & A Literary Treatment of Familiar Doctrinal Topics: The Example of Dependent Origination 44 • The Manual of Discerning (namarupapariccheda) version 44 • The Compendium of Topics (abhidhammatthasangaha) version 57 • The Decisive Treatment (paramatthavinicchaya) version 66 Sec. III.................................................................................................................66 ▪ The Path and the Content of Insight 66 • Vibhavana: the Concept Underpinning the Dramatization of the Path 66 i • The Dramatization of the PatH 69 • Path Theory and the Evolution of Abhidhamma Thought and Literature 70 • The Disjunction between Paramattha-theory (dhamma theory framework) and Path Theory (seven visuddhis and content of insight framework) 73 • The synthesis of the path from the disparate parts present in the Yuganaddha- sutta and the exegesis of this in the Path of Discrimination (Paṭis-m) 75 • The Place of Path-theory within Abhidhammic Structures of Understanding77 • A Counterpoint to the Theravadin Fixing of the Path: the Saundarananda's Account of Samatha Preceded by Vipassana as a Normative, Alternate Formulation of the Path 79 ◦ The Path to Liberation as Depicted in Asvaghosa's Saundarananda, Ch. XVII 79 • Anuruddha's Caveat (regarding the Path of Purification (Vism)) 82 • The Evolution of the Insight Knowledges 84 CHAPTER 3: The Modeling of Insight [A Divorce and Its Aftermath].................92 Sec. I...................................................................................................................92 ▪ The Hermeneutics of Path (magga) and Path-progress (paṭipatti) 92 • In Pursuit of Contact: Early Buddhism's Indexical Orientation Situating path-progress within an early Buddhist hermeneutic 95 ▪ The Kalingabodhi Jataka An emic articulation of the early tradition's indexical orientation 97 ▪ Vestiges of the Buddha The centrality of index in early Buddhism 99 ▪ Corresponding Disinterest in Icon and Symbol 102 ▪ The Indexical Orientation in Path Literature 104 Sec. II..................................................................................................................105 ▪ The Evolution of the PatH 105 ▪ The Divorce of Samatha & Vipassana 109 ▪ The Theorization of Insight 116 Sec. III................................................................................................................119 ▪ The Literary Depiction of the Path in Anuruddha 119 ▪ The Prelude to Undertaking Cultivation 126 ▪ The Literary Treatment of the Insight Knowledges 139 PART II CHAPTER 4: Anuruddha's Manual of Discerning Mind & Matter......................168 Namarupapariccheda, chs. 8-13 [The Feast] The Section on the Cultivation of Tranquility (samatha-bhavana-vibhaga)......174 ▪ Chapter 8: Meditation devices and cultivation of the perception of foulness ii (kasiṇasubhavibhago) 174 ▪ Chapter 9: The Ten Recollections (dasanussativibhago) 212 ▪ Chapter 10: The Remaining Objects (sesakammaṭṭhanavibhago) 257 The Section on Insight (vipassana-vibhaga)......................................................292 ▪ Chapter 11: Vipassana (vipassanavibhago) 292 ▪ Chapter 12: The Ten Stages (dasavatthavibhago) 318 ▪ Chapter 13: The Resultant Fruits (nissandaphalavibhago) 347 CHAPTER 5: Anuruddha's Decisive Treatment of the Abhidhamma Ultimates....362 Paramatthavinicchaya, "Nibbana" Section (chs. 23-26) The Section on Nibbana (nibbana-vibhaga).......................................................364 ▪ Chapter 23: The Account of the Purification of the Roots 364 ▪ Chapter 24: The Account of the Purifications Entaling Apprehension 371 ▪ Chapter 25: The Account of the Growth of Insight 377 ▪ Chapter 26: The Account of the Purification of Emergence 387 ABBREVIATIONS 394 BIBLIOGRAPHY 395 iii INTRODUCTION [gantharambhakatha] This dissertation extends the findings of my Master's research, which focused on Anuruddha's other minor treatise, the Decisive Treatment of the Abhidhamma Ultimates (paramatthaviniccaya). At the heart of this research was, initially, simply this fascinating text, a somewhat neglected minor abhidhamma manual about which one finds only a few stray comments in scholarly literature, for the most part acknowledging the fluidity of its language and its apparent literary merit1 or addressing its intriguing ascription of South Indian authorship.2 Looking into the text, I found that the quality and refinement of the language was indeed very special, and its ascription of South Indian authorship indeed intriguing, and it was these qualities that first attracted my attention. As I began my study of the Decisive Treatment of the Abhidhamma Ultimates (hereafter: Decisive Treatment (Pm-vn)), I quickly found that a text like it, and in particular this text, could not be read in isolation. As the culminator of a tradition, Anuruddha stood on the shoulders of all those who came before him. Though his dating is a vexed issue, his sources and precedents are very clear. In addition to the theoretical body of work of the giants of the commentarial tradition,3 the immediately relevant sources were Anuruddha's own compositions. Time and again it became apparent: the language of the Decisive Treatment (Pm-vn) was so finely wrought, oblique, and complex, that without the help of a precise parallel it often proved next to impossible to unravel its beautiful but difficult verses. Fortunately, I discovered, parallels abounded. This was the first real breakthrough of the research, in fact, realizing the extent to which Anuruddha's
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