Sins and Sinners

Sins and Sinners
Numen Book Series

Studies in the History of Religions
Series Editors
Steven Engler (Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada)

Richard King (University of Glasgow, Scotland)
Kocku von Stuckrad (University of Groningen,
The Netherlands)
Gerard Wiegers (University of Amsterdam,
The Netherlands)
VOLUME 139
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/nus
Sins and Sinners

Perspectives from Asian Religions
Edited by
Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara
Leidenboston
2012
Cover illustration: Participant at the Makar Mel bathing in front of the Ka temple, Panaut,
Nepal. Photograph taken in January 2010, by Prasant Shrestha. Reproduced with kind permission
from the photographer.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Sins and sinners : perspectives from Asian religions / edited by Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara.
p. cm. (Numen book series, ISSN 0169-8834 ; v. 139)
Proceedings of a conference held in the fall of 2010 at Yale University.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-90-04-22946-4 (hardback : alk. paper) ISBN 978-90-04-23200-6 (e-book)
1.AsiaReligionsCongresses. 2.SinCongresses. I.Granoff, P. E. (Phyllis Emily), 1947
II.Shinohara, Koichi, 1941
BL1033.S56 2012
202.2dc23
2012017165
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ISSN0169-8834
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Contents
Acknowledgements..........................................................................................
vii
Introduction.......................................................................................................
PART one
SINNING IN ASIAN RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS

Social and Soteriological Aspects of Sin and Penance in Medieval
Hindu Law.....................................................................................................
David Brick
Sin and Expiation in Sikh Texts and Contexts: From the Nnak
Panth to the Khls....................................................................................
Denis Matringe
31
Living Without Sin: Reflections on the Pre-Buddhist World of

Early China....................................................................................................
Michael Nylan
57
Sin, Sinification, Sinology: On the Notion of Sin in Buddhism and

Chinese Religions........................................................................................
James Robson
73
The Evil Person is the Primary Recipient of the Buddhas

Compassion The Akunin Shki Theme in Shin Buddhism
of Japan..........................................................................................................
James C. Dobbins
93
The Sin of Slandering the True Dharma in Nichirens Thought..... 113

Jacqueline I. Stone
Ritual Faults, Sins, and Legal Offences: A Discussion About
Two Patterns of Justice in Contemporary India................................ 153
Daniela Berti
vi
contents
PART two
DEALING WITH SIN

After Sinning: Some Thoughts on Remorse, Responsibility, and
the Remedies for Sin In Indian Religious Traditions....................... 175
Phyllis Granoff
The Role of Confession in Chinese and Japanese Tiantai/Tendai
Bodhisattva Ordinations........................................................................... 216
Paul Groner
Removal of Sins in Esoteric Buddhist Rituals: A Study of the
Dafangdeng Dhra Scripture................................................................ 243
Koichi Shinohara
Redeeming Bugs, Birds, and Really Bad Sinners in Some Medieval
Mahyna Stras and Dhras.............................................................. 276
Gregory Schopen
Sometimes Love Dont Feel Like It Should: Redemptive Violence
in Tantric Buddhism.................................................................................. 295
Jacob P. Dalton
Sin and Flaws in Kerala Astrology............................................................... 309
Gilles Tarabout
Sin and Expiation in Nepal: The Makar Mel Pilgrimage in
Panaut........................................................................................................... 324
Grard Toffin
Sin and Expiation Among Modern Hindus: To Obey Ones Duty
or Following Freely Accepted Rules?.................................................... 357
Catherine Clmentin-Ojha
Index..................................................................................................................... 381
AcknowledgEments
We would like to thank Rev. Brian Nagata and the Bukky Dendkykai
for their support of the conference at Yale, where some of these papers
were presented. The BDK also provided support for preparing the papers
for publication. Additional assistance for the conference was provided
by the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation and the Lex Hixon Fund,
Department of Religious Studies, Yale University.
introduction
The essays in this volume grew out of a conference that was held at Yale
University in the fall of 2010. Our choice of topic was guided by our belief
that sin in its many forms has always been and continues to be a central
concern of Asian religious texts and practices. So important is sin that
changes in religious practice and doctrine might fruitfully be understood
as responses to a compelling need to do something about the frailty of the
human condition, our propensity to sin, and to make religion suitable for
this degenerate age in which we live and in which sinning is inevitable. It
is not only in the primary source material that sin looms so large; debates
about the nature and even the very existence of sin in Asian religions
continue to enliven the scholarly literature.
The complexity of the subject is apparent from the table of contents.
This book brings together scholars from very different disciplinary perspectives and presents material from India, Nepal, Tibet, China, and
Japan. Some of the essays explore texts that are among the earliest to
have been preserved, while others examine modern and contemporary
religious practices or contemporary judicial proceedings. Included are
essays on pre-Buddhist China, Buddhist China and Japan; classical and
contemporary Indian law; the Sikh tradition; Jainism and Hinduism;
Tibetan Buddhism, and Hinduism in Nepal.
Across the diversity of these chapters, certain common themes emerge.
Although we did not set out to solve the old conundrum of finding a perfect
word to substitute for the imperfect term sin with its history of Christian
connotations, many of the essays deal either directly or indirectly with
the basic question of what we are to understand by sin in the religious
texts and practices we are studying. Michael Nylan in her essay challenges
certain presuppositions about sin, guilt, and shame, subtly illustrating
how inapplicable they are to early China, where there is no omniscient
punishing God, and the relationship between internal and external, central to the dichotomy of guilt and shame, is so very differently understood.
But this does not imply that there is no understanding of wrongdoing or
no moral sense; a belief in human perfectibility goes hand in hand with a
recognition of the difficulties of its achievement and the many opportunities for failure. Wrongdoing, moreover, has its consequences, whether or
not anyone else is there to witness it. James Robson begins his essay with
introduction
an exploration of Western reluctance to speak about sin in Buddhism.

Western scholars, he argues, saw sin as a Buddhist contribution to Chinese religion. Robson challenges this notion and points to early Daoist
texts that treat sin and its remedies.
Studying a very different context, the South Indian state of Kerala, and
not the distant past but the present time, Gilles Tarabout opens his essay
on sin and flaws in astrology with brief remarks on the pitfalls of assuming
that sin in the Christian sense with its concomitant concepts of guilt and
repentance is a universal. What is regularly translated as sin by astrologers in conversation and in the texts they use has little to do with guilt or
repentance and much to do with ritual faults and impurity, and even with
attacks by sorcery. David Brick, studying early Indian legal texts, draws a
distinction between sins that have consequences in this life, that is, social
consequences, and those that have consequences in the next life. With
the development of the doctrine of karma, sins can have these two very
different and damaging results. Bricks essay also raises the question of the
treatment of sins that are not publicly known and whether it was necessary publicly to confess ones sin in order to be free of its consequences.
The question of social versus karmic consequences can be seen in a very
different context in Paul Groners paper on medieval Japanese Buddhism,
where social means the monastery, and various rituals of confession
are important in insuring that a monk maintains his good standing in
his monastic community. Catherine Clmentin-Ojha focuses on a very
public sin and its social consequences in a very different time and place,
in a study of Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar, who violated the prohibition against traveling abroad when he went to London in 1895 as part of
a delegation to represent the political demands of Indians at the British
Parliament. The contrast between guilt and shame as motivations for not
sinning reappears in Phyllis Granoffs essay, which draws on material from
Pali Buddhist texts, Mahyna Buddhist stras, Jain texts and Indias great
epics. In their essays Denis Matringe, Daniela Berti, and Grard Toffin all
address the different types of wrongdoings that are brought together under
the one term, sin, ritual mistakes and ritual impurity, violations of social
rules, and moral failings. Bertis paper makes clear the staying power of
the discourse on sin; she studies contemporary Indian High Court rulings in which crimes are very much also sins. Matringe highlights a major
change in the definition of sin that occurred when the Sikhs became a
militant order and deserting the cause on the battlefield became the most
egregious of all sins. This also brought about a change in the understanding of how to deal with sin: only martyrdom could expiate such a sin. The
introduction
example of the transformation of the concept of sin in the Sikh tradition

alerts us to the importance of concrete historical circumstances in the
most abstract discussions.
Another central theme of these essays is what may be done after a sin
has been committed. The essays make clear that a wide range of techniques
were offered to ward off the consequences of sin. Not all of them required
the sinner to do anything except be what he or she is: wicked through and
through. Two of the essays address the problem of lowly creatures and
those most abject sinners who were not in a position to do virtuous acts
and thus might have seemed to be condemned to suffer forever. Gregory
Schopens paper examines texts that promise salvation even to bugs and
birds, even to the most wicked sinners of all, those who commit the five
cardinal sins of killing father, mother or an arhat, of causing a schism, or
physically harming the Buddha or a stpa housing the Buddhas relics.
They are all immediately saved when the sounds of a special mantra fall
on their ears. Schopen argues further that texts that promote such beliefs
were widely circulated in medieval India, and he suggests that they were a
response to the success of Buddhist proselytizing efforts and certain doctrinal developments, in particular, the concept of universal salvation. The
masses, he surmises, would have wondered how they might in their sinful
condition really be saved. A similar awareness of universal sinfulness and
a similar concern for abject sinners with their poor prospects for engineering their own spiritual progress underlay the medieval Japanese Buddhist
movement that James Dobbins studies. Shinran (11731262 ce) taught that
the sinner was paradoxically the perfect object for the Buddhas compassion, which alone could save him or her from the consequences of those
sins. For him Buddhism was the ideal religion for his sinful age and offered
the promise of salvation to the most reprobate sinners. The Shin school
of Buddhism that coalesced around Shinran and successive generations
of his followers would come to dominate the Japanese Buddhist scene for
many centuries. In her chapter Jacqueline Stone investigates the central
role of sin and its expiation in the doctrine of another medieval Japanese
Buddhist figure, Nichiren (12221282). Nichiren is known for his message
of exclusive devotion to the Lotus Stra, which he revered as the Buddhas highest teaching. Now in the degenerate age of the Final Dharma,
he maintained, only the Lotus Stra leads to the attainment of Buddhahood. For that reason, in Nichirens view, the gravest of all sinsworse
than killing ones parents a thousand timesis slander of the Dharma,
which he understood as rejecting the Lotus in favor of lesser teachings.
To this evil he attributed the collective sufferings besetting Japan in his
introduction
day: famines, epidemics, and the threat of Mongol invasion. To rebuke

attachment to other, provisional teachings and assert the unique truth
of the Lotus Stra thus became for him a form of compassionate practice
aimed at rescuing others from the fearful consequences of Dharma slander as well as a mode of expiating ones own offenses against the Dharma
committed in prior lifetimes. In this way, Nichiren gave meaning to the
persecution from the authorities that he and his disciples incurred in the
course of their proselytizing efforts.
A major point of debate that we see through these essays concerns the
role of remorse, repentance, and confession. In his paper, Paul Groner
argues that confession has been integral to Buddhism since its inception.
His discussion focuses on repentance rituals and the practice of confession in Japanese Buddhism, tracing the importance of confession in
various types of ordination ceremonies. He also mentions a unique Buddhist answer to the problem of sin: the doctrine of Emptiness. Some of
his texts insist that a proper understanding of the insubstantiality of sin
is the best means to remove sin. This notion reappears in some of the
texts studied by Koichi Shinohara and Phyllis Granoff. Granoffs texts
reveal mixed responses to the question of whether the sinner needs to
feel remorse, repent and confess. While Jain texts stress the importance of
repenting and confessing, other texts, including some Mahyna Buddhist
texts and the Mahbhrata, regarded remorse and repentance as so much
wasted effort. Robson treats repentance rituals in Daoism, where disease
is considered a mark of sin, and healing rituals center on confession and
repentance. Sins can be tabulated and kept track of, making it easier to
formulate the appropriate rituals to eliminate them.
Several of the essays examine ritual means to ward off the consequences
of sin. Schopens paper focuses on dhra texts, which teach spells that
ward off sin and have a host of other benefits. Koichi Shinohara traces
the evolution of esoteric Buddhist understandings of such dhra recitation as the means to remove sin. In his detailed exploration of the history
of some early dhra texts preserved in Chinese, Shinohara argues that
if mantras initially had very this-worldly goals, they soon came to take
on distinctive soteriological goals. The removal of sin becomes a crucial
result of practicing dhra recitations, as a first step towards ultimate salvation. Both Schopen and Shinohara comment on the nature of esoteric
dhra texts, which are often obscure and show several layers of complex
development. Shinohara also highlights the importance of visions of the
Buddhas to confirm the success of the dhra rituals. Tibetan Buddhism
introduction
offered a more extreme ritual to free the sinner of his or her sins; this was
ritual murder, which Jacob Dalton explores in his paper.
There were other rituals to deal with sin. David Bricks essay deals with
penances in the early Hindu law books. Brahmanical penances are at the
core of Clmentin-Ojhas discussion as well. Grard Toffin focuses on the
very important pilgrimage to Panaut in Nepal and the rituals of fasting
and bathing, so central in Hindu religious culture. His paper also mentions supernatural confirmations of the efficacy of the rituals undertaken,
something highlighted by Shinohara. Clearly, anxiety about sin could
extend to anxiety about the efficacy of the rituals offered to ward off its
effects. Anxiety over sin dominates another group of rituals and the role
of another religious specialist, the astrologer. Gilles Tarabout examines
the techniques of astrologers in Kerala today, who must uncover the sins
or ritual faults that have resulted in misfortunes for their clients. Theirs
is also the responsibility of providing remedies to stop the calamities that
are occurring and restore order.
Sin, remorse, repentance, confession, mantras, murders, pilgrimage,
penances, court judges, astrologersthis collection of essays includes all
of this. Yet even this is still only part of the picture. Our hope is that this
volume will be a first step in a continuing discussion of sin and its centrality in Asian religious cultures.
part one
Sinning in asian Religious Traditions
Social and Soteriological Aspects of Sin and Penance in

Medieval Hindu Law
David Brick
The scholastic and literary tradition known as Dharmastra, often referred
to in English as Hindu law, is the branch of Brahmanical scholarship
(stra) that takes as its subject dharma, a term denoting in this context
the rules of right conduct governing virtually all aspects of Brahmanical
Hindu life. As such, Dharmastra prescribes sets of specific normative
rules for a massive and varied array of topics, including, among other
things, statecraft (rjadharma), judicial administration (vyavahra), pilgrimage (trthaytr), life-cycle rites (saskra), and world-renunciation
(sanysa). Moreover, this prodigious tradition spans over two millennia
of Indian history from roughly the third century bce to the eighteenth
century ce; and during this time, important Dharmastric works were
composed in virtually all areas of the subcontinent. Thus, taken in its
entirety, Dharmastra literature is incredibly vast, surprisingly so to
non-specialists. Broadly speaking, however, it can be divided into two
periods. During the first period, which extends from approximately the
third century bce to the seventh century ce, authors working within the
Dharmastra tradition composed works called Smtis, which typically
present themselves as divine revelations and eventually took on the status
of authoritative scriptures. In the second period, which covers more or
less the eighth to eighteenth centuries and which scholars loosely refer to
as medieval, Dharmastric authors composed primarily exegetical works
that strive to create a clear, comprehensive, and systematic account of the
rules of right conduct (dharma) prescribed in the earlier Smtis.
Indologists have long recognized that under the rubric of pryacitta
(penance), Dharmastric texts of this second period present, with
unprecedented clarity and detail, perhaps the most well-developed and
influential theory of sin and penance in the entire Hindu religious tradition. Nevertheless, remarkably few modern scholarly writings have been
devoted to elucidating and interpreting this theory, which as a result
remains poorly understood.1 It is the purpose of this paper to help remedy
1Kane, History of Dharmastra, vol. 4, 1178, and Gampert, Shnezeremonien, provide
by far the most detailed accounts of Dharmastric ideas regarding sin and penance. Aside
10
david brick
this situation by providing a useful framework for understanding certain

salient Dharmastric ideas pertaining to sin and penance. In particular,
I will demonstrate how numerous features of the theory of sin and penance expounded in medieval Dharmastra reflect a pervasive concern
with two fundamentally different human activities: (A) the personal quest
to avoid an undesirable life after death and (B) the process of excommunicating and readmitting members of a given social community.
An examination of the effects of sin theorized in Dharmastra is a
natural place to begin the present analysis, because these effects are what
link sin to both of the aforementioned activities. Furthermore, since penance is by definition a means of negating sin, sins effects also provide
the connection between the aforementioned activities and penance. The
Mitkar (c. 10751125), a celebrated commentary on the Yjavalkya
Smti (c. 300500), contains the following straightforward formulation of
how sin works:
Sin possesses two powers: that which brings about hell and that which prohibits association.2
Thus, the Mitkar postulates that sin possesses two distinct powers.
The first of these is the power to cast one into hell. In other words, a sin
isamong other thingsan action that produces negative soteriological
consequences. And this is, of course, quite close to certain popular Western conceptions of sin. The second power of sin, however, is more distinctively Hindu, for it is the power to prohibit one from social and ritual
interaction with other respectable people. That is, in addition to resulting
in hell and other unpleasant rebirths, sin can also cause a person to lose
his caste-status and, thus, become an outcaste.
According to Dharmastra, all sins (ppa) possess the first of these
powers, that is, the power to produce negative otherworldly results; only
the most grievous possess the second. These grievous sins, however, are by
far the most commonly discussed sins in Dharmastra literature, where
they are technically classified as mahptakas, ptakas, and upaptakas
all terms derived from a causative form of the verb root pat, meaning to
from these sources, very little scholarship has been dedicated exclusively to the topic,
although several scholars have recently written insightful comparative analyses of sin/
penance and crime/punishment within Dharmastra (see Lubin, Punishment and Expiation, Davis, Spirit of Hindu Law, 12843, and Olivelle, Penance and Punishment).
2Mitkar 3.226: dve hi ppasya akt narakotpdik vyavahranirodhik ceti |
social and soteriological aspects of sin and penance
11
fall.3 The reason for this particular shared derivation is that these sins,
unlike all lesser ones, cause a person to fall not only into hell, but also
from caste. Thus, the Gautama Dharmastra (c. 200100 bce), one of the
earliest works of the Dharmastra tradition, explains the sort of falling
that certain major sins entail as follows:
Falling is exclusion from the activities of twice-born (i.e., high-caste) men;
and a lack of success in the hereafter. Some call this hell.4
Hence, Dharmastric theology places effectively equal emphasis on the

soteriological and social effects of sin and, thereby, addresses within its
system of sin and penance two fundamentally distinct cultural phenomena: the quest for personal salvation and the process of excommunication
from and readmission to good society.
Although not explicitly stated in the Mitkar and other Dharmastric
texts, the logical connection between undesirable rebirths, excommunication, and sin is fairly easy to surmise. The belief that certain acts, which
we can appropriately call sins, yield negative otherworldly results is
essential to the karmic worldview upon which Hinduism and, indeed, all
early Indian religions are based. Therefore, sins close association with
soteriology within Dharmastra is entirely unsurprising. Its association
with excommunication, however, is somewhat more remarkable and,
consequently, requires special explanation. In this regard, the crucial
thing to note is that Brahmanical culture evinces a notoriously strong
propensity to identify entities as impure and to prohibit contact with
such entities lest one contract their impurity and, thus, suffer horrible
calamities.5 Therefore, it makes sense that members of this culture would
regard those who have committed sins as impure and, as a result, fastidiously shun them until their impurity is deemed to have departed. And
in fact, Dharmastric texts frequently cite purification as the purpose of
penance.6 Hence, one can reasonably account for the link between sin
3Etymologically, a ptaka is something that causes one to fall. The terms mahptaka
and upaptaka mean great ptaka and lesser ptaka respectively.
4Gautama Dharmastra 21.46: dvijtikarmabhyo hni patanam | paratra csiddhi |
tam eke narakam |
5For a detailed discussion of traditional Brahmanical notions of purity/impurity, see
Kane, History of Dharmastra, vol. 4, 267333.
6See, for instance, Yjavalkya Smti 3.20ab:
Therefore, he (= a sinner) should perform a penance in this world in order to purify
himself.
tasmt teneha kartavya pryacitta viuddhaye |
12
david brick
and excommunication within Dharmastra as a result of the Brahmanical preoccupation with purity.
Considering the strong negative social and soteriological effects of sin,
it is unsurprising that Dharmastra defines a penance (pryacitta) as
a rite with the specific power to counteract these effects. For example,
Mdhava (c. 134060), a commentator on the Parara Smti (c. 500700),
writes:
The power of sin is twofold: there is the power to bring about hell and the
power to prohibit association. Hence, the power of penance, which negates
that (= sin), is also divided in two: there is the power to ward off hell and
the power to engender association.7
The author of this passage is clearly familiar with the Mitkars earlier
statement that sin possesses two powers and, indeed, repeats it nearly verbatim. From this, he explicitly draws the conclusion, implicitly accepted
in all Dharmastric commentaries, that since a penance is an act that
negates a sin, it must have two potential powers, one to counteract each
of sins effects. Therefore, a penance must be able to (A) preclude negative
otherworldly results and (B) restore caste-status.
Although there is nothing unexpected in this description of penance, it
is perhaps surprising that in certain circumstances, penances are able to
negate only one of sins effects, not both. In other words, Dharmastric
texts specify conditions under which a penance can negate the loss of
caste generated by a sin, but not the negative rebirths and vice versa. The
medieval literature discusses this most explicitly in the exegesis surrounding Yjavalkya Smti 3.226:
pryacittair apaity eno yad ajnakta bhavet |
kmato []vyavahryas tu vacand iha jyate ||
The first line of this verse is fairly unambiguous and can be reasonably
translated as:
Sins that are done unintentionally depart through penances.
Thus, by all accounts, it denotes that penances thoroughly expiate sins

that a person unwittingly commits. The second line, however, contains
a crucial ambiguity, for Sanskrit grammar allows one to analyze the
7Parara-Mdhava 8.1: dvividh hi ppasya akti narakotpdik vyavahravirodhik

ceti | atas tannivartakasya pryacittasypi aktir dvidh bhidyate narakanivrik
vyavahrajanan ceti |
13
words kmato []vyavahryas as either kmata vyavahrya or kmata

avyavahrya. Readers with a moderate proficiency in the language will
immediately recognize the implication of this. A person can justifiably
translate the line in one of two diametrically opposed ways, either as:
However, if a person sins intentionally, he just becomes fit for association in
this world on account of scripture.
Or as:
However, if a person sins intentionally, he is still unfit for association in this
world on account of scripture.
Consequently, the verse can mean either that (A) penances negate all the
effects of unintentional sins, but just the worldly effects of intentional sins
or (B) penances negate all the effects of unintentional sins, but just the
otherworldly effects of intentional sins. In other words, it allows for two
radically contradictory interpretations. Vijnevara, the author of the
Mitkar, makes no explicit acknowledgement of this fact. Instead, he
simply adopts the interpretation that penances expiate just the worldly
effects of intentional sins.8 Mdhava, by contrast, cites both interpretations and, rather than deciding between them, concludes that penances
for various sins causing loss of caste can negate either their worldly or
their otherworldly effects.9 All exegetes agree, however, not only that sin
has distinct social and soteriological effects, but also that these effects,
in an important sense, exist independently of one another, for penance
has, under certain conditions, the power to negate one of them without
affecting the other. Hence, the Dharmastric theory of sin and penance
assumes a rather stark separation between worldly and otherworldly concerns, while simultaneously addressing both.
8It is unclear why Vijnevara takes this position. One plausible reason is his view of
penances ending in death (marantikapryacitta), of which the Smtis prescribe a number for especially severe sins (e.g., Yjavalkya Smti 3.24748). According to him, these
lethal penances have the unique ability to expiate the otherworldly effects of very serious
intentional sins (see Mitkar 3.226). Thus, if all penances negate merely the otherworldly
effects of intentional sins, these lethal penances would have no advantage over non-lethal
penances and, therefore, be unacceptably pointless.
9Parara-Mdhava 8.1: Thus, this is the established position: Penances for intentional mahptakas and upaptakas are, indeed, either for the purpose of worldly association or for the purpose of the next world. tad evam aihikavyavahrya paralokya v
kmaktn mahptaknm upaptakn csty eva pryacittam iti siddham|
14
david brick
To this position, universally held within the Dharmastra tradition,

that penance can separately destroy the social and soteriological effects of
sin, Mdhava raises the hypothetical and humorously worded objection:
If this is so, then penance would expel one power of sin, but not the other.
The result would be like a woman that is old in only half her body, for
nowhere is it ever seen that part of a chicken gets cooked, while another
part still lays eggs!10
He then refutes this objection as follows:

This is not valid, for on account of scripture even a woman that is old in
only half her body must be accepted, because there is the maxim: What
cant scripture do? No burden is too great for scripture. Otherwise, via what
example, would some self-styled logician construe the power of sin and the
power of penance?11
Its amusing qualities aside, this refutation gives a good indication of the
reverent view of scripture within medieval Dharmastra. Even more
importantly, it also illustrates the indispensable role that scripture plays
in determining genuinely efficacious sins and penances, for the tradition
holds that however clever a man may be, he cannot ascertain these merely
through logical enquiry, but must ultimately rely upon the statements of
scripture.
Significantly, the fact that sin produces both social and soteriological results has a clearly discernible effect on the forms of penance that
Dharmastric texts prescribe. At the most basic level, this effect is evident
in the distinction made between prakapryacitta (public penances)
and rahasyapryacitta (secret penances). This fundamental differentiation between public and secret penances neatly divides all acts of ritual
repentance within Dharmastra into two underlying types. Indeed, the
topical shift from public to secret penances within Yjavalkya is deemed
important enough by Vijnevara that he introduces it with a verse that
he has specially composed and that stands out markedly from his usual
10Parara-Mdhava 8.1: nanv eva sati pryacitta ppasya kcic chaktim apanudati kcin nety ardhajaratya prasajyeta | na hi kukkuy eko bhga pacyate aparo
bhga prasavya kalpate iti kvacid dam |
11Parara-Mdhava 8.1: na | vacand ardhajaratyasypy agkryatvt | ki hi
vacana na kuryn nsti vacanasytibhra iti nyyt | anyath yauktikamanya
ppaakti pryacittaakti ca kena dntena samarthayta | It is noteworthy that a
distinguishing feature of the syllogism within the classical Indian school of logic (nyya) is
the insistence on confirming examples (dnta) (see Matilal, Epistemology, 9599).
15
prose.12 Despite the importance of this distinction, however, it is not

the case that these two types of penance are given equal weight within
Dharmastra, for Dharmastric texts unambiguously treat public penance as the norm and secret penance as the exception. Thus, for example,
Yjavalkya spends just twelve verses (3.30011) laying down the rules for
secret penances after previously spending fifty-eight verses (3.243300)
discussing the rules for public penances.
The commentaries of the medieval period describe the essential differences between these two underlying sorts of penance in rather precise
terms. As is often the case, the Mitkar is especially eloquent in this
regard. It explains a secret penance as follows:
A man whose sin is unknown to persons other than the perpetrators of the
act should carry out a secret, i.e., non-public, penance. Hence, one should
understand, for instance, that because in cases of illicit sex, the woman is
also a perpetrator, a man whose sin is unknown to anyone other than her
should perform a secret penance. In such an event, if the perpetrator is himself learned in Dharmastra, he should undertake the penance appropriate for what occasioned it (i.e., the sin) without informing anyone else. If,
however, he is personally ignorant of the subject, he should carry out the
correct secret penance after learning it through some pretext or other, such
as saying that somebody has secretly killed a Brahmin and asking what is
the secret penance for that.13
Thus, a secret penance is a penance that one secretly performs in order

to atone for a sin that no one elseor at least no one else uninvolved
knows about. If a person is learned enough to already know the scripturally prescribed penance for his sin, he should simply proceed to perform
it. If, however, he does not know the penance prescribed in scripture, he
should find it out from someone who does, but in doing sothe Mitkar
stipulateshe must take special care not to inform anyone else of his
guilt. In other words, he must inquire under some pretext.
12Mitkar 3.300:
Having just explained the many ritual observances that destroy known sins, the sage
(= Yjavalkya) now proclaiming those that remove all sins done in secret...
vykhya khytaduritatan vratasatatim |
rahaktghasadohahri vyharan muni ||
13Mitkar 3.300cd: kartvyatiriktair anabhikhyto doo yasysau rahasyam apraka
pryacittam anutihet | ata strsabhogdau tasy api krakatvt taditarair avijtadoasya
rahasyavratam iti mantavyam | tatra yadi kart svaya dharmastrakualas tad parasminn
avibhvya svanimittocita pryacittam anutihet | yas tu svayam anabhijo sau kenacid
raho brahmahatydika kta tatra ki rahasyapryacittam ity anyavyjenvagamya
rahovratam anutihet |
16
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A public penance, by contrast, is a penance that one publicly performs

to atone for a sin that is publicly known. The Mitkar explains penances
of this sort as follows:
A man whose sin is apprehended, i.e., known, by people other than those
necessary to commit the sin should perform the penance instructed by an
assembly of learned Brahmins (parad). Even if he is personally adept at
ascertaining the meaning of all the scriptures, he must approach such an
assembly, ascertain together with it the correct penance, and perform only
what it has approved.14
Hence, public penances directly contrast with those of the secret variety in that even if a person knows the scripturally enjoined penance for
his sin, he is not permitted to go ahead and perform it. Instead, he must
approach a parad,15 which is a specially constituted assembly of learned
Brahmins, and have it assign him the appropriate penance.
From this description, it is clear that rahasyapryacittas (secret penances) must be understood to negate exclusively the soteriological effects
of sin and have no connection whatsoever with excommunication from
caste, which is the primary social effect of sin, for they are prescribed
explicitly for the atonement of sins of which only the sinners are aware.
It is, moreover, expressly enjoined that in the case of such secret sins, sinners must take special care not to inform anyone else of their guilt; and,
in fact, the penances prescribed for these sins are generally short enough
in duration and mild enough in character that one couldconceivably at
leasthave performed them without attracting anyone elses suspicion.
For instance, Yjavalkya prescribes the following secret penance for the
unintentional killing of a Brahmin, the paradigmatic Dharmastric sin:
If he fasts for three nights, chants the Aghamaraa hymn (gveda 10.190)
while submerged in water, and gives away a milk-cow, a Brahmin-killer is
purified.16
14Mitkar 3.300ab: yo doo yvatkartsapdyas tato nyair vikhyto vijto doo

yasysau paradupadia vrata kuryt | yady api svaya sakalastrrthavicracaturas
tathpi paratsampam upagamya tay saha vicrya tadanumatam eva kuryt |
15It is noteworthy that certain texts prefer to use the word pariad instead of its shortened form parad. Throughout this paper, however, in order to avoid the unnecessary
proliferation of Sanskrit terms, I will consistently refer to an assembly of learned Brahmins
as a parad.
16Yjavalkya Smti 3.301:
trirtropoito japtv brahmah tv aghamaraam |
antarjale viudhyeta dattv g ca payasvinm ||
17
On the topic of such penances, Vivarpa (c. 8001000), an early commentator on Yjavalkya, specifically adds that one should perform a secret
rite under the pretense of a pious act or the like so that even bystanders
do not recognize it.17 Hence, the public awareness upon which all societal
excommunication must depend is decidedly absent in the case of secret
penances. These penances must, therefore, be intended merely to negate
the negative otherworldly results of sin, if they are to make any sense
at all.
Beyond this, it is striking how lenient secret penances tend to appear
when compared with the public penances enjoined for the same sins.
For example, as the standard public penance for unintentionally killing a Brahmin, Yjavalkya prescribes the following twelve-year rite
(dvdaavrikavrata):
If he carries a skull, bears one as his banner, consumes only almsfood that
he begs while announcing his deed, and eats sparingly for twelve years, a
Brahmin-killer attains purification.18
When compared with the previously cited secret penance for this sin, it
becomes clear that Yjavalkya regards the cosmos as much less demanding
of sinners than their fellow caste-members. And in this regard, he appears
to be highly representative of the Dharmastra tradition in general.
Seeming to recognize that the comparative mildness of secret penances might be troubling to some within the Brahmanical community,
Vivarpa writes:
And one should not object to this by asking why the penances for those
whose sins are not publically known should be so mild, for scripture should
never be called into question. Moreover, since a man who performs them
must be learned, he cannot be generally associated with sin; and, thus,
Yjavalkya himself will state later on that (sins do not touch) a man who
delights in reciting the Veda, is forbearing... (3.310). And because they are
undertaken essentially to purify oneself, the mildness of such penances is,
indeed, proper.19
17Vivarpa 3.296: rahasya vrata prvasthair apy avidita dharmavyjdin

kartavyam |
18Yjavalkya Smti 3.243:
irakapl dhvajavn bhik karma vedayan |
brahmah dvdabdni mitabhuk uddhim pnuyt ||
19Vivarpa 3.296: na ctraitac codya kim ity anviktainasm alpa pryacittam
iti | ammsyatvc chstrasya | vidvattayaiva ca tasyainas sabandhbhvt | tath ca
vedbhysarata kntam ity di vakyaty eva | tmauddhipradhnatvc ca pravtter yuktam eva pryacittlpatvam |
18
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Here Vivarpa proposes three reasons that secret penances should be

so relatively mild. Firstly, he points out that this is the view of scripture
and, as such, requires no further supporta position that we have already
seen articulated in a different context by Mdhava. Secondly, unlike
Vijnevara, Vivarpa does not allow those ignorant of the scriptures to
learn the appropriate secret penances for their sins via pretext.20 Consequently, he argues that since a person must be quite learned to perform a
secret penance, he cannot be generally associated with sinful behavior and
can, therefore, reasonably be expected to perform a lighter penance than
an ordinary person. Finallyand most revealinglyVivarpa states that
the purpose of undertaking a secret penance, unlike a public penance, is
simply to purify oneself and not also to regain caste-status. Therefore, it is
properhe arguesthat such penances should be rather mild. Here we
find both strong support for the thesis that secret penances are intended
to negate merely the soteriological effects of sin and an explicit recognition that their mild character is a reflection of this.
Another particularly interesting point that logically follows from the
Dharmastric treatment of secret penances is that a person who had
committed a sin that, if publicly known, would result in loss of caste
was under no obligation to bring about his own excommunication. To
the contrary, he was encouraged not to do so by keeping silent if circumstances allowed. From this, one can draw two important conclusions.
Firstly, despite the fact that public penances require sinners to publicly
announce their crimes, medieval Dharmastra lacks a strong belief in
the redemptive power of confession per se. Secondly, a persons becoming
an outcaste was not an inherent result of any sin in and of itself. Instead,
excommunication was simply a reaction that scripture required of people
if they became aware that a member of their own caste had committed
20Instead, Vivarpa (3.296) explains the proper secret penances for such individuals
as follows:
For the uneducated and the non-twice-born (i.e., non-high-caste) whose sins are
unknown, the subsequent verse of Manu (11.228) himself begins the topic:
A sinner is freed from his sin by announcing it, through remorse, through austerities, by reciting the Veda, and, during a calamity, by giving a gift.
avidum advijtn cnviktainasm apy uparitana lokrambho mnava
eva
khypanennutpena tapasdhyayanena ca |
ppakn mucyate ppt tath dnena cpadi || iti |
19
certain infractions. This again illustrates how separable the two powers of
sin theorized in Dharmastra are.
Now, let us turn to prakapryacittas (public penances). Clearly,
what distinguishes these from rahasyapryacittas or secret penances is
their power to negate the social effects of sin, for they are explicitly prescribed for the expiation of sins that are publicly known. This is not to
deny that these penances can also negate sins otherworldly effects, only
to maintain that their primary distinctive feature is the ability to nullify
the negative social consequences of sin; and most importantly, this means
the ability to bring about readmission to caste. In fact, when viewed from
this perspective, the special ceremony whereby all public penances are
issued appears to have been specifically designed to convince members
of the sinners caste that when correctly performed, the issued penance
will truly result in his purification. Moreover, the special ceremony that
concludes all such penances appears to be for the specific purpose of convincing the sinners fellow caste-members that he is now truly purified
and, thus, safe for social interaction. In other words, the rituals marking
the beginning and end of all public penances seem intended to generate
social consensus on two points: firstly, that a particular rite is the appropriate means for a sinner to expiate his sin and, secondly, that the sinner
has successfully performed the rite.
The special ceremony with which public penances necessarily begin
has already been alluded to in the Mitkars statement:
Even if the sinner is personally adept at ascertaining the meaning of all the
scriptures, he must approach an assembly of learned Brahmins (parad),
ascertain together with it the correct penance, and perform only what it
has approved.21
Hence, as this statement indicates, a person guilty of a publically known

sin must have his penance formally issued by a parad, that is, a special assembly of learned Brahmins; and it is crucial to note that this rule
applies even to a person who already knows the scripturally enjoined penance for his sin. Only by recognizing that public penances aim principally
to bring an end to social opprobrium can one understand the reason for
21Mitkar 3.300ab: yady api svaya sakalastrrthavicracaturas tathpi
paratsampam upagamya tay saha vicrya tadanumatam eva kuryt | Note that I have
slightly changed my translation of this passage from that given earlier simply to make it
more readable in this present context.
20
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this strict requirement: An individual performing a penance on his own

however knowledgeablymay well be unable to convince many of his
fellow caste-members that he has truly and successfully expiated his sin.
A properly constituted parad, however, is much more likely to have success in this regard. In other words, if an assembly of well-known, revered,
and erudite Brahmins proclaims that a particular penance will expiate
the sins of a particular sinner and that sinner dutifully performs that penance, members of a caste are likely to agree that the sinner has, indeed,
expiated his sins. And social consensus of this sort is absolutely essential if a sinner is to recover his former caste-status. This point becomes
especially vital when one notes that Dharmastric texts consistently list
association with an outcaste as one of the five mahptakas, the greatest of all Brahmanical categories of sin.22 Therefore, readmission to caste
without overwhelming consensus or partial readmission to caste creates
the strong risk, according to the Dharmastric worldview, that a community will become deeply divided.
Considering a parads responsibility to issue authoritative religious
judgments likely to garner widespread approval, it is unsurprising that the
precise and legitimate makeup of a parad is a subject of much discussion
within Dharmastra. In order to establish this, the medieval commentaries cite a number of passages from a variety of Smtis, which for most part
differ from one another only in minor details. Of these texts, the following
passage from the Smti of Agiras23 gives probably the fullest description
of a parad:
Knowers of the four Vedas, a deliberator (vikalpin), a master of the ancillary sciences, a scholar of Dharmastra, and inhabitants of the three elder
life-stagesthese constitute a parad with a minimum of ten members.
Tradition states that knowers of the four Vedas are exemplary Brahmins
who have mastered the four Vedas in their proper order even without their
ancillary sciences. A deliberator is a Brahmin who knows the established
authorities pertaining to three things: the law (dharma), learned assemblies
(parad), and the system of penances. A master of the ancillary sciences
is a man well-educated in grammar, prosody, the study of ritual, pronunciation, astrology, and etymology. A scholar of Dharmastra is said to be
22See, for instance, Mnava Dharmastra 11.55 and Yjavalkya Smti 3.227.
23An independent Agiras Smti no longer exists, but medieval commentaries and
digests contain numerous citations from a work or works ascribed to the mythological
sage Agiras.
21
a man who has graduated after completing his vow to learn the Vedas, is
true to his word, has conquered his sense-organs, and knows numerous
Dharmastras. Members of the three elder life-stages are members of the
life-stages following studentship (i.e., a householder, forest-dweller, and
world-renouncer). These people should state for a person the laws (dharma)
that I (= Agiras) have proclaimed.24
Thus, according to this Smti and the medieval commentators, a parad

was ideally supposed to comprise at least ten members, which together
represented something close to the entirety of Brahmanical orthodoxy.
Dharmastric texts universally assume that all members had to be male
Brahmins and seldom bother to make the point explicitly.25 Instead, as in
the above passage, they focus primarily on the particular kinds of knowledge that these male Brahmins should possess. Broadly speaking, this
knowledge is of two kinds. On the one hand is knowledge of the oldest
and most sacred texts of Brahmanical Hinduism, i.e., the Vedas and their
ancillary scholastic treatises, which would have been of little direct relevance to the issuing of penances, but absolutely essential to any serious
claim of religious authority. On the other hand is knowledge of a more
practical kind, including specifically knowledge of Dharmastra and the
procedural rules of a Brahmin assembly. Thus, given its multiple and
diverse members and their combined expertise in all of the pertinent
24Madana-Prijta 776:
c[]turvidya kalpanyam agavid dharmaphaka |
traya cramio vddh parad e davar ||
caturm api vedn prag ye dvijottam |
yathkrama vinpy agai cturvidyam iti smta ||
dharmasya parada caiva pryacittakramasya tu |
tray ya pramaja sa vikalp bhaved dvija ||
abde chandasi kalpe ca iky ca sunicita |
jyotim ayane caiva saniruktgavid bhavet ||
vedavidyvratasnta satyasadho jitendriya |
anekadharmastraja procyate dharmaphaka ||
brahmacaryramd rdhva vddh ramias traya |
vadeyus tasya te dharmn ye may parikrtit ||
For similar passages, see Mnava Dharmastra 12.111 (cited at Mitkar 3.300ab and
Madana-Prijta 774) and Parara Smrti 8.27.
25An exception to this is the following verse cited in the Madana-Prijta (772):
The wise know that neither a Katriya nor a Vaiya nor a dra should in any way
enjoin a penance.
katriyo hy atha vaiyo v dro vai na kathacana |
pryacittavidhna hi kurvteti vidur budh ||
22
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fields, a paradat least an ideal onewould seem to have been capable of issuing judgments on matters of religious practice that a person in
medieval India would have been hard-pressed to repudiate.
At the same time, however, it does not appear that a parad of at least
some legitimate variety would have been especially difficult to actually
convene, for commentaries quote a number of Smtis that permit four,
three, or even one properly learned Brahmin to comprise a parad.26 After
citing these scriptures, the Mitkar argues that the choice between the
larger and smaller types of parad should depend upon both the practical availability of Brahmins of the prescribed sorts and the seriousness of
the sin for which the parad is convened.27 Specifically, it concludes that
larger parads are necessary for more grievous sins. Therefore, in laying
down rules for the constitution of a parad, Dharmastric works seem to
stress the need for authoritativeness, while also accommodating practical
concerns in less than ideal circumstances. And this reinforces the view
that the unique purpose of a parad was to produce actual social consensus with regard to the expiation of sin.
In this same vein, Vijnevara adds that the king is likewise supposed
to be involved in issuing penances for major sins; and as support for this
position, he cites the following verse of the Devala Smti:28
Brahmins should by themselves pronounce the expiations for minor sins,
but the king and Brahmins should, after careful examination, pronounce the
expiations for major ones.29
Although the precise nature of the kings role in the system of public penances is left unclear in the Mitkar, it is possible to glean important
details of this from other Dharmastric texts. For example, the following
26See, for instance, Mnava Dharmastra 12.11213 (cited at Mitkar 3.300ab),

Yjavalkya Smti 1.9 (cited at Madana-Prijta 773), and Parara Smti 8.7, 1114.
27Mitkar 3.300ab: And the choice between these parads should depend upon
either their feasibility or whether the sin is a mahptaka, etc. s ca parad
sabhavpekay vyavasth mahptakdyapekay v |
28An independent Devala Smti is no longer extant. Medieval exegetes, however, cite
numerous passages from a work or works ascribed to Devala.
29Mitkar 3.300ab:
svaya tu brhma bryur alpadoeu niktim |
rj ca brhma caiva mahatsu ca parkitam ||
Parara Smti 8.28 expresses a similar notion; and in his commentary on it, Mdhava cites
a number of other verses with essentially the same meaning.
23
verse, which is also ascribed to Devala, specifies the roles that different
persons are to play in such penances:
The king causes the penance to be given; the scholar of Dharmastra
instructs it; the sinner performs it; and the protector guards the penance.30
Commenting on this verse, the Madana-Prijta, a fourteenth-century

digest of Smti citations, explains that the protector (rakit) referred
to is a servant of the king who guards the penance by seeing whether
or not it is done.31 This indicates that through his servants, the king was
supposed to oversee the performance of penances and act as a guarantor
of their genuine completion.
Clearly, however, this was not the kings only role in public penances,
for the texts also state that together with the parad, he should play a part
in issuing such penances for major sins. The following passage from the
Parara Smti sheds considerable light on how Dharmastric authors
may have envisioned this to work:
A parad should issue a penance after waiting upon the kings approval
and not issue one on its own, although it can issue expiations for very
minor sins. And if, overstepping those Brahmins, the king wishes to issue
a penance on his own, the sin becomes a hundredfold and hounds the
king.32
Summarizing the contents of this passage, Mdhava writes, The author

says this, understanding that just as the parad should not overstep the
king, so the king too should not overstep the parad.33 That is, Mdhava
envisions the relationship between the king and parad to be complimentary. Specifically, in apparent agreement with the above citation from the
Parara Smti, he believes that the parad should be solely responsible
for determining penances, but that the kings approval is required before
they can be issued.
30Madana-Prijta 777:
kcchr dpako rj nirde dharmaphaka |
apardh prayokt ca rakit kcchraplaka ||
31Madana-Prijta 777: rakit rjapurua ktktvekaena pryacittaplaka |
32Parara Smti 8.2829:
rja cnumate sthitv pryacitta vinirdiet |
svayam eva na kartavya kartavy svalpanikti ||
brhmas tn atikramya rj kartu yad icchati |
tat ppa atadh bhtv rjnam anugacchati ||
33Parara-Mdhava 8.28: yath pariad rjna ntikramet tath rjpi pariada
ntikramed ity ha |
24
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Having established the proper constitution of a parad, the medieval

commentaries divide the procedure through which such an assembly
publically issues penances into two formal parts. The first of these is
called approaching the assembly (paradupasthna/paradupasatti); the
second is referred to in various texts either as the determination of the
penance (pryacittaniraya) or as instructing the rite (vratdeana).
The major scriptural source for both parts of this procedure is the Smti of
Agiras.34 According to this frequently cited text, a person who is known
to have committed a sin or known to have done something suspected
to be sin should perform a series of preliminary acts quite typical of
Brahmanical rites in general. Specifically, he should fast, bathe, don wet
clothes, silently approach the assembly, and immediately fall prostrate
before its member. Other Smtis and numerous commentaries add to this
that the sinner or suspected sinner must also present to the assembly a
suitable gift, technically referred to as a daki, which is again a standard
component of Brahmanical rites.35 Hence, based upon these features, the
act of approaching the assembly (paradupasthna) seems intended to
imbue the proceedings with an air of sacrality.
At this point, after the sinners approach, the more strictly legalistic or
juridical activities of the parad begin. According to Agiras, the members
of the assembly should respond to the person who has approached them
by asking what sin or suspected sin he has done; and he should, in turn,
answer them truthfully, leaving nothing out lest his sin increase.36 The
parad is then supposed to dismiss the sinner or possible sinner to discuss his case in private. In the event of an unambiguous sin, its members
must simply determine the correct penance, which is, of course, the penance prescribed for the offense in the Smtis. In the event of a possible
34For citations of the relevant passages of this text, see Mitkar 3.300ab, PararaMdhava 8.2, 30, and Madana-Prijta 77580.
35The texts typically allow the size of this daki to vary, sometimes explicitly based
upon the financial capabilities of the sinner or the severity of his sin. See, e.g., MadanaPrijta 776 and Mitkar 3.300ab.
36Parara-Mdhava 8.2:
One who commits a sin should not hide it, for when hidden, it grows. Whether it is
small or large, one should announce it to those who know dharma.
ktv ppa na gheta ghyamna vivardhate |
svalpa vtha prabhta v dharmavidbhyo nivedayet ||
The Madana-Prijta (775) also cites this verse in a somewhat different form. As an aside,
it is crucial to note that commentators clearly cite this verse within the context of public
penances and, thus, do not interpret it to mean that one should not conceal secret sins.
Instead, it must be taken to indicate that when confessing their publically known sins to
a parad, sinners must be scrupulously honest.
25
sin, they must also first determine whether or not a sin has actually been
committed.
Beyond this, when properly approached by a petitioner, a parad is
under three specific obligations that reveal much about the character of
the system of public penances. The first of these obligations is that it cannot refuse to issue a penance for a sin if it knows of one.37 The second is
that to the greatest extent possible, it must avoid issuing especially harsh
penances.38 These obligations suggest that a parad was notat least in
theorysimply a committee of staunchly orthodox Brahmins responsible for the vigilant guardianship of their communitys purity. To the contrary, they make a parad appear more like a benign institution charged
with curbing excessively puritanical tendencies within Brahmanical society, tendencies that may have led simultaneously to a zeal for excommunication and a reticence to readmit even repentant sinners to good
society. And this benevolent character of parads may well explain why
Dharmastric texts sometimes refer to the process of issuing a penance
as doing a favor (anugraha kuryt).39 The third and final obligation of a
parad is that when formally issuing a penance, it is required to publically
quote the actual scriptural passage that justifies its decision. One grounds
for this requirement is the following oft-cited Smti:
They should first cite the words corresponding to the case as they were spoken by the authors of the Dharmastras and, afterwards, do a favor (i.e.,
issue a penance) to the best of their ability, for due to their knowledge, wise
men will be unable to ignore the words of those great men (i.e., the authors
of the Dharmastras) and say anything contrary.40
37Mitkar 3.300ab, Madana-Prijta 779, Parara-Mdhava 8.30:
When Brahmins who know the correct penances refuse to give them to tormented
solicitors, they become the same as them.
rtn mrgamn pryacittni ye dvij |
jnanto na prayacchanti te ynti samat tu tai ||
Taking into account concerns of age, time, and mortality in the case of a Brahmin,
Brahmin scholars of Dharmastra should issue a penance through which the sinner
will attain purification and neither be robbed of life nor experience great torment,
for one should never instruct rites of that sort.
yathvayo yathkla yathpra ca brhmae |
pryacitta pradtavya brhmaair dharmaphakai ||
yena uddhim avpnoti na ca prair viyujyate |
rti v mahat yti na caitad vratam diet ||
39See, e.g., note 40.
vaca prvam udhrya yathokta dharmakartbhi |
pact krynusrea akty kuryur anugraha ||
26
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This obligation to quote explicit scriptural support seems to be yet another

means of ensuring confidence in the judgments of a parad. Indeed, the
above passage appears to make exactly this point. It, therefore, provides
further evidence that the primary purpose of such an assembly was to
create social consensus with respect to the expiation of sin.
Once the parad has unanimously agreed upon the appropriate penance, one of its members is supposed to inform the sinner of the assemblys decision and instruct him in the penances details. These details vary
greatly from penance to penance and are, thus, too heterogeneous to discuss here. According to the Madana-Prijta, the sinner should receive
the rite in the evening on the day before he undertakes it.41 And it is
generally mandatory that he have his head shaved beforehand.42
This brings us to the completion of the public penance. As I have already
mentioned, this occasion is marked by a special ceremony that seems specifically designed to convince the sinners fellow caste-members that he is
now truly purified of sin and, therefore, safe for social and ritual interaction. Hence, it is fitting and should come as no surprise that this concluding ceremony is called the publicizing of purity (uddhiprakana). The
Parara Smti, which discusses public penances as a tangent to the issue
of cow-killing, describes the ceremony as follows:
na hi tem atikramya vacanni mahtmanm |

prajnair api vidvadbhi akyam anyat prabhitum ||
The Madana-Prijta (778) also cites the first of these verses in a slightly varied form.
41Madana-Prijta 781: vratagrahaa vratnuhnadivast prvadine syhne
kryam |
42The Madana-Prijta (78283), however, allows this exception:
Hrta states the following for those who do not want to shave their heads:
A king, prince, or learned Brahmin should perform a penance after shaving his
hair, but in order to preserve his hair, he may perform twice the penance instead;
and when twice the penance is done, there should be twice the daki.
...And this giving of twice the daki is for those who do not want to shave their
heads in cases of sins other than mahptakas, etc. (i.e., in cases of minor sins).
yas tu vapana necchati ta prati hrta
rj v rjaputro v brhmao v bahuruta |
ken vapana ktv pryacitta samcaret ||
ken rakartha tu dvigua vratam caret |
dvigue vrata cre daki dvigu bhavet ||
...etac ca dviguadakidna mahptakdivyatiriktasthale vapanniccho |
27
Thereafter, when the penance is done, he should feed Brahmins and give
them a daki (sacrificial gift). A Brahmin should then chant purifying
mantras. Having thus fed Brahmins, a cow-killer is undoubtedly purified.43
As the above passage indicates, the central component of this ceremony

is the feeding of Brahmins (brhmaabhojana). Apparently assuming the
cow-killer in this passage to be a Brahmin, Mdhava specifies that he
should feed all the Brahmins who are related to him in order to announce
his own purity.44 Given the strict dietary rules and limits placed on commensality that characterize Brahmanical culture,45 the purpose of this
meal seems obvious: If a man can get Brahmins and his kinsmen to eat
his food, it will be hard to deny his purity and caste-status, for to do so
would be to impugn all those whom he has fed. That is to say, there can
be no greater testimony of a persons purity than Brahmins acquiescence
to eating his food. Thus, the feeding of Brahmins constitutes an extremely
fitting conclusion to a public penance.
We are now in a position to venture some broader characterizations of
how the theory of sin and penance expounded in medieval Dharmastra
incorporates worldly and otherworldly concerns. To this end, I believe it
is useful to adopt a model of Hindu law that envisions the enforcement
of normative rules as taking place at roughly three levels.46 The highest
of these levels comprises the royal state-run courts of pre-modern India,
which Dharmastra literature discusses voluminously, if only theoretically, under the topic of vyavahra (judicial administration). The lowest
level is the individual person who believes in the standards of behavior
dictated by both Dharmastra texts and compatible local custom and, as
a result, strives on his own to live up to such standards. Between these two
levels is a diverse array of more or less organized corporate groups, including villages, castes, merchant guilds, monastic orders, and the like, which
each possess their own binding laws and means of enforcement. These
43Parara Smti 8.4142:
pryacitte tata cre kuryd brhmaabhojanam |
vipr daki dadyt pavitri japed dvija ||
brhman bhojayitv tu goghna uddho na saaya ||
44Parara-Mdhava 8.42: svakyaviuddhikhypanrtha svabandhn aen brhman
bhojayet |
45For an excellent discussion of Brahmanical dietary rules in pre-modern India, see
Olivelle, Abhakya and Abhojya.
46My conception of these three levels of Hindu law is adopted with considerable modifications from Davis analysis of what he terms intermediate-level corporate groups (see
Davis, Intermediate Realms).
28
david brick
groups are obviously larger than the individual persons that together
would have comprised them, but smaller and more local than the royal
states in which they would have existed. Dharmastra texts treat the laws
of these groups primarily under the title of litigation known either as the
non-observance of conventions (samaynapkarman) or as the violation
of contracts (savidvyatikrama).47
It seems to me that one can illuminatingly situate numerous important
aspects of the Dharmastric treatment of sin and penance within this
three-tiered framework. In particular, sin and penance seem to occupy
the two lowest levels, i.e., those of the individual and of the medium-sized
corporate group. The royal courts comprising the highest level primarily concern themselves with imposing punishments (daa) upon those
found guilty of crimes, by which term I refer to the worldly offenses
that fall within the standard eighteen titles of litigation (adaa
vyavahrapada). Such courts play at most a marginal role in issuing penances (pryacitta) for sins (ppa), although the Mnava Dharmastra
(9.23642) does charge a king with the responsibility to collect fines from
persons guilty of grievous sins and to inflict even harsher punishments
upon unrepentant grievous sinners. Moreover, certain Smtis appear to
ascribe salvific qualities to royally imposed punishments,48 thus arguably
blurring the conceptual distinction between penance and punishment
within Dharmastra.49 Nevertheless, the emic distinction between penance (pryacitta) and punishment (daa) remains extremely wellintact throughout Dharmastra literature, especially in the medieval
period, where they are treated in clearly differentiated sections employing
markedly different technical vocabulary.
As I have shown, the sections of the medieval commentaries devoted to
penance universally place the obligation to determine the correct penance
for a secret sin upon the individual sinner, who must perform the penance
in order to avoid undesirable otherworldly consequences. Furthermore,
these sections invariably place the onus of issuing a penance for a publically known sin upon a parad or assembly of learned Brahmins. In such
cases, a combination of worldly and otherworldly factors (i.e., the threat
47See Davis, Intermediate Realms, 9495.
48The most frequently quoted of these is Mnava Dharmastra 8.31418.
49The dominant view amongst scholars has long been that the distinction between
penance and punishment within Dharmastra is rather hazy (see, e.g., Hopkins, Priestly
Penance). Lubin, Punishment and Expiation, however, has recently put forth a compelling argument against this view.
29
of loss of caste and negative rebirths sometimes supplemented by royal

punishment) motivates a sinner to perform the issued penance, which
is, nonetheless, theoretically voluntary. From this it should be clear that
secret sins and penances operate at the level of the individual believer. It
should also be apparent that public sins and penances operate principally
at the level of caste, which is a kind of corporate group, for they characteristically entail and negate outcasting. To be more precise, sins and
penances of the public variety pertain to communities or castes of what
in Sanskrit are called ias.50 This loaded cultural term denotes primarily educated, orthodox Brahmins, but may also include a small number
of elite non-Brahmins who adhere to the Brahmanical way of life prominently reflected in the Dharmastras.
Thus, the theory of sin and penance put forth in medieval Dharmastra
consists of two distinct forms of religious law. One of these is the moral
code of the Brahmanical Hindu community, which individual members
were supposed to internalize and voluntarily live by. The other is the
judicial system of this same community, in which a court in the form a
parad would issue punishments in the form of penances for infractions
against the communal law. Readers may already have noticed that this
system has two striking peculiarities. The first of these is the fact that it
provides no mechanism for the ascertainment of facts. Instead, the sinner
or suspected sinner is supposed to voluntarily speak the entire truth of his
deeds to the court/parad. The second is that the threat of social ostracism or outcasting, rather than physical coercion, constitutes the primary
means of enforcing penances. Hence, because Dharmastric theory can
maintain that penances are voluntary in nature, the texts are able to portray them not as unpleasant punishments, which in many respects they
are, but rather as kind favors (anugraha), rescuing one from sins undesirable social and soteriological effects.
50Clear evidence of this comes from Parara-Mdhava 8.1, which explains that the
kind of social interaction enabled by penances for intentional sins is social interaction
with ias: But if the sin was done intentionally, a man only becomes fit for social interaction with ias in this world; the sin resulting in hell for him does not depart through his
penances. kmatas tu kta cet sa pumn iair vyavahrya kevalam iha loke bhavati na
tu tasya narakpdakam ena pryacittair apaiti |
30
david brick
Bibliography
Davis, Donald R., Jr. Intermediate Realms of Law: Corporate Groups and Rulers in Medieval India. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 48, no. 1 (2005):
92117.
. The Spirit of Hindu Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Gampert, Wilhelm. Die Shnezeremonien in der altindischen Rechtsliteratur. Monografie
Archivu Orientlnho, vol. 6. Prague: Orientalisches Institut, 1939.
Gautama Dharmastra [in Dharmastras: The Law Codes of pastamba, Gautama,
Baudhyana, and Vasiha]. Edited and translated by Patrick Olivelle. Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass, 2000.
Hopkins, E. Washburn. Priestly Penance and Legal Penalty. Journal of the American Oriental Society 44 (1924): 24357.
Kane, Pandurang V. History of Dharmastra. 5 vols. Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research
Institute, 196275.
Lubin, Timothy. Punishment and Expiation: Overlapping Domains in Brahmanical Law.
Indologica Taurinensia 33 (2007): 93122.
Madanapla. Madana-Prijta. Edited by Madhusdana Smitiratna. Bibliotheca Indica,
n.s., vols. 641, 672, 686, 696, 705, 712, 757, 770, 796, 816, 828. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of
Bengal, 1893.
Mdhava. Parara-Mdhava (commentary on the Parara Smti). Edited by Chandraknta
Tarklankra. 3 vols. Bibliotheca Indica, n.s., vols. 487, 505, 529, 547, 567, 649, 678, 717,
720, 727, 759, 761, 766, 793, 814. Calcutta: Asiatic Society of Bengal, 189093.
Mnava Dharmastra. Edited and translated by Patrick Olivelle. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Matilal, Bimal K. Epistemology, Logic, and Grammar in Indian Philosophical Analysis. Edited
by Jonardon Ganeri. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Olivelle, Patrick. Abhakya and Abhojya: An Exploration in Dietary Language. Journal of
the American Oriental Society 122 (2002): 34554.
. Penance and Punishment: Marking the Body in Criminal Law and Social Ideology
of Ancient India. Journal of Hindu Studies 4, no. 1 (2011): 2341.
Vijnanevara. Mitkara (commentary on the Yjavalkya Smti). Edited by Nryaa
Rma crya. Delhi: Nag Publishers, 1985 [reprint].
Vivarpa. Blakr (commentary on the Yjavalkya Smti). Edited by T. Gaapati Sstr.
2 vols. Trivandrum Sanskrit Series, vols. 74, 81. Trivandrum: The Government of His
Highness the Maharajah of Travancore, 192224.
Sin and Expiation in Sikh Texts and Contexts:

from the Nnak Panth to the Khls
Denis Matringe
In India, the Sikhs are new comers on the long tormented religious scene
of the Panjab, as compared to the Hindus and the Muslims.1 Their Panth
(lit. way, an institutionalized order going back to an historical founder)
emerges in the early 16th century within the widely spread north Indian
Sant movement. Its charismatic spiritual leader is the saint-poet Nnak
(14691539), to whom the Sikhs trace the origin of their religion.2 The
Sants form the main component of the nirgu bhakti tradition of medieval Hinduism. They orient their loving devotion (bhakti) towards a God
beyond attributes (gua), invisible, unfathomable, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, creator, benevolent and clement, thus distinguishing
1For a fine and handy history of the Sikhs, see Jaswant Sigh Grewal, The Sikhs of the
Punjab (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
2On Nnak, see W.H. McLeod, Gur Nnak and the Sikh Religion (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1976). At the head of the Sikhs, Nnak was followed by nine successors, each of
them becoming Gur at the death of his predecessor. Here is their list: Gur Agad (1504
1552), Gur Amar Ds (14791574), Gur Rm Ds (15341581), Gur Arjan (15631606),
Gur Har Gobind (15951644), Gur Har Ri (16301661), Gur Har Krishan (16561664),
Gur Tegh Bahdur (16211675), and Gur Gobind (16661708).In the present chapter,
the transliteration used is based on that of the Indologists. It is strictly applied for quotations from the sources, for technical terms mentioned between brackets, and for the
books titles in the bibliography; but, in order to reflect the current pronunciation of the
words, for authors names, books titles and Indian words used within the text, the transliteration tilts towards transcription and does not include all the a(-) inherent to the
Gurumukh syllabic script used by the Sikhs, nor the final brief vowels marking the cases
of consonant names and adjectives in the language of the di Granth. For a description of
this language, based on the variety of literary old Hindi called Sant-bh, see Christopher
Shackle, South-Western Elements in the Language of the di Granth, Bulletin of the
School of Oriental and African Studies 40 no. 1 (1977): 3650; The South Western Style in
the Guru Granth Sahib, Journal of Sikh Studies 5 no. 1 (1978a): 6987; Approaches to the
Persian Loans in the di Granth, Bulletin of the School of Oriental Studies 41 no. 1 (1978b):
7396; The Sahaskrit Poetic Idiom in the di Granth, Bulletin of the School of Oriental
Studies 41 no. 2 (1978c): 297313; An Introduction to the Sacred Language of the Sikhs (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1984); and A Gur Nnak Glossary (New Delhi:
Heritage Publishers, 1995). For Indo-Persian names and words used in the text when not
taken from Sikh sources in Gurumukh, the Arabic letters are transliterated as in John T.
Platts, A Dictionary of Urd, Classical Hind and English (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1884).
32
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themselves from the advocates of sagu traditions who worship Dev,

iva, Viu, or an avatar of the latter as an embodied or anthropomorphic deity. The Sants also generally deny any soteriological value to caste.
Chanting Gods praises in congregation (sagati) as well as repeating His
name (japu) and remembering It (nma smaraa) are their only rituals.3
Nnak, whose religious activity began in the early 16th century, was
active when Bbur (14831530), the warlord who was to be the first
Mughal emperor, launched his initial raids across the Panjab (1505 to
1519) from what was then Khurasan, and then conquered northern India
(15251526).4 Like all his successors at the head of the Panth, Nnak was
from the Khatr caste, which is quite near the top of Panjabs urban hierarchy, while his disciples came from various strata of society.5 But very
soon, from the days of Gur Amar Ds, J peasants and landholders
(zamndrs) came to form the majority of the Sikhs. These were settled
nomadic pastoral groups, who had retained their martial and egalitarian ethos and who were already the dominant caste in Punjabi villages.6
Other important sections of the Panth consisted of Khatrs and Aros
(an urban caste quite close in status to the Khatrs), and, above all, of
members of various, mostly rural, service and artisan castes.7 By the midseventeenth century the Sikhs had a territorial and financial organisation
and a book of scripturesthe di Granth, reverently called Gur Granth
Shibcompiled in 1604 by their fifth Gur, Arjan, from his hymns, those
of his predecessors at the head of the Panth, and compositions written by
Sant poets such as Kabr (c. 1398c. 1448), Nmdev (trad. 12701350) and
3For a quick but illuminating overview of the bhakti currents, see David Lorenzen,
Bhakti, in The Hindu World, eds. Sushil Mittal and Gene Thursby (New York and London:
Routlege, 2004), 185209. On the Sants, see also Karine Schomer, The Sant tradition in
Perspective, in The Sants: Studies in a Devotional Tradition of India, eds. Karine Schomer
and W.H. McLeod (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987), 117.
4Khurasan covered parts of modern day Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
and Tajikistan. ahr al-Dn Muammad Bbur was a Tmrid prince from Kabul. On him,
see Stephen Frederic Dale The Garden of the Eight Paradises: Bbur and the Culture of
Empire in Central Asia, Afghanistan, and India, 14831530 (Leiden: Brill, 2004).
5On the Khatrs, see Horace Arthur Rose, A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the
Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province, vol. 2 (Lahore: S.T. Weston at the Civil and
Military Gazette Press, 1914), 501526.
6On the notion of dominant caste, see notably Louis Dumont, Homo hierarchicus: le
systme des castes et ses implications (Paris: Gallimard, 1966), 204208.
7On the Js, see Rose, A Glossary of the Tribes, vol. 2, 357377, and Joyce Pettigrew,
Robber Noblemen: A Study of the Political System of the Sikh Jats (London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul Ltd, 1975). On the crucial role of the Js in the evolution of the Panth, see
W.H. McLeod, The Evolution of the Sikh Community (New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
1975), 913. On the Aros, see Rose, A Glossary of the Tribes, vol. 2, 1621.
sin and expiation in sikh texts and contexts
33
Ravids (late 15thearly 16th century).8 They also engaged in severe military skirmishes with Mughal forces; the turbulent Js were harassed for
their resistance to revenue taxes. In the early 18th century, the Sikhs were
fortified in the Panjab hills, and their tenth and last Gur, Gobind, after
many fierce battles against both Hindu hill rajahs and Mughal forces, was
assassinated in 1708 while helping Muaam, the future Mughal emperor
Bahdur Shh (r. 17071712), succeed his father, the last great Mughal
Aurangzeb (r. 16581707). His four sons having been killed before him, he
had decreed, according to the Sikh tradition, that after him, the authority
of the Gur would pass jointly to the sacred scriptures and the gathered
Panth. A few decades later, the Sikhs fought for supremacy in the Panjab
against both the Mughals and the Afghans, and by 1799, they created in
the region one of the successor states of the Mughal Empire, which lasted
until the annexation of the Panjab to the territories ruled by the British
East India Company in 1849.9 Following the independence and partition
of India in 1947, the Sikhs managed to have the Indian State of Panjab
reshaped in 1966 so that they form the majority of its population.
Theology had to follow! In this chapter, I shall first deal with sin and
expiation as they were conceived by Gur Nnak and his eight first successors at the head of the Panth: their theology, as expressed in their di
Granth compositions, is very much the same as that of the other Sants.10
I shall then examine the changes introduced in these conceptions by Gur
Gobind, who organised a substantial part of the Sikhs as a militant order
at the very end of the 17th century, and I shall concentrate on the construction of cowardice as a major sin and on martyrdom as the proper
way to expiate it. I shall then show how, in the chaotic 18th century, new
notions of sin and expiation were derived from the new commandments
attributed to Gobind and were formulated again and again throughout
that period in code-manuals, taking one of them as an archetypical example. I shall conclude with indications of the way the situation has evolved
8The Granth was to be finalised in the early 18th century by the tenth Gur, Gobind,
who introduced in it the hymns of his father, Gur Tegh Bahdur. For a remarkable synthetic presentation of the di Granth, see W.H. McLeod, Sikhism (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1997), 166176.
9For a synthetic clarification on the successor states of the Mughal Empire, see
J.C. Heestermann, The Social Dynamics of the Mughal Empire: A Brief Introduction, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 47 no. 3 (2004): 292297.
10On the Sant basis of early Sikhsim, see W.H. McLeod, Gur Nnak, and the Sikh Religion (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1976), 151158.
34
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until our time, with a landmark being the promulgation of the Sikh Code
in 1950.
Sin and Expiation in the Early Sikh Writing
The Sikh categories of sin and expiation have been constructed both from
and in opposition to those of brahmanical Hinduism. The Hindus who
became followers of Nnak and his first successors came from a diversified Hindu universe, socially and ritually structured by caste dharma, with
rules of conduct (cra) pertaining to the orthodox and therefore correct performance of certain social and ritual duties. Infringements of this
dharma were often social faults (ppa) and necessitated codified reparations (pryacitta) imposed by a caste council (pacyata).
Now, for these Hindus, becoming the disciple of Nnak was an individual decision quite akin to leaving a church (in the Weberian sense)
and entering a theistic sect (sapradya), headed by a charismatic mystic, poet and theologiana virtuoso, and characterized by a strong gurupupil relation. In such a context, sin, for which there are various terms in
the di Granth (ppu, dokhu, dosu, avagau, agau, vikru), meant the
internally felt transgression of voluntarily and personally adopted rules of
Divine origin, and more precisely of what Nnak and his successors called
the Divine Order (hukamu, from Ar. ukm). At the heart of this Divine
Order was dharma, that is to say, both the rules governing the physical
universe and those governing society, and the duties of a religious and
moral life.11 In the latter sense, for the Sikh Gurs, it meant above all meditating on God with love and forsaking all illusions on the nature of both
the world and the way to salvation:
karaaihru ride mahi dhru ||
taji sabhi bharama bhajio prabrahamu ||
kahu nnaka aala ihu dharamu ||12
Enshrine the Creator within your heart.
Renounce all illusions, adore the Supreme Lord.
Says Nnak, eternal is this dharma.
11On Nnaks theology in general, see McLeod, Gur Nnak and the Sikh Religion, 148
226; on hukamu and dharma in particular, see McLeod, Gur Nnak and the Sikh Religion,
199203.
12Nnak, di Granth: Sr Gur Grantha Shiba Daranpaa. 10 vols. Chief ed. Shib
Singh (Jalandhar: Rj Pabliarz, 19621964), 196. All the editions of the di Granth have
the same standard pagination of 1430 pages.
35
The human who does not follow the Divine Order sins gravely. In a
hymn full of vivid metaphors, Nnak compares him to a wild hunter,
a being always on the move to fulfil his lustful desires and, because of
that, bogged down in such sins as falsehood, violence, robbery, concupiscence, anger, cheating, and the like. Here are the first couplet and refrain
of this hymn:
1.
eku sunu dui sun nli ||
bhalake bhakahi sad bali ||
ku chur muh muradru ||
dhaka rpi rah karatra ||
R.
mai pati k pandi na kara k kra ||
ha bigaai rpi rah bikarla ||
ter eku nmu tre sansru ||
mai eh sa eho dhru ||13
1.
A dog and a bitch are with me.
In the morning they bark and continue till the evening.
Falsehood is the dagger, the dead lies robbed.
I stay in the form of a wild hunter, O creator!
R.
I did not follow the Lords advice nor did I do what I should have done.
My appearance is hideous, I am frightening.
Your Name alone gets one across the cycle of births.
This is my hope, this is my support.
The situation of the human is all the more complicated in that, for Nnak
as in brahmanical Hinduism, sin is the humans carry-over from his past,
for when the soul is joined to the body at birth, the human is loaded with
the results of all the good (puya) and bad (ppa) actions of his past lives.
This is the doctrine of karma, which combines with the idea of rebirth,
the current actions of an individual predicting his future condition or
birth just as his past actions account for his current state.14 The human
guided only by his own false, un-regenerated self, and whom Nnak and
his successors call manmukh (whose face is oriented towards his own
13Nnak, di Granth, 24.

14The doctrine of karma is in fact quite complex and diversified in Indian traditions,
as amply demonstrated in Wendy Doniger OFlaherty, ed., Karma and Rebirth in Classical
Indian Traditions (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980).
36
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unregenerate spirit), is thus in danger of remaining bound to the wheel

of transmigration. In the words of Amar Ds:
manamukhu bhl hara na pe ||
jo dhuri likhi su karama kame ||
bikhi rte bikhi khojai mari janamai dukhu th he ||15
The erring manmukh finds no fixed place.
The karma he indulges in has been written from all eternity.
Drunk with poison, he searches out poison: to him the pain of death and
rebirth!
For the Sikhs as for the adepts of bhakti in general, the motif of personal
devotion (bhakti) flows against the current of impersonal karma and the
ocean of rebirth, like a stream of fresh water flowing back out into the
ocean:16 the only escape consists indeed in surrendering oneself to God in
total devotion, and in relying on His grace to wipe out the consequences
of ones karma:
bahute agaa kkai ko ||
j tisu bhvai bakhase so ||17
Loaded with many sins, someone is shrieking;
When it pleases Him does He forgive.
This grace is manifested by a voice, called guru in early Sikhism, uttering

in the heart of the human the Word (sabadu), which contains the divine
Order, both in terms of cosmic ordinance and of injunction to follow the
right path. A human hearing Gods voice who wants to engage on that
path must first of all become conscious that all sins proceed in the last
resort from what Nnak and his eight first successors call the hamai, the
me, I, that is egotism. This hamai characterizes the manmukh perpetually bound to transmigration. And why are humans incapable of refraining
from sinning? Because they are spiritually blinded by mi, the world and
its snares, the worldly delights apparently real, but actually corrupting:
manamukha mi moha vipe djai bhi man thiru nhi ||18
Attachment to mi pervades the manmukhs; pleased by duality, their mind
is unsteady.
15di Granth, 1057.

16Wendy Doniger OFlaherty, ed., Karma and Rebirth, 36.
18Rm Ds, di Granth, 652.
37
This is how finally, at the time of death, a manmukh, overwhelmed with

pain and anguish, regrets; but it is too late and he goes away:
upajai pacai hari bjhai nh ||
anadinu djai bhi phirh ||
manamukha janamu gai hai birath anti gai pachutvai ||19
He is born, he dissolves, he is not aware of Hari.20
Day after day he wanders, pleased by duality.
The birth of a manmukh is useless; in the end, he goes away, regretting.
Expiation, in such a human condition, means basically regenerating ones

soul, and this cannot come from self-inflicted penances or from ritual purifications, which have no power to prevent the manmukh from remaining
the slave of his hamai, nor from consequently staying entangled in the
sin which renders impotent both his will and his judgement. Expiation
can only take one form: following the discipline of remembering God and
repeating His Name. That will allow the manmukh to regenerate his soul
and attain salvation (moka) by becoming a gurmukh, a human being
guided by God (lit. who has his face oriented towards the True Gur)
who can gradually get away from mi and one day reach the state of final
emancipation from transmigration by uniting with God in perpetual bliss.
This mode of expiation and salvation is expressed in a mere five- wordverse by Nnak:
suiai dkha ppa k nsu ||21
Listening, pain and sin are erased.
These conceptions about sin and expiation prevailed unchanged throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, as is evident from the compositions of
Nnaks eight first successors who considered themselves as torches bearing the flame that had appeared with Nnak and used to sign their own
compositions with his name.22
19Amar Ds, di Granth, 127.

20Hari (yellow, reddish brown, yellow in Sanskrit, derived for some from the root hr to take away evil) is, in Hindu contexts, an epithet of Viu, and so of Kra. In the di
Granth, it is one of the most common names for God.
22Luckily for the historian and the philologist, Arjan, when he compiled the di Granth,
carefully distinguished his predecessors and himself by referring to each as a numbered
quarter (mahal, from Ar. maalla) of a city: Nnak is thus Mahal 1, Agad Mahal 2, and
so on. Gobind did the same with his father.
38
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Treason and Martyrdom
In the very late 17th and early 18th century, in a context where the Sikhs,
now predominantly J, had to fight against Hindu rajahs of the Hills and
Mughal forces, radical changes were introduced in the Panth by the tenth
and last Guru, Gobind. In 1699, according to the tradition, the Gur assembled his Sikhs and invited them to partake in an initiation ceremony in a
new egalitarian and militant order, the Khls, the Pure Ones.23 The episode is narrated at length in the most detailed of the two first traditional
histories of the Sikhs.24 The Gur had solemnly summoned his Sikhs on
the occasion of their usual spring gathering of the first day of the Hindu
month of Vaiskh. Appearing sword in hand under a large tent, he asked
who among them would be ready to sacrifice his life for him. The first man
to come forward was Day Sigh, like the Gur a Khatr by caste. The tent
was shut and the noise of a sword falling on a wood block was heard. Four
more volunteers presented themselves, and the scenario was repeated.
The Gur then opened the tent, revealing that in fact, no one had been
slain, and he declared that these five cherished (paj pire) would form
the nucleus of his new order. He then held a ceremony in which the Paj
Pire were initiated, followed by all the Sikhs ready to observe the discipline of the Khls.25
23In the Sikh context, according to tradition means, in fact, according to the first
complete accounts of the history of the Sikhs compiled between the 1840s and the 1910s
from a wide range of sources: 17th and 18th century hagiographies of Nnak or Janamskhs (lit. birth stories), 18th century heroic poems on the sixth and tenth Gurs or Gurbils (lit. pleasure of the Gur), and oral tradition. The first of these great narratives,
written in Braj-bh verses by Rattan Sigh Bhag (d. 1846), was issued in 1841 under the
title Panth prak Light on the Panth. For a recent edition see Rattan Sigh Bhag, Sr
Gura Pantha Praka, ed. and English trans. Kulwant Singh. 2 vols. (Chandigarh: Institute
of Sikh Studies, 20062010). A detailed account of the now established version of the creation of the Khls is found in the second of these narratives, completed in 1843 by Santokh
Sigh (17881844), written in a mixture of Braj-bha and Hindi verses, and entitled Gur
pratp sraj The Glorious Sun of the Gurs. For a recent edition, see: Santokh Sigh, Sr
Gura Pratpa Sraja Grantha, 11 vols., ed. Ajt Sigh Aulakh (Amritsar: Bh Catar Sigh
Jvan Sigh, 2009). The third and last set of major traditional histories of the Sikhs was the
work of Gin Sigh (18221921), whose Panth prak (1880), written in Braj-bh verses,
and Tavrkh Gur Khls, written in Panjabi prose and published in instalments between
1891 and 1919, remain quite influential. For a recent edition of the latter, see Gin Sigh,
Tavrkha Gur Khlas, 2 vol. (Amrisar: Bh Catar Sigh Jivan Sigh, 2006).
24Santokh Sigh, Sr Gura Pratpa, vol. 9, 789814.
25The initiation ritual was, according to the Sikh tradition, the one that is still used for
admission in the Khls today (see below, part 4).
39
The Gur also gave the initiated Sikhs a code on that occasion. The
men were to be called Sigh (Lion) and to wear unmistakable symbols of
identification. These symbols, in the list that became canonical, are five in
number. The name of each one begins with the Gurumukh letter called
kakk (k), hence their collective designation as the paj kakke, or five
Ks. They consist of uncut hair and beard (kesa), a comb (kagh) in the
hair, a dagger (kirapna), a metallic bracelet (ka) and kind of undershorts (kaccha). As for the women, they were to be called Kaur (Princess).
The Sikhs were to abstain from smoking, from eating the meat of animals
killed in the Muslim way, and the men from having sexual relations with
Muslim women.
The Sikh tradition also attributes to Gur Gobind the composition
of the second sacred book of the Sikhs, the Dasam Granth, mostly written in Braj-bh, the western dialect of Hindi then well established in
northern India as the literary idiom of Kra bhakti.26 It is now commonly
admitted that the bulk of the book was not authored by Gobind; but its
major compositions are quite likely to be his or to have been directly
inspired by him.27 A particularly striking one is called the Bactar nak,
The Wonderful Drama: it is a kind of spiritual and military autobiography, which starts with the celestial existence of Gobind.28 While he is so
much absorbed in meditation that he has become one with God, his Lord
addresses him. He tells him that all those whom He sent to the earth for
revealing His supremacyminor Gods such as Brahma and Viu, and
human messengers such as Rmnanda and Muhammadforgot Him
in their race for being themselves called supreme. Full of egotism, such
envoys spread strife and enmity:29
je prabha skha namita hahare || te hi i prabh kahave ||
t k bta bisara jt bh || apan apan parata sobha bh ||
jaba prabha ko na tinai pahicn || taba hari manuchana haharn ||
26For an overview of this literature and a description of its language, see Rupert Snell,
The Hindi Classical Tradition. A Braj Bh Reader (London: School of Oriental and African
Studies University of London, 1991).
27Like the di Granth, the Dasam Granth has a standard pagination of 1428 pages. For
an excellent and concise overview of the Dasam Granth and for a clear presentation of the
debates around it, see McLeod, Sikhism, 176180.
28Dasam Granth: Sr Gur Dasama Grantha Shiba J, 2 vols., (Amritsar: Bh Catar
Sigh Jvan Sigh, 1979), 3976.
29Rmnanda is the name given to a celebrated (but perhaps not historical) 15th
century Vaiava teacher, devotee of Rma and St, and founder of the Rmnand
saprdaya.
40
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te bh basi mamat hui gae || parameara phana hahirae ||
taba hari siddha sdha hahire || tina bh parama purakhu nah pe ||
jo ko hota bhayo jagi sin || tina tina apano panthu caln ||
parama purakha kinah naha pyo || baira bda hakra bahyo ||30
Those whom the Lord established as His humble witnesses got themselves
called Lord.
They forgot their duty, busy as they were each one with his own glory.
As they did not recognize their Lord, then Hari installed human beings in
their place.
They too were overpowered by egotism; they installed stones as supreme
lords.
Then Hari installed Siddhas and Sdhus;31 they too could not find the
Supreme Being.
Whosever wisdom was awoken started his own Panth.
None could find the Supreme Being; they spread hatred, quarrel, egotism.
God adds that He is now sending him, Gobind, for the propagation of the
(true) Panth and for spreading dharma:
mai apn suta tohi nivj || panthu pracura karabe kahha sj ||
jhi tah tai dharamu cali | | kabudhi karana te loka hai ||32
I have fostered you as My son; I have created you for the propagation of
the Panth.
Go therefore, enforce the dharma, divert the people from evil actions.
Invested with this divine mission, Gobind claims action in two spheres.
On the one hand, he teaches the people that behaving like a yogi or an
ascetic, reciting the Koran, studying the Puras or wandering in various guises and gathering disciples are mi, and that they should instead
meditate on the Lord.33 Though cast in the mould of something like an
avatar-myth, with Gobind being astonishingly presented as the son (sutu)
of God, this part of the story remains in line with the teachings of the former Gurs. But almost without transition, Gobind then proceeds to narrate the wars he engaged in against the Mughals and the hill rajahs who
30Dasam Granth, 55.
31Siddha is a term applied to fully realized members of medieval Tantric traditions;
behind this designation is the belief that semi-divine figures, also known as Siddhas, were
resident in a heaven which practitioners could reach through the perfection of their body
by various means such as tantra, yoga or alchemy.Sdhu is a common term for a Hindu
ascetic.
32Dasam Granth, 57.
33The Puras are narratives originally in Sanskrit verse, dating from the 4th century
ad onwards and containing mythological versions of the creation, history and destruction
of the universe. They also relate the exploits of the different gods.
41
helped them. On one occasion, the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb decides

to send one of his sons to the Panjab. Several Sikhs, frightened, leave
Anandpur, the fortified city of Gobind in the Shivalik hills, for safer villages, without permission from the Gur:
kitaka loka taji sagi sidhre || ji base giravara jahha bhre ||
cita mzyana ko adhika arn || tinai ubra na apan jn ||34
Some people left my company; they went to live in the hills, they sought a
place there.
These fools were much frightened; they did not know that their safety was
with me.
But as if by divine punishment, the Mughal Princes officers chase and

catch them, shave their heads and urinate on them, strike their foreheads
with shoes and bricks, walk them in the villages with a bag of horse excrement tied on their faces, and plunder and destroy their houses. The Gur
comments:
gura paga te je bimukha sidhre || h h tina ke mukha kre ||35
Those who turn their face away from the feet of the Gur, in this world and
the next, their face is blackened.
In contrast, all the people who are known to be disciples of the Gur are
spared, and they are protected from sin and pain:
je je gura caranana ratta hvai hai || tina ko kaai na dekhana pai hai ||
riddha siddha tina ke griha mh || ppa tpa chvai sakai na chh ||36
Those who are in love with the Gurs feet, they never see suffering.
Prosperity and success abide in their homes, sin and pain cannot touch
them.
With this episode, we see a major change in Sikh theology and in the
conception of sin. It is now a religious duty for a Sikh to stay by his Gur,
to fight with him for the establishment of the just order of dharma, and
as a consequence, cowardice and dissimulating ones own Sikh identity
become major sins, punished by God both in this and the next world.
Now, is there a way to expiate this new type of sin? We can find an
answer to this question, and a positive one, in an episode inevitably
recounted in the traditional narratives of Sikh history, which, from the
34Dasam Granth, 71.
35Dasam Granth, 71.
36Dasam Granth, 72.
42
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early 1840s onwards, endlessly retell the battles fought by the tenth Gur
and his troops. The story begins in 1704. A Mughal force commanded by
Vazr Khn, governor of Sirhind, with the help of hill-rajahs hostile to
Gur Gobind, besieges Anandpur for several months, bringing the inhabitants and the Sikh army to starvation. Ground down by privation, forty
of the Gurs followers decide to desert and flee. Informed of their plan,
Gur Gobind summons them and requests them to write a disclaimer by
which they declare that they renounce their loyalty to him and that he has
no responsibility towards and authority over them anymore. Here is the
concise account given by Rattan Sigh Bhag in 1841:
tau satigura et kah yaha hama jho likhi |
satigura kahinde thaka gae hama mann sikkha na ki ||
au du et dihu tuma likkha | tuma hama gur na hama tuma sikkha |
tau lokana ima h likha dayo | huto gur j jima tho kahayo ||37
Then the True Gur spoke thus: Write this to me:
The True Gur orders, but we are tired; we do not consider ourselves as
Sikhs anymore.
Give me also this second written undertaking: You are not our Gur, we
are not your Sikhs.
Then the people gave the written statement that the Gur had
requested.
After this, the deserters leave for the plains. Meanwhile, Gobind and a
small garrison manage to escape from the besieged city. After many tribulations, the Gur succeeds in gathering his scattered forces in the township
of Khidrana: a new battle is fought against the Mughals and their allies in
December 1705, and this time, the Sikhs are successful. After the battle
I am now following closely Santokh Singhs account in his 1843 Gur pratp
srajthe Guru goes all over the battlefield, rescuing the wounded and
blessing the dying. Among the slain are the forty Sikhs who had asked to
be relieved of their allegiance to the Gur: having been shamed by their
wives at home, they had felt guilty and decided to join the Gur again,
and had come to take part in the battle. One of them, Mah Sigh, has
not yet expired.38 The Gur sits next to him, cleans his wounds, lets him
have the daran he longs for in his thoughts, and asks him if he has any
37Rattan Sigh Bhang, Sr Gura Pantha Praka, vol. 1, 112, Santokh Sigh, Sr Gura
Pratpa Sraja Grantha, vol. 11, 155161, and Gan Sigh, Tavrikha Gur Khlas, vol. I,
749754, who write in great detail about this episode, call the disclaimer by the technical
term of Persian origin bedav.
38They are two according to Bhang, Sr Gura Pantha Praka, vol. 1, 162.
43
wish to express.39 The man then begs the Gur to tear into pieces the disclaimer that he and his thirty-nine companions had written before leaving
Anandpur. Gobind, who has the letter in his pocket, tears it and bids him
farewell with these words:
jhu mah singha jahi mama loka | basahu sad kabi nahi tahi
oka ||
de kari prna kina upakra | tisa ko phala tuhi bhayo adhra ||40
Go, Mah Sigh, where my world is. Live there forever; there will be no
grief for you there.
You have given your life in an act of selfless assistance; for this, you will get
an infinite reward.
He then asks for a funeral pyre to be prepared, has the forty martyrs cremated together, and declares during the cremation:
makra sakarakhaa arak hoi | na annahi je nara koi ||
manokman prpati so | ppa kare gana baya sabhi kho ||41
When the sun enters Capricorn, any person coming to bathe (in the pool
of this place)
Will have his hearts desires fulfilled; all the sins he committed will be
erased.
adding:
abi te nm mukatisara hoi | khidar isa kahai na koi ||
is thala mukati bhae sikha cl | je niappa ghla bahu ghl ||42
From now on, the name of this place will be Muktsar,43 none will call it
Khidr anymore.
On this ground, forty Sikhs were liberated, and all their sins were annihilated.
To this day indeed, these forty Sikh martyrs are remembered as the Cl
Mukte, the Forty Liberated Ones. They are celebrated every year in a
major festival held in Muktsar, and they are commemorated in the prayer
39Darana (a Sanskrit word meaning literally looking at, viewing), when referring to
the meeting of the devotees and the iconic deitys eyes, is an act of worship in itself, and
an essential part of the ritual worship called pj. The principle can be diversely expanded,
notably to cover the auspicious sight of a holy man,as is precisely the case here. On
daran, the standard study is Diana Eck, Darshan: Seeing the Divine in India (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1998).
40Santokh Sigh, Sr Gura Pratpa Sraja Grantha, vol. 11, 462.
43Meaning Ocean of Liberation.
44
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of the Khls known as Ards, which is recited at the conclusion of most

Sikh rituals.44
We now have the answer to our question. The fate of these Forty Liberated Ones illustrates the expiation side of the fundamental theological
change introduced in Sikhism by Gur Gobind: refusing to fight with and
for the Gur is a major sin; but that sin can be expiated by martyrdom.
And so strong is the sin-destroying power of martyrdom that where it has
taken place, its very memory can destroy sin, just as in Islam the baraka
of a Saint at the place where he is buried removes sin.
The theme of martyrdom became later on quite central in Sikhism and
was, as brilliantly and eruditely demonstrated by Lou Fennec, constructed
by Sikh reformists of the early twentieth century as an ideal of triumphant
glory when the spreading of evil demands a militant response.45
The Codification of Sin and Expiation in the 18th Century
Starting from Gur Gobind and the Dasam Granth, another line, which
runs throughout the history of Sikhism, can be followed regarding sin
and expiation. We have already seen that in the Bacitar Nak, on one
occasion, Sikh renegades had been punished for their desertion by being
humiliated by Mughal officers. This episode is clearly linked with the theological renewal brought about by Gur Gobind, and more specifically with
the code which, according the tradition, he enjoined his Sikhs to follow.
In fact this code gradually evolved on the basis of the Gurs fundamental injunctions, as is evidenced by the six Rahit-nms or Code-manuals
composed throughout the 18th century.
These manuals have been thoroughly studied and translated by W.H.
McLeod.46 Claiming to have been prepared at the command of the Gur
and to record his actual words, they contain numerous injunctions pertaining to various domains of life, many of which are not mentioned in the
traditional Sikh histories. These injunctions were produced in response to
44For an English translation of this prayer, with an introduction, see W.H. McLeod,
Textual Sources for the Study of Sikhism (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984),
103105.
45See Lou Fennec, Martyrdom in the Sikh Tradition. Playing the Game of Love (New
Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000), especially pp. 178225.
46See W.H. McLeod, The Chaupa Singh Rahit-nama (Dunedin: University of Otago
Press, 1987) and Sikhs of the Khalsa: A History of the Khalsa Rahit (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003).
45
the relentless attacks of the Mughals against the Sikhs in the early 18th
century and, perhaps even more, to the campaigns launched in the later
part of that century across the Panjab by Afghans, who presented their
raids as a jihad. In such a context, the aim of the manuals was to protect
the Khls and mobilize its members against the enemy, that is, the Muslims. The Khls was now a church in the Weberian sense, an institutionalized community with its rationalized cult and dogma, and at the same
time, it was the mystical body of the Gur, as is expressed in the following
passage of one of the epical poems written in Braj to the glory of Gobind
in the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, and called Gurbils (pleasure of the Gur). The Sikhs ask the Gur which form he will
take after he leaves this world:
khlasa pano rpa batyo |
khlasa h so hai mama km |47
The Khls is my own form, he said.
It is the Khls which is my desire.
What is relevant for our purpose in the 18th century code manuals is that
along with defining the duties of Khls Sikhs, they list the penances
which representatives of a particular sagat or local Sikh community
could impose on one of its members as an expiation rite. We shall take
as an example the Rahit-nm composed by Day Sigh, because, besides
detailing the religious duties of a Sikh, giving norms regarding his character, his personal attitude, his appearance and his social behaviour within
the Panth, it is the Rahit-nm that gives the most detailed list of penances.48 The latter are called tanakhh, a word of Persian origin meaning
salary and referring, in the eighteenth century Panjab, to the grants of
money made by the Mughals to those who assisted them. For the Khls
Sikhs, the word tanakhh was used to mean a penance that washed away
an offence against the rahit.
The Day Sigh Rahit-nm, as shown by W.H. McLeod, is a late eighteenth century work, and nothing is known of its author.49 As presented
in this text, the tanakhhs imposed upon those who violate the rahit and
47Sainapat, (first manuscript dated 1711), Sr Gura Sobh, ed. Gand Sigh, (Patiala:
Panjabi University, 1967), 170.
48Panjabi text in Pir Sigh Padam, ed., Rahitanme (Amritsar: Sigh Brothers, 1974),
6876; English translation in McLeod, Sikhs of the Khalsa, 2003, 310325.
49McLeod, Sikhs of the Khalsa, 67, 7172. As stated by McLeod, the author cannot be
the Day Sigh who, according to Sikh traditional histories, was, as we have seen, the first
to offer his head to Gobind at the inauguration of the Khls in 1699.
46
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are called tanakhhs (deserving tanakhh) generally consist in fines or

strokes with a cane; re-initiation in the Khls could also be imposed.
For instance, a Sikh must pay one and quarter rupee if he wears a sacred
thread, if he has sexual relations with a child or if he bathes ritually without
having his hair covered by a turban or without wearing a short garment.50
For cutting the hair, the tanakhh should be death, but it is reduced to
50 strokes with a cane because the Gur showed compassion to his followers; the sinner should then be re-initiated, read aloud the Rahit-nm, and
for forty days repeat as many times as possible the Japu-j, a fundamental
composition of Gur Nnak at the beginning of the di Granth.51 Similarly, if a Sikh smokes the hookah, he should not only pay 25 rupees and
receive fifty strokes with a cane; he should also be re-initiated. Then, says
the text, he is pure (suddha ho):52 this is all the more interesting in that
it strongly reminds one of the Hindus who, having fallen in a degraded
mode of life, had to go through special rites for being cleansed of pollution
and readmitted into their caste.
In one case, the penance imposed is death:
gur k jo nind kare t k ssa ke, nah vah se bhge |53
The one who slanders the Gur, his head must be cut, there is no way out
of this.
There are also offences which cannot be expiated and condemn the sinner to a horrible disease:
sigha hoi kari op dhraig so kua hog |54
The one who, though being a Sikh, wears a hat, he will become a leper.
50The sacred thread referred to here is the one borne by Hindus belonging to the three
higher classes or varas of the brahmanical hierarchy, those who have access to sacred
knowledge (Veda): the brhmaas or priests as well as masters and teachers of the Veda,
the katriyas, endowed with sovereignty and, as warriors, responsible for the protection
of the dominion, and the vaiyas, traditionally described as commoners engaged in productive labour, in agricultural and pastoral tasks, and in trading. This sacred thread is
conferred on them at their initiation to Vedic studentship, which makes them twice born
(dvija), and it is worn by them throughout their lifetime, normally over the left shoulder
and diagonally across the chest to the right hip. It consists of a loop made of three symbolically knotted and twisted strands of cotton cord and is replaced regularly.
51di Granth, 18; for a good English translation with an introduction, see Christopher
Shackle and Arvind-pal Sigh Mandair, ed. and trans., Teaching of the Sikh Gurus (London
and New York: Routledge, 2005), 119.
52Day Sigh, Rahitanma, 72.
47
or to an after-life in hell. This is specifically the case if a Sigh of the

Khls adopts Muslim or Hindu manners:
turaka k msa khi au besay bhogai, so dono naraka mai ji | turako
k sagata karai, usa kusagata mai na mela kare, anta ko vahi naraka
mai jig (...) | lagoa dhoti dhaval kai bdhe au kesa nagana rakhai,
so mah naraka bhogai (...) | tilaka dhare, dhg dhre, kaha me ml
kha k pahire, apane dharama ko chedeg, ghora naraka me pae |55
The one who eats meat from animals killed in the Muslim way and the one
who takes his pleasure with a prostitute, may both go to hell! The one who
associates with Muslims, do not keep his company: in the end, he will go
to hell (...). The one who wears a strip of cloth concealing his private parts
(lagoa), a white loincloth (dhoti) and who keeps his hair uncovered, he
will suffer in a terrible hell (...). The one who applies a sectarian mark on
his forehead, who wears a sacred thread and who has a rosary made of wood
destroys his dharma and will fall into a frightful hell.
Regarding the Hindus, this passage refers indeed to those who have been
initiated by a spiritual master (guru) in a theistic sect (sapradya). Such
initiates, from the day of their initiation (dk), wear a lagoa under
their loincloth (dhoti) as a symbol of their chastity (the Sikhs, as we have
seen, wear underwear shorts called kaccha), they keep their hair uncovered if they are ascetics (the Sikhs wear a turban to protect their uncut
hair), they apply on their forehead sectarian marks (tilaka) made from a
coloured substance such as ash or sandalwood paste, they have around
their neck a rosary of wooden beads, and, if they are of twice born origin,
they may very well retain their sacred thread.56
Other passages of Day Sighs text complete the list of specific Hindu
practices forbidden to the Sikhs on pain of tanakhhs. Such is the case of
the following one, which also alludes to the divisions of the Sikhs:
bhdan kumra dhramall masanda rmar ger rage kasumbh ke
raga se baratana kare sav rupay tanakhha |57
The one who indulges in tonsure, girl-killing, association with the Dhrmals,
the masands or the Rmrs, who uses colour prepared from red ochre or
from safflower, for him a tanakhh of one rupee and a quarter.
56The devotees of Viu, the Vaiavas, have a tilaka which is a kind of U figure from
the meeting point of the eyebrows, sometimes with a vertical red line between its arms.
They wear rosaries whose beads are made of tuls (sweet basil plant) berries. The devotees
of iva, the aivas, have a tilak consisting of three horizontal lines with or without a central
dot or third eye. They favour rosaries of rudrka (Eloecarpus ganitrus) berries.
48
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The communities mentioned in this enumeration are numbered among

the Paj Mel, the five reprobate groups which members of the Khls
must swear to spurn, following an injunction of Gur Gobind at the time
of the creation of the new order.58 The list has never been quite fixed.
The masands (from Ar. masnad: throne or the one who sits on a throne)
were instituted by Gur Rm Ds as a regular category of surrogates to the
Gur with extended responsibilities such as preaching, supervising the
local communities and collecting the offerings made to the Gur. Since
with the passage of time, many of them had become independent and
corrupt, Gobind abolished them when he founded the Khls. They are
always included in the list of the Paj Mel.
The Dhrmals and the Rmrs are also generally included in that
list. The Dhrmals go back to the partisans of Dhrmal (1627?), who was
already hostile to orthodox Sikhs at the time of his grandfather Gur Hargobind and whose opposition increased when he was passed over as Gur
Hargobinds successor. The antagonism of the Dhrmals contributed to
Gur Te Bahdur and his faithful having to leave the plains and seek a
safer abode in the Shivalik Hills. The Rmrs are the heirs of the partisans of Rm R (16461687). The latter, elder son of Gur Har R, had
been taken as a hostage at the court of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb
because his father had helped the future emperors brother Dr Shukoh
(16151659) in the customary war of succession at the end of Shh Jahns
(r. 16271658) reign. At the Mughal court, Rm R had been turned into
a supporter of Aurangzeb, who granted him revenue free land. Rejected
by his father, he had gathered a schismatic group of Sikhs around him.
Those who observe the head-shaving custom (bhandan) of certain Hindu
ascetic renouncers and those who kill baby-girls (ku-mr) as was common in pre-colonial days among certain Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims of the
Panjab (as elsewhere), are also often listed among the Paj Mel.59
58On the Paj Mel, the masands, the Dhirmals and the Rmrs, see W.H. McLeod,
Historical Dictionary of Sikhism (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995), s.v.
59The reason for female infanticide was the high expenditures generated by a wedding
and dowry (the same cause is still behind abortion of female foetuses today). It could also
be, in the Bed sub-caste of the Khatr caste, a result of the fact that it was impossible for its
members to marry their daughter in a higher sub-caste (gota, from Skt. gotra), as required
by the caste dharma, for they were ranking first in their caste (zt, from Skt. jti). After
much discussion, female infanticide was finally prohibited by the colonial power through
the 1870 Female Infanticide Act. The whole process is still quite debated, in particular by
feminist scholars; see, among many others, Malavika Kasturi, Law and Crime in India:
British Policy and the Female Infanticide Act of 1870, Indian Journal of Gender Studies 1
49
The 18th century Rahit-nms are thus a unique testimony of the way
the Sighs sought to build up and affirm their Khls identity by strongly
distinguishing themselves from both Muslims and, something that has not
been underlined in scholarly studies, Hindus, at a time when they were
fighting to establish their supremacy in the Panjab.
Sin and Expiation, Sect and Caste: The 20th Century Sikh Code
In the early 20th century, Sikh reformers of the so-called Tat Khls (true
Khls) current of the Sigh Sabh (the reformist Society of the Lions),
affirmed that Sikhism was radically distinct from Hinduism. Like many
religious reform movements of colonial times, they aimed at restoring
their religion to its reconstructed pristine purity and wanted to make
each Sikh individually a good Sikh. Towards this end they undertook to
prepare a new comprehensive version of the Sikh code.60 After decades of
debates and slow progress, this code was finally formalized in 1950the
same year as the Indian Constitution!in the form a booklet in Panjabi
entitled Sikh Rahit Maryd (lit. correct behaviour (for) the Sikh mode of
living), which remains to this day the definitive statement of the Khls
code.61 It was prepared by the Central Gurdawara (Sikh Temples) Management Committee (SGPC), an elected body.
The history of the SGPC goes back to what has been called the third
Sikh war (the first two being those of the British against the Sikhs in 1846
and 1849, when they conquered the Panjab). This third war was fought by
Tat Khls Sikhs to take the management of the gurdvrs of the Panjab
away from the mahants (lit. superiors), who had been their hereditary
custodians since the turmoil of the 18th century.62 These mahants were
in fact aivaite renouncers of the Uds Sapradya, which claimed to go
back to the followers of Gur Nnaks celibate and ascetic son r Cand
(trad. 14941629). They were seen as hinduizing the gurdvrs by the
Central Sikh League (CSL), a political party created in 1919 on Tat Khls
(1994): 169193, and Satadru Sen The Savage Family: Colonialism and Female Infanticide
in Nineteenth-Century India, Journal of Womens History 14, no. 3 (2002): 5379.
60On the Sigh Sabh reform movement and its internal debates, see Harjot Oberoi,
The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition
(Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994), 305377 and 401417.
61roma Gurdur Prabadhak Kame, Sikkha Rahita Maryd (Amritsar: roma
Gurdur Prabandhak Kamet, 1950); English translation in McLeod, Sikhs of the Khalsa,
377401.
62In Hinduism, a mahant is the superior of a monastery.
50
denis matringe
lines, but they were supported by the British, who did not trust those they
called the neo-Sikhs.63 In 1920, the CSL formed the SGPC for liberating
the gurdvrs from the mahants. This was followed, the same year, by
the formation of the Akl Dal (Army of the Eternal), a body based on a
military model. The Akl Dal confronted the colonial government, occupied gurdvrs and finally won: the Sikh Gurdwara Act of 1925 signalled
its victory and provided for a committee elected by Sikhs to manage the
gurdvrs: Sikh leaders conferred this responsibility on the SGPC.64
The Sikh Rahit Maryd was prepared over the years by special committees established from 1931 on by the SGPC. In its final 1950 version it
contains two sections. The first one is by far the longest and deals with
personal discipline. It covers such religious topics as how to behave in a
gurdvr and how to read the di Granth, and deals at length with the
rituals of birth, naming, wedding and funerals. The second brief part
deals with Panthic discipline and is almost exclusively dedicated to the
initiation in the Khls. This ceremony is performed by five Sighs representing the Paj Pire of the founding of the Khls. Amidst various recitations, sanctified sugared water stirred with a double-edged sword and
called ammrit (nectar of immortality) is poured five times into the candidates cupped hands and drunk by her or him, five times it is sprinkled
on her or his eyes, and five times over his hair. This rite, reminiscent of
the saskras punctuating the life the Hindus with the dual purpose of
removing impurities and generating new qualities, is called pahul.65 After
having been thus baptised, the initiate is said to be an Ammrit-dhr. One
of the Paj Pire then expounds the rahit to her or him. When he comes
to sins, he explains that there are four major ones (kurahit):66
1.kes d beadab; 2. kuh kh; 3. para-isatr j para-purua d gaman
(bhoga); 4. tamk d varata |
1.showing disrespect to ones hair [by cutting it]; 2. eating meat from animals killed according to Muslim law; 3. having sexual intercourse with any
person other than ones spouse; 4. using tobacco.
63See D. Petrie, Secret C.I.D. Memorandum on Recent Developments in Sikh Politics,

