Chanwit Tudkeao
Chulalongkorn University (Thailand)
During Gautama Buddha’s life time, various misfortunes happened to him, such as his foot being bruised by a stone rolled from a cliff by Devadatta or being attacked by Māra and his attendants. These misfortune stories of the Buddha are narrated separately in various versions of the Buddha’s biography, canonical texts, jātakas, avadānas or some other Buddhist texts. Ratnaketuparivarta, an important Mahāyana Sutra, borrows these stories and relates briefly in verses when the Buddha is reproaching Māra because of his bad deeds. The sources, motives and development of these misfortune stories in Ratnaketuparivarta are analyzed in this paper, in order to comprehend the significance of the Buddha’s biography and Buddhist legends in Buddhist literature of other genres.
(Presented in the International Conference on Buddhist Studies: Buddha's Biography – Buddhist Legends, 18-19 July 2015, Le Meridien Bangkok Hotel, Bangkok, organized by Department of Thai, Faculty of Arts, The Pali and Sanskrit Section, Department of Eastern Languages, Faculty of Arts and Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University)