1911, Punjab Past and Present 4 no. 2 (1970): 302379.
64On this third SIkh war, see Richard G. Fox, Lions of the Punjab: Culture in the Making (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985).
65Etymologically, this word means stirring; see Ralph Turner, A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages, vol. 1, (1966), entry no. 8487.
66roma Gurdur Prabandhak Kame, Sikkha Rahita Marydd, 35; McLeod, Sikhs
of the Khalsa, 399.
51
Anyone who commits one of these four cardinal sins becomes a patita
(fallen). This Sanskrit participle built on the root pat- to fall is the word
used in classical brahmanical literature to designate a Hindu who has
committed such a violation of the dharma that he is excluded from his
caste. As for a Khls Sikh committing one of the cardinal sins and thus
becoming a patita, she or he is liable to excommunication: she or he may
be ejected from the Panth by the SGPC or one of its local branches. But
a person who confesses his or her errors may expiate the sin by performing humiliating punishment and be re-admitted to the Panth after having
been duly initiated again.
The second part of the Sikh Rahit Maryd also contains four small
paragraphs on the ways to expiate any other breach of the rahit (rahit
d ko bhull), and specifies that:
sagata n bakhaaa vele haha nah karad chd. n h tanakhha
lua vle n daa bharana vica a karan chd hai. tanakhha kise
kisama d sev, khsa kara ke jo hatth nla kt j sake, lu che |67
The sagat should not use compulsion when imposing a penance and the
offender should not question its verdict. The penance should take the form
of service to the sagat, particularly the kind that requires manual labour.
These penances are imposed by SGPC or by its local branches. There

have been famous cases. For instance, in 1961, one of the leading political figures of the time, Master Tr Sigh (18851967), went on a fast to
death in support of the creation of a separate Panjabi speaking state in
India, but he was persuaded to end his fast after forty-eight days, and the
Government appointed a commission to look into the question of Sikh
grievances. Nevertheless, a duly appointed committee investigated the
circumstances that led to the abandonment of the fast and pronounced
Master Tara Singh guilty of having gone back on his plighted word and of
having blemished thereby the Sikh tradition of religious steadfastness and
sacrifice. Various penances requiring manual labour were imposed on
Master Tr Sigh, such as scrubbing dishes in the Golden Temple refectory and cleaning the shoes of the faithful at its entrance.68
The Sikh Rahit Maryd, which defines the true Sikh as the Khls
Sikh is of course not admitted by the whole Panth, which includes many
Sahaj-dhrs: this word, meaning those who are in the bliss of union
67roma Gurdur Prabandhak Kame, Sikkha Rahita Maryd, 37; McLeod, Sikhs
of the Khalsa, 401.
68See Grewal, The Sikhs of the Punjab, 196206.
52
denis matringe
(sahaj) with God designates the non-Khls Sikhs, but is interpreted by

Khls Sikhs as signifying slow adopters and referring to the Sikhs who
are on their way to Khls initiation. The situation is all the more complicated in that all non-Sahaj-dhrs are not Ammrit-dhrs. Certain Sikhs
indeed observe some or all the injunctions of the Rahit, always including the uncut hair, but do not take initiation: they are called Kes-dhrs
(keeping their hair uncut), and are usually regarded as members of the
Khls, although they are not Ammrit-dhrs. Thus, all Ammrit-dhrs are
Kes-dhrs, but only a minority of Kes-dhrs are in fact Ammrit-dhrs.
There are also Sikhs who belong to Khls families, but cut their hair:
they are derogatively called mons (shaven) by the Ammrit-dhrs, and
are consequently categorized as patita.
Now, in terms of caste, all the Js of the Panjab, who form two thirds
of the Sikhs in the region, are Kes-dhrs, and a significant minority of
them are Ammrit-dhrs, while all the Sahaj-dhrs are members of the
urban Khatr, Aro and Ahlvli castes, which also include many nonSikh members.69 This means that for the Panjabi Js, in socio-religious
terms, the caste and the sect have become co-extensive, whereas for
the other castes, Sikhism remains a matter of personal choice,though
until recently it was customary for the Khatr, the Aro and the Ahlvli
families of the Panjab to have systematically one son initiated into the
Khls.70
Nevertheless, it is clear that even for the Ammrit-dhr Js, the Sikh
Rahit Maryd does not provide guidance for all the aspects of life. Similarly, it does not mention all the faults and crimes that could rightly be
considered as sins, such as murder, to take only one example. The corollary is that the caste remains the regulating social milieu, sometimesas
is usual for the Hindus belonging to a sectat the cost of an insurmountable tension. For instance, regarding marriage, the Sikh Rahit Maryd
does have detailed prescriptions, with the following basic rule:
69The Ahlvlis present an interesting case of social ascension. Originally named

Kalls, and brewers of country liquors, they adopted the name of a prominent mid-18th
century military leader from their caste, Jass Sigh Ahlvli. They concomitantly followed a lifestyle higher than was required for their very low caste. They were so successful that today their status is comparable to that of the Khatrs. See McLeod, Historical
Dictionary, 2526.
70On the dialectics of caste and sect, see the papers gathered in Marie-Louise Reiniche
and Henri Stern, eds., Les ruses du salut: religion et politiques dans le monde Indien (Paris:
EHESS, 1995), especially the essay by Catherine Clmentin-Ojha, Lingalit des udra:
convictions smrta, dilemme vishnuite. Un dbat interne lhindouisme, 8891.
53
sikkha sikkha d viha, bin zta-pta, gota vicre de ho che |71

Marriages between Sikhs should take no account of caste or sub-caste.
But in the real life of Indian society, where marriages remain arranged
by families, Ammrit-dhr J parents, like all other Sikhs, almost always
choose for their children partners belonging to the same caste and to
another sub-caste, in strict conformity with the basic injunctions of the
very caste-system that is rejected by the Rahit.
Conclusions
In this brief survey, we have seen that for the Sikhs of the time of the
nine first Gurs, in the 16th and 17th centuries, when nascent Sikhism
was essentially a path of salvation, all sins were considered as rooted in
ones own ego and its evil impulses and desires, and they could only be
expiated by meditating on God and seeking union with him. Of course,
the sources do not say anything of other forms of expiation (or punishment) that the sinner (the offender) might have to undergo in the society
to which he belonged. The Hindus who joined the Nnak Panth remained
socially members of their caste and of their society at large. Consequently,
some of their faults could be held to go against the caste dharma and to be
liable to penances imposed by the pacyat, while others would be held
as offences or crimes coming within the competence of the local q, the
Muslim judge appointed by the Sultan or in his name.
When their growing conflict with the Mughals led the Sikhs to turn
from a peaceful devotional community to a militant order, important
changes were introduced in these conceptions by the tenth Gur. On the
one hand, deserting the battlefield became a major offence, which could
be expiated only by readiness for martyrdom. On the other hand, a code
was issued by the Gur for his Khls, and was later worked upon again
and again for two centuries. Its 18th century versions sought to provide
each Sikh of the Khls with a detailed list of his duties in terms of religious, personal and social life. Infringing the code meant to sin, and the
code contained graded penances for various types of offenses. The worst
of the redeemable sins necessitated, after due tanakhh, a re-initiation
into the Khls, while unredeemable ones condemned the sinner either to
71roma Gurdur Prabandhak Kame, Sikkha Rahita Maryd, 25; McLeod, Sikhs
of the Khaksa, 399.
54
denis matringe
deadly disease or hell, or to capital punishment. All these are clear indications that the Khls aimed at constituting itself as a separate social body,
as a theocratic polity in which sin and offence or crime were one and the
same, and fell under the same jurisdiction. But this vision remained a Utopia, for when Rajt Sigh became the Maharajah of the Panjab, he kept
intact the judicial system of the Mughals, appointing himself the judges of
the criminal courts, and keeping up the courts of the qs and the caste
pacyats for matters pertaining to personal law.72
The mid-20th century version of the code is marked by the Tat Khls
reformist ideals, and the story has now come full circle. The main emphasis is indeed clearly on the individual again, and on the various ways in
which he must behave to be personally a good, non-sinning Sikh. Expiation
is summarily dealt with, and must take the form of service (sev) to the
community, except in the case of the four major sins, which necessitate reinitiation. But we have also seen that in a way that is typical of Hindu society, severe tensions persist for initiated individuals between their adhesion
to the Sikh code and their unavoidable submission to caste dharma.
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Living Without Sin: Reflections on the Pre-Buddhist

world in Early China
Michael Nylan
Throughout the twentieth century, most students of early China have
characterized China as a shame culture, rather than a guilt culture, while
contending that sin is more closely allied with guilt than with shame.1
The claims that China is a shame culture tend to presume that guilt is
the superior motivation, morally speaking, since guilt is internally motivated and operative, even if no outsider becomes aware of any wrongdoing. Hegel, of course, famously insisted that the Chinese are amoral, if not
pre-moral, insofar as their ethical sensibilities were tied to external laws
(compulsion), as opposed to conscience, seen as the internalized rules of
behavior associated with a more highly developed Absolute Knowledge,
if not transcendent godhood itself.2 Building upon this line of reasoning,
most anthropological, psychological, and sociological studies of the twentieth century conclude that a focus on internality is a precondition not
only for moral autonomy, but also for the development of the conscience
and modern (i.e., progressive) self-consciousness or self-reflexivity. Nicolas Standaert is one of several prominent China scholars to consider the
probable fall-out from work by Sigmund Freud and Paul Ricouer identifying guilt as the beginning of modern self-awareness.3
1Frederick Robert Tennant, Recent Reconstruction of the Conception of Sin, The Journal of Religion 5:1 (Jan., 1925), 3751, could therefore complain, its [sins] correlation with
responsibility and guilt were left vague and undetermined (p. 37), despite sins definition
as responsibility in the sight of God (p. 38), since the social law or standard is conceived,
both by the social environment and by individual subject, as possessing ultimately a divine
authority (ibid.).
2This argument appears in Hegels Philosophy of History (New York: Dover Press, 1956),
pp. 11112.
3Nicolas Standaert , Zui, Zuigan, yu Zhongguo wenhua , ,
(Sin, Guilt, and Chinese Culture), Shenxue lunji (Collectanea Theological Universitatis Fujen) 97 (Fall, 1993), 35263. For Freuds views, see Civilization and its
Discontents or On the Genealogy of Morality, which give essentially the same picture of
guilt as the symptom of a bad conscience, which represents the internalization and moralization of external authority figures views. Increasingly, psychologists have questioned
Freuds views. See N. Eisenberg, Emotion, Regulation, and Moral Development, Annual
Review of Psychology 51 (2000), 66597; also J.D. Velleman, Dont Worry, Feel Guilty, in
58
michael nylan
That there is little call in the early Confucian texts for extended internal
dialogues is a point made long ago with utter clarity by Herbert Fingarette.4
Confronted with that view, admirers of China (especially proponents of
early Confucian ethics) in the last quarter of the twentieth century began
to try to refute the long-prevailing linkages between shame and outward
orientation, chiefly by arguing that shame in early China involves the
internalization of social moral codes.5 Proponents of China could draw
aid and comfort from the work of Gerhart Piers, a psychologist, and Milton Singer, an anthropologist, who rejected the common application of
the adjectival pair internal-external to guilt and shame.6 Of course, this
is hardly the only way for proponents of Chinese thought or Confucian
ethics to try to counter or upend the conventional calculations attaching
higher ethical value to interiority. One historian of philosophy focusing on
early China, Jane Geaney, has argued that the construction of the person
in early China did not depend upon strong inner-outer contrasts, so any
talk about the internalization of external moral codes is itself anachronistic for the classical era. Geaney meanwhile directs our attention to
the complete absence of any talk of shame in many foundational texts of
early China, including the Laozi, the Mozi, and the Zhuangzi.7 According
to Geaney, only texts ascribed to Confucian masters seem to dwell on a
complex notion of shame, and those texts, like others within the early
A. Hatzimoysis, ed. Philosophy and the Emotions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2003), pp. 23548, for example.
4Herbert Fingarette, Confucius: the Secular as Sacred (New York: Harper & Row, 1972),
passim.
5There is quite a literature devoted to this effort, including Bryan W. Van Norden, The
Emotion of Shame and the Virtue of Righteousness in Mencius, Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy 1 (2002); Kwong-loi Shun, Self and Self-Cultivation in Early Confucian
Thought, in Bo Mou, ed., Two Roads to Wisdom? Chinese and Analytic Philosophical Traditions (Peru: Open Court, 2001); Heiner Roetz, Confucian Ethics of the Axial Age (Albany:
SUNY Press, 1993); Paolo Santangelo, Human Conscience and Responsibility in Ming-Qing
China, East Asian History 4 (1992); Margaret Ng, Internal Shame as Moral Sanction, Journal of Chinese Philosophy 8 (1981); Wolfram Eberhard, Guilt and Sin in Traditional China
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967). Eberhard, Santangelo, Roetz, and Ng all
speak explicitly of early Confucian shame as internal shame. Van Norden opts to speak
of ethical shame and conventional shame.
6See their Shame and Guilt: a psychoanalytic and a cultural study (Springfield, Ill.:
Thomas, 1983). Piers and Singer argued for the superiority of shame (defined by them as
a potentially positive response to the disappointment of not achieving a loving parental
ideal) over guilt (defined by them as responses to aggressive impulses against punitive
parents and begrudging submission to social norms). Painful experiences of either guilt
or shame can motivate people to change their behavior.
7Eberhard, p. 13, comments that shame today, or in the nineteenth century, played an
even stronger role than in earlier times.
living without sin
59
received and excavated literature, simultaneously posit a person whose

body, heart, and mind seem to lack a core or firm delineation, being
porous and open and continually preoccupied by complex exchanges
uniting parts of the body and the world beyond.8 If Geaney is correct,
and the early Chinese moralizing texts place surprisingly little emphasis
on either inner or outer acts, in large part because of their distinctive
notions of qi flows within the body and between the person and external
objects of sensory perception (see below), then the common wisdom that
sees China as a generally outer-directed shame culture, in sharp contrast
to the supposedly more inner-directed guilt cultures of Europe and America, misses the point entirely, whether or not such misplaced theories persist in the Sinological community here and abroad.
Comparatively little effort has gone into trying to fully unpack the complex of notions attached to sin and guilt within specific moral frameworks, East or West. While everyone agrees that shame differs from guilt
in being primarily a social feeling or emotion, no consensus exists about
how to describe the experience that constitutes guilt or shame, rather
than being typical of it, nor do people agree on the precise connection(s)
between shame or guilt and (a) personal and societal ideals; (b) prohibitions; and (c) the nature, degree, and duration of the effect of the experience on the person or others.9 Moreover, two scholars writing in the
Journal of Moral Philosophy, have noted that the terms guilt and shame
thread through four logically separable discourses in ethics: those about
pro-social behavior, responsibility or free will, autonomy vs. heteronomy,
and social reputation.10 Rawls has suggested, for instance, a distinction
between moral and natural shame, where natural shame applies only to
non-voluntary attributes (e.g., a missing tooth, say, or the dramatic failure
8See Nylan, Boundaries of the Body and Body Politic in Early Confucian Thought,
Boundaries and Justice, ed. David Miller and Sohail Hashmi (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), pp. 11235; also Jane Geaney, Guarding Moral Boundaries: Shame in Early
Confucianism, Philosophy East and West 2004, 11442.
9For instance, does belief in an essentially sinful world tend to weaken the persons
will to resist immortality or improve the world? Or, in relation to Buddhism, does belief
in karmic retribution somehow reduce the responsibility that a person has over her deeds
in this present lifespan?
10Fabrice Teroni and Otto Bruun, Shame, Guilt, and Morality, Journal of Moral Philosophy 8 (2011), 22345, which defines moral behavior as pro-social behavior, insofar
as it strengthens cooperative interactions between members as a group. By pro-social,
the authors mean how the emotions or experiences typically promote or hinder specific
kinds of behavior. That the authors connect shame to hiding and guilt to making amends
already demonstrates the problem, for the identification of proper amends for wrongdoing
would vary according to the experience of guilt or shame.
60
michael nylan
of a bathing suit strap to hold as one emerges from the water) and moral
shame, as defined by Rawls, applies to a failure to sustain the moral excellence required to desire to do what is right and just.11 Bernard Williams,
in his Shame and Necessity, has argued the utility in moral reasoning of
shame, if shame implies sensitivity towards the opinions of others we may
not share.12
In trying to think about sin in the pre-Buddhist world in China, these
were but the first ideas to come flooding into my mind. However, to sort
out the issue of sin in early China, and what appears at first glance to be
a stunning absence of any concept analogous to sin, it probably makes
sense to begin with three simple observations about definitions before
working out from those. My first observation bemoans the unfortunate
translation of the word sin as crime in Chinese;13 the second insists on
the radical incommensurability of modern Western predications of internal guilt and external shame, versus constructions of the body and soul,
form and heart (xing xin ) in early China; and the third queries the
usual presupposition that suprahuman sanctions function as the single
root and referent of sin.14 Only consideration of these three definitional
problems permits a more careful assessment of the question whether early
China had a concept similar to that of sin, not to mention the larger question of what role such a concept would have played in society and politics. At the end of this essay, I turn briefly to the topic of Buddhism, and
its dramatic alterations to the conceptual architecture of early China. As
I am no scholar of Buddhism, I will invoke in my defense the Nietzschean
principle that profound problems are like cold baths: one should be quick
in [and] quick out. Put another way, either sin is a helpful construction
to impute to early China or it is not. Good historians know that they can
never prove a ubiquity or an absence; not being metaphysicians, historians can at best puzzle out local patterns of convergences.15 In offering
the following short summation to a sophisticated readership, I presume
11John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971), p. 290.
12Bernard Williams, Shame and Necessity (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1993).
13Some Buddhist texts used another word, hui , which means filthy, but zui is
much more common.
14Is there not a possibility for sins to be occasioned by lapses or failures in interpersonal relationships, comparable to George DeVos description of Japan as a guilt
culture?
15Paul Veyne, Did the Greeks Believe in Their Myths: an essay on the constitutive imagination, Paul Wissing, trans. (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1988), esp. p. 33; Walter Benjamin, Theses on the Philosophy of History, Thesis 6 (1968), argues that historians do not
living without sin
61
that I need not spell out the usual caveats for early China, chief among
them that the extant sources record only the public pronouncements of
members of the governing elite, and overwhelmingly, the most successful
members of the capital elite at that. Understandably, then, the texts I have
reviewed to prepare this essay register little in the way of status, class,
regional, or chronological distinctions, though formidable, overlapping
barriers existed in all these areas during the early empires under review.
The standard translation for sin in China is zui , which had two
prior meanings: those of (1) crime and (2) punishment for a crime. Original sin in the standard translation is yuan zui (primordial crime).16
By definition, crimes in early China are (a) legally culpable (b) acts against
society or the immediate community; (c) serious in nature; (d) requiring
punishment; and (e) not exactly equal to immorality.17 In addition, in
early China, many crimes merited collective, rather than individual punishment.18 For several reasons, then, crime is a very poor rendering for
sin, though alternative translations are not appreciably better. After all,
sins may be lesser or venial;19 not all sins are illegal; not all sins are acts
committed against ones fellow man;20 and not a single sin, at least in the
New Testament, calls for collective, rather than individual punishment,
though todays fire and brimstone preachers regularly overlook this fine
theological point. For all of the foregoing reasons, studies have shown that
modern Chinese, at least, express considerable confusion when the terminology of zui (crime) is applied to their misdeeds. Law-abiding citizens
typically resist the notion that they have committed crimes, even when
they readily admit that they have acted ill. Indeed, one of the reasons that
Li Zehou (b. 1930), the eminent philosopher of aesthetics, applies
phrases like one world orientation (referring solely to this world of the
living) and a culture alive to pleasure (le gan wenhua ) to early
Confucian teachings (which Li then identifies as the general Zeitgeist
recognize the way it really was, but rather seize hold of a memory as it flashes up at a
moment of danger.
16Benzui (root sin) means actual sin, in late imperial and modern terms.
17This last point is made abundantly clear by the casebooks of Zhangjiashan, which
clearly distinguish immoral from illegal acts, as early as 186 bc.
18Interestingly, the language of crimes makes the crime, but not the criminal deserving of punishment; the language of sin, by contrast, focuses more on the individual who
has sinned than the sin. For the case of early China, see A.F.P. Hulsew, Remnants of Chin
Law (Leiden: Brill, 1985), p. 5.
19Other vocabulary is used in Chinese for inadvertent mistakes (guo or shi ).
20Since all crimes are social crimes in early China, one cant sin against oneself or by
oneself erasing a whole class of supposed sins (e.g., masturbation, selfish thoughts).
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michael nylan
prior to Buddhism and Song-Ming Neo-Confucianism) is that this sort

of teachings dont look for abject contrition from the wrongdoer.21 This,
plus the fact that no special vocabulary was ever devised to account for
acts that correspond to sins in the Western sense of a violation of rules
belonging to a moral code set up and guarded by the supernatural, by
personal deities, or by supra-human but impersonal powers, would seem
to suggest that no precise counterpart to the concept of sin ever existed
in early China.
That wrongdoing in early Confucian texts was frequently conflated
with lapses in ritual (shi li ) is significant, as is the propensity of
those same texts to deem wrongdoing ugly (e ) yet still liable to radical improvement, rather than evil and substantially, even irremediably
flawed. Marshall Sahlins The Western Illusion of Human Nature22 equates
the term universal human nature with a radical and sustained contempt
for humanity stretching from Thucydides to St. Augustine to Machiavelli to the Federalist papers. By Sahlins lively account, this contempt
for humanity emphasizes the extreme vulnerability of human souls and
human institutions to corrupting influences, even in Paradise. (Hence
the manifold temptations that death alone can cure.)23 By contrast, in
early China wrongdoing is bad simply because it undermines the laudable efforts devoted to self-fashioning, cooperative ventures, and exemplary displays by nobles and the noble in spirit. This observation leads
me ineluctably to another: while the chief question posed by thinkers in
classical Greece and Rome was How am I to know a thing to be true?,
the chief question posed by thinkers in early China was, Recognizing the
right course of action in a given situation, how can a person ever learn to
summon the will to act upon that knowledge?
In his elegant little book entitled Self-Deception, Herbert Fingarette
remarks that Western moral thinking has been hard put to describe any
plausible connection between consciousness and perception, on the
21See Li Zehou, Lunyu jindu (Hong Kong: Tiandi tushu, 1998), p. 134. Li
throughout this work seems to try to distinguish Chinese culture from both Christian guilt
and Japanese shame. He argues that the Chinese privilege practical reason (shiyong lixing ), as theirs is a culture alive to pleasure (legan wenhua ). See
ibid., p. 21f.
22Marshall D. Sahlins, The Western Illusion of Human Nature: with reflections on the
long history of hierarchy, equality, and the sublimation of anarchy in the West, and comparative notes on other conceptions of the human condition (Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press,
2008).
23See Tennant, p. 44, who presumes this view of human nature.
living without sin
63
one hand, and volition and action, on the other.24 Yet early masters in
China, especially Xunzi, to my mind, outline a coherent picture of physiological processes whereby the mature xin (the heart), in response to
outside stimuli and to a complex of inborn desires, may learn to carve
such strong cognitive and behavioral pathways that the mature thinking person reliably undertakes moral action, without reference to either
higher powers or sustained introspection. Analects 3/21 goes so far as to
say, One does not blame whatever is past, lest the very process of continually revisiting ones past mistakes actually impede progress in the Way
for any one of several reasons.25
An accurate summary of the near-consensus position reached in early
Chinese writings would be the following: The early Chinese thinkers begin
with the notion of an inborn nature (xing), insisting that all humans,
regardless of class, status, or gender, are endowed at birth with the same
basic range of senses and desires, which they will seek to gratify, unless
the urge for gratification is overridden by some more powerful drive or
forestalled by some institution. As Xunxi put it, all humans are equipped
with several sensory organs (including the skin, the site of tactile organs)
built to react to the externals with which they come in contact on two
logically distinct but simultaneously communicated levels. Each organ
reacts to the perceptible qualities inherent in the material (e.g., black or
white, sour or salt), while the organ, working in tandem with the powers of discrimination located in the xin or heart/mind, makes an assessment of value of the object or person contacted (e.g., beautiful or ugly,
shrill or sonorous), aided in this by memory and experience, as well as
by analogical reasoning. Identifying an object as beautiful or sonorous
implies a desire to preserve contact with that object through the sensory
equipment. So fact, value, and desire are inextricably intertwined always,
according to the early Chinese view. Needless to say, since any interaction
between the senses, the xin, and the external entity involves successive
acts of coordination, correlation, and categorization, appropriate gratification of the senses becomes a complicated thing, liable to get easily out
of whack.
At the same time, the sensory percepts, just like the desires and pleasures, are conceived as contacts that require qi flows or even floods out
24Herbert Fingarette, Self-Deception (London, Routledge & K. Paul, 1969), chap. 1,
passim.
25These reasons include (1) that continual self-berating harms ones qi and ones spirit;
and (2) that continual introspection may lead one to get stuck in the past.
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michael nylan
of ones own person to make contact with the qi of external phenomena.

To establish contact of any kind between parts of the body or parts of the
world, the qi must penetrate either through the skin or through the organ
systems of the body, sometimes visibly (e.g., pulse patterns, fine sweat,
bulging eyes) but sometimes in barely visible or invisible ways. Inevitably, repeated movements (dong ) out from the bodys core threaten to
deplete the bodys generally closed system of regularly circulating systems
of blood and qi (blood being but yet another form of qi), and early medical texts are quick to identify leakage of the jing , the most potent and
enlivening form of qi , as the chief cause of illness and death, aside
from contagion or attacks by vengeful ghosts and spirits (more on that
later). Each occurrence of leakage represents a loss of a finite amount of
the vital spirit allotted to a person. Once spent, that measure of vital spirit
is difficult, if not impossible to restore,26 which explains why successive
depletions lead inexorably to debility and finally death.27
Obviously enough, some forms of flow and even outflow are necessary
to the bodys survival or equilibrium, as when a person seeks food to prevent starvation or has sex to quell the bodys craving for it.28 While no
deed is inherently wrong, absent its precise social and cosmic context,29
nonessential forms of arousalanything from the desire to read a specific
text to a yen for a concubine or bears paws for dinnercreate special
problems when the instances of arousal offer few or no compensatory
gains in the form of sustaining social relations. Art and ritual imbue the
procurement of the simplest of human desires and pleasures with an
added potential to build communities, but neither art nor ritualnor any
cultural forms, for that matterguarantees ipso facto that an act of striving to realize ones desires will not harm ones physical person.30
26There are elaborate recipes for the production of elixirs of life, either through the
ingestion of plants, minerals, or special foods, or etc.) or by means of internal disciplines,
but not much faith is put in such recipes in the Zhanguo and Han texts. NB: By an analogy to leakages from the body, ruinous outlays and expenditures are said to weaken the
realm.
27Note that alterations within the persons body necessitate further adjustments to the
outside world, and vice versa.
28The nature of human beings is inclined to equilibrium, but wants and desires harm
it. See, for example, Huainanzi ji jie, chap. 11.
29All dispositions and deeds are morally neutral until such time as they are attached
to good or bad actions and persons; a response to a specific situation takes on a precise
ethical charge primarily from its personal, familial, and social consequences.
30Hence, the Analects injunction against wen zhang (here elaboration of cultural forms), unless those forms be used in the service of a well-identified and worthy
aim.
living without sin
65
Then, too, if the conventional objects of desire are to be thoroughly

enjoyed, the person must feel that neither possession nor enjoyment of
these objects threaten his person, his livelihood, or his community, now
or within the foreseeable future. The Zhanguo and Han treatises mention three obvious ways to increase ones safety in gratification, none of
them particularly easy or quick: The first is to change ones own attitudes
with a view to reducing both the number of desires and the degree of
dependence upon others for their satisfaction, thereby radically decreasing the chances of being harmed by the pulls exerted by a multitude of
seductions and allurements. The second way is to not so much to reduce
as to refine ones desires, developing a taste for the higher (and not coincidentally fewer) sorts of pleasures associated with connoisseurship in a
field of endeavor or interest. If that can be done, the person may still have
to depend upon others for the attainment of his desires (if, for instance,
he looks for an appointment to high office), yet he will doubtless narrow his sights, and thereby achieve greater single-mindedness of purpose,
which means, in turn, that he will be more likely to attain his goal or
goals while building a stronger sense of his own worth, a sense that is
pleasing in itself and meanwhile frees him from the herd mentality. The
third suggested method by which to secure ones pleasuresperhaps the
hardest of the threeis to make the enjoyment of that pleasure available
to others, as shared or commensal pleasures mitigate others envy and
malice. The idea is, any pleasures shared by those in power with the less
fortunate strengthens bonds within the community, and will be doubly
repaid by the increased sense of security that reflects reduced tensions
and enhanced harmony within the immediate community. As the excavated Mawangdui Wu xing pian (terminus ad quem 168 bc) puts
it, An insecure person does not [tend to] experience pleasure; and if he
does not experience pleasure, then he does not [tend to] act virtuously.
The foregoing summary wreaks havoc with any contempt for human
nature that feeds on a concept of sin, as well as with a purportedly universal scenario where man is said to be conscious before he is self-conscious,
appetitive before he is volitional, and volitional before he is moralized.31
In the Chinese view, higher levels of moral understanding and moral action
do not aim to abolish the appetites, emotions, and desires from human
existence. Rather, the alternate ways of seeing people as social beings
generating inflows, outflows, and the possible balances between them are
31Tennant, p. 412.
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michael nylan
very old in China, and they can be found in all sorts of texts, including the
Analects ascribed to Confucius and his circle, which says, The person of
superior cultivation guards against three things: when young, the blood
and qi are not yet settled, so he guards against lust; when mature, the
blood and qi are vigorous, so he guards against combativeness; and when
old, the blood and qi are declining. so he guards against covetousness.32
Here the Master inveighs against harmful passions (envisioned as unrewarding outward flows) likely to undermine the persons security and
well-being. Notably, this basic rationale describing human activities
within the body and the body politic lays no particular stress on inner vs.
outer; instead, it posits flows and exchanges among body parts, as among
things and people in phenomenal existence. Equally notably, this account
of human activity steadfastly refuses to label any single act as inherently
wrong, before the complex calculation of long-term and short-term consequences of the act has been done.33 Again, we find that not much looks
like sin here, though it is certain that some people in early China, without being found out by others, experienced great sorrow when contemplating their own misdeeds and the effects of those deeds upon others.34
My third point brings me to violations of extra-human laws laid down
by the gods or by the impersonal powers ordering the cosmos. As someone has opined, It is the essence of sin-talk...that it should function
as a theological language, which cannot be reduced to other languages
employed in treatments of the pathological in psychology or ethics.35 The
early Chinese texts occasionally speak of gods, including the High Lord,
or the apotheosized dead anthropomorphically. They also concede that
violations against the Lords will or the cosmic order do occur, and some
thinkers allege that such violations are invariably punished, to the degree
32Eberhard, p. 14, notes that personal spirits that live within the person (i.e., the soul)
are posited from early on; he could have cited the Introduction to Arthur Waleys translation of The Way and its Power for further details. Daoist and Buddhist texts place even
more emphasis on the personal spirits residing inside the human body (also on the stove
god making reports).
33The foregoing synopsis is extracted from the Introduction of my forthcoming book
on pleasure theory in early China, parts of which have appeared in print already. Citations
in that introduction are drawn from a wide variety of texts, including medical, legal, and
philosophical works.
34This is a point stressed by Standaert (op. cit.).
35See Alistair McFadyen, Bound to Sin: abuse, Holocaust, and the Christian doctrine of
sin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000; 2005); p. 5. Catholic theologians understand sin as disruption of a proper relation to God which constitutes moral culpability.
But one obvious question is, are individual sinful acts more or less important than a persons dispositions and intentions?
living without sin
67
that they come to the attention of conscious higher powers. What we do not
find in early Chinese texts, in other words, is a presumption of perfect
omniscience ascribed to the gods or any forces inhabiting an extra-human
world. The distinctive Mohist vision whereby a conscious high Heaven
functions as efficient deus ex machina, raining punishments down on all
those who violate Mohist preceptsthis was perhaps the one and only
Mohist device to fail to elicit widespread interest in the classical era in
China. (The Mohist treatise entitled Heavens Will veers quickly away
from talk of a heaven that discerns each and every crime committed.)
Far more persuasive was Xunzis view and variants on it: that a person
goes through life responding to conjunctions of events, many not of his
own choosing, and much of life that is good and meaningful need not
be lived in the entirely conscious way that some modern thinkers apparently demand of moral agents. A great many Chinese textsXunzi, Yang
Xiong, and Legalist thinkers being major exceptionsadmit the potential
for vengeful ancestors and ghosts to visit their anger upon the living, causing illness and even death, unless the living placate them through gifts or
deeds or still higher powers frustrate their destructive impulses. As the
gods and ancestors themselves could sometimes act in unruly or irrational fashions, disasters may befall the innocent among the living, even if
the cosmic order is considered fundamentally good and beneficent.36 In
consequence, attempts by certain Sinologists to contrast the sin culture
of the West with a pleasure culture dominant in early China seem onesided at best, and dishonest at worst, though talk of an aesthetic culture
alive to pleasure, for instance, by Li Zehou, allows for greater nuance and
thoughtfulness. As the early medical, historical, and philosophical treatises show, elite writers in pre-Buddhist China gave such varying accounts
of specific human contacts with the social and extra-social realms, despite
accepting the same basic phenomenological analysis, that it is hard to
justify singling out any one narrative that can then be dubbed either radically [more] optimistic or less despairing than the narratives drawn from
other classical era civilizations.37 The taboos listed in the excavated rishu
36Unruly Gods: divinity and society in China, eds. Meir Shahar and Robert P. Weller
(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996).
37Contra David Keightleys characterization of Shang and Zhou cultures in important articles such as Clean Hands and Shining Helmets: Heroic Action in Early Chinese
and Greek Culture, Religion and Authority, ed. Tobin Siebers (Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press, 1993), 1351; Early Civilization in China: reflections on how it became
Chinese, Heritage of China: Contemporary Perspectives on Chinese Civilization, ed. Paul S.
Ropp (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990), 1554. Cf. Wang Weifan ,
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michael nylan
(daybooks, almanacs) testify to the prevailing anxieties of Zhanguo

and Han, however, as do most other texts from the period.38
I promised to mention briefly the profound changes wrought by the
introduction, in the first century ad, of Buddhism, a religion with close
affinities with Mediterranean religions,39 and its gradual penetration
outside the sangha into elite culture from the fourth century ad. In relation to the topic of sin, clearly the most significant new concept brought
by Buddhism is that of karma, in which the punishment for misdeeds
continues to afflict the person over the course of many cycles, through
multiple reincarnations, long after any individual lifespan has ended. Consideration of this single theological doctrine set off ripple effectson the
order of tsunamisthroughout the ranks of the medieval governing elites.
Whereas the early Chinese thinkers had uniformly prescribed the duty to
sacrifice in order to maintain contacts between the living and the dead,
without insisting on a single correct account of those transactions,40 the
Buddhists propagated orthodox narratives describing a range of unseen
interactions. Meanwhile, Buddhism insisted on individual responsibility
and salvation over collective responsibility and community salvation, as
well as on the inherent evil of desireall of which flies in the face of
Xunzis powerful insight that the multiple and competing desires in
human nature represent important tools in the toolbox the thinking person wields to transform herself for the better, forging a second nature
(also xing ). The new Buddhist emphasis on asceticism as a route to
detachment would have struck earlier thinkers in China as extreme,
Destruction, Reflection and Rebirth, in Peter Lee, ed., Confucian-Christian Encounters in

Historical and Contemporary Perspective (Lewiston: E. Mellen, 1992), pp. 14749; and Liu
Xiaofeng , Joy in China, Sin in Christianity? a comparison (G. Evers trans.), China
Study Journal 7:3 (1992), 1725. While many Jewish, Catholic, and Protestant sects emphasized original sin, we should also remember that Europe and America produced thinkers
like Jean Jacques Rousseau who insisted that human nature is originally good.
38Nylan, The Power of Highway Networks during Chinas Classical Era: Regulations,
Metaphors, Rituals, and Deities, in Highways and Byways, eds. Susan Alcock, John Bodell,
and Richard Talbert (London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), and, more importantly, Poo Muchou, In Search of Personal Welfare: a view of ancient Chinese religion (Albany: SUNY Press,
1998).
39We should remember that what is now northern India was at the time of the Buddha under Persian rule; it should not surprise us, then, that Buddhism shows close affinities with Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and other Mediterranean religions that
emphasize asceticism as a good, and the superiority of mind over body.
40These were never theologically coherent.
living without sin
69
bizarre, muddle-headed, and contrary to all social norms and values,41

insofar that it conceives of a sinful world, as well as sinful people. In the
wake of the acceptance of these new Buddhist ideas in China, as Nicolas Standaert notes, come the invention of new ceremonies designed to
remove guilt and staunch desire, after which we may plausibly refer to a
Chinese sense of guilt and sin,42 adding a layer to the highly articulate
Confucian expositions of shame. (We are not certain whether early Daoist
confession of sins and purification ceremonies in faith-healing cults show
influence from Buddhism or not.) One piece composed by the historian
Shen Yue (441513) is a good illustration of the propensity over time
to extend the practices of the sangha to the ranks of the Buddhist laity.
Shens text, which opens with a formal salutation to the Buddha and all
saints,43 proceeds to describe his own gluttony as a child, after which the
text ends with the closing statement, I entrust my destiny to the Great
Buddha. In other words, Shens confession of sins consists of a deposition
intended for presentation to a higher order or Being.44 That said, my signal lack of qualifications prevents me from writing more about the early
history of Buddhism, when recent work devoted to the early history of
Buddhism in China is so much better informed.45
Conclusion
No text that I have read from early China makes statements like the
following: The deities are aware of every violation and punish it.46
(Although the Mohist chapter entitled Heavens Will comes close to
making such a statement, the chapter careens wildly between views
of tian as anthropomorphic god and as beneficent yet unconscious
41See, e.g., Li Zehou, The Chinese Aesthetic Tradition, trans. Maija Bell Samei (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 2010), p. 10. Li specifically argues that Chinese aesthetics is
non-Dionysian (p. 26).
42Standaert, p. 346.
43Guang Hong ming ji (SBBY) 36/1a12a.
44Wu Pei-yi, Self-examination and Confessions of Sins in Traditional China, Harvard
Journal of Asiatic Studies 39 (1979), 538, esp. p. 12.
45I cite but two pieces from the voluminous literature that I have found helpful: Timothy
Barrett, Religious Changes under Eastern Han and its Successors, Chinas Early Empires:
A Reappraisal, supplement to the Cambridge History of China, vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2010), pp. 43048; Robert DeCaroli, Haunting the Buddha: Indian popular
religion and the formation of Buddhism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004).
46This is how Eberhard characterizes the moralizing texts from late imperial and modern China.
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michael nylan
cosmic operations.)47 In place of references to an omniscient God or gods

or a perfect transcendent order ruling an imperfect world of the living,
three notions seem to thread through nearly all the early texts: (1) a fear
that some measure of integritythe vital wholeness needed for mental,
physical and spiritual healthwill be lost as a result of wrongdoing, which
loss may occur whether or not others witness or learn of the wrongdoing;48
(2) a fear that extra-human agents may hand down punishments of various types, typically in the form of illness, contagion, or loss of status,
sometimes to punish misdeeds but sometimes for no good reason whatsoever; and (3) a tendency to envision a distinctive form of socialization
that posits the human potential to become more divine (meaning, more
perspicacious and single-minded) than some of the gods themselves.
To posit of all humans the potential to acquire the capacious second
natures that facilitate insights into some of the important regularities of
the social and cosmic orders is powerful theory, undeniably. But such
claims would lack any semblance of reality were they not combined, as
they invariably are in the pre-Han and Han writings, with ready acknowledgments that even the best of people must work and worry, since they
confront the unexpected and the incomprehensible (including mortality)
in their quotidian lives. Much of my work has circled around these subjects in the last two decades.49 I hasten to add, lest the conscious and
unconscious inheritors of Freud and company misconstrue the tenor of
my prose, that I do not find the pre-Buddhist construction of the person,
personal morality, and personal culpability to be any less compelling than
theories offered by the twentieth-century Western thinkers cited above.
To the contrary. In avoiding any Apollonian vs. Dionysian trap while more
plausibly binding sensory percepts to desires, motivations, and actions in
ways consonant with neuroscientific talk about carving neural pathways
and attention tagging (nano-second assignments of relative value to
the objects of percepts), those early Chinese thinkers present us with a
47In the end, tian becomes for Mozi merely the source of the single standard of
benevolent rule.
48Note that I see little, if any stress, on ritual purity; ritual fasts are to remove oneself
from the world, not because the world is tainted, but because one needs to focus ones
energies on communication with the ancestors or the gods. I am not alone in saying that
fasts in the pre-Buddhist world are not to remove ritual uncleanness. Arthur Waley, The
Analects of Confucius (New York: Vintage, 1938), p. 63, insists on this point as well.
49Unfortunately, Michael Puetts work on this subject in To Become a God (Cambridge:
Harvard University Asia Center, 2002) generally fails to explain the context for such statements, and thus the limitations of the discourse.
living without sin
71
stunning view of humanity, whose merits academic attempts to recast the

early Chinese in our image would diminish or deny.
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Standaert, Nicolas , Zui, Zuigan, yu Zhongguo wenhua , ,
(Sin, Guilt, and Chinese Culture), Shenxue lunji (Collectanea Theological
Universitatis Fujen) 97 (Fall, 1993), 35263.
Tennant, Frederick Robert, Recent Reconstruction of the Conception of Sin, The Journal
of Religion 5:1 (Jan., 1925), 3751.
Unruly Gods: divinity and society in China, eds. Meir Shahar and Robert P. Weller (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996).
Velleman, J.D., Dont Worry, Feel Guilty, in A. Hatzimoysis, ed. Philosophy and the Emotions (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 23548.
Waley, Arthur. The Analects of Confucius (New York: Vintage, 1938).
Wang Weifan , Destruction, Reflection and Rebirth, in Peter Lee, ed., Confucian-Christian Encounters in Historical and Contemporary Perspective (Lewiston, N.Y.:
E. Mellon Press, 1992), pp. 14749.
Wu Pei-yi, Self-examination and Confessions of Sins in Traditional China, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 39 (1979), 538.
Sin, Sinification, Sinology: On the Notion of Sin in

Buddhism and Chinese Religions
James Robson
When I die Id go to heaven for the weather and hell
for the company.Mark Twain
If recent publishing history can be taken as being in some sense representative of current scholarly interests, then it is safe to say that sin is back
in fashion. It is not that evil doing has increased dramatically in recent
yearsindeed a recent book argues that over the centuries human violence has been decreasing in tandem with the increase in human reason
but conceptions of what counts as sin have received new attention.1 In
John Portmans A History of Sin: Its Evolution to Today and Beyond, he
argues that there has been a strong resurgence of sin.2 Although the
definition of sin has evolved over time, it is probably a truismthough
I suspect that is one of the reasons for bringing together the essays that
are collected in this volume for considerationthat conceptions of sin are
just one part of being human. Humans have always set limits on behaviors
and actions, even if in some cases what counted as a sin in the past is
considered commonplace today (think of usury, or the loaning of money
for interest) or what was commonplace in the past is now considered a sin
(think of slavery and polygamy).3 It may also be the case that some concept of sinhere understood in the broad sense of the willful violation
of a moral rule (or rules) imposed on us by a higher being (or beings) or
that form part of a religious community or larger cosmic orderis present in all major religions, despite the claims by some that no civilization had ever attached as much importance to guilt and shame as did the
Western world from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries.4 Notions
1Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined (New York:
Viking, 2011).
2John Portman, A History of Sin: Its Evolution to Today and Beyond (New York: Rowman
and Littlefield, 2007).
3This is one of the main topics of Portmans A History of Sin.
4Jean Delumeau, Sin and Fear: The Emergence of a Western Guilt Culture 13th18th Centuries (New York: St. Martins Press, 1990), p. 3.
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james robson
of sin also tend to be packaged along with desires for and techniques to
eliminate (or escape the consequences of) the effects of having sinned,
usually through some form of purification, confession, and repentance.
In much contemporary writing on Buddhism, however, it has generally been regarded as a sin itself to discuss the concept of sin in relation
to Buddhism. This antipathy to considerations of sin in Buddhism hit the
front pages of the popular media in 2010, when the Associated Press ran
a story about the salacious tales of Tiger Woods misdeeds and his public turn to Buddhism for redemption. That article discussed how the Fox
News analyst Brit Hume suggested that Tiger Woods should instead turn
to Jesus and the Christian tradition to deal with his sins, saying: I dont
think that [Buddhism] offers the kind of forgiveness and redemption that
is offered by the Christian faith...So my message to Tiger would be, Tiger,
turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a
great example to the world. In a later interview Hume continued: My
sense about Tiger is that he needs something that Christianity, especially,
provides and gives and offers. And that is redemption and forgiveness.
The upshot of these comments were that Buddhism was perceived to be
an inadequate resource to turn to in order to atone for ones sins. As will
become apparent in the discussion below, however, this contemporary
viewpoint is nothing new and can be understood as extending a particular
understanding of sin and redemption within Buddhism that was inaugurated by Christian missionaries and carried forward by some 19th and 20th
century scholars.
It may not be that surprising for readers to learn that the general comments encountered in contemporary Western media about Buddhism
and sin resonate in striking ways with the viewpoints of some contemporary Buddhist sympathizers in the West, who tend to be loathe to accept
notions of sin within the Buddhist tradition. Yet, it is equally noteworthy
that similar perspectives can be found in early academic works on Buddhism. If we turn our attention initially to the Hastings Encyclopedia of
Religion and Ethics we find a rather full treatment of the term/concept
sin within entries on Buddhism (written by Thomas William Rhys Davids
and his wife Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys Davids) and Chinese Buddhism
(written by Dyer Ball). Under the entry for Sin: Buddhist, Rhys Davids
comments that
the doctrine of Sin, as held in Europe, is a complex idea of many strands.
One or two of those strands may be more or less parallel to statements found
in the earliest Buddhist texts or to ideas expressed in Indian pre-Buddhistic
sin, sinification, sinology
75
texts. But the doctrine as a whole, in any one of its various forms, is antagonistic to the Indian, and especially to the Buddhist, view of life.5
Therefore, it is natural that Rhys Davids discussion of the conceptual

problems that arise when Buddhist karmic causality is factored into a
consideration of sin and doctrines of redemption, turned to issues of terminology and suggested that what some might be inclined to call sin
should in fact be rendered in the Buddhist context as evil, wrong, bad,
demeritorious, or corrupt (ppa, michchh, akusala, apua, sankiliha).
In order to justify his claims about the antagonism between notions of
sin and redemption, Rhys Davids also turned his attention to the precise
nature of karma. The nature of karmic causality dictates that the effect
of karma is something one must experience in order to expiate it. Rhys
Davids makes the even stronger claim that
no one holding the doctrine of karma, in any one of its various forms, could
accept the doctrine of sin.... there cant be, in this view, any forgiveness of
sin, it must work out to the bitter end, and of itself, its own fruit.
Rhys Davidss views would seem to accord with his European scholarly
forebears who wrestled with similar questions when they came into contact with Buddhism.
What is at issue here does not merely hinge on the problem of applying
a loaded Western religious term to Buddhist materials. To be sure, other
scholars have tried to point to the limitations of using the word sin in
relation to Buddhism due to its connections with Western conceptions
of original sin. On page three of Walpola Rahulas popular book What
the Buddha Taught, which appeared in 1959, for example, Rahula claims
that in fact there is no sin in Buddhism, as sin is understood in some
religions.6 What Rahula seems to mean by this claim, though he does not
explicitly state it, is that within Buddhism there is no notion of Christian
sin, which brings with it the related notion of original sin. Within Buddhism, Rahula claims, the root of all evil is ignorance and false views, not
sin. In a more recent work on Buddhist ethics, Peter Harvey also notes
that sin is a word loaded with Christian theological connotations. It
alludes to an evil action as not only morally wrong, but as against the
will of God, and setting up a gap between the perpetrator and God. While
5James Hastings, ed., Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (New York: Charles Scribners
Sons, 1958), vol. 11, p. 533.
6Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught (New York: Grove Press, 1959), p. 3.
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james robson
it is inappropriate as a translation in Theravda Buddhism, it does not

seem too inappropriate here [in the case of Mahyna Buddhism], where
an action is seen, in effect, as against the will of the buddhas.7 These
more restrictive definitions, therefore, tie the term sin to conceptions
of original sinparticularly as that notion was elaborated in Augustines fifth century theologythat are connected with the Fall of Adam
and Eve.8 In this view, it is the desire between a man and a woman that
brings them together in sexual union, which passes the original sin on to
each new generation; each child is born stained. Unless the sin is washed
away in baptism, a persons soul cannot attain heaven.9 Yet, as Gary A.
Anderson shows in his Sin: A History, even within the biblical tradition
conceptions of sin (and forgiveness) were constantly evolving, making it
difficult to decide on any overly precise definition of the term.10 Harveys
definition, which asserts an offence against God, accords with the Oxford
English Dictionary, but the Merriam Websters Collegiate Dictionary (11th
edition) gives as the first entry a more general conception of sin: an
offense against religious or moral law.11
These kinds of terminological problemsespecially with religious terminologies taken from one culture and applied to material in another
have already been discussed at length in relation to such loaded terms as
magic, but nowadays it seems to be generally considered acceptable to
deploy such terms as long as one stipulates their definition and range from
the outset in order to avoid misunderstandings and unintended pejorative
associations.12 Nonetheless, even if the problem was not merely limited to
terminology, the disavowal of any equation between sin and Buddhism
became a rather widespread and widely accepted scholarly opinion and
it remains influential to the present day. Indeed, there is only passing reference to notions of Buddhist sinwhere it is treated briefly under the
heading of Confession of Sinsin the Encyclopedia of Religion, and there
7Peter Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values, and Issues
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), p. 27, note 9.
8See Portman, A History of Sin, pp. xivxv.
9See Portman, A History of Sin, p. xv.
10Gary A. Anderson, Sin: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) and see
also the very useful discussions of conceptions of sin within a variety of religious traditions
of the ancient world in Sarah Iles Johnston, ed., Religions of the Ancient World: A Guide
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004), pp. 496513.
11Frederick C. Mish, ed., Merriam Websters Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition (MA:
Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2005), p. 1162.
12See the useful discussion in Sarah Iles Johnston, Review Article: Describing the
Undefinable: New Books on Magic and Old Problems of Definition in History of Religions,
Vol. 43, No. 1 (August 2003): 5054.
77
is no entry on anything like Sin: Buddhist in J.Z. Smiths Harper Collins

Dictionary of Religion.13
What has been of particular interest to me in tracking popular and
scholarly orientations to the relationship between sin and Buddhism is
that there is a parallel, yet rather different, discourse on this topic within
the literature of Sinological studies. It is curious to note, for instance, how
scholars of Chinese Buddhism have made explicit claims that it was only
with the arrival of Buddhism in China in the first century ce that the concepts of sinin Chinese designated with the term zui and the punishment of sin were introduced into China. In a well-known and widely
cited book entitled Guilt and Sin in Traditional China, Wolfram Eberhard
baldly claimed that
Buddhism spread in China at the latest from the 1st century ce on. It brought
a whole set of new concepts. We are interested here, not in philosophical
Buddhism, but rather in folk Buddhism, a simplified form which even the
uneducated could understand. It seems that folk Buddhism almost immediately brought to China the concept of sin and of punishment of sin.14
Sin, in his reckoning, did not exist in China prior to the arrival of Buddhism,
and therefore we might say the doctrine of Sinification was indeed one
of Sin-ification. How, then, are we to square the opinion that Buddhism
does not have a conception of sin with the competing claim that it was in
fact Buddhism that spread a concept of sin into China?
We are clearly presented with a paradox. That is to say, despite the
reluctance by some (primarily Western Buddhists) to acknowledge that
there is such a thing as sin in Buddhism, other scholars have noted that it
was Buddhism that introduced sin into China and left an indelible stamp
on its religious and cultural character. If we bracket, provisionally at least,
the claim that Buddhism introduced a concept of sin into China and assay
the place of sin in the history of Buddhism, there is no question that we
find a rich literature about sin, confession and repentance. Regardless of
the nomenclature that one prefers (or prefers to avoid), notions of sin
or transgressionsand repentance can be found in mainstream Buddhist
teachings as well as in later Mahyna developments.
13Jonathan Z. Smith, ed. HarperCollins Dictionary of Religion (San Francisco: Harper

Collins, 1995).
14Wolfram Eberhard, Guilt and Sin in Traditional China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), p. 17.
78
james robson
Within the Buddhist Vinaya and scholastic traditions there are specific
acts that are identified as sins or transgressions, which vary in terms of
severity, and detailed discussions about what should be done when they
have been committed. tienne Lamotte, Sukumar Dutt, and many others,
have discussed, how on the 8th and 14th (or 15th), at the time of the full
and new moon, the monks who resided in the same parish (sm), as well
as visiting monks, were obliged to assemble and together celebrate the
uposatha (Skt. poadha, poatha): a day of fasting and of particularly strict
respect of the observances. The Buddhists borrowed this custom from
heretical sects. Every alternate celebration of the uposatha concluded in
a public confession between the monks. In torchlight, the monks took
their places on low seats which had been reserved for them in the assembly area. The senior monk chanted an opening formula and invited his
brethren to acknowledge their faults:
Whoever has committed an offence may he confess it; whoever is free of
offences, may he remain silent.15 The uposatha ceremony includes a full
recitation of the 250 rules governing the community. While some offenses
are rather minor, and can be requited through an expression of regret or
some act of penance, other acts were considered so grave (prjika) as to
lead to permanent excommunication (asavsa). There was also a special
class of acts that have come to be referred to as the five sins of immediate retribution, which included murdering ones mother or father, murdering an arhat, drawing the blood of a buddha, and creating a schism in the
monastic community.16
Yet, as Jonathan Silk notes, the five sins of immediate retribution, however horrible the fate for having committed them, do not condemn one to
eternal damnation, but will also eventually be expiated.
Some time ago Melford E. Spiro already discussed the relationship
between Buddhist sin and Christian sin, and he drew similar conclusions
to those discussed in Silks more recent work. He noted that
unlike some salvation religions (Christianity, for example), in which sin is
the primary concern, the primary concern of Buddhism is not with sin, but
with suffering. This is not (as some people claim) because sin does not exist
for Buddhism. Lying, stealing, killing, and so onall these and many more
15tienne Lamotte, History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the aka Era, trans.
by Sara Webb-Boin (Louvain-La-Neuve: Peeters Press, 1988), pp. 5960 and Sukumar Dutt,
Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India (London: Allen and Unwin, 1962), pp. 7174.
16On these five sins see Jonathan A. Silk, Good and Evil in Indian Buddhism: The Five
Sins of Immediate Retribution, in Journal of Indian Philosophy 35 (2007): 253286.
79
are Buddhist sins; in the Buddhist lexicon they are acts of demerit (akusala).
The difference is that, although Buddhism recognizes the existence of sin,
unlike Christianity it does not see it as inevitable. All human beings have
the capacity to become saints (arahant), and thus sinless. For Buddhism, it
is not sin but suffering that is inevitable.17
Thus, for Spiro, it is not the use of the term sin that is problematic, but
the emphasis on sin over suffering does cause problems.
Gananath Obeyesekere, has also commented on the notion of sin
within Buddhism, but his focus turned to a comparison between it and
the indeterminacy of karma theory. He noted how in
a religion like Christianity we are all born with a constant load of original
sin; any sin or meritorious action I commit is something I am for the most
part conscious of. The effect of sin is psychologically determinate, and I can
do something about it through what the religion has made available to me:
faith, sacraments, confessionals, and the like. Not so with karma theory; not
only is the load of sin or merit that I am born with different from everyone
elses, but I do not know what the load is.18
Obeyesekere argues that this karmic indeterminacy can only be addressed

in two ways, attain sufficient knowledge to know the past that has caused
ones present circumstances, or go outside Buddhist doctrine to resolve
it.19 For Obeyesekere going outside Buddhist doctrine refers to taking recourse in astrology. While these approaches to the topic of sin
may fit well with certain Buddhist traditions, with the development of
the Mahyna tradition the status of sin and repentance changed rather
dramatically.
Within the Mahyna tradition there is a pronounced emphasis on the
soteriological potential of acknowledging the evil actions one has committed. One of the clearest expressions of the need to repent ones sins and
engage in good acts is, for example, found in ntidevas iksamuccaya.
The iksamuccaya is filled with precise accounts of what qualifies as sin
and attests that if one expresses regret for sinful actions one can become
17Melford E. Spiro, Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and Its Burmese Vicissitudes
(New York: Harper and Row, 1970), pp. 3839.
18Gananath Obeyesekere, Imagining Karma: Ethical Transformation in Ameridian, Buddhist, and Greek Rebirth (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), pp. 132133.
19Obeyesekere, Imagining Karma, p. 133. See also Gananath Obeyesekere, Theodicy,
Sin, and Salvation in a Sociology of Buddhism, in Edmund R. Leach, ed., Dialectic in Practical Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), pp. 740 and the related
discussion in Peter N. Gregory, The Problem of Theodicy in the Awakening of Faith, in
Religious Studies, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Mar., 1986), pp. 6378.
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james robson
purified of the effects of those actions. In a chapter on the purification of

sins, the iksamuccaya quotes a section of the Suvaraprabhsottama
Stra, which says:
May the Buddhas take notice of me, their hearts full of pity and compassion, and all the best of men that stand in the ten regions of the earth.
Whatever deeds I have done before, sinful and cruel, all I will now disclose
standing in the presence of the Daabala: whatever sin I have done through
not knowing my parents, through not knowing the Buddhas, through not
knowing the Good; all the sins I have done mad and intoxicate [sic] with
superhuman power...For all the sins that I have done in hundreds of ages,
I am heartily sorry, I am to be pitied, I am troubled with fear; I am always
distressed in mind for my deeds, wherever I go I am weak as water. May all
the pitiful Buddhas, who take away fear in the world, understand my fault
and free me from fear. May the Tathgatas annul the fruit of my evil deeds
for me; may the Buddhas wash me clean in the flowing waters of mercy.
I now declare all the sins I have done before, and all the sin I have now,
I now declare. For the future I undertake to cease all my evil deeds; I do not
conceal the sin that I may have done.20
The iksamuccaya then proceeds to enumerate a variety of antidotes to

sin that will lead to the purification of the perpetrator. The Tathgatabimbaparivarta, which is also cited in the iksamuccaya, says
as a man smeared with urine would take a good wash and perfume himself,
and that evil smell would be dispersed and gone; so disperses the sin of one
who has done the five unpardonable sins. And he who is versed in the ten
paths of evil, resting his faith on the Tathgata, would present the image of
the Tathgata, and that sin also is not discerned, especially when he is possessed of the thought of enlightenment, especially if he has left the worldly
life and lives in virtue.21
When properly repented, even the heaviest of sins can be erased. Jan
Nattier has also discussed, for example, how the different versions of the
Ugraparipcch contain a ritual known as the triskandhaka, or three sections, which in all of the different recensions include a directive related
to confessing and repenting the evil one has committed in this and former
lives.22
20ntideva, iksamuccaya: A Compendium of Buddhist Doctrine, translated by Cecil

Bendall and W.H.D. Rouse (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1922), pp. 159160.
21ntideva, iksamuccaya, p. 169.
22Jan Nattier, A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path According to The Inquiry of Ugra
(Ugraparipcch) (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2003), pp. 117121.
81
These Mahyna examples represent one perspective on the importance of repenting ones sins. We can also avail ourselves of a different
perspective offered by ritual texts focused on confession and repentance
that are preserved in Chinese. Those texts provide us with a more complete view of the extent to which those practices extended from the closed
domain of Buddhist monasteries out into the world of the laity and the
ways that confession and repentance practices changed and developed
in the new Chinese environment.23 We now have at our disposal a rich
body of disparate publications on various aspects of practices related to
sin, confession, and repentance in Chinese Buddhism.24 As Erik Zrcher
has aptly noted,
the confession of sins or transgressions is very common in Chinese Buddhism. It forms part of many different rituals, such as the formulary of
ordination of the lay Buddhist (the Triple Refuge, san gui , and the
acceptance of the Five Vows, wu jie ); the daily services held in Pure
Land Monasteries, and the most extensive Buddhist ritual, the Water-andLand Plenary Mass (shuilu dahui ), that is celebrated during seven
days and nights for the liberation of all suffering souls.25
Zrchers summary of the various domains of Chinese Buddhist ritual

practice related to the confession of sins demonstrates how ubiquitous
they were throughout the length and breadth of Chinese Buddhist history. It is not possible within the confines of this essay to discuss all of the
23As Zrcher has already noted the compound chanhui is a hybrid compound,
the first syllable of which is a garbled transcription of the Sanskrit kam, expression of
remorse, combined with hui, repentance. (Erik Zrcher, Buddhist Chanhui and Christian Confession in Seventeenth-Century China, in Nicolas Standaert and Ad Dudink, eds.,
Forgive us our Sins: Confession in Late Ming and Early Qing China (Sankt Augustin: Institut
Monumenta Serica, 2006), p. 106.
24Pei-Yi Wu, Self-Examination and Confession of Sins in Traditional China, in Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 39:1 (1979): 538, Daniel B. Stevenson, The Four Kinds of
Samdhi in Early Tien-tai Buddhism. In Traditions of Meditation in Chinese Buddhism, ed.
Peter Gregory (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986), 4598, Daniel B. Stevenson,
Protocols of Power: Tzu-yn Tsun-shih (9641032) and Tien-tai Lay Buddhist Ritual in
the Sung. In Buddhism in Sung Dynasty China, edited by Peter N. Gregory and Daniel A.
Getz, Jr., (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999), pp. 340408, Daniel B Stevenson,
The Tien-tai Four Forms of Samdhi and Late North-South Dynasties, Sui, and Early
Tang Buddhist Devotionalism. 2 vols. Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1987, Kuo Li-ying,
Confession et contrition dans le bouddhisme chinois du ve au xe sicle (Paris: EFEO, 1994),
Zrcher, Buddhist Chanhui and Christian Confession, pp. 103127, and David W. Chappell, The Precious Scroll of the Liang Emperor: Buddhist and Daoist Repentance to Save
the Dead, in William M. Bodiford, ed., Going Forth: Visions of Buddhist Vinaya (Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, 2005), 4067.
25Zrcher, Buddhist Chanhui and Christian Confession, pp. 107108.
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james robson
confession rites mentioned by Zrcher, so we will have to limit our discussion to just a few exemplary cases.
Kuo Li-ying has provided a useful comprehensive study of the early
Chinese confession and repentance materials, dating primarily from the
fifth to tenth century, within which she surveyed the various practices
detailed in the scholastic texts of Daoxuan (596667), Zhiyi
(538598), Guanding (561632) and Zongmi (780841). Among
those thinkers the key distinction that developed was one between phenomenal confession (shichan ) and noumenal confession (lichan
). Phenomenal confession referred to the types of practices found
in mainstream Indian Buddhism and other Mahyna rites that involved
the recitation of names of the Buddha. By reciting the Buddhas names,
with lists of upwards of 11,000 names, one could be cleansed of the karmic
consequences incurred from having sinned. What is particularly striking
about the Chinese texts is the extent to which they demonstrate the earnestness of the perpetrators emotional plea for mercy. Daniel Stevenson,
in his discussion of Tiantai repentance rituals, for example, describes a
sliding scale of severity in the demonstration of ones emotional fervor.
Some accounts describe the devotee with tears of grief streaming down
his face and one particularly interesting text details how
superior confession is performed with such intensity that blood seeps from
the eyes and pores. When confession is of the middling degree the body
becomes hot. Sweat pours from the pores; blood oozes from the eyes. The
lowest degree of confessional fervor is attended by heat and tears.26
Noumenal confession, which carries a more positive valence, was based

on the application of a more radical Mahyna philosophy to sin. In this
rite the practitioner is called on to realize the fundamental emptiness of
the concepts of sin and merit. Dan Stevenson, whose work covers some of
the same types of materials dealt with by Kuo, has also expatiated on the
distinction between phenomenal confession and noumenal confession
as elaborated in Zhiyis explication of the fangdeng repentance. For Zhiyi,
repentance performed solely on the basis of phenomenal activities can
at best remove the two obstructions of endowment and deed; it cannot
remove the root obstruction of vexation. This means that it may eliminate
sins that obstruct the path and help to reinstate a practitioner to the Buddhist teachings and precepts, or it may change the individuals karmic
26Daniel B Stevenson, The Tien-tai Four Forms of Samdhi, pp. 410411, cited in
Chappell, The Precious Scroll of the Liang Emperor, pp. 4647.
83
fortune, cure illness, remove impairment of the senses or physique, and so

forth. Since this approach is weak in meditative discernment, however, it
alone cannot liberate one from birth and death. Only when the fangdeng
repentance is performed in accord with Principle does it become capable
of uprooting the obstruction of vexation together with all the forms of
deluded existence that evolve from it.27
In addition to the particular monastic and scholastic approaches to sin,
the apocryphal Stra of Brahams Net [Fanwang jing ] describes
a different form of confession that is related to Mahyna Bodhisattva
Vows [pusa jie ]. Those practices became influential in China and
spread out into the domain of lay Buddhist practice. In this form of practice the individual is supposed to confess their sins in front of images of
the Buddha and Bodhisattvas over a seven day period.28 What is particularly intriguing, however, is that
in order to make sure that he is indeed purged of his sins, he has then to wait
for the manifestation of some lucky sign that confirms the absolutionan
interesting feature that is greatly elaborated in later scholastic treatises.29
In Zhiyis works, for example, we read that if the devotees repentance is

sincere, then his sins will be purged when he sees Samantabhadra and
all the Buddhas of the ten directions [appear before him], massage the
crown of his head, and preach Dharma for him and they may sense the
touch of the Buddha on their head or the perception of a strange smell, or
sight of auspicious flowers.30
We are also fortunate to have preserved in Daoxuans Guang Hongming
ji a record of the confessions of sins by the prominent Buddhist patron and historian Shen Yue (441513) that is classified as
a confession and repentance text (chanhui wen ). Most of the
extant confessions by prominent literati tend to be rather formulaic and
general, but Shen Yues record is exceedingly specific.31 After beginning
27Stevenson, The Four Kinds of Samdhi in Early Tien-tai Buddhism, p. 66.
28On Bodhisattva precepts, see Funayama Toru, Rikuch jidai no okeru bosatsukai no
juy kateiRy SNanseiki o chshin ni
, Th gakuh 67 (1995): 1135.
29Erik Zrcher, Review of Kuo Li-Ying, Confession et contrition dans le bouddhisme
chinois du ve au xe sicle (Paris: EFEO, 1994) in Toung Pao 83 (1997): 207212.
30See Stevenson, The Four Kinds of Samdhi in Early Tien-tai Buddhism, p. 71 and
Zrcher, Buddhist Chanhui and Christian Confession in Seventeenth-Century China,
p. 119.
31Guang Hongming ji [T.52.331b.16331c.26]. This record is mentioned
briefly in Kuo, Confession et contrition, p. 113, but is discussed at length in Pei-Yi Wu,
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james robson
with a general claim that he must have committed countless sins in all his
former lives, he then shifts to the particular and confesses that even as a
child he was given to gluttony.
My voraciousness knew no compassion, nor did my appetite understand
retribution. In my mind I consigned all scaly, furry, and feathery creatures
to the kitchen, excluding them from my sympathy on account of their not
being human. From morning to night and from season to season I devoured
them, never satisfied with a vegetable meal.32
He goes on to mention how as a child he

wantonly killed birds and beasts; each summer he destroyed thousands of
flies and mosquitos; in hunting and fishing he killed more living beings;
he allowed his underlings to loot farms and orchards so he could have
the spoils; his love of rare books led him to acquire two hundred volumes
by unlawful means; in his youth he indulged in many amorous escapades
with both girls and boys; he was frequently given to buffooneries and angry
outbursts.33
Shen Yue ends his itemized list with the following resolution for the
repentance of his sins:
In the presence of the Buddhas of the Ten Directions and Three Worlds,
before this assembly of monks and laity, I take an oath to subjugate myself.
I reproach myself and deeply repent my past transgressions. Examining all
my bad habits, I clean and wash my present mind. I shall entrust my destiny
to the Great Buddha.34
To be sure, Shen Yues confession of specific acts stands out as something

unique among confession and repentance texts, which tend to be far less
specific.
While Shen Yues text may be the exception that proves the rule about
how general Chinese confession texts became, it does, however, bear
some resemblance to the specificity of karmic accounting that is found
in later Ledgers of Merit and Demerit [gongguo ge ] texts, which
Self-Examination and Confession of Sins in Traditional China, pp. 1112, and my discussion here has benefitted greatly from his article.
32T.52.331b.1922, translation here from Pei-Yi Wu, Self-Examination and Confession
of Sins in Traditional China, p. 11.
33This summary of the contents of the Guang Hongming ji passage is from Pei-Yi Wu,
Self-Examination and Confession of Sins in Traditional China, p. 11.
34T.52.331c.1314, translation here from Pei-Yi Wu, Self-Examination and Confession
of Sins in Traditional China, p. 11.
85
became popular during the Ming dynasty.35 It is in this body of material

that we find the notion of sin as something that is quantifiable and possible to keep track of on a day to day basis. The Ledgers of Merit and
Demerit, which serve as a form of karmic accountancy, contain lists of
sins and good deeds. In that body of work then we find the process linked
to the individual and to very specific sinful acts. In the late Ming monk
Zhuhongs (15351615) Zizhi lu Record of Self Knowledge
we are also provided with 280 entries listing the precise merit and demerit
gained for good and evil acts. 1. Serve parents with the utmost respect and
loving attention; one day, one merit. 190. For every pronouncement that
is in conflict with the truth, count ten demerits. and 247. If one drinks
wine while discussing bad things, for every sheng [pint] consumed, count
six demerits.36 Zhuhong was as much concerned with his own transgressions as he was with the revival of the uposatha as a part of the monastic
regime. There must have been something in the air of late 16th and early
17th century China, since it was also at this time that Pei-yi Wu noted
an increased concern for sin and guilt among Confucians who began to
repent and confess their sins in strikingly direct ways.
Clearly there is much more that could be said here about the development of sin, confession and repentance within Chinese history, but what
has been presented already should demonstrate that the issue of sin has
remained an important preoccupation among Chinese Buddhists, and
there is an abundance of material on rituals of confession and repentance
related to the goal of attaining absolution from sin. Perhaps it is best to
now return to the main problematic raised at the outset of our discussion: if Buddhism had a notion of sin (as we have demonstrated), then
did Buddhism unleash this concept in China upon its arrival as Eberhard
claimed?
In a study that situates Chinese Buddhist confession and repentance
rites within the larger context of Chinese cultural practices, David Chappell
has suggested that Chinese Buddhist repentance rites differed from those
in India due to the way that they began to incorporate pleas for universal
salvationincluding ones dead relatives and potentially harmful ghosts.37
35On this body of texts see Cynthia J. Brokaw, The Ledgers of Merit and Demerit: Social
Change and Moral Order in Late Imperial China (New Jersey: Princeton University Press,
1991) and Chn-fang Y, The Renewal of Buddhism in China: Chu-hung and the Late Ming
Synthesis (New York: Columbia University Press, 1981), which includes a study of Zhuhongs
Zizhi lu Record of Self Knowledge.
36Chn-fang Y, The Renewal of Buddhism in China, pp. 233259.
37Chappell, The Precious Scroll of the Liang Emperor.
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james robson
A sixth century repentance ritual text, the Repentance Ritual of the

Great Compassion [Cibei daochang chanfa , also referred
to as the Precious Scroll of the Liang Emperor (Lianghuang baochan
)], attributed to Emperor Wu of the Liang (r. 502549), captures
this new concern in particularly evocative language.
Now today in this sanctuary, this great congregation with the same karma
(tongye ), just like that described in the scriptures, has a great likelihood of experiencing these dreadful things. We may already have done
these crimes, or [in the future] delusions may return without our knowing.
In this way we will commit wrongs that are endless and boundless and will
receive painful retribution in future places.
Now today with the most sincere heart and with our five limbs touching the ground [in prostration] we bow our heads and implore you, with
utmost shame and repentance for the wrongs we have already committed,
we confess and reject and eliminate them. For the wrongs that we have not
yet done, from now on we will be pure and make this vow to all the Buddhas
of the ten directions:
Namo Maitreya Buddha...kyamuni...Avalokitevara Bodhisattva.
Namo Buddha, Namo Dharma, Namo Sangha.
Great Compassionate and Great Merciful Ones, save, protect, and lift us
up, cause all living beings to immediately attain liberation, cause all living
beings to have their hellish, ghostly, and animal karma extinguished, cause
all beings to never again receive evil retribution, cause all beings to abandon suffering of the three lower rebirths, and all attain the ground of wisdom, and cause them to attain the place of peace and ultimate happiness.
(T.45.934b.9c.2)38
Chappell links the explicit concern for universal mercy found in this text to
the Chinese legal tradition and the governmental practice of issuing general amnesty for criminals, which dates back to the Han dynasty (206 bce
220 ce).
One of the main problems that compromises Eberhards claims about
the Buddhist introduction of sin to Chinabased on the arrival of Buddhist texts that contain notions of sinis the fact that he based his dating
of those texts on the attributions and dates given by the editors of the
Taish canon. The texts that Eberhard cited were all attributed to An Shigao
(fl. 148170) and dated accordingly to the Later Han dynasty. Yet,
as Jan Nattier has recently demonstrated, the attribution of authorship of
Buddhist texts to An Shigao increased over time and became increasingly
38Translation here from Chappell, The Precious Scroll of the Liang Emperor, p. 45.
87
problematic. Therefore, the dating and provenance of these texts remains

largely unclear and impossible to pin down with any certainty.
In a groundbreaking, but often over-looked, study by Pei-Yi Wu we are
provided with some important material for beginning to address the existence and place of sin in pre-Buddhist China. Based on his foundational
work, coupled with some more recent work in Daoist studies, such as the
work of fuchi Ninji and Tsuchiya Masaaki, it seems certain that already
by the late Han dynasty there is solid evidence for the existence of notions
of sin and its requital. Most of that evidence derives from Daoist communities, such as the Heavenly Masters movement that developed in Sichuan
in the second century ce, and the Yellow Turbans movement that rose
up as an important millenarian movement in Eastern China in the late
second century ce.
In a commentary to Zhang Lus biography in the Sanguo zhi
(Record of Three Kingdoms), for instance, the author quotes a
text known as the Dianle (Scriptural Abstracts), which compares
the practice of confessing sins in the Celestial Masters community with
the practice found in the Yellow Turban movement, lead by Zhang Jue
.
In the Way of Great Peace, the leader wrote talismans and wove spells, holding on to a bamboo staff or nine sections. He told the sick people to knock
their heads to the ground and remember their sins, then gave them a talisman, burned and dissolved in water, to drink. Those who got gradually better and were healed by this treatment were called good believers in the Dao.
Those who showed no improvement were considered faithless.
The methods of Zhang Xiu were by and large the same as those of
Zhang Jue. In addition, he established a so-called chamber of tranquility or
oratory, where the sick would retreat to reflect on their wrong-doings...Also,
he appointed so-called demon soldiers who were in charge of the prayers
for the sick.
To perform these prayers, they would write down the sick persons name
while formally reciting his intention to expiate sins. This would be done
three times: the first version was offered to Heaven by being exposed on a
mountain; the second was offered to Earth by being buried in the earth; and
the third was offered to Water by being thrown into a stream. Together they
were known as petitions to the Three Bureaus.39
39Sanguo zhi 8.264. Translated and quoted in Tsuchiya Masaaki, Confession of Sins
and Awareness of Self in the Taiping jing, in Livia Kohn and Harold D. Roth ed., Daoist
Identity: History, Lineage, and Ritual (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002), p. 39.
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james robson
The Sanguo zhi account can be profitably compared to a passage in the

Hanshu [Official Han History], that states that
Zhang Jue of Zhulu styled himself the Great Sage and Good Teacher. He followed the way of Huangdi and Laozi, collecting around himself a number
of disciples. They were taught by him to practice healing. The patients were
asked to kneel, make obeisance, and confess their offences. This procedure,
together with Changs spells, holy water, and incantations cured a great
number of the sick.40
The practice of writing down ones sins is also found in a Shenxian zhuan
biography of Zhang [Dao]ling. That biography states that Zhang Ling
wanted to rule the people by means of honesty and shame and avoiding
punishments. So, once he had set up administrative sectors, whenever people in any sector became ill, he had them compose an account of all the
infractions they had committed since their birth; then, having signed this
document, they were to cast it into a body of water, thereby establishing a
covenant with the spirits that they would not violate the regulations again,
pledging their own deaths as surety.41
The confession of sins was not only a characteristic practice of the early
Celestial Masters community in the West, but is also found in texts related
to Kou Qianzhis (365448) community in the North. In the Laojun yinsong jiejing (Scripture of the Recited Precepts of
Lord Lao) [HY 783], for example, we find a rule that stipulates that
if among the people of the Way there is sickness or illness, let it be announced
to every home. The Master (shi ) shall first command the people to light the
incense fire. Then the Master from inside the Calm Chamber (jing ), and
the people on the outside, facing toward the west with their hair unbound,
striking their heads on the ground, shall confess and unburden their sins
and transgressions. The Master shall command them to tell allnothing is
to be hidden of concealedand to beg for clemency and pardon.42
We could go on citing texts from early Daoist movements, including

for example Lu Xiujings (406477) Daomen kele
(Abridged Codes for the Daoist Community), to adumbrate the claim that
40Pei-Yi Wu, Self-Examination and Confession of Sins in Traditional China, p. 6.

41Robert Ford Campany, To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth: A Translation and Study
of Ge Hongs Traditions of Divine Transcendents (Berkeley: University of California Press,
2002), p. 351.
42Richard B. Mather, Kou Chien-chih and the Taoist Theocracy at the Northern Wei
Court, 425451, in Holmes Welch and Anna Seidel, eds., Facets of Taoism: Essays in Chinese
Religions (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979), p. 117.
89
within early Daoist movements conceptions of sin and their confession

were an important part of ritual healing, but I think the point has been
well established. What might be more useful at this stage of the discussion
is a citation of fuchi Ninjis summary of the six main points connected
with early Daoist sin confession rites, which he sees as evincing no Buddhist influence at all.43
1.Confession was directly related to sickness, which was thought to be
caused by sins.
2.This view in turn was based on the notion that human behavior was
supervised and evaluated according to its good and bad qualities by a
supernatural administration of gods and spirits; this concept was significantly different from that held commonly in pre-Qin times and documented in texts like the Mozi.
3.Confessions also contained a traditional Confucian element in that penitents had to kowtow to the gods and beg for the forgiveness of their
sins.
4.The formalities took place in a separate meditation hut or other isolated
place, like the chamber of tranquility, or oratory.
5.Confessing sins in order to heal diseases had the effect of lightening the
penitents burdens and making them feel lighter; this was completed by
the religious purification of talisman water (fushui), which enhanced
the psychological effect of the confession.
6.Other religions, especially Christianity and Buddhism, have similar practices of formal confession. Compared with these, the Daoist ones appear
less based on a deep inner feeling of guilt; they are, it seems, a more
utilitarian and this-worldly measure of concrete, practical relief.
There is still much work that could, and should, be done on issues related
to notions of sin in China. There could, for example, be some interesting comparative work done on the idea that sin began as something that
could leave a physical mark on the perpetrator (such as sickness in the
early Daoist communities), but transformed into a quantifiable entity.
Given the ways that sin was conceptualized and calculated in its later
elaborations in the Ming and Qing dynasties (in the later Legers of Merit
and Demerit for example), one wonders if the precise working out of
ratios of merit and demerit found in those sources may reflect wider
socioeconomic developments similar to those discussed by Jacques Le
Goff in regard to the accountancy of the hereafter that was developed
43This list is derived from fuchi Ninji , Shoki no dky (Tokyo:

Sbunsha, 1991), pp. 87, 9293, 163 and translated and cited in Tsuchiya Masaaki, Confession of Sins and Awareness of Self in the Taiping jing, p. 41.
90
james robson
during the thirteenth century in Europe; a time known as the century of

calculation?44 Or, it might be worthwhile to brood over this change from
sin being considered as a mark or stain to being something associated
with a credit or debit to ones karmic account by bringing it into conversation with the similar material presented in Gary Andersens recent book
on sin, which tracks a distinctive shift from early views of sin as something
material, like a stain on the hands, into the Biblical picture of sin as a debt
owed.45 Scholars of Chinese religions might also do well to explore the full
range of responses to various deployments of fear and the concomitant
notions of introspection, guilt, and anxiety along the lines of the discussion in Jean Delumeaus Sin and Fear on how sin became the prominent
fear within Western civilization.46
Those are all questions for another venue, but we can conclude this
initial foray into the question of sin in Buddhism and Chinese religions by
noting that in the face of all of the evidence from early Daoist sources
and until further research is done on the precise history of the arrival
and spread of the Buddhist uposatha in Chinait seems particularly difficult to countenance the thesis forwarded by Eberhard that Buddhism
introduced notions of sin into China. In the complex process of adapting Buddhism to China, Buddhist practices related to sin and confession
were transformed at the same time that they impacted Chinese beliefs
and practice by introducing new notions of sin and their requital. Thus,
rather than witnessing a Buddhist sin-ification of China, it may best be
understood the other way around, such that we also witness the Chinese
sin-ification of Buddhism.
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Imperial China (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1991).
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1986), p. 140.
45Anderson, Sin: A History.
46Delumeau, Sin and Fear.
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University of Hawaii Press, 2002), pp. 3957.
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The evil person is the primary recipient of

the Buddhas compassion
The Akunin Shki Theme in Shin Buddhism of Japan
James C. Dobbins
Among the various forms of Buddhism, Jdo Shinsh , or Shin
Buddhism, in Japan has perhaps the most striking and unconventional
doctrinal perspective on evil and wrongdoing. Instead of emphasizing the
attainment of enlightenment through individual effort and self-perfection,
it recognized the great difficulty humans have in following such a path
because of their propensity to commit evil deeds. Founded by Shinran
(11731262) in the thirteenth century, Shin Buddhism emphasized
the compassionate workings of Amida Buddha to bring all living
beings to enlightenment, rather than reliance on human effort to achieve
enlightenment. In order to drive this message home, Shinran made a
startling claim in his teachings, one that inverts Buddhisms traditional
recognition of the virtuous person over the evil one. In his akunin shki
doctrine, Shinran identified the evil person as the primary target of the Buddhas efforts to deliver all livings beings to enlightenment
and as a more likely candidate than the virtuous person to develop true
faith (shin ), which leads to enlightenment in Amidas Pure Land. This
paper will analyze and explicate the akunin shki theme in Shin Buddhism
and explore its significance in Japanese Buddhist history.1
Before I take up the akunin shki concept itself, I would like to make
a comment on the word sin as applied to this topic. As in the case of
other forms of Buddhism, sin may be an inexact term to use to explain
this idea of wrongdoing and evil. The reason is that Shin Buddhism recognized karmic cause and effect as the matrix out of which wrongdoings
arise and within which they must be negotiated. Actionswhether good,
bad, or neutral and whether physical, verbal, or mentalarise from, produce, and disappear as a result of causes and conditions. Human beings
are thus considered the authors, beneficiaries, and victims of their own
actions, since every act has an outcome, great or small, in this life or in
1For a survey of Shin Buddhist history, see James C. Dobbins, Jdo Shinsh: Shin Buddhism in Medieval Japan (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002).
94
james c. dobbins
future ones. Of course, in the context of Mahyna Buddhism in East Asia,

there could be interventions on behalf of sentient beings by compassionate buddhas and bodhisattvas, but their efficacy was predicated on their
immense store of karmic virtue and their transference of karmic merit
to others, all within the framework of karmic cause and effect. Hence, if
we use the word sin to refer to evil or wrongdoing in the Buddhist context, we must be careful to uncouple it from notions of original sin and
forgiveness of sin in Western religions. There are other reasons too why
sin is a problematic term to use in this case. Shin Buddhism, more than
other types of Buddhism, has been likened to Christianity throughout the
modern period. Amida Buddha is compared to God, Pure Land to heaven,
Amidas compassion to Gods forgiveness, Shin faith to Christian faith, and
Shin wrongdoing to Christian sin. Sometimes it is difficult for Westerners to conceptualize the themes and ideas of Shin Buddhism within their
original Mahyna framework when the concept of sin is invoked. For
that reason, I have opted to use such terms as evil and wrongdoing here
instead of sin.
Antecedents to Shinran: Evil as Seen in Earlier Buddhist Texts
I would like to review cursorily the stock of Buddhist tropes, images, and
themes that Shinran and Shin Buddhism inherited from earlier texts,
which they used to formulate their ideas about the evil person. Evil, while
not as pivotal a concept in Buddhism as sin is in Christianity, has nonetheless been a frequent and persistent topic in Buddhist literature. In his
writings Shinran drew from a wide array of Buddhist stras and treatises
as proof texts of his ideas. Without digressing too broadly, I would like to
highlight at least a few items from the three Pure Land stras and from
the Mahyna version of the Nirva Stra that served as starting points
for Shinrans thinking. Because the primary concern from the Shin Buddhist perspective was with habitual or entrenched wrongdoing, Shinran
tended to invoke the most radical examples of evil in Buddhist lore. Thus,
we find an array of terms cited from the stras that represent Buddhisms
extreme notions of wrongdoing, and also accounts of the greatest villains
in Buddhist history and legend.
The most common expressions indicating wrongdoing or evil that Shinran borrowed from Buddhist texts were the ten evil acts (jaku ), the
five grave offenses (gogyaku ), and the denigration of the Dharma
the akunin shki theme in shin buddhism of japan
95
(hb or hih shb ).2 All three expressions appear in

the Pure Land stras and are found widely in Mahyna literature. The
ten evil acts is a trope for the standard list of wrongdoings denounced by
Buddhism: killing, stealing, illicit sex, lying, deception, duplicity, malicious
talk, greed, anger, and ignorance. The five grave offenses consist of killing
ones father, killing ones mother, killing an arhat, causing discord in the
sangha, and injuring the Buddha. And denigration of the Dharma refers
to the disparagement and deprecation of the true teachings of the Buddha. For all these acts a person would incur dire karmic consequences,
and for the worst onesthe five grave offenses and the denigration of
the Dharmaone would suffer long-term confinement in the avci hell
(mugen jigoku ) where there would be no respite from torments and tortures. Hence, whenever Shinran used the term akunin ,
evil person, he inevitably associated it with these tropes for evil in Buddhist literature. One other term that Shinran cited frequentlynot from
the three Pure Land stras, but from other texts including the Nirva
Strais icchntika (issendai or simply sendai ), referring to
sentient beings who lack any karmic capacity to do good, who are predisposed to all the forms of evil, and who are thus obstructed from attaining
enlightenment.3 Such hyperbolic concepts were the ones Shinran culled
from texts to construct his image of the evil person.
We also find in Shinrans writings references to several arch-villains in
the Buddhist traditionspecifically, to Devadatta (Daibadatta ),
the belligerent apostate disciple of kyamuni Buddha, and to the evil king
Ajtaatru (Ajase ), who killed his virtuous father, king Bimbisra
(Binbashara ), in order to seize the throne. Devadatta was well
known for provoking discord in the Buddhist order and for drawing the
blood of the Buddha during an attempt to kill him with a boulder, both
acts included in the five grave offenses. Ajtaatruwho figured even
more prominently in Shinrans writings, since he was a major figure in
both the Pure Land Meditation Stra (Kanmuryjuky ) and
the Nirva Straimprisoned his father the king and starved him to
death so that he could ascend the throne, an act also included in the five
2Kygyshinsh , in Shinsh shgy zensho , 5 vols., ed.

Shinsh Shgy Zensho Hensanjo (Kyoto: Kky Shoin, 1940
1941), 2:97101. Hereafter, Shinsh shgy zensho is cited as SSZ.
3Kygyshinsh, SSZ, 2:1, 39.
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james c. dobbins
grave offences. Shinrans account of Ajtaatru indicated that he was so

filled with evil that his body broke out in foul-smelling sores all over.4
But Shinran made special note of a passage in the Nirva Stra, which
seems to foreshadow his own teaching about the evil person, in which
kyamuni Buddha declared that he had appeared and remained in the
world for the sake of evil figures like Ajtaatru, not for those who already
perceive buddha-nature (bussh ) and abide in Nirva.5
The fate of the evil person was described in different ways in the texts
that Shinran cited. For instance, in the Larger Pure Land Stra (Muryjuky
) the last sentence of Amida Buddhas crucial eighteenth vow
declared that those who commit the five grave offenses and denigrate
the Dharma would be excluded from the host of sentient beings born in
Amidas Pure Land.6 This exclusionary clause was moderated in China by
the Buddhist master Shandao (613681) who argued that the clause
was a deterrent (okushimon ) to wrongdoing rather than an exclusion of the wrongdoer, an exegetical tradition that Shinran inherited.7
The Pure Land Meditation Stra, on the other hand, assigned those who
commit the ten evil acts and the five grave offences to the lowest of the
low category (gebongesh ) of sentient beings born in the Pure
Land. It indicated that, if such persons were prompted on their deathbed
to think on the Buddha and to intone his name, then they could be born
at the lowest rank in the Pure Land, since the Buddhas name can nullify
the effect of eight billion eons of karmic wrongdoing.8 These texts were
thus interpreted as a confirmation that the evil person can attain enlightenment in Amidas Pure Land, though through some special mechanism
other than the natural operation of karmic cause and effect.
Besides the stra literature, Shinran was also influenced by other concepts and themes circulating in Japan at the time. An important one was
the idea of mapp , the belief that Buddhism passes through historical stages whereby the efficacy of its teachings and the ability of sentient
beings to actualize them steadily decline. In that final degenerate age of
mapp, humans become corrupt and evil flourishes.9 Shinran was also
4Kygyshinsh, SSZ, 2:81.
5Kygyshinsh, SSZ, 2:87.
6Muryjuky , SSZ, 1:9.
7Guanjingshu , SSZ, 1:555.
8Kanmuryjuky , SSZ, 1:65.
9For example, see the long quotation from the Mapp tmyki in the
Kygyshinsh, SSZ, 2:168174.
97
directly and heavily influenced by the teaching of his master Hnen

(11331212). He is best known for advocating the nembutsu , intoning
the name of Amida Buddha, as the true and exclusive practice leading all
sentient beings to enlightenment in the Pure Land during the desperate
age of mapp. He declared it to be an unfailing practice for people in all
states and conditionswhether one is male or female, high or low, rich
or poor, knowledgeable or ignorant, observant of the clerical precepts or
not.10 Hnen is frequently quoted as saying that even the evil person can
attain birth in the Pure Land, so how much more so the good person.11
Some scholars argue convincingly that he sometimes highlighted the evil
person as primary even over the good person, thereby inspiring the akunin
shki doctrine that Shinran went on to champion.12
Shinrans Doctrine of Akunin Shki
Akunin shki is the idea that the evil person is neither excluded from
the Pure Land nor grudgingly granted birth at its lowest level, but in fact
represents the prime target of Amida Buddhas vow to lead all sentient
beings to enlightenment. This idea has been celebrated by some scholars as Shinrans most important and original contribution to Japanese
Buddhism.13 Other scholars have protested that the idea originated with
Hnen, though Shinran has received all the credit for it.14 Without entering into the internecine debate over its origin, we can observe that the
idea became a prominent motif in Shinrans tradition of Shin Buddhism,
more than in Hnens Pure Land tradition. Moreover, there is a major text
in Shin Buddhism, the Tannish (Notes Lamenting Deviations)
that presents this idea as its central theme. This text admittedly has a
complex history in Shin Buddhism. It is a collection of sayings attributed
10Senchaku hongan nembutsush , SSZ, 1:944945; or in Shwa

shinsh Hnen Shnin zensh , ed. Ishii Kyd (1955;
rpt. Kyoto: Heirakuji Shoten, 1974), 368369.
11Kajimura Noboru , Akunin shki setsu (Tokyo: Dait Shuppansha, 1992), 156, lists six instances where this idea is found in Hnens teachings, drawn
primarily from the scholarship of Ienaga Sabur.
12The main argument of Kajimura Noborus Akunin shki setsu, 4959, 172187, is that
Hnen was the originator of the akunin shki doctrine.
13Ienaga Sabur , Chsei Bukky shisshi kenky
(Kyoto: Hzkan, 1955), 243.
14Kajimura Noboru, Akunin shki setsu, 16.
98
james c. dobbins
to Shinran, but not an actual work by him. Moreover, it became popular

and widely read mostly in the modern period, not in medieval times. Furthermore, the exact words akunin shki do not actually appear in the text
nor in any of Shinrans writings, but represent a neologism formulated to
convey this idea.15 Notwithstanding these problems, it is fair to say that
the Tannish is universally accepted as an authentic account of Shinrans
ideas and that the concept of akunin shki, if not the expression itself,
appears in Shinrans teachings explicitly in the sayings of the Tannish
and implicitly in accounts to the evil king Ajtaatru and other references
in his own writings.
The most salient passage in the Tannish articulating the akunin shki
theme is the third section of the text, containing the following quotation
attributed to Shinran:
Even the good person can be born in the Pure Land. How much more so the
evil person! But what ordinary people usually say is: Even the evil person
can be born in the Pure Land. How much more so the good person! At first
glance this expression seems to make sense, but it [actually] goes against
the intent of [Amida Buddhas] principal vow, other-power (tariki ).
The reason is that people who perform good deeds through their own efforts
(jiriki sazen ) lack a sense of relying exclusively on the [Buddhas]
other-power. Therefore, it is not Amidas principal vow [at work]. But if
we overturn this sense of self-effort and rely on other-power, then we will
attain birth in the true Pure Land of fulfillment. We who are overwhelmed
by evil inclinations (bonn gusoku ) are unable to extricate ourselves from Sasra by any religious practice of our own. Out of compassion
for us, [Amida] has established his vow. The primary intention behind it is
for the evil person to achieve Buddhahood (akunin jbutsu ). Hence,
the evil person who relies on other-power embodies, more than anyone
else, the true cause of birth in the Pure Land (j no shin ). For
that reason it is said, Even the good person can be born in the Pure Land.
How much more so the evil person!16
Another quotation from the first section of the text elaborates further on
this issue:
In Amidas principal vow there is no distinction between young and old or
good and evil persons. We should realize that faith alone is necessary. His
vow therefore is aimed at aiding sentient beings who are steeped in wrongdoings (zaiaku jinj ) and blazing with evil inclinations (bonn
15Sueki Fumihiko , Nihon Bukky shisshi ronk

(Tokyo: Daiz Shuppan, 1993), 431438, outlines some of these issues.
16Tannish , SSZ, 2:775 (section 3).
99
shij ). Consequently, if one has faith in the principal vow, no

other good is necessary, since there is nothing so good that it can surpass
the nembutsu. Nor should one fear evil, since there is nothing so evil that it
can obstruct Amidas principal vow.17
The standard Shin Buddhist exegesis of these passages generalizes evil

into a universal human condition. It does not treat it, however, as an
inborn state as the Christian doctrine of original sin might, but rather as
an existential fate in the degenerate age of mapp. Shin Buddhism thus
urges humans to recognize the inescapable nature of their present condition and, instead of striving to perfect themselves in a disobliging and
deteriorating world, to rely totally on the power of Amida Buddha. This,
then, is a religion of faith (shinjin ), but this faith is not construed as
a choice or a volitional stance, but rather as the relinquishing all volition
and the acquiescence to the mysterious workings of the Buddha, inaugurated in his principal vow to bring sentient beings to enlightenment in
his Pure Land. In this state the nembutsu, intoning the Buddhas name,
is not treated as an act of virtue aimed at meriting the Buddhas compassion, but as the miraculous instantiation of Amida in the world and as a
persons natural response to the compassion that the Buddha has already
extended. Hence, faith, Amidas principal vow, and the nembutsu are seen
as multiple facets of a single religious process, all originating with the
Buddha. The evil personthat is, those who recognize their own deepseated human failingsare in the best position to cede their religious
fate to Amida. In orthodox Shin Buddhist doctrine, this is how akunin
shki is interpreted. The evil person is the primary target of the Buddhas
compassion because the evil person is best situated to comprehend and
surrender to it.
In elucidating the akunin shki concept, the Tannish is particularly
critical of forms of Buddhism that emphasize virtuous acts and upright
behavior to attain enlightenment or birth in the Pure Land. It treats people who have confidence in their own religious abilities as not yet cognizant of the futility of human effort in the age of mapp. Certainly among
Pure Land Buddhists of Shinrans day, there were many who advocated
a broad range of conventional Buddhist practices considered crucial for
attaining birth in Amidas Pure Land: studying stras and sacred texts,
performing acts of virtue, not falling into anger, repenting and reestablishing ones faith whenever one has committed a wrongdoing, and of course
17Tannish, SSZ, 2:773 (section 1).
100
james c. dobbins
frequent and extended intonation the nembutsu, since it was thought to

offset unfortunate karmic deeds. Such an emphasis on good works was
known in Pure Land circles as kenzen shjin , cultivation and
advancement of wise and virtuous action. The Tannish, however, treats it
as a misguided understanding of the Pure Land path, the diametric opposite of the akunin shki doctrine. Far from assisting people in their religious development, the encouragement of good deeds only perpetuates
the cycle of frustration and failure. Hence, the Tannish proclaims the
suspension of jiriki, self-effort, and the reliance on tariki, the miraculous
power of Amida Buddha, to be the true portal to enlightenment in the
Pure Land.18
These ideas in the Tannish and in Shinrans teachings in general are
predicated on a complex understanding of karmic cause and effect vis-vis the path to enlightenment. This, as much as his akunin shki doctrine, helps distinguish Shinrans ideas from other Buddhist teachings.
In a sense Shinran considered the functioning of karma to be a separate mechanism from the operation of Amidas vow and the nembutsu.
Whereas other Pure Land proponents perceived the nembutsu as a special
and powerful karmic act neutralizing all manner of unfortunate karmic
residue, Shinran declared the nembutsu to be neither a religious practice
(higy ) nor an act of good (hizen ).19 What he meant by this is
that for the person of faith the true nembutsu does not operate within the
framework of karmic merit or demerit. It is not intoned to achieve birth
in the Pure Land, but rather it occurs as part of the mysterious workings
of the Buddha. This does not mean that Shinran repudiated the idea of
karmic cause and effect. On the contrary, he believed that it is precisely
because of the consequence of karma that people are locked in a selfperpetuating cycle of wrongdoing. That is what makes them akunin, the
evil person. Over and above the dynamics of karma, though, Amidas power
and compassion operate in a separate dimension. They do not nullify the
worldly consequences of action, whether good or bad, but they vouchsafe
the enlightenment of the person of faith apart from those actions. Shinran in fact observed that the person of faith may not even show signs
of faithfor instance, joy and anticipation of enlightenment in the Pure
Land. But he acknowledged this behaviorand even unseemly behavior
such as boasting to others that Amidas vow assures one of birth in the

101
Pure Land (hongan bokori )as simply an unfortunate product

of past karma.20 In short, Shinran considered karmic good and evil, as
well as reward and punishment, to be the worldly environment in which
humans operate, but he considered Amidas vow, the nembutsu, and faith
to function unfettered by such structures. Thus, Shinran declared the person of karmic evil to be the primary target of the Buddhas compassion.
The Problem of Licensed Evil
In Shin Buddhism the akunin shki theme is usually analyzed at the level
of abstract doctrine, but historically it was imbedded in a culture of controversial religious activity. For people who advocated conventional Buddhist morality, akunin shki was often lumped together with the idea of
licensed evil (zaku muge ), the antinomian belief that people
should do whatever they please no matter how wrong or immoral it might
be, since Amida Buddha would always come to their aid. Shinran himself
differentiated his teachings from this belief, for he considered licensed
evil to be a willful manipulation of Pure Land ideas by people who had
no true sense of their own condition of evil. But Shinrans view was only
one amid a kaleidoscope of perspectives on wrongdoing and the Pure
Land path. These perspectives were expressed variously in doctrinal hairsplitting on the one hand and in a wide range of social behavior on the
otherfrom conformity to iconoclasm.
Some historians, especially those who follow a Marxist or Foucaultian
type of historiography, argue that the term akunin, evil person, had a more
targeted significance in the Japanese medieval context than the generalized meaning given to it in Buddhist doctrine. Specifically, it referred to
lowly and disruptive elements in society who did not submissively conform to communal norms and the established social order. They acted
provocatively and attempted to undermine the social, political, economic,
and religious structures that kept their status low and prevented them
from sharing in the benefits of society. In modern parlance, they would
be described as an exploited or subaltern group of individuals. Hence,
the special recognition of the evil person in Shinrans and Hnens teachings provided them with an alternative rhetoric to counter the dominant
Buddhist ideology that kept them marginalized. Shinran and Hnen may
20Tannish, SSZ, 2:777778, 782783 (sections 9 and 13).
102
james c. dobbins
not have explicitly condoned or encouraged such provocative behavior,

though they did object to certain aspects of orthodox Buddhist dogma.
But their teachings on the evil person obviously rang a resonant chord
with such anti-establishment groups and were deployed by them for purposes that Shinran and Hnen may not have intended.21
The type of provocative actions committed by these groups is exemplified in a document known at the Seven Article Pledge (Shichikaj
kishmon ) of 1204 that Hnen required his disciples to
sign. It listed a variety of activities and misdeeds that his followers were
accused of and which he enjoined them to refrain from. Included among
them were: denigration of other buddhas and bodhisattvas besides Amida;
attacking the teachings of mainstream traditions of Buddhism such as
Tendai and Shingon ; ridiculing adherents of other forms of
Buddhism; rejecting the practice of the clerical precepts (kaigy )
and encouraging sexual indulgences, liquor-drinking, and meat-eating;
provoking disputes with others; misleading the ignorant; and propounding
heretical ideas.22 These activities suggest that some Pure Land adherents
were brash in their behavior, inflammatory in their claims, and confrontational in their interactions with others. Such deeds could all be subsumed
under the category of licensed evil. Secular and religious authorities no
doubt reacted with alarm to these activities, for they feared that they
would erode social values and corrupt the clergy. Hence, Hnen and
other Pure Land advocates suffered suppression numerous times in the
thirteenth century. Hnen himself was placed in a difficult position. On
the one hand, he taught that the evil person is fully embraced by Amida
never to be forsaken (sesshu fusha ). But on the other, he sought
to restrain and moderate the behavior of his most rebellious followers.
As Hnens movement attracted more extreme elementsespecially late
in his lifeHnen himself seemed to become more conservative and
admonishing in his teachings.
21For examples of scholarship presenting this kind of argument, see Taira Masayuki
, Nihon chsei no shakai to Bukky (Tokyo: Hanawa
Shob, 1992), 157265; and Fabio Rambelli, Just Behave as You Like; Prohibitions and
Impurities Are Not a Problem. Radical Amida Cults and Popular Religiosity in Premodern Japan, in Approaching the Land of Bliss: Religious Praxis in the Cult of Amitbha, ed.
Richard K. Payne and Kenneth K. Tanaka (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004),
169201.
22Shichikaj kishmon , in Shwa shinsh Hnen Shnin zensh, ed. Ishii
Kyd, 787790.
103
Among Hnens disciples, a few were characterized as proponents of

the so-called single nembutsu doctrine (ichinengi ), which was
frequently associated with licensed evil. The most notorious figures in this
group were Ksai (11631247) and Gyk . The basic argument
of the single nembutsu doctrine is as follows: if people intone Amidas
name once, it is a reflection of their faith in the Buddha and in his vow
to deliver them into the Pure Land. In that single nembutsu, their faith
is melded with the wisdom of the Buddha. But if people intone Amidas
name repeatedly, it is an indication that they do not have faith in the
Buddhas vow. As a result, they are not assured of birth in the Pure Land.
Licensed evil could function as a corollary to this argument by contending that, if intoning the nembutsu just once is an expression of faith, then
committing various wrongdoings is an even greater demonstration of faith.
These claims represented the faith extreme among Pure Land proponents,
those who abjured any type of religious practice, even the standard practice of the nembutsu. It stood in contrast to the practice extreme among
Pure Land adherents, which was associated with the so-called repeated
nembutsu doctrine (tanengi )those who maintained that, if
intoning the nembutsu once is good, then chanting it repeatedly and constantly is better, and cultivating wise and virtuous actions (kenzen shjin
) alongside it is best. Because the practice extreme had more in
common with the conventional Buddhist traditions, it was the faction of
Hnens followers that was tolerated more. The faith extreme, by contrast,
aroused the suspicion of religious and secular authorities and underwent
suppression periodically.23
Shinran, like Hnen, never sided with the single or the repeated nembutsu extremes, but recognized the validity of the nembutsu however
one might practice it. But, comparatively speaking, his teachings tended
toward the faith end of the spectrum more than the practice end. Moreover, he was vulnerable to accusations of licensed evil because of his claim
that the evil person is the primary object of Amidas vow. As in the case of
Hnen, though roughly a half century later, Shinran confronted provocative, anti-social elements in his own following, and he likewise criticized
them, though using his own line of argument. Among his followers in the
Kant region, there were some who proclaimed:
23For an in-depth exposition of this issue, see James C. Dobbins, The Single and the
Repeated Nembutsu Extremes, in Jdoky no kenky , ed. Ishida Mitsuyuki
Hakase Koki Kinen Ronbunsh Kankkai (Kyoto:
Nagata Bunshd, 1982), 85100.
104
james c. dobbins
Because evil is the common state of all unenlightened beings and because
evil is their nature, people should delight in those things which should not
be thought, and should do those things which should not be done, and
should say those things which should not be said.24
The expression Shinran used to refer to this type of attitude is hitsu

muzan , unbridled indulgence without remorse.25 This attitude reflected a defiance of social and religious norms, and probably
inspired offenses like those listed in Hnens Seven Article Pledge. From
Shinrans letters we know specifically that some of his followers were
accused of denigrating buddhas and bodhisattvas other than Amida and
of ridiculing the native kami deities, actions that were an affront to the
established religion of his day.26 Shinran did not condone such behavior,
though at the same time he did not regard veneration of other buddhas,
bodhisattvas, and kami as necessary for enlightenment in Amidas Pure
Land. His objection to licensed evil was not over evil action per se, for
he believed that no action was so evil that it could obstruct Amidas vow,
but rather over willful indulgence in evil without true awareness of ones
hopeless state. He likened licensed evil to encouraging people to drink
more liquor before they have sobered, or to take more poison before [a
dose] has worn off. We have the antidote, so enjoy the poison!27 Shinran
disavowed such a claim, and saw no similarity between it and his own
doctrine of akunin shki, even if other mainstream Buddhists did.
There was one other type of licensed evil that was widely debated in
Shinrans time: hakai muzan , or violating the clerical precepts
without remorse. What was at stake in this controversy was the value of
the clerical lifestyle in the path to enlightenment. Among radical Pure
Land proponents, some actively encouraged priests and nuns to break their
vows. They declared that eating meat or fish, drinking liquor, and indulging in sex, all violations of the clerical precepts, would in no way obstruct
them from birth in Amidas Pure Land. Hnen specifically admonished his
disciples against inciting such behavior in his Seven Article Pledge.28 His
position, however, was complex. On the one hand, Hnen too believed
that Amidas nembutsu made it possible for those who had broken the
clerical vows to attain enlightenment in the Pure Land. Certainly, in Japan
24Goshsokush , SSZ, 2:703704.

25Mattsh , SSZ, 2:682.
26Goshsokush, SSZ, 2:700701.
27Mattsh, SSZ, 2:691.
28Shichikaj kishmon, in Shwa shinsh Hnen Shnin zensh, ed. Ishii Kyd, 788.
105
at this time there was a burgeoning contingent of clerics who disregarded

the precepts. On the other hand, Hnen considered the clerical lifestyle
perfectly compatible with Pure Land practice. He himself seemed to be a
paragon of clerical virtue and nembutsu practice. Hence, he opposed those
who campaigned against the clerical precepts in Pure Land Buddhism,
treating them as misguided and untrustworthy.
Shinran, by contrast, had a more pessimistic view of the clerical precepts than Hnen did. In all his criticisms of licensed evil and other
aberrant Pure Land interpretations he never included violation of the precepts. The reason is that he believed they were no longer efficacious in the
degenerate age of mapp. Priests and nuns could be considered clerics in
name or appearance only, but nothing in their lifestyle could contribute
to their enlightenment in the Pure Land.29 Shinran himself was a prime
example of a lapsed priest. Though he shaved his head and wore clerical
robes as a Buddhist priest would, he openly ate fish and meat,30 and he
married and had a family. From the standpoint of the Buddhist establishment, Shinran may have personified licensed evil. But in his own mind he
considered himself the proverbial evil person, who is the primary object
of Amidas compassion. Shinran never attempted to hide his violation of
the precepts, and as a result he unwittingly provided a model for a married clergy in Shin Buddhism as it developed in subsequent centuries.
Contextualizing the Evil Person
Shinrans idea of akunin shki represents a powerful, counter-intuitive
religious proposition in Buddhism that has stimulated doctrinal reflection
and elaboration over the centuries. Some scholars consider it Shinrans
trademark teaching and his greatest contribution to Japanese religious
thought. But as the example of licensed evil indicates, it was difficult to
translate this idea into religious practice or a structured religious lifestyle.
In the two centuries after Shinrans death, as his following took on the
characteristics of an organized religion, the akunin shki doctrine continued to be an important tenet in Shin Buddhism, though it was reinterpreted and contextualized in ways that Shinran may not have anticipated
or chose not to address. Within the Honganji tradition of Shin
29This was the primary message that Shinran took from the Mapp tmyki, quoted in
the Kygyshinsh, SSZ, 2:168174.
30Concerning Shinrans eating of fish, see Kudensh , SSZ, 3:1214.
106
james c. dobbins
Buddhism, the most prominent interpreters of Shinrans teachings were

Kakunyo (12701351), Zonkaku (12901373), and Rennyo
(14151499), all of whom were descendents of Shinran and the architects
of Shin Buddhism as a major religious movement in Japan. Kakunyo
transformed Shinrans gravesite chapel into the Honganji temple, which
eventually emerged as the most influential institution in Shin Buddhism.
Zonkaku, though estranged from his father Kakunyo, formulated important interpretations that helped shape and define Shin Buddhism. And
Rennyo articulated the teachings further and consolidated it as the largest and most powerful religious movement in medieval Japan. Each of
these three inherited the akunin shki doctrine, but tailored it to fit the
broader contours of an established religion. In some ways they tempered
its most dangerous aspects by proposing a structured paradigm of religious behavior to counterbalance radical tendencies. I would like to offer
a few examples of how this doctrine was reshaped and modified by these
three figures.
Neither Kakunyo nor Zonkaku nor Rennyo presented the akunin shki
concept with nearly as much power and poignancy as the Tannish did.
And yet they were instrumental in assuring that the Tannishs message
endured as a theme in Shin Buddhism. The earliest surviving manuscript
of the text was written by Rennyo himself around 1479, almost two centuries after the work was supposedly compiled. Despite this late date, the
Tannish is considered an authentic representation of Shinrans teachings because passages in it are similar to ones found in Kakunyos works
composed a century and a half earlier. Hence, Kakunyo and Rennyo were
pivotal figures in the authentication and preservation of the Tannish as
a Shin Buddhist text. Among the writings of these three figures, those of
Kakunyoparticularly, his Kudensh (Notes of Oral Transmissions) and Shjish (Notes on Holding Fast)bear the greatest
resemblance to passages in the Tannish. Those of Zonkaku and Rennyo
do not address the concept of akunin shki as directly, but present themes
and ideas that are consistent with it or ancillary to it.
The first thing to note is that the terminology for evil and the evil person used by these three figures overlaps to a certain extent with that used
by Shinran. For instance, in Rennyos pastoral letters (Ofumi or
Gobunsh ) we find references to the ten evil acts (jaku ),
the five grave offenses (gogyaku ), the denigration of the Dharma
(hb ), and the incorrigibly corrupt icchantika (sendai ), terms
used to impress upon people the gravity of their condition in the age of
107
mapp.31 This language echoes Shinrans use of these terms. In addition,

we find almost identical sentences in Kakunyos Kudensh to ones in the
Tannishfor example, Hence, there was the adage [of Shinrans] that
one should say, Even the good person is born in the Pure Land, how much
more so the evil person!32
Besides these close links, there are also places in the writings of these
three where the akunin shki theme was framed in different terminology
and associated with different concepts. The most prominent one, found
in Kakunyos writings, is the idea that the Buddhas vow is intended for
the unenlightened person (bonbu ) rather than the enlightened
person (shnin ). This dyad, bonbu vs. shnin, parallels the dyad of
akunin (evil person) vs. zennin (good person). Certainly the term bonbu
can be found extensively in Shinrans writings also, though it does not
appear explicitly as a structural parallel to akunin. Kakunyo went on to
refine these categories by interweaving the two dyads, subdividing unenlightened people into two groups, those who are good, zen bonbu ,
and those who are evil, aku bonbu . He, of course, identified the
evil unenlightened person as the primary object (shki ) of Amidas
compassion, and the good unenlightened person as the secondary object
(bki ).33 Kakunyos adoption of the term bonbu may bring Shinrans
akunin shki doctrine into closer alignment with traditional Buddhist
soteriology, but it does not necessarily capture the sense of radical evil
that Shinran sought to convey with the term akunin.
Another interesting adaptation of the akunin shki doctrine, found
in the writings of Zonkaku and Rennyo specifically, is the conflation of
women (nyonin ) with the category of the evil person (akunin ).
The identity and status of women in Pure Land Buddhism is a complex
topic that cannot be explored in depth here, but suffice it to say that they
were assigned an inferior role and rank to men. That is, women were considered burdened with a greater accumulation of karmic misfortune and
ill-equipped to attain enlightenment. As a result, Zonkaku argued:
31Yata Rysh , Rennyo ni okeru akunin shki setsu no tenkai
, in Rennyo taikei , vol. 2, ed. Kakehashi Jitsuen
et al. (Kyoto: Hzkan, 1996), 109110.
32Kudensh, SSZ, 3:32.
33Kudensh, SSZ, 3:3132; and Yata Rysh, Kakunyo ni okeru akunin shki setsu no
tenkai , in Shinran kygaku no shomondai
, ed. Rykoku Daigaku Shinsh Gakkai (Kyoto: Nagata
Bunshd, 1987), 190, 194200.
108
james c. dobbins
Though the compassion of the Tathgata is bestowed on all sentient beings
in general, he considers women especially to be first. And though the karmic
capacity (kien ) for [birth in] the Pure Land is extended to all categories
of beings in the ten directions [of the universe], he regards women alone as
primary.34
Rennyo in his treatment of this topic in a short doctrinal treatise spoke

of women and wrongdoers interchangeably, both of them as the object of
the Buddhas vow:
Amida, when he was known as Hz Biku , revealed an easy
Dharma after [long] reflection. He made a vow to lead to birth in the Pure
Land both wrongdoers (zainin ) [who commit] the ten evil acts and
the five grave offenses and also women [who are constrained by] the five
obstructions (gosh ) and the three subjugations (sanj ) without
omitting any of them.35
A similar association of women with evildoers can be found in Rennyos

pastoral letters as well. Though he did not go to the extent of articulating
a new dyad of women vs. men to apply to the akunin shki concept, he
clearly linked women to the evil person within this doctrinal framework.
There were complex ramifications of this depiction of women, both
negative and positive. On the one hand, women were portrayed as the
lowest and most unworthy candidates for enlightenment. According to
classical Pure Land doctrine as extrapolated from Amidas thirty-fifth vow
in the Larger Pure Land Stra, women could not be born in the Pure Land
as women, but would have to undergo male transformation first (henj
nanshi ).36 Shinran himself recognized this claim, and all three
figures surveyed here were also aware of it. It is noteworthy, though, that
in the passages where Rennyo paired women with wrongdoers, he did not
focus on the necessity of being transformed into men, but rather emphasized that Amidas vow is aimed at women especially and delivers them
into the Pure Land without fail. What is missing in Rennyos argument,
however, is the full application of the akunin shki theme. If Rennyo had
pursued it to its logical conclusion, he would have portrayed women as
the prime example of those embraced by Amida and never forsakenin
34Nyonin j kikigaki , SSZ, 3:117; and Yata Rysh, Zonkaku ni okeru

akunin shki setsu no tenkai , Shinshgaku
77 (February 1988): 1213.
35Shshinge taii , SSZ, 3:387; and Yata Rysh, Rennyo ni okeru akunin
shki setsu no tenkai, 108.
36Muryjuky, SSZ, 1:12.
109
short, a nyonin shki doctrineand thus as the paragon for

Shin Buddhist faith. Though Rennyo stopped short of this dramatic declaration, his association of women with the evil person may have provoked
such an assumption subliminally among Shin adherents.
In Rennyos teachings we find the articulation of a paradigm of religious piety and conduct that came to be standard in Shin Buddhism.
This paradigm evolved over a long period of time as followers of Shinrans teachings formulated ritual practices, codes of conduct, and religious
communities. Such structure worked to dampen and attenuate the volatility inspired by the rhetoric of the evil person. We can see this in the Okite
, or rules of conduct, that Rennyo issued for Shin adherents to follow.
They contain some of the standard moral injunctions that were prevalent
among Pure Land believers and Buddhists in general: not to denigrate
other buddhas and bodhisattvas; not to disparage the teachings of other
forms of Buddhism; not to eat fish or fowl and not to drink liquor on days
of nembutsu services; not to gamble; not to criticize civil authorities; and
to observe taboos (monoimi ) before authorities and the public, even
though Shin Buddhists did not believe in them.37 Rennyo was not the
originator of such rules, for they had been under steady and continuous
development from the time of the earliest religious communities of Shinrans followers.38 The Tannish was in fact critical of such regulations,39
though they were obviously well established and widely accepted among
believers. Rennyos own justification for a code of behavior was that Shin
adherents should appear upright to those outside their community so as
to avoid censure, even while maintaining their own beliefs and practices
within the community.40 In short, these rules represented expedient measures for the stability and perpetuation of the community. It was in this
communal environment that the akunin shki teaching was preserved.
Notwithstanding the structured and controlled setting in which the
akunin shki discourse operated, it would be wrong to think that the
potency and volatility of its message disappeared or that Shin Buddhism
simply reverted to the conventions of Buddhism that existed before Shinrans time. On the contrary, certain patterns of behavior, which had been
37Ofumi , no. 38 (1473, 11th month), in Rennyo Shnin ibun , ed.
Inaba Masamaru (1937; rpt. Kyoto: Hzkan, 1972), 132133.
38Chiba Jry , Shinsh kydan no soshiki to seido
(Kyoto: Dbsha, 1978), 108109.
40Ofumi, no. 64 (1474.7.3), in Rennyo Shnin ibun, ed. Inaba Masamaru, 199. See also
Gobunsh , SSZ, 3:444445.
110
james c. dobbins
considered acts of wrongdoing before, were accepted and institutionalized

as part of the Shin Buddhist lifestyle. The most prominent among these
were the eating of meat and fish, the drinking of liquor, and the marriage of clergy. A reflection of this new mindset can be found in Zonkakus
defense of Shin Buddhist groups in the fourteenth century who had been
maliciously accused of consuming fish and fowl at nembutsu ceremonies
and of having sex with each others spouses in front of the Buddhist altar
in their places of worship. Zonkaku responded that there was absolutely
no reason for them to commit such acts because meat-eating and sex were
not forbidden to them in ordinary life.41 This line of argument is an indication that Shin adherents accepted the fact that they could not live up
to Buddhisms strictest tenets of morality. But without advocating more
wrongdoing or boasting of their shortcomings, they went about their lives
confident that Amida Buddha would assure their birth in the Pure Land.
The akunin shki concept lay at the heart of this outlook.
Concluding Thoughts
The akunin shki doctrine might have been a mere curiosity, or even a
footnote, in Japanese Buddhist thought had it not been for the fact that
Shin Buddhism coalesced around it. It is difficult to overstate the significance and impact of Shin Buddhism as a historical movement. From the
fifteenth to the twentieth century it dwarfed every other religious movement in Japan. It dominated the peasant and commoner class in the countryside, but also made inroads among merchants and ruling elites in urban
areas. Throughout its ascendance Shin Buddhism preserved and extolled
the idea of the evil person as the primary target of the Buddhas compassion. Inspired in part by this, it also developed a tradition of clerical
marriage which, though originally treated as an aberration in Buddhism,
eventually emerged as the norm in Japan. To that extent, the identity and
contours of Japanese Buddhism have been shaped as much by Shin Buddhism as by any other tradition.
Did the akunin shki doctrine inspire this movement, or was it just carried along with it by historical accident? That is, could the movement
have coalesced around other powerful Buddhist themes than this one?
Certainly there have been other compelling concepts in Buddhism that
41Haja kenshsh , SSZ, 3:178179.
111
have used counter-intuitive logic or rhetorical inversion just as the akunin

shki doctrine did. It might be a false distinction, though, to ask whether
akunin shki caused this shift in Japanese Buddhism or was merely coincidental to it. Rather, it may be more accurate to say that the akunin shki
discourse was so interwoven with it that it emerged as a symbol of this
change. Other Buddhist themes might be cleverer or more entertaining
for example, the triumph of the lay person over the enlightened monk in
the Vimalakrti Stra or the identification of form and emptiness in the
Heart Strabut for whatever reason akunin shki was the one attached
to this revolutionary movement and expressive of it. That is why akunin
shki is historically important.
Bibliography
Chiba Jry . Shinsh kydan no soshiki to seido .
Kyoto: Dbsha, 1978.
Dobbins, James C. Jdo Shinsh: Shin Buddhism in Medieval Japan. Honolulu: University
of Hawaii Press, 2002.
The Single and the Repeated Nembutsu Extremes. In Jdoky no kenky ,
ed. Ishida Mitsuyuki Hakase Koki Kinen Ronbunsh Kankkai
. Kyoto: Nagata Bunshd, 1982.
Fujimura Kenshi . Shinran ni kan suru zaku muge kenky no hensen
. In Chsei no jiin taisei to shakai
, ed. Nakao Takashi . Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kbunkan, 2002.
Ienaga Sabur . Chsei Bukky shisshi kenky . Kyoto:
Hzkan, 1955.
Inaba Masamaru , ed. Rennyo Shnin ibun . 1937; rpt. Kyoto:
Hzkan, 1972.
Ishii Kyd , ed. Shwa shinsh Hnen Shnin zensh .
1955; rpt. Kyoto: Heirakuji Shoten, 1974.
Kajimura Noboru . Akunin shki setsu . Tokyo: Dait Shuppansha,
1992.
Kumada Junsh . Shinran shokan ni mieru zaku muge ni tsuiteTgoku ni
okeru Tendai Shingon no tenkai o haikei ni
. Indogaku Bukkygaku kenky
52.1 (December 2003): 5557.
Matsuno Junk . Zaku muge sha to Shinran . Shinsh
kenky 3 (October 1957): 103115.
Rambelli, Fabio. Just Behave as You Like; Prohibitions and Impurities Are Not a Problem. Radical Amida Cults and Popular Religiosity in Premodern Japan. In Approaching the Land of Bliss: Religious Praxis in the Cult of Amitbha, ed. Richard K. Payne and
Kenneth K. Tanaka. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004.
Shinsh Shgy Zensho Hensanjo , ed. Shinsh shgy zensho
. 5 vols. Kyoto: Kky Shoin, 19401941.
Sueki Fumihiko . Nihon Bukky shisshi ronk . Tokyo:
Daiz Shuppan, 1993.
Taira Masayuki . Nihon chsei no shakai to Bukky .
Tokyo: Hanawa Shob, 1992.
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james c. dobbins
Takase Taisen . Shinran no Ajase kan . Indogaku Bukkygaku

kenky 52.1 (December 2003): 6870.
Yata Rysh . Kakunyo ni okeru akunin shki setsu no tenkai
. In Shinran kygaku no shomondai , ed. Rykoku
Daigaku Shinsh Gakkai . Kyoto: Nagata Bunshd, 1987.
Rennyo ni okeru akunin shki setsu no tenkai .
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1996.
Zonkaku ni okeru akunin shki setsu no tenkai .
Shinshgaku 77 (February 1988): 1213.
The Sin of Slandering the True Dharma

in Nichirens Thought
Jacqueline I. Stone
In considering the category of sin in comparative perspective, certain
acts, such as murder and theft, appear with some local variation to be
proscribed across traditions. Other offenses, while perhaps not deemed
such by the researchers own culture, nonetheless fall into recognizable
categories of moral and ritual transgression, such as failures of filial piety
or violations of purity taboos. Some acts characterized as wrongdoing,
however, are so specific to a particular historical or cognitive context
as to require an active exercise of imagination on the scholars part to
reconstruct the hermeneutical framework within which they have been
abhorred and condemned. Such is the case with the medieval Japanese
Buddhist figure Nichiren (12221282) and his fierce opposition to
the sin of slandering the True Dharma (hih shb , or simply hb ). Originally trained in the Tendai school of Buddhism and the initiator of the Nichiren sect that came to bear his name,
Nichiren taught a doctrine of exclusive devotion to the Lotus Stra and
promoted the practice of chanting the stras daimoku or title in
the formula Namu-myh-renge-ky , which, he said,
contained the entirety of all Buddhist truth within itself and enabled the
direct realization of Buddhahood. The Lotus Stra was widely revered
in Nichirens day as the Buddhas ultimate teaching, and in his eyes, it
was the only teaching that could lead all persons to liberation now in the
degenerate Final Dharma age (mapp ). Based on this conviction,
Nichiren harshly criticized other forms of Buddhist practice as no longer
soteriologically efficacious. And because, he argued, only faith in the Lotus
Stra leads to Buddhahood, to reject the Lotus in favor of other, inferior
teachings was in effect to slander the True Dharma and led inexorably
to rebirth in the Avci Hell. To the evil of slandering the Dharma he
attributed all the calamities facing Japan in his day: famine, epidemics,
earthquakes, outbreaks of civil unrest, and the threat of invasion by the
Mongols. Nichiren is by no means the only Buddhist teacher to have leveled charges of Dharma slander against his rivals. But he is unusual in
the extent to which he built this idea into the structure of his message,
114
jacqueline i. stone
making it the basis of his lifelong preaching career. A perceived need to

counter slander of the Dharma runs throughout his corpus, from his earliest known essay, written at age twenty, to his very last writings some forty
years later. It prompted his denunciations of prominent religious leaders
and of government officials for supporting them, which in turn brought
down on him the wrath of the authorities; he was repeatedly attacked,
twice arrested and sent into exile, and once very nearly executed. Opposing slander of the Dharma was for Nichiren a form of Buddhist practice
in its own right and a debt owed to the Buddha, to be discharged even at
the cost of his life. Yet, despite its formative role in his doctrine, this concept has rarely been explored in studies of Nichiren, even among Nichiren
sectarian scholars.1 Neglect of Dharma slander as a category integral to
his thought may owe to its lack of resonance, or more properly, outright
conflict with modernist religious sensibilities as well as a desire to defuse
widespread perceptions of Nichiren as intolerant. This essay attempts
to clarify Nichirens idea of Dharma slander as the worst imaginable of
all sins. Rather than tracing his development of this concept in a strictly
chronological way, I will address recurring themes in his treatment of it.
Nenbutsu Leads to the Avci Hell
The term slander of the Dharma did not originate with Nichiren but
appears in Buddhist canonical sources. In the broadest sense, it means
disparaging any of the three jewelsthe Buddha, his teaching, or his
order. But the term occurs most frequently in the Mahyna stras, where
it often carries the specific meaning of speaking ill of the Great Vehicle
scriptures and was evidently intended to deflect criticism from the Buddhist mainstream that the Mahyna was not the Buddhas teaching.2 A
warning against the horrific karmic retribution awaiting those guilty of
this offense occurs, for example, in the verse section of the Parable chapter of the Lotus Stra, which represents the Buddha as saying:
1The most detailed study of this topic to date is Watanabe Hy, Nichiren Shnin no
shky ni okeru hb no igi.
2BD 5:4327c28c. Sanskrit terms for slander of the True Dharma include saddharmapratikepa, saddharma-pratikipta, saddharmpavdaka, saddharma-pratikepvaraa-kta,
and others (Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, accessed May 8, 2012, http://www.buddhismdict.net/cgi-bin/xpr-ddb.pl?8a.xml+id(b8ab9-8b17-6b63-6cd5)).
the sin of slandering the true dharma
115
If someone, not believing,/maligns this scripture,/then he cuts off the seeds

of Buddhahood in all the worlds..../Such persons, at lifes end,/shall enter
the Avci Hell,/where they shall fulfill one kalpa./When the kalpa is ended,
they shall be reborn there,/in this way, spinning around,/for kalpas without
number.3
The passage continues for numerous verses, detailing how such wretched
offenders, at last emerging from the Avci Hell, will be born as wild dogs,
scabrous and emaciated, or as monstrous snakes, deaf, stupid, and legless; at last ascending to the human realm, they will repeatedly be born
poor, deformed, and afflicted with disease, never to hear the Dharma for
kalpas numberless as the sands of the Ganges River. Even this, the Buddha
declares, is a mere summary, for the evil recompense incurred by those
who malign the Lotus could never be explained in full, not even over the
course of a kalpa.4
For a number of Japans leading scholar-monks around the turn of
the thirteenth century, the offense of slandering the Dharma was no
abstract scriptural category but an evil that had seemingly appeared
before their eyes, in the form of the exclusive nenbutsu doctrine (senju
nenbutsu ) of Genku-b Hnen (11331212). Originally a Tendai monk, Hnen is known as the first of the teachers of the socalled new Buddhist movements of Japans Kamakura period (11851333)
and the founder of the Jdosh or independent Pure Land sect.
Hnen taught that now in the period of the Final Dharma age, human
religious capacity has declined to a point where most people are no longer capable of achieving liberation through traditional practices such as
precept observance, meditation, or doctrinal study. Only by chanting the
nenbutsu, the name of Amida Buddha (Namu Amida-butsu
), and relying upon that Buddhas aid could people in this evil age
escape the miserable round of deluded rebirth and be born in Amidas Pure
Land, where their enlightenment would then be assured. Hnen advanced
this claim in his Senchaku hongan nenbutsu sh
(Passages singling out the nenbutsu of the original vow; hereafter
Senchakush). Birth in the Pure Land (j ) was a common soteriological goal, and the chanted nenbutsu was practiced across lineage and
sectarian lines, by monastics and lay devotees of all social levels. But most
people believed that the merit of any religious practice could be directed
3Miaofa lianhua jing , T no. 262, 9:15b22c1; Leon Hurvitz, trans., Scripture
of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma, 77, slightly modified.
4Miaofa lianhua jing, T 9:15c116a9; Hurvitz, Scripture of the Lotus, 7780.
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to achieving birth in the Pure Land, and many who chanted the nenbutsu
also conducted esoteric rites or engaged in stra copying and recitation
as well as other practices. In his Senschakush, however, Hnen urged
that all practices other than the nenbutsu, and all stras other than the
three major Pure Land stras upon which his school was based, should
be set aside as no longer leading to liberation in this age.5 This assertion
outraged clerics of the Buddhist mainstream, who perceived it as a direct
attack on their religious disciplines and institutions, and they demanded
the suppression of Hnens teaching. Monks of Mt. Hiei, where the Tendai school was headquartered, seized and burned the woodblocks used
to print the Senchakush, and Hnen and his leading disciples were sent
into exile.6
By 1233, when Nichiren as a boy entered the monastic order at the
temple Kiyosumidera in Awa province in eastern Japan, more
than a generation had passed since Hnens death, and the exclusive nenbutsu teaching had begun to gain considerable ground. Nichirens own
teacher at Kiyosumidera, Dzen-b , was a nenbutsu devotee;
Nichiren would also have encountered the exclusive nenbutsu during an
early period of study in nearby Kamakura, where a few decades earlier
the Bakufu or military government had established its base. By his own
account Nichiren himself chanted the nenbutsu in his youth.7 Early on,
however, he became critical of this practice, as seen in his very first extant
essay, Kaitai sokushin jbutsu gi (The meaning of the
precept essence and the realization of Buddhahood with this very body).
In this work, based on Tendai Lotus and esoteric teachings of nonduality and the interpenetration of the dharmas, Nichiren attacked Hnens
doctrine for teaching aspiration to a pure land apart from ones own
body and mind, a position he saw as contravening both Hnayna and
Mahyna stras. Its teacher is a devil and his disciples, the devils people,
he asserted.8 Nichirens objections were reinforced during his studies at
5Hnen designates the three Pure Land stras in chap. 1 of his Senchakush (T no. 2608,
83:2a47).
6On the persecution of Hnen and his disciples, see James C. Dobbins, Jdo Shinsh,
1120. For Buddhist mainstream opposition to Hnens exclusive nenbutsu, see James L.
Ford, Jkei and Buddhist Devotion in Early Medieval Japan, 15984, and Christoph
Kleine, Hnen Buddhismus des Reinen Landes. Nichirens Nenbutsusha tsuih senjji
(Teihon 3:225872) reproduces a number of petitions and edicts
against Hnens teaching.
7See for example Sado gosho , Teihon 1:615; Myh bikuni-ama gohenji
, 2:1553.
8Teihon 1:11.
117
Mt. Hiei and other temples in the region of the imperial capital (presentday Kyoto). Tradition holds that, on Mt. Hiei, Nichiren studied with the
Tendai scholar-monk Shunpan (fl. mid-thirteenth century), then the
master of instruction on the mountain, who was known for his opposition
to the exclusive nenbutsu. While a master-disciple connection between
Shunpan and Nichiren has not been definitively established, quotations
and extracts in Nichirens early writings show that he had access to a
collection of petitions to both the court and Bakufu protesting Hnens
teaching as well as edicts banning its disseminationdocuments that
he could well have received from Shunpan.9 By 1253, Nichiren returned
from the capital to Kiyosumidera, where his growing opposition to the
exclusive nenbutsu placed him at odds with the local Bakufu-appointed
steward (jit ). Forced eventually to leave the temple, Nichiren went
to Kamakura to launch his preaching career. There he again encountered
disciples of Hnen, who were beginning to build a patronage base among
Bakufu warriors. These Pure Land followers were Nichirens first polemical opponents, and his early teachings were in no small measure formulated in opposition to them.10
Several of Nichirens early writings, up until his first exile in 1261, focus
on why, in his view, the Senchakush amounted to a work of Dharma
slander. He was well aware of earlier criticisms of this work, such as
Zaijarin (Wheel to smash heresy) by Mye (11731232), or
the famous Kfukuji petition (), in which Jkei (1155
1213), on behalf of the monks of the prominent Nara temple, Kfukuji,
petitioned the court to take action against the exclusive nenbutsu. But in
Nichirens estimation, these earlier rebuttals were inadequate,
like a little rain falling in a time of severe drought, which leaves trees and
grasses more parched than ever, or a weak force dispatched against a powerful enemy, who is only emboldened thereby.11
9 This has been suggested by Taira Masayuki (Nihon chsei no shakai to bukky, 358).
Shunpan is mentioned in Nichirens Nenbutsusha tsuih senjji (Teihon 3:2261) and Jdo
kuhon no koto (3:2310), both times in connection with his opposition to
Hnens exclusive nenbutsu.
10 On Nichirens polemics against Pure Land teachers, see Kawazoe Shji, Nichiren no
shky keisei ni okeru nenbutsu haigeki no igi, and Nakao Takashi, Nichiren Shnin no
Jdosh hihan to sono igi.
11 Shugo kokka ron , Teihon 1:90; see also Nenbutsu mugen jigoku sh
, 1:39.
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They did not go to the heart of Hnens error. In pursuing this issue,
Nichirens turned against Hnen a major hermeneutical strategy that
Hnen himself had relied on in establishing his claim for the sole efficacy
of the nenbutsu now in the Final Dharma age: use of a comparative classification of the Buddhist teachings.
Projects of comparative doctrinal classification (Ch. panjiao or
jiaopan ; Jpn. kyhan) developed to a high degree in Chinese Buddhist scholasticism and represent attempts to systematize the vast body
of Buddhist texts introduced to China from India and Central Asia. Such
schemas presupposed that the stras were all expounded by a single
enlightened figure, kyamuni Buddha, and that discrepancies among
them were therefore only apparent, not fundamental, and could be
resolved by uncovering their proper relation. Peter Gregory has noted that
kyhan systems served three kinds of aims: hermeneutical, sectarian, and
soteriological. Hermeneutically, they attempted to establish an underlying
principle that would order the mass of diverse, even contradictory, Buddhist teachings within a unifying framework. Often that framework took
the form of a hierarchy or graded sequence of teachings and thus served a
sectarian aim by enabling particular schools to claim their teaching as the
highest. And soteriologically, classification schemes functioned as models of the path, in which successive stages of teaching corresponded to
individual practitioners varying levels of capacity or attainment.12 Hnen
could claim legitimacy for the Pure Land school in part because he had
established a new kyhan to support his argument for the sole efficacy
of the chanted nenbutsu in the evil latter age. Hnens doctrinal classification system drew together the claims of earlier, Chinese Pure Land
masters for the superior accessibility of Pure Land practices. Daochuo
(562645) had distinguished between the teachings of the Path of
the Sages (shdmon ), which stress pursuit of liberation through
personal efforts in religious cultivation, and the Pure Land teachings
(jdomon ), which encourage reliance on the Buddha Amidas
compassionate vow that all who place faith in him will achieve birth in
his Pure Land. Tanluan (476542) had drawn a similar distinction,
labeling these two kinds of teachings respectively the ways of difficult
practice (nangy ) and of easy practice (igy ) by which
12Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism, 115; see also 93114.
119
bodhisattvas in training might attain the stage of non-retrogression.13 And

Shandao (613681) had divided practices leading to birth in Amidas
Pure Land into main practices (shgy ), or those based on the
Pure Land stras, such as reciting those stras, contemplating Amidas
land, or chanting his name, and sundry practices (zgy ), or those
not directly connected to Amida; among the main practices, he gave
the chanted nenbutsu special prominence. Uniting these distinctions
into a schema of progressive selection and rejection, Hnen argued that
Amida himself had singled out the chanted nenbutsu as the sole practice
according with his original vow, and that it should replace all teachings
of the Path of the Sages, difficult practice, and sundry practice categories.14
Hnen legitimated this radical move by invoking the concepts of time and
human capacity. While acknowledging that teachings of the Path of the
Sages had greater doctrinal sophistication, he argued that because people
living now in the benighted mapp era lacked the spiritual ability to practice them, they were in effect soteriologically useless.15 Only the nenbutsu
would remain efficacious throughout the Final Dharma age and save even
the most ignorant and evil. Hnen was by no means the first teacher to
argue that the chanted nenbutsu was particularly suited to sinful persons
of the latter age, but he was the first to explicitly urge that all other teachings be rejected in its favor.
Nichiren countered with the same weapon of doctrinal classification,
drawing upon the far older and better established kyhan of the Tendai
school, in which both he and Hnen had been trained. According to this
classification system, the Buddha had for forty-two years preached provisional teachings (gonky ) in accordance with his listeners varying capacities, revealing only partial or expedient truths; only in the last
eight years of his life did he preach the true teaching (jikky ) of the
13These term derive from the Easy Practices chapter of the Ten Stages Treatise attributed to Ngrjuna, which famously recommends birth in a pure land as an easy path of
achieving the stage of non-retrogression by chanting the names of the various buddhas
and relying on the power of their vows, as opposed to relying solely upon self-cultivation through personal effort (Shizhu piposha lun , T no. 1521, 26:41a13b6).
Tanluan assimilates these terms specifically to practice for achieving birth in Amidas Pure
Land.
14Senchaku hongan nenbutsu sh, especially the first three chapters (T 83:1b66c9.). In
English, see Senchakush English Translation Project, ed. and trans., Hnens Senchakush,
esp. 5681.
15Hnen uses the phrase, often quoted by his followers, The principle is profound but
[human] understanding is shallow (rijin gemi ). This expression is taken from
Daochuos Anle ji (T no. 1958, 47:13c8, quoted in Senchakush, T 83:1b1213, 2a22).
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Lotus Stra, perfectly unifying all partial truths within itself and opening
the possibility of Buddhahood to all beings.16 The Lotus was the stra of
which the Buddha himself had said, In these forty years and more [before
preaching this stra], I have not yet revealed the truth, and, Frankly discarding expedient means, I will preach only the unsurpassed Way.17 This
schema assigned the Pure Land stras to a lesser category of provisional
Mahyna, and provisional teachings, Nichiren asserted, did not represent
the Buddhas true intent. The nenbutsu practice set forth in these stras
was only a temporary expedient, like the scaffolding erected in building
a stpa; once the stpathat is, the Lotus Strahad been completed,
the scaffolding (the nenbutsu) should be dismantled and discarded.18
Hnen, Nichiren charged, had taken the 637 scriptures in 2,883 fascicles
of the Lotus Stra, the esoteric teachings (shingon ), and all the other
Mahyna teachings preached by the Buddha in his lifetime, as well as
all buddhas, bodhisattvas, and deities of the world, and relegated them
to the Path of the Sages, difficult practice, and sundry practice categories,
urging people to discard, close, put aside, and abandon them. With these
four injunctions, he has led everyone astray.19 In insisting that all of these
teachings of the Buddha, including the Lotus, were to be rejected, Hnen
16For the complex Tiantai/Tendai doctrinal classification system, known in its entirety
as the five periods and eight teachings (goji hakky ), see David W. Chappell,
ed., Tien-tai Buddhism. The division of the Buddhas teaching into five periods (5582) is
particularly relevant here, especially the discussion of the Lotus and Nirva stras, which
constitute the fifth and final period (6267). Nichiren would eventually expand the stages
of comparison in the traditional Tendai doctrinal classification in clarifying his own interpretation of the Lotus Stra and the daimoku (see Stone, Original Enlightenment, 265). But
the distinction between true and provisional teachings, already established in the Tendai
kyhan, remained fundamental to his criticism of other schools.
17Wuliangyi jing , T no. 276, 9:386b12; Miaofa lianhua jing, T 9:10a19. The
Wuliangyi jing, in which the first passage appears, has traditionally been considered a
prefatory scripture to the Lotus. For scholarly debate over its provenance, see Mitomo
Keny, Murygiky Indo senjutsu-setsu.
18Nenbutsu mugen jigoku sh, Teihon 1:35. Nichiren uses the same analogy of scaffolding in writings spanning the course of his career, for example, Hmon msarubekiy
no koto , 1:447; Yorimoto chinj , 2:1357; and Ueno-dono
haha ama gozen gohenji , 2:1812.
19Rissh ankoku ron, Teihon 1:216; Selected Writings, 24, slightly modified. Hnen uses
the verbs discard (sha ), close (hei ), put aside (kaku ), and abandon (h )
in different passages of the Senchakush to express the exclusion of other practices in
favor of the nenbutsu. The use of these four injunctions as an abbreviated expression of
Hnens Dharma slander appears in a number of Nichirens writings, of which Nenbutsu
mugen jigoku sh appears to be the earliest (Teihon 1:39). Ironically, scholars within the
Pure Land school would later appropriate the phrase discard, close, put aside, and abandon in a positive sense as an expression of Hnens mature thought (Mark L. Blum, Ksai
and the Paradox of Ichinengi, 6869).
121
himself had in effect maligned the Dharma, Nichiren said. He repeatedly

drew attention to the text of Amida Buddhas original vow in the Larger
Stra, which promises birth in his Pure Land to all who place faith in
himexcept those who commit the five heinous offenses or slander the
True Dharma.20 Hnen, he insisted, had violated the teaching of one
of his own sacred texts. Nichiren argued that, in slandering the Lotus Stra
by consigning it to a category of teachings that are to be set aside, Hnen
himself must have been abandoned by the very Amida Buddha to whom
he looked for salvation and must even now be languishing in the Avci
Hell.21
Over time Nichiren would put forth a number of criticisms of the exclusive nenbutsu. Based on traditional Tendai interpretations of emptiness,
nonduality, and the interpenetration of the dharmas, he rejected the notion
of a pure land apart from ones present reality. The originally enlightened
Buddha of the perfect teaching abides in this world, he wrote.
If one abandons this land, toward what other land would one aspire?....For
people of our day, who have not yet formed a bond with the Lotus Stra, to
aspire to Amidas Pure Land is to aspire to a land of rubble.22
Alternatively, he insisted that people of this world have no karmic connection to Amida, the Buddha of another realm. Only kyamuni Buddha
possesses the virtues of sovereign, teacher, and parent with respect to the
beings of the present, Sah world. Thus to give ones allegiance to Amida,
the Buddha of another land, is to be disloyal and unfilial.23 All these criticisms, however, were ultimately rooted in the traditional Tendai kyhan
and its distinction between true and provisional teachings. For Nichiren,
the Lotus Stra, representing the true or perfect teaching, sets forth the
mutual inclusion of the Buddha realm and the nine realms of ordinary
unenlightened beings (jikkai gogu ), thus clarifying the ontological basis upon which all persons can achieve Buddhahood, while the
provisional teachings reveal only partial aspects of this truth.24 Hnen
had stressed the issue of human capacity: because the teachings of the
Path of the Sages were too profound for people in the mapp era, he had
20Wuliangshou jing , T no. 360, 12:268a2728, emphasis added.
21Rokur Sanenaga goshsoku Teihon 1:441; Shij Kingo-dono
gohenji 1:663; Yorimoto chinj 2:1348.
22Shugo kokka ron, Teihon 1:129, 130. See also Kaitai sokushin jbutsu gi, 1:11.
23E.g., Nenbutsu mugen jigoku sh, Teihon 1:3435; Shu shi shin gosho
1:4546; Myh bikuni-ama gohenji, 2:155758.
24See Stone, Original Enlightenment, 266.
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argued, those attempting to practice them were bound to fail and would
therefore fall after death into the evil realms. Only the chanted nenbutsu,
accessible to all, could save people in this latter age. For Nichiren, however, the key issue was the distinction between true and provisional; only
the Lotus embodied the Buddhas real intent, which was to lead all others
to become buddhas like himself. Precisely because the Lotus is profound,
Nichiren insisted, it can save even the most evil and ignorant.25
Well before Nichirens time, in promoting the exclusive nenbutsu,
Hnens followers appear to have singled out the Lotus Stra for particular
criticism. According to the Kfukuji petition, some among them claimed
that persons who embraced the Lotus Stra would fall into hell, or that
those who recited it in hopes of achieving birth in Amidas Pure Landan
extremely common practicewere guilty of slandering the Mahyna.26
Not only was the Lotus Stra widely revered across sectarian boundaries
and honored in particular in the Tendai school as the teaching integrating
all doctrines and practices in the one Buddha vehicle, but, before Hnen,
its recitation had been closely linked to Pure Land aspirations. The mainstream of Japanese Pure Land thought during the Heian period (7941185)
had developed chiefly within Tendai circles, and all three of Mt. Hieis
pagoda precincts had halls for both Lotus recitation and nenbutsu chanting. The two practices were often combined in temple ritual programs
and in the personal practice of both monastics and lay people.27 Because
of this close association, pointed rejection of the Lotus Stra in particular
may have appeared to some among Hnens followers as a necessary step
in establishing the nenbutsu as an exclusive teaching.
Such criticisms were evidently still current in Nichirens day. He himself mentions exclusive nenbutsu practitioners of his own time who
mocked Lotus devotees for attempting to practice a teaching beyond their
capacity, like a small boy trying to wear his grandfathers shoes, or who
advised others to discard the Lotus Stra on the grounds that forming a
karmic connection with it would obstruct ones birth in the Pure Land.28
25For example, Shugo kokka ron, Teihon 1:109.

26Kfukuji sj, article 4, in Kamata Shigeo and Tanaka Hisao, eds., Kamakura ky
bukky, 34. Muj (12261312) mentions nenbutsu devotees who threw copies of the
Lotus Stra into the river or asserted that persons who recited the Lotus would fall into hell
(Watanabe Tsunaya, ed., Shasekish 1:10, 8687; trans. Robert Morrell, Sand and Pebbles,
101102).
27Shioda Gisen, Asa daimoku to y nenbutsu; Kiuchi Gy, Asa daimoku y
nenbutsu.
28Kaitai sokushin jbutsu gi, Teihon 1:12; Shugo kokka ron, 1:117.
123
By Nichirens account, these nenbutsu practitioners often denied that

remarks of this kind amounted to slander of the Lotus Stra. Their point,
they saidinvoking Hnens argument against the Path of the Sages more
generallywas simply that the Lotus Stra was too profound for persons
of the present, benighted Final Dharma age; if they attempted to practice
it, far from attaining Buddhahood, they would only fail in their efforts
and fall into the lower realms. Thus one would be far better advised to set
aside the Lotus Stra in this life and instead chant the nenbutsu in order
to achieve birth after death in Amidas Pure Land, where conditions are
more favorable for attaining insight; then one could gain the enlightenment of the Lotus Stra there.29
In Nichirens view, however, discouraging people from practicing the
Lotus Stra as too profound for their capacity was a sin far greater than
direct verbal abuse of the stra, as it functioned to drive the Lotus into
obscurity, closing off the one teaching able to rescue persons of this age
from their grave soteriological hindrances. It was in opposition to arguments of this kind from Hnens disciples that he first expanded the definition of Dharma slander to include not only verbal disparagement, as the
term suggests, but the mental act of rejection or disbelief. To be born in
a country where the Lotus Stra has spread and neither to have faith in
it nor practice it, is Dharma slander, he wrote.30 This understanding of
Dharma slander appears in his earliest known writing and would remain
constant throughout his life.
In promoting faith in the Lotus Stra, Nichiren went beyond simply
reasserting the traditional Tendai distinction between true and provisional
teachings and began to develop his own message of devotion to the Lotus
as an exclusive practice. Many Tendai scholar-monks of his time maintained that, because the perfect teaching of the Lotus Stra integrates all
others within itself, any form of practicewhether esoteric ritual, stra
copying, or nenbutsu chantingin effect becomes the practice of the
Lotus Stra when carried out with this understanding. This interpretative
stance supported the widespread participation of both monastics and lay
people in multiple forms of religious devotion. For Nichiren, however,
the integration of all teachings into the Lotus Stra meant that they lose
their separate identity, just as the many rivers, emptying into the ocean,
29Ichidai shgy taii , Teihon 1:75; Shugo kokka ron, 1:133; Jissh sh
1:490.
30Kaitai sokushin jbutsu gi, Teihon 1:12.
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assume the same salty flavor and lose their original names.31 He also
began to promote the particular practice of chanting the daimoku or title
of the Lotus Stra, which in later times would become associated almost
exclusively with his following. Scholars have long pointed out the similarity between Nichirens daimoku and Hnens exclusive nenbutsu; both are
simple invocations, accessible even to the unlettered, said to be uniquely
suited to human capacity in the Final Dharma age and able to save even
the most sinful persons.32 Some caution is in order here, as it would be
an oversimplification to think that Nichiren put forth the daimoku solely
as a counter to Hnens nenbutsu: The practice of chanting the title of
the Lotus Stra predates Nichiren,33 and the Lotus Stra, by virtue of its
internal references to an evil time after the Buddhas nirva, was already
associated with notions of the Final Dharma age. More importantly, the
doctrinal basis in which Nichiren grounded the daimokuthe interpenetration of the dharmas and the realization of Buddhahood in ones present
bodyalso differs markedly from Hnens teaching of aspiring to birth
in the Pure Land solely by relying on Amidas vow. Yet his emphasis on
a single, universally accessible practice that alone suits the capacities of
all persons in the Final Dharma age does indeed appear to be a structure
that Nichiren absorbed at least in part from Hnens teaching, even as he
opposed its content. More precisely, one might say that he appropriated
Hnens logic of exclusive practice and assimilated it to a Lotus-specific
mode. The earlier unity of Lotus and Pure Land teachings had been broken by Hnens declaration of the exclusive nenbutsu and reinforced by
his disciples criticism of devotion to the Lotus Stra. Nichirens teaching
of exclusive Lotus devotion, reinforced by his accusations of Dharma slander leveled against Hnens followers, now brought the two teachings into
mutual opposition. As Nichiren summed up the matter, The nenbutsu
31Shosh mond sh , Teihon 1:25. These two positions represent opposing poles of interpretation of the notion of kaie , the opening and integration of all
other teachings into the one vehicle of the Lotus Stra. From an absolute standpoint, once
all teachings are opened and integrated into the Lotus, the distinction between true
and provisional dissolves, and all practices become expressions of the one vehicle. But
from a relative standpoint, the distinction between true and provisional is maintained; for
Nichiren, who held the latter position, the opening and integration of all other teachings
into the Lotus Stra meant that they were no longer to be practiced independently. See
Stone, Original Enlightenment, 15, 16970, 308, and the Japanese sources cited there.
32E.g., Ienaga Sabur, Chsei bukky shisshi kenky, 7181.
33On the antecedents of Nichirens daimoku practice, see Lucia Dolce, Esoteric Patterns in Nichirens Interpretation of the Lotus Sutra, 294315, and Jacqueline I. Stone,
Chanting the August Title of the Lotus Stra.
125
is the karmic cause for falling into the Avci Hell. The Lotus Stra is the
direct path of realizing Buddhahood and attaining the Way. One should
quickly abandon the Pure Land sect and embrace the Lotus Stra, free
oneself from birth and death, and attain awakening (bodhi).34
Nichirens opposition to the exclusive nenbutsu not only provided
him with the conceptual framework within which he began developing
his teaching of Lotus exclusivism but also committed him to an adversarial path of rebuking slander of the Dharma that would shape his
later thought and conduct, leading him in time to expand his criticisms
to include other Buddhist forms as well. Eventually his opposition to perceived Dharma slander would pit him against the entire religious establishment and the government that patronized it and provoke the repeated
persecutions that marked his tumultuous career.
A Nation of Dharma Slanderers
In 1256 a massive earthquake devastated the town of Kamakura, where
Nichiren was living. The earthquake was the latest in series of recent
calamities, including drought, famine, and epidemics. Prayer rites and
government relief efforts brought no help. By his own account, Nichiren
turned to the Buddhist stras to clarify the cause of these repeated troubles. There he found multiple passages predicting various disasters that
will occur in a realm whose ruler fails to protect the True Dharma and
instead allows it to be neglected or maligned. These scriptural predictions,
Nichiren observed, were materializing in Japan at present. When prayers
are offered for the peace of the land and still the three disasters occur
within the country, then one should know that it is because an evil teaching has spread, he wrote.35 In a group of essays written between 1259
and 1260, Nichiren attributed these disasters and the grief they caused
to the spread of Hnens exclusive nenbutsu teaching. The most famous
of these essays is his Rissh ankoku ron (On bringing peace
to the land by establishing the True Dharma), submitted as a memorial
to the Bakufu in 1260. Here Nichiren argued that the offense of slandering the Dharma not only carries fearsome soteriological consequences
for the perpetrator but has repercussions for society at large. Because the
Lotus Stra and the esoteric teachings had been set aside in favor of the
34Nenbutsu mugen jigoku sh, Teihon 1:34.
35Shugo kokka ron, Teihon 1:116.
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nenbutsu, he said, the protective deities, no longer able to taste the sweet
nectar of the Dharma, had abandoned the country, enabling demons to
enter in their stead and bring destruction to the people. Passages from
Nichirens Rissh ankoku ron and other writings suggest that, by this time,
the exclusive nenbutsu was not only gaining ground but had begun to
displace other practices. For example, he wrote, people were cutting off
the fingers of statues of kyamuni Buddha and reshaping them to form
the mudr of Amida, thus changing the identity of those images. Halls
dedicated to the Buddha Yakushi Nyorai had been converted
to Amida halls. On Mt. Hiei, the ritual copying of the Lotus Stra, carried
out for more than four hundred years, had been replaced by the copying
of the three Pure Land stras, and the annual lectures on the teachings of
the Chinese Tiantai (Jpn. Tendai) founder Zhiyi (538597) had been
supplanted by lectures on the works of the Pure Land master Shandao,
whom Hnen had claimed as a patriarch of his Pure Land school. Chapels
dedicated to the Japanese Tendai founder Saich (766/767822) and
other Tendai patriarchs were allowed to fall into disrepair, and lands once
designated for their support had been confiscated and offered to halls
newly erected for nenbutsu practice.36 The spread of the Senchakushs
message, in Nichirens eyes, had in effect turned Japan into a nation of
Dharma slanderers. The world as a whole has turned its back upon the
right; people give themselves entirely to evil, he wrote. Rather than offering up those myriad prayers [for relief], it would be better to ban this one
iniquity!37
Japans dire situation, as Nichiren saw it, was the fault not only of
Hnens followers but of government officials for supporting them. For
that reason, he submitted the Rissh ankoku ron specifically to Hj Tokiyori (12271263), the former regent to the shogun. Although
formally retired from office, Toikyori was at the time the most powerful
figure in the Bakufu. Nichiren seems to have envisioned a return to the
classic Buddhist ideal of state-sagha relations, in which monks advise
the ruler and the ruler protects the saghaif necessary, by purifying
it of undesirable elements. To drive home both the gravity of the sin of
slandering the Dharma and the rulers responsibility to hold it in check,
he cites in his Rissh ankoku ron a provocative episode from the Nirva
36Rissh ankoku ron, Teihon 1:223; Kaitai sokushin jbutsu gi, 1:12; Nanj Hye Shichirdono gosho , 1:32223.
37Rissh ankoku ron, Teihon 1:209, 217.
127
Stra in which the Buddha recalls a prior lifetime when, as a powerful

king, he once put to death a number of Brahmans who were maligning
the Mahyna stras. As a result of that act, the Buddha says, I never
thereafter fell into hell.38 Nichiren quickly proceeds to clarify that he is
not advocating killing anyone; slanderers of the Dharma can be effectively
suppressed by the simple expedient of denying them material support.
Restraining persons who slander the Dharma and valuing monks who
follow the correct way will assure stability within the country and bring
peace to the world at large, he urges, and adds, Now with all speed you
must simply revise your faith and at once devote it to the single good of
the true vehicle. Then the threefold world will all become the Buddha
land, and how could a Buddha land decline?39 This last passage represents an early articulation of the causal relationship that Nichiren posited
between the spread of faith in the Lotus Stra and the peace of the realm,
which was to inform his mature vision of a Buddha land to be established
in the present world.
The Rissh ankoku ron sounds a note of urgency in calling for the suppression of Dharma slander. Nichiren pointed out that already violent
storms, crop failure, starvation, disease, and ominous celestial portents
had occurred, just as the stras foretell. If the situation was not promptly
rectified, then, judging by these scriptural predictions, two further disasters might be expected: internal revolt and foreign invasion. Both would
surely occur, he warned, if the exclusive nenbutsu continued to spread
unchecked.40
As noted above, Nichirens Rissh ankoku ron was by no means the
first work composed in rebuttal to Hnens Senchakush. Nichirens claim
that the exclusive nenbutsu had caused protective deities to abandon the
country, leaving it vulnerable to demons, had, for example, already been
advanced by Mye in his 1212 Zaijarin.41 But by Nichirens time, exclusive nenbutsu followers had gained considerable influence in Kamakura
and evidently pressured their patrons in the Bakufu to silence Nichirens
objections. Nichiren writes that, not long after submitting the Rissh
ankoku ron, he defeated in debate two leading Pure Land clerics in Kamakura, Nan and Damidabutsu (a.k.a. Dky-b Nenk
38Da banniepan jing (Mahparinirva-stra) , T no. 374, 12:434c20; quoted

in Rissh ankoku ron, Teihon 1:22021.
39Teihon 1:220, 226.
40Teihon 1:225.
41Kamata and Tanaka, Kamakura ky bukky, 47.
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, d. 1287), whose lay supporters then spread malicious rumors

about him to local authorities. A mob attacked his residence, forcing him
to leave Kamakura for a time. On his return, in 1261, he was exiled to the
Izu peninsula, where he remained until 1263.42
Nichirens writings from the Izu period increasingly emphasize the
Lotus Stra as the sole vehicle of liberation in the Final Dharma age. This
was when he explicitly formulated his five principles (gogi ), or
five interrelated perspectives from which he argued the exclusive validity of the Lotus Stra: the teaching, human capacity, the time, the country, and the sequence of propagation. The first four together develop the
claim that the Lotus Stra represents the complete and perfect teaching
that alone guarantees the Buddhahood of all and suits the capacities of
everyone living in the present time (mapp) and place (Japan). The fifth
principle expresses Nichirens conviction that to propagate in any particular country a teaching inferior to those that have already spread contravenes the Buddhas intent. Since the true teaching of the Lotus Stra
had been established in Japan by the Tendai founder Saich, Nichiren
maintained, to spread provisional teachings such as the nenbutsu was an
offense against the Dharma.43 Along with his growing emphasis on exclusive devotion to the Lotus Stra, Nichiren also worked to clarify more fully
the offense of Dharma slander, which obstructs that devotion. His 1262
Ken hb sh (A clarification of Dharma slander) argues that
slander of the Dharma entails failing to abandon an inferior teaching in
favor of a superior one, or holding a lower teaching to be equal or even
superior to a higher one. Definitions of superior versus inferior doctrines in Nichirens view represented, not a historically contingent human
evaluation, but a metaphysical principle that informed the sequence of
the Buddhas preaching as set forth in the traditional Tendai kyhan.
Following the text of the Lotus itself, he insisted that all buddhas of the
three time periods [of past, present and future] observe the same order
in expounding their teachings, first giving provisional teachings to cultivate their auditors understanding and only at the end revealing the true
and complete teaching that alone leads to Buddhahood for all.44 One may
42Rondan tekitai gosho , Teihon 1:274; Shimoyama goshsoku
, 2:1330.
43On Nichirens five principles, see Stone, Original Enlightenment, 25255.
44Ken hb sh, Teihon 1:259. Nichiren refers to the Lotus Stra passage: Frankly discarding expedient means/...Like all buddhas of the three time periods/in their order of
Dharma preaching,/now I too in the same way/preach the Dharma without discriminations (Miaofa lianhua jing, T 9:10a19, 2223).
129
know the superiority of the Lotus, Nichiren said, by the Buddhas words in
its introductory scripture, In these forty years and more, I have not yet
revealed the truth.45 Since, for Nichiren, only the Lotus Stra represented
the true and perfect teaching, appropriate to the present time and place,
within the context of Japan in his day only the Lotus could become the
object of Dharma slander. For exponents of the provisional teachings represented by the Kegon, Sanron, Hoss, Shingon, Zen, or Pure Land schools
to criticize one anothers doctrines in order to promote their own, he said,
does not amount to slander of the Dharma. But to assert that any of these
teachings equals or surpasses the Lotus Stra most definitely does.46
Nichiren also sought to convey the gravity of this sin. It is, he says,
like the five heinous offenses (gogyakuzai )killing ones father,
mother, or an arhat; causing the body of the Buddha to bleed; or fomenting disunity in the saghain that it leads to the Avci Hell, or the Hell
without Respite (mugen jigoku )a place so terrible that the
Buddha refrained from describing it in detail, because ordinary persons,
on merely hearing of its sufferings, would vomit blood and die. But because
the sin of Dharma slander works to block the path of Buddhahood for all
living beings, it is a thousand times worse than the five heinous offenses.
Moreover, the five heinous offenses, in Nichirens opinion, were characteristic of the Buddhas age rather than his own. At present, he wrote,
there is no Buddha in the world, so one cannot injure his person; there is
no unity in the sagha, so one cannot disrupt it; and there are no arhats,
so one cannot kill them. Of these five grave sins, only killing ones parents
remains possible, and this offense is constrained by the sanctions of secular law. Today, he asserted, it is not for wrongdoings such as these but for
the error of rejecting the Lotus Stra that people fall into the Avci Hell.47
Concern with the sin of Dharma slander and the perceived need to
counter it also informed Nichirens growing self-identification, during his
banishment to Izu, with specific passages in the Lotus Stra that seemed
to speak directly to his own situation in describing the difficulties of
upholding the stra in a future evil age. The Dharma Preacher chapter
of the Lotus says, Hatred and jealousy toward this stra abound even
45Wuliangyi jing, T 9:386b12.

46Ken hb sh. See especially Teihon 1:25672 passim.
47Ibid., 25356. Nichiren does, however, acknowledge sins current in his own day that
resemble the five heinous offenses, such as destroying buddha images or votive stpas,
appropriating temple lands, or killing wise persons; those who commit these sins, he says,
are born in one or another of Avcis sixteen ancillary hells (254).
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during the Buddhas lifetime; how much more so after his nirva!48 And
the Fortitude chapter speaks of eminent monks, revered by the world
at large, who will revile, persecute, and oust Lotus devotees and induce
the authorities to take action against them. These passages may have
reflected experience on the part of the stras redactors, as followers of
the minority Mahyna movement, in being ostracized by the Buddhist
mainstream. But the stra casts these passages in the form of predictions,
and Nichiren saw them as foretelling the slander of the Lotus Stra that
had spread in Japan in his own time and the hostility that he himself
encountered in rebuking it. At this point he began referring to himself
as the gyja practitioner or votaryof the Lotus Stra, one who,
in opposing slander of the Dharma, incurs the very persecutions that the
stra describes and thus confirms the truth of its words. Nichiren now
claimed that he was reading the stra with his body (shikidoku ), not
merely verbally reciting its words or mentally contemplating its teachings
but actually living them in his conduct and experience. Nichirens concept
of bodily reading of the Lotus Stra was in effect a circular or mirror
hermeneutic in which the Lotus Stra legitimized his own actions and his
actions fulfilled the stras predictions, stra and practitioner simultaneously reflecting, validating, and bearing witness to each other.49
Pardoned in 1263, Nichiren return to Kamakura where he resumed his
preaching activities. As his emphasis on the exclusive efficacy of the Lotus
Stra increased, his polemical targets expanded. By now they were beginning to include not merely the exclusive nenbutsu but also the emergent
Rissh or precept revival movement as well as the Zen and Shingon schools. All these forms of Buddhism fell within his understanding of
Dharma slander as the rejection of a higher teaching in favor of a lower
one. Like Saich before him, Nichiren repudiated the full complement
of the shibunritsu or Dharmaguptaka-vinaya monastic precepts
as Hnayna; since the Mahyna ordination platform and the perfect
precepts (enkai ) of the Lotus Stra had already been established
on Mt. Hiei, to return to full observance of the vinaya rules as the Rissh
revivalists urged amounted in his eyes to the offense of discarding the
superior for the inferior. Zen teachers also maligned the Dharma, in his
view, by rejecting the stras altogether as no more than a finger pointing
at the moon. The esoteric teachings too were only provisional Mahyna,
48Miaofa lianhua jing, T 9:31b2021.

49Ruben L. F. Habito, Bodily Reading of the Lotus Stra, 19899.
131
and yet Kkai (774835), founder of the Shingon school, had explicitly ranked them above the Lotus Stra. Indeed, embracing any form of
Buddhist devotion, other than to the Lotus alone, represented slander of
the true Dharma. Nichirens rejection of the other Buddhist schools was
summed up by his later followers in sloganized form as the so-called four
admonitions (shika kakugen ), drawn from various passages in
his work: Nenbutsu leads to the Avci Hell, Zen is a devil, Shingon will
destroy the nation, and Ritsu is a traitor.50 By 1269, he would write that
all people of the entire country of Japan, high and low, without a single
exception are guilty of slandering the Dharma.51
Nichiren now pressed this point with mounting urgency. Several years
earlier, in the Rissh ankoku ron, he had predicted that foreign invasion
would ensue if people persisted in their slander of the Dharma. Now that
prophecy appeared to be coming true. Word had reached Japan of the
Mongol conquests that had toppled the Song dynasty in China and subjugated the Korean peninsula. In 1268, envoys from Kubhilai Khan arrived
demanding that Japan, too, submit to Mongol overlordship. These developments, according as they did with the scriptural predictions of calamities
that would befall a country where the True Dharma is slighted, underscored for Nichiren the righteousness of his message. While the country
readied its defenses against the threat of Mongol attack, he intensified his
preaching, and his message of the unique salvific power of the Lotus Stra
became increasingly intertwined with rebukes against the sin of Dharma
slander. As both court and Bakufu began to sponsor esoteric prayer rites
to repel the enemy, Nichirens criticisms focused increasingly on shingon,
by which term he designated the esoteric teachings and practices of both
Shingon and Tendai schools. Esoteric rites, being based on provisional
teachings, could only bring about still worse calamities, he asserted.52 He
also insisted that the Buddhist tutelary deities, Brahm and Indra, as well
as Hachiman , the Sun Goddess Amaterasu mikami , and
the other kami of Japan could not be relied on for protection; rather, these
50For the textual sources of the four admonitions and the reasoning behind Nichirens
criticism of these schools, see Asai End, Shika kakugen. Nichirens later work also
expands his criticisms to include Pure Land teachers before Hnen, such as Shandao and
Genshin (9421017), as well as the Tendai Buddhism of his day.
51Hmon msarubekiy no koto, Teihon 1:454.
52See for example Senji sh , Teihon 2:1053. Nichiren faulted teachers of Tendai
esoteric Buddhism for ranking the esoteric scriptures as equal or even superior to the
Lotus Stra.
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deities had deliberately instigated the Mongol attacks in order to reprove

Japans slander of the Lotus Stra. The whole country, he wrote:
has now become the enemy of buddhas and kami....China and Korea, following the example of India, became Buddhist countries. But because they
embraced the Zen and nenbutsu teachings, they were destroyed by the Mongols. Japan is a disciple to those two countries. If they have been destroyed,
how can our country remain at peace?....All the people in Japan will fall
into the Avci Hell.53
These themes continue throughout Nichirens second exile (12711274),

to Sado Island in the Japan Sea, and his subsequent period of reclusion
at Mt. Minobu in Kai Province, up through the end of his life. Failing to
convince the authorities of his views, he at last reluctantly concluded that
only a disaster on the scale of foreign invasion could rouse his contemporaries from their error; compared to the long-term karmic retribution that
results from slander of the Dharma, even Mongol conquest would, after
all, be the lesser evil. The destruction of our country would be grievous,
he wrote.
But if [the invasion] fails to materialize, the people of Japan will disparage
the Lotus Stra more and more, and they will all fall into the Avci Hell.
Should the enemy prove more powerful, the country may be destroyed, but
slander of the Dharma will all but vanish.54
The Choice of Shakubuku

In a letter written to his followers from Sado Island in 1272, Nichiren
makes reference to disciples who had begun to doubt him or even parted
ways with him when he was arrested and sent into exile under criminal
sentence. He reports them as saying, Nichiren is our teacher, but he is too
obstinate. We will spread the Lotus Stra in a gentler manner.55 One can
well imagine that Nichirens disciples might have urged him to moderate
his attacks on other forms of Buddhism, if only for the purely pragmatic
consideration of avoiding government suppression. Some indeed may
have felt that he had brought his hardships on himself. Nichiren, however,
saw his uncompromising stance as mandated by canonical references to
proper discrimination between two methods of Dharma teaching: shju
53Hmon msarubekiy no koto, Teihon 1:45455.
54Itai dshin no koto , Teihon 1:830.
55Sado gosho, Teihon 1:618.
133
, or leading others gradually without criticizing their present stance,

and shakubuku , or assertively rebuking attachment to false views.56
For him, the exigencies of his own time and place demanded the harsh
method of teaching by shakubuku, over the more accommodating shju
approach:
When one must face enemies, one needs a sword, a staff, or a bow and
arrows. When one has no enemies, however, such weapons are of no use
at all. In this age, the provisional teachings have turned into enemies of
the true teaching. When the time is right to propagate the teaching of the
one vehicle, the provisional teachings become enemies. When they are a
source of confusion, one must refute them from the standpoint of the true
teaching. Of the two types of practice, this is shakubuku, the practice of
the Lotus Stra. With good reason, Tiantai [Zhiyi] said, The shakubuku of
the Lotus Stra is to refute the doctrines and principles of the provisional
teachings.57
Nichiren did allow that, even in mapp, the accommodative, shju

approach could be appropriate in a country where people are merely ignorant of the Dharma, but in a country where the true Dharma is actively
maligned, only shakubuku would serve. Japan, in his view, clearly fell into
the latter category.58
Nichirens choice of the shakubuku method meant that, for him, promoting faith in the Lotus Stra would of necessity entail rebuking Dharma
slander, or attachment to other teachings. And inevitably, his criticisms
of other Buddhist schools invited punitive measures from the authorities.
Banished to the bleak northern island of Sado, Nichiren represented his
exile as something he had foreseen in the light of predictions in the Lotus
and other stras and deliberately chosen with full knowledge of the consequences. He alone, he believed, had come to see clearly how people are
deceived into abandoning the Lotus Stra in favor of provisional teachings
and fall in consequence into the evil paths.
56While often associated with Nichiren, the word shakubuku is by no means his
invention. A cursory search of the SAT Daizky Text Database yields 1170 occurrences
of the term shakubuku and 90 occurrences of shakubuku and shju paired (accessed
May 6, 2012, http://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/SAT/index.html). Nichiren seems to have drawn
particularly on the rml-dev-stra, which describes these two methods as enabling the
Dharma to long endure (Shengman jing , T no. 353, 12:217c13), as well as the works
of the Chinese Tiantai patriarchs Zhiyi and Zhanran (711-782) (see Shakubuku in
NJ, 172b173a).
57Nyosetsu shugy sh , Teihon 1:73536; Letters, 68, slightly modified. The
quote from Zhiyi is at Miofa lianhua jing xuanyi , T no. 1716, 33:792b17.
58Kaimoku sh , Teihon 1:606.
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jacqueline i. stone
But if I utter so much as a word concerning it, then parents, brothers, and
teachers will surely criticize me, and the government authorities will take
steps against me. On the other hand, I am fully aware that if I do not speak
out, I will be lacking in compassion....If I remain silent, I may escape harm
in this lifetime, but in my next life I will most certainly fall into the Avci
Hell....But of these two courses, surely the latter is the one to choose.59
On one hand, shakubuku was for Nichiren an act of bodhisattva-like compassion, carried out for others sake. To rebuke anothers slander of the
Dharma was, potentially, to save that person from rebirth in the Avci
Hell. He explained:
If a bad son who is insane with drink is threatening to kill his father and
mother, shouldnt you try to stop him?...If your only child is gravely ill,
shouldnt you try to cure him with moxibustion treatment? To fail to do so
is to act like those people who see but do not try to put a stop to the Zen
and nenbutsu followers in Japan. As [Zhiyis disciple] Guanding writes,
If one befriends another but lacks the compassion to correct him, one is in
fact that persons enemy.60
At the same time, meeting persecution for opposing enemies of the Lotus
Stra embodied for Nichiren the bodhisattvas resolve to give up his life
if necessary in defense of the Dharma. The stras tell of bodhisattvas of
old who sacrificed eyes, limbs, even life itself for the Dharmas sake. For
Nichiren, to rebuke slander of the Lotus Stra and endure the great trials
that resulted was to follow in their footsteps.61
In addition to such lofty self-negating motives, Nichiren frankly
acknowledged more interested reasons for his commitment to shakubuku.
In his understanding, no matter how earnestly one might recite the Lotus
Stra or how learned in its doctrines and meditative practices one might
become, to seek Buddhahood without speaking out against Dharma slander was not only a futile undertaking but a betrayal of the buddhas and
patriarchs. This reprehensible omission would in effect negate the merit
of ones own practice and cause one to fall into the Avci Hell together
with those slanderers of the Dharma whom one had failed to rebuke.62
59Ibid., 1:55657; Selected Writings, 79, slightly modified.

60Kaimoku sh, 1:608; Selected Writings, 146, slightly modified. Guandings statement is
at Da banniepan jing shu , T no. 1767, 38:80b1.
61See Jacqueline I. Stone, Giving Ones Life for the Lotus Stra in Nichirens
Thought.
62For example, Gassui gosho , Teihon 1:28990; Shgu mond sh
1:385; Sya-dono gohenji , 2:125455.
135
Nichiren illustrated this by analogy to the situation of a court official who

serves with dedication for ten or twenty years but knowingly fails to report
an enemy of the ruler; his lapse supersedes the merit of his long service,
and in addition, he becomes guilty of a crime.63 No threat of persecution,
in Nichirens view, could excuse failure to admonish Dharma slander:
When the Buddha himself has declared that the Lotus Stra is foremost,
if one learns of a person who ranks it second or third, and fails to speak
out because of fear of others or of the government authorities, then, [as
Guanding says,] One is in fact that persons enemy and a terrible enemy
to all living beings....To speak out without fear of others, without flinching before society, is precisely what the [Lotus] Stra means when it says,
We do not cherish bodily life. We value only the supreme way....Because
I wish to avoid the offense of complicity in slander of the Dharma, because
I fear the Buddhas reproach, and because I understand my obligations and
wish to repay the debt I owe my country, I have made all this known to the
ruler and to the people.64
Nichirens stated reasons for adopting the shakubuku method thus unite
compassion for others, concern for ones own karmic destiny, and response
to the demands of loyalty and gratitudeboth to the Buddha and the
Dharma and, in a more worldly sense, to ones ruler and country.
Nichiren also addressed a different, soteriological objection to his
preaching methods: namely, that assertively preaching the Lotus Stra
to persons who are instead attracted to the nenbutsu or other teachings
would simply cause them to denigrate the Lotus all the more and thus
form the karmic cause for future bad rebirths. According to the stra itself,
the Buddha himself had not preached the Lotus from the outset because
living beings, mired in delusion, would fail to take faith in the stra and
instead revile it, and in consequence would fall into the evil paths. Precisely because of the horrific retribution awaiting those who malign the
Lotus, the Buddha admonishes, I say to you, riptura,/...[When you are]
in the midst of ignorant men,/Do not preach this scripture.65 This raised
the question: Wouldnt one do better to lead people gradually through
provisional teachings as kyamuni Buddha himself had done, rather
than insisting on immediately preaching the Lotus Stra to persons whose
minds are not open to it? For Nichiren, however, the scriptural warning
63Nanj Hye Shichir-dono gosho, Teihon 1:32122.

64Akimoto gosho , Teihon 2:1734, 1735; Writings 1:1017, 1019, modified. The
quotation from Guanding is cited in n. 60 above. The stra passage is at T 9:36c18.
65Miaofa lianhua jing, T 9:16a810; Hurvitz, Stra of the Lotus Blossom, 8081.
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jacqueline i. stone
against preaching the Lotus Stra to the ignorant applied only to the
Buddhas lifetime and to the subsequent two thousand years of the True
and Semblance Dharma ages (shb , zb ), when people still
had the capacity to achieve Buddhahood through provisional teachings.
Now in the Final Dharma Age, he argued, no one can realize liberation
through such incomplete doctrines; therefore the Buddha had permitted ordinary teachers such as himself to preach the Lotus Stra directly,
so that people could establish a karmic connection with it, whether by
acceptance or rejection. Here Nichiren invoked the logic of reverse connection (gyakuen ), the idea that even a negative relationship to the
Dharma, formed by rejecting or maligning it, will nonetheless eventually
lead one to liberation. Persons who have formed no karmic connection
to the Dharma may perhaps avoid rebirth in the hells but lack the condition for attaining Buddhahood, while those who slander the Dharma
nevertheless form a bond with it. Though they must suffer the terrible
consequences of their slander, after expiating that offense, they will be
able to encounter the Lotus Stra again and achieve Buddhahood by virtue of the very karmic connection to the stra that they formed by slandering it. Now in the Final Dharma age, Nichiren argued, most persons
are so burdened by delusive attachments that they are already bound for
unfortunate rebirths.
If they must fall into the evil paths in any event, it would be far better that
they do so for maligning the Lotus Stra than for any worldly offense....Even
if one slanders the Lotus Stra and thereby falls into hell, [by the relationship to the Lotus Stra that one has formed,] one will acquire a hundred,
thousand, ten thousand times more merit than if one had made offerings to
and taken refuge in kyamuni, Amida, and as many other buddhas as there
are sands in the Ganges River.66
Thus in this age, Nichiren maintained, one should persist in urging people to embrace the Lotus Stra, regardless of their response, for the Lotus
alone can implant in them the seed or cause that enables one to become
a buddha.67
Nichirens choice of the assertive shakubuku method thus arose from
his perception of Japan and his own era as a place and time when people
as a whole rejected the only teaching that could lead to Buddhahood.
66Ken hb sh, Teihon 1:26061. See also the discussion of this issue in Hokke shshin
jbutsu sh , 2:142426.
67On Nichirens idea of the daimoku as the seed of Buddhahood, see Stone, Original
Enlightenment, 27071, and the Japanese sources cited there.
137
When considered in terms of karmic causality operating across present

and future, the right course, he believed, could only be to preach this message without compromise, regardless of short-term consequences. Even if
others might slander the Lotus Stra as a result of ones preaching, they
would thereby form the karmic connection for attaining Buddhahood in
the future. And even if the practice of shakubuku were to cost ones life, it
would free one from the sin of complicity in others acts of Dharma slander and prevent ones own fall into the Avci Hell. In addition, as Nichiren
frequently pointed out in his later writings, opposition of the kind that
he incurred was predicted in the Lotus Stra itself, which describes the
hostility that its votaries will encounter in the evil age after the Buddhas
passing. Look around you in the world today, he wrote.
Are there monks other than myself who are cursed and vilified, or attacked with
swords and staves, for the Lotus Stras sake? Were it not for me, the prophecy made in this verse of the stra would have been sheer falsehood!68
That his rebukes of Dharma slander invited persecution was not, in

Nichirens eyes, a reason to abandon the shakubuku method, but rather a
sign that he had made the right choice in adopting it.
Rebuking Dharma Slander and Expiating Sin
Nichirens second exile, to Sado, proved a far worse ordeal than his earlier
banishment to Izu, and initially he suffered terribly from cold, hunger, and
the hostility of the locals. He also worried about his followers, many of
whom had been arrested in his absence. His writings from the Sado period
take an introspective turn and show him wrestling with the question of
why, when the Lotus Stra promises its devotees peace and security in
the present life, he should have to encounter such hardships. In general,
he said, people meet with contempt because they slighted others in the
past, in accordance with the ordinary law of karmic causality. However,
Nichiren concluded that his own past sins must have been of an altogether different magnitude and that he himself, in prior lifetimes, must
have committed the very act of disparaging the Dharma that he now so
implacably opposed.
68Kaimoku sh, Teihon 1:559; Selected Writings, 83, slightly modified. Nichiren alludes
to a passage in the verse section of chap. 13 of the Lotus Stra, which describes the trials
that those who spread the stra will encounter in an evil age after the Buddhas nirva
(Miaofa lianhua jing, T 9:36b2137a1; Hurvitz, Scripture of the Lotus, 2047).
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jacqueline i. stone
From the beginningless past I have been born countless times as an evil
ruler who deprived the practitioners of the Lotus Stra of their clothing and
food, paddies and fields, much as the people of Japan in the present day go
about destroying temples dedicated to the Lotus Stra. In addition, countless times I cut off the heads of Lotus Stra practitioners.69
Ordinarily, he said, the karmic retribution for such offenses would torment
a person over the course of innumerable lifetimes. But thanks to his efforts
in denouncing slander of the Dharma, that retribution was being summoned into the present so that it might be eradicated in his present life:
When iron is heated, if it is not strenuously forged, the impurities in it will
not become apparent. Only when it is subjected to the tempering process
again and again will the flaws appear....It must be that my actions in
defending the Dharma in this present life are calling forth retributions for
the grave offenses of my past.70
From this perspective, Nichirens rebuking of slander of the Dharma was

not only an act of compassion, to save others from the consequences of
their present offense, but also an act of repentance, to expiate that very
same offense on his own part in the past.
Toward the end of his period of exile on Sado, Nichiren even began to
represent himself as having deliberately courted his ordeals as an act of
expiation:
Now if I, insignificant person that I am, were to go here and there throughout the country of Japan denouncing [slanders of the Dharma],...the ruler,
allying himself with those monks who disparage the Dharma, would come to
hate me and try to have me beheaded or order me into exile. And if this sort
of thing were to occur again and again, then the grave offenses that I have
accumulated over countless kalpas could be wiped out within the space of
a single lifetime. Such, then, was the great plan that I conceived; and it is
now proceeding without the slightest deviation. So when I find myself thus
sentenced to exile, I can only feel that my wishes are being fulfilled.71
Banished and despised, Nichiren was in this way able to conceive of and
represent himself, rather than his tormenters, as the agent of his trials. In
the same vein, he even expressed gratitude toward the eminent clerics
69Kaimoku sh, Teihon 1:602; Selected Writings, 139, slightly modified. See also Sado
gosho, 1:61617.
70Kaimoku sh, Teihon 1:6023; Selected Writings, 139, slightly modified.
71Kashaku hb metsuzai sh , Teihon 1:781; Letters, 285, slightly
modified.
139
and government officials who had persecuted him, calling them his best
allies in attaining Buddhahood.72
Nichirens Sado writings also show a growing identification with two specific bodhisattva figures who appear in the Lotus Stra. In that he strove to
disseminate faith in the Lotus Stra in the mapp era, Nichiren saw himself as a forerunner of Bodhisattva Superior Conduct (Skt. Viiacritra,
Jpn. Jgy ), leader of a vast throng of bodhisattvas who, in chapter 15
of the Lotus, emerge from beneath the earth and receive kyamuni Buddhas mandate to spread the stra in an evil age after his nirva. But in
that he saw himself as expiating his own past offenses against the Dharma
by enduring persecution, Nichiren identified with Bodhisattva Never Disparaging (Sadparibhta, Jfuky ) described in chapter 20 of the
Lotus, who had persevered despite opposition in spreading the Dharma.
This bodhisattva (eventually revealed as the Buddha kyamuni in a prior
life) was dubbed Never Disparaging because he bowed to everyone he
met, saying, I respect you all deeply. I would never dare disparage you.
Why? Because you will all practice the bodhisattva path and succeed in
becoming buddhas! People mocked and reviled the bodhisattva, beat him
with staves, and pelted him with stones. Nonetheless, as a result of his
practice, he was able to encounter the Lotus Stra and acquire the great
supernatural penetrations. Those who mocked him suffered for a thousand kalpas in the Avci Hell, but after expiating this sin, they were again
able to meet Never Disparaging and were led by him to attain supreme
enlightenment.73
Nichiren read the story of Never Disparaging in a way that reflected
or perhaps even promptedhis understanding of his own ordeals as
expiation of past acts against the Dharma. In his reading, Never Disparaging, like Nichiren himself, had spread by means of shakubuku a teaching embodying the essence of the Lotus Stra and encountered hostility
as a result. Those who harassed the bodhisattva fell into hell for many
kalpas for having persecuted a practitioner of the Lotus, a fate that Nichiren
certainly believed awaited his own enemies. In the Lotus Stra text, the
phrase after expiating this sin clearly refers to those who maligned and
attacked Never Disparaging and who, after expiating the grave offense of
their Dharma slander, were able to reencounter him and achieve supreme
awakening through the Lotus Stra. But even while accepting this reading,
72Shuju onfurumai gosho , Teihon 2:973.

73Miaofa lianhua jing, T 9:50c1651b1; Hurvitz, Scripture of the Lotus, 28082.
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jacqueline i. stone
Nichiren offered another, in which the grammatical subject of after expiating this sin was not those who persecuted Never Disparaging but the
bodhisattva himself. Bodhisattva Never Disparaging was not abused and
vilified, stoned and beaten with staves without reason, Nichiren wrote.
He had probably slandered the True Dharma in the past. The phrase after
expiating this sin means that because he met persecution, he was able to
eradicate his sins from prior lifetimes.74 In this way, Nichiren interpreted
the scriptural account of Never Disparaging in terms of his understanding
of his own experience of persecution as a form of atonement for his past
offenses against the Dharma and as a guarantee of his future Buddhahood.
He wrote:
The past events described in the Never Disparaging chapter I am now
experiencing, as predicted in the Fortitude chapter; thus the present foretold in the Fortitude chapter corresponds to the past of the Never Disparaging chapter. The Fortitude chapter of the present will be the Never
Disparaging chapter of the future, and at that time I, Nichiren, will be its
Bodhisattva Never Disparaging.75
The Never Disparaging chapter tells of a Lotus practitioner who met

great trials in spreading the stra in the past, while the Fortitude chapter
predicts the trials of practitioners who will spread it in the future. Based
on his reading of these two chapters, Nichiren saw himself and his opponents as linked together via the Lotus Stra in a vast soteriological drama
of sin, repentance, and the realization of Buddhahood. Those who malign
a practitioner of the Lotus Stra must undergo repeated rebirth in the
Avci Hell for countless kalpas. But because they have formed a reverse
connection to the stra by slandering it, after expiating their offense,
they will eventually be able to encounter the Lotus again and attain Buddhahood. By a similar logic, the practitioner who suffers their harassment
must encounter this ordeal precisely because he himself maligned the
Lotus Stra in the past. But because of his efforts to protect the Lotus
by opposing Dharma slander in the present, his own past offenses will
be wiped out, and he too will attain Buddhahood. In short, whether by
embracing or opposing it, all who encounter the Lotus Stra eventually
succeed in becoming buddhas.
74Tenj kyju hmon , Teihon 1:507; Letters, 161, slightly modified.

75Teradomari gosho , Teihon 1:515; Letters, 170, slightly modified.
141
Eliminating Dharma Slander in Ones Personal Practice

In keeping with his understanding that he himself had slandered the
Dharma in the past, Nichiren often cautioned his followers that this
offense had to be countered not only in others but also in oneself. Like a
number of other Buddhist teachers of his time, Nichiren did not accord
morality a central role in his soteriology. He accepted as a given the traditional Buddhist ethic with its prohibitions on killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and false speech, but he did not stress observance of the moral
precepts as a condition for liberation. He seems to have believed that persons of genuine faith would not do evil gratuitously (One who chants [the
daimoku] as the stra teaches will not have a crooked mind);76 he also
maintained that ordinary, unavoidable wrongdoings would be outweighed
by the merits of embracing the Lotus and would not pull the practitioner
down into the evil realms.77 Whether or not evil persons of this latter age
attain Buddhahood does not depend upon whether their sins are heavy or
slight but rests solely upon whether or not they have faith in this stra,
he wrote.78 This assurance, however, assumed that practitioners had fully
eliminated any slander of the Dharma on their own part. Traces of this
offense might remain even in the actions of committed devotees, and, if
unchecked, could obscure the merits of their practice and topple them
into the evil realms in lifetimes to come. Nichiren likened this to a leak
sinking even a seaworthy ship or a small ant hole eroding the embankments between rice fields, and urged followers to bail out the water of
Dharma slander and disbelief, and reinforce the embankments of faith in
their personal practice.79
Nichirens letters to his followers suggest multiple ways in which a
Lotus devotee might still be implicated in Dharma slander. One obvious
way was by engaging in other practices. Nichiren was highly critical of
the kind of the Lotus practitioner who chants Namu-myh-renge-ky
at one moment and Namu-Amida-butsu at the next, an act he likened
to adulterating rice with excrement.80 Even after becoming Nichirens
followers, some individuals evidently continued to repeat the nenbutsu
76Mymitsu Shnin goshsoku , Teihon 2:1166.

77For example, Shugo kokka ron, Teihon 1:128. See also Stone, Original Enlightenment,
29798.
78Hakii Sabur-dono gohenji , Teihon 1:749.
79Abutsu-b-ama gozen gohenji , Teihon 2:1110.
80Akimoto gosho, Teihon 2:1730.
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together with the daimoku. Viewed in light of the mainstream religious

culture of the day, this was unexceptional behavior; engaging in multiple
practices was the norm, and all religious acts were viewed as meritorious deeds that would further ones eventual enlightenment. Movements
such as Hnens and Nichirens, demanding exclusive commitment to a
single religious form, were minority exceptions, and one imagines that
some among Nichirens followers simply failed either to grasp his exclusivist message or to embrace it wholeheartedly. Fears about social consequences also made some reluctant to declare themselves openly as
Nichirens followers, and he worried about the karmic retribution they
would have to face. There are many such cases even among my disciples
and lay followers, he once confided in a personal letter.
You have surely heard about the lay monk Ichinosawa . Privately
he is my follower, but outwardly he remains a nenbutsu devotee. What can
be done about his next life? Nonetheless, I have [copied out and] given him
the Lotus Stra in ten fascicles.81
A Lotus devotee could also become implicated in the sin of Dharma slander by tolerating, overlooking, or declining to admonish this offense on
the part of others. Many of Nichirens followers, both monastics and lay
believers, had family members or other associates who did not share their
faith. In Nichirens view, even if one did not slander the Lotus Stra oneself, one participated in that offense simply by belonging to a family or
even a country whose members disparage the Dharma and making no
effort to correct them. He appears to have urged such individuals to make
at least one decisive attempt to convert family or associates who did not
embrace the Lotus. For example, to one lay follower, he wrote,
If you wish to escape the offense of belonging to a house of Dharma slanderers, then speak to your parents and your brothers about this matter. They
may oppose you, but then again, you may persuade them to take faith.82
And to another:
Although your heart is one with mine, your person is in service elsewhere
[i.e., to a vassal of the ruler, who opposes Nichiren.] Thus it would seem difficult for you to escape the offense of complicity [in slander of the Dharma].
81Abutsu-b-ama gozen gohenji, Teihon 2:1109. Ichinosawa evidently never became
a fully committed devotee, and Nichiren continued to express concern for his postmortem fate after Ichinosawas death (Sennichi-ama gozen gohenji ,
2:1547).
82Akimoto gosho, Teihon 2:1738.
143
How admirable that you have nonetheless informed your lord about this
teaching! Even though he may not accept it now, you yourself have escaped
offense. But from now on, you had better be circumspect in what you say.83
The offense of complicity (yodzai ) was a term found in the

legal codes and warrior house rules of the day. It designated those cases
when, although not personally guilty of the crime, someone has knowledge of treasonous or other criminal behavior but fails to speak out or
to inform the authorities.84 Nichiren imported this term into a Buddhist
context to describe Lotus devotees who kept faith themselves but failed
to admonish the Dharma slander of those around them. It appears in letters to his warrior followers, who were probably already familiar with this
concept it in its legal sense.
The requirement that one speak out against others disbelief posed a
particular hardship for those devotees whose social superiorsparents
or feudal lordsactively opposed their faith. Followers in this position
found themselves caught between their commitment to the Lotus Stra
and a social ethos of filial devotion and loyalty, which demanded obedience to parents and rulers. A few such cases are known to us from
Nichirens letters. The father of the warrior Ikegami Munenaka
disowned him for his allegiance to Nichiren, forcing Munenakas younger
brother Munenaga , also a Lotus devotee, to choose between upholding his faith in solidarity with his brother or abandoning it in order to
seize the unexpected opportunity to supplant Munenaka as his fathers
heir. Another follower, Shij Kingo , incurred the displeasure of
his lord, Ema Chikatoki , who confiscated part of Shij Kingos
landholdings and came close to ousting him from his service altogether
on account of his association with Nichiren.85 The husband of a woman
known as the lay nun Myichi-ama had his small landholding
confiscated for the same reason.86 Nichiren was keenly aware of the emotional and social costs to those who followed him against the wishes of
superiors, and his surviving letters show the pains he took in guiding disciples who confronted such situations. In general he counseled them that,
while abandoning ones practice of the Lotus Stra in conformity to social
83Shukun ni ny shi hmon men yodzai ji , Teihon

1:834.
84See NJ, 413cd, 740cd.
85For more on these two cases, see Takagi Yutaka, Nichiren to sono montei, 22153, and
Jacqueline I. Stone, When Disobedience is Filial and Resistance is Loyal, 26774.
86Myichi-ama gozen goshsoku , Teihon 2:1001.
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jacqueline i. stone
dictates about the obedience owed to superiors might seem prudent from
a short-range view, that course would only confirm those superiors in
their present error and amount to slander of the Dharma on ones own
part, causing all parties involved to fall into the Avci Hell. True loyalty
or filial piety, Nichiren insisted, was to maintain ones faith without compromise and declare it to lords or parents who opposed it. In so doing,
one would free oneself from complicity in Dharma slander and be able
to eradicate the karmic consequences of ones own slanders against the
Dharma committed in prior lifetimes. At the same time, efforts to convert
ones persecutorseven if their immediate response should be hostile
would establish a karmic connection between them and the Lotus Stra,
enabling them to attain Buddhahood at some future point. Thus Nichiren
appropriated to his Lotus exclusivism the values of filial piety and loyalty in a way that could in some cases legitimate, or even mandate, an
individuals defiance of those values in their more conventional sense of
obedience to parents and rulers. His stance on this issue in effect empowered devotees in a weaker or subordinate position by identifying their
agencyexpressed in the act of rebuking Dharma slanderas enabling
the eventual Buddhahood of the social superiors who opposed them.
Nichiren also stressed to his followers, as he had to himself, the importance of recognizing present suffering as both the consequence of past
slander of the Dharma and also as an opportunity to eradicate it. To the
Ikegami brothers, urging them to stand fast in the face of their fathers
opposition, he wrote, Never doubt but that you slandered the Dharma in
past lifetimes. If you doubt it, you will not be able to withstand even the
minor sufferings of this life....87 He also applied this principle to personal tribulations that that did not stem from external pressures. To his
follower ta Jmy , a warrior turned lay monk who was suffering from painful skin lesions, he wrote:
Although you were not in the direct lineage [of the Shingon school], you
were still a retainer to a patron of that teaching. For many years you lived
in a house devoted to a false doctrine, and month after month your mind
was influenced by false teachers....Perhaps the relatively light affliction of
this skin disease has occurred so that you may expiate [your past offenses]
and thus be spared worse suffering in the future...These lesions have
arisen from the sole offense of slandering the Dharma. [But] the wonderful Dharma that you now embrace surpasses the moon-praising samdhi
(gatsuai zanmai ) [by which the Buddha cured King Ajtaatru of
87Kydai sh , Teihon 1:92425.
145
the vile sores resulting from his sins]. How could your disease not be cured
and your life extended?88
In this way, Nichiren stressed that present trials are not only retribution
for past slander of the Lotus Stra but also an opportunity to eradicate
this offense in toto, receiving its karmic consequences far more lightly and
over a much shorter period of time than would otherwise be the case. Like
the doctrine of karmic causality more broadly, this perspective ultimately
attributes sufferingillness, in ta Jmys caseto the sufferers own
prior deeds. However, in linking the cause of affliction to slandering the
Lotus Stra and its eradication, to upholding the stra, Nichiren invested
the concept of karmic causality with a specifically Lotus-centered soteriological meaning, one thus directly connected to his followers immediate
practice. This may have encouraged them not only to persevere in their
own faith despite personal hardships and afflictions but to redouble their
commitment in spreading it to others.
Lastly, eliminating Dharma slander in oneself seems, in Nichirens view,
to have entailed treating fellow practitioners with respect. Stressing the
stras admonition that speaking a single word against its devotees is
worse than abusing kyamuni Buddha to his face for an entire kalpa, he
admonished:
Remember that those who uphold the Lotus Stra should never abuse one
another. Those who uphold the Lotus Stra are all certainly buddhas, and in
slandering a buddha one becomes guilty of a grave offense.89
Conclusion
Among the complaints leveled against him by his contemporaries,
Nichiren once wrote, was that he overemphasized doctrinal categories
(kymon )presumably, at the expense of meditative practice
(kanjin ).90 Taken collectively, his extant writings do indeed devote
considerably more space to clarifying the distinction between true and
provisional teachings than to explicating the practice of chanting the
88ta Nyd-dono gohenji , Teihon 2:111718. The moon-praising
samdhi by which the Buddha healed King Ajtaatru appears in the Da banniepan jing,
T 12:480c27481b15.
89Matsuno-dono gohenji , Teihon 2:1266. The stra passage to which
Nichiren refers is at Miaofa lianhua jing, T 9:30c2931a3.
90Teradomari gosho, Teihon 1:514.
146
jacqueline i. stone
daimoku, the form of meditative practice that he advocatedalthough

within his community, the latter may have been conveyed primarily
through oral instruction. Nichirens emphasis on doctrinal categories
both reflected and informed his conviction, reached early on, that only the
Lotus Stra leads to Buddhahood now in the Final Dharma age. Because
it is the true and perfect teaching, encompassing all the Buddhas virtues
within itself, the merit of embracing it overrides all lesser, worldly offenses
and blocks the path to rebirth in the lower realms. But for that very same
reason, Nichiren asserted, to set aside the Lotus in favor of some lesser
teaching amounts to slander of the Dharma. This was not in his view
an ordinary sin such as taking anothers life or property but an infinitely
more terrible act that cut off the possibility of Buddhahood both for oneself and others and led to countless rebirths in the Avci Hell. So appalling was this evil in his eyes that he could convey its magnitude only by
analogy to exaggerated forms of the most reprehensible worldly offenses;
slandering the Lotus Stra, he said, was worse than killing everyone in all
the provinces of China and Japan or murdering ones parents a hundred
million times.91 Thus in his understanding, asserting the unique truth of
the Lotus Stra and denouncing slander of the Dharma were inseparable
aspects of correct Buddhist practice.
Nichirens admonition to remonstrate against Dharma slander worked
both to maintain devotion to the Lotus Stra in an exclusive mode and to
encourage its propagation. Had he not taken this stance, pitting himself
against all other Buddhist forms and urging his disciples to do likewise, in
all probability his following would not have long survived him, let alone
emerged as an independent sectarian tradition, but would have been
reabsorbed into the larger religious culture. Devotion to the Lotus alone
and the accompanying mandate to counter slander of the Dharma were
central to the self-definition of the Hokkesh , as the medieval
Nichiren tradition was known. We see this vividly in the hagiographic
accounts of those Hokkesh monks who, following Nichirens example, carried out the practice of admonishing the state (kokka kangy
) by petitioning the emperor, the shogun, or lesser officials to
cease patronage of other Buddhist schools and to support faith in the
Lotus alone. Such acts of remonstration were often occasioned by natural disasters or other crises, which Nichirens followers, like their teacher
before them, perceived as collective retribution for the sin of slighting the
91Kaimoku sh, Teihon 1:604: Kydai sh, 1:920.
147
true Dharma. Yet, like Nichirens Lotus exclusivism itself, a thoroughgoing

opposition to slander of the Dharma proved difficult to institutionalize.
As the Hokkesh became firmly established in medieval Japanese society, compromises were often made with the shrines and temples of other
schools and with local religious practice in order to win patronage and
avoid persecution. Still, a purist Lotus only stance and the rejection of
Dharma slander remained official ideology and were periodically revived
by Hokkesh leaders eager to launch reformist movements within the tradition or to legitimize newly founded lineages. Such figures sometimes
leveled charges of Dharma slander not only at other Buddhist schools
but at rival branches within the Nichiren tradition, thus bolstering their
own claims to superior orthodoxy and fidelity to Nichirens example.92
Aggressive shakubuku was discouraged by government religious policy
during the early modern period (16031868) but resurfaced with vigor in
the late nineteenth century. And in Japans modern and contemporary
periods as well, one finds examples of Nichiren Buddhist followers committed to rebuking slander of the Dharma. No doubt the best known
example is the postwar Ska Gakkai , which began as a lay
organization of the Nichiren Shsh sect of Nichiren temple
Buddhism before a schism separated the two in 1991. In the immediate
aftermath of the Pacific War, Ska Gakkai leadership attributed the human
misery brought about by militant imperialism and Japans defeat to karmic
retribution for widespread slander of the Lotus Stra, and embarked on
an aggressive proselytization campaign. Ska Gakkai youth division members sometimes challenged Buddhist priests of other sects and the leaders
of other religious movements to confrontational public debates, and, in
the name of clearing away Dharma slander (hb barai ), new
converts were required to remove from their homes all religious appurtenances belonging to other traditions.93 Since the 1970s, however, Ska
Gakkai has gradually adopted a more moderate stance and today even
engages in interfaith dialogue. At the same time, another former Nichiren
Shshu affiliate and rival movement, Kenshkai , has emerged as
representative of the hardline Nichirenist position, promoting a rigorous
Lotus exclusivism and the elimination of Dharma slander for the welfare of Japan and the world. Kenshkai now numbers among the fastest
92On the practice of admonishing the state, see Watanabe Hy, Nichirensh
shingyron no kenky, 13557, and Stone, Rebuking the Enemies of the Lotus, 23740.
93Kiyoaki Murata, Japans New Buddhism, 99, 1056.
148
jacqueline i. stone
growing religious movements in Japan, a fact that should give pause to

anyone tempted to assume that exclusivistic religious orientations could
have but little appeal in the contemporary developed world.94
Still, when one takes into account the more than forty temple organizations, lay societies, and new religious movements within Nichiren Buddhism today, moderates appear to predominate; the majority of Nichiren
Buddhist adherents do not engage in confrontational shakubuku or publicly
denounce other forms of Buddhism as Dharma slander. But the decision
to set aside a literal reading of Nichirens mandate to rebuke adherence
to other teachingswhether made as the result of conscious deliberation
or notis informed by factors other than the chiefly prudential considerations that led many pre- and early modern devotees to relax or even
abandon Nichirens exclusive truth claim. One such factor is the modernist ethos of religious tolerance, along with the accompanying conviction
that faith is a matter of personal choice in which others should not interfere. Another is the humanistic turn, rooted in Enlightenment perspectives, that sees religion as grounded, less in cosmology and metaphysics
than in culture and history. Yet another is the influence of the text-critical
study of sacred scriptures. Modern Buddhological scholarship has shed
light on the processes of scriptural compilation, calling into question the
status of the stras in general and the Mahyna in particular as a direct
record of the Buddhas preaching. Doctrinal classification schemas that
purport to uncover a comprehensive design or graded sequence in the
Buddhist teachings have been shown to represent, not historical realities,
but retrospective constructions. Those embracing modernist perspectives
of this kind find it hard to sympathize with, let alone embrace, the idea
that one form of religious devotion alone could be valid and all others
lead to hella place they are unlikely to believe in, except perhaps in
metaphorical terms.
The question of how contemporary Nichiren Buddhist practitioners
with modernist commitments reinterpret their tradition is an intriguing
one, but addressing it properly would demand a serious ethnographic
investigation; here I can offer only cursory impressions. Some individuals
occasionally call for a reinterpretation of Dharma slander according with
94Little scholarly research on Kenshkai has been conducted as yet. For introductory
information, see the groups website http://www.kenshokai.or.jp and the two informational pamphlets provided for download by the Nichirensh Gendai Shky Kenkyjo
http://www.genshu.gr.jp/DPJ/booklet/booklet.htm (both accessed
May 6, 2012).
149
contemporary outlooks, and a few have even attempted to offer doctrinal

justifications for so doing, for example, by invoking Nichirens assertion
that the choice between shju or shakubuku must depend upon the times.95
For the most part, however, such re-rereadings proceed in an unofficial,
non-explicit fashion within the practice of ordinary devotees, who, like
followers of any religion, tend to minimize or ignore uncongenial elements of their received tradition and stress those that for them are most
relevantsuch as the value of Nichiren Buddhism as their family religion,
the efficacy of the daimoku as a practice for self-cultivation, or Nichirens
aim, variously interpreted, of realizing an ideal Buddha land here in this
world. There may also be some reluctance to tamper in any official way
with a teaching that has been formative of traditional Nichiren sectarian
identity. At the same time, informal conversations with priests and lay
believers of multiple Nichiren Buddhist groups suggest to me that at least
some practitioners privately consider the mandate to oppose slander of
the Dharma to be a major obstacle to the wider recognition of Nichirens
teaching as a legitimate form of Buddhisma tradition often represented
in modernist readings as an especially tolerant religion. The condemnation of all Buddhist forms except devotion to the Lotus Stra as Dharma
slander alienates outsiders, who see it as dogmatic self-righteousness,
while insiders with more fundamentalist leanings tend to view the external criticisms that it provokes, not as a reason to reconsider their adversarial stance, but rather as a validation of it, in that such criticism seems
to bear out scriptural prophecy that those who spread the Lotus Stra in
the latter age will meet hostility. It is ironic that Nichirens implacable
opposition to the sin of Dharma slander, which in no small measure
enabled his small following to take shape and develop as an independent
school, should become a hindrance in contemporary times. But it is not
an isolated case; the thorny hermeneutical problems of reinterpreting an
exclusive truth claim in light of the modernist ethos touched upon above
are by no means limited to Nichiren Buddhists.
The frequent characterization of Nichiren as intolerant in both scholarly and popular literature stems from precisely that ethos. Purely as a
descriptor, the term is accurate enough; to use the contemporary expression, Nichiren had zero tolerance for the practice of other teachings.
95For an example of a re-reading of Nichirens four admonitions by a North American

Nichiren Buddhist minister, see http://fraughtwithperil.com/ryuei/2011/09/27/the-fouradmonitions/ (accessed May 6, 2012).
150
jacqueline i. stone
But the category of intolerance is grounded in a particular set of normative modernist assumptions about religion that did not exist in medieval
Japan; criticisms leveled again Nichiren by his contemporaries were based
on very different grounds. Dismissing Nichiren as intolerant thus obscures
the interpretive context within which he understood slander of the Lotus
Stra to be the most frightful of sins. This aspect of his thought, which I
have attempted to retrieve in this essay, is difficult to graspnot because
it is doctrinally complex, but because it is embedded in a view of reality so
different from that which dominates intellectual discourse today. Nonetheless, the modernist stance is far from universal, and religious convictions such as Nichirens, that embracing any but one particular teaching is
an appalling evil to be opposed at all cost, have neither vanished from the
world nor ceased to bring about far-reaching consequences. Beyond the
narrower desire of the historian of Japanese Buddhism to get Nichiren
right, that fact alone makes his concept of slander of the True Dharma
as the worst of sins worth making an effort to understand.
Bibliography
Abbreviations
BD
Letters
NJ
Selected Writings
T
Teihon
Writings
Mochizuki Bukkyo daijiten

Burton Watson and others, trans., Letters of Nichiren
Nichirensh jiten
Burton Watson and others, trans., Selected Writings of Nichiren
Taish shinsh daizky
Shwa teihon Nichiren Shnin ibun
Gosho Translation Committee, Writings of Nichiren Daishonin
Collections and Reference Works

Mochizuki Bukkyo daijiten . 10 vols. Mochizuki Shinko .
Expanded by Tsukamoto Zenryu . Tokyo: Sekai Seiten Kanko Kyokai, 1954
1963.
Nichirensh jiten . Edited by Nichirenshu Jiten Kanko Iinkai
. Tokyo: Nichirenshu Shmuin, 1981.
Shwa teihon Nichiren Shnin ibun . Edited by Rissh Daigaku
Nichiren Kygaku Kenkyjo . 4 vols. Minobu-ch, Yamanashi Prefecture: Minobusan Kuonji, 195259; revised 1988.
Taish shinsh daizky . 85 vols. Edited by Takakusu Junjir
and Watanabe Kaigyoku et al. Tokyo: Taisho Issaikyo Kankokai, 1924
1934.
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Asai End . Shika kakugen . Nichirensh jiten, 143d145c.
Blum, Mark. Ksai and the Paradox of Ichinengi: Be Careful of What You Preach. Pacific
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Chappell, David W., ed. Tien-tai Buddhism: An Outline of the Fourfold Teachings. Recorded
by the Korean Buddhist monk Chegwan (?970). Translated by The Buddhist
Translation Seminar of Hawaii. Compiled by Masao Ichishima. Tokyo: Daiichi Shob,
1983.
Dobbins, James C. Jdo Shinsh: Shin Buddhism in Medieval Japan. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1989. Reprint Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002.
Dolce, Lucia Dora. Esoteric Patterns in Nichirens Interpretation of the Lotus Sutra. Ph.D.
diss., University of Leiden, 2002.
Ford, James L. Jkei and Buddhist Devotion in Early Medieval Japan. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
Gosho Translation Committee. The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin. 2 vols. Tokyo: Soka
Gakkai, 19992006.
Gregory, Peter N. Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Habito, Ruben L. F. Bodily Reading of the Lotus Stra. In Readings of the Lotus Stra,
edited by Stephen F. Teiser and Jacqueline I. Stone, 186208. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.
Hurvitz, Leon, trans. Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma (the Lotus Stra).
Ienaga Sabur . Chsei bukky shisshi kenky . Kyoto:
Hzkan, 1947; revised edition 1990.
Kamata Shigeo and Tanaka Hisao , eds. Kamakura ky bukky
. Nihon shis taikei 15. Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1971.
Kawazoe Shji . Nichiren no shky keisei ni okeru nenbutsu haigeki no igi
(1) and (2), Bukkyo shigaku 4,
nos. 34 (1955): 5971, and 5, no. 1 (1956): 4557.
Kiuchi Gy . Asa daimoku y nenbutsu . Nihon bukky gakkai
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Mitomo Keny . Murygiky Indo senjutsu-setsu .
In Nichiren kydan no shomondai , edited by Miyazaki Eish Sensei Koki Kinen Ronbunsh Kankkai , 111945.
Kyoto: Heirakuji Shoten, 1983.
Morrell, Robert E., trans. Sand and Pebbles (Shasekish): The Tales of Muj Ichien, A Voice
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Murata, Kiyoaki. Japans New Buddhism: An Objective Account of Soka Gakkai. New York:
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Nakao Takashi . Nichiren Shnin no Jdosh hihan to sono igi
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by Motai Kyk Sensei Koki Kinen Ronbunsh Kankkai
, 22544. Kyoto: Heirakuji Shoten, 1974.
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Shioda Gisen . Asa daimoku to y nenbutsu . saki gakuh
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Ritual Faults, Sins, and Legal Offences:

A Discussion about Two Patterns of Justice in
Contemporary India
Daniela Berti1
Legal scholars have shown how the history of contemporary criminal
procedures in the West is bound to religious history and in particular to
medieval Christianity. They argue, for example, that the jury trial is a consequence of the decline in practices based on Gods judgment as revealed
through the procedure of the ordeal. Once the judge, and not the deity,
had to make the final decision regarding the guilt or innocence of the
accused, the jury trial was introduced as a way of sparing the judge the
full responsibility of passing judgment and of allowing him to share this
responsibility with the jurors.2 In his work on the theological roots of the
criminal trial James Q. Whitman goes even further, arguing that one of
the crucial legal rules of contemporary criminal procedure, reasonable
doubt, is to be seen as a vestige of a very widespread pre-modern anxiety
about judging and punishing.3 The author shows how the original function of reasonable doubt was not, as it is today, to protect the accused, but
to protect jurors against the potential mortal sin of convicting an innocent
defendant. The rule of reasonable doubt was, he argues, a technique of
moral comfort, aimed at protecting the judge from damnation.4
In India the religious dangers attendant upon judging had been mentioned in Sanskrit texts since the early centuries of the common era.
Phyllis Granoff has shown, for example, that while certain texts warned
the king that he must punish the guilty lest he take on himself the offenders sin, other texts warned him that in punishing the innocent, he would
1This work is part of the ANR (Agence Nationale de la Recherche, France) programme,
Justice and Governance in India and South Asia, http://just-India.net.
2J. Fitzjames Stephen, A History of the Criminal Law of England (London: Routledge,
1996). On this topic see also Robert Jacob, Le serment des juges, in Le Serment, ed. Raymond Verdier (Paris: CNRS, 1991).
3James Q. Whitman. The Origins of Reasonable Doubt. Theological Roots of the Criminal
Trial. (Yale: Yale University Press, 2008).
4Whitman, The Origins of Reasonable Doubt.
154
daniela berti
go to hell.5 Although, as her paper shows, a certain anxiety about judging may be seen in Sanskrit literature, when Western criminal procedures were introduced during the colonial period, they were in no way
associated with these medieval religious concerns and were perceived as
completely secularized techniques. Some of the practices adopted during colonial times, such as the jury trial, were even abolished soon after
Independence, and the absence of the jury trial seems not to have generated any particular religious anxiety about the judges salvation in the
next life. The procedure followed in India during a trial thus no longer has
any obvious link with Christian or Brahmanical religious concerns, and
violations of rules or offences are not sanctioned according to religious
precepts but according to sections of the Civil or Penal code.
The secular character of the official courts is often evoked in India in
discussions on modernization, globalization and the rule of law.6 This is
particularly true when courts of law are compared to another context of
litigation, arbitration, and judgment, which is quite widespread throughout India, especially but not exclusively at rural level, and which is based
on the authority of local gods. I refer here to temple consultations where a
medium (or oracle), institutionally linked to a village temple and speaking
on behalf of the deity, interprets peoples problem, arbitrates conflicts and
identifies culprits. The outcome of peoples wrongdoings is not evaluated
here according to legal codes but according to a social, ritual and moral
order in which the deity intervenes. In the context of these consultations
people appear to be responsible for the misfortunes they suffer, which are
just as much divine punishment as human errors.
In this chapter I show how, though temple mediums and judges may
appear to have nothing in common, they share some similarities: they
both arbitrate cases, interpret or establish facts and truth, and they
pronounce judgments and verdicts. In one case the arbiter is a gods
medium, who speaks on behalf of a village deity; in the other it is a professional judge who speaks on behalf of a State court. Most importantly, from
our perspective here, both the mediums and the judges, especially those
from Higher courts, make reference to the notion of sin in order to interpret the evidence that has to be judged. In fact, as I demonstrate in the
following pages, although Indian courts appear to be secularized contexts
5Phyllis Granoff, Justice and Anxiety: False Accusations in Indian Literature, Rivista
di Studi Sudasiatica LXXXIII, (2010): 377399.
6Marc Galanter, Hinduism, Secularism, and the Indian Judiciary, Philosophy East and
West 21, 4 (1971).
ritual faults, sins, and legal offences
155
of judgment and of decision-making as far as the trial proceedings are

concerned, a religious or moral understanding of sin emerges, particularly
in judicial rulings. It is in these rulings that High court and Supreme Court
judges have to argue the reasons for their decision to dismiss or allow an
appeal. However, contrary to the mediums of the deity, Indian judges are
not directly concerned with the idea of divine displeasure (at least this
is not considered to be an argument for the court); nor do they expose
the alleged wrongdoer to public reproach for his errors in the same way
as the mediums do during a temple consultation. And yet there emerges
in these well-argued written decisions a clear notion of sin, used by the
judge to bestow a moral tone on his argumentation. The notion of sin in
these judgments relies on the ancient Sanskrit texts, which are used here
alongside codes of law or legal precedents as legitimate sources of the
judicial reasoning.
I begin with an examination of the judgment of the village medium,
which not unexpectedly is all about sin or wrongdoing. This is followed
by a discussion of judicial pronouncements, which, surprisingly may also
be very much about sin.
At the Devts Court
The institution of divine mediumship is quite widespread throughout
India and represents an alternative way of dealing with peoples problems
to what is provided by the purohit (the Brahman priest), who can nonetheless be consulted simultaneously.7 Unlike the purohit, who treats his
clients problem by relying on astrological calculations and sophisticated
ritual procedures, the temples medium allows people to question the deities directly, and personally to dialogue with them.
In the region of Himachal Pradesh, in Northern India, divine mediumship is highly institutionalized. Each main village deity has his official
medium, who is ritually selected from among members of various castes.
Village deities are considered to rule over specified territories, the largest of which includes the territories of subordinate gods. Those who live
within a deitys jurisdiction feel themselves bound to the deity not only
as a devotee to a god, but also as a tenant to a landlord. In fact, village
deities hold properties and land rights, which may be used by villagers
7Jackie Assayag and Gilles Tarabout, La Possession en Asie du Sud: parole, corps, territoire. (Paris: EHESS, 1999).
156
daniela berti
in exchange for rent payable to the temple, or for a service to the temple
(officiating as a priest, serving as a medium or temple musician). PostIndependence land reforms have caused a considerable drop in wealth for
these landowning deities. Nonetheless, village deities still exercise their
influence over their former territories, within which they are supposed to
grant happiness or misfortune, depending on the behaviour of their subjects. In the event of misfortune or natural disaster, people consult their
village deity to find out the reason for what has gone wrong and to seek a
remedy. A temple consultation then takes place, in the form of a darbr
or royal audience, where the king listens to his subjects complaints.8
The medium often talks during the consultation, speaking out as if he
were the deity: You have come to my court, or I am the Delhi Emperor,
or else The court is mine, justice is mine. What the deity says during the
consultation is considered to be a final ruling. The deity may be strongly
critical of his subjects behaviour. The villagers are judged responsible for
the misfortunes that befall them, including natural disasters such as
drought, floods or poor crop yields, all of which are regarded as divine
punishment for human errors. Human errors may be ritual mistakes, a
lack of devotion, any form of misconduct, and violation of established
rules. Unlike purohit consultations, which are usually held privately and
which do not subject the client to public scrutiny of his behavior, the
deitys medium is consulted at the village temple and may publically
denounce the wrongdoing not only of a single person but of the entire
community as well.
I will now go into further details of consultations with deities in order
to show how sin or errors are defined within this ritual context. The data
analyzed here were collected during my fieldwork in 1995 in Kullu district in Himachal Pradesh They are mostly taken from the medium at the
temple of the goddess ravan, who is a member of a low caste quite well
known in the region as the medium of a powerful goddess. What follows
is a passage from the bhartha (goddesss story) recited by the medium in
the first person as if the deity, immediately after having ritually received
the goddess within himself.9 The deitys presence or influence (prabhv)
over the medium is visible through a slight trembling of his legs and arms
which may vary in intensity throughout the seance. What the medium
8Daniela Berti, Gestes, paroles et combats. Pluralite rituelle et modalite daction en
Himalaya indien, Annales de la Fondation Fyssen 16 (2001): 29.
9Daniela Berti, La Parole des dieux. Rituels de possession en Himalaya Indien (Paris: CNRS
Editions, 2001).
157
says when in this state is considered by villagers to be the deitys actual

words.10
At the beginning of the consultation, the goddess talks of todays degenerate times by using the concepts of kaliyuga, the degenerate age, and
satyuga, the bygone golden age.11 Reference is made here to the social
order and to some collective, general form of misbehavior. At this initial
stage of the consultation both the goddesss sentences and the peoples
replies are very formal and strictly regulated.12
Goddess: Oh my subjects! These are the words of the sat yuga. I destroyed
a basket of incense, just as I destroyed a basket of jaibui (medicinal
plants). For eight days I made rain, for eight days I made the sky blue. I
made the dry ground green. You had the truth, I had the power.
Public: Oh Mahrj! You have the same power even today.
Goddess: In satyuga times, one person spoke, and ten listened. I spoke forth
and people gathered like bees. Today these are kal yuga times. You have
lost the truth, we have lost power! Things that shouldnt have happened
have happened. Brides have become co-brides. Sons and father quarrel
with each other. Two women work together but they think bad of one
another.
Public: Yes, this is happening today.
Goddess: The mud of the mountains has moved to the plains, the mud of
the plains has moved to the mountains. The shepherd himself tells lies.
Crows and roosters fight each other and the cow eats dirt. There are no
longer any gods, nor any dharma. At the place where Ahra Karu (name
of a group of local gods) live, those who sat outside have come inside and
those who sat inside have gone outside. The son has given up his fathers
work and has many problems to face. There has been a lot of misfortune
and problems. Will I be able to put an end to it or not?
Attendants: Why should you not be able to put an end to it, Mahrj?
Goddess: Go then! I will put your mind at rest. You will hear [about misfortune] but you will not see [it]. I will wash the black and spread the salutary red. If I give you good news, acknowledge me! Otherwise no! Why
did you call me?
10 I have thus chosen here to speak of goddess instead of medium in order to reproduce the local perception, though in some cases the medium may be accused by villagers
of speaking on his own.
11 These concepts are commonly used in other rural areas of India by members of different castes. Ann Grodzins Gold, Spirit Possession Perceived and Performed in Rural
Rajasthan, Contributions to Indian Sociology 22 (1988) 41.
12 For the same village deity the bhartha does not change from one consultation to
another. By contrast each village deity has his or her own bhartha and a specific way to
tell it during the ritual.
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daniela berti
This is a rather general, codified, anonymous way of speaking about the

lack of good behavior; although there is the idea that people today are
doing wrong, the deity is not addressing anyone in particular and the
wrongdoings referred to are rather vague. The focus here is on the fact
that the goddesss special power to regulate the weather and to protect
villagers from misfortunes has been weakened due to peoples misbehavior. Peoples misconduct is also presented by the deity as a violation of
sat yuga rules: the practice of polygamy; the reciprocal negative influence
people from the plains have on people from the mountains; the loss of
innocence attributed to the shepherd; quarrelling between those who
used to ignore each other (crows and roosters) in the past; peoples
negligence in failing to keep cows pure; disrespect for caste rules (those
who sat outside have come inside...) and a lack of respect regarding the
handing down of inherited jobs through the generations. These changes
are presented as being the cause of peoples misfortunes and diseases.
After portraying this degradation, the bhartha ends on a reassuring
note: people will hear about misfortune and disease but they will not be
affected by it directly. Then, when the consultation proper starts, the definition of wrongdoing is adapted to the particular case of the person consulting. At the beginning this may be done by using formulas which evoke
the problem in an indirect way. For example, if the medium, on behalf of
the deity, wants to say that the cause of the problem is due to a dispute
over money, he says: Greed [will come] from greed and the end of the
world [will come] from sin. Or if he wants to say that the person does not
respect the traditions he says: No rules, no fathers, no gods!
Some of these formulas are alliterations such as pp pp dharma dharma
sc sc jhha jhhasin [comes] from sin, dharma from dharma,
truth from truth, impurity from impurity. These formulas are sometimes
used as a hypothetical interpretation proposed by the deity in order to test
the reaction of the person. They are part of the consultation technique.
For example, the deity may say you did something wrong (galat km),
without saying what the person had done actually wrong and then wait
for the person to react. After some interactions and using certain divination techniques, the deity may start to discuss the problem further.
A temple consultation may last between five and thirty minutes, but
it may even be longer if many people are involved in the case. On occasion, a consultation that starts with the deity merely being asked to send
down or to stop the rain, ends with the goddess/medium going over the
various misdoings committed by people in her area. This happened, for
example, in in Shuru village where, during a period of drought, villagers
159
consulted the goddess to ask for rain. The goddess promised to send down
rain over the next few days, but only on condition that the men of eight
neighboring villages, who had been arguing for a year, agreed to meet
at her temple and reach a compromise. During the various consultations
on the same issue subsequent to this demand, the goddess also accused
some village women of having made the temple impure by entering it
during their menses, and therefore she ordered a purification ritual to be
performed. She also demanded that work be stopped on a building that
some villagers had started, as it was on a site that was considered to be
used by her brothers neighboring god, Takak Ng, for meditation. All
these facts, which were perceived by people as unrelated to each other,
were presented by the goddess as multiple causes of the same problem:
the lack of rain.
During the consultation the words pp or galat km are alternatively
used by the medium to define the wrongdoings committed by a person,
by a group of people or even to talk more generally about mankinds
degeneracy. A concept close to that of pp is do, which indicates both
the fault committed by the person and the punishment by a deity for this
action.13 Do in the sense of punishment may also be considered to come
from a bht (ghost or mischievous power) sent by a sorcerer or a witch
to attack an enemy. In these usages the notion of do does not include
a moral dimension. It is also in the sense of punishment that the term
is used to indicate the effect of a ritual performed by a ag (tantrik
specialist, here a sorcerer) to affect someone. This is defined as a ag
k do instead of a devt k do. The expression ag k do is used
to underline its opposition with the deitys punishment, particularly in
the context of a temple consultation. For example, the deity may say:
Lets see if it is my do or if it is the do of a ag. In this sense, the
term can be assimilated to that of vighna, an obstacle, a sign that there is
something wrong.
The action that provoked the do may have been done by the person
without realizing it, or even by one of his ancestors. This was the case,
for example, of a family whose members were the traditional goldsmiths
of the goddess Gyitr in Jagatskh village. A member of this family had
health problems and went to consult the goddess rava, whose temple is close to Gyitrs. The goddess rava told them that there was
an object in their house that they had taken from the goddess Gyitr
13See also Tarabout in this volume.
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daniela berti
and had not given back. They had to find this object, give it back to the
goddess and make ritual reparation in order to eliminate her do. What
follows are some passages from the consultation by the goddess rava
at the familys house.
Goddess, to the family members: Come on then, quickly. Take this object
out of the house! [addressing a woman in the family] Oh woman! This
object comes neither from a ceu nor from a bht.14 Its an object and it
belongs to the goddess Gyitr.
A family member: Oh! Then we have to give it back immediately!
Goddess: Who did work for goddess Gyitr in the past? It is like this! It is a
pot for cooking rice. You exchanged it!
Woman: Eh!... what is that? How could we know that?
Goddess: Its like this! When you repaired some of Gyitrs utensils you
exchanged this pot for one of your own and you inherited it.
Woman: How could we know this Mahrj?
Man: Only our ancestors can know this.
Goddess: Three generations have passed!
Woman: So then! Dont punish us!
Goddess: This object has come from sharing [the heritage]
Woman: I dont remember! But Im ready to give it back this very day!
Goddess: You have to give it back. Im telling you.
In other cases, the cause of the deitys do may be the violation of the
rules of purity, or negligence vis--vis the goddess. The do may be seen
as the cause of physical disease or obstacles, conflicts, failures, but also of
weather conditions such as drought or excessive rain. If the error has been
made by several community members, the punishment may take the form
of a drought or a flood. In order to eliminate a do, the ritual requested
by the deity may be either a yg or sacrifice performed by a purohit or a
chidra (ritual of cutting) performed by the medium. A chidra includes
the sacrifice of an animal (usually a lamb), whose leg is tied to a thin ritual
cord the ends of which are held by the parties involved in the do.
The deitys medium performs the operations for the chidra without
entering a state of possession. Once the preparation is over, he has to pronounce various sentences that announce the end of the problem in question. After each sentence all the participants in the ritual have to repeat
together chidra and throw some grains of barleycorn and oats onto the
animals leg. After the final sentence the cord is cut by the medium, which
indicates the end of the do brought about by the goddess. The chidra
14Ceu and bht are sometimes synonymous, but the term ceu refers more particularly
to a bht sent by a witch. Berti, 2001.
161
is also performed in cases where the deitys do is caused by a family or

village dispute. In this case, the two parties must be reconciled by performing a chidra together with the deity. Reaching a compromise through
a chidra is much more compulsory than finding a compromise through the
village assembly (pacyat). What needs to be solved through the chidra
is in fact not only the dispute but also the consequence of the deitys
do, which otherwise would continue to affect the parties. Though the
parties may be forced by the deity to reconcile, the ritual cutting of the
cord does not entail any moral obligation for them, the aim of the chidra
being more to remove the obstacle (vighna) provoked by the deitys do
(punishment).
This system of divine justice and its underlying values are sometimes at
odds with the judiciary system located in town. Courts are in fact another
context where villagers (the same villagers as those who consult the deities) are called upon from time to time and where facts and acts are again
judged and punished.
Mediums themselves, speaking on behalf of the deity, sometimes refer
to courts of law at the time of consultations, especially when those consulting the deity are involved in an ongoing court case.15 They may sometimes even enter a form of competition with the court. For example, in
1995 in the village of Shuru, the temple administrator was accused of having misused the temple money. During a period of drought villagers asked
the goddess rava to send them rain. The goddess started by saying that
she could see a lot of sin, and in the end she announced angrily that she
15The existence of different institutions of judging is attested also in ancient times.

Indeed, in Indian legal history practices related to a gods judgment such as ordeals, are
often found integrated in or articulated to more secular judicial proceedings. Sanskrit texts
describe how the king, though being at the head of the judiciary, was assisted or replaced
by a judicial assembly composed of Brahmans and some assessors. They had to decide
about the guilt or innocence of the accused by making recourse either to witnesses and
written documents or, in the case where human evidence failed to lead to a clear decision, to different kinds of ordeals. (Sukla Das, Crime and Punishment in Ancient India (New
Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1977), 93127. In these texts crimes and ritual transgressions
were overlapping and a penal sentence did not exclude a ritual expiation. (Louis Renou,
LInde fondamentale (Paris: Hermann, 1978). Ethnographic researches have shown how
ordeals and other institutions of gods mediation continued to coexist at a local level parallel to and sometimes in collaboration with more secular institutions such as an elected
village council (pacyat) or informal assemblies formed by members of the dominant
lineage, who are also linked with the main village temple. See Jean-Claude Galey, Souverainet et justice dans le Haut-Gange. La fonction royale au-del des coles juridiques
et du droit coutumier, in Diffrences, valeurs et hirarchies. Textes offerts Louis Dumont,
ed. Jean-Claude Galey (Paris: EHESS, 1994) and Berti Daniela, La parole des dieux.
162
daniela berti
would indeed have sent them rain if they had reached a compromise with
the temple administrator. This is what she said:
Goddess: You have courts [courts of law] but my decision will be taken here
[at the temple]. Reach a compromise with the administrator and your
prestige will be my prestige. I have the rain and I will give it to you!
Villagers: Oh Mahrj! The reply isnt here, its in court! The case is still
ongoing.
Goddess, in a provocative way: All right! The rain is also in court then! Go
and look for the rain in court!
While the villagers were trying to separate a conflict issue (in this case a
civil suit) from what they perceived as a deity issue (control over the rain),
the goddess presented the problems as being related to each other. By
tracing the cause of peoples problems to their social or family conflicts,
which is the preferred technique used by mediums to arbitrate these conflicts, they prompt the parties to reach a compromise. In fact, as we have
seen, a compromise between the parties is presented by the deity as a
way for the wrongdoer to avoid gods punishment. Village gods present
themselves as the gods of all compromises and during a consultation
they repeatedly say to people You did wrong! Make a compromise!
This valorization of compromise encouraged by mediums at temple
consultations may sometimes clash with the way a case is judged in a
court of law when the same case is also registered at the district court.
Nonetheless, a compromise solution may not be a problem for the court
in civil matters. In fact, even at the court level, seeking a compromise
between the parties may be welcomed by the judge. But in the case of
criminal offences a compromise is less likely to be accepted by the court.
In fact, many criminal offences are non-compoundable, which means
that they cannot be compromised by the parties in an out-of-court negotiation. Criminal offences in such cases are considered offences against
the law and require State action. The defendant has to be tried in court
and will be acquitted or convicted on the basis of the rules of evidence
alone.
Courts of Law, Sin, and Sanskrit Texts
Contrary to temple consultations where wrongdoings are defined by the
deity by referring to a disruption both of the religious and social order, in
courts of law the definition of offences merely relies on sections of legal
codes without explicitly involving any religious dimension. Moreover,
163
though witnesses may be asked by the judge to speak the truth in the
name of dharma or in the name of God, the trial proceedings do not especially aim to lay moral blame on the accused. As in other common law
countries, Indian courts focus on facts and contradictions without being
very concerned, at least in principle, with morally judging the person. This
is different, for example, from what happens in French criminal procedure
where the defendants rapport de personnaliti.e. the defendants personal story, his family life, his general characterbecomes an important
part of the file prepared by the investigative judge and on which both the
defendant and the psychologist are asked to express their opinion during the trial. More particularly, the prosecutors plaidoirie may be very
stinging for the defendant since, as the French say regarding legal matters, what is judged in France is the man, not the facts.16 Indian trials
are also different from what Yanrong Chang17 writes about Chinese criminal courts where, as the author notes, the main aim of the prosecutors
questioning is to invoke Chinese cultural notions of shame and morality, which are used to extract a confession and remorse from defendants.
Nothing of this kind happens in an Indian court, where both the prosecutor and the defense lawyer base their arguments (the equivalent of the
plaidoirie in civil law countries) only on legal reasoning and on rules of
non- contradiction.
Another reason that the court in India does not appear as place for
passing moral judgment is that in most criminal cases before the trial is
even held (often a long time before), the parties have already reached a
compromise at the village or family level. As a consequence of this culture of compromise as Pratiksha Baxi18 calls it, criminal cases in India
are most often hindered from the very beginning by the fact that all the
witnesses who, having told the police during the investigation that the
accused had done something wrong, subsequently deny all their previous statements before the court. They are all declared hostile witnesses by the prosecutor, and the accused then insists that he or she is
16Bron McKillop, Anatomy of a French Murder Case, The American Journal of Comparative Law (45, 3, 1997): 579.
17Yanrong Chang, Courtroom questioning as a culturally situated persuasive genre of
talk, Discourse & Society 15, 6 (2004): 710.
18Pratiksha Baxi, Justice is a secret: Compromise in rape trials, Contributions to
Indian Sociology October 44 (2010): 208.
164
daniela berti
completely innocent and that the case is a false case, which has been
totally fabricated either by the police or by their enemies.19
With the defense insisting on the false nature of the case and the prosecutor having no more witnesses to support the accusations, there is no
room for blaming the defendants during trial interactions. In fact, throughout the trial the defendant is never addressed and has no right to speak.
He is asked to stand at the back of the courtroom with nobody looking at
him. Even at the end of recording the evidence, when, under section 313
he is given the right to personally explain to the judge any circumstances
appearing in the evidence against him (the so-called statement of the
accused), the interactions are very formalized and there is no real space
for a moral reprimand. The questions that the judge asks the accused are
prepared in advance and to each of questions the accused systematically
replies, it is incorrect or it is not true. When a case proves to be a very
weak case for the prosecutor, the statement of the accused may even be
directly recorded in English by the typist under supervision of the prosecutor and the defense lawyer, without the defendant even being asked
any of these questions in Hindi.
No reference to sin, repentance or moral conduct is therefore made in
the courtroom. At the end of the trial the crime with which the accused
is charged will be judged through a 1520 page report written in English,
hence on most occasions, completely incomprehensible to the accused.
The text of the judgment is passed to the defense lawyer in the courtroom,
sometimes with no additional comment or with the judge merely pronouncing the word convicted or acquitted. Even the texts of judgments
at trial court level do not take into account any moral or religious considerations. The judge is mainly concerned with providing the different
versions of facts that have emerged during the hearings and with finding
out errors in investigations or witnesses contradictions.
At this level, court proceedings appear indeed to be secularized. It is
therefore surprising that references to religious or moral notions are quite
often used in the rulings that the High Court and Supreme Court judges
write (all in English) at the end of an appeal, when they have to argue
their final decision. Here High Court and Supreme Court judges are very
much concerned with the notion of sin, both in a moral sense and in a
19Daniela Berti, Hostile witnesses, judicial interactions and out-of-court narratives in

a north Indian district court, Contributions to Indian Sociology 44, 3 (2010).
165
more specifically religious sense, since they refer for this discussion to the
stras and other Sanskrit texts.
The judicial use of Sanskrit texts has already been discussed by Christopher Fuller20 in relation to some Indian Supreme court judgments
regarding religious issues such as temple endowments, the appointment
of temple priests, or temple entry rights, especially in Tamil Nadu. The
author shows how Sanskrit texts such as the gama are not only treated
as sources of law by the courts but also, in many cases, are reinterpreted
by the judges in order to make them congruent with modern values and
constitutional principles, a practice regularly adopted in India, both by
commentaries and by reformists with the aim of recovering the original
truths lost by subsequent misinterpretations.21
Reference to Sanskrit religious texts is made by judges not only in cases
related to religious institutions or temple practices. Religious texts may
also be cited in cases concerning criminal offences or family law. Examples will be given below. Although it is difficult to compare criminal and
civil cases, my intent here is only to examine how judges make use of
religious or moral notions of sin in their judicial reasoning.
In a judgment at a Bombay High court in 1986, the judge had to decide
a case related to an attempted suicide under section 309 of the Indian
Penal Code, where the act is punishable by up to one year imprisonment.
After presenting the various points of view regarding suicide in different religions such as Buddhism or Jainism, the judge moved on to the
Dharmastras, noting that they condemn suicide or attempted suicide
as a great sin, whoever kills himself becomes abhisasta and his sapindas
(consanguine) must not perform any death rites for him.22
We may note however, that the way judges refer to these Sanskrit texts
in order to define what is sinful and what is not has changed over time.
This is the result of the amendment of old laws and the passage of new
laws, making more complicated the recourse to Sanskrit texts. For example, after the enactment of various sections regarding the dowry issue,
such as section 306, abetment to suicide, or 498a subject women to
20Christopher Fuller, Hinduism and Scriptural Authority in Modern Indian Law,

Comparative Studies in Society and History 30, 2 (1988). See also Ronojoy Sen, Articles of
Faith. Religion, Secularism, and the Indian Supreme Court (New Delhi: OUP, 2010).
21Chistopher Fuller, Hinduism and Scriptural Authority, 240.
22Maruti Shripati Dubal vs State Of Maharashtra, Bombay High Court, 25 September
1986.
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daniela berti
cruelty (the so-called dowry death),23 judges are now confronted with
cases where the woman who commits suicide is considered as a victim of
the husbands maltreatment or of harassment by her in-laws. Now judges
do not actually judge the act of suicide, especially in cases of women
committing suicide. Instead, they try to find out whether the reason that
pushed the woman to commit suicide was harassment by her husband
or her in-laws. Therefore, a case will be registered against the husband or
the in-laws, not against the woman. There may be judges who still refer
in such cases to the notion of sin, though in a different way. We find, for
example, in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, in 2000, a judge who
writes that it is not a sin on the part of the wife to file a complaint under
Sections 406/498-A 1PC...when she has been neglected and maltreated
by her husband and his other family members.24
A comparison can be made between the judgment mentioned above,
which was passed after these post-dowry prohibition acts, and a judgment
passed by the High Court of Madras in 1940, therefore prior to the amendment to the first Dowry Prohibition Act of 1961. The judge had to decide
whether the jewels of a woman who had died without leaving any children
were to be inherited by her father or by her husband (in this case, a civil
suit). The judge wrote that this depended on whether the marriage had
been contracted according to the asura form (where the brides parents
receive something from the grooms parents, which is considered sinful)
or to the Brahma form (where the brides parents give a dowry to the
grooms parents and which is prescribed). Then he moved on by quoting
the Dharmastra and concluding that Manu, verse 54, indicates that the
acceptance of a dowry from the bridegroom does not turn the marriage
into a sale.... It is only honoring (arhanam) the bride and is totally free
from sin.25
Another issue where judges may refer to a scriptural definition of sin
concerns caste discrimination and the rules of purity/impurity as regulating caste and ritual relationships. This discrimination is now criminalized
under the Scheduled Caste Prevention of Atrocity Act of 1989, but prior
23These two sections are part of the measures taken in India to prevent so-called
dowry deaths, i.e. deaths of married women who have been harassed by their husbands
or in-laws by incessant demands for dowry. As a consequence of these measures, whenever a young married woman commits suicide, her husband and in-laws are immediately
suspected and, upon the slightest accusation, taken into custody.
24Harpal Kaur Vs. Balbir Singh, High Court of Punjab and Haryana, 23 April 2001.
25V.S. Velayutha Pandaram vs S. Suryamurthi Pillai, High Court of Madras, 6 December
1940.
167
to this act it was taken as legitimate by judges on the grounds of Sanskrit

texts. Here is an example of a judgment written in 1912 at the Bombay
High Court where the judge had to decide whether a man from the dra
caste who had married a Brahmin widow and with whom he had many
children, had the obligation to maintain his wife financially after having thrown her out of his house. The judge referred to different Sanskrit
texts (especially the Manusmti, the Mitkara, the Yjyavalkya Smti)
to argue that since the marriage was between a Brahman widow and a
dra man, the marriage had to be considered illegal and void according
to Hindu Law. The judge referred to a text cited by Madhvcrya in his
commentary on the Parara Smti which, as he notes in his judgment,
is regarded by Hindus as an authority of special force in these degenerate times called kaliyuga. He wrote the following passage, where he also
evokes the notion of kaliyuga:
Further, Yajnyavalkya says that a son begotten by a Shudra with a Brahman woman becomes a Chandala, the most degraded of human beings, and
therefore outcaste to all religions. That is to say, he regards the progeny
as something worse than illegitimate; and that can only be because they are
the offspring of a relation which is sinful.26
The idea of a degradation of the present times, which has also been noted
in the context of temple consultations, is expressed by the Supreme Court
of India in the following judgment decided on 2008, with regards to the
case of a man who was accused of having raped his daughter:
The father is supposed to protect the dignity and honour of his daughter....
If the protector becomes the violator,...the sanctity of the father and daughter relationship becomes polluted. It becomes an unpardonable act. It is not
only a loathsome sin, but also abhorrent. The case at hand is a sad reflection
on present-day society where a most platonic relationship has been soiled
by the perverted and degrading act of the father.27
The importance that a religious notion of a sinful relationship assumes

for judiciary decisions may be noted not only in cases related to Hindu
personal law but also in cases related to Muslim Personal Law, as the following passage from a High Court of Allahabad shows:
Under this mode of Talaq, the husband utters divorce thrice and the moment
the Talaq is pronounced a third time during one Tuhr or one sitting the
26Bai Kashi vs Jamnadas Mansukh Raichand, Bombay High Court, 5 March 1912.
27Siriya @ Shri Lal Vs. State of Madhya Pradesh, 13 March 2008.
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divorce becomes irrevocable and thereafter husband and wife cease to be
husband and wife. Any marital relationship or marital cohabitation between
the two, after the Talaq had become irrevocable, is illegal and sinful.28
The references made by judges to Sanskrit or Islamic texts in cases concerning marriage, inheritance or charitable endowments are the consequence of the existence in India of different codes concerning personal
law according to religion. Even before the modern legislation, the attitude
followed both by the Mughals and the British in India was to consider
local practices as legally valid in civil cases. However, as we have seen,
religious notions are also used by judges in criminal cases, and sometimes
sin is used as a synonym for crime or offence. Thus in an appeal for a case
of rape filed at the Kerala High Court the judge wrote that rape and murder are undoubtedly brutal and diabolic sins constituting the worst forms
of criminal incursions on the human body.29
Similarly, in a murder case for which an appeal was filed at the Orissa
High Court, the judge wrote that on a careful consideration of the facts
and circumstances of the case and also considering the evidence from all
angles, we find that the prosecution has signally failed to prove motive
or mens rea against the appellant for committing the sinful act of murdering his own daughter. In another case of murder, in Uttar Pradesh,
where the accused demanded a reduction of the punishment with the
argument of being of unsound mind the judge wrote that Kulwinder Singh
(the accused) had put us in a piquant dilemma on the quantum of punishment especially when the sin protruding out of the crime for which he
has been found guilty, protests against any mercy.30
Sometimes, the quotation of a Sanskrit text is not taken by judges
directly from the original source but, like precedents, from a previous
judgment which may concern a completely different case. In an appeal
filed in the High Court of Gujarat on a case of food adulteration by a
Company of sweet production under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, the judge referred to a Supreme Court judgment concerning a
well-famous case related to Hindu-Muslim riots, where the judge quoted
a Sanskrit passage in order to underline the errors committed by the prosecutor, for example, for not cross-examining an important witness who
28Rahmat Ullah And Khatoon Nisa vs State Of Uttar Pradesh And Ors. High Court of
Allahabad (Lucknow Bench), 15 April, 1994.
29State Of Kerala vs Poothala Aboobacker @ Babu, High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam,
24 August, 2006.
30The State Of Punjab vs Kulwinder Singh on 5 July, 2005.
169
had turned hostile.31 The High Court judge, after entering into the detail
of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act and of the witness statements
recorded by the trial court, used the quotation of a passage from the Manu
Sahit already reported in the Supreme Court judgment:
Where in the presence of Judges dharma is overcome by adharma
and truth by unfounded falsehood, at that place they (the Judges) are
destroyed by sin.32
By contrast with the previous examples, reference to the notion of sin is

made here by the judge in a different way. The idea that the (trial) judge
would commit a sin if he could not prevent the violation of justice, though
it may evoke the religious anxiety about judging mentioned at the beginning of this chapter,33 is taken by the Supreme Court judge as a way to ask
the trial judge to be more involved in the interactions during the hearings
and not to limit himself to the role of a mere supervisor that Common
Law traditionally assigns to him.34
The attitude of being a passive protagonist of the trial is often criticized
by judges from the Higher Courts, though not necessarily by referring to
the notion of sin as in the case mentioned above. An example of this attitude may be given here by quoting what a Shimla judge once told me with
a tone of resignation after the hearings of a case where all the witnesses
had turned hostile: We can do nothing, we are silent spectators. We cant
go beyond the law.
31Zahira Habibullah Sheikh & Anr vs State Of Gujarat & Ors, Supreme Court of India,
8 March, 2006.
32State of Gujarat Vs. Sailendrabhai Damodarbhai Shah and 2 Ors., High Court of Gujarat
at Ahmedabad, 28 October 2009.
33The expression by sin does not appear in the Sanskrit text and it has been added
in the English translation either by the judge (if he quotes directly from the Sanskrit) or
by the author of the English translation of the text. The original sentence, which has been
taken from chapter 8 (stanza 14) of the Manu Samhit, does not contain the expression
by sin. The sentence has been translated by George Bhler as follows: Where justice is
destroyed by injustice, or truth by falsehood, while the judges look on, there they shall also
be destroyed. Bhler in another part of the chapter uses the word sinful to translate the
term kilbia. The Laws of Manu translated by George Bhler, last modified August 9, 2011,
http://oaks.nvg.org/pv6bk4.html. I thank Grard Colas for his comment on this point.
34This is a point often put forward in High Court judgments. As one High Court judge
of Patna wrote: The Judge Magistrate should not be a silent spectator and should not allow
the things to go on as they are going, but he has to apply his mind and take an initiative
and steps for dispensation of justice by resorting to provisions of law in exercise of power
by enforcing the attendance of a witness, who is failing and defaulting for no valid and
cogent reason. Shyam Narayan Singh and Ors. Vs.State of Bihar, High Court of Judicature
at Patna 1 August, 2011 State of Gujarat Vs. Sailendrabhai Damodarbhai Shah and 2 Ors.,
High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad, 28 October 2009.
170
daniela berti
This discourse of being bound to evidence and procedure is commonly

put forward by trial judges, and may be one of the reasons why District
Court judges do not make any reference in their written judgments to
moral or religious considerations. As a matter of fact, trial judges are very
much focused on discussing facts by exposing different narratives and on
quoting precedents, trying not to deviate from a purely legal reasoning.
This contrasts with the attitude of some High Court and Supreme Court
judges, who support their arguments by means of much more eclectic
sources and whose pronouncements, as in the cases considered here,
speak the religious language of sin and quote from religious texts.
Concluding Remarks
At the village level we have seen how the medium uses the notion of sin
either in a general way, to speak of an increasing disregard for dharmic
rules, or as an etiological category to identify the cause of a particular
problem that may involve an individual, whole families, a village or even
an entire territory. In fact, what is distinctive about a consultation is that
in many cases the consequence of the deitys punishment affects not only
the person(s) who is (or are) directly responsible for the wrongdoing, but
the whole village or area. Here peoples wrongdoings are defined by the
deity in reference to a specific territory and in relation to a specific community. We have seen, for example, how the impurity affecting the temple
due to a private construction work, or to a dispute related to the temples
money, was presented as the cause of a drought or of too much rain, thus
affecting the whole village or an entire area. Though this joint responsibility or joint punishment may be felt as unfair by villagers, it is also a
way for the medium to involve the whole village in putting pressure on
the individual or those responsible, who are asked to put a stop to their
wrongdoings (the construction work or the dispute with the administrator). In all these cases, we may say that the idea of committing sin is not
so much taken to be a problem of an individual, as it is to a notion used
to negotiate social relationships or even to manage village politics.
Paradoxically, something closer to a religious discussion about sin is
more apparent in the judgments written by the High judiciary, where the
definition of a sinful action is sought by some judges in religious and Sanskrit prescriptions, which are then put forward by them as pan-Indian
sources of authority. Here the consequence of a wrong action, at least in
criminal cases, exclusively concerns the person who is responsible for it.
171
Whether a judge refers to Sanskrit texts is something of a personal

choice; some judges are very concerned with Sanskrit or Islamic literature,
while others consider it irrelevant to their reasoning. The use of religious
texts is particularly evident in cases regarding personal law (thus for civil
matters), where the judges decision relies on what the texts say, for example, whether a marriage is sinful, which they conclude also makes it illegal. The definition of sin differs in the case of Muslim, Hindu or Christian
personal law. References to Sanskrit texts are also important in criminal
cases, though in such cases they are not considered as determining the
decision, since the crime is defined according to codes and acts of law.
Nonetheless, in criminal cases judges may still use Sanskrit scriptures as
a way to reinforce or to attenuate the punishment, although they do not
rely on these texts for their actual decisions.
What it is important to underline here is that, both in civil and criminal
cases, High Court and Supreme Court judges often try to combine a legal
definition of offence and crime with a religious definition of sin. They
cite Sanskrit sources to give more authority to the judicial decision, thus
somehow combining the role of a court judge with the role of a traditional
pait. In this way religious notions of sin may color judicial pronouncements, even in this secular court system.
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Part two
Dealing with sin
After Sinning: Some Thoughts on Remorse, Responsibility,

and the Remedies for Sin in Indian Religious Traditions
Phyllis Granoff
Introduction: Sinners All
In many Indian texts sin is depicted as an unavoidable consequence of
being human. It hangs about us all as our distinctively unpleasant human
odor, something that we bring with us when we are born and that distinguishes us from those more virtuous beings who have been reborn as
gods.1 The focus of this paper will be a detailed discussion of two early
texts, the Mahbhrata, and the Buddhist Mahparinirva Stra. This
introduction reviews attitudes towards sin in a wide range of literary and
religious texts of all of Indias classical religions, composed over across a
wide expanse of time. Sin, its nature and its consequences, were central
issues for the earliest of Indian religions and remained so well into the
modern period, when a new religion, Christianity, sought to challenge
traditional Indian beliefs. While an exhaustive discussion of sin in Indias
three classical religions, Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, is not possible,
this broad survey is intended to highlight some of the more important
issues that sin raised.
I begin with a well-known section of the atapatha Brhmaa, which
belongs to the early stratum of Brahmanic literature. It is about the birth
of Rudra, the Cry-Baby. Rudra explains to the God Prajpati that he is
crying because he has been born with sin. He asks Prajpati to give him a
name, and the author of the text explains that this is why people in fact
give all newborn babies a name, to remove their sins.2 We shall see that
the situation is not always so simple; named or not named, humans continue throughout their lives to sin. Sin comes in many forms; it may be a
ritual infraction or a moral failure.3 It affects equally those who attempt to
1I have argued this in the paper I first prepared for the conference, The Stench of Sin:
Reflections from Jain and Buddhist Texts, Etudes Asiatiques, 65, no. 1 (2011): 4565.
2atapatha Brhamaa, vol. 3 (Delhi: Gian Publishing House, 1987), 1432.
3See for example Wilhelm Gampert, Die Shnezeremonien in der Altindischen Rechtsliteratur (Prag: Orientalisches Institut, 1939) and Jan Gonda, Prajpati and Pryacitta,
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Institute 1 (1983): 3254. There is considerable discussion in
176
phyllis granoff
be scrupulous in observing their religious and social duties and common

criminals, whose minds are directed towards less lofty pursuits.
In one of the most famous plays in Sanskrit literature, Bhavabhtis
Uttararmacarita, The Later History of Rma, we meet no less a noble
sinner than the celebrated hero of the Rmyaa, King Rma. As the play
opens, we find Rma attempting to console his grieving wife St, whose
father is about to depart for his own kingdom. The scene prefigures the
more momentous loss and the utter despair that she will soon experience.
It also tells us something about the inevitability of sin, even in the lives
of the great. St is filled with sorrow at the departure of her father King
Janaka, who is returning home after a short visit. Rma reminds St that
her father has his duties to perform; the high-caste householder is not free
to do as he pleases. His day is taken up with the many rites that he must
carry out and he must do them all and do them properly or some ritual
infraction, some sin will result. His is a narrow path, with sins pressing in
on it from every side.4 Rma, of course, could well be speaking of himself.
As every reader of the Rmyaa knows, Rma abandons the innocent and
pregnant St, and in this play Rma will be consumed both by his grief
at losing her and his consciousness that in abandoning her he has done a
grave wrong. Some of his subjects did not believe that St had remained
chaste when she was the captive of the evil Rvaa. To them she was
not fit to be their queen. Rma understood that it was his kingly duty to
please all his subjects (I.42). All the previous kings in his lineage had been
universally loved and respected by the people, and now this hateful rumor
about St is threatening for the first time to destroy that unique harmony
between ruler and subjects (1.45). In an effort to carry out what he understood to be his kingly duties, Rma abandons St. Throughout the play
Rma castigates himself for this heartless act; he calls himself a sinner, a
vile outcaste, an evil person devoid of any trace of compassion.5
The specific self-accusation, that he has committed an act unworthy
of himself, an act that even a low-caste cla would commit, helps us
the scholarly literature on the appropriateness of the use of the term sin in the Indian
context. In a recent letter to me Professor Wezler reminded me of the many articles by
H.W. Bodewitz on the subject, published in the Indo-Iranian Journal, for example, Sins
and vices: their enumerations and specifications in the Veda, Indo-Iranian Journal 50,
no. 4 (2007): 317339. I have dealt with this question in the introduction, and several chapters
in this volume return to it.
4Bhavabhti, Uttararmacarita, ed. G.K. Bhat (Surat: The Popular Publishing House, 1965).
kimtv anuhnanityava svtantryam apakarati/saka hyhitgnn pratyavyair
ghasthat. 1.8.
51.4849; 2.10; 2.28; 6.42.
after sinning
177
to understand the framework within which the play understands Rmas

sin. We shall see below that some texts describe two emotional states that
were intended to prevent a person from sinning: shame, which includes
the unwillingness to do an act unworthy of ones caste or station, and
fear of adverse consequences, which includes fear of public censure. In
this play, Rma is caught between these two. He acts out of fear of public
censure, and thereby avoids the one sin, but this forces him to commit an
act that he feels is unworthy of himself, and he thus commits a different
sin. It is almost as if in banishing St, Rma has demonstrated the truth
of his earlier words: the householder who would strive to carry out his
duties is threatened by sin on every side. There is no easy way to avoid
it. Nonetheless the play ends happily, and we can conclude that there are
means to deal with the consequences of sin, even if it takes a miracle, as
it does in the final moments of this drama.6
If in this play Rma is the high born and high-minded wrongdoer, whose
story teaches us something about the universality of sinning, the Jain tradition does the same through the example of a very different type of character, a comic low-life figure. This is the thief Rauhieya, who is ultimately
made to admit publicly what we already know: that he, like the rest of
us, cannot escape sin. The 13th century Prabuddharauhieya is a farce
with a serious message.7 It describes the antics of this thief Rauhieya,
who is so wicked that he grabs absolutely everything that he desires for
himself, jewels, money, and even women. The setting is the city Rjagha,
where the righteous king reika, a follower of the Jina Mahvra, reigns.
Rauhieyas only contact with the Jain doctrine has been to hear a few
words of a sermon by Mahvra. His father had warned him against listening to the Jina preach, and until one fateful moment he had followed
6The strategy that the play employs to deal with Rmas sin is one that we shall meet
again. It denies in general the meaningfulness of human agency, stressing in its place the
role of fate and the random turns of fortune that are the essence of human life (1.41; 1.45;
3.20; 3.32). The role of human agency is one of the key issues of early Indian religious
texts, particularly the Mahbhrata. In its later form the discussion is enlarged to include
the question of divine responsibility for otherwise incomprehensible tragedies. See Phyllis
Granoff, The Mausala Parvan, Between Story and Theology, tudes Asiatiques 62, no.2
(2008): 545562, and Karma, Curse or Divine Illusion: The Destruction of the Buddhas
Clan and the Slaughter of the Yadavas, in Epic and Argument in Sanskrit Literary History:
Essays in Honor of Robert P. Goldman, ed. Sheldon Pollock (Delhi: Manohar, 2010), 7591.
7Like many Jain stories, this story had a long history and was told and retold many
times. For an earlier version see crya Nemicandra, khynikamaikoa with its
12th century commentary of mradeva, ed. Muni Shri Punyavijayaji (Varanasi: Prakrit Text
Society, 1962), 127129, where the story is told to illustrate the benefits of hearing the Jain
teaching.
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phyllis granoff
his fathers advice. But one day, as Mahvra was preaching, Rauhieya
chanced to come upon the Jina and his assembly. He desperately tried to
plug his ears with his fingers as he walked by the group. As luck would
have it, in his hurry he failed to notice a thorn in his path and stepped on
it. He knew it was dangerous for him to unstop his ears, so first he tried to
extract the thorn with his teeth. When this failed, there was nothing left
for him to do but to take his fingers out of his ears just long enough to pull
out the thorn. In those few seconds he caught a few lines of Mahvras
teachings. One would have thought that the teaching he received was
not particularly enlightening or useful; he heard Mahvra describe the
appearance of the gods. But these few words will save the thief. As the
play progresses, Rauhieya is caught, but although the king wants to sentence him to death, his son Abhayakumra reminds him that this would
be breaking the law. A thief can only be sentenced if he is caught redhanded with the stolen goods or if he confesses. Abhayakumra was celebrated in Jain story literature for his cleverness, and now he devises a ruse
to make the thief admit his guilt. He gets Rauhieya drunk and surrounds
him with beautiful women and song and dance to make him think that
he is in heaven. He then has someone instruct Rauhieya about the rules
of this heaven. A new arrival must give a full account of his good and bad
deeds. His mind clouded with drink, Rauhieya still has enough of his wits
about him to realize that a scoundrel like himself would not be very likely
to have ended up in heaven, and then he recalls the words of Mahvra.
The dancers and musicians around him, he concludes, look nothing like
the gods as Mahvra described them. Their garlands are withering and
their feet touch the ground. He realizes that he has been tricked. When
he is asked again by the kings officer to recite all his good and bad deeds,
he insists that he has done only pious acts. The officer replies that it is
simply not possible for a person never to sin. By their very nature human
beings all share this much: from their previous births they bring with
them deeply ingrained propensities for wrong doing that eventually will
manifest themselves in the commission of sinful acts. In other words, to
be human is to have the mental makeup that guarantees that we will at
some time do wrong. In the end Rauhieya is granted immunity and confesses. He takes refuge in the Jina. As the play concludes, the king praises
Rauhieya, congratulating him for the fact that in finding his way to faith
in the Jina, he has washed away all his sins.8 Rauhieya has shown us both
8Prabuddharauhieyam, ed. Muni Punyavijaya (Bhavanagar: tmnanda Sabh, 1917),
act 6.20, bhavbhysonmlatkaluapaalacchannamanas svabhvenaikena vrajati nm
after sinning
179
that he is human and therefore not without sin, and that there is a way
out of this universal human predicament.
If these two disparate examples may be taken as a guide, we may
conclude indeed that sinning is part of being human. But there are constraints that should help us not to sin, as well as things that we can do
if those constraints fail. We might take the comments in the Buddhist
Devadhammajtaka, alluded to above, as a typical description of the kind
of internal constraints that were supposed to operate to prevent a person
from sinning. The Jtaka contains a verse praising those who shrink from
sin out of a sense of disgust and a fear of bad consequences. The term
for shrinking from sin out of a sense of disgust is hiri, or hr, while the
term I have translated as fear of retribution is ottappa or avatpa.9 The
sub-commentary explains that hiri can be defined as lajj, embarrassment or shame, while ottappa is to be understood as fear of adverse
consequences. Together these two emotions should prevent a person
from sinning. The text further explains hiri with a graphic analogy: just
as a decently brought up person, while urinating or defecating, might see
the urine or feces and feel disgusted, so should a person look on sin. The
following simile then is given: imagine two iron balls; one is cold and
smeared with excrement, while the other is glowing hot. A wise person
would feel disgust at the sight of the cold shit-covered ball and would
not touch it. He would not touch the hot ball for fear of being burned.
This sense of disgust is what is meant by hiri, while fear of adverse consequences is like the fear of getting burned by the hot iron ball. In a further
elaboration we learn that hiri involves a sense that an action is unworthy
of oneself, and this can be for a number of reasons. Thus a person might
think to himself, Such a deed is unworthy of a person like myself, born
in a high caste. It is something that a low caste person, like a fisherman
might do. In this way, realizing that such an act is beneath him, a person
abstains from sins like taking life. Or a person might think to himself, This
is something a child might do, not an adult, something a coward might do,
not a person of valor; something a fool might do, not a wise person.10
Thoughts such as these give rise to hiri, and hiri in turn prevents a person from sinning. Hiri is described as an emotional state that has the self
as its cause, and I would suggest that it is something close to what we
janmani tata parastrsagnyadraviaharaadytakaraaprbhtycram yatkucaritam
api sva kathaya tat.
9 The Jtaka Together with Its Commentary, ed. V. Fausboll, vol. 1 (Oxford: Pali Text
Society, 1990), 129.
10Jtaka, 130.
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phyllis granoff
might call a sense of self-respect. On the other hand, ottappa has to do

with fear, which is here described as a fear of censure from the community. The two things that prevent a person from sinning, then, are a sense
of self-respect, knowing that an act is unworthy of oneself and shrinking
from it with a sense of disgust, and secondly, fear of losing the respect
of others.11
The examples of fear in the sub-commentary to the Devadhammajtaka
focus on fear of the social consequences of doing wrong. The wrong-doer is
a monk, and he fears that his wrong doing will invite the scorn of the leaders of society or even the gods, who may see him sin. We are reminded of
the Vinaya literature and its concern to protect the monastic community
from criticism.12 In other texts fear is something more universally applicable; it is fear of a bad rebirth, of the karmic consequences of sin.
Fear of bad rebirths is universal in Indian religions. The vetmbara
Jain Vipka Stra and the Buddhist Petavatthu, to name just one text
from each of these traditions, illustrate the terrible consequences of sin
by describing in graphic detail the horrific rebirths that result. Similarly,
the Mahbhrata contains numerous verses on fear in all its dimensions
as the single-most important factor in keeping people from sinning:
Some refrain from sinning out of fear of being punished by the king; others
out of fear of being punished by Yama, the lord of Death; still others refrain
from sin out fear of what will be in the next world, and even from fear of
each other (12.15.56).13
11Jtaka, 129131. I have explored the use of shit as a metaphor for sin in The Stench of
Sin, (see note 1). This passage from the Devadhammajtaka caught the attention of early
interpreters of Buddhism. Reginald Stephen Copleston, Buddhism, Primitive and Present
in Magadha and in Ceylon (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1892), 359362, discussed
it in some detail. I believe he missed the sense of the analogy; he interpreted the term
something to feel disgusted by, urine and feces in my paraphrase, as A person towards
whom modesty is due. In other words, the person urinating or defecating has been caught
in the act. He also described the person unwilling to take the cold ball covered in shit as
doing so out of a sense of modesty towards ones self. This strikes me as missing the
point. There is abundant evidence in the texts that sin is like shit, something from which
one should turn away in disgust.
12The same concern is apparent in the Jain monastic rules, for example the Bhatkal
pastra and its commentaries. See my paper, Protecting the Faith: Exploring the Concerns of Jain Monastic Rules, Journal of Jain Studies (forthcoming).
1312,015.005a rjadaabhayd eke pp ppa na kurvate
12,015.005c yamadaabhayd eke paralokabhayd api
12,015.006a parasparabhayd eke pp ppa na kurvate
On fear in general as the motivation for religious acts see Jonathan Geen, Knowledge
of Brahman as a Solution to Fear in the atapatha Brhmaa/Bhadrayaka Upaniad,
Journal of Indian Philosophy 35 (2007): 33102.
after sinning
181
In contrast to this general agreement about what might prevent us from

sinning, there was a tremendous range of opinion in Indian religious texts
about what happens to a sinner after the sin has been committed, and
what, if anything, the sinner should feel and do.14 Neither across religious
boundaries nor within a given tradition is it possible to find a consensus
about what should happen internally, in the mind of the sinner. Should
the sinner feel remorse for his or her sin? Is awareness of sin a necessary
part of the process of expiation? There is also no agreement about remedies to mitigate the consequences of a sin. Should the sinner perform a
penance? Should a sinner undertake a particular vow? Should the sinner
go on a pilgrimage? Give gifts to the Brahmins? Renounce the world and
become a monk or nun? Or must karma work itself out, inexorably leading to the torments of hell and undesirable rebirth? Indeed, I would argue
that the question of sin and what to do about it was one of the central
questions if not the central question in medieval Indian religions. It was
so important that new religious developments could present themselves
as superior to existing beliefs and practices simply on the grounds that
they provided the best (or the only) means to eradicate sin.
The Bhgavata Pura, chapter 6.1, illustrates this point. It tells the story
of the sinful Brahmin Ajmila.15 Ajmila has fallen for a prostitute, and in
his lust for her he has abandoned every semblance of decency. Like many
sinners in Indian religious texts, his sinfulness is total; he stops at nothing.
He even turns to gambling and thieving. The only vestige of his former
life that never deserts him is his love for his youngest son. He constantly
thinks of this child with love. It is Ajmilas good fortune that the name
of this son happens to be Nryaa, which is also the name of Viu or
Ka, the supreme God of the Bhgavata Pura. Ajmila is so besotted
with his mistress that he does not even notice that his death is near. One
day, as he focuses his thoughts on his beloved son Nryaa, he beholds
three terrifying figures, noose in hand, coming to get him. In a loud voice
he calls out to his son, who is playing somewhere else, Nryaa! And
that one act alone is enough to save him from the messengers of Death
14There is a general consensus that something can be done about sin, although there
are exceptions to this statement. In Buddhism and Jainism the icchntikas and abhavyas
sometimes seem beyond redemption, and there are indications in Hindu texts that some
sinners are simply born evil and remain evil. In the Oriya Rmyaa of Balarma Dsa,
for example, Rvaa has been born under an evil star and to a demon mother. His nature
is thoroughly evil and he cannot do anything other than evil. The Uttaraka deals with
Rvaas birth and his evil acts.
15The Bhgavatamahpuram, vol. 2 (Delhi: Nag Publishers, 1987).
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phyllis granoff
who had come to take him to hell. At once he sees heavenly figures, all
attired in golden robes, wearing crowns; each one is four-armed, an exact
look-alike of the God Nryaa, whose servants they are and who has sent
them to bring Ajmila to heaven.
The story of Ajmila is told to illustrate that the only religious act that
can eradicate sin with its root cause, ignorance, is the act that is promoted
by the Bhgavata pura: calling out the name of God. The story is prefaced in the text by a series of questions and answers about sin and its
consequences. The discussion opens with King Parkit asking the sage
uka how a person can avoid going to hell if he has sinned. uka first
replies with a viewpoint that we will meet again in the Mahbhrata and
that was standard in the law books or Dharmastras: it is necessary to
perform a ritual of atonement (pryacitta) for a sin before one dies. Just
as a doctor examines the cause of a disease and then prescribes a remedy,
so must a person examine the gravity of his or her sin and then proceed
to perform the appropriate ritual of expiation for it (6.1.8). The king is not
entirely satisfied with this answer. It seems to him that ritual expiation
is useless; we are constantly sinning in our daily lives, and as soon as we
expiate one sin, we commit another. Expiation, he says, is like the proverbial bath of an elephanta waste of time. The elephant gets out of the
water only to smatter itself with mud all over again (6.1.10)!
uka agrees; ritual means to remove sin are only temporary expedients.
They cannot remove Sin writ large, but only this or that sin that we have
committed. This is because the root cause of sin, ignorance, remains, and
the only remedy for ignorance is knowledge (6.1.11). Nonetheless, uka
goes on to suggest that various practices that are associated with ascetics,
such as control over the senses, celibacy, and austerities, on the one hand,
and certain rituals that are associated with householders, such as observing the rules of purity, and gift-giving to the Brahmins, on the other hand,
can lead to the eradication of even major sins, just as fire can rip through
a bamboo grove (6.1.14). But they, too, are limited in their efficacy. There
is only one means to be rid of sin, all sin, forever. uka tells Parkit that
there are a lucky few in this world who can get rid of their sin entirely and
permanently, along with its root cause. They are the ones who are devoted
to Ka, and it is their faith in Kna that destroys their sins, just as the
sun completely dispels a foggy mist (6.1.15).
ukas point is clear: the religion of the Bhgavata Pura is ultimately
superior to all other religious practices and doctrines because it offers
the only way to get rid of sin forever. It is superior to the religion of the
after sinning
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Law Books, with their penances; it is superior to ascetic practices and to

the puric rituals of expiatory gifts. The way to measure a religion, the
Bhgavata Pura tells us, is in its ability to deal with sin.
The logic of this passage reminds us of the strategy that an early Indian
philosophical school employed to prove its own superiority over other
doctrines and techniques to eradicate suffering. The Smkhya krik
opens with a statement of why the doctrine that it will describe is needed:
it is the only means to eradicate suffering completely. Other remedies
may exist, but like the remedies for sin that uka has rejected, they are
only partial remedies. They may remove one experience of suffering, but
another will inevitably occur.16 The Bhgavata Pura uses the language
of sin rather than suffering, but it too is talking about suffering, for it was
the fear of the painful consequences of sin, hell and bad rebirths, that
had prompted the discussion of sin to begin with. The goal of liberation
from suffering, the ultimate religious goal, has here become defined as the
total eradication of the sins that cause suffering. There could be no clearer
statement of the importance of sin in Indian religious discourse.
The Bhgavata Pura is not alone in advertising its practices as the
true means to eradicate sin. It is a common theme in Indian religions texts
that a specific ritual or a visit to a specific holy place will be praised as the
sole means to eradicate sin. In the Rmyaa Uttaraka Rma wants to
hold a major sacrifice. What first comes to his mind is the royal sacrifice,
the rjasya. But he is persuaded instead to hold the avamedha, which
he is told is the best of all rituals because it has the ability to purify the
sacrificer from even the most heinous of sins. In the past it had purified
the god Indra of the sin of killing a Brahmin, when he had slain Vtra,
who was troubling the gods.17 All the puric Mhtmyas glorifying pilgrimage sites present their site as the place where the pilgrim is freed
from sin. On the Buddhist side, to take only one example, the Mahyna
Guakradavyha Stra describes the hearing of the text and the practice of the poadha vow that it advocates as the means to eradicate even
the most heinous of sins.18 The measure of the superiority of a ritual, a
text, or a doctrine lies in its ability to deal with sin.
16Smkhyatattvakaumud, ed. M.M. Patkar, Har Dutt Sharma, with English translation
of Ganganath Jha (Poona: Oriental Book Agency, 1965), Krik 1.
17Rmyaa, Uttaraka, (Mumbai: Gujarati Printing Press, 1920), chapters 8486.
18Guakradavyhastra text on GRETIL based on the edition by Lokesh Chandra
(New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1999), 62.
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phyllis granoff
The Bhgavata Pura story of Ajmila tells us something else about

its view of the means to deal with sin and the fear of hell. Recognition
of oneself as a sinner and remorse for sins committed are irrelevant. But
this is only one view; there were as many opinions about the nature and
role of remorse as there were about the types and usefulness of external
acts that could be done to ward off the karmic consequences of sin. If
we begin with Buddhism, we see that the Bodhicaryvatra in its formulas for confession of sins describes the sinner as stricken with remorse,
pacttpena tpita. 2.29. While remorse seems a natural translation
for pacttpa, in his commentary Prajkaramati chooses to explain this
as occasioned by the fact that the person in question knows well that
there are consequences of sin, for example, the painful torments a sinner
must endure when he or she is reborn in hell.19 Remorse, here, is surely a
form of emotional suffering, as the verb tpita makes clear, but we might
also think of it as inseparable from a state of intense fear or even terror in
the face of the retribution that is to come.
In some cases, fear alone seems to dominate the emotions of the sinner. The eighth chapter of the iksamuccaya deals with the purification
of sin. It mentions the Sukrikvadna, The Story of the Sow, which is
story number 14 in the Divyvadna.20 As the story opens, we see a god
rolling on the ground and piteously lamenting. He has seen the signs that
his merit is exhausted and he knows that now his sojourn in heaven is
ending and he must be reborn elsewhere as a consequence of the ripening
of his previous sins. Indra asks him why he is so distressed, and he replies
that seven days hence he will be reborn in the womb of a sow.21 The god
is terrified of being reborn in such a repulsive animal birth and terrified
ye rutveda mahynastrarja subhitam /
triratnaaraa gatv caranti poadha vratam //
te sarvi ppni pacnantaryaknyapi /
niea parinani bhaviyanti sad bhave //
19pacttpeneti akualakarmao narakdau dukhavipkaravat // Text on GRETIL
from the edition of P.L. Vaidya (Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1960, Buddhist Sanskrit Texts
12). More literally, because it is taught in the texts that bad deeds result in painful consequences that are endured in rebirths like those in hell, etc.
20iksamuccaya, ed. Cecil Bendall (S-Gravenhage: Mouton& Co., 1957), 177. Divyva
dna, ed. P.L. Vaidya (Darbhanga: Mithila Institute, 1959), 120122.
21It is not impossible that this little humorous story is making another, sharper point.
One of the famous early incarnations or avatras of Viu is as the boar. While the incarnation is more often called a varha, it is also called a skara or pig. Perhaps we should
read this brief avadna as a sarcastic jibe at the Vaiava doctrine of incarnations. This
might help explain its longevity and the importance it is accorded in a text like the
iksamuccaya.
after sinning
185
of dying. Indra instructs him to take refuge in the Buddha, the Buddhist
doctrine and the community of renunciants. He does so and is reborn in
Tuita Heaven. There is no mention of remorse, only of fear.
Buddhaghosa, the 6th century commentator on many of the Buddhist
texts preserved in Pali, describes a similar reaction to his impending fall
from heaven on the part of a far more famous god in his commentary to
the Sakkapanhasutta, Questions of the God Indra, in the Dghanikya,
II.8. The Sutta opens with a statement that the God Indra was extremely
anxious to see the Buddha. Buddhaghosa raises the question why Indra
should suddenly feel such an intense need to be with the Buddha. After
all, he is described in so many texts as being in the Buddhas presence that
he must have had countless opportunities to hear the teaching. Why all
of a sudden in this text is he so anxious to find the Buddha? The answer
is that Indra was so eager to see the Buddha and receive religious instruction because he realized that his stay in heaven was coming to an end.
Aware that the merit he had accumulated in the past was small, he was
seized with fear, with abject terror at his unknown future rebirth. He realized that only the Buddha would be able to remove the thorn of sorrow
from his heart and thus was eager to find the Buddha. Here the thorn in
his heart is his grief at having to give up the pleasures of heaven and reap
the consequences of his sins; there is no question of remorse, only fear.22
While these two stories emphasize fear, a blend of remorse and fear is
also to be found in a wide range of Indian religious texts. For example, in
one biography of the Jina Prvantha, when the Jinas adversary Kaha
fails in his attacks against him, it is fear that motivates him to throw himself on the mercy of the Jina. He is terrified of an immediate consequence,
namely that the supernatural protector of the Jina will attack him, and of
the more remote karmic consequences of his acts. As he begs Prvantha
to protect him, Kaha describes himself as frightened of falling into hell,
ptaakita (9.3.293 ). Then, we are told, filled with remorse, snutpa,
he retreats from the scene (9.3.294). It is difficult to separate out the penitents feelings of guilt from his feelings of fear in such a description.23 As
we shall see below, Yudhihira in the Mahbhrata suffers from remorse
over the slaughter of his relatives in the great war, and his remorse is also
22The text and commentary are on line Tipitika.org. The passage in the commentary
is section 344.
23Hemacandra, Triatialkpuruacaritam, Navamaparvan, ed. by Munirja rcaraa
vijayaj Mahrja (Ahmedabad: Kaliklasarvaja rHemacandrcrya Navama Janmaatbdi
Smti Saskra ikaanidhi, 2006,) 9.3.291294, page 189.
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phyllis granoff
inseparable from the terrible fear of going to hell that grips him. And we
shall see that the Buddhist king Ajtaatru similarly suffers from a combination of terror and remorse.24
Remorse alone may be highly valued in some religious texts. In some
Buddhist stories it was even said to lead directly to Enlightenment. The
Pnya Jtaka, 459, begins with the story of two farmers who have gone to
their fields, taking with them their water pots. They put their pots down
and went about their work. Thirsty, one of the two decided to save up
his own water and so he drank stealthily from his friends pot. But then
he was horrified by his deed. In the words of the story, He thought to
himself, This thirst, if it is allowed to grow, will cause me to fall into a
bad rebirth. I must put an end to this sin. And taking his drinking of the
water by theft as the object of his meditation, he perfected his concentration and achieved the Enlightenment of a Pratyekabuddha.25 Other
examples of sinners follow, and in every case they experience remorse for
what they have done and achieve Enlightenment. The sins are various,
from lusting after another mans wife to a rulers allowing his subjects
to carry out blood sacrifices to a goddess. The text in some cases tells
us explicitly that the sinner was stricken with remorse, kauktya. In the
summary verses, each sinner expresses disgust for his sin and the resolve
never to sin again. Here, remorse (kauktya) and disgust (vijigucchi) in
the wake of a sin committed lead to the achievement of the Supreme
Knowledge of a Pratyekabuddha.26 It is noteworthy that these sinners do
not experience any retribution for their sins in this story; to the contrary,
the very remorse that the sins occasion becomes the means for the sinner
24Indian religious literature is not unique in linking remorse and fear. A text that missionaries would later translate into many Indian languages, Pilgrims Progress, emphasizes
that an awareness of sin is accompanied by fears and doubts. Pilgrims Progress, ed. Roger
Pooley (London: Penguin Books, 2008), 18. The close combination of remorse and fear torments many a Western literary heroine. Gwendolen, the heroine of George Eliots Daniel
Deronda, is as much stricken with remorse over the fact that she has violated her promise to her husbands former lover and married him nonetheless, as she is gripped by an
irrational fear that her husband will discover her communications with the woman. The
Angst that Stefan Zweigs heroine feels after her brief act of adultery in the novelette of
that name is as much a fear of being discovered as it is a sense of guilt.
25That is, he did not rely on the assistance of a teacher but achieved liberating insight on
his own.
26Jtaka, 459, 4.11.6, Pali Tipika, http://www.tipitika.org. kukkucca katv vtapna
nissya hitakova vipassana vahetv paccekabodhia nibbattetv sa kevala
ppakarm ya pacttpaparo na bhavet.kse hito mahjanassa dhamma desetv
nandamlakapabbhrameva gato tena pacch vijigucchi, ta ppa pakata may; m
puna akara ppa, tasm pabbajito aha.
after sinning
187
to achieve release. The commentary to the Bodhicaryvatra has a long

quote from the Caturdharmaka Stra, which lists remorse and confession
together as the first of four means to conquer sin.27 This suggests that the
view of the Pnya Jtaka was widespread.
Jain didactic story collections often place a high value on repentance.28
The khynikamaikoa, which was composed by r Nemicandrasri
between 10731083 ce, makes brief references to stories that are then told
in full in the commentary of mradevasri, written in 1134 ce. There is a
section of stories on the merits of confession, which leads to the achievement of Omniscience. Conversely, another group of stories teaches the
dire consequences of not confessing wrong doings.29 The importance
of repentance and formal confession is only one of the themes of the
khynikamaikoa, but the Kuvalayaml, a Prakrit poem written in the
8th century by Uddyotanasri, may be read in its entirety as an exploration into the nature of sin and a demonstration of the salvific value
of repentance. It too places a high value on remorse. In the poem we
meet a group of sinners who all ultimately feel remorse for their sins and
seek a way to expiate them. They become Jain monks. In the course of
their stories we learn that the various means to eradicate sin that other
religious groups propose are of no use. The penances that the Brahmins
prescribe are said to be worthless. Some of the sinners in despair even
attempt to commit suicide, but they are prevented from doing so. All the
sinners are fortunate in the end to find a Jain monk who enlightens them.
They learn that the means to eradicate sin is through remorse and then
renunciation.30 When, even after they have become monks, the sinners
27Bodhicaryvatra, commentary on 5.98, caturbhirmaitreya dharmai samanvgato

bodhisattvo mahsattva ktopacita ppamabhibhavati/katamaicaturbhi? yaduta
vidasamudcrea.
28Repentance becomes such an important ritual for lay Jains that its proper performance
later became the focus of intense sectarian conflict. See Paul Dundas, Textual Authority in
Ritual Procedure: The vetmbara Jain Controversy over rypathikpratikramaa, Journal
of Indian Philosophy (forthcoming) and Colette Caillat, Atonements in the Ancient Ritual of
the Jaina Monks, (Ahmedabad: L.D. Instititute, 1975).
29khynikamaikoa, sections 16 and 29.
30The well-known Jain story of Klakcrya also proposes that becoming a Jain monk
is the means to eradicate sin. Klaka proposes to the wicked king, who has abducted a Jain
nun, that the king renounce the world, take the Jiadikkh. See Sarabhai Nawab, r Klaka
Kathsagraha (Ahmedabad: Sarabhai Nawab, 1949), 29. The language of these texts is
not uninteresting in light of Jain opposition to aivites, in particular to their assertion that
the consecration ritual, dk, removes all sin. On this see the story of Rudradattas beloved
from the Bhatkathkoa of Hariea, translated by Phyllis Granoff in The Forest of Thieves
and the Magic Garden (Delhi: Penguin, 2006), 257.
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remain troubled by having done wrong in their lives, in the words of the
13th century Sanskrit prose rendition of the text they are told, The only
true sinner is the one who has no remorse for his sin.31
The references could be multiplied; the idea that confession removes
sin was to have a long history and can be found in texts from all the religious traditions. A 15th century monk-poet in his biography of the Jina
Nemintha describes how the God Indra became angry when his throne
shook at the birth of the Jina. Realizing that the Lord had been born, Indra
confessed his wrongdoing, for, the poet explains, A living being is freed
from sin by confession to the guru.32 The major role that confession of sins
plays in both Jain lay and monastic life is further evidence of the emphasis
that was placed on developing a consciousness of sin and cultivating feelings of remorse in Jainism, something that is true even among contemporary Jains.33 We have seen the importance of confession in the Buddhist
Pnya jtaka. We shall encounter similar statements in the Mahyna
Buddhist Mahparinirva Stra, and the importance of confession in
Buddhist monastic rules is well known. Perhaps as a response to the centrality of remorse in the heterodox teachings of Buddhism and Jainism,
even Manu in a section that stresses external ritual penance includes a
statement that public confession and remorse purify the sinner.34
But remorse, either alone or in combination with fear of karmic consequences, was not always seen to have soteriological value in Indian religious literature. In Buddhism, for example, despite the existence of stories
like the Pnya jtaka, not all sinners are depicted as expressing remorse.
Aoka in the Aokvadna does not decide to abandon his violent path
because he is consumed by remorse. He turns to Buddhism when he sees
the miracles that the monk he has imprisoned performs. The monk flies
up to the sky and performs the double miracle of shooting water from one
part of his body and fire from the other. A reader of the Aokvadna, who
is familiar with the Aokan edict in which the ruler expresses remorse
for the slaughter he had occasioned in the conquest of Kalinga, can only
31Uddyotanasri, Kuvalayaml, ed. A.N. Upadhye (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,

1970,) 39, sa kevala ppakarm ya pacttpaparo na bhavet.
32Krtiratnasri, Neminthamahkvyam, ed. Dr Satyavrata (Calcutta: Agaracand
Nahta, 1975 ), 5.16. In the same poem we are also told that praising the Jina removes sin,
just as the sun removes darkness (6.29); sin is also eradicated by bathing the Jina (6.64).
33John Cort, Jains in the World: Religious Values and Ideology in India (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2001), 122124.
34Mnavadharmastram, ed. Vivantha Maalika (Mumbai: Ganapatakrsnaji, 1886),
11.227.
after sinning
189
be surprised by Aokas conversion in the story literature.35 But Aoka is

not alone. Agulimla, one of the most famous Buddhist sinners, also has
no remorse but is converted by the awesome power of the Buddhas presence and the simple verse he utters. Remorse plays no role in his change
of heart.36 The Abhidharmakoabhya (2.28) regarded remorse, kauktya,
as essentially neutral or aniyata. When it is regret over a good action
that was not done or a bad action that was done, then regret is a good
thing. On the other hand, when one regrets that he has not done something wrong or regrets that he has done something good, then that regret
is bad.37
More surprisingly, perhaps, in some Buddhist texts all remorse was
regarded as downright wrong-headed. In the Ajtaatrukauktyavinodan,
for example, the parricide Ajtaatru is stricken with remorse after killing
his father; his remorse, even for such a grave sin, is seen by the text to be
based on ignorance, on a total misunderstanding of the nature of reality.
The whole point of the text is to help Ajtaatru get over this useless
response.38 The Mahyna Mahparinirva Stra also takes up the case
of Ajtaatru and argues both that he need not have any remorse over
the killing of his father, and that remorse has the power to mitigate the
consequences of sin. The text cites many arguments against Ajtaatrus
need for remorse, not all of which it accepts, and some of which we shall
35John S. Strong, The Legend of King Aoka (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
1983), 21617. Text on GRETIL A-av 51. For a translation of the edict, see S. Dhammika, The
Edicts of Asoka (Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1993) 10.
36Agulimla sutta, Pali Tipitika, Majjhima nikya, Majjhima pannsa, rjavagga,
http://www.tipitaka.org.
37Abhidharmakoabhya, ed. Swami Dwarikadas Shastri (Varanasi: Bauddha Bharati,
1970), 169170. Nonetheless in 5.58 the text also makes clear that kauktya is a hindrance
to meditation because it prevents the mind from being calm. The term kauktya itself
deserves a full study. It can also mean improperly gesticulating with the hands or inappropriately moving the legs. This is its only meaning in Prakrit. In Pali and Sanskrit it can
mean regret or remorse over something done; in the vinaya literature in both languages
in can also mean something more like doubt, when a monk is unsure if what he has done
is a transgression or not. Compare, for example, this monk who is unsure if he has committed a prjika offense after having sex with a monkey, 67, At one time a monk had
sex with a she-monkey. He was in doubt, The Blessed One has proclaimed the rules. Now,
have I committed a prjika offense or not? The Blessed One announced, O monk, you
surely have committed an offense, a prjika offence.. Tena kho pana samayena aataro
bhikkhu makkaiy methuna dhamma paisevi. Tassa kukkucca ahosibhagavat
sikkhpada paatta, kacci nu kho aha prjika patti pannoti? Bhagavato
etamattha rocesi. patti tva, bhikkhu, panno prjika nti. Text from Pali Tipitika,
http://www.tipitika.org.
38Ajtaatrukauktyavinodanstra, eds. Paul Harrison and Jens-Uwe Hartmann in
Manuscripts in the Schoyen Collection, ed. Jens Braarvig (Oslo, 2000), 1. 167218.
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see recall the arguments used to persuade another famous royal sinner,
Yudhihira in the Mahbhrata, that his remorse was out of place.39
A lengthy section of the twelfth book of the Mahbhrata centers around
convincing Yudhihira, who is also called Ajtaatru, that he need feel no
remorse over the killing of his cousins, the Kauravas, and their allies. The
remorse of Yudhihira and Ajtaatru will be the focus of the remainder
of this chapter.
It is not impossible that the very idea that in some circumstances a
person, particularly a king, should not have any remorse for killing may
have originated with the Mahbhrata. This is suggested by a comparison
of a sub-story from the great epic with two Buddhist versions of the same
story in the Saghabhedavastu of the Mlasarvstivda vinaya and the
Mahvastu.40 In this story, to which I now turn, the Mahbhrata unambiguously celebrates what it regards as the necessary violence of kingship,
while in the Buddhist versions the kings actions are regarded as problematic and bring about negative consequences for him in the future.
Having suggested in the second section of this essay that the discussion of the kings innocence is more at home in the Mahbhrata than
in the Buddhist sources, in the third section I turn to the treatment of
Yudhihiras remorse in the Mahbhrata. This is followed by a discussion of the treatment of Ajtaatru in the Mahparinirva Stra in section four. In my conclusions I circle back to some of the themes touched
upon in this introduction and point to some avenues for future research.
The Story of Likhita and akha
A story of two brothers Likhita and akha, both ascetics, is told in book
twelve of the Mahbhrata.41 This book, the long ntiparvan, is one of
the most important sources for early Indian thought on philosophy, state-
39The Bhratamajar, a later poetic rendering of the epic, lists remorse as one of
many ways to get rid of sin (13.176) although like the epic itself, it seems to prefer the
performance of penance as the most effective means. In one verse (13.180) the text tells us
that a person should not regret not having done good deeds or having done bad deeds; he
should simply carry out the appropriate penance. Satkarmam akaran ninditn ca
sevant/pacttpam ansdya pryacitta naro rhati//180.
40It was later told in the Skandapura Nagarakhaa, a text composed to glorify a
particular holy place in Gujarat, but I will not discuss that version here.
41akha and Likhita are also known as the joint authors of one of the Dharmastras,
now lost. On this see P.V. Kane, History of Dharmastra, vol. 1 pt. 1 (Poona: Bhandarkar
Oriental Research Institute 1968), 136142.
after sinning
191
craft, and rules of behavior. As the ntiparvan opens we see the victorious king Yudhihira so stricken with grief and remorse at the slaughter
of his relatives in which he has taken part that he is unable to assume
the duties of the kingship that he has won through the epic battle. We
shall have occasion to review many of the arguments that various people
put forward to convince Yudhihira that his remorse is both unnecessary and unproductive. It is in the course of these arguments that the
story of akha and Likhita is told and its message is clear: It is the duty
of kings to punish wrong doers and no sin can come from carrying out
ones duty. The story is meant to convince Yudhihira, who is often called
in these chapters by his epithet, Ajtaatru, The One Whose Enemy has
not yet been Born, did not sin when he caused the death of his cousins.
He acted righteously in fulfilling his kingly obligations. The sage Vysa
tells Yudhihira that the earth swallows up a king who does not fight his
enemies, just as a snake devours creatures in its hole (23.15.). He further
tells him that King Sudyumna achieved the highest state by punishing
wrongdoers (23.16). This leads into the story of Likhita and akha, in
which King Sudyumna appears.
Likhita and akha are exemplary ascetics. They live separately in hermitages near the river Bhud. One day Likhita arrives at akhas hermitage, only to find that akha is not there. He plucks some ripe fruits
and eats them. akha returns and finds him contentedly munching away.
He asks him where he has found the fruits and what he is doing eating
them. Not thinking much of the question, Likhita smiles and greets his
elder brother and then explains how he has helped himself to the fruits.
akha is furious and accuses his brother of being a thief, since he has
taken the fruits without permission. He insists that Likhita go to the king
and confess his sin. Likhita does just that; he appears at the kings palace
and proclaims himself to be a thief. He asks that the king punish him.
When the king hears that the ascetic Likhita has come, in a gesture of
utmost respect he goes on foot to meet him. Likhita explains that he
had eaten some fruits that his brother had not given to him and again
demands an immediate punishment. The king tells Likhita that just as
the king has the authority to punish, so he has the authority to forgive.
He forgives Likhita and tells him to return to his hermitage purified of sin,
obedient to his ascetic vows. He then asks Likhita what boons he might
offer him. Likhita insists that the only thing he wants from the king is the
punishment that a thief deserves. And so the king has Likhitas hands cut
off and Likhita returns to his hermitage. In pain, he asks his brother for
forgiveness. akha replies that he is not angry and that Likhita has not
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offended him, but that they come from a stainless family and that wrong
doing demands punishment. He tells Likhita to go to the river Bhud
and make offerings to the gods, ancient sages, and ancestors. Likhita is
never again even to contemplate doing wrong. He adds that these are the
greatest of sins: killing a Brahmin, drinking alcohol, stealing, sleeping with
the gurus wife, and keeping company with someone who does any one
of these things. Of these, he says, stealing is the worst, equal even to the
sin of killing a Brahmin. The punishment for all of these must be corporal punishment. But, he says, once punished by a king, sinners are made
pure and go to heaven, just like those who have done meritorious deeds.42
akha tells Likhita that their lineage has been saved by his punishment.
Likhita then goes to the river, and as soon as he plunges into its waters,
his hands reappear. Amazed, he shows them to his brother, who takes
credit for the miracle and says that this is the result of his ascetic powers.
Likhita asks the obvious; if his brother had the power to purify him of his
sin, why didnt he do it in the first place? Why did Likhita have to go to
the king and suffer the horrible punishment of having his hands cut off?
akha replies that it is not his responsibility to punish; that is the duty
of the king. As the story ends, Likhita is purified of his sin and restored to
wholeness and the king is also purified in fulfilling his kingly duty.
The story is retold by Kemendra in his Bhratamajar verses 98106.
Kemendra has a happy Likhita return to his brother after his punishment, and the dip in the river not only restores his hands, but also stills
the fire of his remorse.43 The king, a repository of glory, having exercised
his lawful function, attains to those worlds that ascetics reach through
their austerities.
This little story tells us a number of things about sin, punishment, and
in its later version, even remorse. It tells us first of all that sins must be
punished and that punishment purifies a person of all sin. It also draws
a clear line between two groups in society, ascetics and kings. akha,
the ascetic, in theory had the power to purify his brother of the sin of
theft, but he did not have the right to do so. It is the right and the obligation of the king to do that, and in doing so both king and thief are made
pure. Kemendra adds that the emotional consequences of a sin, the fire
42Neither seems to be familiar with the statement that Rma makes to the dying Vlin,
that a thief is purified of his sin either by being punished by the king or by being pardoned
by the king, sand vpi mokd v stena ppt pramucyate, Rmyaa, Kikindhka,
1.32 (Bombay: Gujarati Printing Press, 1884).
4313.105, prantnuayajvara.
after sinning
193
of remorse, are also removed by punishment. The moral of the story for
Yudhihira is simple: as a king, in punishing the evil Kauravas by killing
them on the battlefield, he was carrying out his duty as a king and his act
was not sinful, but glorious. He need have no remorse for what he did,
nor should he fear any disastrous consequences. He, like Sudyumna in the
story, can expect to go to heaven for his deeds.44
The same story of two brothers, ascetics, one of whom steals from
the other, was also told in Buddhist sources. In the Saghabhedavastu
of the Mlasarvstivda vinaya, they are named akha and Likhita, as
they are in the Mahbhrata, while in the Mahvastu they are called
Srya and Candra.45 Both stories are told to explain why the Buddhas
son Rhula had to stay in his mothers womb for six long years. In the
Saghabhedavastu, Likhita drinks water from his elder brothers water
pot while akha is away from the hermitage collecting fruits and flowers.
He comes back thirsty and sees that there is almost no water left in his
pot. In the words of the story,
Angry, he asks, What thief stole my water? Likhita replies, I am the thief.
Punish me. He says, You are my brother and my pupil. If you drank the
water, well, then you are welcome to it. He says, Teacher, I cannot get
over my feeling of remorse. Give me the same harsh punishment that would
be given to any thief. At this the sage akha grows angry. He says, I will
not punish you. If you are so in need of punishment, go to the king. He
goes to the king, who had just set out for the hunt. He praises the king and
blesses him, saying may you live long and be victorious, and then he utters
this verse: O great king, I am a thief, who drank water that had not been
given to me. Give me that harsh punishment that is meted out to thieves.46
The king replies, There is no such thing as theft when it comes to water.
Whose water did you drink anyway? He tells him everything that happened.
44The story reappears in the last book of the Skanda Pura, where it explains the
name of the river Bhud, Giver of arms, and the name of a holy site called akha trtha,
famous for its healing properties. There akha is the younger brother and Likhita the
older one. akha eats the fruits in the hermitage of Likhita, who cuts off his hands. They
are restored by iva, whom he worships. He asks that the holy place where iva appeared
to him bear his name. iva says that the river will destroy sin and cure diseases (6.11).
Skandapura (Delhi: Nag Publishers 1986), 1213.
45akha and Likhita also appear as two sages who sages engaged in a dispute, who
settle their differences in a clever way. They are reborn as the Buddhas disciples riputra
and Maudgalyyana. Their story is summarized by Kemendra, Avadnakalpalat,
Daakarmaplutyavadna 50, (Darbhanga: Mithila Institute of Post-Graduate Studies and
Research in Sanskrit Learning, 1959), vol. 2, 306.
46This verse and second verse about remorse also appear in the Mahvastu, although
the grammar is slightly different and conforms to the language of the Mahvastu, text on
GRETIL, from the edition of mile Senart (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 18821897), 3.172.
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phyllis granoff
The king replies, He is your brother and your teacher. Go home. You dont
deserve to be punished. He says, Lord, I cannot get rid of this feeling of
remorse. Give me that strict punishment that is given to a thief.
In his anger the king tells him to stand right where he is until he returns.
Preoccupied with the hunt, the king leaves the sage standing there for six
days. The king was Rhula in a past birth, and as recompense for the act
of making the stage stand there waiting for six days, he must stay in the
womb for six years.47
The version in the Mahvastu similarly explains Rhulas unnatural
sojourn in the womb. Srya and Candra are both princes; both want to
renounce the world. Candra insists that as the elder brother Srya must
become king. He does so, but then immediately uses his authority to order
Candra to assume the throne so that he can renounce the world. Srya
makes a vow never to drink even a drop of water that has not been given
to him, but one day in a moment of forgetfulness he drinks from a jar that
belongs to another ascetic. He is stricken with remorse even though the
other ascetics assure him that water is something that cannot be stolen.
He insists he has committed a sin, though, because he had vowed never
to drink water that had not been explicitly given to him. He demands that
his fellow ascetics punish him as a thief. They send him to the king, his
brother Candra. Candras son urges the king to punish his uncle, if only
so that he might be free of his feelings of remorse. He keeps Srya confined in a grove of Aoka trees, provided with a soft couch and delicious
food. The only way he can think of to release him is to proclaim a general
amnesty for all prisoners, and this he does. Srya, freed from his feelings
of remorse (nikauktya), returns to his hermitage.
In these Buddhist versions the wrongdoer is tormented with remorse
and insists on punishment. The Mahvastu seems to recognize that a person ought not to be punished for drinking water, even water that is not
in his own pot, and so the story has the ascetic take a special vow never
to drink water that he has not expressly been given. This strengthens our
impression that Likhitas behavior in the Saghabheda is obsessive and
the punishment not quite right; it also hints that the remorse for such an
act was not necessary. Given that it is the remorse that must be removed
by the punishment, we might even conclude that it was the sin. In any
47The text of the Saghabhedavastu is on GRETIL from the edition of R. Gnoli, (Roma:
Instituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, Serie Orientale Roma 49, 197778),
part II, SBV II. 4344.
after sinning
195
case, in both stories, far from being praised, something about the kings
actions is considered problematic. Particularly telling is the Mahvastu
account, in which it is the very punishment that the king metes out
that leads to his later suffering, when he is reborn as Rhula in a later
birth and is confined to the womb of his mother for an unnaturally long
time. If we think of the ways in which the sojourn of the fetus in the
womb is described in Indian texts, as a hellish imprisonment in a stinking dark cesspool, we can understand that the kings punishment of the
sage had terrible consequences for him and was indeed seen in a very
negative light.48
We have in these stories of the brothers akha and Likhita from the
Mahbhrata and the Buddhist texts two very different verdicts about the
behavior of kings, the redemptive value of punishment, and the role of
remorse. For the Mahbhrata the king must punish wrongdoers, and in
punishing a criminal he purifies the criminal and himself. Sin is not a universal; what is a sin for one person can be a virtuous act for another. Vysa
uses this story to demonstrate to Yudhihira that in killing his relatives
he has purified them and himself from sin. There is also no room here
for remorse. If killing is a sin for others, for the king it is a religious duty.
The Mahvastu, on the other hand, makes it clear that it was wrong for
the king to confine the sage, even in a pseudo-punishment of his theft
of water. For this act, in a future rebirth the king suffers a punishment
that is very much like being reborn in hell. Wielding punishment does not
purify the king. It also does not purify the sinner, since the stories seem
to indicate that the sinner has not really sinned at all. Even more telling is
the inescapable conclusion that his sin was in fact his crippling remorse.
I have spent so much time on these stories precisely because their
message is so different, despite the fact that they are clearly variants of
the same story. The story of Likhita and akha presents in a condensed
form the terms of some of the major debates about sin and its remedies
in Indian religious texts. That a king must even kill will be central to
the Mahbhratas treatment of Yudhihiras remorse. Despite the fact
that the Mahvastu version of the story clearly rejects the notion that
the king is free from sin in punishing wrongdoers, this contention will
appear in full force in the Mahparnirva Stras arguments put forward to assuage Ajtaatrus guilty conscience. A reading of the Buddhist
and the Mahbhrata versions side by side first suggested to me that the
48For references see Granoff, The Stench of Sin.
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predominance of the doctrine that the king is free from sin in both texts
might not have been due to coincidence; perhaps there is a real link
between the Mahparinirva Stra and the Mahbhrata. In the next
section I examine in detail some of the arguments in the ntiparvan of
the Mahbhrata that are given to convince Yudhihira that he has not
sinned. My discussion of the ntiparvan is followed by a summary of the
very similar arguments in the Mahparinirva Stra. I hope in what follows to establish that there was indeed a close connection between these
two texts. At the very least, these parallels should show that debates about
a concept as central as sin crossed sectarian boundaries to form part of a
larger common discourse in Indian religious texts.
Yudhihira Overcomes His Remorse
As the ntiparvan opens, the great sages come to congratulate Yudhihira,
who is now the supreme ruler over the entire world. Yudhihira acknowledges his victory, which he says he achieved with the help of Ka,
through the support of the Brahmins, and the skill in arms of Bhma and
Arjuna (12.1.13). But he has no pleasure in his victory. A great sorrow has
entered his heart, for he has caused the destruction of his relatives in his
unseemly thirst for power (12.1.14). Again and again we are told that the
righteous Yudhihira is in pain and suffering as he reflects on those who
have died (12.7.12). Indeed, Yudhihira curses the life of the warrior and
yearns for the quiet life of the sage, who practices forbearance, self control, truth and non-violence, and who is without any feelings of hostility
towards others (12.7.56). He fears that he will go to a terrible rebirth,
having caused so much destruction (12.7.20).
Yudhihiras desire to renounce the world in atonement for his sin is
not unique. The Bhatkathlokasagraha, a summary of an early collection stories, begins with the account of a King Gopla. His story is part
of the cycle of stories of one of the most famous kings in early India,
King Udayana.49 In his old age, Goplas father Mahsena becomes an
oppressive ruler. To avoid a revolt and win over the populace to the young
Gopla, when the king dies of disease, his ministers spread the rumor that
Gopla has imprisoned his father and the king has died in jail. Suppos49For different versions of the Udayana stories see Niti Adaval, The story of
King Udayana as gleaned from Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit Sources, (Varanasi: Chowkhamba
Sanskrit Series Office, 1970).
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197
edly a good act done for the sake of the subjects, this deed initially does
win over the populace to Gopla. But Gopla comes to learn that some
of his subjects take a different view and are accusing him of his fathers
murder. False though it is, the accusation is too much for him to bear; he
renounces the throne and becomes an ascetic to atone for the sin. Even a
suspected parricide cannot rule a kingdom. The sin must be expiated.50
Yudhihira, who has in fact killed his relatives, not unexpectedly, then,
wants to renounce in expiation of his sin. He reveals this to Arjuna, (12.7.36),
who is appalled, and there begins a long and concerted effort by Arjuna,
Yudhihiras other brothers, his wife Draupad, and the sage Vysa to help
Yudhihira understand that he has done nothing for which he should feel
remorseful. This will continue for the next thirty chapters. There are many
facets to the arguments, not all of which are always easy to understand as
they have come down to us. They might be divided into two categories,
which for want of better terms I call social and philosophical. The social
arguments focus on the responsibility of Yudhihira as a king and the
very separate roles and life styles of Brahmins and Katriyas, an issue with
which the Mahbhrata is often concerned. Many of the arguments will
be general arguments against the life style of the renouncer and in favor
of the householders religion of sacrifice and service to the Brahmins. In
this category we might also place Yudhihiras family responsibilities as a
householder and the oldest brother. He has led his siblings into battle and
now must not abandon them. There is also the question of his responsibility to his wife, whom his enemies had abused and publicly insulted. The
philosophical arguments are varied and range, as we shall see, from a total
denial of personal responsibility in a universe governed by fate, by karma
or by God, to arguments about the imperishability of the soul. Some of
the arguments use the random nature of contacts in a beginningless cycle
of rebirths to deny any importance at all to specific family ties. We are all
traveling willy-nilly through countless rebirths and meet each other by
chance, only to go our separate ways in the next birth. It makes no sense
to fret over the loss of one brother or a mother; family relationships are
accidents and unstable. In what follows I consider some of the specifics
of both categories of arguments. I follow the order in which they appear
in the various chapters, which mingle what I have called the social and
philosophical arguments.
50Buddhasvmin, Bhatkathlokasagraha, verses 1.1584. Text on GRETIL from the

edition of Flix Lacote, (Paris: E Leroux, 1908).
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Arjuna begins the effort to shake Yudhihira from his resolve to give up
the kingship and renounce the world in chapter 8, where he makes a case
against the voluntary poverty of the renunciant and champions the way
of the householder, who pursues wealth in order to perform sacrifices and
give gifts (12.8). In chapter 12 Bhma takes a different approach and hammers at what is one of the strongest arguments in the text. It will reappear
many times in the coming chapters. Bhma makes a valiant effort to persuade Yudhihira that it is not a sin for a king to kill in battle. He reminds
him of all the kings in the past who killed their enemies and then went
to heaven. How could their acts have been sinful if they led to heaven?
In the past kings always killed their enemies, for the welfare of their subjects and for their own good. If that was a sin, then why did they go to
heaven and not to hell, enveloped in all their evil deeds (12.12.3941)?51
Bhma also reminds Yudhihira of the lessons of the Bhagavdgt: righteousness consists of doing ones appointed task. Warriors are supposed
to fight and die in battle, and by doing so they attain a position in heaven
(12.12.3536).
In the next chapter, Sahadeva, one of the youngest brothers, strikes a
more philosophical note, again reminiscent of the teachings of the Gt.
Either the soul is permanent or impermanent. If it is permanent, then
nothing can destroy it and Yudhihira has not killed anyone. If it is in
the very nature of the soul to perish, then it perishes on its own. The warriors who died, then, died because they are impermanent and not because
Yudhihira killed them. In either alternative there is no possibility that
one person can serve as the cause of destruction of another person.
O Bhrata, if it is true that the soul of all living beings can never be destroyed,
then there can be no such as killing. Or if it is the case that the destruction
of the soul is ordained as soon as it comes into being, then when the body is
destroyed, the soul too would naturally be destroyed; there is no place here
either for any action (12.13.67).52
51From the critical edition on GRETIL 12,012.023d@001_0038 ptit atrava prva

sarvatra vasudhdhipai
12,012.023d@001_0039 prajn hitakmai ca tmana ca hitaiibhi
12,012.023d@001_0040 yadi tatra bhavet ppa katha te svargam sthit
12,012.023d@001_0041 na prpt naraka rjan veit ppakarmabhi
5212,013.006a avino sya sattvasya niyato yadi bhrata
12,013. 006c bhittv arra bhtn na his pratipatsyate
12,013.007a athpi ca sahotpatti sattvasya pralayas tath
12,013.007c nae arre naa syd vth ca syt kriypatha
I have taken some liberties with the translation to make the argument clearer.
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199
Draupad reminds her husband of what Bhma had said: it is the duty of
kings to punish wrongdoers.
No one admires the king who will not punish wrongdoers. Such a king does
not attain wealth. O Bhrata, the subjects of a king who will not punish
wrongdoers do not live in peace (12.14.13). It is punishment that controls
the subjects; it is punishment alone that protects them (12.14.50).53
She goes on to list all the terrible things that happen if the king does not
exercise his right to punish the wicked. Sacrifices, which are at the root of
maintaining the world order, are destroyed; the crows eat the sacrificial
cakes and dogs lick the offerings (12.14.14). In the absence of fear of punishment, the castes would mix and all the rules that govern social interactions would be abandoned (12.14.56). Punishment destroys sin (14.14 58).
The king who punishes those who deserve to be punished goes to heaven
(12.14.61). Yudhihira, she says, has killed the wicked sons of Dhtarra
and there is no sin in that, even if he had used deceitful means to accomplish his ends:
O king, you killed the wicked evil-doing sons of Dhtarra and their followers, who had fallen away from righteousness. In slaying them you committed not even the slightest sin, O lord of the world, whether you killed them
by deceit, treachery or according to the rules of war (12.14.8184).54
Draupad makes several points in her arguments. Yudhihira is plagued

by remorse not just because he killed his relatives, but because he killed
some of them, at least, deceitfully. One of the most famous episodes in the
Mahbhrata is the death of Droa, the preceptor. Yudhihira tells a halflie to Droa, when he declares that Avatthman is dead. Avatthman is
both the name of an elephant and the name of Droas beloved son. It is
the elephant that has been slain, but Droa takes it to be his son, which
Yudhihira assumed he would. In his grief Droa lays down his arms and
is easily slain. In these verses Draupad assures Yudhihira that it does
not matter how he killed his enemies. They were wicked and it was his
responsibility as king to kill them in any way he could. Yudhihira has
5312,014.014a ndaa katriyo bhti ndao bhtim anute
12,014.014c ndaasya praj rja sukham edhanti bhrata
12,014.014d@002_0044 daa sti praj sarv daa evbhirakati
5412,014.014d@002_0081 dharmd vicalit rjan dhrtarr niptit
12,014.014d@002_0082 adhrmik durcr sasainy viniptit
12,014.014d@002_0083 tn nihatya na doas te svalpo pi jagatpate
12,014.014d@002_0084 chalena myay vtha katradharmea v npa
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done no wrong. The emphasis on the wickedness of the slain enemy is an

important point. We shall see that the Buddhists also had a story told to
Ajtaatru about the wickedness of Bimbisra, his father, in an effort to
ease Ajtaatrus conscience over the murder of an innocent man.
The discussion continues with further verses on the need for punishment; Arjuna adds that it is simply the way of the world for creatures to
devour each other (12.15.20). The argument then returns to the notion that
the soul is eternal and cannot be slain; there is no such thing as murder
(12.15.56).
As a man might enter one new room and then another, so the soul enters
one body after another. Leaving off one body, it takes a new one. This is
what the wise call death (12.15. 5758).55
In the next chapter, in a slightly obscure discussion, Bhma speaks of two

kinds of sickness, mental and physical, the first one born of the mind and
the other born from the body. Bodily sickness can be cured by reestablishing the balance of the humors; mental sickness is to be treated by
controlling ones thoughts. They always appear together; bodily sickness
causes mental illness and mental illness causes physical distress. Bhma
advises Yudhihira to fight this new battle, a battle against his depression in which there is no need for arrows, and in which friends and relatives can offer no aid. This is a battle he must fight alone. And he must
win. If he does not conquer his mind now, Bhma warns him, then he
will continue to be troubled in the next birth. He will only have put off
the inevitable struggle. And so Bhma concludes, Yudhihira must cure
himself of his mental sickness right away. Having done so, he must then
follow the path of his forebears by assuming the kingship and offering
sacrifices (12.16.826).
Arjuna speaks up again and repeats some of the earlier statements, that
it is the role of warriors to kill and be killed (12.22.16). He also highlights
the difference in the life styles of the warrior and Brahmin. A warrior
is not supposed to practice austerities or live off the largesse of others
552,015.056a avadhya sarvabhtnm antartm na saaya
12,015.056c avadhye ctmani katha vadhyo bhavati kena cit
12,015.057a yath hi purua l puna sapravien navm
12,015.057c eva jva arri tni tni prapadyate
12,015.058a dehn purn utsjya navn sapratipadyate
12,015.058c eva mtyumukha prhur ye jans tattvadarina
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201
(12.22 67); he is supposed to fight. The example is given of Indra, who

killed hosts of his own relatives, all of whom were wicked (12.22.11), and
was praised for his deeds (12.22.12). In fact, it was through this that he
became king of the gods (12.22.12). And so Arjuna begs Yudhihira to be
like Indra; having killed his relatives in a glorious show of might, he should
now assume the kingship and perform sacrifices. Arjuna also suggests that
what happened could not have been otherwise; it was fated, bhavitavyam,
and what is ordained, diam, cannot be otherwise (12.22.15). The argument that fate governs what a person does is only one of many arguments
that the text uses to deny moral responsibility and agency.
Vysa continues the argument that humans have no control over events;
everything happens through the power of kla, or time or fate (12.26.512).
Furthermore, he insists, people wrongly think that they kill another, but
really no one kills anyone else. The birth and death of all living beings are
fixed by their very nature (12.26.17). Yudhihira should not grieve over the
loss of his loved ones. Joys and sorrows come to all living beings in turn,
in the natural course of events (12.26.31). There follows a famous passage
that explains how all living beings must come together and part from each
other, like bubbles in water that appear and then burst. Wealth perishes
and the mighty fall. Union must end in separation; life ends inevitably in
death (12.27.2830). Nothing can save a person from death; living beings
come together in the same way as two floating logs come together and then
drift apart (12.28.3437). It is wrong to think that someone is your mother
or father or brother; in this vast time span through which we transmigrate,
we are everything to each other and nothing to each other. We have had
thousands of mothers and fathers, thousands of wives and children. How
can we say that this one is my mother or my father, my brother or my son
(12.28.3441)? Vysa hopes by this to assuage Yudhihiras guilt at having
killed his own relatives. There is really no such thing as a relative; the
person who was your brother today was someone elses brother in another
birth. It is wrong to privilege social relationships in any given lifetime.
Despite all of these arguments, Yudhihira remains anguished by having been responsible for the deaths of so many innocent people (12.32.10).
Vysa then takes another path. He suggests that we are not really agents
of our actions in the way in which we imagine ourselves to be. Perhaps it
is God who is the agent; perhaps everything happens as a result of karma
(12.32.11). Vysa explains:
O king, impelled by God, human beings do good deeds and bad. The fruit of
that action belongs not to the human being, but to God.
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It is like this. A person might cut down a tree in the forest, using an axe.
The sin belongs to the person who cuts the tree and not to the instrument,
the axe (12.32.11).56
Vysa then continues, arguing that if you do not believe in the controlling
power of God but believe that everything is the result of karma, even then,
the fact that someone dies in battle has nothing to do with the person
who kills him, and everything to do with the karma of the one who has
died. And the same conclusion results if you consider that the world is
controlled by an impersonal force (12.32.19).
Through these arguments Vysa attempts to convince Yudhihira
that he bears no moral responsibility for the death of the warriors he has
killed in battle. Human beings have no agency, no matter how you look
at the world. If they are forced to act by God, then they are simply tools
in Gods hands the way that an axe is a tool in the woodcutters hands. If
everything results from an individuals karma, then the person who dies
in battle is responsible for his own death; the warrior who kills him is still
just a tool. And if everything is simply fate, then it is obvious that there is
no room for human agency.
Vysa adds something important at the conclusion of his argument. In
case Yudhihira remains unconvinced by the arguments that show that
he has not sinned, Vysa tells Yudhihira that there exist ways to remove
sin. There are penances or pryacittas, and there then follows a long section that describes various penances for different infractions.
In fact, Vysa has guessed right; Yudhihira still fears that he has committed grave sins, for which he will go to hell (2.33.11). The argument
that humans have no real moral agency must be resumed in chapter 34.
Humans are like puppets, under the control of karma.
Just as a puppet made by an artisan moves under the control of the puppeteer, so the world is made to whirl about by the force of karma, impelled
by Time (12.34.10).57
Yudhiira is eventually persuaded to return to the palace. It is not clear

that any specific argument has won the day, but the god Kna has had the
final word. He assures Yudhihira that the Brahmins and all his brothers
5612,032.012a varea niyukt hi sdhv asdhu ca prthiva
12,032.012c kurvanti puru karmaphalam varagmi tat
12,032.013a yath hi purua chindyd vka paraun vane
12,032.013c chettur eva bhavet ppa paraor na katha cana
5712,034.010a tvareva vihita yantra yath sthpayitur vae
12,034.010c karma klayuktena tatheda bhrmyate jagat
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203
eagerly await him, as eagerly as people suffering from the heat await the
coming of the rainy season, and tells him to accept the kingship for the
welfare of the world (12.38.2026). There is a strange incident in the next
chapter, in which a Crvka, disguised as a Brahmin, accosts Yudhihira
and accuses him of the very sins that he had feared he had committed.
Crvkas, or Materialists, are usually described as denying that there is
a soul and that there exist rebirths. They deny that good or bad deeds
have future consequences, and in their rejection of the doctrine of karma
they are regarded as standing outside the accepted or orthodox system
of beliefs. Here the Crvkas rejection of orthodoxy is slightly different.
It lies in refusing to allow that Yudhihira has not committed a sin. The
Crvka rejects the notion that there are different standards of morality
and behavior for Brahmins and Ksatriyas and that killing is not a sin for
a king; he rejects the proposition that there are ways to mitigate even
the gravest of sins, through the performance of penances, sacrifices and
gifts to the Brahmins. The Crvka curses Yudhihira, saying that as a
murderer of his relatives he is better off dead (12.39.2630). Yudhihira
begs forgiveness of the assembled Brahmins and throws himself on their
mercy. They assure him that the Crvka is an agent of his enemies and
that they do not judge Yudhihira to be guilty of any sin (12.39.3034).
Thus ends this long section of the ntiparvan. One might summarize
the arguments as follows. It is the duty of a king to kill, even to kill his
immediate relatives, if they are wicked; the paths of kings and that of
renunciants are totally different from each other, and the ethical norms of
one are not valid for the other; humans have no moral agency; what happens to us is in the hands of God; is the result of fate; is the result of our
own karma. Killing is not possible because the soul can never die; because
the soul is by nature perishable. Despite the sheer weight of these arguments, which have gone on for so many chapters, the dissenting voice of
the Crvka, who would restore agency and therefore sin to Yudhihira,
remains strangely disquieting. We shall see as we turn to the remorse of
that other Ajtaatru that these very same arguments resurface, in a context to which they sometimes seem less well suited, while the echo of the
voice of the Crvka may still be heard.
The Remorse of Ajtaatru in the Mahparinirva Stra
Ajtaatru is a curious figure in the Buddhist story tradition. He is both
vilified, as the ultimate sinner who killed his father and conspired against
the Buddha, and glorified as the greatest devotee of the Buddha, whose
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faith in the Buddha was so extraordinary that his ministers had to prevent
him from dying with grief on hearing the news of the Buddhas death.
Ajtaatru in the r Lankan tradition becomes the protector of the Buddhas relics; he buries them in a single stpa so that King Aoka might
find them in the future and distribute them throughout his realm. But
before Ajtaatru could become the perfect Buddhist, something had to
be done about his sins.58 Here I explore one treatment of Ajtaatru in
the Mahyna Mahparinirva Stra. This is a complex text and there
is considerable scholarship on the history of its composition.59 In the
translation by Dharmakema (422 ce, Taisho vol. 12, 374) the chapter on
Ajtaatru is chapter 19.60 It would seem to be part of the new material
58The story of Ajtaatru is told in the Dghanikya ahakath on the Mahparinibbna
sutta, section 236 ff., Pali Tipitaka, http://www.tipitaka.org.
59The standard work on the text is Shimoda Masahiro, Nehangy no Kenky, (Tokyo:
Shunhusha, 1997). See also Stephen Hodge, Textual History of the Mahyna Parinirvna
stra, http://www.nirvanasutra.net/historicalbackground.htm.
60Chapter 24 in the English translation of Kosho Yamamoto, http://bodhimarga.org/
docs/Mahaparinirvana_Sutra_Yamamoto_Page_2007.pdf.
The English translation is in fact a translation from the Japanese of Dait Shimazu. See the
comments of Yuyama, Akira, Sanskrit Fragments of the Mahyna Mahparinirvastra,
I. Koyasan Manuscript (Tokyo: Reiyukai Library, 1981), 14. The section on Ajtaatru has
been translated into Japanese by Sadakata, Ajase no Sukui, 13101. In my explorations of
Ajtaatru I have benefitted enormously from two small books by Sadakata Akira, Ajase
no Sukui: Bukky ni okeru tsumi to Kyzai, (Kyoto: Jinbun Shoin, 1984) and Ajase no Satori:
Hotoke to Monju no K no Oshie, (Kyoto: Jinbun Shoin, 1989). Jonathan Silk has written
on Ajtaatru, Jonathan A. Silk, The Composition of the Guan Wuliangshoufo-jing: Some
Buddhist and Jaina Parallels to its Narrative Frame, Journal of Indian Philosophy 25, no.2
(1997), 181256. The book by Michael Radich, How Ajtaatru was Reformed: The Domestication of Ajase and Stories in Buddhist History, (Tokyo: The International Institute for
Buddhist Studies, 2011) came to my attention after I had completed this paper. In chapter two Radich provides the most comprehensive overview of the Ajtaatru story in
Indian sources. Chapter 3 deals with the Mahyna Mahparinirva stra. He notes the
unusual nature of the heretical views expressed there, but does not connect them with
the Mahbhrata or any other source. Mark Blum is currently in the process of translating
the text from the Chinese. I did not discuss the Ajtaatrukautyavinodan, which may
be one of the earliest texts to grapple with Ajtaatrus remorse, which it regards as the
result of his profound ignorance. This text argues from the standpoint of a radical doctrine
of emptiness. The doctrine of the Ajtaatrukauktyavinodan is distinctive and distinctively Buddhist; there is little in the text that would resonate with listeners who were not
adherents of the doctrine of Emptiness. It has an unusual conclusion; Ajtaatru still goes
to hell as he feared he might, although he feels no pain. The text predicts his ultimate
Buddhahood, and if nothing else in the text reminded us of the Mahbhrata, this conclusion might. Yudhihira, too, we have seen, will go briefly to hell and then to reap his final
reward in heaven. The Ajtaatrukauktyavinodan is not unique in seeing the realization
of Emptiness as the remedy for sin. The Tathgatakoa stra that is cited in the later
iksamuccaya similarly proclaims that purification of sin comes from a realization of
the doctrine of Emptiness. iksamuccaya, 171, nyatdhimuktypi ppauddhir bhavati.
A similar view is expressed in a quote from the Karmvaraaviuddhistra. If anything, we
after sinning
205
that cannot be found in the earlier translation of Faxian or in the extant

Sanskrit fragments. The assumption has been that this new material was
most likely added in Central Asia. The parallels to the Mahbhrata that
I point out here might on the contrary suggest an Indian origin, at least
for this expanded treatment of the Ajtaatru story.
The chapter on Ajtaatru is itself a composite text. It builds on the
description of the views of the six heretics known from the Smaaphala
sutta and the Saghabhedavastu of the Mlasarvstivda vinaya, although
it places all of this material in a different context. In the Smaaphala
sutta and the Saghabhedavastu, the setting for the review of the doctrines of the six heretics is Ajtaatrus visit to the Buddha. The Buddha
explains the benefits of the ascetic life and asks Ajtaatru if he had ever
asked anyone else about the benefits of the ascetic life. Ajtaatru replies
with a description of what the six heretical teachers had each told him.
Ajtaatrus visit to the Buddha has nothing to do with Ajtaatrus crime,
which is not mentioned until the very end of the story. As these texts
open, Ajtaatru is simply enjoying a moonlit night and wondering what
he should do on such a lovely evening. Various suggestions are offered,
including visits to the well-known heretical teachers, when Jvaka, the
Buddhas personal physician, suggests to the king that he visit the Buddha.
There is no mention of any disquiet on the part of Ajtaatru because he
has killed his father until the very end. After the Buddha explains the merits of being a Buddhist ascetic, Ajtaatru is struck with remorse. He confesses his sin to the Buddha, proclaiming that he has killed his righteous
father. In the Mlasarvstivda vinaya, he adds that he has done this after
falling under the influence of a wicked person. This wicked person is none
other than the Buddhas cousin and arch-enemy Devadatta, and the text
has given a long account of how he tricked Ajtaatru into believing in
him. We may be reminded here of the assertion in the Mahbhrata that
Yudhihiras killing of his cousins was all occasioned by the machinations
of his arch-enemy, Duryodhana (12.34.25).
By contrast, in the Mahparinirva Stra the accounts of the heretical
doctrines are placed in the context of efforts to relieve Ajtaatru of his
remorse over having killed his father. As the chapter opens we are at once
introduced to Ajtaatru as a great sinner (Taisho 474a). The retribution
for the sin of killing his father has already begun; he is tormented in mind
might see the Mahparinirva stra as more conservative and eclectic; it offers a number
of arguments, not all of which are based on Emptiness.
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and body. Indeed, his body stinks so horribly that no one can even get
near him.61 The minister Candrayaas approaches the king and asks why
he looks so terrible; is he mentally or physically sick (474b)? Ajtaatru
replies he is both. This recalls the conversation that Yudhihira had with
Bhma, in Mahbhrata 12.16, in which Bhma explained to Yudhihira
how mental and physical sickness go together and in which he proposed to
Yudhihira a means to cure himself: control of his mind. Like Yudhihira,
Ajtaatru is afraid of going to hell for the sin of killing his closest kin.
The minister Candrayaas recommends that the king go to see the teacher
Praa who, he says, can cure the kings bodily and mental sickness. He
summarizes the doctrine of Praa, which is basically a denial that there
is any such thing as virtue or sin.
Another minister then steps forward, as the king continues to lament
that he has sinned in killing his father and will go to hell. The structure
of the text recalls the opening of the ntiparvan, in which, as we have
seen, one after another Yudhihiras brothers, his wife, and the sage Vysa
attempt to assuage his guilt. This minister offers that there are two ways
of life, that of the renunciant and that of the king (474c). It is not a sin
for a king to kill his father. This too should remind us of the repeated
insistence in the Mahbhrata that there are two paths, that of kings and
that of Brahmins or renunciants. The distinction was particularly relevant
in the Mahbhrata, where Yudhihira was on the verge of giving up the
kingship and renouncing the world. His brothers repeatedly insisted to
Yudhihira that it is not a sin for a king to kill his close relatives, and we
even heard how Indra had become king of the gods precisely by killing his
brothers. There follows now in the Mahparinirva Stra a brief description of the doctrine of Maskar Golputra, which corresponds to that of
Ajita Keakambala in the Samghabhedavastu and Pakudha Kaccyana in
the Smanaphala Sutta. This is the strange doctrine of the seven permanent entities, intended to show that it is logically impossible for one
person to cause another harm.
Yet another minister comes forward and repeats that it is not a sin for a
king to kill in the process of governing his country (475a). This seems less
appropriate in the case of Ajtaatru than it was in the case of Yudhihira.
Ajtaatru, was, after all, not ruling the country when he killed his father.
Nonetheless, it reflects closely the arguments of the Mahbhrata that
a ruling monarch must fight and kill. He adds that all living beings have
61See Granoff, The Stench of Sin.
after sinning
207
their own karma, and that this is what brings about their death (475a).
We have seen the same argument in the Mahbhrata (12.34.10), and
Ajtaatru is no more persuaded by it than was Yudhihira. The next
teacher who is introduced is Sajay Vairaputra; the description of his
doctrine mixes notions about karma being responsible with an insistence
that the king cannot sin. The king is like fire, to which the categories of
pure and impure do not obtain (475b).
The next minister who attempts to help Ajtaatru begins by providing him with a long list of kings who killed their fathers (475c). The list
begins with Rma and includes figures from epic and puric mythology,
and specifically Buddhist figures like Viudabha, whose actions resulted
in the destruction of the kya clan. None of these patricides, he says, is in
hell or even experienced rebirth in a lower realm. It is difficult to identify
all the names precisely or locate their stories, but we are reminded of the
list of kings who killed their relatives that Bhma rattles off to Yudhihira
in the Mahbhrata 12.12. Bhma assures Yudhihira that these kings
are all in heaven. The minister then summarizes the doctrines of Ajita
Keakambala, whose doctrine here is simply to deny the existence of the
distinction between meritorious and sinful deeds, similar to what the
Saghabhedavastu offers as the doctrine of Sajay.
The king remains unmoved and the next minister offers more philosophical arguments, similar again to those found in the Mahbhrata. He
suggests that if there is a soul, then it must be permanent and therefore
cannot be killed. If, on the other hand, the soul is not eternal, then it
must perish on its own, and there can be no such thing as taking the life
of another person. All things simply perish naturally, as part of a natural process (476b). The minister then uses an analogy that we have met
before (Mahbhrata, 12.32.1115). It is, he says, like the case of an axe
that is used to cut a tree. No sin accrues to the axe. Or a scythe that one
uses to cut the grass. The scythe has not sinned. Or poison that kills a
man, or the sword that kills a man. These analogies seem out of place in
this context; they appear immediately after the statement that if there is
nothing permanent and the soul simply perishes on its own, then there
can be no such thing as one persons killing another. In the Mahbhrata
the analogy of the axe is clear. The passage is about God as the real agent
of all actions. We are all tools in Gods hands and as tools we have no
more sin than has the axe that we use to chop a tree. It is not impossible
to make sense of the analogy in the Mahparinirvna Stra. We might
argue that if things perish on their own, then we must assume that the
person who kills another is merely an instrumental cause of his death just
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as the axe (scythe, sword, poison, etc.) is the instrumental cause of striking down the tree (grass, man, etc.). In the case of the dead person or cut
tree, the real cause of destruction was impermanence. What makes this
interpretation less likely and increases the suspicion that these analogies
are better read along the lines of the Mahbhrata, however, is the series
of accompanying phrases that deny sentience to the tools. Thus the text
tells us that the sword used to kill a man cannot have sin because it is
not human; the poison cannot have any sin, because it is not human. The
issue is not impermanence, but sentience and will. This only makes sense
in the context in which the analogy appears in the Mahbhrata, where
it is a question of whose is the conscious will that leads to an action: does
it belong to God or to the individual. The minister then recommends that
the king seek out Kakuda Katyyana, another one of the heretical teachers in the Smaaphala sutta and the Saghabhedavastu, but the doctrine attributed to him here again recalls more closely the Mahbhrata
than the doctrine of the heretical teachers in the Buddhist texts. Kakuda
is said to espouse a belief in a supreme God. When individuals commit
good and bad deeds, it is really God who acts (476.b). This could almost
be a direct translation from the Mahbhrata 12.32.12. The text continues
with an analogy we have met before. A craftsman might make a wooden
puppet that could walk, lie down, sit, but cannot speak; human beings are
like that puppet and God is the craftsman. How could humans have sin
(476 bc)? The next minister repeats the argument that it is never a sin for
a king to kill in the exercise of kingship. Finally Jvaka steps in and there
begins a praise of the Buddha.
Jvaka takes Ajtaatru to the Buddha and the Buddha begins a long
and complicated discourse, some of which, in particular the arguments
that deny agency, had been anticipated in the rejected arguments of the
various ministers and may be found in the Mahbhrata. The Buddhas
sermon includes teachings on no-self, karma, impermanence, and emptiness. The Buddha also explains to Ajtaatru that Bimbisra had committed wrong deeds in a past life, and thus his death at the hands of
Ajtaatru should be seen as retribution for his own past deeds (483c).
The Buddha adds that because Bimbisra had felt great remorse over his
killing of a sage in his past life, the karmic consequences of his deed were
less than they might otherwise have been (483c). Even in its proclamation of emptiness, this chapter twelve argues for the centrality of remorse
(484b), a point to which I return in my conclusions. The chapter ends
with a statement echoed in other texts that the cultivation of the mind
after sinning
209
of Enlightenment, bodhicitta, removes all sin.62 Ajtaatru, the text tells

us, having conceived a desire for Enlightenment, was able to see his
grave sins reduced to minor sins. Here, too, we may be reminded of
Yudhihira, whose sins were reduced by the sacrifice he has returned to
perform, but who will still go to hell for a brief time to expiate their slight
residue (484c).
There is, however, another element in the story of Ajtaatru that
makes the treatment of this royal sinner distinctive from the treatment
of the kingly sinner of the Mahbhrata. The Mahbhrata in its discussion is more explicitly focused on the one particular sinner, Yudhihira,
and on the necessity of violence as part of kingship, although there is no
question that many of its arguments could well extend to sin of any kind
and to all sinners. But the universal applicability of its teachings is far
clearer in the Mahparinirva Stra, which pointedly extends its salvific
message well beyond the one king and his sin. In fact in chapter eleven
Jvaka provides a long list of abject sinners whose sins had been alleviated by encountering the Buddha, one of his disciples, or the Buddhist
doctrine. Among the group are well-known sinners like the murderous
Agulimla, and less well-known characters like Ajita, who slept with his
mother, killed his father, murdered an arhat, burned down a monastery,
and still became a Buddhist monk and was able to reduce the gravity of
his sins (478c and 479a). This long catalogue of sinners, their sins and
their ultimate absolution implies what is made explicit at the opening
of chapter twelve: Ajtaatru is not simply the one king who committed
a violent act, but is Everyman, Every Sinner, for whose sake the Buddha
postpones his own final Liberation and for whom he teaches the Buddhist
doctrine (480bc). As chapter eleven concludes, Ajtaatru is overcome
by consciousness of sin. His father appears to him and tells him to disregard the false teachings of the ministers, who have set before him the doctrines of the six heretical teachings, and follow Jvakas advice and listen
to the Buddha. He writhes on the ground in pain as his sin begins to bear
fruition; his body emits that terrible stench of sin (480b).
As chapter twelve opens, the Buddha, lying between the pair of Sla
trees, the place of his final nirva, proclaims to those assembled there
that he will in fact not enter nirva, but will stay and preach for the
sake of Ajtaatru. This occasions a question from Kayapa; the Buddha
62iksamuccaya, 177 quoting the ryamaitreyavimoka.
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phyllis granoff
is supposed to save everyone; why does he say that he will remain to rescue Ajtaatru alone? The Buddha answers that Ajtaatru is not just one
man; Ajtaatru is just the name that he calls everyone and anyone who
has sinned.
Ajtaatru is everyone in the long catalogue of sinners in chapter 11
and more. The Buddhas discourse that follows is no longer meant just for
Ajtaatru the patricide, as the discourse of the Mahbhrata was for the
one Yudhihira. The Buddhist text not only rejects the arguments of the
six heretics, which are so close to the arguments in the Mahbhrata; it
also dramatically widens the discussion of Ajtaatrus sin to embrace all
sin and not just the violence of kingship, and all sinners and not just the
king as sinner.
Conclusions: The Debate Continues
In the introduction to this paper I proposed that questions about sin and
its aftermath should be considered among the central questions if not
the central question of Indian religions. In the discussions about what
sinners can do to help themselves one issue that evoked starkly different responses was the role of remorse in the process of mitigating sin. I
examined in some detail the treatment of two famous remorseful sinners,
who bore the same name and had committed similar crimes: Ajtaatru
or Yudhihira, as he is better known, in the Mahbhrata, and the
Buddhist king Ajtaatru, whose remorse was the subject of two chapters
in the Mahparinirva Stra as well as several other texts. I have argued
for a possible connection between the stories of these two repentant sinners, both of whom killed their close kin. The parallels between them can
offer us invaluable insights into the intricate links that existed in India
across religious boundaries. As I conclude I would like to suggest several
areas for continued discussion.
I would like to return for a moment to the question of remorse and look
again at the two terms with which I began this essay, hiri or hr and ottappa
or avatpa. In the Pali texts that I cited these are feelings that are thought
to prevent a person from sinning. We are supposed to consider our acts
before we do them and not do anything that is unworthy of us or anything
that might bring us censure from others or entail other bad consequences.
Interestingly, these very terms also appear in the Mahparinirvna Stra
but with a very different meaning (477c). Jvaka tells Ajtaatru that the
Buddha has taught that there are two pure dharmas that can save living
after sinning
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beings. These are hr and avatpa, but now they include in their broad
meanings both remorse and public confession. Jvaka praises Ajtaatru
for feeling remorse; this is what, he says, makes us quintessentially human
and distinguishes us from animals. Earlier in the text, the Buddha had
taught Kayapa Bodhisattva about the dangers of a lack of remorse and
the failure to acknowledge ones sins; concealing sin only causes the sin to
grow (387a). In a conversation with the Bodhisattva Majur the Buddha
had urged Ajtaatru to repent and thereby purify himself of his grave sin
(426c). The new meaning given to these terms suggests a new emphasis
on remorse and public confession.
A detailed history of the complex attitudes towards remorse in Indian
religions remains to be written. The Buddhist discussions of Ajtaatrus
remorse by themselves clearly illustrate the complexity of the issue. The
one sinner, Ajtaatru, in his remorse occasioned two opposite conclusions: remorse is wrong-headed, the result of ignorance, or remorse is
essential if a sinner is to get beyond the sin. Both these viewpoints are
clearly expressed in a wide range of texts throughout history and across
religious boundaries. Thus we have seen that the Mahbhrata, in the
sections on Yudhihiras remorse that were reviewed here, does not see
any positive value for Yudhihira in remorse, while a later retelling, the
Bhratamajar of Kemendra made a place for remorse as a means to
eradicate sin. But there is also the view of the Bhgavata Pura, for
which awareness of sin and remorse are simply not required in order to
transcend sin. At the other end of the spectrum, the Jain texts considered here all emphasized the singular importance of remorse, which, they
showed, leads to renunciation, the practice of austerities and therefore to
Liberation. Together these texts indicate that there was no single answer
to the question of the role that remorse might play in removing sin. I have
tried to show that the debates about sin were not conducted in a vacuum;
texts engaged each other in complex ways. A study of remorse would do
much to illuminate the complex interactions between different religious
groups.
But this is only one of the many future projects that this excursion
into the plight of the two famous Ajtaatrus suggests. We have seen that
the stories of the two Ajtaatrus raised fundamental questions for their
respective audiences about the nature of sin and its origins, as well as its
remedies. They even raised the startling question, is there such a thing
as sin? All these questions about sin would remain central in the debate
that Indian religions would continue to have not only with each other,
but also with that ultimate Other, Christianity. The enduring importance
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of the debate about sin is highlighted by the central role it would play in
the meeting between proponents of various Indian religions and Christian
missionaries centuries later.63 I give here only one example.
Nidhi Levi Farwell was the first Assamese convert to Christianity and
the first Assamese preacher. Some of his sermons and essays appeared in
the monthly Aruodai, (Orunodoi) which was published from the Baptist
Mission in Sibsagar from 18461879. In the April 1852 issue of the magazine, Nidhi described an encounter he had with a Bengali Brahmin. He
had been explaining to an informal group that had gathered under a
tree near the police station in Sibsagar how the avatra Jesus Christ in
his death had performed an expiatory sacrifice that was capable of ridding all humankind of their sins. The Bengali Brahmin stepped in and
objected. His argument is one that we have met in the Mahbhrata
and the Mahparinirva Stra. The Bengali presents the theistic argument against agency. It is not possible for human beings to be sinners
because whatever humans do, they do because God makes them do it.
The Bengali further refined his argument, bringing it close to the doctrine
of the Bhagavadgt of the sanctity of caste duty and the Mahbhrata
insistence that a king does not sin when he kills because it is the duty
of kings to kill and to punish the wicked. The Brahmin phrased his argument slightly differently. Nidhi records that he proposed that God made
people of such a nature that they were inclined to sin in order to get what
they needed to survive. Humans, in doing what they are compelled to do
by the very the nature that God gave them, far from sinning, serve God.64
I will save Nidhis replies for a future investigation and say only that the
debate over sin and its remedies that we see in the Mahbhrata and
the Mahparinirvna Stra was to have a remarkably long life. Indeed,
Nidhi and his mentors may be seen to have followed the strategy of the
Bhgavata Pura, in seeking to win adherents to the new religion by
presenting it as the one true means to be rid of sin. But there the comparison ends. The Bhgavata Pura was successful in winning followers,
particularly in Nidhis homeland of Assam, where akaradeva in the 16th
century translated the text into Assamese and promulgated its doctrine of
63James Robsons chapter in this book illustrates that it was not only in India that the
treatment of sin loomed so large in the arguments of Christian missionaries.
64742. This is a re-edition of the original. For an overview of Baptist missionaries
in Assam and the Orunodoi see Jayeeta Sharma, Missionaries and Print culture in
Nineteenth-Century Assam: the Orunodoi Periodical of the American Baptist Mission, in
Christians and Missionaries in India: Cross-cultural Communication Since 1500, ed. Robert J.
Frykenberg (London: Routledge, 2003), 256274.
after sinning
213
reciting the name of God as the means to be free of sin. The missionaries
who converted Nidhi were remarkably unsuccessful in garnering converts,
although their work was to have a different but lasting impact on Assamese literature and society.
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ed Estremo Oriente, Serie Orientale Roma 49, 19771978.
Skhyatattvakaumud. Edited by M.M. Patkar, Har Dutt Sharma, with English translation
of Ganganath Jha. Poona: Oriental Book Agency, 1965.
ntideva, Bodhicaryvatra. Text on GRETIL from the edition of P.L. Vaidya. Darbhanga:
Mithila Institute, 1960.
atapatha Brhamaa. Delhi: Gian Publishing House, 1987.
iksamuccaya. Edited by Cecil Bendall, S-Gravenhage: Mouton& Co., 1957.
Skandapura. Delhi: Nag Publishers, 1986.
r Klaka Kathsagraha. Edited by Sarabhai Nawab. Ahmedabad: Sarabhai Nawab,
1949.
Uddyotanasri, Kuvayalaml. Edited by A.N Upadhye. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,
1970.
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Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1970.
Bodewitz, H.W. Sins and vices: their enumerations and specifications in the Veda. IndoIranian Journal 50, no. 4 (2007): 317339.
Bunyan, Paul. Pilgrims Progress. Edited by Roger Pooley. London: Penguin Books, 2008.
Caillat, Colette. Atonements in the Ancient Ritual of the Jaina Monks. Ahmedabad: L.D. Institute, 1975.
Copleston, Reginald Stephen. Buddhism, Primitive and Present in Magadha and in Ceylon.
London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1892.
Cort, John. Jains in the World: Religious Values and Ideology in India. New York: Oxford
Dhammika, S. The Edicts of Asoka, Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1993.
Dundas, Paul. Textual Authority in Ritual Procedure: The vetmbara Jain Controversy
over rypathikpratikramaa. Journal of Indian Philosophy (forthcoming).
Gampert, Wilhelm. Die Shnezeremonien in der Altindischen Rechtsliteratur. Prag: Orientalisches Institut, 1939.
Geen, Jonathan. Knowledge of Brahman as a Solution to Fear in the atapatha Brhmaa/
Bhadrayaka Upaniad. Journal of Indian Philosophy 35 (2007): 33102.
Gonda, Jan. Prajpati and Pryacitta, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Institute 1 (1983): 3254.
Granoff, Phyllis. The Forest of Thieves and the Magic Garden. Delhi: Penguin, 2006.
. The Mausala Parvan, Between Story and Theology. Etudes Asiatiques 62, no. 2
(2008): 545562.
. Karma, Curse or Divine Illusion: The Destruction of the Buddhas Clan and the
Slaughter of the Yadavas. In Epic and Argument in Sanskrit Literary History: Essays in
Honor of Robert P. Goldman, edited by Sheldon Pollock, 7591. Delhi: Manohar, 2010.
. The Stench of Sin: Reflections from Jain and Buddhist Texts, Etudes Asiatiques 65,
no. 1 (2011): 4565.
. Protecting the Faith: Exploring the Concerns of Jain Monastic Rules. Journal of Jain
Studies (forthcoming).
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sutra.net/historicalbackground.htm.
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Buddhist History. Tokyo: The International Institute for Buddhist Studies, 2011.
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. Ajase no Satori: Hotoke to Monju no K no Oshi. Kyoto: Jinbun Shoin, 1989.
after sinning
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Manuscript. Tokyo: Reiyukai Library, 1981.
The Role of Confession in Chinese and Japanese

Tiantai/Tendai Bodhisattva Ordinations
Paul Groner
Introduction
Confessions have been an integral part of Buddhist practice since its
inception. Confession before other practitioners was used to expiate violations of the precepts. However, confession was not a part of the traditional
full ordination depicted in the vinaya. The full ordination was essentially
a ritual designed to allow the order to consider whether a candidate
should be inducted as a full-member of the Buddhist sagha. The candidate was asked a series of questions to determine whether he or she was
qualified for induction. Some of the criteria might bar one permanently;
others might bar one from ordination temporarily until they were remedied, but no need existed for the candidate to confess as an integral part
of the ceremony.1
Rather than being part of the full ordination ceremony itself, confessions were an integral part of subsequent monastic life.2 Monks and
nuns were required to attend fortnightly assemblies; before one attended,
reflection or confession in front of various numbers of practitioners was
required, so that one could appear at the assembly purified of wrongdoing. For more serious wrongdoings, suspension or lifelong expulsion from
the order was imposed. For a suspended monk or nun to be admitted
back to the order, confession in front of twenty other practitioners was
required. Even confession could not obviate lifelong expulsion, with the
significant exception of sexual wrongdoing. In such a case, a monk or nun
who seriously repented of their wrongdoing might be allowed to associate with the order as a novice. Confessions thus insured the purity of the
order. They did not necessarily excuse one from the karmic consequences
1For detailed charts concerning the full ordinations of both monks and nuns according to the Chinese translations and the Pli vinayas, see Tsuchihashi Shk, Jukai reigi
no hensen, in Kairitsu no kenky, ed. Tsuchihashi Shk (Kyoto: Nagata bunshd, 1980),
293306.
2Mohan Wijayaratna, Buddhist Monastic Life: according to the texts of the Theravada
tradition (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 143150.
the role of confession
217
of wrongdoing. One might well undergo karmic recompense in his or her

current life or in the future.
The instructions in the vinaya for initiating novices or administering
the lay precepts were much less detailed than the directions for ordaining monks and nuns, probably because these were often an agreement
between a devotee and a teacher. This does not imply that no rules at all
applied; a monk was expected to have sufficient seniority (ten years) to
be able to train disciples and to report to the order that he had initiated a
novice. However, because the ceremony itself was loosely defined, these
ceremonies did vary and change over time.
In China, initiation ceremonies developed in new ways; confession services were often added to the ceremonies for novices and laymen.3 This is
particularly clear in the case of the conferral of the eight precepts on lay
believers for a single day and night. The basic structure of the ceremony
is found in the Dazhidulun, in a passage in which confession for physical,
verbal and mental wrongdoing follow the recitation of the three refuges;
the eight precepts are conferred and then a confession ceremony along the
lines of a fortnightly assembly is performed.4 In several Dunhuang manuscripts concerning the administration of the eight precepts, confession is
placed before the recitation of the three jewels. Confession thus comes to
purify the practitioner before he recites the three refuges, an action that is
frequently related to the receipt of the eight precepts that come from his
or her own mind. The contents of the confession preceding the conferral
of the eight precepts change during the Six Dynasties. In the beginning, a
recitation of violations of the ten good precepts, categorized into physical,
verbal and mental wrongdoing was used. With Emperor Wu of the Liang
Dynastys advocacy of the Nirva Stra, confession ceremonies associated with the eight precepts became more detailed and included such
items as eating meat, drinking alcohol, eating the five pungent vegetables,
and transgressions of filial piety.5
Such rituals reflected the popularity of confession ceremonies in Six
Dynasties China and were incorporated into many different ceremonies.
In contrast, the full ordination of a monk or nun was specified in detail in
3Tsuchihashi Shk, Jukai reigi no hensen, in Bukky kydan no kenky, ed.
Yoshimura Shuki (Kyoto, Hyakkaen, 1968), 27678; and Tsuchihashi Shk, Juhachisaikaigi no hensen, in Iwai Hakushi koki kinen; Tenseki ronsh (Shizuoka-ken, Hamamatsu-shi:
Kaimeid, 1963), 379400.
4T 25: 159b18c12.
5Sakamoto Dsh, Juhakkaigi ni okeru sangeh ni tsuite: Tonk shahon wo chshin
ni, Indo tetsugaku Bukkygaku 25 (2010): 114127.
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paul groner
the vinaya and required the agreement of the order. As a result, this highly
structured ceremony was not as subject to change.6 However, by the Tang
dynasty some strict monasteries were holding confession ceremonies
before the full ordination.7 During the twentieth-century in China, some
monasteries had ordinands perform a night of penance before initiation
as novice, full ordination, and receipt of the bodhisattva precepts. The
sense of purification was strengthened by following it with ritual bathing
and cleaning.8
Confession before images of the Buddha appeared early in Mahyna
texts with the object of removing bad karma.9 Moreover, confession was
a key part of certain types of ordinations, particularly self-ordinations
using the bodhisattva precepts. Around the time Buddhism was transmitted to China, confession of wrongdoing was becoming an integral part of
Chinese religious practice, and certainly played a key role in Daoist rites
of the Celestial Masters.10 In Buddhism, it was used to improve ones
karma with the hope that it would result in this-worldly benefits, such
as curing illnesses, or improving ones subsequent lives. In Zhiyis Tiantai
texts, practices such as the Lotus repentance are one of the central practices; in fact, the Lotus repentance is said to have been the occasion of
Zhiyis enlightenment. Repentance thus became a key part of the path to
Buddhahood.
In this paper, I focus on one type of confession: its use in bodhisattva
ordinations in the Tiantai tradition in China and the Tendai tradition in
Japan. Several issues are considered. First, confession was not a traditional
part of ordinations. After all, if one had not yet received precepts, one did
not need to repent violations of the precepts. Yet, it became an integral
part of many bodhisattva ordinations, sometimes occupying a larger part
of ordination manuals than any other section. How did this come about?
6For a brief survey of the development of full ordinations, see Wijayaratna, Buddhist
Monastic Life, 118122.
7A Confession Hall was built at the Huichangsi monastery for this purpose
(Yoshikawa Tadao, Chgokujin no shky ishiki [Tokyo: Sbunsha, 1998], 1089).
8Holmes Welch, The Practice of Chinese Buddhism 19001950 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967), 291. J. Prip-Mller, (Chinese Buddhist Monasteries [Hong Kong: Hong
Kong University Press, 1967], 309310, 313, 316, 370) includes a description of the confession
ceremony, which lasts about two hours. It is said to have been based on the Daily Liturgy
of the Meditation School .
9Hirakawa Akira, Shoki daij Bukky no kenky (Tokyo: Shunjsha, 1968), 515520.
10Yoshikawa Tadao has devoted much of his book, Chgokujin no shky ishiki, to this
theme.
219
Second, what was the content of confession in these ceremonies? Was

it the recitation of a set liturgy? Or was it more individualistic? Did meditation play a role? Did it end with a meditation on emptiness, similar to
the formulae found in Zhiyis confession rituals? How was it associated
with the receipt of a sign from the buddhas indicating that they had recognized the practitioners efforts?
Third, bodhisattva ordinations sometimes played different roles in
China and Japan. In China, they were used to top off the full ordinations
of monks and nuns, giving the ordination a Mahyna feeling. For lay
believers, they might indicate initiation into a religious group, perhaps
one following Pure Land practices. In Japan, because the Tendai School
replaced the vinaya with the bodhisattva precepts of the Fanwang jing
, bodhisattva ordinations frequently serve as a ritual inducting one
into a monastic order. Or they might serve as a merit-making device for
lay believers seeking a cure for illness. Did these different functions lead to
different interpretations of confession in the bodhisattva ordination? Did
differing practices or doctrinal stances result in different roles or emphases for the confessions in bodhisattva ordinations? Did shifts in doctrinal
stances or the social statuses of the recipients affect the inclusion or the
format of the confessions? Because the numbers of documents that would
have to be surveyed in a full discussion of these issues would require too
much space, I focus only on some of the most important sources.
Confessions as Part of Bodhisattva Precept Ordinations
Confessions were not always part of bodhisattva ordinations, particularly
those that were granted by a qualified teacher (congta shoujie ).
For example, one of the earliest descriptions, included in the Pusa dichi
jing (T 1582, Bodhisattvabhmi), which eventually provided
the pattern for most of the ordinations from a qualified teacher performed
in China, did not include confession. It consisted of the following steps:
1. The candidate must develop the aspiration to realize enlightenment
2. The candidate asks an able and qualified teacher to confer the precepts
upon him.
3.The candidate pays homage to the buddhas and tenth-land bodhisattvas
in the three time periods and ten directions. He then kneels in front
of his teacher and in front of an image of the Buddha and requests the
precepts. His mind is purified by these actions.
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4. The teacher asks the candidate whether he is a bodhisattva and

whether he desires to realize enlightenment. The candidate replies
affirmatively.
5. The teacher asks the candidate three times if he will adhere to the three
collections of pure precepts and to the rules adhered to by bodhisattvas
of the three time periods.11 The candidate replies affirmatively each
time.
6. The teacher states that the precepts have been conferred and promises
that he will serve as witness. He repeats this three times. In addition,
the buddhas and bodhisattvas are asked to serve as witnesses.
7. A sign of approval from the buddhas and bodhisattvas is perceived.12
8. The buddhas and bodhisattvas encourage the newly-ordained bodhi
sattva.
9. The newly-ordained bodhisattva and his teacher bow to the buddhas
and bodhisattvas and depart.13
Note that the candidate for ordination is purified by kneeling in front of
his teacher and an image of the Buddha and requesting the precepts, but
this does not require confession.
Self ordinations (zishi shoujie ), however, were a different
matter. When a qualified teacher could not be found, then one might
appeal to the Buddha and take the precepts for himself. Brief descriptions of a self-ordination are found in several Yogcra texts. For example,
according to the Pusa dichi jing, one should simply go before an image
of the Buddha and ask for the bodhisattva precepts three times; the
rest of the ritual is the same as the ordination from a qualified teacher.14
The ceremony is essentially designed to admit a person into the order
of bodhisattvas. One of the fuller descriptions is found in the Shanjiejing
; it is outlined below.
1. In a quiet place, the candidate pays obeisance to the buddhas of the
ten directions, faces east towards a buddha image and folds his hands
in homage.
11The three collections of pure precepts are those which prevent evil, promote good,
and benefit sentient beings. The three time periods are past, present, and future.
12The reference to a sign in the Pusa dichi jing (T 30: 912c18) is vague; in the Shanjiejing
it is said to be a cool wind that blows everywhere (T 30: 1014b25).
13Based the Pusa dichi jing, T 30:912b1813a. Also see Shanjiejing, T 30: 1014ac; Yuqielun, T 30:514b515a.
14T 30:917a2027.
221
2. The candidate states that he or she has already received the precepts
for a lay devotee, novice, and a monk (or nun).
3. The recipient meditates on the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten
directions, visualizing (guan ) them in his own mind, and perceiving
them conferring the precepts.
4. The candidate announces that the precepts have been conferred.
5. The candidate receives a sign from the buddhas and bodhisattvas of
the ten directions.
6. The candidate announces to the assembly that the precepts have been
received and that he or she is a follower of the Dharma (fadi ).
7. He again pays obeisance to the buddhas and bodhisattvas.15
The text differs from those found in such sources as the Pusa dichi jing and
Yuqie lun in several significant ways. It specifically requires that
the recipients already have received the full precepts for a monk or nun
before a self-ordination is performed; the other sources mention precepts
for both lay and monastic practitioners. The Shanjie jing asks for a meditation on the buddhas and bodhisattvas; but the details of this practice are
not specified. None of the texts associated with the Yogcra tradition
require a confession for the self-ordination. According to the Yuqie lun,
self-ordinations could not be employed to confer full monastic ordinations because they would not involve the external institutional strictures
on monastic conduct, leading to various abuses.16 However, as shall be
discussed below, early Japanese monks were able to find a rationale in
Yogcra texts for using bodhisattva ordinations conferred by qualified
teachers as full ordinations.
Confession comes to play an important role in self-ordinations
described in apocryphal texts on the bodhisattva precepts. The possibility
of using self-ordinations to ordain monks is found in the Chanzha shane
yebao jing (T no. 839, Divination of the recompense
and rewards of good and evil stra), an apocryphal text. Although the
extent of its use in Nara period Japan is not clearly known, it is worth
citing because it clearly stated that it could be used to ordain monks
and nuns. Moreover, it is explicitly mentioned along with the Yuqie lun
15Shanjiejing (one-fascicle version) T 30: 1014a521. Also see Yuqielun, T 40: 521 b. I have
benefitted from the summary of the steps of the ordination found in Tsuchihashi, Jukai
girei no hensen, 241.
16Yuqie lun, T 30: 589c2228; Sat Tatsugen, Chgoku Bukky ni okeru kairitsu no kenky,
34849.
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.17 Although the use of self-ordination in initiating monks and

nuns was not permitted in the Yuqie lun, the text stated that the three
collections of pure precepts were conferred when a qualified teacher conducted bodhisattva ordinations. The precepts that prevented evil were
said to include all of the various precepts in the vinaya. After Jianzhen
(Jp. Ganjin) (688763) arrival in Japan in 753 with enough monks
to conduct orthodox full ordinations, this type of ordination declined, but
Japan would still have a variety of Buddhist practitioners with ordinations
that did not fit the strict vinaya requirements. Before Jianzhen, Japanese
monks might well have used the Chanzha jing, the Yuqielun for full ordinations, or both ignoring the restrictions on such practices according to
Yogcra texts.18 In addition, we have no way of knowing what precepts
were conferred in these early ordinations. For the purposes of this paper,
the key issue is that bodhisattva ordinations were used to initiate monks
early in Japanese history. When Saich (767822), the founder of the
Japanese Tendai School, rejected the vinaya as a Hnayna text in favor
of the Mahyna Fanwangjing, he noted that Gyki (668749) was
an example of a monk who had established the purely Mahyna temples
that Saich advocated.
According to the Chanzha jing:
If a one wishes to practice Mahyna, then one should receive the basic
major precepts of the bodhisattva , as well as all the precepts
for both householders and monastics. That person should comprehensively
receive (sju ) the precepts that prevent evil, the precepts that promote
good, and the precepts that benefit others. If one cannot find a good teacher
of the precepts who has exhaustively studied the bodhisattva teachings, then
one should make offerings in the temple with utmost seriousness and ask
the various buddhas and bodhisattvas to serve as teachers and witnesses.
One should fervently make vows and ask for a sign (from the buddhas that
his practices are acceptable). First, the ten major basic precepts should be
recited and then the three collections of precepts.
In the future, both those who wish to become monastics and those who
are already monastics, if they cannot find a good teacher and a pure order
of monastics..., they should study how to develop the highest aspiration to
enlightenment and make sure their body, mouth and mind are pure. Those
17The passage concerning this was found in Jianzhens disciple Situo collection
of biographies, the Enryaku sroku . Although it is not extant, it is extensively
quoted in the Nihon ksden ybunsh (Suzuki Research Foundation
[ed.], Dainihon Bukky zensho [Tokyo: Kdansha, 1982]) 62: 52.
18Ishida Mizumaro, Nihon Bukky shis kenky: Kairitsu no kenky (Kyoto: Hzkan,
1986) 1: 3240.
223
who are not yet monastics should shave their heads and put on robes and
vow to receive the three collections of pure precepts as above. This is said
to be the receipt of the prtimoka of the fully ordained. A person who has
received it is called a biku or bikuni.... A person who becomes a monastic but is not yet a full twenty years should take vows to follow the basic
ten precepts and the separate precepts for a male or female novice.... If a
female novice has turned eighteen years of age, then she can take vows by
herself to receive the six rules of the vinaya. She should study the rules for
nuns and when she turns twenty years old, vow to comprehensively accept
the three collections of pure precepts of the bodhisattva.... If these
people confess, but do not do so with utmost seriousness and do not receive
a sign from the buddha, then even though they have outwardly received the
precepts, they cannot be said to have actually acquired them....19
This passage is particularly significant because it specifically states that

a self-ordination could be used to fully ordain a person as a monk or
nun if the required practitioners were unavailable. Other sources for selfordinations do not clearly state that self-ordinations could be used for full
ordinations. A confession ritual is described in the text that could take
between a day and one-thousand days until the practitioner obtained a
sign from the Buddha that his efforts were accepted.20 Thus, Saichs follower Ennin (794864) would cite the Chanzha jing passage in his
Keny daikairon .21 Enchin (814889) cited this passage
in his note on the Tendai ordination to provide scriptural support for the
Tendai full ordination.22 At the same time, the term comprehensive ordination is a synonym with the term universal ordination (tsju )
and indicates that a single ordination procedure included all three of the
sets of pure precepts and could be used for both monastic and lay participants.23 The resultant use of this ritual probably contributed to the
presence of privately ordained monks (shidos ) in Japan. As a
number of setsuwa tales in Japanese literature demonstrate, it enabled
Japanese practitioners considerable latitude in their practice. These apocryphal texts were composed around the same time that confession rituals
19T 17: 904c5a3.

20T 904a1328.
21T 74: 681b582a1.
22Hieizan senshuin fuzoku Eizan gakuin , (ed.), Dengy
Daishi zensh (hereafter cited as DZ) (Tokyo, Sekai seiten kank kykai,
1975) DZ 1: 319.
23Tokuda Myhon, Rissh gairon (Kyoto: Hyakkaen, 1969), 5254, 7475.
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were becoming popular in China.24 During the same period, four vinayas
were translated into Chinese as well as several texts on bodhisattva precepts. The result was considerable concern about how Buddhists should
be ordained and practice, issues that must have contributed to the rising
interest in similar problems during the Nara period. The inclusion of confession that purified one and the requirement of experiencing a sign from
the Buddha indicating that the Buddha had granted the precepts must
have contributed to the allure of the self-ordination.
The text that would come to play a crucial role in Tendai was the Fanwang jing, an apocryphal work composed sometime in the fifth century.
An ordination from qualified teachers is mentioned in the forty-first minor
precept of the Fanwang jing:
When one teaches and converts a person, causing a mind of faith to arise in
that person, then the bodhisattva should teach and admonish people, acting as a dharma-master. When he sees someone who wishes to receive the
precepts, he should instruct that person to invite two teachers: a preceptor
and a teacher. The two should ask, Have you committed any of the seven
heinous sins during your current lifetime? If the [candidate for ordination]
has done so, the teacher may not confer the precepts. If the candidate has
not committed any of the seven heinous sins, then he or she may receive
the precepts. If the candidate has violated any of the ten [major] precepts,
then the teacher should instruct the candidate about how to confess. The
candidate should go before an image of a buddha or bodhisattva and chant
the ten major and forty-eight minor precepts for the six periods of day and
night. When the candidate pays obeisance to the three-thousand buddhas of
the past, present and future, he or she will perceive a sign. Whether it takes
one, two or three weeks, or even a year, the candidate must receive a sign.
Among the signs are buddhas coming and touching them on the head, seeing lights or seeing flowers. [When the candidate experiences such a sign,]
his or her sins have been eliminated.
If there is no sign, then even though confession has been performed, it
has been ineffective. The candidate may receive the precepts anew. In this
case, if he or she has violated any of the ten major or forty-eight minor precepts, then the transgressions may be eliminated by confessing in front of
another practitioner. This is not the case with the seven heinous sins. The
teacher who instructs and admonishes should explain each of these.25
24For a thorough discussion of this topic, see Williams, Mea maxima vikalpa. Also
note the role of confession in the discussion of Six Dynasties ritual in Daniel Stevenson,
The Tien-tai Four Forms of Samdhi and Late North-South Dynasties, Sui, Tang Devotional Buddhist Devotionalism (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1987), 328344.
25T 24: l008c921.
225
Two uses of confession in the context of ordinations are described in this

passage. If a person is undergoing a self-ordination, then intense confession followed by a sign indicating the Buddhas approval is required if the
candidate has violated any of the ten major precepts. This type of confession differs from that of a person who had violated the precepts after
ordination. The object is not so much to purify a member of an order,
but rather to purify the practitioner by vanquishing the karmic effects of
wrongdoing so that he or she can receive the precepts from the Buddha.
The practitioner is required to persevere until a sign from the Buddha has
been perceived, perhaps a vision of the Buddha himself. Instead of using
the ordination as a ceremony marking entry into the religious life, the
requirement of a sign marks an advanced accomplishment. However, for
those unable to receive a sign, re-ordination preceded by a simple confession is possible. In such a case, practice does not mark an advanced stage
of practice. The passage from the Fanwang jing reveals two very different
aspects of bodhisattva precepts ordinations: admission to an order and
the attainment of an advanced stage of practice.
Both self-ordinations and ordinations by a qualified teacher are
described in the twenty-third minor precept of the Fanwang jing:
O sons of the Buddha. If after the Buddhas death, you have a mind to do
good and desire to take the bodhisattva precepts, you may confer the precepts upon yourself by taking vows (zishi shoujie ) in front of an
image of a buddha or bodhisattva. For seven days, you should confess in
front of the Buddha (image); if you see a sign (haoxiang ), then you
have acquired the precepts (dejie ). If you do not see a sign, you should
(practice) for two weeks, three weeks, or even a year; by that time should
surely receive a sign. After receiving a sign, you acquire the precepts in front
of an image of a buddha or bodhisattva. If you have not received a sign, then
even if you take the precepts, you have not actually acquired them.
If you acquire the precepts directly from a teacher who has, in turn,
[properly] acquired the precepts, then it is not necessary to receive a sign.
Why? Because the precepts have already been transmitted through a succession of teachers, a sign is not necessary. You should be solemn and obtain
the precepts.
If no teacher capable of granting the precepts can be found within onethousand Ii, you should go before an image of the Buddha or bodhisattva
to acquire the precepts. You must receive a sign [from the Buddha in this
case].26
26T 24: l006c.
226
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In this ritual, confession is not necessarily used to remedy violations of

the precepts; one has not yet received precepts that might be violated.
Instead, confession purifies the recipient so that he or she can receive the
precepts directly from the Buddha. The length of the ritual varies; one is
expected to perform confession until he or she receives a sign from the
Buddha, even if this takes a year. However, when the precepts are conferred by a qualified teacher, then confession and the receipt of a sign
from the Buddha are not required. In such cases, confession need not be
so strenuous. Once again, two models of ordination seem to be present:
one marking an advanced state of practice and one marking the entry into
a religious group.
The Yingluo jing is an apocryphal text closely associated with
the Fanwang jing. It listed three types of ordinations in a ranked order
from the highest to the lowest: 1) receiving the precepts from the Buddha;
2) receiving the precepts from a qualified teacher, and 3) receiving precepts through a self-ordination by going before an image of Buddha.27 The
self-ordination was ranked as the lowest of the three, perhaps because it
opened the door to new interpretations of the precepts and the possibility
of undermining established institutions. The ranking reveals a basic tension in how a bodhisattva ordination might be viewed. Directly receiving
the precepts and a sign from the Buddha would seem like the best type
of outcome, but it undermines the role of an ordination as admitting one
into a group. The self-ordination is described in the Yingluo jing as follows:
1. The candidate pays homage to the buddhas of the past, present, and
future. The formula is repeated three times and then applied to the
Dharma and the order.
2. The candidate affirms his belief in the four indestructible objects of
faith [the three refuges and the precepts] and declares that he will rely
on the four supports. (Recited three times.)
3. He confesses any physical, verbal or mental violations of the ten wrongdoings committed in the past, present or future. When the confession
is completed, the three actions [physical, verbal, and mental] are pure,
like lapis lazuli, shining both within and without.
4. The ten inexhaustible precepts () are conferred.
5. He pledges to observe the ten major precepts [of the Fanwang jing].28
27T 24: 1020c412.
28Yingluo jing, T 24: 1020c101021b1. The term ten inexhaustible precepts is also found
in the Fanwang jing (T 24: 1009c10); hence most commentators identify them with the ten
major precepts of the Fanwang jing.
227
How long did confession take? To some extent, this would depend on the
religious faculties of a person undergoing self-ordination by him or herself. However, if a person were undergoing ordination with a group, then
the group would go through it at a set rate. A classic story of undergoing a
self-ordination with utmost seriousness is found in Dharmakemas biography in the Gaosengzhuan:
When Dharmakema (Tanwuchen , 385433) was in Guzang ,
Daojin29 (d. 444), a monk from Zhangya [in Gansu], wished to
receive the bodhisattva precepts from him. Dharmakema told him to practice confession for seven days and nights in complete sincerity. On the eighth
day, Daojin went to Dharmakema to receive the precepts, Dharmakema
suddenly became very angry. Daojin thought to himself, I must still have
karmic obstacles. He gathered his strength and practiced meditation and
confession for three years until he saw kyamuni and bodhisattvas gather
to confer the precepts on him. That night, more than ten monks staying
at the same place as Daojin all dreamt that they saw [Daojin receiving the
precepts]. When Daojin went to tell Dharmakema about it, Dharmakema
suddenly arose from his seat before Daojin had reached him and exclaimed,
Wonderful! Wonderful! You have already received the precepts. I will be a
witness to this. Let us go before an image of the Buddha so that I can explain
the precepts to you.30
Dharmakema was the translator of the Pusa dichi jing

(T 1581, Bodhisattvabhmi), a text closely associated with the bodhisattva precepts; however, the self-ordination described in that text did not
specify the necessity of a confession; the emphasis is on the ceremony as
admitting one to an order of those who hold the bodhisattva precepts.
Daojins self-ordination with its stress on his strenuous practice turns the
ordination into recognition of his spiritual achievement. Any sense of
entry into a religious order would seem to be limited to a group of very
advanced bodhisattvas.
The story of Daojin demonstrates the central role that confession could
play in the ritual. All other parts of the ceremony were conducted by
reading a script. At times confessions are performed in the same fashion, but they may also be performed in ways that potentially demand an
29Daojin is also known for offering his own flesh to starving people (James Benn,
Burning for the Buddha: Self-immolation in Chinese Buddhism (Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 2007), 2830.
30Gaoseng zhuan, T 50: 0336c1927. The story is cited in numerous other sources as
a classic tale of the connections between confession and ordination, such as Zhiyi, Pusajie yishu, T 40: 568c0713; Saich, Ju bosatsukai gi, DZ 1:309; Annen, Futsju bosatsukai
kshaku, T 74: 757c1118.
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paul groner
ever-increasing expenditure of time and seriousness of purpose. When the

necessity of experiencing a supernatural sign from the Buddha is specified, then the confession ceremony is given a specific goal. In Daojins
case, this required three years, but it could have been shorter or longer.
The Tiantai patriarch Zhanran (711782) combined the two types
of bodhisattva ordinations in his influential manual, the Shou pusajie
yi (X no. 1086), which consisted of the following twelve
divisions:31
1. Preparation
2. Three Refuges
3. Invitation to teachers
4. Confession
5. Aspiration to enlightenment
6. Questions about obstacles to ordination
7. Conferral of precepts
8. Witnessing by buddhas
9. Manifestation of a sign
10. Explanation of ten major precepts
11. Dedication of merits
12.Exhortation
Certain sections of the ceremony reflect aspects more commonly, but not
exclusively, found in self-ordination ceremonies, particularly the invitation to unseen teachers (buddhas and bodhisattvas), confession, and the
manifestation of the sign. Others more commonly suggest an ordination
performed by a qualified teacher, particularly the explanation of the precepts and the exhortation. The manifestation of a sign is not nearly as
dramatic as in Daojins biography and would seem to be optional. By combining the two types of ordinations, Zhanran compiled a manual that was
performed by a qualified teacher while it contained the most impressive
aspects of a self-ordination and admitted one to an order of buddhas and
bodhisattvas as well as an order of ordinary practitioners.
In some bodhisattva ordination manuals, confession occurred earlier in
the ceremony. For example, in the Dunhuang document Chujiaren shou
pusajie fa , confession is part of the second section of
a nine (or ten) part manual, and is combined with preparing a platform.
31X no. 1086.
229
The candidate spends from one to seven days evaluating whether he or

she is ready to receive the precepts, confessing any wrongdoings from the
past, and cultivating the aspiration to enlightenment. In other manuals,
these might occupy two sections of the ceremony.32
The Contents of Confessions
What sort of formulae might be recited in confessions? A short recitation might simply enumerate violations of the ten good precepts. Such
a formula is found in the ordination manual attributed to Huisi
(515577). Even though the ordination manual is for conferring the Fanwang precepts, the ten good precepts may have been listed because they
were so thoroughly identified with good and bad karma.
If wrongdoing is not extinguished, the precepts will not emerge; if the precepts do not emerge, salvation cannot be expected.... I, from the beginningless past to the present, have physical actions that are not good, including
killing, stealing and illicit sexual activity. My verbal actions have not been
good and include lying, flattery, duplicitous speech, and slander. My mental
actions have not been good and include lust, anger and wrong views. In this
way, I have committed many wrongdoings, either performing them myself
or teaching others; they are innumerable. Today, I am ashamed and embarrassed, and so reveal them and confess. I vow to destroy my wrongdoings
and create good fortune, to see the Buddha and hear the Dharma, and to
develop the aspiration to enlightenment. (To be repeated three times.)33
The list of violations of the ten good precepts is typical of these formulae. The language is usually vague and does not require the practitioner
to confess specific offenses unique to him or her. In some other texts,
they might list the most serious offenses: the four prjikas or the five
(or seven) heinous sins. Another approach that is often found lists wrongdoings classified according to the six senses; this was found in some Tiantai sources. Confession was then viewed as a ritual that would purify the
six senses.34 Bruce Williams noted that such confessions differed from
those found in the vinaya. A violation of a precept would be confessed to
other monks because the violation had affected the purity of the order.
But in bodhisattva ordinations, the confession was directed towards the
32Tsuchihashi Shk, Perio-hon Shukkejin ju bosatsukai h ni tsuite, in Kairitsu no
kenky, ed. Tsuchihashi Shk (Kyoto: Nagata bunshd, 1980), 83435.
33X 59: 351c21352a5.
34Williams, Mea maxima vikalpa, 37.
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Buddha, who would then signify his acceptance by giving the practitioner
a sign.
What was the role of the Buddha in such confessions? He is clearly asked
to function as both a preceptor and a witness in the ordination. Issuing
a sign indicates that he is also a guarantor of the efficacy of the confession. The most problematic aspect of the Buddhas role is, to use Bruce
Williams term, as an expediter. In other words, he seems to remove the
karmic effects of wrongdoing. However, virtually no speculation as how
he might do this is found in early Chinese repentance texts.35
The pattern for both bodhisattva precept ordinations in China during the mid-Tang and in Japan during the early Heian was based on the
manual by Zhanran; in Japan it was slightly revised by Saich. In Saichs
revision (sometimes called the Wakokubon ), the discussion on
confession occupied one third of the manual and was by far the most
detailed section.36 The bulk of it consisted of two sets of ten steps: one
showed how the practitioner progressed towards greater ignorance and
wrongdoing; the other showed how he or she progressed towards salvation. The key stages in the passage concerning ones descent into evildoing follows:
1. Because of mans basic ignorance, he mistakenly believes he has a
soul...Because he wrongly discriminates, desire, anger, and ignorance
arise. Because of ignorance, he [constantly] creates karma. Because of
karma, he is caught in the cycles of birth and death.
2. [At this stage] a person is already imbued with defilements. Now
he meets malicious friends who incite him to perform evil acts and
encourage him to become increasingly self-centered.
3. [In this stage] a person already has evil [inclinations and friends]. Now
good thoughts and good actions are extinguished. Moreover, he does
not even appreciate the good deeds performed by other people.
4. His physical, verbal, and mental actions are motivated by selfishness.
There is no evil that he will not do.
5. Although his [evil] actions are not yet pervasive, his bad thoughts
extend everywhere.
6. His evil thoughts continue day and night without cease.
7. He conceals his evil deeds so that others will not know of them.
35Williams, Mea maxima vikalpa, 27.

36DZ 1: 307319.
231
8. Out of ignorance and stupidity, he no longer fears [the consequences

of his deeds].
9. He no longer has a conscience or is ashamed of his actions before others.
10. He is oblivious to any thought of cause and effect and has become an
icchantika.37
The path to salvation reverses this process and is described in more
detail.
1. The practitioner must firmly believe in the inevitability of cause and
effect, but ones determination is weak. Karmic seeds are long-lasting
and are not readily destroyed. The karmic consequences of a persons
actions are not received by another. Thus one should know what is
good and what is evil. One must not have doubts about this. Through
deep faith (in cause and effect) he can rid himself of the state of mind
of an icchantika.
2. One should feel ashamed before others and firmly criticize himself.
[Only] the most depraved criminal knows no shame and behaves
like an animal. [Only such a person] discards the purest feeling of
shame...Heaven sees the wrongs a person tries to conceal; thus one
should be ashamed before Heaven. A persons wrongs may be revealed
so that others will become aware of them; thus he should be ashamed
in front of others. This attitude will vanquish the lack of a conscience
and shamelessness.
3. A person should fear the consequences of his misdeeds. Peoples
lifespans are short and uncertain. If one fails to draw a breath, ones life
ends. The way to hell is long and there are no provisions for the journey. The sea of suffering is deep, but a serious practitioner can easily
cross it with a boat or raft. The worthies and sages warn us that there
is nothing upon which we can depend. Time passes and the knifelike
wind does not dull. How can a person calmly sit and wait for its searing pain? One should be like the jackal that lost its ears, tail, and teeth.
This jackal pretended to be dead hoping to escape, but upon hearing
that someone was about to cut off its head, it became very frightened.38
37DZ 1: 311.
38A jackal entered a village in search of food, but fell asleep. He was discovered by villagers the next day, but pretended to be dead, hoping to find a way to escape. People came
to cut off his ears and tail and to pull his teeth, but he endured the pain without giving
any indication that he was alive. Finally, when someone was about to cut off his head, he
was terrified and jumped up and escaped. Humans are similar insofar as they endure birth,
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Even if birth, old age and sickness do not seem to be urgent matters,
death certainly is. How can one not be frightened of it? When a man
fears death, he acts as if he had just stepped in boiling water or a fire.
He has no time for the five sense objects or the six desires. He should
be like King Aokas [younger brother] who heard the cala ring the
bell and announce, One day has passed; in six more days you shall
die.39 Even though he could have enjoyed the pleasures of the five
senses, he did not desire them for even a single moment. Thus a Buddhist practitioner should be fearful and perform his confessions with
utmost seriousness. He should not be sparing of his body or life. Thus
he should be like the jackal when his head was about to be cut off.
He should be free of [extraneous] thoughts like King Aokas frightened [brother]. Thus he will come to fear the consequences of his evil
deeds.
4. A person should reveal his wrongdoings and not hide his flaws.
Bandits poisons and weeds must be quickly removed. If the roots are
exposed, the branches with wither. If the source dries up, the flow will
also dry up. If a man hides his errors, he is not a good person. Thus
Mahkyapa made [nanda] reveal his errors in front of the order.40
According to Mahyna teachings, transgressors usually face another
person to confess. But for lesser wrongdoings, a transgressor should
reflect on his misdeeds while facing an image of the Buddha and try to
rectify them. In a similar way, if a person covered a carbuncle and did
not treat it, he might die. This attitude will enable a person to cease
hiding his wrongdoings.
5. People should overcome habitual wrongdoing. If a person has great
resolve, he can put an end to deep-rooted bad habits and not develop
new ones. This can be done though confession. When a person sins
after confession, it is as if he had broken a secular law and been
sickness and old age without turning to Buddhist practices. Only when they are faced with
death, do they become frightened enough to practice (Dazhidulun, T 25: 162c163a).
39King Aokas younger brother Tissa did not understand how Buddhist monks could
refrain from indulging in worldly pleasure when they were supplied with monasteries and
food. In order to teach him a lesson, Aoka told Tissa that he could rule in Aokas place
for seven days, but must die at the end of his rule. When the seven days has passed, Aoka
asked Tissa whether he had enjoyed the opportunity to rule and have access to all the
worldly pleasures given the king. Tissa replied that he had not enjoyed them at all because
he had been obsessed with his impending death. Aoka then told Tissa that in the same
manner monks did not enjoy their monasteries (Dazhidulun, T 25: 211a1521).
40Dazhidulun, T 25: 68ab.
233
pardoned, but nevertheless had broken the law again. The second
offense would be very serious. When one first enters the hall [to confess], one can easily put an end to wrongdoings. But if the offense is
repeated, then it becomes increasingly difficult to correct. How can
one eat [food] that one has already vomited? [Through serious confession] a person can overcome the habit of constantly thinking of evil.
6. People should develop the aspiration to realize enlightenment. If a
person had previously threatened everyone for his own selfish ends
and caused those around him to suffer, he should now try to save
everyone and benefit others all over the world. Using this technique,
one can overcome the state of mind in which bad intentions surface
everywhere.
7. People should perform meritorious deeds and rectify their wrongdoings. If ones previous actions, words, and thoughts have led to incalculable wrongdoings, one should now strive tirelessly to correct bad
actions, words and thoughts...Thus one can rectify the self-centered
state of mind that motivated his actions, words, and thoughts.
8. People should uphold true teachings. If one previously had extinguished ones [good] inclinations, as well as those of others, and took
no pleasure in the good deeds of oneself or others, that person should
now foster all types of the good and use expedient teachings to increase
good and insure that it does not vanish. The Shengman jing
states that Upholding the true teaching and transmitting it is the
most [excellent act in the world].41 A person can thus vanquish the
state of mind in which he did not appreciate the good deeds of other.
9. People should contemplate the buddhas of the ten directions. If a person had previously associated with people who had bad intentions
and believed their words, he should now contemplate the buddhas of
the ten directions. One should reflect on their unobstructed compassion and make them ones uninvited friends, recalling their unhindered knowledge and considering them to be teachers. Thus the state
of mind that led to the enjoyment of wrongdoers will be vanquished.
10. One should contemplate the nonsubstantiality of wrongdoing. One
should thoroughly understand that the mind of desire, anger and
ignorance is quiescent. How is this so? When desire or anger arise, on
what are they based? One knows that desire and anger are based on
deluded thought...The view that one has a soul has no basis. Even
41Paraphrase of the texts discussion of the three great vows, T 12: 218a.
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if one thoroughly searches in the ten directions, one will not find a
soul. The mind is nonsubstantial; there is no [real] self that undergoes
punishments and receives rewards. When a person has thoroughly
penetrated the nature of reward and punishment, he understands
everything in the ten directions...Thus he can vanquish ignorance
and confusion.42
The descriptions of the path downward and upward suggest the seriousness with which both Zhanran and Saich approached confession, but
they seem verbose when the ordinations of groups are considered. An
individual who was sequestered until a sign from the Buddha was received
might embark on such prolonged reflection.43 To explain this issue, three
types of confession are described.
There are three types of confession. In superior confessions, ones whole
body is thrown on the ground, like a great mountain crumbling, and blood
flows from the hair follicles. Middling confessions are the revealing of ones
transgressions with wailing and tears. The lowest level confessions are the
recitations following ones teachers instructions concerning transgressions
committed previously. Although we perform the lowest level, we invite the
buddhas and bodhisattvas to be our witnesses.44
A short passage that describes the variety of wrongdoings, many of them

grave, that sentient beings have committed follows the descriptions of the
ten stages of practice in the manuals by Zhanran, Mingguang, and Saich.
This was probably recited while the long section on the ten types of mind
was for contemplation. The confession section of these manuals seems to
have a dual purpose. On the one hand they describe a ritual that could
be used for a group of practitioners; while Chinese Tiantai might use the
ritual to confer the bodhisattva precepts on lay believers and monastics,
they never used it when a person moved from lay believer to monastic. In contrast, Japanese Tendai did use it that way. In both China and
Japan, the awkwardness of having too much included in the confession
ceremony would be alleviated by revising or eliminating confessions in
ordinations.
42DZ 1: 312315.
43Zhanran (X 59: 355a8) and Saich (DZ 1: 309) both mention Dharmakemas confession practice as taking three years. This is undoubtedly a reference to the story of Daojins
practice, which appears in Dharmakemas biography (cited above).
44DZ 1: 310; virtually the same passage is found in Zhanrans Shou pusajie yi, (X 59:
355a19) and in Zhanrans student Mingguangs Tiantai pusajie shu (T 40: 582b25c1).
235
Annens (b. 841) Futsju bosatsukai kshaku

(Detailed explanation of the universal bodhisattva ordination) is one of
the most influential texts for Tendai views of the precepts. It follows the
twelve-part organization found in the manuals by Zhanran and Saich,
but the contents differ in a variety of ways. For example, it emphasizes the
efficacy of the ordination as equivalent to realization of Buddhahood with
this very body (sokushin jbutsu ), as is apparent when the role
of confession is examined. The section on confession consists primarily
of quotations from the two texts: the Contemplation on the mind-ground
stra (Xindi guan jing ) and the Contemplation on Samantabhadra stra (Guan Puxian jing ). The Contemplation on the
mind-ground stra is a late Mahyna text displaying a variety of influences from earlier texts, including the Lotus Stra and Yogcra works.
The lengthy citation from the Mind-ground stra explains the value of
confession, classifies confession into two categoriesdetailing the actual
wrongdoings that have been done in various lifetimes (ji or phenomenon) and confession in principle (ri ), namely looking at wrongdoing
as being inherently non-substantial. Confession based on wrongdoings is
then divided into three levels. To give a sense of the text, I cite just a small
portion of the stra found in Annens manual:
If one confesses in accord with the Dharma, then he should rely on two
forms of contemplation. The first is contemplating the actual wrongdoings; the second is contemplating principle to eliminate the [wrongdoing]. Three types of contemplation of the actual wrongdoing exist:
superior, middling, and inferior. If one has superior religious faculties
and seeks the pure precepts, then with great effort he will not backslide.
He cries tears of blood, and blood emerges from every pore of his body45
(T 74: 770b58; T 3: 303c1014).
The identification of two types of confession, one based on actual wrongdoing and the other on discerning the emptiness of wrongdoing, merit,
and karma are hallmarks of Zhiyis use of these practices in the four
types of samdhi.46 The noteworthy part of incorporating this type of
45T 74: 770b58; T 3: 303c1014. The quoted passage from the stra has been rearranged
at a few points, but generally follows the text from the Taish.
46A number of studies of confession in Tiantai exist; among the best are Shioiri Ryd,
Chgoku Bukky no senb no seiritsu (Tokyo: Taish daigaku Tendaigaku kenkyshitsu,
2007), 516582; and the discussions found in the context of meditations in Neil Donner and
Daniel Stevenson, The Great Calming and Contemplation: A Study and Annotated Translation of the First Chapter of Chih-Is Mo-Ho Chih-Kuan (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
1993).
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confession in principle in an ordination ritual is mixing a ritual that

requires considerable focus and an advanced level of practice with an initiation ceremony for new practitioners, both lay and monastic.
The Contemplation on Samantabhadra stra is the capping stra for the
Lotus Stra and played an important role in the ordination manuals of
Zhanran and Saich by being the basis of a section in which kyamuni
is invited to serve as preceptor, Majur as the instructor who reads the
liturgy, Maitreya as the instructor for the bodhisattva precepts, the various buddhas as witnesses, and the bodhisattvas as fellow practitioners.47
In Annens work, it is identified with confession based on the principle of
nonsubstantiality. Thus all karmic obstacles can be swept away. After the
quotation, Annen comments:
Through this confession, each is able to realize Buddhahood. After the Buddha has entered nirva, if his disciples wish to speedily realize supreme
enlightenment, they should think of the ultimate meaning of nonsubstantiality. In the time it takes to snap ones fingers, the wrongdoings of myriads of eons of sasra are vanquished. One is called a holder of the full
bodhisattva precepts. Even if one does not perform the ritual, one naturally
attains this.48
Annens interpretation could lead to at least two developments that led

to the lax interpretation of the precepts that typified much, but not all
of later Tendai. First, the emphasis on the realization of a contemplative
principle as vanquishing eons of bad karma is repeated in many hongaku
texts; observance of the precepts is not particularly important. Second,
equating the receipt of the precepts or the performance of confession
with the realization of Buddhahood collapsed traditional path structure.
The ordination was sometimes interpreted as realization of Buddhahood.
Thus, the earlier tension over whether confession in ordinations was for
advanced practitioners or for beginners was resolved.
Later Shifts in the Presence of Confession in the Bodhisattva
Precepts Ordination
Because the confession ceremony was not specified in the Fanwang jing
as a part of the ordination ceremony when it was conferred by a qualified
teacher, not all later Tiantai monks used it. If confession could no longer
47T 9: 393c2223.
48T 74: 771a1115.
237
be performed with the sincerity found in the story of Daojin because it

was a period of decline of the Dharma, perhaps it should be eliminated
from the ceremony. If successful confession was to result in a sign from
the Buddha, how could this be required of groups of people? Could they
have all simultaneously received such a sign? Such concerns might have
been behind the decision of some to de-emphasize or drop it from their
ritual manuals. Even so, Zhanrans manual was so popular and wellorganized that the majority of bodhisattva ordinations followed it. Below
I survey several examples in both China and Japan where confession is
either dropped or is attenuated.
Zunshi (9641032), a Tiantai monk noted for his insistence on
the repentance ritual as a part of his Tiantai and Pure Land practice, did
not mention confession in his manual for the bodhisattva precepts ordination, which had the following elements:
1. Instructions on developing a mind of faith
2. Requesting the protection of the deities
3. Three refuges
4. Inviting the five sagely teachers
5. [The precepts master] descends from his seat, going before the Buddha
and asking for the precepts
6. Taking the four bodhisattva vows
7. Questions concerning whether the recipient has temporary or permanent obstacles that prevent the receipt of the precepts
8. The threefold rite of receiving the precepts
9. Asking the buddhas to serve as witnesses
10. Explaining the contents of the precepts.49
Note that experiencing a sign from the Buddha is also not present. The
structure of the ritual is similar to Zhanrans rite, but with the sections most closely associated with the self-ordination excised. However
Zunshi was not completely uninterested in combining confession rituals
with ordinations. In the next section of the Jinyuanji, he outlined a lay
ordination that conferred the five precepts, basing the ritual on passages
from Daoxuans words and the Youposai jie jing (Lay precepts
49Jinyuanji , X 57: 1a914.
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paul groner
stra).50 The second of ten sections was a confession ceremony. Later in

the text, he describes a ritual that combined confession and ninafo.51
The case of Jitsud Nink (13091388) in Japan provides
another example of de-emphasis of confession. Nink was the leading
Tendai thinker of his day; he was also one of the figures who established
the Seizan-ha lineage of the Jdosh. He had his monks ordained
on Mount Hiei where they followed the format of Zhanrans ordination
manual, but he radically re-interpreted the ritual. The actual conferral of
the precepts came when the ordinand took the three refuges, not when
the candidate was asked whether he would receive the precepts; thus the
precepts were received at the second part of the twelvefold ordination
before the confession and conferral of the precepts by asking the candidate whether he would observe them.52 Thus the confession lost much of
its rationale because it no longer served as a means to purify the ordinand
for receiving the precepts from the Buddha. In his remarks on the confession, Nink notes that as worldlings during the final period of the Buddhas dharma, everyone commits wrongdoing, so confession is important,
but few do it. Who is capable of performing a penance in which one cries
blood and prostrates on the ground? Who is capable of performing the
confessions based on principle recommended by Zhiyi that all conclude
with a meditation on emptiness? All that is left for most of us is receiving
the Fanwang precepts from Vairocana because they are appropriate for
the worldlings of this age of decline and to recite the verses on repentance
of Samantabhadra following the lead of their teacher.53 The de-emphasis
of the role of confession in the ordination led to a shift in the importance of receiving a sign from the Buddha. Instead of emphasizing a sign
in the current life, the light from the Pure Land pervading the universe is
mentioned. The expectation of a post-mortem reward is stressed. Similar
tendencies can be seen in the ordination manual frequently referred to
as the Kurodani-hon , a manual based on Zhanrans twelve-part
ordination, that may have been used by Hnen and certainly was
used by the Chinzei branch of the Jdosh. Although later sectarian
50X 57: 4b819.
51X 57: 5c22a9.
52I have described Ninks view of the ordination at greater length in Jitsud Nink on
Ordinations. Japan Review 15 (2003): 5175. As is noted earlier in this essay, identifying the
conferral of the precepts with the recitation of the three refuges was found in ordinations
conferring the eight precepts on lay practitioners.
53Endon kaigi hi kikigaki , in Seizan zensh kankkai (ed.), Seizan
zensho (Kyoto: Buneid shoten, 1975), bekkan 3: 608ab.
239
emphases in Japanese Buddhism stress the distinction between Tendai

and Jdosh, most of the Tendai ordination lineages run through Hnen;
as a result, the similarities between some Tendai and Jdosh ordinations
is not surprising. This manual was used in the Jdosh until the Tokugawa period when it was superceded by the Shinpon kaigi .54
The confession is abbreviated with only a very short verse being taught
to the recipient:
I confess with utmost sincerity. I and others have committed unlimited
wrongdoings from the beginningless past. I repent all of these before the Buddha. Having repented them, I shall not commit them again. The bad karma
that I incurred was all due to beginningless desire, hatred and ignorance. I
repent all [of these] that arose from my body, words, and intentions.55
The recitation of these verses is said to purify the body and mind. However, in comparison with some of the heartfelt confession texts in other
sources, it seems formulaic and dry.
Finally, another ordination manual that may be related to the Tiantai
tradition does not include confession. The author of the Shou pusajie
yi is identified in the text as Nanyue Huisi .56
Traditionally the author is said to have been Zhiyis teacher Huisi, making it the earliest Tiantai ordination manual. A manual by Huisi is mentioned in the bibliography of texts that Saich carried back from China.57
However, stylistic elements, such as the mention of a number of Chinese
deities, suggest that it comes from a later period.58 The structure of the
ritual is as follows:
Invitation to a monk who can transmit the precepts (denju kaishi
)
Explanation of the precepts
54Jdosh daijiten hensan iinkai (ed.), Jdosh daijiten (Tokyo: Sankib Busshorin,
1975) 2:214c215a.
55Ju bosatsukai gi, Jdosh zensho (Tokyo: Sankib Busshorin, 1972), Zoku 12: 2.
56X 59: 350a5.
57T 55: 1056c10.
58Tajima Tokuon (s.v. Ju bosatsukai gi, Bussho kaisetsu daijiten. Ed. Ono Genmy. 5:
102c103a) suggests a Song or Yuan dynasty date. Daniel Getz suggests late Tang (Popular
Religion and Pure Land in Song-Dynasty Tiantai Bodhisattva Precept Ordination Ceremonies, in Going Forth: Visions of Buddhist Vinaya, ed. William Bodiford [Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press 2005], pp. 167170). Taira Rysh (Den-Eshi hon Jubosatsukaigi nit
suite, Taish daigaku kenky kiy: Bukky gakubu bungakubu 40 [1955]: 136) has argued
that the text was written by the fourth Tiantai patriarch Huiwei . Although I accepted
this position when I wrote my doctoral dissertation, I believe that the arguments for a later
date are much stronger.
240
paul groner
Eight superior qualities of the bodhisattva precepts
Five meditations on sentient beings
Three vows
Four bodhisattva vows
Invitation to buddhas and bodhisattvas as precept teachers
Veneration of buddhas as preceptor monks (kai kash )
Three refuges
Questions about difficulties in receiving the precepts
Conferral of precepts
Witnessing by buddhas
Transfer of merits
Exhortation to practice
No section labeled Confession is found in the manual, but a short confession based on the ten good actions is found in the questions concerning
obstacles, which is included above. It ends with the following statement
by a master of ceremonies:
The master of ceremonies should announce Your confession is complete,
the three types of action are purified, just like lapis lazuli. You are able to
receive the bodhisattva precepts.59
Conclusion
The use of confession ceremonies in bodhisattva precept ordinations
probably had its origins in the conferral of the eight lay precepts on lay
practitioners. When confessions were used in bodhisattva precept ordinations several issues became evident. First, confessions frequently served
to purify the candidate for ordination so that he or she could go before
buddhas and bodhisattvas and directly receive the precepts. Receiving a
sign from the Buddha that ones efforts had been recognized suggested
that one was an advanced practitioner. Such a practice might take several
years. In some Japanese texts, such as the manual by Annen, receiving
the precepts from the Buddha was tantamount to the realization of Buddhahood. According to the Fanwang jing, receiving the precepts from a
qualified teacher did not require a sign, but confession and the receipt of
a sign were introduced into bodhisattva precept ordination conducted by
a qualified teacher.
59X 59: 352a26.
241
Second, when a self-ordination was performed by an individual, that

person might spend as much time as necessary in confession. The story
of Daojin is cited repeatedly in manuals to illustrate this point. The stras,
particularly the apocryphal texts mentioned above, instruct the practitioner to persevere even if it takes years to receive a sign from the Buddha
that the confession has been accepted. However, when the ordination
was used to initiate a number of people into an order, as was the case
in Japanese Tendai and some Tiantai groups during the Song dynasty, a
schedule had to be kept. Confession frequently became a matter of reciting a liturgy. The manuals by Zhanran and Saich use both approaches,
including a long passage from Zhiyis Mohe zhiguan on the ten stages of
a mind undergoing confession as well as a short liturgy. Later manuals
would omit the description of the ten stages because it was too long for
use in a ceremony.
Third, the perception of Buddhist history also played a part in these
developments. If one lived during a period when the realization of high
states on the path or Buddhahood was feasible, then confession might be
prolonged. If it were the period of the final decline of the Dharma (mapp
), then confession might be virtually impossible and the only salvation available was post-mortem birth in the Pure Land. In such cases the
confession was very simple.
Bibliography
Abbreviations
DZsee Hieizan senshuin fuzoku Eizan gakuin, ed. Dengy Daishi zensh.
JZ see Jdosh kaish happyakunen kinen kysan junbikyoku, Jdosh zensho.
T see Takakusu Junjir and Watanabe Kaigyoku, Taish shinsh daizoky.
X see Xinwenfeng bianjibu (ed.), Wan Xuzangjing.
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Donner, Neil and Daniel Stevenson. The Great Calming and Contemplation: A Study and
Annotated Translation of the First Chapter of Chih-Is Mo-Ho Chih-Kuan. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993.
Getz, Daniel. Popular Religion and Pure Land in Song-Dynasty Tiantai Bodhisattva Precept Ordination Ceremonies. In Going Forth: Visions of Buddhist Vinaya, edited by
William Bodiford, 161184. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005.
Groner, Paul. Jitsud Nink on Ordinations. Japan Review 15 (2003): 5175.
Hieizan senshuin fuzoku Eizan gakuin , ed. Dengy Daishi
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Hirakawa Akira . Shoki daij Bukky no kenky . Tokyo:
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Jdosh kaish happyakunen kinen kysan junbikyoku
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Ono Genmy . Bussho kaisetsu daijiten . Tokyo: Dait shuppansha, 1979.
Prip-Mller, Johannes. Chinese Buddhist Monasteries: their plan and its function as a setting
for Buddhist monastic life. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1967.
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Sat Tatsugen . Chgoku Bukky ni okeru kairitsu no kenky
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136.
Edited by Takakusu Junjir and Watanabe Kaigyoku . Taish
shinsh daizoky . Tokyo: Taish Issaiky Kankkai, 19241932.
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Tsuchihashi Shk . Jukai girei no hensen . In Kairitsu no
kenky , edited by Tsuchihashi Shk, 281363. Kyoto: Nagata bunshd,
1980.
. Perio-hon Shukkejin ju bosatsukai h ni tsuite
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832886. Kyoto: Nagata bunshd, 1980.
. Jukai girei no hensen . In Bukky kydan no kenky
, edited by Yoshimura Shuki , 205282. Kyoto, Hyakkaen, 1968.
. Juhachisaikaigi no hensen: Sutain-hon wo chshin ni :
. In Iwai Hakushi koki kinen; Tenseki ronsh
, pp. 379400. Shizuoka-ken, Hamamatsu-shi: Kaimeid, 1963.
Welch, Holmes. The Practice of Chinese Buddhism 19001950. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967.
Wijayaratna, Mohan. Buddhist Monastic Life: according to the texts of the Theravada tradition. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Williams, Mea maxima vikalpa: Repentance, Meditation and the Dynamics of Liberation
in Medieval Chinese Buddhism. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley,
2002.
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chuban, 1983.
Yoshikawa Tadao . Chgokujin no shky ishiki . Tokyo:
Sbunsha, 1998.
Removal of Sins in Esoteric Buddhist Rituals:

A Study of the Dafangdeng Dhra Scripture
Koichi Shinohara
In this paper I discuss a distinctive approach to the removal of sins that
appears in the stream of Buddhism we call Esoteric Buddhism. The idea
that the recitation of spells, typically called dhras, results in the removal
of sins is mentioned frequently in Esoteric Buddhist scriptures. Sins in this
context are understood as the karmic residue of evil deeds committed in
the course of an innumerable number of past lives. Recitation of dhras
is at the heart of Esoteric Buddhist rituals, but the removal of sins was not
always the goal of such practices. In its initial stages spell-recitation centered on worldly benefits. Nonetheless, the removal of sin became a fairly
constant theme relatively early in the evolution of these Esoteric rituals,
as can be seen from the fact that it occupies a very conspicuous place
in many early dhra texts. My hypothesis is that as dhra recitation
gained popularity, it began to be seen as the means to achieve not only
worldly benefits but also soteriological goals, for which the removal of sins
was thought to have been essential.
I offer here a case study of the challenges that resulted when dhra
recitation came to take the place of other normative Buddhist practices as
the means to eradicate sin and achieve salvation. I focus on one scripture
in detail, the Dafangdeng tuoluoni jing. This dhra
scripture was translated by a Northern Liang monk Fazhong at
Gaochang , near Turfan, during the Yongan period 402413 ad In
this text we can clearly see the efforts that were made to secure a place for
dhra recitation within the larger framework of Buddhist doctrine and
monastic practice. I will argue that the sometimes uneasy relationship
between dhra recitation and removal of sin that we see here is also the
key to understanding this complicated and often obscure stra.
The basic scenario for removal of sins through dhra practice is that
as a person recites the dhra over and over, a vision occurs in which the
practitioner sees the deities, in many cases all the Buddhas from their Buddhalands in all the (ten) directions. The Buddhas extend their arms and
rub the head of the practitioner. This visionary contact with the Buddhas
removes the sins from an innumerable number of past aeons or kalpas;
244
koichi shinohara
it nullifies their karmic effects, and in many cases allows the practitioner
to achieve attainments of various kinds, such as supernatural knowledge
or the fruits along the path to the ultimate attainment of Buddhahood.
Sometimes specific samdhis or visions are also named.
This is a distinctly soteriological scenario. In early accounts such soteriological scenarios appear alongside rituals in which the recitation of the
dhra brings about what we would consider to be more this-worldly
goals, such as cures from sickness and the defeat of enemies. We need
also to keep in mind that Esoteric sources often present the soteriological
scenario of dhra practice as a distinctive and competing path, separate
from, and even more efficacious (quicker) than the conventional path of
observing monastic precepts and engaging in other practices that result
in enlightenment, such as meditation.
In what follows I begin with a review of early sources on dhra practice that are preserved in Chinese translation. The specific scenario for
removal of sins just described appears repeatedly in these sources. These
early accounts often describe the outcome of the repeated recitation of
dhras in terms of this-worldly goals. My general assumption is that this
was the earlier and simpler understanding and the basic ritual. Rituals
that focused on less tangible soteriological goals would have appeared
later. It is not possible to determine the date of this development. The
scriptures that I examine no doubt co-existed before they were translated
and the order of translation may not reflect the order of their original
composition. Different types of practices also co-existed throughout the
history of the Esoteric Buddhist tradition. An early date of a translation
can only confirm that the particular practices described in that scripture
existed by that date.
For example, the earliest datable source, Zhi Qians Wuliangmen weimi
chi jing , T. 1012, in the first half of the third century,
focuses on the soteriological scenario exclusively and does not mention
any this-worldly benefits. In contrast, the soteriological scenario appears
to be absent in the Dajiyi shenzhou jing T. 1335, translated in 462. In the Tuolinnipo jing , T. 1352 dhra practice is largely directed to this-worldly goals, though the soteriological
concern that goes beyond this world or this life, also appears to surface
in one important detail. The practice produces the supernatural knowledge of past lives. The Qifo bapusa suoshuo da tuoluoni shenzhou jing
T. 1332, from the Eastern Jin period
(317420 ad) offers examples in which both tangible this-worldly goals
and more developed accounts of soteriological goals appear side by side.
removal of sins in esoteric buddhist rituals
245
In many cases a careful reading of a scripture enables us to reconstruct

its gradual evolution. In some cases different scenarios are more prominent in different layers of the evolution of the scripture. For example, the
Qing Guanshiyin pusa xiaofu duhan tuoluoni zhou jing
,T. 1043 may be read as a scripture that grew over
time; this-worldly concerns are more prominent in the opening section,
while distinctly soteriological themes are addressed more openly in subsequent sections.
In the second and main part of the paper I will turn to one important
Esoteric scripture, the Dafangdeng tuoluoni jing, T. 1339
and examine it closely. I will construct a reading of this very complex
and often puzzling work by reconstructing its gradual evolution. As noted
above, in this scripture we see how its authors struggled to incorporate
the distinctive and in many ways alien practice of dhra scriptures
within more conventional Buddhist discourse, the Mahyna teaching of
skill-in-means and emptiness, and the Main Stream Buddhist instruction
on precepts and repentance.
The Teaching on Sin and its Removal in Early Dhra Scriptures
The Qifo bapusa suoshuo da tuoluoni shenzhou jing, or Scripture of the
Divine Spells the Great Dhras Taught by the Seven Buddhas and Eight
Bodhisattvas
A carefully constructed account of the basic recitation practice appears in
this early Chinese collection of dhra practices.1 The collection opens
with a section for each of the seven past Buddhas of this world age. In
each section the Buddha in question is said to have taught a spell. The
spell is then presented in Chinese transcription and the practice associated with the spell is described briefly. The remarkable effects of this
practice are listed in some detail. In many cases the dhras are said to
have been taught by innumerable Buddhas in past world ages. The collection continues with similarly framed entries for the eight bodhisattvas
and other deities.
1I discussed this and closely related Miscellaneous Dhra Collection, T. 1336 in more
detail Koichi Shinohara, Spells, Images, and Maala: Tracing the Evoltution of Esoteric
Buddhist Rituals, Chapter 1, (forthcoming).
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koichi shinohara
A variety of benefits are mentioned in the instruction of spells in the

Scripture of the Seven Buddhas and Eight bodhisattvas. Here I will confine
my attention to the first part of the collection, the spells attributed to
the Seven Buddhas and Eight Bodhisattvas themselves. The benefits of
these spells may be grouped either as royal or communal or as personal.
Threatened by neighboring powers, the king and his ministers are to recite
the spell on a tall building; a rain of swords will fall, and dark wind will
blind the enemy soldiers and demons will suck their vitality, causing them
to retreat and scatter (T. 1332: 21.537bc; see also 539c19; 541a16; 541c15
23). The king may also pray for rain at the time of a drought (540c22427;
541c1720). The spells can cure contagious diseases (540c2729). The benefits of these practices are communal, although they are realized through
the agency of the king. In contrast, other kinds of cures of illness appear
to be more personal (539b2528; c258; 542b14; c18, 22, 543a1).
Yet, among the most conspicuous and consistent benefits to appear in
the instructions attributed to these deities is the removal of sins (536c15;
1718; 537a58; 18; c2122; 538b4; 2426; c1; 2122; 539b34; c28540a1;
542a1011). Perhaps as a consequence of the eradication of sin, it is said
that the practitioner of the spell will not be reborn in the three inferior
realms (537a11; c2122; 538b21). Certain specific visions or samdhis that
result from the recitation are named (537b7, 25; 538a21). Rebirths in Buddha lands (537a11) and the Tuita heaven (538a1718; 540c4) are mentioned. Also conspicuous are the repeated references to the Four Fruits
of the path as they are described in Main Stream Buddhism (538a24; b7l
c24; 539a22; b78; 540a6, 1415; b4), namely becoming a stream winner,
once-returner, non-returner, or an arhat. Supernatural knowledge of
previous reincarnations (538c17; 540b9) and the third meditative state
(538b6) are also mentioned. As a bodhisattva, one will progress through
the ten Bodhisattva stages until one reaches the stage of the Buddha
(539a1720). One may receive the prediction to achieve Buddhahood faceto-face with the Buddhas of the Ten Directions (540a56, 12). The emphasis
on these benefits suggests that in this collection dhra practice is seen
as an important practice for those who follow the Buddhist path toward
liberation. These benefits are thus soteriological. In the accounts of the
efficacy of dhra practice in the Seven Buddhas and Eight Bodhisattvas
scripture, both types of benefits, some this-worldly and others soteriological, are mentioned side-by-side without any comment on the relationship
between them.
247
The Qing Guanshiyin pusa xiaofu duhan tuoluoni zhou jing, or Dhra
Spell Scripture of Requesting Bodhisattva Avalokitevara to Dissolve and
Overcome Poisons and Harms
Zhu Nanti , or Nandi translated this scripture in 419 ad (T. 2154: 55.
509a13).2 Visions of deities and removal of sins appear prominently in it.
The scripture tells the story that at one time while the Buddha was
staying at the lecture hall in the mra garden in Vail, a great epidemic
raged in the city.3 The eyes of the sick became blood red, pus oozed from
both their ears, blood flowed from their noses, their tongues became tied
and they could not speak; whatever an afflicted person ate tasted bitter.
With all the sense organs blocked, the sick seemed to be inebriated. Five
demonic yakas, ink-black, each with five eyes and teeth that stuck out
like a dogs incisors, sucked the life fluids from people. An elder named
Yuegai , accompanied by five hundred elders, came to the Buddha,
asking for help.
The Buddha [kyamuni] then spoke to them about the Buddha
Amtyus or Wuliangshou who resides in the western direction, and the two attending bodhisattvas Avalokitevara or Guanshiyin
and Mahsthmaprpta or Dashizhi . These deities are
always compassionate. They take pity on all beings and come to rescue
them from suffering. The Buddha instructed the elders to pay respect to
these deities by burning incense, scattering flowers, and meditating with
the mind concentrated. The elders were told to request help from the Buddha Amityus and the two bodhisattvas. When the Buddha [kyamuni]
spoke these words, the Buddha Amityus and the two bodhisattvas were
seen inside kymunis halo, and these deities arrived at the gate of the
city of Vail. People of the city called the name of the Three Jewels and
the name of bodhisattva Avalokitevara three times and asked for help.
2Tiantai Zhiyi (53998) discusses the ritual of this scripture in the Mohe zhiguan
, Donner, The Great Calming and Contemplation, 275286. An entry also appears
in the Guoqing bolu , T. 1934: 46.795b16796a3. The commentary on this scripture
is attributed to Tiantai Zhiyi (53998), Qing Guanyinjing shu , T. 1800, appears
to be a much later work. Tetsuei Sat , Tendai Daishi No Kenky, 496517.
3The story of the epidemic in Vail appears in a variety of scriptural sources, for
example, Pusa benxing jing , 116c78. The Mahvastu, I, 208214. Further
references appear in Indo Bukky Koy Meishi Jiten , 75758.
Throughout this paper I will provide detailed summaries of the text passages under discussion as I do here.
248
koichi shinohara
Avalokitevara then described to the Buddha the dhra and the mudr
of Great Compassion of the Past, Present, and Future Buddhas of the Ten
Directions, concluding that if one recited or mediated [on the dhra],
the Buddhas would surely appear (T. 1043: 20. 35a4). Avalokitevara then
presented the spell of the Buddhas of the Ten Directions Rescuing Sentient Beings, and reciting this spell, he restored order to Vail (35a19).4
The instruction of Avalokitevara continued. The Buddha requested the
bodhisattva to teach the dhra that Destroys the Evil Obstructions and
Dissolves and Overcomes Poisons and Harms (35a2223). The instruction
on this spell that appears to have given the scripture its name led to the
introduction of yet another spell, called the Divine Spell of the Six Syllable
Verse that Rescues from Suffering (36a67). This time it is the Buddha
[kymanuni] who presents the spell (36a13). This spell appears to have
had a separate identity.5 The instruction in T. 1043 concluded with the
Buddha again presenting yet another spell, called the Auspicious Dhra
of Consecration (abhieka) (37c18).
This somewhat irregular outline suggests that this scripture evolved
over time, as new material was appended to it. In the first part it is
Avalokitevara who confers the spell on the citizens of Vail, who are
suffering from an epidemic and in distress, but in the subsequent parts
of the scripture it is the Buddha himself who introduces the spells. The
first instruction given by Avalokitevara in the first part of the scripture
is directed firmly to the overcoming of practical this-worldly difficulties,
though this instruction is framed by a story in which the Buddha predicts
miraculous visions of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas.
As the instruction in the scripture unfolds the description of the benefits of reciting spells expands in scope. Avalokitevaras instruction on
the dhra that Destroys the Evil Obstructions and Dissolves and Overcomes Poisons and Harms speaks of removal of sins, the vision of the
Buddha, and being reborn in the presence of the Buddha (35b1013;
c67). If one hears the six-syllable verse taught by the Buddha and recites
Avalokitevaras name, all sins are removed. The practitioner thus gets to
4In the version of this scripture reproduced in the Taish collection, interlinear notes
inserted in the transcribed dhra explain the meaning of each phrase in Chinese terms
(35a615; 35a28b8; 36a812; 37c24). With a limited number of exceptions, most of the
phrases are explained as names of demons.
5The Taisho collection reproduces three versions of the scripture of the Six syllable
king of spells, T. 1044 and T. 1045 (in two versions). The six syllable spell that appears in
T. 1043 (36a812) does not agree with the spell in T. 1044 and 1045 (20.38b28, 39c1724
and 41c1117).
249
see eighty kois (units of large number) of Buddhas, who place their hands
[on the crown of the persons head?] (36b911). Avalokitevara leads sentient beings out of the realm of rebirths to the Pure Land and ultimately
to the shore of great nirva (36b2627). By hearing Avalokitevaras
name and the six-syllable spell, meditating and following the instruction
of pure practice, all evil karmas accumulated in the course of innumerable
past world ages will be removed and one gets to see immediately in ones
lifetime the innumerable Buddhas and to hear their teaching whenever
one wants. Such a person gives rise to the mind of seeking the ultimate
enlightenment, the first step on the Bodhisattva path. Those individuals with exceptionally negative karmas in their past lives or who have
committed the gravest of sins in this lifetime will see Avalokitevara in a
dream, and they will then be liberated from those sins. The sins disappear,
just as heavy clouds vanish in the path of a powerful wind. Even these evil
ones will be reborn in the presence of the Buddhas (37a226b25; also, ref.,
38a210). The meditative state that brings about this overcoming of past
sins is called samdhi, specifically ragama samdhi or the samdhi
ocean of viewing the Buddhas (38a7, 12).6 The scripture concludes by
promising rebirth in Pure Lands (38a17).
The increasing emphasis on the removal of past sins and negative
karma and rebirth in the Pure Land in the later parts of the scripture suggests that as the scripture evolved, incorporating the new material that
was appended at its end, the focus shifted from specific this-worldly goals,
such as putting an end to epidemics, to more distinctly religious and Buddhist goals.
The Wuliangmen weimi chi jing
The Taish collection reproduces seven translations of this scripture under
a variety of titles (T. 1009, 10121018). The oldest among them, Wuliangmen weimichi jing, T. 1011, is attributed to Zhi Qian , whose translations were produced for the most part in Jianye between 229252.7 In
spite of its early date the scripture in this translation explains the benefits
6These names of samadhi appear as titles in well-known scriptures, T. 642 and 643.
7Jan Nattier, A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations, Texts from the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms Period (Tokyo: International Research Institute for Advanced
Buddhology, Socka University, 2006), 116117.
250
koichi shinohara
exclusively in soteriological terms and does not mention this-worldly benefits of dhra practice.8
The title of this scripture marks its subject as the dhra called
Unlimited Gate. The Buddha was teaching at the two-story building in
the Great Forest (Mahvana) Monastery in Vail and a special gathering
was to take place. The Buddha told Maudgalyyana to travel through the
entire universe and tell all the monks, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas to gather at the monastery. Maudgalyyana went to the top of
Mt. Sumeru and with his miraculous powers announced the Buddhas invitation throughout the universe. The Buddha also told several bodhisattvas
to visit all the Buddha lands and call bodhisattvas of different attainments
to the meeting (T. 1011: 19. 682bc).9
The Buddhas instruction is presented as a series of exchanges between
the Buddha and riputra. Seeing the assembly gathered there, riputra
formulated a complex question. After mapping the path of the bodhisattva as ultimately leading to the highest enlightenment (zuizhengjue
), he then further elaborated on the path with three sets of four
characterizations, the last of which described four aspects of dhra
teaching (680b17c2). The Buddha then praised riputra for thinking of
the dhra practice that leads bodhisattvas quickly into the Unlimited
Gate (teaching) wuliangmen (680c5) and allows them to obtain
the secret dhra, weimichi . The text of the spell appears here to
be translated (680c512; ref., 682c26683aa6; 685c1524) and an abstract
8This translation is said to have had another name, Chengdao xiangmo deyiqiezhi
(Enlightenment, conquering Mra, and attaining omniscience). This title
again calls attention to the soteriological emphasis of the scripture.
9In Buddhabhadras translation this gathering occurred after the Buddha had declared
his intention to enter parinirva in three months. The Buddha was surrounded by 40,000
great monks. Having decided that he would enter parinirva after three months, the
Buddha told elder Maugalytyana to announce this throughout the universe and gather
together rvakas, monks, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas at the two-storied building of the Great Forest Monastery. Maudgalyyana goes to the top of Mt. Sumeru and
enters into a samdhi and announces the summons to the entire universe. Elder riputra
also enters into a samdhi and invites the monks in Jambudvpa to gather. The Buddha
also instructs several bodhisattvas, including Majur, Avalokitevara and Maitreya, to
go to numerous Buddha worlds and tell various categories of bodhisattvas to come to the
two-story building at the Great Forest Monastery (682bc). Later translations followed this
formulation.
251
doctrinal discussion follows (680c1124).10 The convention of transcribing

dhras rather than translating them was not yet known at this point. 11
The central message of the scripture is presented succinctly in an
extended verse section. Following the familiar format of Mahyna
scriptures, this verse section appears to recapitulate and expand on the
Buddhas instruction in the immediately preceding prose section (682c11
683a25). The verse begins by stating the familiar message of emptiness:
emptiness cannot be obtained and one cannot practice it as one wishes,
assuming that these practices are real. The approach of single-mindedly
honoring the scripture and reciting the dhra is offered as an alternative.
Through the latter path of wisdom one attains enlightenment (chengdao
). If a bodhisattva receives this dhra and practices it diligently,
that bodhisattva hears the teachings of the Buddhas of the Ten Directions.
If one accepts and does not forget all these teachings, one will understand
their meaning as if it were illumined by the sun; one can engage in the
subtle and marvelous practice as one wishes and attain the ultimate goal
(enlightenment). The person who practices this path is a prince of the
dharma. Such a one will protect the dharma. Deeply loving the scripture,
such a practitioner will be valued by bodhisattvas and loved by the Buddhas of the Ten Directions. This practitioner will enjoy a reputation that
spreads everywhere in the world. If one practices this path, one will see an
infinite number of Buddhas appear at the moment of death. These Buddhas will extend their hands and receive the dying person. For others, the
evil deeds committed over the past one thousand kalpas will be removed
in the short space of one month. Simply by guarding this scripture and
reciting the dhra a person can attain the same amount of merits that
bodhisattvas accumulate over kois of kalpas. By reflecting on the dhra,
and turning to the source of all merits, a person can achieve enlightenment
10As noted by Nattier, A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations, 141142.
11The idea that dhra practice was supposed to bring about visions of innumerable
Buddhas and resulted in the removal of the effects of existed in the original Indic scripture
that Zhi Qian in the third century translated as well as in other versions translated in the
fifth to eighth centuries. Yet Chinese translators were initially unfamiliar with the idea of
such a dhra as a spell, a fixed formula, and the teaching was understood as a doctrinal
discourse. Thus they translated the dhra, as if what was important about it was what
it said rather than how it said it. It was only in the fifth century translation by Gongdezhi
and Xuanchang (T. 1014, dated 642) that the more familiar practice of transliterating the
dhra appeared, retaining at least approximately, the sound of the spell.
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koichi shinohara
without fail. Even if everyone in the Three Realms were all to turn into
evil Mras, they could not harm this practitioner.
The Buddha then describes his own experience with the dhra. When
he had received the prediction for attaining Buddhahood from Dpakara,
he saw Buddhas as many as the sands of the Ganges. As he heard their
teachings he understood them. This is why a person should simply practice the teaching of this scripture. If someone wishes to decorate the Buddha land and join the group of haloed disciples there, if he or she wishes
to be counted among their family, all this can be accomplished through
this scripture. If one removes uncontrollable thoughts and concentrates,
eight kois of Buddhas will appear and together confer this dhra. The
dhra is a meaning (yi ) that cannot be attained by thought or nonthought. If one gets this meaning without the concept of thought, then
one attains the dhra. One should reflect deeply on this scripture, not
forget the right path, and take hold of this dhra as if it were a treasure in the middle of the ocean. A person should not work for wealth. If
one brings peace to all gods and men, he or she will easily get everything
wished for. This is how the path is realized. One should simply practice
the correct path (680c15681b8).
In this dhrai scripture the efficacy of the dhra is thus described
exclusively in soteriological terms. The recitation of the dhra removes
all bad karmas (sins) and leads one to enlightenment. The crucial moment
is a vision in which innumerable Buddhas appear and teach the scripture.
These Buddhas also appear at the moment of death, presumably to ensure
good rebirths.
Integrating Dhra Practice into the Buddhist Discourse
of Mahyna Scriptures and Monastic Codes (Vinayas)
As the soteriological scenario of sin and its removal emerged as a prominent part of dhra practice, it became an alternative and potential
competitor to more conventional Buddhist practices. The relationship
between these alternatives had to be negotiated and spelled out. In what
follows I propose to examine this development by looking closely at one
scripture, the Dafandeng tuoluoni jing, or Dafangdeng Dhra Scripture.
A large part of this scripture may be read as a deliberate effort to harmonize the discourse on sin and its removal in dhra practice with the
more familiar Buddhist approaches to sin and repentance, and ultimately
to present the dhra practice as superior. In some passages the idea of
sin is deconstructed, partly as a form of the familiar Buddhist teaching
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technique of skill-in-means in which fictitious, illusory, or false accounts

are given for the ultimate purpose of leading ignorant beings along the
right path toward salvation. In other passages the language of monastic precepts is introduced to demonstrate the extraordinary power of
dhras.
The Dafangdeng Dhra Scripture in the form in which it is known to
us is very complex and often opaque. I believe that it is a scripture that
evolved over time as new material, sometimes not entirely harmonious
with the earlier parts, was added in several stages. The significance of this
scriptures views on sin and its removal becomes clearer when these layers are isolated from each other.
Introducing the Dafangdeng Tuoluoni Jing
This dhra scripture was translated during the Yongan period 402
413 ad, as noted above. This date suggests that it appeared not much
later than the Seven Buddhas and Eight Bodhisattvas collection. Yet, the
Dafangdeng Dhra Scripture offers a much more elaborate and complex
instruction on dhra practice.12
The Dafangdeng tuoluoni jing, in four fascicles, is organized into
five sections (fen ): section 1, Introduction or chu fen (fascicle
1 and beginning portion of fascicle 2); section 2, Predictions of Attaining Buddhahood or shouji fen (vykaraa) (remaining portion of
fascicle 2); section 3, Dream Practice or mengxing fen (fascicle 3);
section 4, Guarding Precepts or hujie fen (first half of fascicle 4);
section 5, Miraculous Lotus Flower, or busiyilianhua fen
(second half of fascicle 4).
I believe that this version of the scripture, T. 1339, has a long history of
evolution behind it. My hypothesis is that the existing four fascicle scripture evolved in at least two recognizable stages out of the relatively short
story that appears early in the first fascicle. The core story told of monk
Leiyin , an evil or Mra deity, and a bodhisattva called Huaju ,
and introduced a dhra called Mohe Tanchi tuoluoni zhangju
(Mahtantra Dhra Verse).13
12Tiantai Zhiyi based his discussion of Vaipulya repentance on this scripture. Neal
Arvid Donner and Daniel B. Stevenson, The Great Calming and Contemplation: A Study
and Annotated Translation of the First Chapter of Chih-Is Mo-Ho Chih-Kuan, Classics in East
Asian Buddhism. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993), 249261. Zhiyis two other
manuals are mentioned in footnote 140 on p. 249.
13This name has been rendered as Mah tantra dhra in Tokun Oda ,
Bukky Daijiten . Ref., Fanyi mingyi ji , T. 2131: 54.1112b29 cites a
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koichi shinohara
This story, which appears near the beginning of section 1, fascicle 1, then
evolved into a scripture that was modeled after other Mahyna stras,
and that now is what we find as the entire section 1. A new introduction
was added. The scripture began as an exchange between Majur and
the Buddha and concluded with the Buddha entrusting the scripture to
nanda. In this scripture version the dhra was renamed as Dafangdeng
Dhra, a recognizably Mahyna term (T. 1339: 21. 643a34).14
Dafangdeng and dafangguang , both as translations for vaipulya,
appear frequently in titles of Mahyna scriptures. The name Dafangdeng
Dhra does not appear in the core Leiyin story.15 Among the newly
incorporated material was the story about a hell-being named Vasu
and the instruction that the teacher Shangshou had given to monk
Gaga (Hengjia) in the distant past.
In the third stage of evolution this new scripture grew further into
the four-fascicle scripture. Much of the newly introduced material (Sections 2 to 5 in the present version) was framed as exchanges between the
Buddha, Majur and nanda. It elaborated extensively on certain key
themes that had appeared in earlier parts of the scripture. I will now turn
to the reading of the scripture itself, summarizing its contents on the basis
of this hypothetical reconstruction.
The four-fascicle five-section scripture begins following the familiar format of Mahyna scriptures. The Buddha was teaching at Jetavana forest
in rvast, and the audience is described in some detail. Majur rose
and praised dhra teachings. By entering dhra gates, sentient beings
can contemplate the world as the Buddha sees it (guan fojingjie
, 641b8). The dhra gate here appears to mean a vision, a samdhi,
though this term does not appear. Majur then asked the Buddha to
expound on the names of dhras. The Buddha gave the name of a variety of dhras, and Majur and his retinue attained the wisdom of the
passage in the Mohe zhiguan where Mahtantra Dhra is translated

as Damiyao shee chishan , T. 1911: 46.13b23.
14Another example is found in a passage where the two names appear side by side
referring to one dhra, 651b1315. Leiyin appears again in 644c6, where the earlier
account of his entry into samdhi at Jetavana forest is recalled (ref., 641c17) and this monk
and bodhisattva Huaju are said then to have gone to kyamuni. The Buddha then told
them a new long story about Shangshou and Gaga (645a647a). The dhra is called
Dafangdeng in the passage in this story, 647a19.
15The editor of the larger scripture naturally knew both names and the name
Mahtantra Dhra also appears outside of the Leiyin story, for example, in the account
of the seven-day ceremony in fascicle 3, 652c2.
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Non-Generation of All Dharmas, while others in the audience also miraculously acquired different degrees of attainments.
The Buddha then entered into a dhra gate, presumably a samdhi,
and emitted light. Other beings arrived and also entered into the
dhra gate.
It is at this point that monk Leiyin appears for the first time. This monk
is then said to have entered a meditative samdhi (chan sanmei
641c18). An elaborate story about monk Leiyin and bodhisattva Huaju
begins at this point. As noted above, I believe that it is this story that
formed the original core of the scripture. This core Leiyin-Huaju story
that introduces the Mahtantra Dhra appears originally to have existed
independently of the narrative of the Mahyna stra, which as we have
seen, consists of exchanges between the Buddha, Majur and nanda.
The larger scripture in four fascicles and five sections is framed in the
main as a series of exchanges among the Buddha, Majur, and nanda.
The Buddha is speaking to Majur at the beginning of fascicle 2 (652a,
which forms the last part of section 2), fascicle 3 (or section 3, 652c),
and fascicle 4 (or section 4, 656a). In section 5 (658a), as in section 1,
Majur is the first person who rises from his seat and addresses the Buddha (658a19; ref., 641b4). In the latter part of the larger scripture nanda
also appears as the interlocutor, particularly in the extended discussion
on the transmission of the scripture (647a648b). Yet, neither Majur
nor nanda appears in the core Leiyin Huaju story. As also noted above, I
believe that the recasting of the core story into a larger scripture unfolded
in two recognizable steps. I will first summarize the core story and then
trace how other parts of the scripture were constructed around it.
The Core Dhra Story
A recognizable scenario of dhra practice can be detected in this story.
It is a story of defeating and gaining control over demonic beings. Here
the demonic beings are called Mras.
When monk Leiyin was about to enter a samdhi, a Mra king
called Tantra was alarmed. He was afraid that the monk would
attain the Ultimate Enlightenment (anuttarasamyaksabodhi, 641c22
23). The Mra king, accompanied by his retinue, came to the Jeta forest
to cover up the monks good karmas, presumably to prevent him from
attaining enlightenment. Monk Leiyin called for help and the Buddhas
in all directions asked each other aloud how to rescue the monk (642a1).
The Buddha Jewel King asked whether anyone in his assembly could save
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koichi shinohara
him. Bodhisattva Huaju rose from his seat (642a3) and asked the
Buddha how this Mra king could be brought under control, and the Buddha answered that he would do so with the secret dhra teaching of
the Buddhas. The Buddha offered to teach this secret teaching and Huaju
expressed his wish to hear it. The Buddha then instructed Huaji not to
spread it indiscriminately. Only when someone secured the miraculous
sign of the twelve dream kings, or powerful dreams, should Huaju
teach him.
Then the Buddha is said to have taught the dhra, and the transcribed text of the dhra is given. This dhra consists of three parts,
and is presented in transcription in parts and as a whole in four separate
places: 9642a, b, c, 645b.16 As noted above, in these passages the name of
the dhra appears to be Mahtantra Dhra Verse
(21.642a08), though it is frequently abbreviated as Dhra Verse,
(for example, 642b2122, 645b15).
What follows is the story of how Huaju brought the Mra king and his
retinue under control. After the dhra was given, Huaju praised the
Buddha and then disappeared from where he was, that is, from in front
of the Buddha Jewel King, and reappeared in the sah world (our ordinary
world) at the Jetavana forest, where monk Leiyin was covered by 92 kois
of wicked Mra deities.
When the second part of the dhra was spoken the Mras screamed
in pain, and Huaju told them that they could be released from pain if they
gave rise to the mind of seeking enlightenment, and they obeyed. The
Mra kings then uttered the third part of the dhra. Huaju praised them
and told them that they were now capable of upholding the Mahtantra
Dhra. They presented their robes as an offering to Huaju.
At this point the Mras identified themselves as the Twelve Great Kings
(642c11718) who uphold the Mahtantra Dhra Verses and
declared that those who make rich offerings and uphold the scripture
should call the names of the Twelve Mra Kings when they are in difficulties. Though not stated explicitly, the message here must be that they will
come to their rescue.
16The three parts appear separately in 642b2324 (part 1), 642b29c2 (part 2) and
642c114 (part 3). Here bodhisattva Huaju pronounces the first two dhras, but the
third dhra is pronounced by the Mra kings. They called this dhra a pledge (zishi
) and wanted to pronounce it after the first dhra was uttered. The first two parts
are given together in 642a1519; in 645c1421 all three parts appear together, though here
the sequence between part 1 and part 2 is reversed.
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These Twelve Mra Kings must refer to the twelve dream kings mentioned earlier. Later, in fascicle 3, a separate section lists the names of
these kings and identifies them with twelve different kinds of dreams
(652a).
The Mahtantra Dhra in this story is a powerful spell that conquers
evil beings. In this story monk Leiyin was liberated from the Mra kings
with this dhra, and presumably was able to practice meditation and
achieve enlightenment. The familiar scenario in which demons are converted to the Buddhist path with a dhra appears here.17 I am struck,
however, that here the dhra itself is not described as bringing about
either the removal of sins or enlightenment. A somewhat indirect reference to a vision, or dream, appears in the instruction that the dhra
should be taught only to those who have had a dream (a miraculous sign
of the twelve kings of dream). The promise from the Twelve Mra Kings
that they would appear and rescue the practitioner may also imply some
kind of vision.
The Buddhas Instruction to Majur and nanda
The story of Leiyin and Huaju continues. But, as noted above, the dhra
is given a new name at this point, as Dafandeng Tuoluoni (643a34), and
I suspect that what follows may have been an integral part of the development in which the core story of Leiyin and Huaju was expanded and
incorporated into a larger scripture.
The newly added part in the expanded scripture is framed as a narrative about Leiyin and Huaju then coming to the place where the Buddha
was teaching in Jetavana.
Leiyin told Huaju of kyamuni Buddhas teaching, and accompanied by
numerous deities they arrived at that gathering in Jetavana, (643a820).18
17This scenario appears, for example, in the description of healing in the Vajra deities
section in the Collected Dhra Scriptures, T. 901: 18.844a1013.
18This story thus places Leiyin and Huaju first in a location other than the Jetavana, where kyamuni was preaching, and apparently at a time earlier than the time
of kyamunis teaching. A certain discrepancy appears to have been introduced. In the
earlier part of the scripture, Leiyin was placed at the Jetavana among the audience of
kyamunis teaching (zhongzhong 641c17), and Huaju was explicitly said to have
come to Jetavana (642b7). The story of Huaju coming to help Leiyin in Jetavana, and the
story of these two coming to kyamuni in Jetavana may have had separate origins. As will
be reviewed in more detail below, the second story itself introduces two largely unrelated
stories; first the story of Vasu, the leader of hell beings, and then an elaborate cosmic history and the teaching of bodhisattva Shangshou and a monk Gaga which concludes with
the discussion of the 24 precepts (645a647a).
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koichi shinohara
kyamuni heard the heavenly music of gods from far away. He came
out of meditation and told nanda to go outside and find the source
of the sound. nanda saw the two, Leiyin and Huaju, surrounded by a
large crowd, approaching Jetavana. They looked like golden mountains
and emitted bright light like the sun. nanda told the Buddha this, but
before he finished speaking, Huaju emitted a bright light that illumined
everywhere in the universe, and everyone who saw this light was liberated. When Huaju wondered what proof existed that they were liberated,
someone named Vasu arrived from hell, leading 92 kois of sinners from
there. In all other universes in the Ten Directions sinners were liberated
from hell in the same way and arrived at their sah worlds (that is, their
ordinary worlds). The innumerably large crowd that arrived at Jetavana
saw kyamuni Buddha flanked by the two great figures of Leiyin and
Huaju (643b45).
The frame narrative that follows is organized around a distinction that
can be easily missed. The first section describes the reaction of the audience at Jetavana to the appearance of Leiyin and Huaju (643b5644c6).
Beyond making an appearance in this way, Leiyin is not a part of this
story. The second section presents the account of the exchange between
the Buddha and Leiyin himself, who had just arrived (644c6647a23).
Separate sets of stories and instructions appear in these two sections. The
story about the hell being Vasu is told in the first section.
At the sight of kyamuni flanked by Leiyin and Huaju, questions arose
in the minds of those who were attending the Buddhas teaching, and
riputra asked the Buddha where the bodhisattvas, heavenly beings, Mra
kings and hell beings, who had never been seen before, had come from.
Majur answers riputras question, identifying Huaju as a bodhisattva from the east, heavenly beings as those from Tuita heaven, Mras as
from the present world, and telling how bodhisattva Huaju had brought
Vasu, the first among beings in hell, from the Avci hell to this gathering.
The issue becomes focused on this Vasu, as riputra asks how Vasu,
long known as someone who had committed evil deeds and was sent
to hell, could leave hell and come to meet the Buddha. This exchange
unfolds further as the Buddha himself begins to answer riputras question (643b28). A thoroughgoing deconstruction of both Vasu and his
sins appears here.
The focus of the Buddhas teaching now shifts to the overcoming of
sin. First, the idea of sin and rebirth in hell are deconstructed through an
elaborate unpacking of the name of Vasu. The Buddha separates the two
syllables, and in Chinese, the two characters that make up his name, and
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in a series of glosses on each character explains the meaning as representing positive values, heavenly and wisdom, broad and penetrating,
high and subtle, and so on (643a13644a4). The message here appears
to be that this hell being was not a sinner as we generally think of sinners,
but a positive figure.
Then the Buddha tells an elaborate story about the previous life of Vasu
(644a15). In this elaborate story Vasu is said to have used his power to
cause an illusory course of events to take place (644a25, 26; b24). Again,
Vasu is shown not really to have been a sinner. In the past the Buddha
was in Tuita heaven and Vasu in this Jambudvpa continent. He was a
leader of 6,200,000 merchants. These merchants travelled in ships seeking treasures and encountered four kinds of great difficulties; they ran
into a giant makara fish, terrible waves, powerful winds, and a demonic
being or yaka. At these encounters each merchant promised the god
Mahevara to sacrifice a live animal. After returning home each of them
brought a sheep to the temple to sacrifice as promised. Vasu reflected on
the evil of this practice and decided to stage a plot to save the lives of the
sheep.
Vasu produced two illusory teachers, one a Brahman, who promoted
animal sacrifice, and the other a monk, who rejected it. A dispute arose
between the monk and the Brahman regarding animal sacrifice, and they
agreed to seek the judgment of a great holy man. The monk asked whether
animal sacrifice led to rebirth in heaven or in hell. The holy man called
the monk an idiot and rejected the monks claim that sacrificing an animal
results in falling into hell. The monk asked again, and the holy man, now
identified as Vasu (644b13), insisted that one does not fall into hell. At this
point the monk said, If one does not fall into hell, you should demonstrate (chengzhi ) this yourself, and Vasu is said to have immediately
fallen into Avci hell. All saw this, recanted and released the sheep. The
message of the story appears to be that Vasu, who did not commit the sin
of offering animal sacrifice but rather deplored it, staged his own fall into
hell as a teaching technique (i.e., skill-in-means). He went to hell to save
sentient beings suffering there.
The merchants went into the mountain, looking for holy men and
received their instructions. After 21 years they all died and were reborn
in the Jambudvpa continent (where we live and the events of the main
story are taking place). At that time the Buddha had left the Tuita heaven
and had also been born in Jambudvpa in the family of king uddhodana.
The 6,200,000 merchants were reborn as human beings in the kingdom of
rvast. At this point the Buddha reminded riputra that when he first
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koichi shinohara
came to rvast he converted 6,200,000 people. They were none other

than these merchants (644b2123).
The Buddha now explains that in this way the holy man Vasu, by
means of his extraordinary power, produced the illusion of these people
all coming to where the Buddha was teaching. Vasu (or these people as
well?) is not really a hell-being, properly speaking (644b25). The arrival
of Vasu and his retinue is described as a transformation (or illusion,
hua ). Having fallen into hell, Vasu taught the sentient beings undergoing extreme suffering (again hua, but in the sense of transforming them by
teaching), made them give rise to the thought of seeking enlightenment
and caused them to come out of hell. It was at this point that bodhisattva
Huaju had come from the east to this sah world and emitted light. Looking for the source of this light, the sinners in hell, too, came to this sah
world, where they met the Buddha himself. Hearing this, Majur praised
Vasu and his great skill-in-means (i.e., skillful teaching). The questions
that had arisen in the minds of the five hundred disciples who were present at kyamunis teaching were resolved (644c4). riputras question
mentioned earlier is now answered with a story set in the past.
In this elaboration of the core dhra story the effect of the practice is
understood exclusively as liberation from sin and its consequences. And it
is interesting to note that here liberation from sin, as represented by the
figure of the hell-being Vasu and his retinue, is accomplished by insisting
that the sin or the sinner is only a matter of illusory appearance. Liberation from sin appears to be reduced to the realization of this ultimate
truth. The narrative of hell is an example of teaching with skill-in-means.
I propose that though the story is told as a continuing narrative, a fundamentally different conception of sin has now been introduced. The covering of Mras in the Mahtantra Dhra story is real, and the dhra has
the power to remove it by converting these demonic beings to the path of
seeking enlightenment. In contrast, the sin of Vasu, and seemingly of his
retinue as well, was illusory and it is the realization of this truth that liberates one from sin. I suggest that it is this shift that is reflected in the new
and recognizably Mahyna name Dafangdeng given to the dhra.
Shangshous Instruction to Gaga
As noted above, the story of Vasu is framed as the Buddhas response to
the questions that arose in the minds of riputra, five hundred great
disciples and others in the audience when they saw Leiyin and Huaju at
the side of the Buddha (643b46). After the uncertainty on the part of
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the five hundred great disciples was resolved through the story of Vasu,
Leiyin rose from his seat and spoke to the Buddha (644c6). Then follows
the exchange between Leiyin, who had just arrived, and the Buddha. An
elaborate story about the past is told and the dhra teaching is translated into a new discourse on precepts.
Leiyin first recapitulated the story of meditating at Jetavana, being covered by Mra kings, bodhisattva Huajus arrival and the conquest of the
Mras. In a vision Leiyin saw Huaju standing before him, and then he
saw the Buddhas of the Ten Directions, on seven-jewel lotus seats in the
sky; he also saw Mra kings surrounding Huaju. A voice was heard telling
Leiyin to offer flowers to those deities, and Leiyin rose and paid respect
to them. Leiyin also saw heavenly kings in the sky to whom flowers had
been offered. The deities also presented flowers to Leiyin (644c). Leiyin
spoke to Huaju of kyamuni in Jetavana and thus the two made their
way to the Jetavana.
Following this recapitulation, Leiyin posed his question to the
Buddha. Leiyin asked why, due to what causes and conditions (he yinyuan
), the bodhisattva, namely Huaju, had come and why he rescued him (644c2728). In Buddhist sources such a question is typically
answered by telling a story of the distant past and then identifying the
characters in that story with those who are present at the time of the
Buddhas teaching. In the present context the Buddhas response begins
with a long story from the distant past about the instruction given by
someone named Shangshou to monk Gaga (644c20646b24), and
then unfolds further into a story from the yet more distant past that this
Shangshou in turn tells Gaga (646c3647a20). The answer to Leiyins
question appears only in this second story. In the first story the instruction on dhra practice is connected to the familiar themes of Mahyn
teaching, such as emptiness and the six perfections. Then an extended
discussion on precepts follows. Since neither the issue of emptiness nor
of precepts is a part of the original Leiyin story, this section seems to be a
later insertion intended to situate the dhra teaching within the larger
context of Buddhist doctrines and monastic practice.
The first story that the Buddha told Leiyin is also set in the distant past, at the time of the Sandalwood Flower (zhantanhua )
Buddha. Bodhisattva Shangshou had assumed the form of a beggar and
was begging for food in the city. Monk Gaga asked the beggar where he
had come from, and the beggar responded that he had come from the
True Reality (zhenshi ; 645a11). A doctrinal discussion of this True
Reality ensued. This is a version of the familiar discourse on emptiness
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koichi shinohara
(All is empty, 645a16). Shangshou explains that all dharmas are real
because they are empty, and that one seeks the truth (shifa ) by practicing the six perfections, of generosity, good conduct, patient acceptance,
vigor, meditation, and wisdom (645a2224). When Shangshou finished the
discourse, Gaga, delighted, paid respect to him and asked what food he
could offer him. Shangshou said that the food of the gods (sudh) should
be offered. A complex story follows.
The monk Gaga went around the city, offering to sell his body to whoever needed it.19 When a layman called Binul bought him for
five coins, Gaga asked him to show him the location of his house, promising him to return there after seven days. Gaga returned to the city,
and seeing Shangshou still begging, bought a variety of food and other
offerings and presented them to him. Shangshou then said to Gaga that
it was now the right time to teach him the teaching of truth (shifa) that
he had received from all the Buddhas (645b1112). Shangshou then taught
the Dhra Verse (tuoluoni zhangju).
Thus the core of Shangshous instruction turns out to be the same
dhra that was earlier called Mahtantra and Dafangdeng. The text of
the dhra in transcription appears again, though the first and second of
the three parts of the dhra are now reversed in order from the earlier
presentation (645b). What is given here, then, is an earlier history of this
same dhra.
Shangshou then told Gaga that when someone wishes to hear the
dhra, Gaga should appear in front of the person in a dream. If that
person sees him in a dream, Gaga should teach him or her this teaching
of truth (shifa), namely the dhra practice (645b2325). This restriction
corresponds to the earlier instruction to Huaju that he could teach the
dhra only to a person who had seen the twelve dream kings (642a11
13). Shangshou also described a seven-day practice (645b26c2). One
19This story of a bodhisattva selling his body in the city is modeled after the story of
Sadprarudita in the Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines (Adaashasrikp
rajpramit), The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its Verse Summary,
trans. Edward Conze (Bolinas, CA: Four Seasons Foundation, 1973), XXX, 277290. The
chapter on this bodhisattva appears in Kumrajvas translation Xiaopin baruo boluonijing
as chapter 27, T. 227: 8.580a584a. The name of the Buddha in whose
presence Sadprarudita is said to lead the holy life, Bhismagarjitanirghoasvara appears as
Leiyin weiwang fo in Kumrajvas translation. The Dafangdeng tuoluni jing
mentions the Buddha of the past Leiyin wang in the list of the Buddhas
in section 2 (T. 1339: 21. 650c5). These parallels suggest that the authors and editors of the
Dafangdeng tuoluoni jing were familiar with the Sadprarudita chapter of the Perfection of
Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines scripture.
263
bathes and puts on fresh clothes three times each day, places in a special
spot a Buddha image with a five-colored umbrella over it, and recites the
Dhra Verse 120 times while circumambulating the image 120 times.
Then one sits and reflects. After that one again recites the Dhra Verse.
This is to be done for seven days.20 The message of Shangshous instruction so far appears to be that the truth of emptiness, more conventionally
sought through the laborious practice of the six perfections, is now realized through reciting the dhra in front of an image.
But Shangshous instruction then takes an unexpected turn (starting at
645c2). At the point where dhra instructions typically begin to describe
the benefits of the spell in other sources, a list of offences appears and
in each case it is emphatically noted that one will be spared the consequences of the particular offence, presumably by reciting the dhra in
the way specified here. The idea that the recitation of a dhra results
in the removal of sin is here translated into the more legalistic language
of the monastic codes or vinayas and the monastic precepts. The familiar formula of Five Grave Offences, along with other lists of offences and
precepts is mentioned, and it is noted over and over that if one singlemindedly repents these offences, the sin is removed.
At this point Shangshou describes the 24 major (grave) precepts
(ershisi zongjie ). The 24 bodhisattva precepts mentioned
earlier (645c5) are now discussed one by one and the ceremony of receiving them in front of 24 or more images is described (646b1324).21 These
grave bodhisattva precepts appear to be intended for lay people. The first
grave precept, for example, is violated when someone refuses to accommodate the wishes of hungry ghosts and other sentient beings who seek
food, drink and bedding (645c910). If someone criticizes monks who
keep wives and have children, this is an offence against the third precept
(645c1113). This more detailed explanation of the 24 precepts appears
immediately after the passage in which the recitation of the Dhra Verse
is said to serve as the unfailing remedy for violations of different types of
precepts. The 24 bodhisattva precepts are mentioned in this preceding
passage (654c5), suggesting that the dhra may be employed against any
of the 24 grave violations of the precepts described in detail here.
20The eighth and the fifteenth of the month are mentioned, possibly marking the
beginning and the end of the period (645c12).
21Those who uphold the precepts will be reborn [in the Buddha land] (suiyi wangsheng
)(646b23).
264
koichi shinohara
Shangshous instruction continues into fascicle 2. At the beginning of

fascicle 2 the scene again briefly shifts back to the Buddha, who is speaking to Leiyin. The Buddha observed that Leiyin still did not understand
the matter and proposed to tell a story (the original cause and conditions
of the past, wangxi yinyuan benshi , 646c34). In fact, as
noted above, so far the Buddha had only described how Shangshou had
given the dhra to Gaga and explained its efficacy in removing the
consequences of the violation of the precepts (including those of the distinctive set of 24 precepts). The Buddha had still not answered the question Leiyin had posed to him at the outset of their exchange, namely why
had Huaju come to Leiyins rescue. Here the Buddha resumes the discussion of causes and conditions more directly. The Buddha does this by following Shangshous instruction further and telling a new story. The topic
of the story is the wonderful precepts (miaojie ), which appears to
refer to the 24 precepts described at the end of fascicle 1. What is offered
here appears to be an earlier history of these 24 precepts.22
It is now Shangshou who speaks of the Buddha Sandalwood Flower as
belonging to the past (646c5; ref., 645a7).23 The king of the land in which
this Buddha taught, called Jewel Sandalwood (baozhantan ), had
a brother called Linguo . The king and the brother thought that they
would uphold the wonderful precepts that they had received from past
Buddhas, as many as the number of sands in 92 kois of Ganges rivers,
and that they would have their princes also follow these precepts. At the
moment they entertained this thought a miraculous vision occurred. An
infinite number of Buddhas appeared and praised the king and his brother.
The king and his brother rose, and paying respect to the feet of the Buddhas, called in the princes one by one. The king and the brother asked the
princes whether they wished to accept the wonderful precepts that the
king and the brother had received from an infinite number of Buddhas,
and the princes were delighted and agreed to accept the precepts.
At this point the king and his brother used their supernatural powers
and made the princes see an infinite number of the Buddhas in the sky.
The princes paid respect to them and sought to receive the marvelous
22Elements of this complex narrative may have had separate histories of their own and
may well not have been related with each other originally. I am attempting a coherent
reading of the text of the present scripture in which these elements are placed side by side,
presumably as the design imposed by the editor of the existing scripture.
23There appears to be some confusion, since earlier it is said that it was at the time of
this Buddha that the exchange between Shangshou and Gaga took place (645a7, 9).
265
precepts. The Buddhas approved in silence, and the princes repeated the
request a second and third time. The princes performed self-immolation
and after eighty-four thousand world ages of serving the Buddhas they
reappeared from the ground (probably from the ground where they
had been buried), looked up to the Buddhas and requested that they be
allowed to receive the precepts. It was then that the Buddhas are said to
have conferred the wonderful precepts on them.
In this way, the story of Shangshous instruction to Gaga about the
dhra that had been given earlier concludes with a story about ordination, that is, receiving the precepts.24 At this point Shangshou (leader)
explained that he had been the leader (shangshou) among those princes
(who received the precepts) (647a4). Gaga was the second among the
princes.
After summarizing Shangshous instruction to Gaga, the Buddha
explained that Shangshou at that time was todays Huaju and Gaga then
was Leiyin (647a). The Sandalwood Flower Buddha then was the Jewel
King Buddha to the east. Linguo was the Buddha kyamuni (647a14). The
princes then (646c7) were the one thousand Buddhas of the World Age
of the Wise. The 92 kois of heavenly beings then became the 92 kois
of Mras (747a16, ref., 641c25). They covered Leiyin, so that the Buddha
would tell this story of the past (causes and conditions), and teach the
Dafangdeng Dhra Scripture (647a1819).
In this elaborate story the Dafangdeng Dhra practice is intimately
connected with the correct observance of the distinctive set of 24 bodhisattva precepts. I read this story as an attempt to explain the efficacy of this
dhra in terms of the more familiar Buddhist teaching of precepts. If
the precepts that monks normally receive upon ordination enable them
to progress on the path toward salvation, then the unusual precepts that
the princes received through the king Jewel Sandalwood and his brother
Linguo could have the same and perhaps an even more powerful effect.
But the relevance of the dhra teaching has changed. It is now linked
to the practice of the precepts in such a way that it has the potential
to supplant them, since it guarantees freedom from the consequences of
violating them. In theory it now should be possible not to observe the
precepts at all and just to practice the dhra, which removes all sin. We
shall see that in the later discussion of precepts in section 4, ordination is
24The ritual of receiving the 24 precepts in front of 24 images is described in some

detail in (646b1224).
266
koichi shinohara
no longer mentioned and the use of dhras in repentance is highlighted

once more.
The explanation that Huaju was bodhisattva Shangshou and was the
first among the princes who received the precepts, and that Leiyin was
the monk Gaga whom he instructed and was also the second prince
must also have been intended as the answer to Leiyins original question
(why did Huaju come to rescue Leiyin?). Huaju came to rescue Leiyin
as Shangshou had taught Gaga; they also had received the same set of
precepts from king Jewel Sandalwood and his brother. They thus had a
profound karmic connection from the past.
The last part of section 1 of this scripture describes the transmission
of the scripture itself, as we often see in Mahyna scriptures. This part
of the four-fascicle scripture, covering fascicle 1 and the first part of
fascicle 2, is thus constructed as a complete Mahyna scripture in itself.
The Buddha entrusted this scripture to nanda (647a24).25
Section 5: The New Conclusion
The present Dafangdeng tuoluoni jing consists of five sections. My hypothesis is that section 1 (641a648a), discussed above, existed independently
as an earlier form of this scripture. The extended account of entrusting this
scripture to nanda toward the end of this section (647b648a) marked
the end of this earlier dhra scripture.
Section 5 of the four-fascicle scripture, designated Miraculous Lotus
Flower, begins with an extended story about a miraculous lotus flower that
appears from the ground, but this story is framed within the larger story of
the entrusting of the dhra scripture to nanda. This story thus overlaps
the earlier story of entrusting the text to nanda that is found at the end of
the first section. At the core of this new instruction is the explanation that
the Buddha taught the dhra scripture three times, first to address the suffering of sentient beings, secondly to protect the Buddhas teaching against
the evil ones (Mras), and thirdly to bring all sentient beings to nirva.
The same teaching is taught three times as a form of skill-in-means to save
sentient beings (659c26660a3). The author of this explanation in section 5
25nanda had been mentioned earlier, at 643a21, when he was attending upon the
Buddha when Huaju and Leiyin came to the Buddha. nanda is not mentioned in the
opening section describing the audience of the Buddhas teaching.
267
thus appears to have been aware of the earlier passage on entrusting the
scripture to nanda (at the end of section 1) and here is attempting to
explain away the apparent incongruity that a scripture that concluded
once with the instruction on entrusting the scripture to nanda is continued further and is now concluding with another instruction to entrust
the scripture to nanda!
I suggest that with the assistance of these incongruities we can recover
the crucial steps of the evolution of this somewhat messy text. The core
story, in which the dhra was called Mahtantra Dhra, was first
expanded into a Mahyna scripture, which renamed the dhra as
Dafangdeng dhra (present section 1). That scripture was then further
enlarged as certain themes in it were elaborated and other themes were
introduced. I turn now to some of these other themes that I have not yet
discussed. These include the prediction of future Buddhahood (section 2),
the twelve dreams and the seven-day rituals associated with them (section 3), and the use of the dhra in connection with the precepts (section 4). The new concluding section summarized here (section 5) would
have turned all this added material into a newer expanded scripture.26
Section 2: The Predictions
This section is titled Prediction of Attaining Buddhahood, and the first
part of this section is devoted to stories of the predictions that the Buddha gives to different groups of beings. The Buddhas instruction begins
first by predicting Buddhahood for Leiyin (648a28b10), the five hundred
disciples (648b1018), and the heavenly deities in the four directions and
above and below (648b18c14). In the immediately preceding passage
on the entrusting of the dhra to nanda, the dhra was praised as
bringing about liberation and the destruction of sin for all sentient beings
(647a2627). But the language of the prediction of future Buddhahood
did not appear in this earlier discussion, and I suggest that in section 2
this earlier characterization of the fruit of the dhra, as liberation and
removal of sins, is deliberately expanded by introducing this new distinctly Mahyna discourse of the prediction of future Buddhahood.
The discussion in section 2 continues. Hungry ghosts and asuras
(demons) arrive and receive the Buddhas teaching, give rise to the thought
26The last part of section 5 makes the claim that this dhra should not be used for
this-worldly purposes such as healing. The dhra is to be used for the soteriological purpose of liberation from the suffering of the Three Worlds (660c1920).
268
koichi shinohara
of seeking Ultimate Enlightenment, and become monks (649a69). The

Buddha then teaches them the Mahtantra Dhra and these monks
attain arhatship and supernatural knowledge and powers as well as the
meditative states of something called the Eight Liberations. A discourse
on the extraordinary merits of the dhra follows (649a13b24).27 This
long passage thus spells out the efficacy of the dhra explicitly as the
future attainment of Buddhahood and other attainments along the way
to that ultimate goal.
At this point, a new distinctly Mahyna discourse on the meaning
of prediction appears. Majur is said to have asked the Buddha about
the ultimate message (meaning) of the Dafangdeng Dhra Scripture (649b27). As Majur posed the question about the prediction of
enlightenment (shouji) to the Buddha, riputra rephrased the question
as a question to Majur and then Majur responded to riputras
question in the familiar manner of the Perfection of Wisdom discourse
on emptiness. Majur challenged riputras assumption that the prediction of enlightenment in the future is something that one can get
de (649c19). Since the prediction transcends form, language, distinctions, etc., it is impossible to get it, as it is impossible for a dead tree to
sprout leaves, etc. This prediction is like empty space, colorless, shapeless;
it is like floating cloud without a core, or wind that has no body, and so
on. The exchange on the emptiness of dharma nature (649c29) continues in increasingly abstract terms (650a). I propose to read this exchange
on emptiness as a gloss on the term dafangdeng (mahvaipulya), a term
closely affiliated with Mahyna teaching. After this renaming, a recognizable dhra teaching, which was already understood as producing saving
knowledge or enlightenment, can now be reconfigured into a discourse
on emptiness. This is an example of the way in which this text endeavors
to make a place for both dhra practice and normative discourse and
practice. We have already seen in section 1 on the precepts that dhra
practice had the potential to subvert normative teaching. Section 2 tries
to give that normative teaching the upper hand; the ultimate meaning of
the dhra scripture is doctrinal.
27A seven-day practice at a monastery is mentioned in this passage.
269
Sections 2 and 3: Dream Rituals and Lay Practice

Early in section 1, in the first fascicle, the Jewel King Buddha to the East
instructed bodhisattva Huaju that he could teach the dhra only to
those who had seen the twelve dream kings (642a1013), and though here
dream kings appear to refer to specific types of dreams, a list of Twelve
Mra Kings also appeared later (642c2124). Section 3 is specifically designated as a section on dreams and practices. It begins with a list of twelve
types of dreams, identifying the specific dream king affiliated with each
dream (652a). The names of these kings in section 3 match those that
have appeared in section 1. In the opening paragraph in section 3, those
who had seen these dream kings are instructed to perform a seven-day
ceremony. A detailed description of the seven-day ritual appears in section 3 immediately after the section on the twelve dream kings.28 On
each day as one makes offerings to the Mahtantra Dhra and recites
it, visions of different deities appear at the ritual space: bodhisattva Huaju
and Avalokitevara on the first day, Tathgata Jewel King and kyamuni
on the second day, Vipayin Buddha, the first of the past seven Buddhas,
and bodhisattva kagarbha on the third day, ikhin Buddha, the second
of the past seven, on the fourth day, Vivabh, the third of the seven, on
the fifth day, Kongama Buddha, the fifth of the seven, and the Seven
Buddhas on the sixth day, and all the Buddhas in all Ten Directions, each
accompanied by Buddhas as many as the sands of the Ganges on the seventh day. This part of section 3 appears to have been carefully constructed
providing details that the compiler felt were missing, or had not been adequately developed, in the earlier treatment in section 1.
Avalokitevara and the past seven Buddhas appear and play important
roles in the elaborate description of the ritual of reciting the Mahtantra
Dhra that appeared in the last part of section 2, following the discussion of the prediction of future Buddhahood and merits of the dhra
summarized above (650b1651b16). These deities, along with Amityus
and other Buddhas are said to appear in visions (650c34 and 651a10).
I suspect that this last part of section 2 and the opening part of section
3, now broken up into two sections, had formed a coherent and more
28In the second origin story of the dhra given as a part of the instruction by
Shangshou to monk Gaga, the practice of the dhra is described as a seven-day ritual
(645bc).
270
koichi shinohara
obviously continuous unit at an earlier stage in the development of this

scripture.29
As it now stands, section 3 is distinguished from the new discussion
in section 2 that begins abruptly after the exchange on the prediction of
the future attainment of Buddhahood. The five hundred great disciples
tell the Buddha that the Evil Ones (Mras) would come to destroy the
good karma of the person who carries out the Buddhas instructions
(650b13). The Buddha describes the attack of Mras army vividly and
then says that one should mentally recite the Mahtantra Dhra, and
call out to kyamuni Buddha, dharma princes Majur, kagarbha,
Avalokitevara and others. These deities will then come to protect the
person. At this point nanda asks the Buddha how to make offerings to,
or worship, these deities when they arrive (650b1819). In the Buddhas
answer Avalokitevara is said to arrive taking on different forms, and furthermore, he tells how those who put the scripture to practice will see the
following Buddhas: Amityus, kyamuni, the past six Buddhas individually named, the Buddha King Leiyin, and the Buddha Storehouse of Secret
Teachings (650c35). If they repent sincerely in front of these Buddhas,
they will be free of all the sins they committed in the course of 92 kois
of previous lives (650c6). If they repent further and make offerings to the
Buddhas, they will see the lands of bliss in the Ten Directions (650c9). The
vision is to be kept secret (650c10).
The Buddhas instruction to nanda on the dhra practice continues.
A distinct interpretation of the monastic path is presented. When one
wishes to renounce the householders life he must ask his parents for permission, saying that he wishes to practice the dhras (650c1516). If his
parents do not grant permission, and reject his request three times, the
young man can recite the spell in his own residence. Women may arrive
at the place where he is reciting and even touch his clothing, but it will
not matter. The important thing is for him to remain free from attachment
29Section 2 concludes with a discussion of the reviling of the scripture, which is to
take place either while I (the Buddha) am still in the world or after I have left the world
(651b17). This expression again appears at the beginning of section 3 (652a3), suggesting
again that the last part of section 2 and the opening part of section 3 are closely related
with each other. Later, in section 3, the instruction for the second days ritual is qualified
explicitly as a teaching for the time after the Buddha had left the world (652c7, 910).
As we noted above, the Seven Past Buddhas and Avalokitevara play prominent roles
in other dhra scriptures. Their somewhat abrupt introduction into the Dafangdeng
Dhra Scripture at this point suggests that popular themes in other dhra scriptures
were somewhat artificially synthesized with the core dhra instruction in the earlier part
of the scripture (section 1).
271
to women (651a8). He does not have to shave his head, and in the discussion of his three robes (651a1824), only one of these is called the robe of
a renouncer, while the other two are called lay-peoples clothing. One of
these two is to be worn on the way to the place of practice and the other
is to be worn at the place of practice. Though clothed in the language
of the monastic path, the text is clearly here talking about a practice for
laymen.
Visions are mentioned at different points in this instruction. If the person practices following the procedure outlined here, within seven days,
Avalokitevara will appear either in his dream or when the practitioner
is awake and will teach him (651a1011). When nanda asked for confirmation of the truth of the Buddhas teaching, the seven past Buddhas
appeared and told him that all the Buddhas in the past, present, and
future attain their enlightenment through this teaching. He then disappeared (651b25).
The significance of this section is unmistakable. Here dhra practice
is offered as an alternative to becoming a monk. Traditionally, a son cannot renounce without the permission of his parents. In this section of
the text, the parents of a would-be renouncer refuse to allow their son to
renounce. Instead he remains a lay person, observing special practices. He
does not shave his head, but he wears distinctive clothing. He does not
separate himself from secular society and may even come into contact
with women. Nonetheless, he recites the dhra faithfully and is granted
a vision of Avalokitevara and the promise of achieving enlightenment,
the ultimate goal of Buddhist monastic practice. As it expands, this text
is challenging and undermining existing monastic practice while at the
same time it promotes the alternative of dhra recitation.
Section 4: Precepts Again
This section is titled Guarding Precepts, and begins with a question that
Majur poses to the Buddha (656b14). This passage overlaps with the
passage in section 1 where bodhisattva Shangshou had explained to monk
Gaga that the consequences of grave offences and violations of precepts
could be nullified by proper ritual recitation of the dhra (645c27). In
Shangshous instruction in section 1 this comment was followed by presenting twenty-four bodhisattva precepts. In section 4 Majur begins
with a similar list of offences, and then asks the Buddha how such grave
sins can be removed after the Buddha has left the world (656b4). The Buddha observes that after he has left the world, evil monks who have violated
272
koichi shinohara
the Four Grave Prohibitions will be reborn in hell and suffer. The Buddha then offers something called the good medicine. This medicine is a
dhra and is presented as the teaching of innumerable numbers of the
past seven Buddhas. Extended instructions for carrying out repentance,
first for violating the Four Grave Prohibitions (namely, the eight prjikas
for monks) and then the Eight Great Prohibitions (the eight prjikas for
nuns) follow. The guiding principle in this discussion appears to be, as in
the section on precepts in section 1, that the appropriate recitation of the
dhra can cancel the sins produced by violating these rules (656b).
The last part of the Buddhas instruction to Majur in section 4 lists
seven sets of five prohibitions, intended only for lay people (657bc).
Those who have renounced the world are not bound by these prohibitions (657c20). The Buddha compares them to mothers protective care
over children. The Buddha concludes his instruction in this section with
a discourse on skill-in-means (658a5). The message here appears to be
that the prohibitions listed, and by extension, the precepts in general, are
to be understood as examples of the Buddhas exercise of skill-in-means.
The implication of this is that they are not absolutely binding, but are a
tool that can be set aside. The focus has moved away from the monastic teaching of precepts, around which the conventional discourse on sin
and repentance was focused, to a distinctive presentation of rules for the
laity. The text then relativized even these rules by describing them as skillin-means. We noted earlier that in section 1, the 24 precepts that were
spelled out in some detail also appeared to be intended for lay practitioners, but in that context the discussion of precepts had unfolded into
a story about the ordination of the many princes. Ordination and the
monastic life were still important. If we read the discussion in section 4
as a further elaboration of the treatment of precepts that had occurred
in section 1, then we might well conclude that in this new discussion the
precepts and ordination have further receded in importance. Assimilated
to rules for lay followers, called mere skill-in-means, connected to dhra
practice that nullifies the effects of any violation, the monastic precepts
have now entirely lost their former centrality to the Buddhist path. This
is consistent with what we observed in section 3.
Conclusions
I began this paper with a brief review of dhras as spells for worldly
gain and as soteriological tools, noting that the language of sin and
273
repentance had appeared early in the ritual texts that teach dhran recitations. I then turned to one puzzling and complicated text, the Dafang
tuoluni jing, in an effort to uncover some of the profound ramifications
that the connection between spell recitation and the removal of sin was
to have. As understood in the hypothetical reconstruction proposed here,
several important shifts occurred as this text developed. Most obviously
the view of the dhras power underwent major changes. In the core
narrative the dhra was understood simply as a tool or weapon that
overcame evil beings and converted them to the Buddhas teaching. But
as the core teaching came to be framed as a Mahyna scripture, the
dhras power to remove sin became a major theme. This power was
explained partly by deconstructing sin as ultimately illusory, but also by
repeatedly highlighting the dhras power to remove the gravest of sins
by giving the sinner the opportunity to repent in front of the Buddhas
who appear in visions.
A second major change is in the connection that is made between the
dhra, as a means to eradicate sin, and the monastic precepts. There
were well-established rituals of confession and repentance within Buddhist monasteries.30 This text offers dhra recitation as an alternative to
these well-established rituals. It claims that the offences against the rules,
and particularly offenses of the most grave kind, could be expiated through
dhra practice. The idea that recitation of dhras brings about visions
of the Buddhas and that these visions removed all the sins accumulated
through numerous past rebirths had appeared in early dhra scriptures.
Now these sins include violations of the monastic rules and dhra practice is offered as a replacement for conventional rituals of repentance.
There is a third important change in the text that further undermines
the integrity of the monastery and its rules. We have seen that the text
offers rules for lay people and even permits a lay person who is unable
to renounce to follow the dhra practice and achieve the goals once
reserved for renunciants. Perhaps nothing makes clearer the subversive
potential of dhrai practice than these changes.
The Dafang tuoluni jing is not the only text in which more conventional rituals of repentance were replaced by dhra recitation. In later
Esoteric texts other rituals, of initiation, for example, came to have the
30A brief summary based on the Pli vinaya is found in Wijayaratna, Buddhist Monastic
Life, According to the Texts of the Theravda Tradition (Cambridge [England]: Cambridge
University Press, 1990), 143152.
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koichi shinohara
same effects.31 But the story began with dhra rituals and the eradication of sin, and it was a complex story, as the case of the Dafang tuoluni
jing amply indicates.
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Chusheng wubianmen tuoluoni jing . T. 1018.
Chusheng wubianmen tuoluoni jing . T. 1009.
Dajiyi shenzhou jing . T. 1335.
Guanfo sanmeihai jing . T. 643.
Guoqing bolu , compiled by Guanding . T. 1934.
Liuzi shenzhouwang jing . T. 1045a
Liuzi shenzhouwang jing . T. 1045b.
Liuzi zhouwang jing , T. 1044.
The Mahvastu. vols. 16, 18, 19. Sacred books of the Buddhists. London: Pali Text Society,
1949.
Mohe zhiguan , dictated by Zhiyi and recorded by Guanding
. T. 1912.
The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its Verse Summary. Translated by
Edward Conze. Bolinas, CA.: Four Seasons Foundation, 1973.
Pusa benxing jing. T. 155.
Qifo bapusa suoshuo datuoluoni shenzhou jing (The
Divine Spells of the Great Dhras Taught by Seven Buddhas and Eight Bodhisattvas).
T. 1332.
Qing Guanyinjing shu , dictated by Zhiyi and recorded by Guanding
. T. 1800.
Shelifu tuoluoni jing . T. 1016.
Wuliangmen weimichi jing (). T. 1011.
Xiaopin baruo boluoni jing . T. 227.
Yixiang chusheng pusa jing . T. 1017.
Secondary Sources
Abe, Ryichi. The Weaving of Mantra: Kkai and the Construction of Esoteric Buddhist Discourse. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
Donner, Neal Arvid and Stevenson, Daniel B. The Great Calming and Contemplation:
A Study and Annotated Translation of the First Chapter of Chih-Is Mo-Ho Chih-Kuan.
Classics in East Asian Buddhism. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993.
Indo Bukky Koy Meishi Jiten . Kyoto: Hzkan, 1967.
31For example, in the large scripture for Amoghapa, Bukong juansuo shenbian zhenyan jing , fascicle 9, T. 1092: 20.272a.
275
Nattier, Jan. A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations: Texts from the Eastern
Han and Three Kingdoms Periods. Tokyo: International Research Institute for Advanced
Buddhology, Soka University, 2006.
Oda Tokun . Bukky Daijiten . Tokyo: kura Shoten, 1928.
Sat, Tetsuei . Tendai Daishi No Kenky: Chigi No Chosaku Ni Kansuru Kisoteki
Kenky : . Kyoto: Hyakkaen, 1979.
Strickmann, Michel. The Consecration Stra: A Buddhist Book of Spells. In Chinese Buddhist Apocrypha, 75118. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990.
Wijayaratna, Mhan. Buddhist Monastic Life: According to the Texts of the Theravda Tradition. Cambridge (England): Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Redeeming Bugs, Birds, and Really Bad Sinners in Some

Medieval Mahyna Stras and Dhras
Gregory Schopen
Although the mass of medieval Mahyna stras and dhras have been
shamefully understudied, it is already clear from both manuscript material and inscriptions that some of these texts were widely known, and
actually used in the medieval Buddhist world of South and Central Asia.1
And although the contents and characteristics of these texts have been
largely ignored, if not carefully avoided, it is already clear that they have
much in common in terms of their linguistic shape, and that certain
themes are repeated over and over again. One such theme, it seems, is the
redemption of those unfortunates who have been reborn as bugs or birds,
or those who deserve to go to hell. The following passage may serve as a
first and particularly startling example.
athryyvalokitevaro bodhisatvo mahsatvas tasmt sihaladvpd
avatryya vrasym mahnagaryym uccraprasrvasthne gato
yatrnekni kmikulaatashasri prativasanti // tatrvalokitevaro
bodhisatvo mahsatva upasakramya tatra sa tni priatasahasri
dvtmna bhramararpam abhinirmmya ghuneghuyamna
tad-e[s] abdan nicrayati // namo buddhya namo dharmmya
nama saghya iti // tac chrutv te ca sarvve prik namo buddhya
namo dharmmya nama saghyeti nmam anu<ni>crayati //
te ca sarvve buddhnmasmaraamtrea viatiikharasamudgata
saskyadiaila jnnavajrea bhitv sarve te sukhvaty lokadhtv
upapann sugandhamukh nma bodhisatv babhvu sarvve te bhagavato
1For some welcome recent exceptions to the general neglect of these kinds of sources
see Gergely Hidas, Remarks on the Use of the Dhras and Mantras of the MahpratisarMahvidyrjn, in Indian Languages and Texts through the Ages. Essays of Hungarian
Indologists in Honour of Prof. Csaba Tttssy, ed. Csaba Dezs (New Delhi: Manohar,
2007), 185207; Ingo Strauch, Two Stamps with The Bodhigarbhlakralaka Dhra
from Afghanistan and Some Further Remarks on the Classification of Objects with the ye
dharm Formula, in Prajndhara. Essays on Asian Art, History, Epigraphy and Culture in
Honour of Gouriswar Bhattacharya, ed. Gerd J.R. Mevissen and Arundhati Banerji (New
Delhi: Kaveri Books, 2009), 1: 3656; for East Asia and a richness not (yet) within reach for
India see Richard McBride, Dhra and Spells in Medieval Sinitic Buddhism, Journal of
the International Association of Buddhist Studies 28, No. 1 (2005): 85114; Paul Copp, Altar,
Amulet, Icon: Transformations in Dhra Amulet Culture, 740980, Cahiers d ExtrmeAsie 17 (2008): 23964.
redeeming bugs, birds, and really bad sinners
277
mitbhasya tathgatasyntikd ida kraavyha mahyna

rutvnumodya ca nnadigbhyo {{daka}} vykaraa<<ni>> pratilabdhni //2
Those who read Sanskritbeing a rather fussy bunchwill probably

first notice here the many irregular or incorrect spellings and numerous
other infelicities in the text of this single relatively good manuscript. But
in spite of the fact that they would probably set Pinis teeth on edge
this is the shape in which such texts circulated and were presumably used,
and this is one of their characteristics. These features, however important,
become completely invisible in any translation.3
Then the Noble Avalokitevara, the Bodhisattva, the Mahsattva, having arrived from that Sihaladvpa went into a privy in the great city of
Vras in which several hundreds of thousands of swarms of bugs lived.
When Avalokitevara, the Bodhisattva, the Mahsattva, had approached and
had seen there those hundreds of thousands of living things he transformed
himself into a buzzing bee,4 and for them he emitted the sounds Homage
to the Buddha! Homage to the Dharma! Homage to the Sagha!
When those bugs heard that they all imitated it: Homage to the Buddha!
Homage to the Dharma! Homage to the Sagha! And they all, by merely
calling to mind the name Buddha, having smashed with the thunderbolt of
knowledge the mountain of the view of real individuality, which has twenty
peaks, were all reborn in the world-sphere Sukhvat as bodhisattvas named
Very Nice Smelling Breath. When they all had heard there in the presence
of the Buddha Amitbha, the Tathgata, this Kraavyha, the Mahyna,
and had rejoiced in it, they received predictions from the various directions.
This passage, as was probably obvious from its reference to itself, comes
from the Kraavyha Stra, a text which was known already at Gilgit
in at least two manuscripts,5 and was, to judge by the number of surviving manuscripts from the 14th to the 19th century, much copied, and
2The Sanskrit text here is cited from the careful transliteration of a 17th century
Nepalese manuscript in Adelheid Mette, Hg. Die Gilgitfragmente des Kraavyha
(Swisttal-Odendorf: Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 1997), 41.
3It is worth repeating here that a sophisticated knowledge of Sanskrit would not
have been required to write or read the vast majority of medieval Mahyna stras and
dhras, and may have been an impediment. Cf. John Newman, Buddhist Sanskrit in
the Klacakra Tantra, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 11, No. 1
(1988): 12340, for some examples of how the commentarial tradition tried to account for
the ungrammatical language of the Klacakra Tantra.
4Although bhramara certainly means bee, bees, especially in India, are not usually
associated with outhouses, (see Klaus Karttunen, Bhramarotptdhara: Bees in Classical
India, Studia Orientalia 107 (2009): 89133), and something more like fly may have been
intended. A reader of Indian literature might well have found the image incongruous.
5See Mette, Die Gilgitfragmente des Kraavyha, 11, based on the identification of
the second manuscript by Oskar von Hinber. Although only a single leaf of the second
278
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in at least in that sense used, in the late medieval South Asian Buddhist
world. It was also, according to one account, the first text to arrivequite
unexpectedlyin Tibet: It was in a casket with some other things that
fell from the sky onto the then palace. Although details of the damage
this might have done to the building have not survived, Rolf Stein reports
that These gifts from heaven were preserved as treasure without being
understood.6
Even before the more than 120 manuscripts of the text catalogued by
the German Nepal Manuscript Preservation Project were known it was
already clear that the Kraavyha wasfrom our point of viewa
mess: textually, linguistically, and compositionally. Constantin Regamey,
after working for more than twenty years with only a comparatively small
number of manuscripts, arrived only at what he called exasperating
results, and was not able to force his material into the shape of what we
call a critical edition.7 He noted, for example, that all the Nepalese manuscripts...present divergences nearly at every phrase, that the language
in which the text is redacted is extremely incorrectothers have called
it horrible Sanskrit, or suggested that the author or compiler of the text
lacked full command of Sanskrit8and finally he said: The composition
of the Kraavyha is very incoherent.
Regamey laments the presence of these features when in fact they may
provide us with very valuable socio-linguistic evidence bearing on the
nature or character of medieval South Asian Buddhist communities that
used the text, evidence that would also be concealed in any so-called critical edition.9 He also might leave the impression that the Kraavyha
is unique in having these features, when in fact it may only be a typical
example of this genre of medieval Buddhist literature. Certainly the characteristics of another widely used medieval Mahyna stra would seem
to suggest this.
manuscript seems to have survived, it is enough to show that the text was already circulating at Gilgit in two versions that did not have the same linguistic shape.
6Rolf A. Stein, La civilisation tibtaine. dition dfinitive (Paris: LAsiathque, 1987), 24.
7Constantin Regamey, Motifs vichnouites et ivates dans le Kraavyha, in tudes
tibtaines ddies la mmoire de Marcelle Lalou (Paris: Adrien Maisonneuve, 1971), 418.
8For boththe first quoted from P.L. Vaidyasee Adelheid Mette, Remarks on the
Tradition of the Kraavyha, in Aspects of Buddhist Sanskrit, ed. Kameshwar Nath
Mishra (Sarnath: The Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 1993), 513, 519, who
quotes many of the same remarks from Regamey as are quoted here.
9Characteristically, Regamey had already clearly recognized this: Une dition arbitrairement corrige aurait fauss loriginal prsum (Regamey, Motifs vichnouites et
ivates, 418).
279
Seven manuscripts containing Sanskrit texts of the Sagha Stra

were discovered at Gilgit, and an eighth has turned up that may also be
from there or perhaps Bamiyanno other text at Gilgit is represented by
so many manuscripts. Fragments of at least twenty-seven different manuscripts of the Khotanese translation of the Saghawhich Canevascini
thinks was done already in the first half of the 5th centuryhave survived.10 Six fragmentary manuscripts of a Sogdian version of the Sagha
are known and there is no other Buddhist Sogdian text for which so many
copies would be available.11 The Sagha then, like the Kraavyha,
would appear to have been a text that was widely copied and used in the
medieval Buddhist world, but the two share a number of other features
as well. Ifas Regamey saysthe composition of the Kraavyha is
very incoherent, that of the Sagha is very much more so. Its narrative
structure very often makes no sense, and Canevascinis notes show him
struggling valiantly to account for its abrupt and unmarked transitions,
arbitrary changes in speakers, and the lack of a discernable connection
between one part and another. If the manuscripts of the Kraavyha
present divergences nearly at every phrase, much the same is true of the
Sanskrit manuscripts of the Sagha, and these are much older manuscripts. This absence of fixed wording is also found in another text of this
genre, the Bhaiajyaguru Stra, that has also come down to us in at least
seven early manuscripts from Gilgit and Bamiyan, suggesting that texts
widely used in the medieval Buddhist world did not circulate in, or have,
a fixed form.12 Their contents too have created problems.
In speaking of the Sagha, for example, Canevascini has said, the
doctrinal portions of the text are almost non-existant, and the short doctrinal portions themselves...seem at times quite confused; Yakubovich
and Yoshida said: The most striking feature of [the] Sagha Stra is
10For both the Sanskrit and Khotanese manuscript material see Giotto Canevascini, The
Khotanese Saghastra. A Critical Edition (Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1993),
xiixv. The eighth Sanskrit manuscript of the Sagha is now in the Miho Museum.
11Ilya Yakubovich and Yutaka Yoshida, The Sogdian Fragments of Saghastra in
the German Turfan Collection, in Languages of Iran: Past and Present. Iranian Studies
in memoriam David Neil Mackenzie, ed. Dieter Weber, (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag,
2005), 239.
12The linguistic shape of the Bhaiajyaguru in these early manuscripts is treated in
some detail in Gregory Schopen, On the Absence of Urtexts and Otiose cryas: Buildings, Books, and Lay Buddhist Ritual at Gilgit, in crire et transmettre en Inde classique,
ed. Grard Colas et Gerdi Gerschheimer, (Paris: cole franaise dExtrme-Orient, 2009),
189219.
280
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the absence of any doctrinal content.13 What these scholars might consider doctrine is, of course, hard to know, but what their remarks may
have been trying to suggest is the all too obvious fact that the contents
of the Sagha Straand indeed a large group of Mahyna texts that
we know were widely and often actually used in the medieval Buddhist
worldcorrespond badly or not at all with what is presented in scholastic
doxographies or in our textbooks as Buddhist doctrine. It may not be,
however, that they have no doctrine, but rather that they have too much,
that doctrines are juxtaposed and delivered in such a way as to make a
shambles of our neat and tidy categories. The Kraavyha, and our initial passage, is a good example of this.
The Kraavyha is, first of all, a stra that looks in part like a
tantrain fact, some of the texts in this group are found twice in some
kanjurs, once in the stra section and once in the tantra section.14 The
Kraavyha is certainly a Buddhist text, but contains clearly visible
Vaishnavite and Shaivite motifs, to use Regameys term, and he already
long ago identified a quotation from the Skanda Purna in it.15 More narrowly, the short passage from the Kraavyha we started with juxtaposes a whole series of Buddhist doctrinal elements that we may think
have no connection. We do not normally associate the great Bodhisattva
Avalokitevara with outhouses, but there he is. We do not normally associate the scholastic doctrine of the twenty varieties of satkyadi or the
view of real individuality with devotional acts of homage, but here it is.
In mainstream sources, smashing these views results in the achievement
of the state of one who has entered the stream (srota-panna), but here
it results in rebirth in Sukhvat and not having halitosis.16 We normally
do not think that Amitbha teaches the Kraavyha in his Pure Land,
13Canevascini, The Khotanese Saghastra, xii; Yakubovich and Yoshida, The Sogdian Fragments of Saghastra, 239.
14See for example the amukh Dhra, and several of the texts found at Gilgit: The
Sarvadharmaguavyharja Stra, the Sarvatathgatdhihnasattvvalokanabuddhaketrasandaranavyha Stra, the rmahdevvykaraa, and the Bhaiajyaguru Stra. See
also the remarks at Ferdinand D. Lessing and Alex Wayman, Mkhas Grub Rjes Fundamentals of the Buddhist Tantras (The Hague: Mouton, 1968), 10911.
15Regamey, Motifs vichnouites et ivates, 431.
16For the satkyadis see Alex Wayman, The Twenty Reifying Views (sakkyadihi),
in Studies in Pali and Buddhism. A Memorial Volume in Honor of Bhikkhu Jagdish Kashyap,
ed. A.K. Narain (Delhi: B. R. Publishing, 1979), 37579; for dozens of occurrences of the
phrase viatiikharasamudgata satkyadiaila jnnavajrea bhittv in the stenciled
description of becoming a stream winner in the Mlasarvstivda vinaya and related
literature see Hiraoka Satoshi, Setsuwa no kkogaku: Indo Bukky setsuwa ni himerareta
shish (Tokyo: Daiz Shuppan, 2002), 18384.
281
nor that by merely rejoicing in it one will receive his prediction, and we
do not seem to like the idea that by merely calling to mind the name of
the Buddha one can move from being a bug to being a bodhisattva in
one fell swoop, but all of that happens here.17 And things like it happen
repeatedly in our group of texts. We will limit ourselves to a sample of
those dealing with bugs, birds, and very bad sinners.
As in the case of the Kraavyha, there are very large numbers of
surviving Sanskrit manuscripts of the Aparimityu Strathey probably run into the hundreds. There are also several surviving manuscripts
of a Khotanese version of the text, and many hundredsperhaps more
than a thousandcopies of the Tibetan translation found at Dunhuang.18
Konow, one of its first editors, characterizes the Aparimityu both as a
work that has...enjoyed great fame in the Buddhist world, and as this
dull text. But like the Kraavyhaalthough without its narrative
verve the Aparimityu also makes explicit provision for the redemption
of those unfortunate sinners who have been reborn as bugs, birds, and
animals. It promises that
ye tiryagyonigatn mgapaki karapue nipatiyati te sarve
anuttary samyaksabodhv abhisabodhim abhisambhotsyante.
On the ears of whatever creature, wild animal or bird the Aparimityu will
fall, they all will fully and completely awaken to utmost perfect awakening.19
Here of course it is not said when this will happen, but the move from
bird to Buddha appears to be entirely too abrupt. That move, moreover,
17That we are not the only ones uncomfortable with the results or effects that these
texts attribute to merely hearing the name would seem to be suggested by the fact that
some of these same texts refer to those who were not convinced. The Bhaiajyaguru Stra,
for example, says: ki tu bhadanta bhagavan santi sattv raddhendriyavikal ida
buddhagocara rutv eva vakyanti / katham etan nmadheyasmaraamtrea tasya
tathgatasya tvanto gunuas bhavanti / te na raddadhati na pattyanti pratikipanti /
(Nalinaksha Dutt, ed. Gilgit Manuscripts Vol. 1 (Srinagar: Calcutta Oriental Press, 1939)
21.9): But, Reverend Blessed One, there are individuals deficient in faculties of devotion.
When they have heard about this range of activities of an Awakened One they will speak in
this way: How can there be so many good qualities and blessings through merely recalling
the name of that Tathgata? They do not believe. They do not trust. They reject it.
18See for example Louis de la Valle Poussin, Catalogue of the Tibetan Manuscripts from
Tun-huang in the India Office Library (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962) especially
nos. 308310. The Sanskrit manuscripts in various collections have never yet been actually
counted.
19The Sanskrit text is cited from Sten Konow, The Aparimityu Stra. The Old Khotanese Version together with the Sanskrit Text and the Tibetan Translation, in Manuscript Remains of Buddhist Literature Found in Eastern Turkestan, ed. A.F. Rudolf Hoernle
(Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1916), 317. For his characterization of the text already quoted
see pp. 288, 294.
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requires no action on the part of the bird or beastthey appear as entirely

passive. They do not need even to listen actively to the textthe sound
simply has to fall on their ears. The redemptive action is not something
the redeemed does, but is something that is done to him, and this marked
passivity is found in a variety of forms in a large number of other medieval
Mahyna stras and dhras.
Both manuscripts and inscriptions make it clear that more or less variant
versions of the Uavijaya Dhra were used and circulated very widely
in the medieval Buddhist world. Even the great Vasubandhu, according to
some, used it for at least two purposes: to remove the great demerit he had
accumulated by disparaging the Mahyna before his conversion, and
since one of its effects was to lengthen lifehe recited the Uavijaya
backwards to end his own.20 An earlyc. 7th centurymanuscript of
one version entitled Sarvadurgatipariodhan-uavijaya, probably from
Gilgit, has recently come to light. It is of interest for several reasons, not
the least of which is the fact thatlike a significant number of other
examples of such textsthe manuscript and the text it carries have been
personalized, that is to say that where in a generic version of the text the
dhra says, using a pronoun, May there be the purification/cleansing
of my body!, the personalized text uses not just the pronoun but inserts
the name of an actual person and says, as in our example: May there be
the purification of my, Doyagaas body!21 More specific to our present
concerns, however, this text explicitly says:
tha na dud groi skye gnas su song bai srog chags byai rna lam du ang
gzungs dii sgra bsgrags par bya ste / des na dei ngan groi tha ma yin par
rig par byao /
The sound of this dhra should also be made to fall on the ears of birds, of
living things who have been reborn among animals. If so, on account of that,
this is to be known as their last unfortunate state of rebirth.22
20See E. Obermiller, trans. History of Buddhism (Chos-hbyung) by Bu-ston (Heidelberg:

Harrassowitz, 1932), 2:14445; Lama Chimpa and Alaka Chattopadhyaya, Tranthas History of Buddhism in India (Simla: Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, 1970), 170, 174;
Alexander W. Macdonald et Dvags-po Rin-po-che, Un guide peu lu des lieux-saints du
Npal. lIe Partie, in Tantric and Taoist Studies in Honor of R.A. Sten. Mlanges chinois
et bouddhiques, vol. 2022, ed. Michel Strickmann (Bruxelles: Institut Belge des Hautes
tudes Chinoises, 1981), 1:26465.
21For some recent discussion of the practice of inserting personal names into dhras
see Schopen, On the Absence of Urtexts and Otiose cryas, 20103.
22Sarvadurgatipariodhan-uayavijaya Dhra, Derge, Rgyud bum Pha 247a.6
For all Tibetan texts I have used the reprint of the Derge printing in The Tibetan Tripitaka.
283
In the Sarvakarmvaraaviodhan Dhraanother example of the

genrewe find:
rtag tu bzlas brjod byas na las gcig nas gcig tu brgyud pa thams cad rnam
par dag par gyur ro /...lus la chang ngam glegs bam la bris nas mgul du
thogs te chang na de la dus ma yin par chi ba rnams gtan du byung bar mi
gyur ro /
If one recites the dhra constantly the whole series of his past acts would
be purified/cleansed...If one carries it on his person or if, having written
it in a book and tying it around his neck, he wears it, for him the untimely
deaths would never occur.23
And then:
gang zhig snying rjes non te ri dags dang bya dang mi dang mi ma yin pa
rnams kyang rung ste / chi bai rna khung du brjod na de ngan song du gro
bar mi gyur ro /
If someone, being overcome by compassion, at the moment of death
whether of an animal or bird or human or non-humanwere to recite this
dhra in their ear, that one (in whose ear it is recited) would not go to an
unfortunate destiny.24
Yet another text of our type, the Samantamukhapravearamivimaloaprabhsasarvatathgatahdayasamayavilokita Dhra, circulated at

Gilgit and was almost certainly used there to protect or extend the life of
the local king Navasurendranumerous copies of its dhra, written on
separate strips of birch bark, with the kings name inserted into it, were
found there inside a stpa, exactly as the text indicates they should have
been. The dhra has also been found on seals or sealings or inscriptions
Taipei Edition, ed. A.W. Barber, (Taipei: SMC Publishing, 1991). The Sanskrit Manuscript
which I am now editingis only partially preserved here.
23Sarvakarmvaraaviodhan Dhra, Derge, Rgyud bum Tsha 236a.4. Notice here
the reference to writing the dhra in a book (glegs bam = pustaka) and tying it around
the neck. Whether this refers to the dhra alone (which takes up less than a single line),
or the whole text (which takes up less than both sides of a single folio), this means that
here too the term pustaka, book, refers to a single folio or sheet, and to something much
more like an amulet than a volume; see also Gregory Schopen, The Book as a Sacred
Object in Private Homes in Early or Medieval India, in Medieval and Early Modern Devotional Objects in Global Perspective, ed. Elizabeth Robertson and Jennifer Jahner (New
York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010), 4546. I might also take the opportunity here to point
out that the remarks in the paper (p. 51) on the lay character of the dharmabhaka in
the Sarvadharmaguavyharja Stra need to be modified. When Oliver von Criegern was
kind enough to send me his edition of the Sanskrit text from Gilgit it became clear that I
had misread the Tibetan.
24Sarvakarmvaraaviodhan Dhra, Derge, Rgyud bum Tsha 236a.6.
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at Bodhgaya, Nalanda, Paharpur, and Udayagiri, and as far afield as the

Great Wall in China.25 The Samantamukha not once, but three times
makes provision for the redemption of bugs, birds, and creepy-crawlers.
It says, for example, in Chavannes translation of the Chinese version:
Si le son de la rcitation descend jusqu aux tres infrieurs et atteint les tres
ails ou les tres quatre pattes, deux pattes, plusieurs pattes, sans pattes
et toutes les espces dinsectes et dtres anims, toute leur conduite passe ils
en seront entirement dbarrass.26
The corresponding passage in the Tibetan version goes in the same direction although its wording is in part considerably more specific:
dud groi skye gnas su song ba la smras na yang dud groi skye gnas su gtogs
pa thams cad las yongs su thar bar gyur ro / byai tshogs thams cad la smras
na yang byai tshogs thams cad yongs su grol bar gyur ro / tha na khyi dang /
rus sbal dang / sbrul dang / byi la dang / sre mo dang / srog chags sna tshogs
la smras na yang thams cad yongs su grol bar gyur ro /
Even if it is spoken for those who have been reborn in an animal state, all
those included in the state of an animal will be freed. Even if it is spoken
for all categories of birds, all categories of birds will be liberated. If it is even
spoken for dogs and tortoises and snakes and cats and weasels and all sorts
of creatures, they all will be liberated.27
Some final examples of very much the same thing can be cited from the
Ramivimalaviuddhaprabha Dhra, a text that has all the characteristics of our type and which refers at least four times to ways by which
birds and bees or bugs can be released from their sorry state. Like many
of these stra-dhras, the Ramivimala indicates that its dhra should
be placed inside old repaired stpas, or specially made ones, or miniature
stpas made of clay. Once so empowered such stpas have some pretty
impressive effects on birds and bugs. The Ramivimala says, for example:
tha na bya dang sbrang ma la sogs pa mchod rten dei grib mas phog na yang
de bzhin gshegs pas mkhyen cing rjes su dgongs par mdzad do / bla na med
pa yang dag par rdzogs pai byang chub thob cing phyir mi ldog pai sa la
gnas par yang gyur ro /
25See Gregory Schopen, Figments and Fragments of Mahyna Buddhism in India. More
Collected Papers (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2005), 33236.
26E. Chavannes, Le stra de la paroi occidentale de linscription de Kiu-yong koan, in
Mlanges Charles de Harlez (Leyde: E. J. Brill, 1896), 79.
27Samantamukhapravearamivimaloa, Derge, Rgyud bum Pha 258b.3; see also
258b.6, 259a.6.
285
Even if the shadow of that stpa falls upon birds and bees or bugs and so
forth the Tathgata will know them and bring them to mind. They will also
obtain unequalled complete awakening and dwell on the irreversible stage.
And:
...bya dang / sbrang ma dang / tha na grog sbur yan chad kyis mthong ba
dang / thos pa dang / reg pa dang / de la phog pai sa dang / rdul dang / rlung
dang / grib mas phog na yang byol song dang / yi dags dang / ngan song log
par ltung ba sems can dmyal bar skye bar gyur bai sdig pa thams cad dang
bral zhing / chi bai dus byas nas bde gro mtho ris lha rnams kyi nang du
skye bar gyur te...
...If birds and flieseven up to antssee it or hear it or touch it, or if dirt
or dust or wind that has come into contact with it, or its shadow, falls on
them, they will be freed from all the sin which results in rebirth among
brutes and animals and the unfortunate destinies and hells, and having died
they will be reborn among the gods in the happy state of heaven...28
To this point, then, two things might be clear enough. First, in these texts,
which are little known to modern discussions but were widely used in the
medieval Buddhist world, there is a marked concern for bugs and birds.
Their salvation had become a problem and means for their redemption
are repeatedly referred to. What has been presented here is simply a small
sample. Second, this redemption does not result from anything that the
birds and bugs dothey are not actors, but the objects of action. Except
for the passage in the Kraavyha where the bugs or flies imitate the
sound of homage to the Buddha, and call to mind his name, the birds or
bugs in our texts are entirely passive: sound falls on their ears, they do not
listen; shadows fall on them, orat mostthey might see or touch something without intention or directed effort. They never go to see or touch.
All of this seems curious, but before any explanation can be attempted,
one further thing needs to be noted.
Although I would not want to claim any deep knowledge of bugs and
birds in mainstream Buddhist sources, it is certainly safe to suggest that
very different attitudes towards such creatures are found there. It is of
course true, for example, that Buddhist monastic codes require that their
monks undertake the rain-retreat and cease to wander during this period
when movement would necessarily entail the destruction of little bugs
and insects. But it is equally clear from their own accounts of how this
28Ramivimalaviuddhaprabha Dhra, Derge, Rgyud bum Na 12b.3, 17b.5; see also

11b.4, 16b.6.
286
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practice came to be that it was implemented not so much out of concern for the bugs, but in imitation of other religious groupsprobably the
Jainsand as a direct result of lay criticism. Certainly there is no sign of
any intention to save, in a religious sense, or redeem the creatures.29 It is
also true that Buddhist monks were supposed to use water-strainers, but
this tooalthough not specifically statedwas probably imitative, and,
in any case, may have been designed not so much to protect the bugs
from death, but to protect the monks from committing murder and reaping the consequences.30
More typically, perhaps, birds and bugs are in Buddhist monastic
sourcesas they frequently are elsewherea damn nuisance, and often
downright disgusting. A robe fouled by a dying monk is described as full
of bugs and must be cleaned without regard for its residents; when monks
wash their bowls just anywhere in the Jetavana, laymen see it as filled
with flies and as unsightly, and accuse the monks of using the whole
place as a toilet.31 During much of the year, apart from the rainy season,
monasteries appear to have been little used and as a consequence crows,
sparrows, and pigeons made their nest on the empty terraces; so too did
flies and horseflies. The Buddha therefore orders that at the start of the
rain retreat a monk is to be specially appointed to inspect the nests of
both bug and bird andif they do not contain eggsto unceremoniously
throw them out.32 When birds, crows, and the like sit on a stpa and shit
on it, the Buddha orders that a protective covering be put over the stpa
to keep the things off.33
These mainstream monastic sources exhibit, then, a very different
attitude towards the creatures that medieval stra and dhra sources
seem to want to save. Rather than make available to bugs and birds some
means of coming into contact with the sacredmonastic robes, monasteries, stpasmainstream sources seem intent on driving them away
and keeping them at a great distance. The same marked difference in
29Although the accounts of the institution of the rain-retreat in the various Vinayas
need to be studied carefully, see for the Mlasarvstivdin account Masanori Shno,
A Re-edited Text of the Varvastu in the Vinayavastu and a Tentative Re-edited text of the
Vrikavastu in the Vinayastra, Acta Tibetica et Buddhica 3 (2010): 2122. (Tibetan only
since the first leaf of the Gilgit manuscript is missing. For the Pli see the translation in
I.B. Horner, trans. The Book of the Discipline (London: Luzac and Co., 1951). 4:183.
30Kudrakavastu, Derge, dul ba Tha 49b.251a.6.
31Cvaravastu, Nalinaksha Dutt, ed. Gilgit Manuscripts, Vol. 3, Part 2 (Srinagar: Calcutta
Oriental Press, 1942), 12223; Uttaragrantha, Derge dul ba Pa 96b.5.
32Shno, A Re-edited Text of the Varvastu, 3132 (1.3.3).
33Uttaragrantha, Derge, dul ba Pa 120b.3.
287
attitude seems, moreover, to be expressed in the fact that mainstream

texts that are similar to our genrefor example the Upasena Straare
not meant to redeem bugs, birds, and snakes, but again to keep them at
bay, not meant to ameliorate their condition, but to protect humans from
them.34 But how, then, is one to account for this striking difference? Time
is certainly a factor: our stra/dhra sources could be as much as four
or five centuries later than our mainstream sources. The development in
the meantime of the hopelessly impractical ideal of the enlightenment
of all living beings must be another important factor, and this ideal does
not appear to have been widespread outside of texts until the 4th/5th
centuries,35 the same period to which the appearance of our stra/
dhras seems to belong. But this ideal almost certainly collided with a
third and even more important factor, a factor that has been referred to
before but is worth rehearsing.36
There is a reasonably good chance that between our mainstream sources
and our stra/dhras Buddhist proselytism may have had at least some
success, and that at least some core Buddhist doctrines may have become
well-known and even understood outside of texts. When, however, the
implications of one of these core doctrinesthe doctrine of karma
gradually came to be understood it became clear that it had disastrous
consequences for birds, bugs, and really bad sinners, that is to say a very
large portion of all living beings: They were left without any means of
redemption, and in effect condemned to an all but eternal existence in a
lowly and disgusting form of life. There was virtually no way out, and this
would have become clear enough with only a little reflection on the paintings of the wheel of sasra that were supposed to be painted on monastery porches,37 or a piece of Buddhist homiletics that everybody knows
34For the Upasena Stra see Ernst Waldschmidt, Von Ceylon bis Turfan. Schriften
zur Geschichte, Literatur, Religion und Kunst des indischen Kulturraumes (Gttingen:
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1967), 32946, and the discussion of it in Lambert Schmithausen,
Maitr and Magic: Aspects of the Buddhist Attitude toward the Dangerous in Nature
(Wien: Verlag der sterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1997). For a nonBuddhist example see J. Varenne, The Garua Upaniad, in India Maior. Congratulatory Volume Presented to J. Gonda, ed. J. Ensink and P. Gaeffke (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972),
22231.
35See Gregory Schopen, Mahyna, in Encyclopedia of Buddhism, ed. Robert E.
Buswell Jr. (New York: Thomson Gale, 2004), 2:49394; Schopen, Figments and Fragments
of Mahyna Buddhism, 108; 22346.
36For an earlier version of part of what follows here see Schopen, Figments and Fragments of Mahyna Buddhism, 21315.
37In the Vibhaga of the Mlasarvstivda-vinaya when an ordinary boy visits the
Veuvana and sees the wheel of rebirth painted on the porch he asks the attending
288
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but probably has not thought very much about: the famous simile of the
blind turtle and the yoke, a simile which is found in a variety of forms in
a very wide range of both mainstream and Mahyna literary sources.38
Suppose, Monks, that a man were to throw a yoke with one hole into the
ocean and it would be blown around in all directions by the wind. Suppose,
too, there were a blind turtle who came to the surface once every hundred
years. What do you think, Monks? Would that blind turtle ever manage to
stick his neck through the hole in that yoke?
If at all, Oh Blessed One, it could happen only once in an extremely long
while.
Sooner or later, that blind turtle might manage to push his neck through
that hole. But, Monks, I say that it is even more difficult than that for a
fool who has fallen into an unfortunate birth again to obtain rebirth as a
human (...ato dullabhatarha bhikkhave manussatta vadmi saki
viniptagatena balena). And why is that? Because there (in those unfortunate rebirths) there is no practice of the Dharma, no right practice, there
is no doing of good or making of merit; there, Monks, there is only mutual
devouring and preying on the weak (na hettha bhikkhave atthi dhammacariy
samacariy kualakiriy punnakiriy, annamannakhdik ettha bhikkhave
vattati dubbalamrik).39
A bleaker future could probably not be promisedbirds and bugs were all
but stuck, and so were those born in hell: they could do nothing to redeem
themselves, they could not practice dharma, do good, make merit. De la
Valle Poussin noted long ago that the damned, for example, are incapable of a good thought, and their transgression is only made to increase by
monk about each of the states of rebirth that are represented in it. The monk characterizes the state of an animal primarily as one in which living beings eat one another
(anyonyabhakana), an activity which only gets them into deeper troublesee for convenience the Sanskrit version of the text anthologized in Edward B. Cowell and Robert A.
Neil, eds. The Divyvadna. A Collection of Early Buddhist Legends (Cambridge: University
of Cambridge Press, 1886), 301; for the Tibetan translation see Vibhaga, Derge, dul ba Ja
113b.3122a.7.
38Already a long time ago Shackleton Bailey pointed out that this simile was common property among Buddhist writers and became proverbial. He notes its appearance
in the Majjhima-nikya, Thergth, the Kalpanmaitika, the Saddharmapuarka, the
atapancatka, the Suhlleka, the Subhitaratnakaraakath, and in a number of other
places; D.R. Shackleton Bailey, The atapancatka of Mtcea (Cambridge: University of
Cambridge Press, 1951), 1213. To this impressive array may at least be added its occurrence
in the second topic taken up in the early (?) Mahyna anthology attributed to Ngrjuna,
the Strasamuccayasee for convenience Georges Driessens, Le livre de la chance (Paris:
ditions du Seuil, 2003), 1516; it is quoted here from a Sayuktgama.
39This free and condensed translation of the simile as it occurs in the Pli Majjhima is
quoted from Schopen, Figments and Fragments of Mahyna Buddhism, 214 and n. 57.
289
their own efforts.40 That, in fact, it is primarily this dysfunctional aspect

of karma that lays behind what is found in medieval stras/dhras may
be confirmed in a way by noting that they provide means not only for the
redemption of bugs and birds, but also for other categories of the otherwise all but irredeemable, the most notorious of which are the really
bad sinners, those who commit the five nantaryas. These five acts/sins
with immediate retribution are killing ones mother, ones father, or an
arhat, causing a division in the order, and causing a Buddha to bleed/or
destroying a stpa.41 Once committed, these acts should send the individual straight to hell, and once in the hells there was, strictly speaking, no
way for them to get out for an almost unimaginably long time.42 But our
medieval Mahyna stras and dhras over and over again offer means
to avoid this, as just a few examples will make clear.
The Sarvakarmvaraaviodhan Dhra says:
msthams med pa lnga byed pa am / dam pai chos spong ba am / phags pa
la skur pa btab pa yang rung ste chi kar rtsig pa la gzungs sngags di bris pa
mthong na / dei las kyi sgrib pa thams cad zad par gyur na / don pa dang
bzlas brjod byed pa lta ci smos te / de bzhin gshegs [mi khrugs pa] de nyid
byon nas di skad du rigs kyi bu tshur ngai gan du shog ces kyang gsung bar
gyur ro /
Since if when even one who had committed the five sins with immediate
retribution, or one who had rejected the Good Law, or one who had abused
a Noble One, saw at the moment of death this dhra written on a wall
all his obstructions from past acts would be exhausted, how much more
so would this be so for one who would recite or repeat itthe Tathgata
[Akobhya], having appeared to just that one, would moreover say, O son
of good family, come hither to me!43
40Louis de la Valle Poussin, Dogmatique bouddhique II. Nouvelles recherches sur la

doctrine de lacte, Journal Asiatique (1903), 371n. Technically damned is, of course, too
strong since even rebirth in hell is not eternal. It only lasts an unimaginably long period of
time; see the tongue-in-cheek remark about the length of a kalpa in Johannes Bronkhorst,
Greater Magadha. Studies in the Culture of Early India (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 6970.
41For the five nantaryas, and an additional list of five more called upnantarya,
presque immdiats, see for example Louis de la Valle Poussin, LAbhidharmakoa de
Vasubandhu (Paris: Paul Geuthner, 192331), 3: 20120.
42See for example the account of the fate of Devadatta, who had committed more than
one of the nantaryas, in Raniero Gnoli, ed. The Gilgit Manuscript of the Saghabhedavastu
(Rome: Instituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 19771978), 2: 26263; but also
the odd and anomalous account of the matricide monk in the Pravrajyvastu, Nalinaksha
Dutt, ed. Gilgit Manuscripts, Vol. 3, Part 4 (Calcutta: Calcutta Oriental Press, 1950), 5361.
43Sarvakarmvaraaviodhan Dhra, Derge, Rgyud bum Tsha 236b.8.
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And this is the second such reference in a very short textit had already
been said: If one were to repeat it three times even the five sins with
immediate retribution would be purified.44
In the Aparimityu Stra it is not seeing or reciting the text that results
in the destruction of the effects of having committed the five sins with
retribution, but copying it:
ya idam aparimityu Stra likhiyati likhpayiyati tasya pancnantaryi
karmvarani parikaya gacchanti /
Whoever will copy, will have copied this Aparimityu Stra, his obstructions of karma connected with the five sins with immediate retribution
come to be exhausted.45
In the Sagha Stra the same result follows from hearing the text, and
this is repeated six times:
ya kacit sarvarema sagha dharmaparyya royati tasya
pacnantaryi karmi parikaya ysyanti avaivartik ca bhaviyanty
anuttary samyaksabodhe /46
Whosoever, Sarvara, will hear this religious discourse, the Sagha, his
karma connected with the five sins with immediate retribution will come
to be exhausted, and he will be irreversible from utmost, perfect and complete awakening.
In fact, the promise found in all these passages is, in one form or
another, repeated over and over again in medieval Mahyna stras
and dhra texts: it occurs twice more in the Samantamukhapravea,
three times in the Sarvatathgatdhihnasattvvalokanabuddhaketrasandaranavyha Stra found at Gilgit, and at least seven times in the
Ramivimalaviuddhiprabha Dhra.47 Although this would still only
represent a tiny sample of texts and occurrences, the numbers here are
impressive, as they are in regard to birds and bugs. What we have been
able to see in all of our passages in this necessarily very limited survey
dealing with several categories of what might be calledusing a modern
politically correct phrasingthe karmically disadvantaged, is in fact at
44Sarvakarmvaraaviodhan Dhra, Derge, Rgyud bum Tsha 236a.4.

45Konow, The Aparimityu Stra, 311 [20].
46Canevascini, The Khotanese Saghastra, 6 [13/14.23]; see also 6 [10.4], 42
[95.23], 49 [105.3], 50 [108.2], and 51 [109.2].
47Chavannes, Le stra de la paroi occidentale, 76, 79; Dutt, Gilgit Manuscripts, Vol. 1,
70.16, 73.9, 77.11; Ramivimalaviuddhaprabha Dhra, Derge, Rgyud bum Na 10a.2, 11b.5,
12b.5, 14b.6, 16b.5, 17b.1, 18a.2.
291
least suggestive and allows some timorous observations with which we

must end.
With the appearance of medieval Mahyna stras and dhra texts
there seems to be a marked proliferation of ways and means of redeeming
those who otherwise would appear to be all but karmically trappedour
bugs, birds, and really bad sinners. Moreover, there is very little in earlier
Buddhist sources quite like this. Although, then, these constant references
to the plight of birds, bugs, and really bad sinners would seem to represent a real concern of both the authors and the audiences of these medieval textsit is otherwise hard to account for their massive presenceit
would appear to be essentially a new concern, and one which points not
to the decline or degeneration of Buddhist doctrinewhich the presence
of especially dhras is still sometimes taken to signalbut rather to its
success in penetrating and taking root in the world of the ordinary people,
both monastic and lay, who used these medieval texts and paid to have
them copied. It is at least possible to suggest, it seems, that the emergence
of this concern was an almost necessary and concrete consequence of,
firstly, the gradual acceptance and internalization of the strict and strong
version of the law of karma found throughout Buddhist literary sources.
When, for example, Buddhist authors insisted that the consequences
of acts do not disappear even after a hundred million aeons, but having
arrived at completion and the right time they bear fruit...and they did
so very often48and when this doctrine moved from books to ordinary
people and became a part of their world, it was almost inevitable that
other Buddhist authors would over time have to devise some means and
provide mechanisms for those ordinary people to, in effect, get around it.49
48This verseit is a verse in the originalis found often and in a very wide range of
Buddhist literary sources, see for example tienne Lamotte, Le trait de lacte de Vasubandhu. Karmasiddhiprakaraa, Mlanges chinois et bouddhiques 4 (19351936): 226 and
n. 48, and LEnseignement de Vimalakrti (Louvain: Universit de Louvain Institut Orientaliste, 1962), 106 and n. 48.
49It is of course never explained in our texts how exactly dhras actually work, how
it is that they could possibly nullifypacify, purify, exhaust, a whole range of verbs is
usedkarma or past acts. Indeed that there was some uneasiness on this point seems to
be suggested by the fact that occasionallybut only very occasionallya curious condition is said to restrict the power of activities in regard to dhras. They are said to work
always except for, or when, there are obstructions from past actions, sthpya paura
karmvaraa (Chandrabhal Tripathi, Gilgit-Bltter der Mekhal-dhra, Studien zur
Indologie und Iranistik 7 (1981): 158 = Derge, rgyud bum Wa 109b.3: sngon gyi las kyi rna
par smin pa ma gtogs so /), or they always work except when past actions are maturing,
sthpya paur karma vipacyate (Ekdaamukha, Dutt, Gilgit Manuscripts, Vol. 1, 36.4 =
Derge, rgyud bum Tsa 140a.5; see also Sarvntaryikaviodhan Dhra, Derge, rgyud
292
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Likewise, when Buddhist authors promulgated the ideal of the enlightenment of all living beings, since this would necessarily include our birds,
bugs, and really bad sinners, they would also have to have provided concrete means that would have made this possible, even if this meant transforming the great Bodhisattva Avalokitevara into a buzzing bee or fly
who frequented outhouses. But if these suggestions are to be accepted
they would seem to show that far from being devoid of doctrine, our
medieval Mahyna stras and dhras were deeply involved in doctrinal developments, and the problems such developments might have given
rise to. They would seem to show once again that, doctrinally too, if you
want to dance you have to pay the fiddler!
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Sometimes Love Dont Feel Like It Should:

Redemptive Violence in Tantric Buddhism
Jacob P. Dalton
Introduction
The tantras offer many techniques for expiating sins, but probably most
infamous are their rites of redemptive violence. Violent abhicra rites
can be useful for disposing of ones enemies, but far more importantly
as Buddhist commentators repeatedly emphasizethey represent an
extraordinarily effective means for purifying the sins of those most obstinately sinful. Precedents for redemptive violence may be found in pretantric Buddhism, of course, most famously in Mahyna stories such as
that of the bodhisattva ship captain, who kills a murderous thief, thereby
saving him from the evil karma of his dastardly plan to slaughter everyone on board and steal their gold. With such stories in mind, Asaga, in
his Bodhisattvabhmi, even went so far as to formulate the doctrinal justifications for such compassionate violence. But the tantras took things
a step further, by describing the ritual procedures behind the bodhisattvas violent methods.1 It was one thing to theorize about how the ideal
bodhisattva might engage in compassionate violence; it was quite another
to provide precise instructions on how exactly to enact such violence. In
any case, tantric commentators from the eighth century to the present
day unanimously insist that Buddhist abhicra properly performed is
bodhisattvic and primarily about expiating its victims sins.
But how exactly are these rites held to accomplish this worthy purpose? How are the extreme methods of tantric violence so very cleansing?
This paper explores two possible answers to this question, answers that
are represented in two different, yet complementary, genres of tantric literature, that is, in tantric ritual manuals and in mythic narrative. I will
be relying on two texts in particular that I have been working on for
some time now: A Tibetan Dunhuang ritual text on how to perform the
1For a review of the Buddhist justifications for compassionate violence, see Jacob P.
Dalton, The Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2011), 2343.
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jacob p. dalton
notorious liberation rite (sgrol ba) for ritual killing, and an elaborate
retelling of the Rudra-taming myth, in which the buddhas kill the demon
Rudra and convert him to Buddhism. Both texts are preserved in Tibetan,
but both reflect Indic tantric traditions from around the ninth century.2
To some extent, the Dunhuang liberation rite and the Rudra myth
embody two different approaches to redemptive violence and its ability
to expiate sin. On the one hand, the Dunhuang manual describes ritual
forms that seem to emphasize more the automatically salvific power of
tantric ritual properly performed. On the other hand, the Rudra narrative highlights more the significance of the demonic disciples subjective,
perhaps even psychological, state. Between these two perspectivesone
ritual and the other psychologicalreverberate debates over rituals ability to affect an individuals karma that haunted tantric Buddhists of the
period. The tantras offered revolutionary new techniques that promised
enlightenment in an instant, but in doing so they threatened the Buddhist
laws of karma and the plodding course of cause and effect. Tantric myth,
as we shall see, was one place where such tensions could be addressed
head-on.
Ritual: Liberation as Initiation
The Buddhist liberation rite was by no means an entirely new development in Indian religion. Its roots may be traced all the way back to the
Vedas, where the abhicra-homa is one of several classes of fire sacrifice
2The Dunhuang manuscript in question, which is now divided between Pelliot tibtain
36, IOL Tib J 419, and Pelliot tibtain 42, likely dates from the tenth century. We may suggest this on the basis of both paleographic trends and the fact that the vast majority of the
Mahyoga materials from Dunhuang date from the tenth century. Nonetheless, the ritual
forms preserved in these materials appears to reflect tantric practice in India as it stood
around the end of the eighth century. So for example, only the first two of the four standard
tantric initiations appear; no mention is made of the early ninth-century Jnapda and
rya schools of Guhyasamja exegesis; nor do we see any discussions of the Cakrasavara
and Hevajra tantras, the two principal Yogin tantras of the later tantric period. In terms
of dating the myth in question, the Compendium of Intentions Stra (Dgongs pa dus pai
mdo) likely dates from the mid-ninth century. It seems to demonstrate an awareness of the
standard series of four tantric initiations that developed around the early ninth century,
and its earliest commentary, the Armor against Darkness (Mun pai go cha) by Gnubs chen
sangs rgyas ye shes was probably written in the fourth quarter of the ninth century; see
Jacob P. Dalton, Uses of the Dgongs pa dus pai mdo in the Development of the Rnying-ma
School of Tibetan Buddhism (PhD diss.: University of Michigan: 2002).
sometimes love dont feel like it should
297
available to the Vedic priest.3 Early Buddhists were highly critical of Vedic
sacrifice in general, particular when it involved the killing of animals, and
the abhicra-homa, which was performed specifically in order to harm
or kill ones enemies, must have been particularly anathema. Buddhists
continued to criticize Vedic practice throughout their history, but from at
least the fourth century ce on, some began to appropriate the homa rite
as a legitimate Buddhist practice.4 By the time the so-called Kriy tantras emerged in the seventh century, even the violent abhicra-homa had
become a central feature of Mahyna Buddhist practice. Early tantric
works instruct their readers on how to fashion an effigy of their enemy
and immolate it alongside other oblations of a generally impure nature:
blood, dirt from the soles of ones feet, feces, thorns, and the like. The next
stage came with the advent of the transgressive Mahyoga tantras in the
eighth century. Now new forms of Buddhist ritual killing emerged, rites
that often dispensed with the homa fire altogether, to focus instead on
the direct destruction of an effigy with sharp weapons. Such violent rites
were termed, rather euphemistically, liberation rites, a name that was
meant to emphasize the rites extraordinary compassion. Salvific violence
was certainly not a new idea in India. Already in the gveda, blood sacrifice was supposed to benefit the victim by delivering his or her soul up to
heaven. And gamic aiva rites were similarly understood.5 But Buddhists
claimed that only their violent rites were truly compassionate; only the
true bodhisattva could perform such rituals with the karmic welfare of
her victims foremost in her mind.6 And so we come to the liberation rite
described in the Dunhuang manuscripts.
IOL Tib J 419 and Pelliot tibtain 42 provide some particularly detailed
insights into how a Mahyoga liberation rite may have been performed in
early medieval India and tenth-century Tibet. Elsewhere I have translated
and discussed the rite in question in some detail.7 Here I want to suggest
that close analysis of the Dunhuang version of the rite reveals what is
3See Hans-Georg Turstig, The Indian Sorcery Called Abhicra, Wiener Zeitschrift fur
die Kunde Sdasiens 29 (1985): 69117.
4David Gray lists some of the relevant secondary sources on the early Buddhist appropriation of the homa rite; see David Gray, Eating the Heart of the Brahmin: Representations of Alterity and the Formation of Identity in Tantric Buddhist Discourse, History of
Religions 45, no. 1 (2005): 57 n. 48.
5See Dalton, Taming of the Demons, 9192.
6See David Germano, Architecture and Absencein the Secret Tantric History of the
Great Perfection (rdzogs chen), Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies
17, no. 2 (1994): 224 n. 56.
7Dalton, Taming of the Demons, 7794.
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jacob p. dalton
essentially a violent interpretation of a standard tantric initiation ritual.

Having demonstrated how the liberation rite functions as a kind of initiation, we may gain a better sense of how some early tantric Buddhists
might have conceived of its salvific efficacy.
Following some preliminary comments on how to select an appropriate
victim (read an appropriate initiate), the rite opens with the officiating
master generating himself as the main deity, just as any initiation might
begin. Next the victim is brought in and placed at the center of a maala.
Within this maala, the victim is purified (as the initiate often was) with
waters and ritually anointed (nysa) at key points on his body. One might
object that the initiate is normally led into the maala later in the ritual,
at the moment of the initiation proper, but certain early initiation rites did
in fact include two or more maalas. The Mahvairocanbhisabodhi,
for instance, describes a root mla-maala in (or in front of) which the
initiate is cleansed and purified, and an abhieka-maala into which the
initiate is subsequently introduced.8 Here at the beginning of the liberation rite, when the victim is first placed in a maala and ritually purified,
we may see a parallel ritual narrative.
At this point the liberation rite veers off script, as the victim (or an
effigy of the victim) is beheaded. But then, as the victims consciousness
emerges from the corpse, it is carefully led into the maala. This crucial
moment is accompanied by what appears to be a flinging of the severed
head onto the maala platform, in what can only be a macabre rendering of the flower-tossing ceremony characteristic of many initiation rites.
And, as with the flower ceremony, the position in which the head comes
to rest is then interpreted to determine the success of the rite, that is, how
well the victim received the initiation and where he or she next will take
rebirth. Finally, the liberation rite closes with a celebratory feast, as do
many initiation rites.
This idea, that the liberation rite was essentially a transgressive interpretation of tantric initiation, is lent further credence by the Rudra-taming
myth. There, Rudra is first killed, then resuscitated in order to be initiated
into the maala by means of a standard initiation ceremony. Just so,
the ritual victim in the Dunhuang rite is first beheaded, and then has his
consciousness led into the maala for the initiation.
8For an English translation of the relevant passages, see Stephen Hodge, The Mahvairocana-abhisabodhi Tantra, with Buddhaguhyas Commentary (London: Routledge
Curzon, 2003), 140145.
299
Once reframed as an initiation, the liberation rites redemptive power

starts to appear more clearly, for initiation across the tantric traditions of
India was widely understood to be a powerful purificatory ritual. Unfortunately, however, the expiatory capacity of tantric initiation raises as many
problems for Buddhism as it solves. For many early tantric Buddhists, the
much-acclaimed power of tantric initiation threatened the laws of karma,
and thus the very fabric of the universe.
Alexis Sanderson and others have traced the roots of tantric initiation
back to pre-tantric aiva groups such as the Lkulas and the Pcrthika
Pupatas, who were active in India from the fourth century ce, if not
earlier. Initiation (dk), for these early proto-tantric Pupatas, was
restricted to Brahmins only, and it functioned primarily as a rite of passage; it maintained the groups social order. By the seventh century and
the advent of full-blown gamic aivism, however, initiation had become
a ritual that offered complete liberation.9 The fully initiated aiva tntrika
was, for all intents and purposes, forever freed from sin andassuming
he maintained his daily practicesguaranteed enlightenment upon his
death.
For many tantric Buddhists, however, such extraordinary claims presented a problem, for from time immemorial the Buddhist teachings
depended on the inexorable operations of karma. The idea of a completely
liberative initiation rite threatened to undermine everything.10 The magnitude of this problem in the eyes of early tantric Buddhists is clear from
the eleventh-century Abhiekhanirukti, which opens its authoritative discussion of tantric initiation by insisting that it would be a terrible mistake
to take the realization gained through initiation to be the ultimate goal
of Buddhist practice. This is wrong, it explains, because it would mean
that [complete] liberation would follow immediately from initiation.11
The rest of the text then proceeds from this crucial point, into its detailed
explorations of just what Buddhist initiation does accomplish.
Tantric initiations short-circuiting of karma (and thus its immediate
expiation of sin) was a problem Buddhists already had encountered in
9 Alexis Sanderson, The Lkulas: New Evidence of a System Intermediate between
Pcrthika Pupatism and gamic aivism, Indian Philosophical Annual 24 (2006): 187.
10 On this crucial difference between tantric initiation in the aiva and Buddhist religions, see Harunaga Isaacson, Observations on the Development of the Ritual of Initiation
(abhieka) in the Higher Buddhist Tantric Systems, in Hindu and Buddhist Initiations in
India and Nepal, ed. Astrid Zotter, et al. (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2010): 263.
11 Translated by Isabella Onians, in Tantric Buddhist Apologetics or Antinomianism as a
Norm (PhD diss., Oxford University, 2001), 351. tan na yukta tu seknantaramuktita.
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jacob p. dalton
other arenas. In his sixth-century Tarkajvl, for example, Bhvaviveka

had refuted those rvakas who had criticized the Mahyna for its
faith in the a-karmic power of the bodhisattva vow, as well as that of
dhras and mantras for that matter. He presents his opponents criticisms as follows:
[Some rvakas claim that] the dhra-mantras, secret mantras, vidymantras, and the like are taught within the Mahyna to have many benefits, despite their syllables and meanings being unintelligible. Such teachings
deceive the foolish. They are like the Vedas of our opponents. They involve
no practice, so they cannot expiate even the slightest of faults. For one who
has accumulated the defilements and within whom the [karmic] roots of
those [defilements] are still present, how can sin be expiated? Dhramantras cannot pacify sin, because they do not counteract its causes.12
Thus even as tantric ritual offered Buddhists an arsenal of powerful new

technologies for expiating their sins, for some they were too powerful for
Buddhisms own good. For these more conservative Buddhists, karma and
the mental state of the sinner had to remain central to the path, and any
new-fangled ritual techniques had to be carefully balanced against this
one prime concern. Simply claiming that initiation magically ensured the
initiates karmic purity was insufficient. If the violence of liberation was
going to be effective, it had to be accompanied by the right kind of subjective attitude on the part of the victim. This disjunction, between the
liberation rites outward ritual efficacy and the victims inner mental state,
was precisely what the authors of the Rudra myth worked to address.
Myth: How Violence Engenders Repentance
Ritual manuals are prescriptive by their very nature; they instruct their
readers on what to do. They may prescribe certain thoughts to think, or
sometimes even feelings that should be felt at particular points in the
12Madhyamakahdayavtti-tarkajvla (Toh. 3856), in Bstan gyur (sde dge), 213 vols., ed.
Shuchen Tsultrim Rinchen (Delhi, India: Delhi Karmapae Chodhey Gyalwae Sungrab Partun Khang, 19821985), 183a.6184b.1. theg pa chen po las yi ge dang don shes par mi rung
bai gzungs sngags dang/ gsang sngags dang/ rig sngags la sogs pa phan yon mang po can
byis pai skye bo slu bar byed pa bstan pa de rnams ni gzhan gyi rig byed dang drao/ bsgom
pa med pa ni skyon phrar ba tsam yang zad par byed nus pa ma yin te/ nyon mongs pa bsags
pa dang dei rtsa ba yod na sdig pa zad pa ga la byung bar gyur/ gzungs sngags kyis kyang
sdig pa zhi bar byed pa ma yin te/ dei rgyu dang mi gal ba nyid kyi phyir. For an English
translation of the entire section, see Malcolm David Eckel, Bhvaviveka and his Buddhist
Opponents (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008), 17982.
301
ritual, but overall, mythic narrative works in a more descriptive mode;

it can more easily describe how the original practitioner of a given rite
supposedly felt. Of course, such mythic descriptions also communicate
prescriptive messages about how the reader should feel, but on the surface
at least, mythic narrative can recount how its characters felt and what
they thought.
In the case of the Rudra-taming myth, Rudras great confessional
moment occurs in the context of his request for initiation. Desperate
remorse, it seems, is the ideal mental state of the Buddhist initiate.13
And closer examination of the narrative reveals that Rudras repentance
(Tib. gyod pa; Skt. kauktya) is produced in him specifically by the violent
death he undergoes at the hands of the Buddha. Thus at the myths climax, the Buddha plunges his trident into Rudras chest, tears him apart,
devours him, and then purifies him inside the maala palace of his belly.
Rudra is in this way confronted with his past. Inside the Buddhas stomach, we read, [Rudra] remembered all that he had done, how he had
taken on so many different bodies, and been reborn for limitless aeons.14
Expelled once more from the Buddhas anus and reconstituted in his old
form at the Buddhas feet, the now-purified Rudra weeps with remorse
(gnong tshul) and pleads for the Buddha to finish the job of leading him
into enlightenment.15
Here the Buddhas killing and devouring of Rudra produces remorse in
the offending demon. According to this myth, at least, it seems that tantric
violence is effective precisely in its violence, the pain that it inflicts. Only
such violence can get through to those who are otherwise beyond repair.
Only the extreme sufferings produced by the liberation rite can penetrate
the hearts of those most stubbornly sinful of beings. And Rudra represents
13In requesting their own initations, Rudras followers too confess and express regret
at their sins; see Dgongs pa dus pai mdo, in Mtshams brag Edition of the Rnying mai
rgyud bum, 46 vols, ed. Rdo rje thogs med (Thimphu, Bhutan: National Library, Royal
Government of Bhutan, 1982), vol. 16, 223227 (translated in Dalton, Taming of the Demons,
198200).
14Dgongs pa dus pai mdo, 208.4. skye ba dus mtha med rnyed du/ lus bangs las ni ci
spyad dran.
15Note that gnong ba usually means remorse or guilt in Tibetan, but it was also
used the translate the Sanskrit term, durmaku, meaning something more like obstinacy.
Mkhan po Nus ldan seems to read the term as remorse, but obstinacy may also make
sense here, as Rudra is portrayed as still blaming the Buddha, now for expelling him from
the blissful space of his stomach; see Mkhan po Nus ldan rdo rje, Dpal spyi mdo dgongs
pa dus pai gel pa rnal byor nyi ma gsal bar byed pai legs bshad gzi ldan char khai od
snang, in Rnying ma bka ma rgyas pa, 56 vols., ed. Bdud joms jigs bral ye shes rdo rje
(Kalimpong, India: Dubjang Lama, 1982), vol. 53, 808.
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jacob p. dalton
the ultimate model of such an unreachable soul. Indeed, he is so obstinate

that earlier in the myth, Rudras ignorance survives even the apocalyptic conflagrations at the end of the previous aeon: Finally the aeons at
the destruction of the universe camethe aeons of famine, of plague,
and of warand [the future Rudra] took rebirth throughout those. The
devastations of those aeons emptied the worlds of everything. Yet even
when all others had been destroyed, [Rudra] continued to take rebirth.16
Even these intensely painful agonies, we are told, could do nothing to
snap Rudra out of his benighted state. Only the extraordinary violence
of the buddhas liberation rite would suffice for such an obstinately
ignorant being.
The notion that intense suffering and death can produce remorse is
seen in other tantric myths too. In the Sarvadurgatipariodhanas central
narrative, for example, a prince named Unpleasant Body (Lus mi sdug pa)
kills his father and usurps the throne.17 Sometime later, while walking
in his royal gardens, the patricidal prince comes upon an old hermit
named Needless Love (Dgos pa med par byams pa) who wears bark for
clothes and eats nothing but roots. The hermit teaches the prince about
the workings of karma, and in particular about the fast ripening of the
sins of immediate retribution, one of which is to kill ones father. As the
full karmic significance of his deeds begins to dawn on the prince, his
mind became tormented with piercing anguish, whereupon he passed
away, like a candle [snuffed out] by wind.18 The Dunhuang version of
the myth adds further details: Because of his extreme regret, he started
to vomit forth disease-ridden blood and quickly died.19 As he dies, the
tortured prince finally sees the dharma. He comes to understand karma,
and a powerful remorse overcomes him. This moment of remorse is so
strong that it frees himtemporarily at leastfrom the law of immediate
retribution, and his punishments in hell are postponed for one lifetime,
during which he is reborn as a devaputra in heaven. Here then, in the
16Dgongs pa dus pai mdo, 159.34. gang jig pai bskal pai mu ge dang/ nad dang/
mtshon gang du byung ba de dang der skye bar byed do/ jig pa de dag gis de dag gang
stongs na yang/ gzhang dag gang jig pai dus su yang der skye ba len par gyur ro.
17The account that follows combines elements from both the canonical version of the
story, found at Sarvadurgatipariodhana-tantra, 73a.574b.1, and the Dunhuang version,
found at IOL Tib J 712, 2v.14r.4.
18Sarvadurgatipariodhana-tantra (Toh. 483), in The Sde-dge Mtshal-par Bka-gyur, 103
vols., ed. 16th Rgyal-dba Karma-pa (Delhi, India: Delhi Karmapae Chodhey Gyalwae Sungrab Partun Khang, 19761979), rgyud bum, vol. ta, 74a.4. thos nas mya ngan zug rngu yis/
rang gi yid la gdungs pa na/ ji ltar rlung gis mar me bzhin/ de nyid du ni dus las das.
19IOL Tib J 712, 3v.5. gyod pa drag pos/ nad khrad du skyugs te/ das par gyur to.
303
Sarvadurgatipariodhana as in the Rudra myth, violent agonies and death

produce and reinforce the liberating power of repentance.
In both myths too, agonizing remorse leads the protagonists to remember their past sins and, more broadly, to comprehend the workings of
karma. If the Buddhist expiation of ones sins requires remorse, then it
also entails a review of ones past actions through the lens of karma. Three
pages later after his having been killed, ripped apart, eaten, and defecated
back into the world, Rudra relates to his horde of demonic attendants what
happened to him at that pivotal moment within the Buddhas belly:
Inside there, I saw in an instant the palace of great unchanging bliss. Just
as a woman suffering the pains of pregnancy might think to herself, This is
the suffering that comes before giving birth, and all of it is the direct result
of all those times I had sex, in the same way, I too ascertained that [the
pains wrought by the Buddha] were nothing but my own karma. Through
the force of my intense regret, which was unstoppable by anyone, like a
boulder rolling down from the peak of a steep mountain, I saw and was
overwhelmed with anguish. My followers, you too must consider your own
karma! May the force of your anguish roll like that boulder! And then,
weeping and wailing at all the unnecessary violence, he recited this expression of complete anguish...20
Remembering ones past lives, of course, is an ancient and familiar Buddhist trope. Even at the height of the tantras violence, then, at their most
transgressive moment, the Rudra myths tells us that the victim is cleansed
of his sins in strict accordance with early Buddhist doctrine. Even such
highly tantric moments as thiswhen Rudra is killed, eaten, and purified withineven such moments mirror closely the classic account
of kyamunis own enlightenment beneath the bodhi tree, when the
Buddha remembered all of his own past lives and comprehended all
of karma. In this way, the Rudra myth works to bring the ritual procedures of liberation and tantric initiation back into the fold of normative
Buddhist doctrine.
20Dgongs pa dus pai mdo, 211.13. gang skad cig mar bde ba chen poi g.yung drung gi
pho brang mthong nas/ gang di ltar bud med dag sbrum mai sdug bsngal gyis nyen par gyur
pas na/ di snyam du sdug bsngal di ni sngon du skyes pa bsten cing/ mang du dpyad pai
las ba zhig kho nao snyam du yid la byed pai bzhin/ kho bo yang las ba zhig la kho thag
chad nas/ ji ltar ri gzar rtse nas rbab gril ba gang gis mi zlog pa bzhin du/ gdung chen poi
shugs kyis thon pas shing tu gdungs pa yin te.
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jacob p. dalton
Tantric Karmaploti
One major question remains unanswered: What is it that is so unique

about the liberation rites particular kind of suffering that makes it so
extraordinarily redemptive? If extreme suffering produces remorse in
its victim, why doesnt this happen all the time? In fact, the Rudra myth
offers an answer to this question as well, and once again, it calls upon a
familiar element of earlier Buddhist narrative literature.
The Rudra myth opens with its own backstory, with the original event
that first set Rudra on his dark path to demonhood. In a past aeon, we are
told, Rudra-to-be was a prince named Black Deliverance. Black Deliverance and his servant, Denpak, were both students under a great tantric
master named Invincible Youth. Soon, however, the prince mistook his
masters teachings on tantric transgression and the ultimate purity of all
action. He came to believe these teachings meant he could do whatever
he wanted. And when his teacher corrected him, Black Deliverance flew
into a rage and banished the master from his kingdom, thereby breaking
his crucial tantric samaya. From this point forward, the myth traces Black
Deliverances path downward, through thousands of ever-viler lifetimes,
down into the deepest of hells. Throughout of all these lifetimes, Black
Deliverance continues to accumulate ever more negative karmaby
repeatedly killing others, sucking blood, and so onall karmic causes for
his eventual rebirth as the demon Rudra. There is one moment, however,
after he has descended into the deepest of Avci hells, when Rudra turns
the karmic corner, as it were, a moment when he stops accumulating
further karmic causes and begins to experience their karmic effects. He
dwelt for 80,000 lifetimes in Avci Hell, we read, and:
The extent of his suffering in that hell is not suitable to be discussed. Why?
Because if it were discussed in front of others, whoever might hear it would
faint. At that time, [however,] there came to pass a brief instant when that
hell-being wondered, Oh! Why is this happening [to me]?! And at that,
the Dharmarja Vajrasattva, Lord of the Conquerors, revealed to him the
dharma that it was all due to his own karma. And because of this, [the hellbeing] reflected [for a moment] upon karma and, understanding fully, he
felt regret. And just because of that brief instant of remorse, he was transported out of that realm.21
21Dgongs pa dus pai mdo, 158.36. mnar med pai gnas rdo rjei dmyal ba zhes bya bar
de nyid kyi tshei tshad brgyad khrii bar du gnas te/ dmyal ba dei sdug bsngal gyi tshad ni
brjod du mi rung ngo/ de cii phyir zhe na/ gang gi mdun du sdug bsngal gyi tshad de brjod
305
Unfortunately for the demon, he continued to suffer countless more lifetimes in still other hells, but this crucial moment marks the turning point
in his karmic history. From here on, he begins his gradual climb back up
to our world and his final rebirth as Rudra.
Why did this happen? How, in the midst of such extraordinary suffering
in the very lowest of hells, was he able to reflect and experience such a
liberative moment of remorse? Because, explains the myths commentary,
Rudras teacher of old, the monk Invincible Youth, had in the meantime
gained enlightenment as Vajrasattva.22 In other words, the future Rudras
ability to reflect and experience remorse was due to the karmic connection he had made in his past life as Black Deliverance to his master Invincible Youth.
It is well known that many early Buddhist narratives end with kyamuni
identifying who in his stories was who in the present. The stories thereby
reveal the karmic teleology of events; they exemplify the connective
threads (karmaploti) that shape the protagonists karma. Here in the
tantric context, the Rudra myth calls upon this same well-worn narrative
strategy, and the same karmaploti threads, to explain Vajrasattvas power
to intervene in Rudras karma.
This same strategy applies again later in the myth, to the Buddhas violent liberation of Rudra, for there too, it is the master Invincible Youth
and Rudras servant of old, Denpak, now as Vajrasattva and Vajrapi,
respectively, who oversee and enact his liberation. Later Rudra explains
just this to his still-ignorant followers:
O excellent followers, do not think like that. In a previous life I made a
karmic connection with an excellent attendant who is now this same spiritual friend to all with whom I have met [i.e. Vajrapi]. Therefore I finally
understand my karma. I understand how I took [so many] rebirths. I have
seen my karma and seen my rebirths. My karma and rebirths having become
evident, I wished for some escape.23
na gang gis thos pa de brgyal bar gyur ro/ dei tshe dei dus na dmyal ba des/ e ma o di ci
nges zhes smras pai skad cig gcig phyin par gyur to/ rdo rje sems dpa thub pai dbang po
chos kyi rgyal po des/ kho na nyid kyi las yin gyis zhes chos bstan pa las/ las yid la byas pas
yongs su shes te gyod par gyur to/ gyod pa tsam gyis gnas de nas phod.
22Nus ldan rdo rje, Dpal spyi mdo dgongs pa dus pai grel pa, vol. 53, 642.6.
23Dgongs pa dus pai mdo, 210.67. kye nye gnas dam pa rnams/ gang de ltar ma rtogs
shig/ sngon gyi kho boi las kyi phro dang brel bai nye gnas dam pa kun gyi bshes gnyen de
dang phrad pa las shes so/ skye bshes so/ las mthong ngo/ skye ba mthong ngo/ las mngon
du gyur to/ skye ba mngon du gyur nas/ rang gi las la rang thag khos par gyur.
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jacob p. dalton
Early Tibetan biographers likewise may have seen karmaploti as key

to the efficacy of tantric violence. The ninth and early-tenth-century
Tibetan master, Nupchen Sangye Yeshe, is famous for having defended
tantric Buddhism against its enemies during Tibets so-called age of fragmentation that followed the collapse of the Tibetan empire. He is also,
perhaps not coincidentally, the main commentator to the Rudra myth I
have been discussing here. According to his biography, Nupchen wielded
the liberation rite against his Tibetan persecutors, in order to protect the
dharma. In performing the rite, the biography tells us, he called upon the
worldly gods whom he had bound by vow to help him. But they cannot
help him, they explain: Our strength and powers are such that we can lift
up mountains. We can gulp down oceans. Our strength and powers are
like this, but these [present problems] are the overflowing karmic results
of your very own previous lives, master. We were not your companions
on those earlier occasions, so how can we destroy the [order of the]
universe now?24
Redemptive violence, these demons explain, is only effective when the
laws of karma allow it. Without the ties of karmaploti, the tantric expiation of sin is impossible; indeed, the very nature of universe stands in its
way. Here again, we see tantric narrative literature (here in the form of
biography) carefully delimiting the power of tantric ritual. Tantric practice may be potent, it says, and its violence may seem to slice effortlessly
through the webs of karma, but it will always remain bound by other,
unseen ties. It is able to save only when the victims karma allows.
Conclusions
The tantric liberation rites power to expiate the sins of its victims was
therefore rooted in normative Buddhist doctrine. Without the necessary karmic connection between officiant and victim, the rite would be
ineffectual, not to mention ethicially harmful. With the proper connection, however, an opening for karmic intervention could be found, through
24Sangs rgyas ye shes rin po chei lo rgyus gnubs kyi bka shog chen mo, in Bka ma shin tu
rgyas pa, 120 vols. (Chengdu, China: Ka thog mkhan po Jam dbyangs, 1999), 735.5736.1.
bdag cag rnams kyi mthu rtsal di dra ste/ ri bo spang gis gegs nus rgya mtshoi hub debs
nus/ de lta bu yi mthu dang rtsal bdog kyang/ di ni slob dpon nyid kyi tshe rabs snga ma yi/
las kyi rnam par smin pai tshan brdol nas/ sngon chad bdag cag rnams kyis grogs ma bgyis/
da ni jig rten rlag par bgyi am ji ltar bgyi.
307
which the righteous bodhisattva could cut the victims karmic continuum
and redirect it toward enlightenment.
This begs the question: Why, if the proper karmic connections are in
place, are the liberation rites ritual forms necessary at all? Why does
the bodhisattva not simply kill the offending sinner in a straightforward
manner? Ultimately, most tantric Buddhists would agree that a combination of correct ritual performance and karmic connection is necessary,
but unresolved tensions remain, between ritual power and the mental
state of the sinner.
Perhaps here we may detect too echoes of more recent debates that
have haunted the modern academic study of religion. Throughout the
twentieth-century, western theories on sin and repentance fell largely
into two general camps. On the one hand, there were what might be
called the Durkheimian approaches of Social Anthropology that focused
more on ritual performance and saw maintenance of the social order as
the primary purpose of sin and its expiation. On the other hand, there
were the Freudian approaches that focused instead on the more mental
or subjective aspects of repentance, on how confessionbe it to God,
ones priest, or ones therapistcan liberate the subject from his or her
feelings of guilt. Whether these two functionsthe Durkheimian and the
Freudianare always so different from one another is a significant question, one that Michel Foucault, for example, highlighted well in his History
of Sexuality, vol. 1, which in many ways was an expos of the social and
political functions concealed within Freudian confession and psychoanalytic liberation. Nonetheless the two trends persisted and have shaped
much of the modern academic discourse around sin and its expiation.
Perhaps in the ancient ritual and mythic treatments of Buddhist redemptive violence examined here, there may be some parallels.
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pai mdo; theg pa chen po mngon par rtogs pa; chos kyi rnam grangs rnam par bkod pa
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Dunhuang mss. cited: IOL Tib J 419, IOL Tib J 439, IOL Tib J 712, Pelliot tibtain 36, Pelliot
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Sin and Flaws in Kerala Astrology

Gilles Tarabout
In the popular imagination the Christian notion of sin as a transgression
against divine law is intimately linked with personal responsibility. Ideally, sin should provoke a sense of guilt, for personal morality depends
on this inner experience. If a sin has been committed, sincere repentance
and expiation may help the sinner obtain forgiveness and even a lesser
punishment.1 That such a view is highly cultural specific is clear from the
reaction to the foundations of Christian morality that we find in Hindu
interlocutors in Kerala (on the south-western coast of India), who pointed
out to me that confessing sins, as is the practice in different Churches of
the region, is nothing but an easy way to escape the potentially dreadful
consequences of transgressions. In their minds repentance and the forgiveness it engendered encouraged immorality.
Scholars attempting cross-cultural comparisons in this domain are at
the risk of reproducing cultural prejudices. A quantitative study published
some ten years ago, for instance, advanced the hypothesis (not discussed
here as such) that, in many societies, religion and morality are not linked.
When there is a link, it is contingent on images of gods as conscious,
morally-concerned beings, that is, in an explicitly evolutionistic perspective, it is linked with the idea of God in the Abrahamic religions.2 Another
cross-cultural study about the sense of sin was more cautious in its conclusion and pointed out the historical connection between societies with
a messianic idea of a savior conquering sin and the fact that the individuals attitude to sin has assumed a central role in religious thinking.
For it is believed that salvation can only be attained by eschewing sin, or
at least by wiping out the stain of sin through penance and meritorious
works.3
1This of course is hardly an accurate presentation of the historically diverse and constantly evolving notion of sin in Christianity.
2Rodney Stark, Gods, Rituals, and the Moral Order, Journal for the Scientific Study of
Religion 40, no. 4 (2001): 621. India seemed at first to contradict the hypothesis because of
the general impression among westerners that Hinduism is polytheistic; in reality, the
author claims, Hindus worship only one godand the theory is safe.
3Christoph von Frer-Haimendorf, The Sense of Sin in Cross-Cultural Perspective,
Man, n. s. 9, no. 4 (1974): 555.
310
gilles tarabout
One difficulty with projects such as these is that they often proceed
from an asymmetry in the comparison: why for instance look for sin
around the world, finding therefore some societies somewhat defective
in this respect, and not for concepts such as dharma, karma, etc.? Arguably, the process by which the English language and, to a lesser extent,
other western languages have become the standard languages for international scholarship, has increased such an asymmetry by establishing
concepts proper to these languages as referents. Scholarship about India
will regularly use English terms such as sin or expiation for translating
concepts which do not necessarily share the connotations they have in
Christianity. While such a pitfall is probably unavoidable, and has often
been remarked, the self-evident quality of such translations is problematic. It leads to discarding important aspects of the interpreted culture,
and instead of fostering understanding may merely add sanction to a
western-centered vision of morality.
Indian concepts for which the terms sin and expiation are regularly
given are respectively ppa and pryacitta (Skt.). They are often associated with the notion of karma: briefly said, the misfortune which one
experiences may be explained as being the consequence of ones own acts
committed in a previous life and those past actions are termed sinful in
English translations. A sinner may however alleviate to some extent the
consequences of his sins by practicing expiations. Put into English in
this vocabulary, things look familiar, perhaps a bit too much.
There are at least two main difficulties. The first is that there is no uniform conception of karma (or ppa or pryacitta) throughout India: on
the one hand, these notions have been the subject of debates and controversies since early times; on the other hand, there exists considerable
variation in the understanding and the contextual invocation of these
notions in practice. Various studies suggest the diversity in the conceptions and use of karma: for many people, karma is seen as transferable,
and one may have to endure sufferings as the result of the actions done
by others (usually parents) in past lives, as well as in the present one. In
other words, one may not have to suffer from his or her own sins, but
from those of others. In that case, past sinful acts may still legitimate an
overall moral order: but this order does not involve a direct link between
ones deeds and ones own suffering.
The second difficulty is that each notion occurs in association with
other ones, defining semantic associations that may considerably differ from the ones of their supposed English equivalents. Sin, ppa, is
sin and flaws in kerala astrology
311
transferable through religious gift, dna.4 The term is also used for fever
or illness and is the name of a specific illness for which the Indian medical tradition of yurveda offers certain medicated oils or ghees (clarified
butter) as a remedy.5
Moreover, people might refer in some contexts to karma and ppa as
the cause for present-day misfortune, while favoring in other contexts
other explanations: the wrath of deities, affliction by ghosts, or sorcery
instigated by enemies. These two sets of explanations usually complement each other and may be seen as two different registers of causality. In
this respect, many anthropologists have followed the distinction proposed
by D.Mandelbaum between transcendental and pragmatic aspects of
religion.6 Paul Hiebert, for instance, working in a Tamil village, distinguished between upper Hindu explanation traditions which invoke karma
and fate and entail a moral opposition between good and evil, where the
notion of sin is significant, on the one hand, and what he called a middle level explanation tradition on the other hand.7 According to Hiebert,
the latter is characterized by the action of village goddesses, of spirits, of
magic, and by the recourse to astrology for identifying causes of misfortune; notions of good or evil and of sin are less relevant than notions of
ritual faults, impurity, or of being the innocent victim of ghosts or enemies.
My aim is not to elaborate in general terms on sin or karma in India,
and there is ample scholarship on these points.8 Rather, I propose to reflect
on the contrast established by Hiebert (and others) by looking at what
4See Jonathan Parry, The Gift, the Indian Gift and the Indian Gift Man, n. s. 21,
no. 3 (1986).
5Francis Zimmermann, Le discours des remdes au pays des pices (Paris: Payot, 1989),
126.
6DavidMandelbaum, Transcendental and Pragmatic Aspects of Religion, American
Anthropologist 68 (1966).
7The author establishes a further contrast with another, third level, the folk one. See
Paul G.Hiebert, 1983, Karma and Other Explanation Traditions in a South Indian Village,
in Karma. An Anthropological Enquiry, edited by Charles F. Keyes and E. Valentine Daniel
(Berkeley and Los Angeles: California University Press, 1983), 121, 129.
8See for instance Franois Chenet, Karma and Astrology: An Unrecognized Aspect of
Indian Anthropology, Diogenes 33 (1985); Othmar Gchter, Evil and Suffering in Hinduism, Anthropos 93, 4/6 (1998); Robert P. Goldman, Karma, Guilt, and Buried Memories:
Public Fantasy and Private Reality in Traditional India, Journal of the American Oriental
Society 105, no. 3 (1985); Charles F. Keyes and E. Valentine Daniel, eds. Karma. An Anthropological Inquiry (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1983); Charles
W. Nuckolls, Interpretation of the Concept of Karma in a Telugu Fishing Village, The
Eastern Anthropologist 34, no. 2 (1971); Charles W. Nuckolls, Culture and Causal Thinking: Diagnosis and Prediction in a South Indian Fishing Village. Ethos 19, no. 1 (1991);
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gilles tarabout
astrology has to say on the matter and by focusing on the use in astrological contexts of terms translated into English as sin and expiation.
My argument is that in the context of astrology, what is rendered as
sin or expiation corresponds to a more ambivalent conception of wrong
deeds, of their consequences, and of the solutions they call for, than what
may be found in Christian-inspired cultures. This suggests in turn that
the contrast drawn between Hindu explanation traditions and middle
level ones, or between the transcendental and the practical aspects of
religion, may not be a very fruitful one.
The material I use concerns astrology as it is practiced in Kerala. Of
its three main branches, birth horoscope (jtakamI will use henceforth the Malayalam transliteration for terms), determination of favorable moments (muhurttam) and the resolution of problems (pranam),
it is the latter with which I am concerned here. The main reference text
in Kerala in this domain is the Pranamrggam (Mal.), The Path of the
Questions, a Sanskrit treatise compiled and written around 1650 in Kerala,
with a later Malayalam commentary by Srabdhin.9 This work, without
its commentary, has been rendered into English by B.V. Raman.10 I will
also rely on the ethnography of some astrological consultations and on
personal discussions with astrologers and ritual specialists, made during
separate fieldwork trips in 1991, 1994 and 1999.11
Sin and Afflictions in the Pranamrggam
The Pranamrggam (hereafter P.M.) extends over 2500 stanzas
arranged in 32 chapters. Four chapters directly bear on the present topic:
chapter XII (86 stanzas), chapter XIII (39 stanzas) and chapter XXIII
Charles W. Nuckolls, Divergent Ontologies of Suffering in South Asia, Ethnology 31, no. 1
(1992); Ursula Sharma, Theodicy and the Doctrine of Karma, Man, n. s. 8, no. 3 (1973).
9Krishnalayam M.K. Govindan, ed., Pranamrggam (prvvrdham) enna srabdhini
vykhynattuki (Kottayam: National Book Stall, 1987).
10Bangalore Venkata Raman, ed. and trans., Prasna Marga, Part I (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1996); Prasna Marga, Part II (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1992).
11I have elsewhere presented Keralas astrological practice for solving the problems of
temples. See Gilles Tarabout, Les corps et les choses. Rsonances et mtaphores corporelles dans lastrologie applique aux temples (Krala), in Images du corps dans le monde
hindou, edited by V. Bouillier and G. Tarabout (Paris: CNRS Editions, 2002); La rparation des fautes. Le contrle astrologique de la transformation des rites et des temples au
Krala, in Rites hindous: transferts et transformations, edited by G.Colas and G.Tarabout
(Paris, EHESS, 2006); Authoritative Statements in Kerala Temple Astrology, Rivista di
Studi Sudasiatici, 2 (2007).
313
(41 stanzas) deal more specifically with diseases (vydhi, Skt.; rgam in the
Malayalam commentary), while chapter XV (230/234stanzas, depending
on the edition) is concerned with various afflictions (pam).
Regarding diseases, the term ppam, used in chapters XII, XIII and
XXIII, is translated by B.V. Raman as sin and is invoked both as a general and rather abstract cause for all diseases and misfortunes, and as the
direct reason for specific diseases, whose nature is ascertainable through
an examination of planetary positions and relationships.
Significantly, the English rendition of stanza XIII.29 by B.V. Raman is
Diseases are the resultant of sins done in our past births [...] where the
text, more literally says ppam done in a previous life finds rebirth in the
shape of diseasewith a more complex understanding of ppam than
sin.12 While published commentaries both in English and in Malayalam
make clear that what is meant by ppam here is ones own deeds, oral
explanations by astrologers about this very verse point to the possibility
of deeds done by the ancestors as well.
The P.M. then goes on to explain the mechanics of the relationship
between ppam and diseases. Whatever be the immediate causes one can
think of, all diseases originate from ones own sins (ppam) [XIII. 30],
which provoke the wrong position of planets and, ultimately, the agitation of the three humors of the body (trida): this agitation is the disease [XIII. 31]. Therefore, all diseases have two causes, one which is seen
(da), and one which is unseen (ada). This entails the necessity to
combines medicines (for the visible causes) with pryascittam (for the
unseen causes) [XIII. 26]. Consumption is given as an example. Its root
cause is the willful murder of a Brahmin in a preceding life; the appropriate remedy is pryacittam, which B.V. Raman translates here as due
repentance and the gift of clothes to Brahmins [XIII. 33]. This kind of
diagnosis and remedy is specifically elaborated in chapter XXIII, mostly
a rendition of another text, the Karmavipka. This chapter enumerates
various diseases, always resulting from deeds done in ones own previous
births. The appropriate measures consist in the repetition of mantras, the
performance of offerings in the fire (hmam), and the donation of various items, depending on the disease. These are familiar rituals. Donation
appears to be a major moral therapy, but the panacea for any type of
12Janmntara ktam ppam vydhi rpa jyat (S.). There is a similar statement in
XII.30, and the full chapter XXIII (a compilation of Syanas Karmavipka) is dedicated to
enumerating the diseases one suffers from past sins.
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gilles tarabout
disease is the performance of the Mityujaya hmam (XIII. 3639], offerings into a ritual fire accompanied by the repetition of the Mityujaya
mantra (here, 8000 times is suggested) Mtyujaya is the name of iva
who conquered Death itself. The ritual includes feeding and making donations to Brahmans.
The P.M. is thus working within the framework of a Hindu explanation
tradition of a transcendental level; it prescribes the corresponding ritual
measures that are usual in such circumstances.13 However, sufferings to
which such transcendental explanations are applied are diseases, and
ritual measures are used in complement to the administration of medicines. The goal is quite immediate and practical. Moreover, the kinds of
hmam indicated are sometimes presented as forms of atonement, but
they are also, and perhaps mostly, valued for their sheer power to deal
with adversity. They maintain all the ambivalence and potentialities of
the fire sacrifice.
The tone of chapter XV, concerning afflictions, is rather different. One
and a half times the length of chapters XII, XIII and XXIII together, chapter XV describes afflictions either in terms of obstruction and torment
(bdhausually understood as spirit affliction or possession in Kerala)
or of curses (pa), by gods, family gods, serpents, parents and ancestors, gurus, brahmins, prtam (ghosts), evil visions,14 food-poisoning,
and witchcraft. Without entering into the details of the indications and
the prescriptions set out in this chapter,15 a few salient points may be
underlined.
The word ppam is only used in this chapter in a technical sense:
ppagraha, rendered as malefic planet (here, Mars, Saturn, Rhu);16 and
ppaygam (Mal.; ppayukt, S.), malefic (astral) conjunction. In both
usages the moral connotation of sin seems absent. It does not mean that
the chapter does not recognize the effect of past mistakes, such as neglecting the worship of a god or a goddess, or destroying (even unknowingly)
serpents eggs, etc., all of which result in an affliction. However, the focus
here is on the divine anger, which results from such faults, or on the curse
13This strongly reminds one of the Prta (or Dharma) khaa of the Garua pura,
which describes major sins and their punishments, as well as the appropriate rituals for
avoiding such fates.
14Evil vision (di) and not evil-eye, as it is commonly translated.
15For a more detailed presentation, with a focus on sorcery, see Gilles Tarabout,
Magical Violence and Non-Violence. Witchcraft in Kerala, in Violence / Non Violence. Some
Hindu Perspectives, ed. by D.Vidal, G.Tarabout, and E.Meyer (Delhi: Manohar, 2003).
16Ktu is not mentioned in the PM.
315
itself. The specific source of misfortune must be discovered by the astrologer by examining the position of the planets. The text frequently mentions
Divine-anger-signifying-planets.
This chapter provides answers as to the causes of present-day afflictions, distinguished from diseases, without dwelling on the question of
responsibility. Efforts are deployed in order precisely to identify prtam,
gods, enemies, etc., who are the causes of the torment; the actions deemed
to be at the origin of their displeasure are scarcely attended to, except in
the case of enemies. Such a focus is perceptible in the vocabulary used;
in the Malayalam commentary, for instance, the most frequent words
are bdha (obstacle, torment) and kpam (anger, here of elders, deities,
spirits). Remedial measures are termed amanam (quietening, pleasing),
parihram or pratividhi (remedy, atonement), or oivu (cessation). In line
with these preoccupations, many remedial measures consist of offerings
of food, sacrifices (bali), performance of worship or pj, and hmam. The
whole emphasis is put on the personal agency of other beings for causing
afflictions; these beings have to be placated, counteracted, or eliminated.
The possible moral dimension of the fault at the origin of a supernatural
beings wrath is not elaborated: it is just not relevant.
At this stage, my enquiry concurs with the studies noted above that
have concluded that there coexist two perspectives on the causality of
human sufferings, with only one of them actually involving the notion of
ppam. The astrological tradition exemplified in the text of the P.M. combines explanations of both kinds and is not restricted to a middle level
approach of causality, though it is undoubtedly aiming at practical results.
Furthermore, the translation of ppam as sin does not do justice to the
nuanced usages of the word. This may become more apparent by looking
at how, exactly, astrologers actually proceed.
Sin and Flaws in Kerala Astrological Practice
There exist differences between the letter of the text of the P.M. and the
way it is understood and used in practice. As noted above, the very verse
stipulating that a disease is the consequence of ones own deeds in a previous birth was explicitly interpreted by a Kerala astrologer as opening
the possibility that it could also result from the deeds of the sick persons
ancestors:
What enables the astrologer to conclude whether the diseases in the present
life are the consequences of the wicked deeds of the person concerned in
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gilles tarabout
his previous birth, or done by his father and his paternal ancestors, or done
by his mother and his maternal parents, is the position of the stars. [...] The
deeds of an ancestor can therefore ruin the life of a person.17
To make things clearer, the astrologer gave as an illustration the case of

a patients chronic gas trouble, which was found to be the consequence
of spirit possession by the prtam of one of his dead ancestors: it may
sometimes be found that the cause of the ailment is the wicked deeds of
the persons father or grandfather. It is to be inferred then that the impure
spirit of a dead ancestor has entered the body of the person. Here, the
patients own past deeds are not evoked, and are not the direct cause for
his suffering. Rather, deeds of an ancestor turned the latter into a prtam,
who then afflicts and possesses the patient. It is still a moral explanation
of suffering, but centered on the prtam, while the patient is not seen as
having any personal responsibility for his present state. Moreover, contrary to the text of the P.M. there is no distinction here between a disease
and an affliction. As a matter of fact, the manner in which the case is
described identified the problem as an instance of what in astrological
and ordinary parlance is called a dam (flaw)here a prtadam.18 This
shift in the interpretation of responsibility, it could be argued, could be
connected to the fact that the astrologer who was interviewed belongs to
a specialized caste of formerly untouchable status, with restricted exposure to Sanskrit culture (though he knew some texts). There are other traditional astrologers in Kerala who belong to higher status castes and have
a more intensive knowledge of the philosophical and normative textual
traditions. However, as a matter of fact, their astrological advice does not
deliver much more about sin to their clients.
The consultation of a Tamil Brahman astrologer by a male client will
serve as an illustration of the kind of semantic associations and reasoning
that are used.19 The man (who was already known to the astrologer) did
17Interview with Shri K.N.B. Asan, Thiruvananthapuram, March 10th, 1991. The recorded
interview was then kindly transcribed by M. Sivasankaran Nayar, who also prepared a preliminary English translation.
18The term is the same as that used in yurveda for humor, but here it has the meaning of an affliction caused by a supernatural being; it is more or less synonymous with
pam (affliction) and may replace bdha (obstacle) in most of its occurrences, with an
additional nuance of impurity and a rather sticky quality.
19Consultation of Shri Dharmaraja Iyer, Thiruvananthapuram, April 1st, 1999. Because
of my presence, most of the consultation was held in English (which the client understood
perfectly), with some Malayalam. I took notes during the initial phase of the meeting and
then obtained permission to record it.
317
not disclose his motivations at once; it became clear after some time that
he wanted to marry a non-eligible girl but feared his own parents opposition. However, asking the advice of an astrologer is by itself the proof of an
existing problem, which has to be elucidated by looking at the planetary
positions. In this case, the astrologer first checked the astrological chart of
the moment when the client came asking for an appointment, a few days
before the actual meeting:
The lunar mansion (nakatram, lit. star) is not good, except for marriage.
The lunar day is bad except for learning. Some disease is there, prosperity is
lacking. The lunar mansion is not completely good, not free from previous
faults in previous births. There is some wrong somewhere, most probably
dissatisfaction. He [the client] will not change his job, planets are showing
stability. The problem is more a feeling of dissatisfaction against which he
has to react. This is the illness (rgam), the feeling that his job does not correspond to his possibilities. [...] rgam means, you know, something against
tradition. [...] It all goes by certain rules. Then, when there is something
wrong somewhere, we call it a disease. So something is wrong somewhere.
So he wants to break the rules, go or act against. [...] An aspect of Mars is
cast on Saturn, he must be having some desire to move out from the present
situation because of a tendency to dissatisfaction...He is totally dissatisfied
with whatever he sees. That is actually what is called a disease.
The reference to the clients own past faults provides a general cause for
the actual planetary chart. However the astrologer doesnt elaborate further on the matter, except in terms of the resulting disease, the mans
dissatisfaction. Past deeds may frame the understanding of the overall
situation, but will not end up in the prescription of specific remedial measures. The astrologer now considers a second chart, corresponding to the
consultation proper:
Today we are getting slightly more. Clarity is thrown on this picture, with
todays ascendant Libra...One thing is certain. Venus is in the 7th [house],
Lord of the ascendant is in the 7th, and the Lord of the 7th is in the ascendant...Clearly, there is an exchange of signs between Venus and Mars. And
Saturn [is with Venus]. Hes having somebody in mind for marriage. How to
put this to the parents, that is the problem he is facing.
The man confirms this, and the astrologer just asks him if the girl is of the
same casteshe is. The astrologer then goes on:
Fortunate. Because Saturn has not worked its way. It is the Lord of the 5th.
[...] The problem is this. There is Saturn, there is difficulty. The Sun is in
6th (called the house of bdha, of obstacles, enmity), the Sun is bdha. Sun
represents the father also. [...] Father is not going to agree for this. Though
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the mother may agree. [...] but father may not agree. That happens to be
the bdha for this.
As mentioned before, the term bdha is frequently understood in Kerala

as pointing to an affliction by a spirit. Indeed, this is what the astrologer
finds as being the source of the observed bdha:
So Guikan [a malefic sub-planet, upagraham, involved in the diagnostic
and resolution of problems in Kerala] is in the 8th [house], Guikan represent dead persons; Saturn also is there. So the Lord of the house-of-Guikan
is Venus and Venus is afflicted by Mars and Saturn. Now the sign also, the
sign occupied by Guikan is aspected by Mars. So it should be really a bdha
arisen from a prtam [ghost]...See, peculiarly, the navaa [ninth portion
of a sign] sign of Guikan is Cancer, and the Lord of Cancer is occupying an
unfavorable position. Venus is in an unfavorable position. Guikan himself
is in an unfavorable position. And both are feminine signs. So a lady prtam
is there.
The astrologer tries unsuccessfully, with the help of the client, to put a
name to the prtam, and concludes it must be somebody who was at one
time connected to the family. He also explores the possibility of sorcery,
but there is none that may be deduced from the chart. He eventually concludes, this ghostly affliction (prtadam) is the only one, and he prescribes the necessary rituals for pacifying and sending away the prtam,
much like funerary rituals.
The line of reasoning may be summarized in this way. There is an overall weakness (disease) of the client that results from faults done in his past
life. Concerning his actual projects, the planets show that his father will
oppose them (especially because the girl, though from the same caste, is
not from an appropriate sub-group), he is an obstacle. This hindrance
results from a ghostly affliction (a prtadam); the clients family has no
particular responsibility in this. Taking care of this ghost through rituals
is required, as well asthe astrologer also suggested with commendable
pragmatismbreaking the news to the parents in such a way that they
would be forced to accept everything.
It is thus not the case that ppam is not taken into account, but it provides only the general context. The actual problem, expressed in terms
of obstacle, is the flaw (dam) caused by a ghost. The ritual measures,
called prayacittam, accomplish a transformation of the prtam into a
pacified, good spirit, enabling it to leave this world and join the world
of good ancestors: it is a separation process. Notions of responsibility or
guilt are absent, and there is no expiation for the deeds of the client or
of his family.
319
Sin and Flaws in Temple Astrology

Similar consultations for temples are called dva pranam. Questions are
put to an astrologer by representatives of a temple committee, either for
improving the temple or for resolving some problems. It is usually an
occasion when a long list of flaws, dam, is established, and elaborate
remedial measures prescribed. As if looking through a magnifying glass, it
provides a peculiarly rich astrological context for understanding what is
meant by dam and ritual reparation.
I will take the written report, established and signed (as is the practice)
by a team of astrologers at the end of the consultation of the Thalakottukara temple (chart dated July 6th, 1998) dedicated to Goddess Bhagavati.20
The text starts with a few verses in praise of deities. It exposes the astrological chart and the exact longitudes of the planets at the time of the
pranam, after which it enumerates a list of dam:
As an indication of the above said dam, (we see) pollution, breaking of
the idols cement [...], the destruction of the divine presence of the goddess,
dam from ghosts of Brahmins, from prtam, from the pollution caused by
them: all these dam are seen as existing. As a result, people connected
with the temple or living nearby suffer from untimely deaths, accidental
deaths, etc., mental diseases, monetary loss, etc. The result of these dam
continues to exist. If reparation (parihram) is not done, there is indication
(in the chart) that there will be an increase of dam in the future. [...] If the
remedial measures are done with devotion and care, there is full indication
for prosperity in future.
In this context, dam can designate any kind of flaw resulting from the
action of human or supernatural beings, and it is strongly associated
with the notion of impurity: the pollution of the temples well is another
instance of dam found in the present case. These flaws have their own
causes, and they are themselves the reasons why the temple is not faring
well and why people suffer in the locality (a repeated conclusion in such
temple consultations). An important aspect of the astrological process is
to identify one by one each dam and its cause, and to determine accordingly appropriate remedial measures.
These measures are grouped at the end of the written report under
the general heading oivu, cessation, purge. In the present case there is
20Thalakkothukkara temple is situated in Trichur district. I am indebted to my regretted friend L.S. Rajagopalan for providing me with a copy of the report, and for preparing
a first translation.
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gilles tarabout
a long list of them: performing worship in various neighboring temples;

changing the ritual routine for some subordinate deities; rectifying architectural defaults; developing festivals, etc. A special emphasis is put on the
removal of the dam caused by numerous prtam. The latter are detailed
and, whenever possible, identified by their name: a couple of rakassu
(ogre), a Brahman gored by a bull, a temple servant who died hanging by
a rope, a woman servant who died in a fire, two women living nearby who
died during pregnancy, etc. Their spirits are to be invoked in effigies made
with a silver leaf (pratim, likeness, image), to which the kind of funerary
rituals already mentioned for the private consultation are performed:
People known and unknown; children and aged ones; rakassu and prtam:
without omission, invoke them in the images (pratim) [...] together with
the afflictions and misery of the place. Once their presence has been transferred to the images, do hmam with appropriate Vedic skta for each
misery linked to a bad death. [...] Get all the sub-tormentors (there is an
additional list of 10 supernatural beings associated with the various ghosts)
released with 3000 Mahsudarana mantras (it refers to the discus-shaped
weapon of Vishnu), 9000 Sadkara sudarana mantras, do 12000 times
Sudarana hmam. After that, do 24000 Gayatri mantras, and 8000 times
each Gta, Triup, Akaram, Sadkara sudaranam, as well as 48000 sesame hmam, 16 Purua skta hmam [...]. Getting the curse and the dam
removed, do syjya (oneness with the supreme being) pj. The images
are to be taken to a holy river; perform ktra piha kriya and cast away
the images (in the river).
The ritual transforms ghosts into good ancestors so that they may leave
our world and stop harassing human beings. The impressive, and costly,
accumulation of mantras and hmam at the core of this part of the remedial measures is called indifferently in the report parihram, pratividhi, or
prayacittam. It presents no evidence whatsoever of repentance. Rather
the rituals pertain to the complex world of the sacrifice, able to subdue
spirits, satisfy the gods, and procure happiness for the patron of the sacrifice. It is a reordering of the world, an act of propitiation, not an act of
contrition. Even what may outwardly resemble an expression of repentance has to be understood in its context. For instance the removal of
the dam of the curse from Brahmins requires someone to wash the
feet and feed many Brahmins, [...] and to prostrate before them. Or the
dam of the curse by good women requires a person to invite and bring
a Brahmin couple, do pj to the couple and get their blessings so that the
dam is removed. The ritual enacts the proper relationship one has to
have toward Brahmins, or the worshipping of an idealized married couple;
it is an expression of subordination to social classes and values, an act
321
of submission, placing oneself under the protection of a superior power;

but it does not correspond to a sense of guilt. This is also, I argue, how
we should consider a last example of a remedial measure, from the same
report:
If some speech or deeds not liked by the Goddess have been done, knowingly or unknowingly, in order to remove these dam pray, make a boat
of silver, put money in it without counting, and on top keep one tli (gold
leaf mounted on a string and put as a necklace to the wife at the time of
marriage) of gold wrapped in silk, speak out repentance (begging pardon
publicly) and submit to the Goddess. The tantri (superior ritual authority
of the temple) should do a special pj to the Goddess. At the end of the
worship, adorn the silk and the tli on the Goddess. As a representative of
the Goddess, the tantri is to bless all those connected so that the dam is
removed. Present special ritual honorarium, cloth and betel to the tantri.
The expression speak out repentance (begging pardon publicly) is the

translation which my friend provided for apardham r r u colli, (speaking the offense while standing); for the same expression used in another
report, he proposed speak out admitting the offense committed and
submit to the deity. This is the closest to an expression of repentance
which I could find. In my view, the core concern is to express publicly the
existence of an offense (not necessarily committed by the ones who are
speaking out), and to reaffirm the submissive stance of devotees. It need
not involve the experience of any remorse for sins committed.
It is also to be noted that all these rituals, often called prayacittam
and which are performed in this case for removing flaws, are of the very
same nature as the prayacittam prescribed as remedies for the diseases
provoked by ppam.
Concluding Remarks
The above observations allow for a rough mapping of the main understandings of suffering and responsibility according to Kerala astrology. In
the P.M., misfortune is treated under two different categories, with overlaps: diseases and afflictions. On the one hand, diseases are explained in
terms of ppam: it is a human deed, the effect of which, besides taking
rebirth in the shape of specific diseases, determines the general condition
of the client at a given time. The sick person need not be the one who
committed the ppam that caused the disease. On the other hand, afflictions are dam, flaws, which are often of a polluting nature and result
from the anger of some entity. A dam, contrary to a ppam, is not a deed
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gilles tarabout
but a situation. Though the text of the P.M. separates dam from disease,
in practice diseases are actually interpreted in terms of dam.
The contrast sometimes drawn between transcendental and pragmatic aspects of religion seems therefore of limited interest in the case
of Kerala astrology. It appears largely artificial as far as remedial measures are concerned. Diseases, according to the P.M., need to be treated by
combining pryacittam, often translated as expiations, and medicines.
Afflictions, following an apparently different regime of causality, nevertheless also require the performance of pryacittam. Rather than expiations, such rituals are removers or destroyers of the obstacles resulting
from ppam or dam. Their very nature, involving repetition of mantras
and oblations into a fire, suggests that what people are looking for is to
mobilize religious power to overcome diseases and afflictions. There is
little sense of feeling guilty and doing penance on that account.21
The discourse on moral responsibility which is present in astrology is
therefore not a discourse on guiltiness and forgiveness, but a discourse
about the laws of the world and the effects of their transgressions. These
have to be purged by means of purification and sacrificial ceremonies, so
that prosperity and good health may be restored in an ideal ordering of
the world. The purge (oivu) section in the report of the Thalakottukkara
temple ends thus:
If things are done as mentioned above, will the dam be removed? And will
the divine presence of the Goddess increase? And will there be prosperity
and will the people connected with the temple prosper? Is there any sign for
it? To know that, praying for the blessings of Jupiter, when it was 4.30 p.m.
the 24th in the month of Gemini, 1173 (Malayalam era), the oivu was seen
in Cancer: so it is seen that it is good.
May good things happen!
21On the interrelations between prayacitta, penance, ascetic tapas, and sacrifice, see
for instance Louis Renou, Le brahmanisme. Les formes religieuses, in LInde classique.
Manuel des tudes indiennes, vol. I, 606sqq. (Paris: Maisonneuve, 1985); Louis Renou, Vedic
India, 111sqq. (Delhi, Varanasi: Indological Book House, 1971); Furer-Haimendorf, Sense of
Guilt, 549550; Walter O. Kaelber, Tapas and Purification in Early Hinduism, Numen,
26, no. 2 (1979).
323
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Sin and Expiation in Nepal:

the Makar Mela Pilgrimage in Panaut
Grard Toffin
Il peccato non unazione piuttosto che unaltra, ma
tutta unesistenza mal congegnata. C chi pecca e chi
no. Le stesse cose (odiare, fottere, oziare, maltrattare,
umiliarsi, insuperbirsi) in uno sono peccati, in altri no.
5 Maggio 1936
peccato ci che infligge rimorso.13 Luglio 1938
Cesare Pavese, Il mestiere di vivere, Diario 19351950.1
I have come across the question of sin repeatedly during my four decades
of research in Nepal. The concept of sin covers an extensive web of
ideas, pervading the daily lives of both Hindus and Buddhists in Nepal.
Sins may be moral lapses, ritual infractions or violations of the numerous social rules that govern life within the family, the household, or the
village.2 Strategies for coping with such sins are also many. The topic of
1Sin is not one action rather than another, but a whole maladjusted way of life. What
is a sin for one, is not for another. The same thingshatred, making a fool of some-one,
ill-treating them, humbling oneself or being arrogantare sins for some men, not for
others, 5th May 1936. A sin is something that inflicts remorse. 13th July 1938. Cesare
Pavese, The Business of Living. Diaries 19351950. Trans. John Taylor (New Jersey: Transactions Publishers, 2009).
2While as we shall see the stories that explain the origin of Panaut focus on the sexual
sins of adultery and incest, the concept of sin or pp covers a wide range of behaviors.
Offences against gods and supernatural beings may be treated as sins, for example desecration of a sacred site or image. Some sins are caste-bound transgressions, gambling, stealing, telling lies and eating meat are sins for vegetarian high castes. Thus among Newar and
Parbatiy members of the Hindu sect of Kria Pram, eating meat, smoking tobacco,
telling lies, taking drugs, are identified as sins. The non-respect of social rules, apparently
devoid of moral implications, is also generally considered a pp. For instance, among
Newars, hcngyegu (New.), to cross an older person in the stairs, to step over the leg
of a person, even someone younger, or to step over a fire-place, bhut, in a house, are
viewed as sins. That is why Newars shout while going up and down a staircase to signal
to others that they should wait. If a person crosses the path of elders, the person has to
bow down, bhgiygu, to free himself of that pp. The sin will be wiped away. Many other
deeds and actions fall within this kind of offence: to enter a Tantric temple if you have
not undergone dk/dekh initiation, to eat with your left hand, to marry an agnatic relative, phuki, or another close kin, to enter a stage or a ritual space wearing leather shoes
when a religious dance or ceremony is being performed, to offer blood to a vegetarian
deity (Buddha or iva for instance), to enter a reha/akya house (and that of other
sin and expiation in nepal
325
this paper is one particular strategy. Sins may be expiated at fixed times,
during religious festivals. Here I examine one such festival, the Makar Mel
that takes place in Panaut city, Kabhrepalancok District, a locality where
I carried out a detailed study in the seventies and eighties, and where I
returned recently. The festival takes place every twelve years. Bathing at
this holy site during the festival is said to wash away the sins of any mortal. Such a claim is not unique to Panaut; it is made of other rivers and
rituals as well, but few festivals in Nepal are as celebrated as the one at
Panaut. The origin of the holy place at Panaut, the trtha, is linked to the
austerities performed at this very place by an extremely sinful deity, Indra,
who had sexual intercourse with Ahalya, the wife of the sage Gautama.
In other words, sin and repentance are the raison dtre for both the holy
site and its festival. Sin and repentance in this way are widely infused in
the religious geography of the Kathmandu Valley. The whole local territory in which people live and travel is replete with tales about holy places,
rivers and hills that came into being as a result of some sin and that offer
a means for its expiation. Pilgrims regularly travel this religious map and
experience these ideas whenever they visit a holy place, reinforcing the
notion that sins are many and that their expiation requires ritual remedies. Panaut thus may serve as one striking example of these beliefs.3
upper-caste persons) if you are an untouchable, to have sexual intercourse with ones wife
when she is menstruating, to share the meal of a person of lower caste or to take leftover
food from other adult personsall of these fall under the broad category of pp. Some
particular social conditions are closely associated with sin. For instance, widows (Nepali
bidhuv) (Newari. bhta madumha mis) are known to be ppi persons. They are sinners
because they are thought to be responsible in some way for their husbands death. This
belief is shared equally by Hindu and Buddhist Newars. It is particularly difficult to disentangle the idea of sin from other concepts, which are closely associated with it. One
is faced here with a network of intersecting and overlapping notions within which the
Nepalese and Newars circulate freely. For example, there is a close link between sin and
inauspiciousness. Sin is also closely related to impurity and one often implies the other.
Sin may also stand in opposition to merit, and as this paper demonstrates, it is difficult to
dissociate rituals or performances acted out to obtain puya (merit) from those acted out
to wash sins. For instance, a person may build a Buddhist religious caitya (New. cib) or
a shelter, phalc (New.), to exhibit Hindu/Buddhist deities at the time of festivals mainly
in the hope of obtaining puya. Yet, the notion of removing sin may also be present in
these dedications.
3I studied Panaut (its social structure, religion, architecture) in the 1970s, partly in
association with three French architects: Vincent Barr, Patrick Berger and Laurence
Feveile. For the main findings of this research, see Vincent, Barr, Patrick Berger and
Laurence Feveile and Grard Toffin, Panauti, un ville au Nepal (Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1981),
and Grard Toffin Les rites funraires des hautes castes nwar in Les hommes et la mort,
ed. Jean Guiart (Paris: Le Sycomore/Objets et Mondes, 1979) 242252; Analyse structurale
326
grard toffin
Panaut City and Panaut Trtha
Panaut (New.4 Pant, Palant, old names: Panavat, Padmavat, Puyavat,

Puramat-desa) is a small historic Newar city located 32 kilometres
southeast of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal. The locality lies outside
the Kathmandu Valley proper, the centre of Newar civilization, and is part
of the adjacent valley of Banepa. It is mainly populated by Hindu Newars.
According to local chronicles, the city was founded by A nanda Malla at the
end of thirteenth century, together with six other neighboring localities,
including Banepa and Nala.5 During brief periods (in the thirteenth and
fifteenth centuries), it was attached to the chiefdom of Banepa. However,
most of the time it fell under the Malla kingdom of the nearby Hindu city
of Bhaktapur. It is sometimes said that Panaut and its region were given
as a dowry, kvasa, (New.), by king Bhupatndra Malla to his daughter, yet
there is no historical evidence for this. Despite the ruins of a place called
layk (palace) in the centre of the settlement and a small adjoining temple dedicated to the royal goddess Taleju, it does not seem that Panaut
was ever the seat of an independent kingdom, even for a short period of
time. Nevertheless, since its very beginning, it has been an important centre for trade, hukui, lying between the hills, the Kathmandu Valley and
the Indian plains. In the 1970s, the local population of the city amounted
to 2,900 persons. This figure reached 5,500 in 2010. Since the 1990s, the settlement has been transformed into an urban municipality, nagar-palika.
Ninety-five per cent of its inhabitants are Newars.
dune fte communale nwar: le de jtr de Panauti, LHomme 22, no. 3 (1981): 5789;
Socit et religion chez les Nwar du Nepal (Paris: ditions du CNRS, 1984). In the 1980s
and 1990s, the French government undertook a programme to restore the main religious
monuments in the small city in association with the Archaeological Department (erstwhile HMG). Likewise, several schools have been built and some other development programmes have been completed thanks to French funding. The present study is based on
this old material as well as on my more recent visit to Panaut in February 2010, at the time
of the 2066 B.S. Makar Mela, and in August 2010. A certain amount of new data, especially
legends, was collected on that occasion. I owe my thanks to Laxmi Shova Shakya, Prasant
Shrestha, Ramesh Jangam, Ananta Madhikarmi and his entire family. Without the help of
these friends, it would not have been possible to complete my complementary field study
in 2010. All my gratitude goes also to Bernadette Sellers who has corrected my English and
to Phyllis Granoff for her editing.
4New.: Newari, Nep.: Nepali, Skt.: Sanskrit.
5B.J. Hasrat, History of Nepal, as told by its Own and Contemporary Chroniclers
(Hoshiarpur, V.V. Research Institute Book Agency, 1971), 49.
327
Panaut lies at the confluence of two rivers: the Puyamat to the north
and the Ro Khola to the south.6 The Puyamat originates in Nala Daa
to the west, not far from Nagarkot, and the Ro in the Phulcok mountains
to the south. The religious names for these two rivers are Padmavat and
Llavati, respectively. In Newari, Puyamat Khol is called Bhvta Khusi
(from Bhvta: Banepa, the nearby city) and Ro Khola: Bya Khusi. Indeed
Panaut is a sacred site of major importance, for it is believed that a third
subterranean, invisible river (named Rudravat or Guptavat) meets there,
thus forming a trive, a confluence, sagam, of three rivers, pointing to
the east. This third hidden river flows from the north and emerges from
beneath the adjoining Dalincok hill (or Gorakhnatha Daa, or Kujagiri
Daa) which dominates Panaut to the northwest and at the top of
which a temple dedicated to the saint Gorakhnath is to be found.7 It is
considered to be particularly holy, the synonym of ambrosia, amt, so it
is saida theme which recalls the origins of the great Kumbha Mela pilgrimage of India performed every three years in four different holy places.
It is widely believed that the drops of milk offered to Gorakhnath temple
will remerge 150 metres below at the confluence of the rivers, right next
to the local temple of Brahmaya. The city has a clear triangular shape
(trikotmak) and is said to be in the form of a fish.
The settlement contains important temples, in particular the Indresvar
Mahadev, originally built in the thirteenth century ad, and renovated at
a later date. According to the Gopalarajavasaval, this monument was
consecrated by a Banepa princess, Viramadev, in ad 1294.8 This threestory temple is run by a Jangam priest, belonging to the Ligayat order.9
It shelters a four-faced liga (caturmukhaliga) associated, as we will
see, with the mythical origin of the city. The area near the confluence is
6The waters of the Ro-Khol are said to flow furiously. Its name comes from here
(Nepali ro, Sanskrit roa). The river is famous far and wide for the abundance of fish.
7A story about the Ramayaa is quoted in connection with this. According to legend, while fighting with Rvaa in the Tretra Yuga, Lakma fainted one day. Ram sent
Hanuman to look for a special medicinal herb (Nep. jai-bui) called sajvan to revive
his brother. Hanuman set off in search of this, but as he was not able to identify the plant
he brought back a whole hillside in his hand instead. A piece of this hill accidentally fell
to the ground near Panaut. This, so it is said, is the origin of Dalincok Parbat (or Dioacal
Parbat). This hill is considered to be Panauts Kailasa. In the past, an old fort or royal
palace was supposedly built on top of this hill.
8M. Slusser, Indresvara Mahdeva, a Thirteenth-century Nepalese Shrine, Artibus
Asiae 41, no. 2/3 (1979): 187.
9On these Nepalese Jangams, see Vronique Bouillier Les Jangam du Npal, caste de
prtres ou renonants?, Bulletin de lcole franaise dExtrme-Orient 72 (1986): 81148.
328
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full of temples, including the Kanaraya-mandir, Brahmaya-mandir,

Badrinath-mandir, Kedarnath-mandir, Ramcandra-mandir, Bhimsensthan,
to name a few, and sattals, religious buildings with covered platforms,
where religious music is played. It is the focus of permanent religious activity and is called Khvre in Newari. In 2001 ad, the city acquired the status
of sakit smraketra, (preserved cultural site), which was granted by
the government authorities, in spite of anarchic building developments
and the pressure of economic change. In fact, the whole territory of the
city (ketra) is not only said to be full of history (saskti), it is known to
be religious and holy, dharmik and pavitra.
Reflecting the myths associated with the site, the confluence of Panaut
is known as ac Trtha, from the name of the wife of Indra10 Dead bodies
from neighbouring villages are cremated there. People who dirty the water
are considered to be sinners, pp in Nepali (skt. papatman, papacara).11
In the local vasvals or chronicles, Panaut Trtha is called the Prayaga
Trtha (or Uttar Prayag) of Nepal, the equivalent of the sacred site of
Prayg (Allahabad) in the current Indian State of Uttar Pradesh, where the
Gaga, Yamuna and the underground river Sarasvat meet. This implies
that Panaut is as important for Nepal as Prayag is for India (Bharat ko
Prayag, Nepal ko Panaut).
In all probability, this pilgrimage site is of some antiquity. Panaut Trtha
is mentioned among a list of 166 sacred places in the Nepl Mhtmya,
the noted pilgrimage book of the Valley of Nepal, a Sanskrit religious text
which is supposed to have been written around the fifteen-sixteenth centuries ad.12 A specific section of the Nepal Mahatmya, named Catuai
siva-liga, includes Indresvar Mahadev as the ninth in the list of 64
trthas,13 each corresponding to a particular siva-liga of iva. This set is
in turn linked to the story of the dismembered body of Sat (ivas wife),
who immolated herself in the sacrificial fire, koi homa, of her father,
Daka, because he had not invited her husband, iva, to the sacrifice.
Daka had also disparaged the great God iva. Each siva-liga corresponds
10Ram Candra. Panaut, ek sskriti janko dutim, in Sva Tantra Viva, (Kathmandu:
Biks Press, 1975), 2634.
11In Nepali, to commit a sin is said: pp lagsa; in Newari: pp li, pp lt.
12According to my friend, the Nepalese historian Mahes Raj, the Nepl Mhtmya was
written at the time of Yaka Malla (14281482), the king of Bhaktapur. Personal communication (2010). However, Panauti Trtha is not mentioned in the other mhtmya of Kathmandu Valley, the Luntikesvara Pura, centred on Viumati River.
13See Ksinth Tmot, Neplmaala (Yela: Neplmaala Anusandhn Guthi,
2005), 33.
329
to a part of Sats body . Altogether ten million, a crore, of fragments are

said to have fallen from the sky. It is worthwhile noting that Daka is considered to have been responsible for the death of his daughter and that he
committed the sin of disparaging the God iva. The 64 siva-ligas are thus
indirectly related to the sin committed by Daka.14
The name of Panaut Trtha can also be found in the Ran Pokhar
inscription (in the Nepali language) in a pond located in Kathmandu city
and dated in the time of King Pratap Malla 790 N.S. (1669 ad). Panaut
Trtha occurs here along with some other major pilgrimage sites in Nepal
and India.15 It is even said that Pratp Malla collected water from Panaut
Trtha, as well as from all the other sacred sites mentioned, to fill the Rni
Pokhari pond.
Panaut was supposedly built on a large foundational stone, called des
lvoh in Newari, covering the entire locality. This stone is believed to be a
form of the God Bhailah-dyah (Bhairava). It protects the settlement and is
worshipped in one place along the Ros Khol, on the southern side of the
city. It is generally said that Bhairava protected Panaut during the great
1934 ad earthquake that devastated the Kathmandu Valley. The presence
of Bhairava is also the reason for an unusual prohibition. It is forbidden to
use mortar and pestle, uga and lusi, (Newari) to beat rice in the city. A
machine for husking rice which thrashes the earth violently and the handmill called jto are also forbidden for the same reason. All these devices
might hurt Bhairava, a dangerous deity, as well as Vsuki, the snake deity
who comes to reside here occasionally. Furthermore, Panaut is encircled
by eight temples devoted to the mother goddesses or Mtks, each built
facing one of the cardinal or intermediate directions of the compass. This
set of eight deities gives the small city added status, since it recalls the
arrangement of the religious structures of the former Bhaktapur royal
capital.16
14See also Anne Feldhaus, Connected Places. Region, Pilgrimage and Geographical Imagination in India (New York/Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1995), 177 for the Maharashtra
in India.
15Dilli Raman Regmi, Medieval Nepal (Calcutta: Firma K.L. Mukhopadyay, 1966),
617621.
16Niels Gutschow and Bernhard Klver, Bhaktapur: Ordered Space Concepts and Functions in a Town in Nepal (Weisbaden: Nepal Research Institute, 1975).
330
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Makar Mel and Makar Sakrnti
The main pilgrimage associated with the Panaut confluence takes place
once every twelve years in the solar month of Mgha (JanuaryFebruary)
(fig. 1). The event, called Makar Mel (from makara: Capricorn), or
bhravara makar-mel ,17 or trive-mel ,18 is one of the leading pilgrimages in Nepal. The mel is a month-long fair. It starts on the Mgh
Sakrnti or Makar Sakrnti,19 the winter solstice, a very auspicious
(New. bhigu, nakhaty)20 day which is widely known in Hindu culture
for its numerous religious observances. This is a day for fairs (mel); bathing/dip (snn) in rivers and ponds; worshipping the sun-God Srya, when
bathing in the water, ones hands joined in front of ones chest in a sign
of devotion;21 salutations to the cardinal points while muttering mantras,
pj ptha; reading religious texts such as Rmyaa; fasting (varta basne
in Nepali, apas cvanegu and dhal danegu in Newari); giving gifts (dn)
offered up for deceased relatives; alms giving to ascetics, poor and lowcaste people, and so forth.22 Makar Mel is one of the very rare Hindu
festivals based on the solar calendar. Among many other things, this day
marks the first day of the solar month of Mgh,23 the passage of the sun
17A twelve-year cycle is widely used in the Kathmandu Valley to determine a number
of fairs, pilgrimages and above all for performing sacred theatre (New. dya pykh huigu).
As in India, it is based on the movement of the sun and Jupiter through the zodiac.
18Panauts Makar Mel is also sometimes called Kumbha Mel.
19Makar Sakrnti comes from makara: Capricorn, and sakrnti: the first day of the
solar month. In the Indian system, Capricorn is represented by a crocodile, makara. Among
Newars, sakrnti is called snlhu, and the Makar Sakrnti is specifically named ghya
cku snlhu. On that day, after bathing early in the morning, every [Newar] member of
the family is offered by the chief lady of the household a piece of solidified ghee, jaggery
and a sweet-ball of til, G.S. Nepali, The Newars: an ethnosociological Study of an Himalayan Community (Bombay: United Asia Publications, 1965) 387. Cku means molasses;
ghya, clarified butter. Offering yam, tarul, to gods and goddesses is especially recommended. In the Newar calendar, each month the snlhu (sakrnti) is a particularly auspicious
day. On that day Newar Buddhists, for example, worship Rto Matsyendranth.
20Strictly speaking, nakhaty means feast at a nakha, festival celebrated by each
family, Ulrike Klver and Iswarananda Shresthacarya, A Dictionary of Contemporary
Newari. Newari-English (Bonn: VGH Wissenchaftsverlag, 1994), 181.
21Religious persons worship Srya every morning while bathing in various rivers.
22Makar Sakrnti, considered as auspicious, is opposed to Sun Sakrnti (summer
solstice), six months later, known for its inauspiciousness. The whole of Mgh is dharmik,
religiously right; it is a good month to die. Among Newars, even during Mgh, a person
has to cut their hair on the 7th day of their father/mothers death. Makar Mel is also an
important festival among Tharus (mgh parva).
23In Nepali, the days of the solar month are called gate, the ones of the lunar month
tith. The Western calendar days are called trkh.
331
Fig. 1.The confluence of Panaut at the time of the Makar Mela fair, 2010. In
the background, in the middle, the three-storey temple of Indresvar Mahadev
(courtesy of Prasant Shrestha).
from the Kumbha zodiac sign (rsi) to Makar rsi (Capricorn zodiac sign)
and the return of the sun to the northern hemisphere, which is an auspicious direction. From then on the sun follows its course northwards,
uttaryaa, for a period of six months as opposed to the other six months
of the year starting on the Sun Sakrnti and during which the sun moves
to the south, dakiyana. From the Makar Sakrnti day onwards, the
days get brighter and longer. It is therefore an important and very positive
moment in the calendar, a fresh start after a long winter.24 By extension,
the whole month of Mgh is sacred. In popular belief, bathing in a trtha
or holy place during the month of Mgh (mgh snn) will remove distress and adversity, all sorts of bipati (Nep.) misfortune and disaster. It will
24One sdhu explains: [from Makar Sakrnti day onwards] our souls have the opportunity to move from the south (the direction of death) toward the north (the direction of
creation), and from darkness into light, or a heightened state of knowledge: Sondra L.
Hausner, Wandering with Ascetics in the Hindu Himalayas (Bloomington/Indianapolis:
Indiana University Press, 2007), 141. According to Chiara Letizia, Bhma, the hero of
the Mahbhrata, dies on the day of Makar Sakrnti: Le Confluence Sacre dei Fiumi
in Nepal (PhD Diss. University of Rome La Sapienza, 2003), 118124. On the death of
Bhma, see Alf Hiltebeitel, The Ritual of Battle Krishna in the Mahbarta (New York: State
University of New York Press, 1990), 244250.
332
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bring happiness (saubhgya), good luck, prosperity, beauty (rpa), health

(rogya), protection against sickness, and long-life (yus).
Makar Sakrnti is thus a very auspicious day. In Nepal, Hindus bathe
in the waters of several famous trtha rivers: Devgh (confluence of Kl
Gaak and Triul Gaak), Dollgh (confluence of Sun Kos and
Indrvat), Varhaketra (confluence of Sapta Kos and Kok), Ri (confluence of Kl Gaak and Ri Khol), akhaml, Kanki (confluence of
Jog and Deo Mai in Ilam District), to name a few.25 It is believed that taking
a holy bath in Panauts Trive Gh during the yearly Makar Sakrnti is
a particularly efficacious religious act. And, every twelve years, at the time
of the Makar Mela, bathing (snn) in Panauts Triben is highly rewarded
and ensures special blessings for devotees (Nep. hlo puya). It will wash
away all the sins a person has ever committed (in Nepali and Newari: pp
mocan, pp phakhlne), a power commonly attributed to rivers in India.
Anne Feldhaus reports a legend from a Mahrasthra local source according to which, to do away with evils committed by the gods, iva secreted
a drop of the moons nectar (candrmt) from his body. At the spot where
it touched the earth, a beautiful young woman was born. She became the
Narmada River. The river was the answer to the problem of sin.26
Bathing in the Trive Gha at the time of the Makar Mela, has other
additional virtues: it prepares devotees for liberation, moka (i.e. they will
reach Kailsa Parvat after death) and it enables pilgrims to obtain merit.
In short, it is a puya bhmi, a place where one gains merit of all sorts.
Furthermore, these waters at this particular time of the year have special
healing powers: they cure skin disease.27 All these notions are intermingled; diseases are often a sign of sin, pp; sins may also be the obstacles
to liberation.
The Makar Mel actually lasts for the whole solar month of Magh. It
ends only on the last day of that month (Nep. and New. msnta). Bathing on Makar Sakrnti (ml snn) and msnta is especially rewarding.
Devotees from Panaut used to bathe at least three times: on the first and
last day of the month, as well as a third time any other day of Magh. Bathing every day is highly recommended. Gifts, dna, offered to Brahmans
during this event are said to be particularly meritorious. A handful of salt
is worth a handful of gold. It procures a great deal of puya, merit.
25See Letizia, La Confluenze, 115118.
26Feldhaus, Connected Places, 174.
27Similarly, a number of Indian folk traditions mentions the power of holy waters to
cure skin disease. Feldhaus, Connected Places, 85.
333
It is widely believed that the level of the third secret and invisible river,
the Rudravat, rises at this time once every twelve years. Two small holes
in front of the Brahmya image in the Goddess temple near the confluence are usually filled with water during this period. It is even said that a
person blessed with the 32 divine marks, battis lakaa, can see some milk
in one of these holes.28 This person is said to be particularly meritorious or
devout, dharmtm. Whatever the case may be, this third river is thought
to flow at this time and pilgrims are able to bathe at the distinctive confluence of the three waterways. It is also widely believed that throughout the
Makar Mel, oil poured into the holy water will sink to the bottom. This is
to be taken as an indication of the force, the strength of the water; it is so
powerful that it absorbs everything- even the heaviest of sins.
The assertion has also been made that 33 crores, 330 million, i.e.
330,333,000 (tttis karo or koi),29 Hindu deities of the pantheon descend
from the cosmic world to Panaut on the occasion of the Makar Mel.
This number corresponds to the total number of Hindu gods. In other
words, at the time of Makar Mel, Panaut Trive houses all the gods.
The deities are supposed to stay there for the whole month of Mgh. Some
contend that the same number of gods descends to Hardvr [Haridvr]
during Kumbha Mel, but that Panaut, in the shape of a fish, is the uko,
the head, whereas Hardvr is the tail or lower part, pucchar. Even if they
have all the gods, Panaut still exceeds Hardvr in its power.
Finally, it is believed that the king of the snake gods or Ngas, Vsuki,
visits Panaut during the event. According to a local myth, this deity originally resided in Panaut, but he was tricked into being caught by a Buddhist Vajrcrya tntrika priest and settled in Bugamat (New. Buga)
(Lalitpur district). Vsuki Ng is a leading figure in Panaut and of the
Makar Mel, and he is closely related to Indresvar Mahdev. The snake
God symbolizes the water itself. He is represented by a black stone located
near the confluence on the right bank of the Puyamt River within the
Khvre religious complex. During Makar Mel, a brass crown, muku, normally kept within Indresvar-mandir, is specially placed on the polished
stone for the whole month of Mgh. The offerings made to Vsuki by
the pilgrims are taken by Dyal (Poe) fishermen/sweepers, one of the
lowest castes in Newar society (fig. 2). The Dyal are in fact the official
28The primeval ocean from which the universe was created was a milk sea. For associations between sacred rivers and bovine products in India, see Feldhaus, Connected Places,
4647 (idem: 47).
29koi: a crore, ten millions.
334
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Fig. 2.The Vsuki Ng stone is guarded by a man belonging to the Poe

fisherman caste, 2010. In the background, the Brahmaya temple (courtesy of
Prasant Shrestha).
335
g uardians (New. dya pl) of the Ng deity. Throughout the day, they
stand near the stone that incarnates Vsuki. Every year this muku is also
placed by Poe fishermen on Vsukis stone during the main festival, ml
jtr, which falls on the full moon of Jyeha (MayJune), called Jypunh
in Newari.30 On both occasions, the metal cover indicates the presence of
Vsuki in the Panaut community.
Interestingly enough, according to tradition, Panaut was considered
to be a forbidden place for Shah Kings, especially during Makar Mel.31
A visit there by the royal family was considered to bring them misfortune. One of the reasons, it is asserted, is that there is already a king at
that time in Panaut: Vsuki. Two kings occupying the same space at the
same time can be dangerous. It is also widely reported that some cracks
on the stone on which the city of Panaut stands appeared at the time of
the Shah conquest of the Kathmandu Valley. After that, Shah rulers were
reluctant to visit Panaut.32 Moreover, it is widely believed that a kind of
mystical connection exists between the royal family and this trtha. For
instance, on the day of king Mahendras death, 31st January 1972 ad, a
person inhabiting Panaut and bearing the 32 lakaa (auspicious) signs
on his body saw the Puyamt fill with blood.
Legends Regarding the Holy Site: Sin and Expiation
Legends explaining the origin of the sacred trtha of Panaut and its trive
confluence are directly related to sins committed by gods and other sacred
figures of the Hindu pantheon. Three tales in particular are told in connection with Panaut.33 The first two derive with slight variations from
30Jyeha purnim is said to be the longest day of the year.

31Historically, Panaut was annexed by Prithiv Naraya Shah in 1763 ad (1820 B.S.)
at the same time as Banep and six other villages, some years before Kathmandu and
Bhaktapur.
32It is also sometimes said that Panaut had been in the hands of the Nepalese Congress
Party since the early twentieth century, and that is why the Shah royal family members
were reluctant to come to visit this trtha.
33All the following legends have been recorded orally. Some details are taken from
the various booklets mentioned in the references, especially Sryaprasd Lkoju, Panaut
(Panaut, Panaut Press, 2009) and Sryaprasd Lkoju, Bhravara Makarmel in Akkt
Panaut, no editor listed, (Panaut: Panaut Printing Press, 2010); Praksh Spkot and
K.C. Pradip, Panaut Makarmel, Jnkrmulak Hte Psak (Panaut: Panaut Paryaan
Viks Kendra, 2010); Madan Krishna Joshi, Panaut ko Aitihsik Brhabara Makar
(n.p., 2010) and Sumanrj Tamrakar, Panautk cparvahar makarmel (Dhulikhel: Nyu
Dhulikhel Printing Press, 2010).
336
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Indian Puric [Pauric] literature. They link the local sacred geography
of the Kathmandu and Banep valleys to that of India as a whole. The
third story seems to be purely local and belongs to Newar folk literature.
The Sin of Indra and the Creation of a Third River
Once upon a time, Brahm created a beautiful woman named Ahaly, his
daughter. He gave her in marriage to the virtuous sage Gautama i.34 All
the gods marveled at Ahalys beauty. Everybody was attracted to her,
including Indra, the king of the pantheon who happened to see her while
she was walking in the forest. He desired her immediately. He invented a
trick to fulfill his desire. One night, he asked the moon Candradev to shine
like the sun. Consequently, it was as light like as at sunrise. Gautama i
woke up all of a sudden This night passed by very quickly. He took his dhoti
and went to bathe. Taking on the physical features of the rii Indra (Devrj)
then visited Ahaly and seduced her. Unfortunately for him and Ahaly, the
rii came back at that very moment to get his water-pot (kamaalu), which
he has forgotten to take with him. He caught Devrj red-handed. Gautama
became furious and he cursed Indra (Nep. sarp, malediction): As an outward sign of your sin (pp ko pratik), your body will be covered with female
sex organs, yoni. He also transformed Ahaly into a stone for having had
illicit relations with another man.
ac (or Indra), the wife of Indra, implored Brihaspati, the preceptor
(guru) of the gods. The guru advised both Indra and ac, to go to the confluence of the Padmavat and Llvat River in Panaut, at the foot of Kuja
Parbat hill. He instructed them to practice penance there and to pray everyday to iva and Prvat. ac and Indra spent twelve years at the confluence, each one devoted to one god. ac to Prvat, and Indra to iva. Time
went by. iva and Prvat appeared before the couple and gave the king
of the gods a blessing (vardn). iva created a river out of the body of his
wife Prvat, the Rudrvat, to make this place a confluence of three rivers
[In another version, the third river is created by the power of the third eye,
caku, of Prvat]. He then asked Indra to bathe there. All the yoni disappeared except for the one on his forehead. iva covered this last yoni with
ashes, bibhti, with his right thumb. All the other yonis covering his body
were washed away by the water. Ahaly was also washed of her alleged sin
and obtained liberation, moka. Then Indra set up a liga there and founded
the temple of Indresvar Mahdev to protect the image of iva.35
34In some variants of this widespread legend, Ahaly was given in marriage to
Brihaspati in exchange, nso.
35Many different versions of this story exist. According to some variants, it is iva
himself who, happy with Indras penance, sets up Indresvar Mahdev temple. Another
tale relates that Indresvar Mahdev was once chased by 64 Yoginis running after him.
Indresvar jumped in the trive to escape them and he hid in the third invisible river, the
337
This story is an age-old tale, widespread in India and in Puric literature.

It can be found in the Mahbhrata and in Vlmkis Rmyaa.36 The
legend about Indra having sexual intercourse with Ahaly is also narrated
in the Nepl Mhtmya, in connection with ac Trtha.37 Indra is nearly
always presented as a sinner, a seducer, ready to transgress moral rules to
satisfy his sexual desires.38 More importantly for our subject, the legend
clearly shows that there is a prominent link between sex and evil or sin.
Interestingly enough, Gautama curses both his wife and Indra. The question about the guilt of Ahaly, who was abused by Indra disguised as Gautama and who did not betray her husband intentionally, is not raised at
all. Sin may occur regardless of the will of the sinner. The intentionality of
the offence is totally disregarded. From Gautamas point of view, Ahaly is
guilty since his own power and status depend not only on his own virtue
but also on the chastity of his wife. She has to become a rock.
Indras purification is no simple matter. His sin cannot easily be
destroyed by fire or water. He has to perform penitence and austerities
for a long period of time, twelve years, and in some versions even longer. Reflecting this legend, Panaut is often called tapobhmi (from tapas,
penance, austerities), the place for practicing tapasy, austerities. The
third river, which transforms the natural confluence into a holy site, is
said to have originated from the body of Prvat, attesting to the widespread association made between rivers and goddesses in India.
In Nepal, as in India, Mhtmya religious literature is full of sins committed by gods. Divine beings perform acts of the worst kind. Not only do
they violate the rules governing sexual relations, committing adultery and
incest; they also behave extremely violently. Thus stories are told of how
Guptvat. One epithet used in relation to Indra is thousand-eyed (Sahasrka), which

makes reference to the yonis on his body.
36Mhb. XII, 329.14.1, XIII. 41.1223, quoted by Wendy Doniger OFlaherty, Asceticism and
Eroticism in the Mythology of Shiva (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973), 85); Vlmki,
Le Rmyaa de Vlmki, (1.47.2728) eds. M. Biardeau et M.C. Porcher, Paris, Gallimard,
1999.
37Nepl Mhtmya, V, 1418; Helga Uebach, Das Neplamhtmyam des Skandapuram. Legenden um die Hinduistischen Heilgtmer Nepals (Mnchen: Wilheim Fink
Verlag, 1970), 3435 and 7778.
38For the various pp of Indra, cf. Georges Dumzil Heur et malheur du guerrier (Paris:
Presses Universitaires de France, 1969) and Wendy Doniger OFlaherty, (first edition 1976)
The Origins of Evil in Hindu Mythology of Shiva (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1980).
Indra, for instance, is guilty of Brahminicide, of giving the ascetics to the jackals, of quarrelling with Brihaspati, killing the Brahmin demon Vritra, or Visvarpa, etc.
338
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iva beheaded the fifth head of Brahm,39 Bhaspati killed a cow, Brahm
lusted after his own daughter, Candra (the Moon) abducted and/or raped
Tr (Star), the wife of the gods guru Bhaspati, to name but a few of
the more egregious and more famous sinners. Even killing demons, which
gods are meant to do, generates sins. Expiating these sins, like Indras sin
of adultery, requires bathing in a river. The river may be specially created for that purpose as it is here, or an existing river may be sanctified
because it removed the heinous sins of a god or sage. Thus Rma expiated the sin of having killed the Brahman Rvaa in Hatyharan Kua,
Uttar Pradesh. Today this place is still considered a sacred site.40 Panaut
is linked to Indra and his sin, but also to another sinner.
Virpka and the Sin of Incest
A second legend is widely narrated, linking Panaut Trtha to another
pp:
Once upon a time, Virpka [a kind of rkasa who emerged from the earth
in the Kali yuga and destroyed everything] had sexual relations with his
own mother by mistake. He realized his error after sexual intercourse had
taken place. To expiate his sin, he went from one holy place to another. He
then met the famous sage Nemuni, the eponymous sage of the Nepal Valley,
and he asked him how to wash away his error. Nemuni told him: You have
committed a great sin. The only way to remove it is to bathe at the confluence of Llvat, Padmvat and Rudrvat, at the confluence of Panaut.
Virpka ran to the trive dhm at that place and regularly bathed there,
as Nemuni had instructed him. He was freed from his ppa. Pilgrimages to
Panaut confluence therefore became very popular in the Hindu world. All
those who have caused moral offence unwittingly and have committed a
sin unknowingly will be absolved only after bathing in the holy confluence
every twelve years during Makar Mel.
Mother-son incest (skt. mtgamana)as well as, to a lesser degree,

father-daughter incestis a recurrent motif in the Mhtmyas. In most
cases, this is done by mistake.41 Both this and the previous story link sin
39The Kaplmocan Trtha in Vras, where Brahms head which was stuck to ivas
hand finally fell, liberating iva from his sin, is equated in the Kathmandu Valley with
Klmocan Trtha, located in Tripuresvar, on the banks of the Bgmat River. This kind of
replication between India and Nepal is at work everywhere in the Kathmandu Valley. It
contributes to enhancing the sanctity of local Nepalese holy places.
40Richard Burghart, The Conditions of Listening: Essays on Religion, History and Politics in
South Asia, eds. C.J. Fuller and Jonathon Spencer (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1996), 129.
41Feldhaus, Connected Places, 174.
339
and sexual misconduct; both deny the role of intentionality and offer the
possibility of bathing at a holy place at a specific time of the year as a
means for complete eradication of the sin.
Phulcok M Goddess and the Division of the Ros Khol
One last legend, purely local, does not refer directly to any sin or repentance. However, it is linked to drought, another form of evil that affects a
whole territory and community and that is itself the result of sin.
Long ago, King Satyavar ruled over Lalitpur (some versions speak of
Kathmandu or the Kathmandu Valley), while Panaut was ruled by King
Drgharath. There was a time when both these kingdoms suffered from a
drought. For the sake of their people, both kings prayed to Phulcok M
[Durg Bhavn] the goddess of the Phulcok range to the south of the Kathmandu Valley.42 They completed a grueling meditation session. Impressed
by their sincere devotion, Phulcok M offered to grant them a favour. Hearing these words uttered by Mt (Goddess), both Kings were overjoyed,
bowed and said, Oh Mt, we are in great trouble! Our kingdom is faced
with a drought and you must help us by making a river flow through each
kingdom. In reply, Mt said, Dear rjan, Im pleased with both of you,
but I cannot grant you both a favour, so whoever presents me with a gold
and silver flower, shall have a river flow through his kingdom.On hearing
this, King Satyavar from Lalitpur was delighted since his kingdom was well
known for various crafts and it possessed many goldsmiths. However, King
Drgharath was saddened, since there were no smiths in his kingdom, and
he became heavy-hearted. Late that night in Panaut, on seeing the state of
mind the King was in, the Queen wondered what was tormenting him. King
Drgharath gave her a detailed account of the incident. The Queen tried to
console the King and told him not to worry. She would help him. In response
the King said, What can you do when I myself am not able to find a way
of offering the Mt a gold and silver flower? She went on to try and calm
the King and helped him get to sleep. Next morning the Queen presented
the King with a radish flower and a mustard flower and said, Mt is like
our mother; she does not want a gold or silver flower but a sincere offering
that you can give her in all earnest. We are farmers, therefore as farmers we
can offer her the things that we ourselves grow, and for our work we need
water. So we are the ones who really deserve a river. At his wifes words the
King felt very happy. After taking the advice of his royal priest, he hurried
to see Mt with the radish flower and mustard flower that looked like a silver and gold flower respectively. Delighted with him, Mt blessed (vardn)
42There are numerous variants of this myth in the booklets published on Makar Mel.
Godvar and Panaut are situated in the south and the north-east of the Phulcok range
respectively.
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him with a river called Llvat where a mel, named Makar Mel, takes
place every twelve years When King Satyavar arrived six months later with
splendid ornaments ordered from local craftsmen, he was told that King
Drgharath had already been granted the favour. When he looked at Mt,
he saw a dried plant on her head and said, Mt, you have been tricked.
The king of Panaut has given you a mustard and radish flower instead of a
real one. Mt was embarrassed. She decided to divide the river into two,
the Godvar and the Ros Khol, one flowing through Panaut, the other to
Godvar, on both sides of the mountain. She also created two bhravara
mels, held at these two places, at a six-year interval. Another version says
that Phulcok M became angry with the king of Panaut. She took back
the favour and instead granted King Satyavar the river Godvar where the
mel, named Kumbha Mel, happens to take place once every twelve years.43
From that day on, so it is said, Makar Mel and Kumbha Mel are performed
every twelve years, with a six-year interval between them both.
In the Hindu religious system, a drought is usually the result of a general

disorder, often due to some sin committed by a leading figure, usually the
king. Its only remedy is to expiate that sin. Drought is also the source of
multiple evils: eating meat, violence between human beings, theft, etc.44
Nothing is said about rainfall in the story, but the problem posed by the
drought ends up being resolved because the new river makes water readily available, and we might add, offers a means to expiate sin by bathing in
the river at the time of the Mels. Here also, as in the tale about Indra, it is
a feminine supernatural force (Phulcok M) that causes the river to flow
and consequently sins to be washed away at regular intervals. This legend
also reveals a link between mountains and rivers and recalls the importance of the mountains encircling the Kathmandu Valley in the myths
narrated about its origin and the foundation of its first kingdom.
The 2066 Bikram Sambat Makar Mel (2010 ad) and the Pilgrim Circuit
In 2066 Bikram Sambat (thereafter B.S.), the Makar Mel was celebrated
from 15th January till 12th February 2010. That year, the 15th January was
a Friday and fell on the new moon, as (my in Newari) of the lunar
43It is not clear whether this Godvar mel designates the Kumbha Mel of Nsik in
India where the Godvar river flows or the Godvar village on the southern side of mount
Phulcok, in the Kathmandu Valley, where another river named Godvar flows. As a matter of fact, in mythology, the two rivers in question are equated.
44OFlaherty, The Origins of Evil, 154.
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month of Mgh.45 It is worth noting that in Nepal, Makar Sakrnti falls

generally on the 15th January, in contrast to India where it falls the day
before, 14th January. Such divergence between India and Nepal is common
for mels celebrated at pilgrimage sites. In 2010, since the solar month of
Mgh had only 29 days, the last day of the solar month (Nep. and New.
msnta) fell on 12th February, the day of the ivartri or Mahsivartri.
In 2066 B.S., a solar eclipse, srya graha, exceptionally fell on the first
day of the solar month of Mgh. Normally, a solar eclipse is an inauspicious event, during which fasting is compulsory to avoid the negative
effect of the eclipse. The food served or prepared on that occasion is
impure, asuddha, and is in many ways spoilt (in Newari it is called gaana
lhagu affected by the eclipse, from skt. grahaa). Very religious persons
in Nepal bathe three times during such an event, once at the beginning
of the eclipse, once at the end, and once in the middle. They even wear a
ring made of kusa grass (Poa cynasuroides) to purify themselves and the
various objects they happen to touch. The household kitchen has to be
cleaned before and after this event. Other practices are to ward off the
evil effects of the eclipse are observed on that day. For instance, pregnant
women do not touch their stomachs at that time or their children will
born with marks on their bodies.
The fact that Makar Mel coincided with a solar eclipse was felt to be
problematical by most Panaut inhabitants. People say that this conjunction
calls for more purification ceremonies and more ritual work to be performed. In spite of this, the almanacs (pchg) national committee,
which sets the ptro religious calendar every year for the whole country,
did not see any major contradiction between the two events.46 According to the Indresvar Mahdev priest, it was even an additional auspicious
event that enhanced the special sanctity of the 2066 B.S. Makar Mel. As
a matter of fact, this Makar Mel was really exceptional (mah sayog)
in that not only was the Makar Sakrnti combined that year with a srya
graha, as well as with a new-moon day, as, In this year the most important festival to the God iva, the ivartri was held on the msnta day,
the end of the month and last night of the Mel. Normally, ivartri falls
in Phlgun (FebruaryMarch), not in Mgh.
45That year, the Khvapa (Bhaktapur) Samyak also fell on 15th January, the day of Makar
Sakrnti.
46This committees headquarters are located in Lalitpur, Dhalc, in front of
Ng Bh Buddhist monastery. It is still active today despite the fall of royalty.
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Since the level of Puyamt River is rather low at this period of the
year and its water highly polluted, the organizing committee blocked the
Ro Khol River upstream and caused it to flow into a permanent short
canal built at the confluence. Likewise, the festival management committee set up separate areas for men and women to bathe in the holy waters
at the confluence of Padmvat and Llvat by building square enclosures
from bamboo. These individual bathing areas also prevent accidental
drowning. A dam made of sandbags stopped the polluted Padmvat River
(Puyamat) from flowing into the small enclosures. A two-inch pipe supplied them with water to ensure that there was enough water for devotees
to bathe in. A dozen artificial basins were thus created. People of the two
sexes were invited to bathe in different basins: women on the left bank,
men on the right bank of the Puyamt River.
The Makar Mel was inaugurated by the President of Nepal, Dr. Rm
Bara Ydav, on 15th January 2010. Dr. Ydav himself did not bathe; he
merely sprinkled water from the confluence over his mouth, face and body.
Some groups of Maoists (mobd), mostly from Kbhrepalncok district,
were present and brandished black flags at the arrival of the President in
Panaut to express their disapproval.47 Despite the ban on a visit by a Shah
king to Panaut during Makar Mel, the former king Gyanendra visited
Trive gh on 8th February 2010 under the protection of a few bodyguards. Unaccompanied by the former queen, the former king was greeted
in the sacred area by a group of five pcakany, five virgins, dressed in
ceremonial attire, from Panauta typical Hindu welcome ceremony performed for dignitaries. He then splashed himself with water taken from
the Trive Gh, and he called in at the temples of Indresvr Mahdev,
Brahmya, Muktesvr, and Vsukinth. He received prsd from the
Jangam priest of the Indresvar temple and he donated 2 lkhs (200,000) of
Nepalese rupees to a charitable cause. He was cheered by a group of royalists who chanted pro-royalists slogans. Finally, the day before the end
of the festival, the Prime Minister Mdhav Kumr Nepl himself visited
Panaut. Thus, the two highest political authorities of the new Republic
of Nepal, the President and the Prime Minister, plus the former king, paid
a visit to Panaut during the 2066 B.S. Makar Mela to mark the event.
To celebrate the auspicious event, the Jala pyakh, a religious play performed by a group from Harasiddhi [Harisiddhi] village was performed
47Since President Ydav refused to sign new appointments to high-ranking army posts
in 2009, the Maoists found themselves in an overt conflict with him.
343
in Panaut from 9th April till 12th April. This event takes place theoretically every twelve years. However, in 2010 it had been 60 years since such
a performance had taken place.48 That year, about a hundred persons
from Harasiddhi village came to Panaut. Each dancer was accompanied
by two attendants who helped him on various occasions, for instance to
parade through the streets. Dancers and actors from the company performed dances on their way to the trive gh and in the central area
of the locality on a brick stage specifically known as Jala dab. A special
committee was formed in Panaut to organize the event and to send invitations to Harasiddhi. As in other Newar settlements visited by the Jala
pykh group, Panaut has a shelter, a pi, called Harasiddhi pi, which
is specially designed for this religious performance. In theory, the dancers
and their helpers/guides can stay and store their gear there.
Though no reliable register exists, it is estimated that one million pilgrims attended the 2066 B.S. Makar Mel.49 The pilgrimage mostly gathers
high Parbatiy castes (Bhun and Chetr), Newar Hindu castes [kyas
and Uds Newar Buddhist castes also attend, but in small numbers], and
Tamang and Magar ethnic groups. Women predominate, but men also
flock there in large numbers. Pilgrims come from all over Nepal, though the
majority of them come from the Kathmandu Valley and Kabhrepalncok
district. As other mel s performed at the confluence of Nepalese rivers,
the Makar Mel of Panaut attracts a number of ascetics, but fewer than
at Pasupatinath temple during ivartri.
After bathing in the confluence and visiting the temples, devotees
climbed the hillock facing north to perform daran and pj to Gorakhnth.
It is particularly meritorious to climb the hill with a handful (ajul) of
water from trive to offer it to Gorakhnth. The most zealous devotees
try to ascend the hill carrying a drop of holy water from the confluence in
the little hollow (called harhugo or n kopilo in Nepali, n: wrist,
canal, tube) that some persons have between the thumb and the forefinger of their right hand (fig. 3). If a person manages to offer this drop
of water to Gorakhnth, all their wishes (Nep. icch) are fulfilled. Lastly,
pilgrims worshipped the liga of Indresvar in his temple.
48The last time a Jala pykh was performed in Panaut was in 1950 ad (2006 B.S.).
49By comparison, it is worthwhile noting that about 250,000 pilgrims visit Pasupatinth
temple on the Bgmati River every year during ivartri (sill caray in Newari), in
FebruaryMarch. In 2066 B.S. (2010), the number of pilgrims expected at Pasupatinth for
that event amounted to about 500,000.
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Fig. 3.Pilgrims carry a drop of holy water from the confluence in the hollow
at the base of the thumb to the top of Dalincok hill, 2010 (courtesy of Prasant
Shrestha).
345
The causah siva-liga section of the Nepl Mhtmya text describes

the sacred geography of Banep Valley and its neighbouring territories. The
list of siva-liga includes Indresvar Mahdev (ac Trtha), Bhlesvar
(Gandharva Trtha), Dhnesvar (Ugra Trtha), Caesvar Mahdev (Ugra
Trtha) and Viktesvar Mahdev (Pupa Trtha). Theoretically, pilgrims
should visit Caesvar Mahdev on the 5th day of Mgh, the dark half
of the month, ka paka, Dhnesv ar Mahdev on the 6th day of Mgh,
ka paka, ac Trtha (Panaut) on the 7th day of Mgh, ka paka,
and Bhaktapur on the 9th day of Mgh, the same dark fortnight.50 All
these temples are interconnected and give special coherence to the area
where they are situated. In fact, very few pilgrims visit these Shaivite temples around Panaut. For the most part, the only temple near Indresvar
Mahdev that is visited is Dhnesvar.
A festival organizing committee, samiti, representing the main political
and moral leaders of the city, had been set up two years before the event.
The Ministry of Culture and Communication granted a subsidy through
the local Nagar Palika administration for the organization of the pilgrimage festival. The funds were used to set up a car park two kilometres from
Panaut, on the 6-km road leading to Banepa. All vehicles, buses and cars,
were parked there. Pilgrims had to continue on foot. The organizing committee also set up a health post within a short distance of the confluence. Similarly, it promoted the planting of a series of trees on Dalincok
hilltop and on the banks of the Puyamt River. Finally, an exhibition of
photographs of Panaut historical monuments taken by a young local photographer, Prasant Shrestha, was set up in the streets of the city leading
to the trive. The preservation of culture (saskti) is seen as one of the
important functions of the religious performance, a means of asserting the
localitys own identity and history in spite of the fact that most pilgrims
and people involved in organising the mel come from elsewhere.
An on-the-spot catering service offering coffee, soft drinks and tea was
available along the main route to the religious complex. Special kinds of
bread and sweets were also served: round bread, sale, cooked in oil, mlp
breads, circular-shaped pastries (jileb) cooked in oil and dipped in syrup.
They are eaten with flattened rice and potato curry. Pilgrims however
complain about the high price of the foodstuffs sold at these makeshift
canvas structures. Some petty traders attracted by easy money also sold
religious items to be offered to deities. Five main items were available:
50Toffin, Socit et religion, 548.
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flowers, vermillion powder, rice, incense sticks, and ready-to-light butter

lamps. According to Hindu Tantric tradition, these five items represent
the five elements: water, air, light, earth (food) and the mind.
Related Religious Activities: raddha, Svasthan Vrata, Madhav
Nrya Jtr
As during most pilgrimages centered on trtha or holy places, devotees
from outside (especially from the periphery, the surrounding area, varipari, of Panaut) as well as from Panaut itself perform sraddha ceremonies in memory of their deceased relatives during Makar Mel. Each family
comes with its own Brahman priest. The person who organizes the ritual
has his hair shaved for the occasion. Rituals are performed along the river,
on the Ro Khol as well as on the Puyamt River, wherever there is a
space amidst the crowd. People usually choose either a Saturday, either the
tenth or eleventh day of the lunar month to carry out the ceremony. The
mourners belong to Parbatiy high Hindu castes, as well as to the Newar
community. They usually offer special food to the priest, such as flattened
rice, oil, banana, ginger, salt and uncooked rice. This gift, intended for the
deceased, is specifically called sidh or sirh in Nepali and Newari (from
siddha, finished, perfect, completed). It may sometimes be offered to
a Brahman priest without even performing a sraddha ceremony. In addition, some families organize satya nrya pj on Makar Sakrnti day
on behalf of their dead relatives.51
During the whole lunar month of Mgh, from Paush prim until
Mgh prnim , a number of Nepalese women belonging to Newar and
Parbatiy Hindu castes fast in imitation of goddess Parvat, who is said
to have abstained from food and practised all sorts of austerities in order
to get iva as her husband. They take only one meal a day, at nighttime, and they do not wear shoes. Unmarried women fast in order to
find a good husband, while married ones fast to guarantee long lives to
their husbands. These women also attend recitations of Svasthn vrata
kath, a religious book written both in Nepali and in Newari52 relating
51People even say that Makar Sakrnti is the festival celebrated to welcome Srya
Nrya, because of the solar reference to Nryas name.
52It seems that the Newari version of Svasthn vrata kath is older than Nepali one.
See Jessica Birkenholtz, Translating Tradition, Creating Culture: A Reconstruction of the
History and Development of the Svasthani Vrata Katha of Nepal, Himalaya, 25, no. 12
(2005): 41.
347
Fig. 4.Women performing Svasthn vrata rituals take holy water from the
confluence to offer to the gods, 2010 (courtesy of Prasant Shrestha).
the love story of Parvat and iva, as well as bhajan hymn singing sessions.
The Svasthn vrata kath, well known among Nepali-speaking communities, can be considered one of the most widely celebrated texts, especially among women. Svasthn is the name of the Goddess who appears
in the text. She is also called Svasthn Mt. This religious observance,
called svasthn vrata, is particularly associated with the linad River
in the Newar settlement of Skhu, in the northeast of the Kathmandu
Valley. Interestingly enough, there is a close link between these rituals
and Panaut: women observing this fast and rituals in Skhu come barefooted to Panaut on the 12th day of Mgh, the bright fortnight, and they
bathe in the trive at the time of the Makar Mel as well as other years
(fig. 4). On this occasion they are all dressed in red saris and petticoats. In
relation to this ceremonial visit and bath, the following story is told:
Once upon a time, a sdhu [ascetic] was wandering round trying to find a
holy place on earth. He went on a pilgrimage to Panaut at the time of the
Makar Mel and he planted a dry bamboo on a polished stone situated in
the middle of the confluence. The sdhu then visited different holy places
for the next twelve years. On his return to Panaut after this period of time,
he was very surprised to see that the dry bamboo planted long ago was still
alive. He therefore assumed that such a place was the holiest of all places
on earth. Since then, women observing Svasthn vrata in Skhu during
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the month of Mgh come to bathe in Panaut trive during the Makar Mel
[in other years as well]. Similarly, people from Skhu celebrating Madhv
Nrya pj visit Panaut during the Makar Mel. Bathing in trive gh
will procure them special merit, puya, for their future life. It is from this
legend that the etymology of Panaut is often derived. The localitys name is
thought to have originally come from p-lvah-ti (p: bamboo, lvah: stone,
ti: trtha).53
Another ritual that takes place during the Makar Mel at Panaut revolves
around an image of the God Viu. Every year a statue of Madhav Nraya
is brought from Skhu to visit Panaut trive during the month of Mgh.
The gilded bronze statue, 30 cm in height and weighing 2 kg is said to have
originally come from Pharping. A group of reha families who come from
Skhu carries it in turn. The male members belong to a particular association of persons (seven families), called sb, who have special duties to
fulfill towards Mdhav Nrya during the yearly religious calendar. The
person carrying the statue has white gauze over his mouth (fig. 5). This
is to prevent him from speaking because he is not allowed to talk while
he carries the God.54
The statue arrived in Panaut in the evening of the third day of the
Newari month of Sill, triodas sukla paka. The reha people accompanying Mdhav Naraya (they are called vratalu or vratal, devotees) bathed
the statue in the Panaut confluence. They stayed overnight in Panaut,
in a house put at their disposal. The next day, they marched in procession in Panaut and then go back to Skhu. The purpose of the journey
is so that Mdhav Nrya may visit Vsuki Ngrj. Mdhav Nrya
himself carries a Vsuking as one of his ornaments. During this lunar
month, the statue is carried to different places: to Vajrayogin, Pasupati,
Pharping and Panaut. All the processions visit Vsukng. According to a
Rjopdhyya priest, Vajrayogin, Pasupati, Pharping, Panaut and Cgu,
possess important Vsuking shrines.
The procession is linked to the Mdhavanarya Jtr (dhal danegu)
of Skhu that is held every year.55 It starts at the Milpuhni full moon
53This etymology is mentioned in several booklets published in Nepali on the occasion
of the 2066 B.S. Makar Mel. Satya Mohan Joshi also quoted this tale to explain to me
the etymology of the name Panaut. According to another popular etymology, the name
Panaut derives from the p of the Padmvat River, the of Llvat River, and the ti of
Rudravat. It was Indra, so it is said, who gave the name to the recently founded city based
on the three rivers.
54B.G. Shrestha, The Ritual Composition of Sankhu. The Socio-Religious Anthropology of
a Newar Town in Nepal (Leiden: Ridderprint, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 2002), 28.
55See Shrestha, The Ritual Composition of Sankhu.
349
Fig. 5.A reha boy carries an image of Madhav Naraya through the streets of
Panaut during Malar Mela fair, 2010. His mouth is covered by gauze (courtesy of
Prasant Shrestha).
and lasts for one month. People gather on the banks of the river linad,
where a Mdhavnrya temple is erected, and they fast, vrata cvanegu
or dhal danegu in Newari. These rituals are not clearly differentiated
from the observance of Svasthn56 They are interconnected, yet the
Mdhavnrya rituals are mostly Vaishnavite, while the other is mostly
Shaivite. Their ritual texts also are different.
In Panaut itself Nrya/Viu is worshipped daily during the month
of Mgh, from the 1st day of the lunar month to the full-moon of the very
same month. Old people from the city, irrespective of their caste, gather
near the trive and sing devotional hymns (bhajan) in honour of this
God. The same group of people goes to Skhu to worship Mdhav
Nrya on Mgh, sukla saptam, the seventh day of the bright fortnight
of the month. They worship him at Banep on the fourth day of Mgh,
sukla cauth. This religious observance is called mdha hlegu (New.
hlegu, to sing). Similarly, during the month of Makar Mel, various Hindu
56There has been some confusion about these two celebrations. See Linda Iltis, The
Swasthani Vrata: Newar Women and Ritual in Nepal, PhD Dissertation, University of
Wisconsin, 1985.
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religious activities, mainly bhajan hymn singing sessions and prvacan

religious sermons about various Puras are performed at the confluence
Khwre near the Ka-mandir. People from Iskcon sampradya (Hare
Krishna sect) in particular come here to organize cultural programmes
and religious instructions. Throughout the month, a sacred fire, dhuni, is
maintained there and various mahyaja fire-sacrifices are celebrated by
Parbatiy Brahmans. Despite this, the main pjr of Indresvar Mahdev
complained that, when compared to former mels, the 2066 B.S. Makar
Mel attracted people more for entertainment and business than for
religious purposes. According to him, there were fewer religious sermonperformances prvacan than before.
Panaut Makar Mela and Godvar Siha Mela, the Go-Hatya Sin
The pilgrimage held in Panaut every twelve years is closely associated
with another major holy place in Nepal: Godvar, which is located in the
southern part of the Kathmandu Valley, at the foot of Phulcok mountain.
There is no confluence on this site, just a small kua, a pond of water supplied by a spring, and a rocky altar in a corner dedicated to a form of iva
known as Siddhesvar Mahdev. This spring is thought to be Godvars,
a river that flows from south to north and merges with the Bgmat. In
the same manner as in Panaut, this Shaivite site is linked to the Puric
legend according to which Mahdev once carried the dismembered body
of Sat Dev, his wife, on his shoulder through the sky. Like the temple
of Indresvar Mahdev in Panaut, the Siddhesvar Mahdev sanctuary is
run by a family of Shaiva ascetics. Here the pjr belongs to a Puri lineage whose members belong to the Danm Sannys group. Like most
Puris of Nepal, these priests are married and retain only a few elements
of their ascetic origin.57 This Puri family is said to have long been linked
to Godvar kua, in fact since the origin of the pond itself.
This pilgrimage site is of particular interest because, like Panaut
trive, it is closely related to sin and repentance. The waters emerging
from Godvar pond are supposed to be extremely pure and powerful. Some say they flow directly from Goskua, a well-known aivite
pilgrimage place situated in the mountains (himl), a three-day walk
57Puris, like other Danm Sannyss, are buried in a sitting position in special cemeteries outside the locality proper. Ligas are erected over the tomb.
351
from Triul, to the north of the Kathmandu Valley.58 The temperature

of the Govdar pond, which is allegedly extremely cold, is mentioned as
evidence of this imaginary link. The local Puri priest also tells another
story, clearly derived from Indian sources (just as is Panauts Indresvar
Mahdev tale). This legend can be considered as the main myth of origin
of the place. It explicitly links the Kathmandu Valleys Godvar to the
Indian river of the same name.
Once upon a time, a ri named Gautama i59 established his hermitage,
kuti, near the spot occupied today by the Godvar kua. He meditated
and he lived from the products of his cows. One day, while he was grazing
his cattle, one of the cows fell down a precipice and died.60 Instantly, the i
felt guilty. He had not been careful enough and he could now be accused
of the sin of go-haty, the murder of a cow, one of the most abominable
offences in Hindu culture. He then decided to expiate his sin by going to
Nsik in Mahrashtra, a well-known place in the sacral geography of India,
one of the four cities where the Kumbha Mel is celebrated according to a
twelve-year cycle. He bathed daily in the local Godvar River, also called
Daki Gag, the Gag of the South.61 After seven/eight years, Gag
Mahrn appeared before him. She told Gautama: Please, do not repent
any more or bathe. Leave me your water pot and your shoes, and go back
to Nepal. I will send you the sacred water of Nsik. Gautama i returned
to Nepals Godvar. Surprisingly enough, he saw a source of water flowing
on the spot where now there is the kua, along with his water pot and his
shoes. His sin or his alleged sin was washed away and the Godvar kua
was established.
Sin and expiation are once more at the centre and at the origin of the
holy place. Since its mythical foundation, every twelve years, an important pilgrimage, nearly as important as Panaut Makar Mel, takes place
in the locality. The celebration is performed in the solar month of Bhdra
(Bhdau), JulyAugust, from the first sakrnti day till the last msnta
day. It is held every twelve years, bhravara mel, and alternates every
six years with the one in Panaut, as reported in the myth recounted in
58Goskua lake is also said to have some mystical connection with the Kumbhesvar
temple pond in Lalitpur.
59The title of this i is sometimes given as mhtmya.
60In another version, Gautam i is accused by other malevolent ascetics of having
wilfully killed a cow.
61The Indian Godvar River takes its source in Nsik, Mahrashtra. Then it flows
southeast through the State of Andhra Pradesh and merges into the sea in the Bay of
Bengal. According to legend, it is said to be a gift of the Trimrti to make up for a major
sin committed by Gautama, who killed a cow. The origin of the Nepalese myth mentioned
above clearly derives from this Indian source.
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Panaut about Phulcok range.62 The religious fair is called Godvar Mel
or more precisely Siha Mel. It is sometimes also known as Kumbha
Mel. Its beginning is marked by the sun Srya leaving Bhaspati rsi,
and entering the Siha rsi zodiac sign. The conjunction of these three
astral signs characterises the Siha Mel. Moreover, local people assert
that a lion and a cow come to the kua secretly on the first day of the
fair. Surprisingly enough, the lion does not kill the cow. The peaceful presence of this pair of animals is one unique feature, so it is said, of the pilgrimage festival. On this occasion, people from all over the Kathmandu
Valley come to bathe in the pond and worship Siddhesvar Mahdev. This
God is said to grant power derived from his penance, tapasy. During the
whole month, the water of the pool is said to be especially powerful. Just
as in Panaut, if oil is poured into the pond, it sinks to the bottom of the
water. Godvars pjr reported that he himself had seen this phenomenon when King Mahendra came here long ago with his wife Ratna for the
1967 ad [2024 B.S.] bhravara mel. Bathing in the Godvar pond at this
auspicious period is supposed to wash away all sins and cure all sorts of
diseases (rog). It is also said to fulfill all wishes (Nep. icch).
Conclusions
As legends about Panaut make clear, the very existence of this site is
linked to sin and repentance. We have also seen that the diverse ritual
activities during the Makar Mel share this preoccupation. Indra, in the
founding legend, practiced austerities there. Austerities undertaken at
holy places are often described as done to avoid the consequences of sin
(fig. 6). The iva-Pura states (5,12, 45): One who drinks wine or makes
love to the wife of another man or kills a Brahmin or seduces his gurus
wife is released from all sins by tapas63 Fasting is a form of austerity,
and several observances, for example the Svasthn vrata, involve fasting.
Other rituals, like the rddha offerings for the deceased, or the procession of the image of the God Viu, may seem less directly tied to sin,
62Interestingly enough, the legend quoted in Panaut about the division of the Ro
Khol by Phulcok M is not known in Godvar. However, most local people claim some
sort of connection with the Ro Khol which flows on the other side of the mountain. The
water from both sides of the Phulcok range are said to come from the same source.
63Quoted by Christoph von Frer-Haimendorf, The Sense of Sin in Cross Cultural
Perspective. Man, n. s., 9, no. 4 (1974): 549.
353
Fig. 6.Men prostrate themselves all around Vsuki Nag stone, near the
confluence, 2010 (courtesy of Prasant Shrestha). This photo was taken during the
Svasthn vrata celebration day, at the time of the Makar Mela fair. Prostration
(skt. vandana or daavat,, New. mha dyagu) is a form of austerity and expiation.
and suggest the richness of the ritual life of the festival. Nonetheless, the
close link of the site and its festival to sin and repentance is manifest
in both stories and practice. In Nepal as in India, the elimination of evil
and sin takes place at specific places, at particular times of the year or
according to a twelve-year cycle. The Makar Mel is one of the most
important of these occasions. Although it is a Hindu festival, akya and
Vajracarya Newar Buddhists, who share most of the conceptions about
sin and repentance that underlie the festival, attend Panaut Makar Mela
and bathe regularly in the sacred rivers of the Kathmandu Valley. They
also take part in Godavar Mel every twelve years and take the sacred
water from there for ritual use in their homes. However, there are no set
rules for performing offerings, pj s, in these two settlements. Moreover,
akyas do not practice the Svasthan vrata fast and bakh khanegu storeytelling (from Svasthan vrata text): these religious observances are specific
to Hindus.
In concluding, I would like to mention another method of expiating
sins which is widespread in the Himalayan range and further north on
the Tibetan plateau. A number of caves in these regions contain a narrow
354
grard toffin
passage at their entrance or further inside the cave, through which visitors attempt to pass.64 The sins of those who succeed in crawling through
will be washed away, whereas those who are unable to go any further are
too sinful for this simple expiatory and mechanical device. These caves
are often called pap dvar, dharma dvar, from (Nep.) dvar: door, entrance,
threshold, or papi brewa, dharma brewa in Tamang language. In the Kathmandu Valley, I know at least of two such sites: Bisakhu Naraya Sthan,
in the southwest of the Valley, and Skhu, close to the Tantric shrine of
Vajrayogin located at the top of a hill. At the latter, the cave where you
can prove that you are either virtuous or a sinner lies a few yards from
the shrine. A low doorway surmounted by an inscription in huge Tibetan
characters leads to a dark chamber where an image of Nl Sarasvat (or
Blue Tara) stands carrying a sword. This chamber has a tiny window: if
you are physically slight and reasonably agile, you can get through it, thus
proving your virtue. If you get stuck, you are a sinner, but your existence
may be facilitated by making a suitable offering to Nl Sarasvat.65 This
cave is called dharma-pap. Like others, it is used as a test to find out
whether you are a great sinner or not, as well as serving as a means to
purify yourself of evil deeds. The underlying metaphor seems to allude to
a new birth, through the womb of the mother and the ritual is reminiscent
of the various procedures of regressus ad uterum characteristic of initiations throughout the world. The person who succeeds in this endeavor is
like a newborn, coming into the world free of sin. These beliefs attest to
the importance of sin and expiation as a motivating force for religious acts
in the Himalayan region.
Acknowledgements I would like to thank Mahes Raj Pant, Prasant Shrestha
and Raju Shakya for help with the proofs.
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Sin and Expiation among Modern Hindus:

Obeying Ones Duty or Following Freely Accepted Rules?
Catherine Clmentin-Ojha
Subjective ethics is an advance over objective ethics,
because virtues are superior to duties. Whereas duty
is other-directed; virtue is inner-directed. Duty represents tribalistic morality; virtue represents individual
morality. Duties are related to experiences of prohibition and fear, but virtues arise from feelings of preference and self-respect. Duty is ad hoc and specific,
with reference to particular commandments, codes,
and customs; virtue is generic and is expressive of fundamental orientations in life, such as the Golden Rule.
[...] You may continue to follow the old rule, but now
it is because you must, not because you ought.1
During the last quarter of the 19th century travelling overseas became a
social issue in India as debated among Hindu reformers as widow remarriage or conversion. Among Brahmans and other high caste Hindus it was
a breach of dharmic conduct of such gravity that it could not be done
without incurring severe social sanction: many returnees were excommunicated from their caste.2 It raised the issues of pollution and sin. Of
pollution, because travelling overseas meant breaking the rules of ones
own caste in two major ways: eating forbidden food and having contact
with non Hindus (mleccha samparka), both major sources of impurity.3 It
raised the issue of sin because it entailed shirking ones own prescribed
duty (disregard for dharma). The problem was not the travel as such but
its consequences, like having to eat impure foods and being in close contact with impure substances and persons. Deemed impure, the returnees
suffered a social boycott: none in their caste would dine with them and
1Crawford S. Cromwell, Hindu Bioethics for the Twenty-first Century (Albany, New York:
State University of New York Press, 2003).
2See Lucy Carroll, The Seavoyage Controversy and the Kayasthas of North India, 1901
1909, Modern Asian Studies 13, no. 2 (1979); Susmita Arp, Kalapani: Zum Streit ber die
Zulssigkeit von Seereisen im kolonialzeitlichen Indien (Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 2000).
3Samudryana (travelling by sea) was the term used to designate the religious transgression implied by such journeys; another term with equally sinister socioreligious implications was klpni black water.
358
catherine clmentin-ojha
the prospect of marriage for them and their children became dim. In most
cases, they were admitted back in their endogamous group (jti) after
they had undergone rites of expiation (pryacitta) prescribed by their
Caste Council (pacyat) or by other such instances which regulated the
internal affairs of their caste. In the case of Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar
(18551923), the well-known judge, social reformer and political activist
of Bombay, this instance was the sectarian monastery to which his caste
(Sarasvata brhmaa, hereafter Saraswat Brahman) was affiliated.
To sin is to fall short of ones society standards of rightful moral conduct; it is to transgress religious or moral law. Looking for an objective
definition of sin large enough to apply to all social or cultural contexts,
the French anthropologist Robert Hertz (18811915) observed that sin not
only consists in a transgression of a moral order but also corresponds to a
new state which subsists once the initial cause has disappeared: the perpetrator of a sin has become a sinner.4 He further noted that this new
state does not cease by itself but requires external intervention: expiation takes place when certain ritual actions are able to re-establish the
state of things prior to the transgression, abolishing it without crushing
the transgressor.5
In Hindu society the notions that the sinner is personally transformed
by his transgression and can be purified and restored to his pre-sin state
are familiar. Anthropologists have shown that Hindus understand sin
(ppa) as a transgression of the sanctioned rules of dharma, that is to say
as a breach of their castes codes, which presupposes a close connection
4Robert Hertz, Le pch et lexpiation dans les socits primitives (Paris: ditions JeanMichel Place, 1988), 5152: le pch est une transgression dun ordre moral, qui est considre comme entranant par sa vertu propre des consquences funestes pour son auteur
et qui concerne exclusivement la socit religieuse. Ltat de pch enveloppe pour le
fidle des peines et des dangers redoutables: il le prive de la situation, de la capacit, des
droits quil avait dans lglise, en particulier du droit de communier; il implique la menace
dafflictions temporelles qui peuvent atteindre le pcheur soit dans sa personne, soit dans
ses biens, soit dans ses proches ou ses descendants; surtout, il dcide virtuellement du sort
de lme dans lau-del et la condamne une mort ternelle, cest--dire des souffrances
sans fin et une exclusion dfinitive du sjour cleste. Cet tat, qui succde inluctablement lacte mauvais, ne cesse pas de lui-mme: ou bien par le concours de Dieu,
de lglise et du pcheur, il est aboli par une intervention sacramentaire, spcialement
destine la dlivrance du pnitent; ou bien il se prolonge jusqu la mort du pcheur
endurci pour produire ensuite ses consquences effroyables et dsormais irrparables.
Robert Hertz died in 1915 before he could complete his research, which was then published
posthumously by Marcel Mauss in 1922.
5Hertz, Le pch et lexpiation, 55.
sin and expiation among modern hindus
359
between sin and pollution.6 Some of them also acknowledge that pollution has a moral dimension among Hindus. Thus Fuller writes: [...] pollution is a concept whose religious significance is not exhausted by its social
significance, in other words, purity is not only a prerequisite to maintain
ones social status, ones position in the caste social order, it has also moral
significance.7 Specialists of Sanskrit normative literature too have drawn
attention to such a connection.8 Renou writes that if in ancient times
evil resides in error, for classical Hinduism its seat is rather in impurity.9
According to him there is in the theory of expiation (pryacitta) an
underlying logic which shows the connection between pollution and sin:
it not only concerns socioreligious faults (fautes religieuses) leading to
the loss of caste but also ethical faults (fautes contre lthique).
In Hindu society then, dharma being both a matter of moral order and
purity, the violation of expected or prescribed conduct is both a breach in
the moral ordera sinand a breach in the purity order of the caste
pollution. Sin brings about impurity. Polluted, the sinner is also potentially
polluting and must be kept apart until purified. This explains why the
foreign-returned Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar was excommunicated for
having travelled to England in 1885. However, as we are going to see, he
did not think he had committed any sin and he took the consistent decision to refuse to expiate his sin. Whether this should be seen as an indication that he had decided that the source of ethical guidance was to be
found in his own self is the question that will occupy me in this paper.
The Suez Canal was opened in November 1869, and from the 1880s
the number of high caste Hindus undertaking the sea-voyage to England
increased rapidly as more and more educated young men aspired to
receive an adequate education to exercise one of the new lucrative
6To perform religious rites while being ritually impure is a sin. Harper notes that
among the Haviks Brahmans of Karnataka disregard [of ritual pollution observances] is
phrased as sin (ppa), Edward B. Harper, Ritual Pollution as an Integrator of Caste and
Religion, Journal of Asian Studies, 23 (1964): 176. Similar findings in Veena Das, Structure
and Cognition: aspects of Hindu Caste and Ritual (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1973), 130,
and Christopher Fuller, Gods, Priests and Purity: on the Relation between Hinduism and
the Caste System, Man, n.s., 14 (1979).
7Fuller, Gods, Priests and Purity, 473.
8OFlaherty, Wendy Doniger. The Origin of Evil in Hindu Mythology (Delhi: Motilal
Banarsidass, 1976), 165168.
9Louis Renou, Lhindouisme (Paris: PUF, 1974), 7879. Si le mal date ancienne rside
dans lerreur, pour lhindouisme classique il a son sige plutt dans limpuret.
360
professions generated by the colonial regime.10 A man like Narayan Ganesh

Chandavarkar thought that such journeys were also good for moral reasons. To stay two years in England, he would say, developed pluck, enterprise and moral courage.11 As we are going to see, moral courage was
important for Chandavarkar, a complex product of Brahmanical and English education.12
Chandavarkar had gone to London in September 1885, as part of a
three member delegation sent by the Bombay Presidency Association
to represent the political demands of the Indians to the British Parliament and, more generally, to inform the colonial power of the situation
in India at a time when Britain was holding its general elections.13 This
is an unmistakable sign that at 30, Chandavarkar was not only a leading
member of his community but was also seriously participating in the first
organized efforts at political representation. He had indeed distinguished
himself early by being the first Saraswat Brahman of Karnataka to obtain
a BA from the University of Bombay. In 1878, at 22, he became the editor of the English pages of the very influential progressive Anglo-Marathi
weekly Indu Prakash, where he soon proved himself to be a nationalist
who had a keen intellect and an original contribution to make in the fields
of social reform and of politics. He rapidly established close personal
contact with two like-minded prominent public figures of the Bombay
Presidency, Kashinath Trimbak Telang (18501892) and Mahadev Govind
Ranade (18421901), both judges of repute, whose moderation in politics
10See Shompa Lahiri, Indians in Britain: Anglo-Indian Encounters, Race and Identity
18801930 (London: Frank Cass Publishers, 2000), 118.
11Frank Conlon, A Caste in a Changing World. The Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmans 1700
1935 (New Delhi: Thomson Press (Indian) Limited, 1977), 154.
12I am relying on A Wrestling Soul, a biography of N.G. Chandavarkar by his nephew,
who also gives large extracts from his published speeches and from his private note-books
in English, and on Conlon, who introduces Chandavarkar in his important 1977 study of
the Saraswat Brahmans of Karnataka. See Ganesh L. Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, Story
of the life of Sir Narayan Chandavarkar (Bombay: Popular Book Depot, 1955) and Conlon,
A Caste in a Changing world.
13Conlon, A Caste in a Changing World, 153; Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, 4546.
N.G. Chandavarkar represented the Bombay Presidency, Savalai Ramaswami Mudaliar
(18401911) the Madras Presidency and Mun Mohan Ghosh (18441896) the Bengal Presidency. Though at the time there was a growing interest in Indian affairs, the delegates
had but scant success in arousing interest in Indias aspirations, and their well-wishers,
all Liberals, were defeated in the general elections. Yet all these efforts were not in vain,
as at the end of the same year, the Indian National Congress was founded in Bombay.
Chandavarkar was associated with the organization right from the start, attending its first
meeting on December 28 1885, on the very day he returned from England (according to
Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, 106).
361
he shared. Like them, he was a loyal supporter of British rule, and justified
its policy of social reform by legislation. In 1881, following in the footsteps
of his father and maternal uncle, Chandavarkar entered the legal profession as a lawyer. That year he also joined the Prarthana Samaj,14 fighting
against the evils of child marriages, interdiction of widow remarriage and
untouchability from within this organization, which is well-known for
the role it played in the development of social consciousness among the
Hindu elites of western India.15 He was no less active in the religious activities of the Samaj, preaching regularly at its pulpit. There, as his diaries full
of soul searching and self-examination show, he drew great spiritual and
moral inspiration from the company of Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar
(18371925). It is therefore not surprising that Chandavarkars immediate
circle welcomed him back home with enthusiasm, thinking that by journeying to England he had accomplished something highly significant for
the nation. Not that there was no sign at all of displeasure at his obvious
breach of dharmic conduct, but it was of no consequence, as he himself
recalled in 1901:
When I visited England sixteen years ago, of course there was an agitation
about my doing so. But nothing was done and I was received by my caste
and in my family. I was treated as if I had never violated any of the rules of
the caste.16
But in 1894, nine years after his return, the matter grew serious: he was
excommunicated and cut off from the rest of his caste along with his
family. The decision came from Svm Pandurangashram (r. 18641915),
the abbot of the smrta monastery of Chitrapur (Bombay Presidency,
today Karnataka).17 Chandavarkars caste was affiliated to this monastery.18 Within that system, well described by Conlon, the abbot had the
responsibility to regulate the internal affairs of the caste and to chastise
any inappropriate behaviour which came to his knowledge. In 1894, he
thus decreed that all Saraswats were to avoid contact (samparka) with
those who had returned from England until the nature of their lapse had
14See Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, 61, 181, 186.
15He founded the Depressed Classes Mission Society in 1906; see Chandavarkar,
A Wrestling Soul, 99100.
16Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, 87.
17Smrta (i.e. who follows the smti) implies that the monastic lineage of Chitrapur
traces its ancestry to akara, the 8th century theologian, follows the philosophy of advaitavednta or pure monism which he taught, and adheres strictly to the Brahmanical rules
and regulations prescribed in the codes of Hindu law, dharmastra or smti.
362
been determined. Upon this the Saraswats collectively decided that normal contacts could be resumed with those who had gone abroad if they
underwent an expiation.19 A very humiliating public event, pryacitta
was the last resort, but still preferable to being definitely turned out of
ones caste. Several foreign-returned Saraswats complied, thereby implicitly admitting that they had strayed from proper conduct. Chandavarkar
was not one of them. At the same time several Saraswats started questioning their caste-gurus decision and soon their community was sharply
divided on the issue, between those who were opposed to sea-journeys
and those who admitted them, a division that overlapped with the division between town-dwellers and country-side dwellers. In December 1896
the divide became even sharper with the abbot of Chitrapur declaring that
those who had gone abroad were excommunicated once and for all and
those who had been in contact with them (that is, had shared publicly a
meal with them) had to undergo an expiation.20 In March 1898 the abbot
celebrated in the town of Mangalore a mass expiation ceremony which
lasted twelve hours, an indication that many of his followers yielded to
his injunctions. But Chandavarkar was not alone in resisting them, as is
shown by the fact that in July 1898 he was able to celebrate the marriage
of his daughter with all due show. In the words of a correspondent of the
Indian Social Reformer:
In spite of the fulminations of this great Shankaracharya [the title of the
abbot], interdining between the sinners and the saved goes on...to an
extent which causes very little inconvenience to the former, especially in
the larger towns. If orthodox priests do not officiate at ceremonies, there
are wiser men to profit by their aloofness, for where there is money, there
are priests.21
Though in 1911 the British officer in charge of the census operation noted
that the Saraswats were divided between Londonwalasand nonLondonwalas, there were by that time so many shows of resistance to his
reprimands that the abbot of Chitrapur threatened to end his monastic
line once and for all.22 In 1913 he observed bitterly:
19Conlon, A Caste in a Changing World, 155.

20 Conlon, A Caste in a Changing World, 158.
22 Conlon, A Caste in a Changing World, 162.
363
In every town, that which is against jti, pakti, dharma, and maha is
growing.23 Nobody made any efforts with heart and soul to rectify this, none
is doing it, and it does not seem that they will do it in the future. All our
aspirations that the people will be good are completely vain. Well, I dont
care.24
However, in June 1915, a few days before his death, the abbot appointed
a boy of 12 years to succeed him on the monastic seat. Under his guidance, the Saraswat Brahmans of Chitrapur would redefine their discipline
of caste on new bases.
By that time the lawyer Narayan Ganesh Chandavarkar had embarked
on a very successful public career. In 1900, he presided over the annual
session of the Indian National Congress in Lahore.25 On being appointed
judge in 1901 in the Bombay High Court, replacing M.G. Ranade, who had
died that year, a position which imposed on him political discretion, he
withdrew from the Indian National Congress to take the leadership of
the Indian National Social Conference. This was the forum for discussing social issues of the day; it ran parallel to the meetings of the INC.
On several issues Chandavarkar showed his commitment to social reform,
notably in the realm of Hindu law, of which he was a recognized expert.
In 1909, he was appointed Chief Justice. In 1910, he was knighted. After
retiring from the High Court in 1913, he resumed his political activities
among the moderates of the Indian National Congress, of which he was
one of the main leaders.
The Saraswat Brahman community of Chitrapur would not have known
such difficulties had it not been cornered into redefining its interaction
with the world outside. But the spread of western education and the adoption of new professions transformed the modes and conditions of life of its
members and induced them to settle in the large colonial urban centres of
Madras and Bombay. In effect the abbots injunctions had been more particularly directed at those Saraswats living in these urban centers, as they
were more likely than others to transgress dharmic conduct. Residing and
working in large towns they enjoyed a certain degree of freedom from the
discipline of caste, whereas those who continued to live in their ancestral
home were under greater social pressure to respect traditional norms. The
23Jti refers to the endogamous group of the Saraswat Brahmans of Chitrapur; pakti to
the row [of dinners who can eat together without polluting each other because they have
the same ritual status]; maha to the monastic institution whose abbot is the caste-guru.
25Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, 106. See note 13.
364
social and moral implications of a persons place of residence comes out

clearly in what a caste-fellow and member of Chandavarkars ancestral
village had to say when asked to comment upon the warm welcome that
Chandavarkar had received when he returned from England. He observed
that it would have been different if instead of Bombay Chandavarkar had
returned to his ancestral home. To the question whether Chandavarkar
had been readmitted in his caste, the same man replied cautiously: He
has never been to this part of the country. When asked whether excommunication would have in any way disturbed Chandavarkar: Not unless
he came to this part of the country.26 These remarks suggest that what
was a sin of the severest nature at home (in the village), was not a sin in
Bombay.
It has been observed that in the 19th century social control was of a
highly localised character; it was restricted to a given endogamous group
(jti) and did not affect those outside.27 Thus, whereas journeying abroad
was a serious offence for the smrta Saraswats of Chitrapur, it had little
consequence for the neighbouring community of the smrta Saraswats
of Kavale, because their caste guru, Atmananda Sarasvati (18701898),
was not so strict on the matter. It shows that the judgment on whether
a given action constituted a sin varied more according to the social setting and opinion of the entourage of the perpetrator than on his inner
consciousness.28 But the boundaries were not only social in nature. They
were both social and spatial. What we have with the testimony of Chandavarkars caste-fellow just mentioned is precisely the admission that the
social control of the endogamous group was also spatially determined and
that it was weaker on those who had gone outside its boundaries. Such
conditions help to explain why what was a sin in the village was not a sin
in Bombay. Chandavarkar was not disturbed by the debate over foreign
journeys that divided his community because he had made his living far
away from its base.
A quarter of a century before Chandavarkar, in the very same town
of Bombay, the well-known Gujarati social reformer Karsondas Mulji

27Carroll, The Seavoyage Controversy, 267.
28A point also made by OHanlon for the end of the 18th century in Maharashtra: [...]
offenders were often driven to seek purification not so much by inner consciousness of
the transgression itself, but only when news of it began to leak out and neighbours and
caste-fellows started to point accusing fingers (Rosalind OHanlon, Narratives of Penance
and Purification, c. 16501850, The Journal of Hindu Studies 2 [2003]: 61).
365
(18321871), of the Bombay Libel Case fame (1862),29 had had a similar
experience when he decided to put himself and his close family members at a safe distance from the main bulk of his caste. Except that in his
case it was Bombay that he had had to flee because it was there that the
Kapole Baniya resided. Karsondas, who was one of the earliest Gujarati
merchants (baniy) to travel to England, had been excommunicated upon
his return in 1865 and thereafter ostracized by most members of the upper
strata of the Bombay Gujarati society to which he belonged. Servants, too,
boycotted him.30 Added to social pressure, there was domestic pressure
for, according to his biographer, his wife could not endure the situation,
making his life all the more miserable. This is why he resolved to go to
Kathiawar:
After his excommunication, he thought it advisable to go to moffusil;31 and
this step of his was a wise one. [...] At this places [notably at Rajkot], there
was no caste trouble. There Karsondas and his family were admitted in the
community without any hitch; and hence Karsondass wife remained in a
much more peaceful mood and allowed Karsondas mental peace and rest
to carry out his ideas of reform.32
Significantly this return to normalcy was translated socially by exchange

of hospitality, notably by exchange of food:
[At Rajkot] Karsondas was invited to dine both at individual Baniyas houses
and at caste gatherings. Karsondas, on his part too, used to invite some of
these Baniyas for dinners at his own place.33
Because of the fast changing conditions of life, the social cost of the sin
incurred by leaving India was minimal for those who had built a strong
position and a solid reputation than none could challenge. The fact that
Chandavarkar was less disturbed than Karsondas Mulji is an indication of
his greater social standing and influence. But the emotional cost in the
domestic arena was of some consequence for him, too. It is important to
29In 1861 Karsondas Mulji had exposed in his paper, Satya Prakash (The Light on
Truth), what he called the immoralities of the gurus of the sect of the Maharajas (Vallabha
sampradya). Sued by one of the gurus, he won the case, which created a sensation in
Bombay and the whole of British India; see History of the Sect of Maharajas, (London:
Trubner, 1866) This book was published by Karsondas Mulji anonymously.
30B.N. Motivala, Karsondas Mulji. A Biographical Study (Bombay: The Karsondas Muiji
Centenary Celebration Committee, 1935), 43.
31Mufassal means province in opposition to town.
32Motivala, Karsondas Mulji, 202.
33Motivala, Karsondas Mulji, 204.
366
take seriously the fact that given the predominant influence that caste
still exercised among all classes at the end of the 19th century, going to
England was a dramatic choice. In most cases it caused serious concern
for spouses. As keepers of the identity of the home, they had a sense of sin
that was not only predicated on issues of wider social reputation but also
on issues of daily management of the household life and maintenance of
family relationships. Right in the middle of large cities, they still felt the
village-type constraints of social control and ostracism.
Both Karsondas and his junior of twenty years Chandavarkar advocated
female education, and fought against child marriages and the ban on
widow remarriage.34 Throughout his judicial career Chandavarkar incessantly defended womens rights, more particularly widows right of maintenance. Quite early in his public life during the tumultuous controversy
of the Rakmabai case (March 1884 to July 1888), he had denounced in the
Indu Prakash the decision of the (British) judges to send Rukmabai back
to her husband, despite her refusal to recognize their marriage. Rukmabai
had been married off by her father while she was still a child and when she
refused to live with her husband, he sued to enforce his conjugal rights.
Chandavarkar criticized the judges in particular for relying on certain provisions of the Hindu law which were opposed to the very rights of women
that they claimed to protect.35 As a judge well aware of the personal law of
the various Hindu communities, he kept thinking of corrective measures
to bring about social amelioration.36
34Their defence of widow remarriage was confined to child-widows, in other words

to young girls whose husband had died before the consummation of marriage (see
Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, 97). Marrying a widow who had lost her virginity appeared
hideous to most high caste Hindus in those days.
35Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, 42. On the Rukmabai case, see Sudhir Chandra,
Enslaved Daughters: Colonialism, Law and Womens Rights (Delhi: Oxford University Press,
1998).
36What he wrote in 1886 gives an idea of his type of undertaking: Our Civil Courts of
Justice occupy a position which in several respects enables them to introduce changes of
a progressive character into the Hindoo community. Like the Legislatures, they too are
bound to decide all questions before them in accordance with the usages and customs
of the community. Their authority is also limited, but they possess an advantage, which
the legislative does not, in that the Hindoo Law is not codified and the ancient Hindoo
law-givers, whose books are the accepted authorities of the land, are so many and among
themselves differ on so many points that the British judge in India finds himself the master
of a pretty large field where he can occasionally pick and choose in accordance with his
own enlightened instincts. It may not be in all, or even in the majority of cases, that he
is able to do so, but that he is able to do so at all counts for a great deal in this matter.
To his credit be it said, he has exercised his discretion most carefully. That he has felt
his way cautiously and acted with due regard to the prejudices of the people with whom
367
In the private sphere too, he was known to be sensitive to his wifes

welfare. His diary testifies that he was proud of her and was crushed by
her death.37 Yet he still perpetuated the paradigmatic submission of the
Hindu wife as the sign of the good femininity when he wrote in 1911: The
woman soul is the soul of patient suffering, quiet endurance, of submission and selflessness.38
It is highly symptomatic of the gulf between the social circle that was
sending him to England and his domestic circle that Chandavarkar had
left for London in 1885 without informing his wife and that at the time
none in the house had the remotest idea of his departure.39 Equally
symptomatic is the fact that after his return there were two kitchens in
the family home. What exactly had led Chandavarkar to modify his food
habits and mode of life is not known. His nephew and biographer does
not fully explain this situation, but he clearly alludes to some domestic
he has to deal is evident from the fact that those people have the highest confidence
in our courts and regard them as the best defenders of their liberties and rights...He is
working quietly...but none the less he is working effectively. (Chandavarkar, A Wrestling
Soul, 2324). At the same time, though he favoured state legislation, and therefore colonial interference, in matters of social reform, Chandavarkar did not accept all the changes
introduced by the British in the administration of the said law. Or rather, as Rocher has
argued, he was among those influential Indian judges who claimed as an integral part
of the original Hindu law all foreign elements introduced by the British (Ludo Rocher,
Indian Response to Anglo-Hindu Law, Journal of the American Oriental Society 92, no. 3
[1972 ]: 421). In this respect, one of his judgments is telling. It is also one of his most often
quoted legal analysis: That law is a jurisprudence by itself and contains within its limits all
the principles necessary for application to any given case. It is doing scant justice to Hindu
law as a science to suppose that, because there is no express text providing for a concrete
point arising for adjudication, therefore, there is nothing in it to guide a Judge in deciding
that point and he must import analogies from foreign laws to help him. The Hindu lawgivers have not indeed laid down a rule in express terms on every conceivable point. But
having provided texts for such cases as had arisen before or in their time, they left others
to be determined either with reference to certain general principles laid down by them in
clear terms or by the analogy of similar cases governed by express texts. Had the Subordinate Judge (a Hindu) gone into the question in this case a little deeper and considered
the authorities on Hindu law a little more carefully than he seems to have done, he would
have found that there was no need of Romanising the Hindu law for the purposes of his
decision. (see Kalgavda Tavanappa v. Somappa (1909) 30 Bom. 669, 680, quoted from the
internet version on http://www.indiankanoon.org/doc/682888/.
37Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul,169, 171, 177, 204.
38Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, 63. The patriarchal attitude of most social reformers
has often been noted.
39Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, 46. Though she had not received much education,
Chandavarkars wife did her best to adapt to the social circles he frequented, even picking
up a little English, see Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, 168, 169.
368
tension when, as if in passing, he informs his reader that his aunt refused
to take any food from his uncles Christian cook.40
This was a rather out of the ordinary arrangement in a Saraswat Brahman household of those days, where a strong socioreligious symbolism was
attached to all food matters, the purity of food being central to all ritual
practices and eating perceived as the main potential source of pollution.
To employ a Christian cook would have been enough for Chandavarkar to
be ostracized in his village even if he had not gone to England.41
For Karsondas Mulji and Ganesh Narayan Chandavarkar, then, leaving
Indian shores and going to far away England had resulted in yet another
displacement: in order to live without the accusation of sin, they had to
remove themselves from the tight control of their caste. Their wives had
no such opportunity. Confined in their role of guardian of the identity and
reputation of the family, they could only continue to perceive transgressions of the domestic norms as serious breaches of dharmic conduct and
suffer for the sins of their husbands.
But neither Karsondas Mulji nor Chandavarkar thought they had
sinned by crossing the sea. This is the reason why they rejected the idea of
expiation.42 As Chandavarkar wrote to a friend around 1895:
Of what use is a prayaschitta if, instead of leading to sincere penitence
and preventing the commission, it only becomes a promoter and abetter
of sin?43

41The biographer of Karsondas is equally insensible to the feelings and needs of his
heros wife when he calls her a handicap (Motivala, Karsondas Mulji, 200), adding: [...]
Karsondas was unhappy because he had not the good fortune of having an accomplished
wife. His wife was a drag on all his public activities [...] (Motivala, Karsondas Mulji, 201).
These remarks take a particularly poignant dimension when one reads under the pen of
the same author the following: At the time of Karsondas death, his wife was only twentysix years old. After a year and a half after Karsondass death, through the hard efforts
of Sheth Bengali and Sheth Dosabhai Framji Karka, Karsondass wife, her four sons and
her daughter were re-admitted to the Kapole Baniya caste after paying a fine and after
performing the penitentiary (prayschitta [pryacitta]) ceremony at Nasik. (Motivala,
Karsondas Mulji, 53). Karsondass own attitude towards his wife is not known. It has been
argued by Thakkar that during the Bombay Libel Case, which took place three years before
his England journey, he failed to take into account real persons when defending the cause
of women. He could at the same time denounce the sexual exploitations of their female
disciples by the Vallabhi gurus and not pay any attention to what the persons concerned
thought of the matter; see Usha Thakkar Puppets on the Periphery: Women and Social
Reform in the 19th Century Gujarati, Economic and Political Weekly 32, no. (1997): 46.
42The biographer of Karsondas mentions the fact but does not give any direct evidence
(Motivala, Karsondas Mulji, 43).
43Quoted by Conlon, A Caste in a Changing World, 156. See also Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, 88.
369
And when it was pointed to him that, unlike him, Telang and Ranade, two
of the men he admired most, had yielded to their familys demand that
they comply with their caste customs, he retorted:
You cite the example of Justice Ranade and Justice Telang. Well, if your argument is sound, it follows we are to imitate even the weaknesses and lapses
of great men! [...] it is wrong doing to his [Telangs] memory to say that his
example in the matter of his want of moral courage should be imitated, for
he himself had to confess his weakness and praise those who showed moral
courage. He even wept for his weakness.44
And about Ranade, Chandavarkar commented that the idea of displeasing anybody was too much for him, and he wanted to unite and work
together.45 It is an inescapable conclusion that compared to Ranades,
Chandavarkars stand on moral principle was not only theoretical. Like
most reformers of his day, he held that old institutions and practices
of society needed to be changed if India was to cope with the modern
world, and lifting the ban on foreign journeys was one of the reforms
most urgently needed. But unlike many others, Chandavarkar lived up
his reformist commitments. Obedience to conscience was paramount
44Quoted by Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, 89. Telang, though reluctantly, had given
his consent to his infant daughters marriage. He seems to have shown a great sensitivity to
the tension that his public activities generated in his domestic sphere if one is to judge by
a speech he gave in 1886. Telang was then answering to the British objection that slavery
at home is incompatible with political liberty. He said: It is not, as if often represented, a
case of male tyrants and female slaves to any notable extent...As regards all these burning questions which just now trouble us in connection with social reformas regards
enforced widowhood, infant marriage, voyages to England, and so forththe persons who
are supposed to be our slaves are really in many respects our masters. [...] They protest
against an interference with and desecration of their ancient and venerable tradition,
which from their point of view is involved in the course of enfranchisement. [...] It is these
so-called slaves within our households who form our great difficulty. And in these circumstances, I venture to say that the sort of household slavery that in truth prevails among us
is by no means incompatible with political liberty. The position is fact is this. Here we have
what may, for convenience, be treated as two spheres for our reformist activities. There is
slavery on one side and there is slavery on the other, and we are endeavouring to shake
off that slavery in the one sphere as well as in the other.(K.T. Telang, Must Social Reform
Precede Political Reform in India? Speech delivered before the students Literary and
Scientific Society, 22 February 1886, quoted by Amiya P. Sen, Social and Religious Reform.
The Hindus in British India [New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002], 94.)
45Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, 89. Ranade, though an active member of the
Widow Remarriage Association, celebrated his second marriage in 1873 with an eleven
year old illiterate girl; later, in 1890, he took pryacitta for having drunk tea served by
European missionaries at the Panch Haud Mission School in Poona (on this famous
scandal that led to the excommunication of several public figures of Maharashtra, see
Aravind Ganagachari, The Panch Haud Mission Episode (18923): An Index of Social
Tension in Maharashtra, Nationalism and Social Reform in Colonial Situation, ed. Aravind
Ganagachari (Delhi: Kalpaz Publications, 2005), 225232.
370
over all other considerations. For him the responsibility to effect social
changes lay with the individual, cost what may. This he called reform
from within:
Private repentance, individual moral energy, deep personal faith in some
great conception of duty or religion are the prerequisites and causes of all
social amelioration. Swamis and shastris are wedded to old and worn out
ideals, and it is expecting too much of them to give up beliefs in which
centuries of customs and tradition have nurtured them. [...] The past is too
strong in the present, and it has tremendous energy to take care of itself;
what is needed is force to mould it and that can come from reform from
within. And reform from within is impossible as long as the enlightened
and educated individuals will sit still and in the hope that something may
turn up and that they will then help in the regeneration of their kind. Persecution there will be, and they must be prepared for it.46
In 1904, at the annual session of the Indian National Social Conference

(Madras), he declared that what was needed was:
the reform of the heart and the mind which can only come from the intelligent consciousness that a healthy society is that the units of which are
taught that everyone of them is a responsible being, that everyone of them
is and ought to be a hopeful being, that everyone of them has rights with
its attendants responsibilities, and that the neglect or suffering of any unit
must tell on the whole.47
On sin and repentance, Chandavarkar shared the point of view of the

abbot of Chitrapur, his caste-guru, in all matters but one: he refused to
qualify sea-voyage as a sin. But the implication of this single difference
was enormous. It meant the gurus injunctions were not binding on him.
What the abbot of Chitrapur thought of his attitude is not known. But
there is an indication that within the orthodox milieu not everyone was
46The Mandlik School and the reform within, quoted by Amiya P. Sen, Social and
Religious Reform, 93. The speech is not dated and was delivered after Mandliks death.
V.N. Mandlik (18331889) advocated reform on the basis of the scriptures and with the
help of the religious authorities, such as svms (monastic heads) and stris (interpreters
of Hindu codes); this he called reform from within. Chandavarkar kept the expression
but transformed its meaning.
47Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, 81. To those who advised him to be cautious and
move with the times, he replied: Time is no agent! It is men and not time that are the
moving springs of society. Society has naturally a tendency to cast its members in the iron
mould of custom and superstition, and it is only those who are educated who can give the
propelling force. To move with it is to move in the old ways; it is only by moving ahead
of it and showing it the way onwards that you can get it to move on. (Chandavarkar,
A Wrestling Soul, 78).
371
insensible to his position. A renowned pandit like Mahamahopadhyaya

Bhimacharya Zalkikar (also Jhalakikar), an authority on the dharmastra,48
was obviously aware that his class could do little to resist the ongoing
sweeping social and psychological changes. As yet another debate was
going on over whether or not to rehabilitate a young educated man who
had been excommunicated after a sojourn in England, the pandit told
Chandavarkar:
We shastris know the tide is against us and it is no use opposing. You people
should not consult us, but go your own way, and do the thing you think right
and we shall not come in your way. But if you ask us and want us to twist
the shastras to your purpose and go with you, we must speak plainly and
we will oppose.49
Chandavarkar, despite what his caste-guru or caste-fellows thought of

the matter, steadfastly maintained he had committed no sin by going to
England. Not because he did not believe in sin. Not because he did not
believe in expiation rites. He took them seriously. He held that sin had to
be expiated through relevant rites. He also held that expiation was not
valid without repentance, a position conforming to the dharmastra that
could be expected from an expert in Hindu law like himself.50 If expiation
was to be of any use, it had to lead to sincere penitence; it was meant to
prevent the commission of sin. What Chandavarkar denounced was the
hypocritical attitude of those Saraswat Brahmans who resorted to expiation simply to be readmitted into the caste. Whereas they chose expediency, he advised obeying ones own conscience. Having a well-informed
knowledge of what a dharmic breach was, he disputed the right of his
caste-guru to sit in a judgment over his action; he knew in conscience
that he had not sinned.
48He was a traditional Sanskrit scholar at Elphinstone College (Bombay); for the reference for this information see note 46.
49Chandavarkar, A Wrestling Soul, 80, 86. N.G. Chandavarkar has narrated the whole
episode in The Mandlik School and the reform within, see note 46.
50See, for example Manu, The Laws of Manu (first ed. 1886) Translated with Extracts
from Seven Commentaries by George Bhler. Vol. 25 of Sacred Books of the East (Delhi:
Motilal Banarsidass, 1984): 11.227: By confession (khypanena), by repentance (anutpena),
by austerity (tapas), and by reciting (the Veda) a sinner is freed from guilt (ppt), and
in case no other course is possible, by liberality (dnena); and 11.230: He who has committed a sin (ppa) and has repented (satapya), is freed from that sin (ppt), but he is
purified only by (the resolution of) ceasing (to sin and thinking) I will do so no more.
(translation by Bhler, with Sanskrit added from the original version).
372
Today, most high castes Hindus returning from abroad neither believe
themselves nor are believed by others to have committed any sin. Yet
some do encounter opposition and are coerced into observing rites of
expiation. To what extent and within what kinds of social milieu this is
still the case is difficult to say. Being prominent public figures of wellknown religious institutions, the Nambudiri priest and the two Mdhva
abbots whose stories I am about to narrate only made news because their
behaviour was a source of scandal. Still, it is interesting to compare them
with Chandavarkar.
In 1997, a century after Chandavarkar, Vishnu Narayanan Namboodiri,
a priest of a Hindu temple in Central Kerala, upon returning from England
discovered that he had sinned. Considered defiled, he was barred from
entering his temple. The press reported how he tried to argue that he had
not sinned:
Namboodiri refuses to atone for a sin he says he did not commit. Nowhere
in the Vedas does it say that a priest cannot cross the sea, he contends.
But the temples tantri (head priest) Akkeeram Kalidasa Bhattathiri, who
clamped the entry ban on the high priest, insists that the Vedas forbid transoceanic travel. The tantris are the supreme authority on temple rituals and
customs. We have the records to prove our stand. We will never compromise on our age-old traditions, he told Outlook.51
Vishnu Narayanan Nambudiri, then, refused to consider his foreign journey as a sin, on the basis of a scripture he held binding. On the one hand
he was displaying the old tendency to fall back on the authoritative voice
of the scriptures. On the other hand, by declaring that he knew fully well
the content of the Veda, he was rejecting the supreme authority of his
temple, and in this way making a very modern claim. Finally, after much
commotion, he was reinstalled in his ritual functions without expiation.52
51An Ocean Of Orthodoxy. A high priest is barred from entering his temple after he
sins by crossing the seas,
Outlook India.com, July 1997, http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?203938.
52In my home state of Kerala, we had the unusual case of Vishnu Narayan Namboothiri,
a poet and former head priest of Sri Vallabha Temple in Thiruvalla. He was dismissed from
his priest job for traveling overseas. However, he received an apology and was reinstated
after a few months by the thantri (chief priest) who realized none of their authoritative
scriptures prohibits priests from travelling abroad. See Vrindavanam S. Gopalakrishnan,
Crossing the Ocean. How breaking an ancient taboo plunged a pontiff into controversy
and jeopardized his turn of sovereignty at the famed Krishna Temple in Udupi, Hinduism
Today, AugSept. 2008, online edition http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smart
section/item.php?itemid=3065.
373
Another contemporary foreign-returned controversy, this time connected with the town of Udupi (Karnataka), the headquarter of the Mdhva
sect, makes an equally interesting comparison with Chandavarkars story.
It arose in 2008 when Sugunendra Tirtha, abbot of the sectarian monastery of Puthige, claimed his right to being the next paryya svmin or
to exercising the two-year term of office of supervising the worship and
management of the sectarian r-Ka temple.53 It was accorded on the
express condition that he would celebrate only those minor rituals which
did not involve touching the image of the deity. The reason was that having gone to the United States in 2005, he was considered defiled. Sugunendra Tirtha yielded but not without mixed feelings.54 It was then recalled
that twenty years earlier another foreign-returned Mdhva renouncer had
reacted more bluntly. Not only had he refused to expiate his sin; he had
also taken the radical step of abandoning his monastic responsibilities, a
rather shocking act among Hindu ascetics, declaring:
I am disgusted with the narrow-mindedness and selfishness of the orthodoxy around the mutt [read maha, monastery] and the sacred [r-Ka]
temple and with their politics. I know I am right and cannot and will not
compromise and yield to their meaningless demands.55
The Kerala priest and the two Mdhva abbots were held to be sinners
because they had violated both the moral and purity codes of their social
group. Their conduct was accordingly sanctioned by the mechanisms of
control of the rules of discipline operating within their milieu. But no more
than Chandavarkar, did they think they had sinned. Like him, they had a
different conception of sin from the one that prevailed in their milieu.
But if today leaving India is not generally perceived as endangering
ones caste status, even among communities that still maintain caste
53The r-Ka temple is managed by turn by eight Mdhva monastic heads, a system of administration introduced around the 1530s. This system of rotation (paryya) permits the distribution of authority among the sects main monasteries (B.N. Hebbar, The
r-Ka Temple at Uupi. The Historical and Spiritual Center of the Madhvite Sect of Hinduism. (New Delhi: Bharatiya Granth Niketan, 2005): 253281.
54When good things are done, there are people to oppose it. Lord Krishna is the final
judge. Mere economic globalization is not enough; it is necessary for there also to be spiritual globalization. See Gopalakrishnan, Crossing the Ocean. In spite of this arrangement,
the ceremony of rotation (paryya-mahotsava) was not celebrated with the usual pomp as
it was boycotted by all the other abbots.
55Madhva Junior Swami Quits Post in Protest. Tradition-bending U.S. Tour and
Sharp Establishment Reaction Leads to a 26-year-Olds Hasty Departure, Hinduism
Today,February1988,http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?
itemid=491.
374
purity, it is not to say that violating the old sea-voyage prohibition has lost
all moral significance for high caste Hindus. The Sri Kamakoti Mandali to
whom I am turning now offers a case in point. It too is worth comparing
with Chandavarkars case.
To those who approach it from the outside as I do, the Sri Kamakoti
Mandali is a blog on the internet.56 But behind the impersonal electronic
identity, there is a definite group of people, whose sociological features
can be guessed from its introduction:
Sri Kamakoti Mandali is a close-knit group of upasakas [spiritual seekers]
and this is the e-Grantha Mandira [religious library] for the disciples of the
Mandali to read articles related to Srividya, Advaita and Kundalini Yoga and
understand the teachings of our Guru Mandala. Our Guru belongs to the
lineage of Sri Dakshinamnaya Sringeri Sharada Peetham.57
Other information posted on the blog confirms that the said disciples are
spiritual seekers engaged in a soteriological pursuit through the worship
of the goddess Lalit-Tripurasundar. r-Vidy is known to be a path
of liberation adopted by some smrta Brahmans of South India closely
associated with the monastery of Sringeri.58 Centered on the cult of the
goddess Lalit-Tripurasundar (the chaming and beautiful goddess of
the three worlds), it gives a crucial place to ritual, and associates the
advaita-vedntin teachings of akara and the tantric practice of haha
or kualini yoga.59 The blog indeed stresses practice, attributing great
importance to ritual exactitude and strict observance of prescribed rules.60
At different places, it emphasizes that r-Vidy is an initiatic path exclusively reserved for those who qualify for it.61
56http://www.kamakotimandali.com.
57r-Vidy lineages are called maal (forming a circle). On the r-Vidy tradition,
see Douglas Refrew Brooks, Auspicious Wisdom. The texts and traditions of rvidy kta
tantrism in South India (Delhi: Manohar, 1996). Situated in south-west Karnataka, Sringeri is
one of the two main monasteries of the school of akara (Daanm sampradya) in south
India; it claims to be the sole representative of the southern tradition (dakimnaya); its
tutelary goddess being arad, it is called the seat of arad (arad pha).
58For smrta, see note 17. On Sringeri, see note 57
59This practice consists, through an intense mental effort, in activating the kualin
(the cosmic-divine power present in the body) so that her movement upward may carry
the mind of the adept to the goddess.
60Tantra is a practical system and practice is more important than everything else
here (http://www.kamakotimandali.com/misc/advice.html).
61Most of the instructions of the blog are written in English, another manifestation
of the hiatus between a demanding esoteric research conducted by a group of initiated
disciples and the public character of an internet site available to each and everyone, the
world over. It is possible that the members of the maal use English because they do
375
Three categories of texts are posted on the blog, in English and Sanskrit: 1) hymns of praise of different deities and accounts of spiritual experiences; 2) complex tantric ritual instructions; 3) guidelines of dharmic
conduct (cra). It is this last category that interests me. It is, as it were,
a collection of vyavasth or dharmic decisions, based on scriptures: their
author, probably the guru (not named), gives replies to queries from his
disciples about what is to be done in certain life situations and how to
do it.
A text posted on October 2008 provides the evidence that in contemporary Hindu society there are some individuals who voluntarily place
themselves under the obligation to respect the old sea-voyage prohibition. Prima facie therefore they offer quite a contrast with Chandavarkar!
Under the title Samudrayana Mimamsa (samudryana mms) or
investigation on the sea-journey, the text in question considers whether
travelling outside India is a breach of dharmic conduct requiring expiation (pryascitta), concludes that it is a minor sin (upapatka) and gives
a list of ad hoc expiations. It also explains that the prohibition (niedha)
of samudryana bears not on travelling by sea per se but on the violation
of the rules of avoidance of non-Hindus and on the non-observation of
obligatory rites during the journey.62
All this is familiar. But if the content is conventional, the motivation is
not readily perceptible.
Why should an internet blog dealing with esoteric pursuits raise the
issue of the prohibition of sea-voyage? When the disciples of the Kamakoti Mandali are invited to manipulate divine forces in order to access a
higher spiritual plane, when they see the world as pervaded by the presence of the goddess and strive with all their strength to go beyond the
ordinary human condition, why should they be bothered by a question
of caste purity? Is not freeing oneself from all social conventions one of
the main topoi of mystical literature? That some disciples of Kamakoti
Mandali share my perplexity can be deducted from several clarifications
presumably posted by the guru. The following is a representative one: whosoever thinks that his (tantric) initiation has given him access to complete
freedom (svtantrya) is mistaken, for he is not free to behave as he wishes
(svecchcra), not free to renounce daily (nitya) and occasional (naimittika)
not speak the same (Indian) mother tongue. Some of them appear to reside in the UnitedStates (hence the problem raised by travelling outside India, eating impure food, etc.).
62See http://www.kamakotimandali.com/misc/samudra.html.
376
rites.63 In other words the disciples are asked to accommodate to rather

than ignore the obligatory socioreligious prescriptions.64 Reaching the
ultimate level, which is beyond all conventions, presupposes sticking to
norms, such as those prescribed by the dharmastra. But while denouncing the trap of antinomianism, the guru does not expect blind adherence
to existing rules but rather personal discernment:
At the end of the day, it is careful self-evaluation that matters, where one
ponders on how one has progressed spiritually or become a better being
after treading a path for a considerable amount of time.65
In other words the disciples of Kamakoti Mandali are under no other obligation than the one which they impose upon themselves, while being fully
aware of their dharmic duties. At the end of the day, it is up to them to
judge whether they have strayed or not. What is binding for them, then?
Their own consciousness? Or the scriptural authorities of proper dharmic
conduct? Or both? An observation made by the Indian anthropologist
Leela Prasad comes in handy at this point. While doing fieldwork among
the smrtas of Sringeri, a group of Brahmans in all probability very close
sociologically to the adepts of Kamakoti Mandal, she found that in their
daily lives they referred to the dharmastra to define moral propriety, but
relied also on their own inner sense of right and wrong. She writes:
An idea that I encountered often in Sringeri, and in other contexts of my
life, was that the yardstick for correct performance of shastric expectations
was the sense of fulfilment (manas trupti [manas tpti]). Echoing Ajji [one of
her informants], Vijaya [another informant] also said One does what ones
capacity allows one to do, to keep up the achara (shastric practice) youve
learned from your parents in whatever measure, and the satisfaction comes
from the knowledge that you have done your best.66
63See http://www.kamakotimandali.com/srividya/lsadhikara.html. In my quotations,

I use the conventional transliteration signs: the blog has recourse to majuscules and other
signs to transcribe the Sanskrit words.
64Elsewhere, the blog describes the path of r-Vidy as a particular (viea) dharma,
that is to say as a dharma that does not replace the ordinary (smnya) dharma but can
be added to it as long as it does not contradict it. The context is a discussion on the proper
sectarian marks. See http://www.kamakotimandali.com/srividya/taptamudra.html. This is
nothing unusual among the smrta Brahmans associated with the monastery of Sringeri
who indeed are expected to view as complementary the norms of conduct originating in
the Veda (vaidika), notably the obligations depending on ones social status (vara) and
on ones stage in life (rama), and the guidelines originating in the tantra (tntrika) in
order to obtain salvation.
65See http://www.kamakotimandali.com/srividya/taptamudra.html.
66Leela Prasad, Poetics of Conduct: Oral Narratives and Moral Being in a South Indian
Town (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), 130. In this sense of fulfillment (manas
377
For the modern high caste Hindus presented in this paper, then, rules of
dharmic conduct are not to be obeyed automatically, but after careful
self-evaluation, in order to assess their relevance to ones personal situation. Some, like the disciples of Kamakoti Mandali, might declare them
relevant, others like Narayan Nambudiri and the two Mdhva abbots irrelevant. Those three either bluntly refused to submit to them (one of them
declaring I know I am right) or admitted them only grudgingly. Clearly,
one hundred years after Chandavarkar, when dharmic rules do not compel obedience because they are not collectively imposed any more, personal consciousness of sin overrides its social dimension. But in such a
situation the disciples of Kamakoti Mandali choose to refrain from
tpti) as being a yardstick for correct performance of shastric expectations, should one
hear an echo of tmatui or self-satisfaction? It is difficult to answer this question for the
signification of self-satisfaction is itself debated among specialists of the dharmastra,
where the expression occurs (Werner Menski, Hindu Law. Beyond Tradition and Modernity
(New Delhi: Oxford University Press 2003); Donald R. Davis, On tmatui as a Source of
Dharma, Journal of the American Oriental Society 127, no. 3 [2007]). What is at stake is the
relative relevance of the different sources of dharma. Three sources of dharma are most
often mentioned (ruti, smti, cra), but along with those some key texts also mention
a fourth source, tmatui or self-satisfaction (as in Manu, II.6). Is tmatui an inner
source of morality that supersedes institutional or scriptural authority? Or a source of
dharma that should be tapped only when the three other sources fail to provide a clear
guideline, such as when there is an alternative between two injunctions? There is a hierarchy between the three main sources of dharma: to be accepted as valid, a rule of cra
[proper custom] must not contradict a rule from smti [what was memorized or the sacred
law] which, in turn, cannot override a rule of ruti [what was heard or revealed truth, i.e.
the Veda]. According to this logic therefore, self-satisfaction can only be a very last resort
to determine dharma. This seems to be the prevalent understanding among the classical
commentators; moreover they stress that self-satisfaction is a source of dharma only for
individuals of great virtue. Thus according to Manus commentator Medhtithi, tmatui
can only arise in a person whose entire being is imbued with the Veda and who cannot
possibly deviate from its spirit (Davis, On tmatui as a Source of Dharma, 288). In
Menskis view (Menski, Hindu Law, 125126), this is not how it worked in reality: Hindu
would not ascertain their dharma by looking up rules in Vedic texts first, they would proceed in reverse order and would initially examine their individual conscience [...] individual satisfaction about doing the right thing in the right way at the right time, individually
experienced and socially sanctioned, is in fact chronologically the first source of dharma.
It is only if they had some remaining doubts about the proper conduct that they would
examine the other sources of dharma. But the implication is not that they would ever act
contradictory to shastric injunctions. Menski has in mind a situation in which the rules
of the normative order are not found in legal codifications, but are internalized in the
minds of those who live within that tradition and practice what they see as its norms. In
Davis view, however, Menskis reading is modern (Davis 2007). tmatui always stands
in the shadow of the Veda, unable to emerge as an independent moral virtue that might
criticize or supersede the Vedic dharma. tmatui is valid not because it is moral, but
because it represents the spirit of the Veda transmuted into human sentiment. (Davis,
On tmatui as a Source of Dharma, 293). If provision there was for the approval of
ones consciousness, it was restricted to certain specific situations and to certain individuals well-trained in dharmic norms.
378
transgressing them because they find them ethically relevant to their

quest. When they consider that foreign journey might generate a breach of
dharmic conduct, they are under no social tyranny, unlike Chandavarkar.
Their criterion is spiritual. As sociologists tell us, religion has two aspects.
It is a system of social control imposed on the individual by the group. It
is also a path of salvation, that is, a highly individualistic process which
presupposes accepting the constraints involved. Whenever this aspect
prevails, the rules are absolutely binding because freely followed.
Chandavarkar too was a modern Hindu who aspired at self-discipline
and thought possible to reconcile his own appreciation of the propriety
of his conduct with the knowledge that he acted in strict accordance with
prescribed conduct. To point out that in his case the personal consciousness of sin overrode its social dimension is not however to deny all external influence altogether. For even an individuals inner life is responsive
to the conditions that are required to exercise his freedom of judgement.
Among those I have already mentioned spatial location. Economic independence was another condition; freedom of conscience or the faculty to
judge freely presupposes being outside undue influence in an economic
sense, too. Chandavarkar was a wealthy man. His professional environment also mattered. As a judge, he lived in a milieu that held that the
subject of right was the individual not the group. Still in his days, it was
daring to act as an individual who aspired to exercise his own judgment
on his actions. Daring to claim his freedom to question social norms when
they still received collective sanction and had not lost their force.
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SUBJECT INDEX
abhicra2957
Abhidharmakoabhya189, 189n37,
289n40
Abhiekanirukti299
di Granth3239, 50
affliction/misfortune311, 313318, 321
Ahaly325, 336
Ajtaatru (Ajase)95, 96, 98, 186, 190,
191, 200, 203, 204, 204n60, 205, 206, 207,
210, 211
Ajtaatrukauktyavinodan Stra189,
189n38, 204n60
Akl Dal50
kagarbha269
khyanikamaikoa177n7, 187, 187n29
akunin shki (evil person is Amida
Buddhas primary object)93111
Amida Buddha93110
Amityus247, 269, 270
An Shigao (fl. 148170)86
nanda254, 255, 257, 258, 266, 266n25
267, 270, 271
A nanda Malla326
anger311, 315
Agiras2021, 24
Agulimla189, 209
Annen235236, 240
anti-establishment groups102
antinomianism101
Aparimityu Stra281282, 290
Armor against Darkness (Mun pai go cha)
296n
Asaga295
asceticism, as a good68
Aoka232n39
Adaashasrikprajpramit26n19
Astrology311322
Dvapranam (temple queries)319321
Pranamrggam (a treatise)312315
atonement182, 187n28, 196
Augustine76
Avalokitevara247, 248, 249, 250n9, 269,
270, 270n29, 271, 276, 277, 280, 292
Avci (hell)304
bathing24, 325, 330, 330n19, n21, 331, 332,
338, 339, 340342, 343, 348, 352
Bhgavata Pura181, 182, 183, 184, 211,

212
Bhairava329
Bhaiajyaguru Stra279
bhakti3137
Bhratamajar190n, 39 192, 211
Bhvaviveka300
Bhupatndra Malla326
Bimbisra95
birth in Pure Land97, 98, 99, 100, 103,
108, 110
Bodhicaryvatra184, 187, 187n27
Bodhisattvabhmi295
Bodhisattva ordinations218
from a qualified master219220,
224225, 228, 240
private ordinations223
re-ordination224225
self-ordinations220228, 240
sign of approval from Buddha219222,
224228, 230, 233, 237238
witnessing ordination220, 222,
227228, 230, 234, 237
Bodhisattva vows (pusa jie)83
Bombay360, 364, 365
Brahmin1517, 1923, 25, 26n2, 2729
Bhaspati336, 336n34, 352
Buddha Jewel King255, 256, 265, 269
buddha-nature96
bugs and birds
redemption of276294
in mainstream sources285287
Cakrasavara (Tantra)296n
caste32, 34, 46, 48n, 4954
loss of10, 1213, 18, 29, 357381
readmission to1920, 357381
Celestial Masters218
Chandavarkar, G.N.358375, 377378
chanhui81n, 83. See confession and
repentance
Chanzha shae yebao jing221222
Chinzei branch of Jdosh238239
Christianity68n37, 68n39, 74, 78, 79, 89,
94, 99, 153, 175, 211, 212, 309n1, 310
Chujiaren shou pusajie fa228
clerical precepts97, 102, 104, 105
382
subject index
code33, 34, 39, 4445, 49, 5354. See also

rahit and Rahit-nm
compassion, Buddhas93, 94, 98, 99, 100,
101, 105, 107, 108, 110
compromise159, 161, 163
confession4, 19, 24n3, 69, 74, 776, 77, 78,
79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 88, 89, 90, 187,
188, 211, 223229, 231235, 238
Confession Hall218n7
consuming vs sustained pleasures64
court
of law154155, 161, 162, 163171
gods court155156
crime164, 168, 171, 196n15
criminal offense162163, 165
criminal cases168169, 171
culture alive to pleasure (Lis signature
theory)61
curse 314, 320
Dafangdeng Dhra254, 265, 267
Dafangdeng Dhra Scripture243, 245,
252, 253, 262n19, 265, 266, 268, 270n29
Dafangdeng tuoluoni jingSee
Dafangdeng Dhra Scripture
daimoku113, 120n16, 124, 136n67, 141, 142,
146, 149
Dajiyi shenzhou jing244
Daoism69, 87, 88, 89, 90
Daojin227, 233n43, 237, 241
Daoxuan237
Dasam Granth3941, 44
Dasnm Sannys350
Dazhidulun217
Death251, 252
deathbed96
Debt90
Decline of the Dharma237238, 241. See
also mapp
degenerate age96, 99, 105. See also
mapp
denigration of the Dharma (hih shb or
hb)94, 95, 96, 106
Devadatta95, 205
Devala2223
dhra243257, 260272, 276294
dharma9, 21, 22, 24n3, 157158, 163, 169
Dharma slanderSee slander of the
True Dharma
Dharmakema227, 233n43
Dharmastra923, 25, 2729, 165166,
371, 376
doctrinal classification (kyhan)11820,
121, 128, 146, 148
doctrine, formal Buddhist279280,

291292
Dam
humor313, 316n18
flaw316, 318322
dream249, 253, 256, 257, 262, 267, 269,
271
effect of Buddhism on Chinese culture68
Enchin223
Ennin223
excommunication1012, 1619, 25
faith, Buddhist93, 94, 98, 99, 100, 101,
103, 109
fangdeng repentance82, 83
Fanwang jing219, 222, 224226, 229, 236,
238, 240
fasting16, 24
fear177, 179, 180, 183, 184, 185, 186, 186n,
188, 193, 199
Final Dharma age (mapp)
and the Lotus Stra113, 122, 124, 128,
136, 139, 141, 146
and the nenbutsu115, 118, 119, 12122,
123, 124
shju and shakubuku in133
Fingarette, Herbert58, 62
fish and fowl, eating104, 105, 109, 110
five acts with immediate retribution or
natarya289291
five grave offenses (gogyaku)See also
mahptaka
five sins of immediate retribution and
natarya94, 95, 96, 106, 108, 129
five obstructions (gosh)108
five sins of immediate retribution78. See
also five grave offenses and nantarya
food27, 357, 365, 368
Forty Liberated Ones4144
Freud, Sigmund57, 70
Futs jubosatsukai kshaku235
Gaga254, 254n14, 257n18, 260, 261, 262,
264, 265, 266, 269n28, 271
Gag328, 351
Gautama i351
Gilgit277, 279, 282, 283
Gopalarajavamsavali327
Gorakhnth327, 343
Guang Hongmingji83
Gautama Dharmastra11
Geany, Jean59
gift18n2, 24, 27, 311, 313
subject index
gods medium154162, 170

temple consultations154162, 167, 170
misfortune154, 156158
wrong-doing, misconduct154156,
158159, 162, 170
deitys punishment159162, 168,
170171
gogyakuSee five grave offenses
Gobind 33, 3745, 48
Guan Puxian jing23536
Guanding82
Guhyasamja (Tantra)296n
guilt57, 57 n3, 58, 58n6, 59, 59n20, 60,
60n12, 62n21, 69, 73, 77, 85, 89, 90, 153,
161n15, 168178, 185, 186n, 195, 201, 203,
309, 32122 371n
guilt vs shame culture57
guru34, 36, 37, 4245, 46, 48
Gyanendra (King)342
Gyki222
Gyk103
Hanshu [Official Han History]88
Harasiddhi (Harisiddhi)342, 343
Hardvr333
Hegel57
Huaju253, 254n14, 255, 256, 256n16, 257,
257n18, 258, 260, 261, 262, 264, 265, 266,
269
Heart Stra111
hell1012, 29n95, 181, 182, 183, 184, 184n,
185, 186, 195, 198, 202, 204n206, 207, 209,
276, 285, 288, 289, 289n40
Hevajra (Tantra)296n
Hnen97, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 11516,
11819, 120, 121, 126, 239
hongan bokori101
Honganji temple105, 106
Hz Biku108
Huichangsi218n7
Huisi229, 239240
icchntika95, 106, 181n14
ichinengiSee single nembutsu doctrine
image of Buddha220, 224225, 232, 263
Indian National Congress363
initiation38, 46, 47, 50, 52, 53, 54
initiation as novice217
intention1213, 1617, 29n
Jainism, Jain175, 175n1, 177, 177n7, 178,
180, 180n12, 181n14, 187, 187n30, 188, 188n,
211
Jala pykh342, 343
383
Jtaka179, 179n9, 10, 180, 180n11, 186,

186n26, 187, 188 193
Jewel Sandalwood [King]264, 265, 266
Jianzhen222
Jinyuanji237
jiriki (self-power or self-effort)98, 100
Jitsud Nink238
Jdo ShinshSee Shin Buddhism
Jdosh238239
jakuSee ten evil acts
judge153, 154, 155, 156, 161171
Kailasa Parbat327, 332
Kakunyo106, 107
Kali yuga157, 167
kami deities104
Kane, P. V.9n, 11n5
Kradavyha Stra277278
karma75, 79, 84, 85, 93, 94, 95, 96, 100,
101, 107, 108, 249, 252, 255, 270
as a dysfunctional doctrine287289,
291
karmic (residue, effects, connection)243,
244, 266
karmaploti3046
Kenshkai14748
Kerala312322
Khls38, 38n23, 25, 4454
Khatr32, 48n59, 52
king2223, 26n2, 28
Kongama Buddha269
Ksai103
Kou Qianzhi (365448)88
Kumbha Mel330n18, 340
Kuo Li-ying82
Kudensh106, 107
Kurodani-hon238239
Kuvalayaml187
kyhanSee doctrinal classification
Lkula299
Lalitpur (Patan)341n46
Laojun yinsong jiejing (Scripture of the
Recited Precepts of Lord Lao)88
law9, 21, 2729
lay (followers, people, person, practice,
precepts)217, 219, 221, 223, 234, 236,
237, 238n52, 240 263, 269, 271, 272, 273
Ledgers of Merit and Demerit
[gongguo ge] 84, 85
Leiyin253, 254, 254n14, 255, 256, 257,
257n18, 258, 260, 261, 262n19, 264, 265,
266, 266n25, 267, 270
Leiyin weiwang fo262n19
384
subject index
licensed evil (zaku muge)101, 102, 103,

104, 105
Linguo264, 265,
liquor102, 104, 109, 110
Li Zehou61, 67
logic14
Lotus repentance218
Lotus Stra 113, 11415, 120, 121, 122, 126,
135, 140, 141, 144, 145
all teachings integrated in120, 121, 122,
12324
Nichirens bodily reading of130
predictions of persecution in12930,
133, 137, 149
Pure Land criticism of 12223, 124
See also daimoku, Final Dharma age,
Nichiren
Lu Xiujing (406477)88
Madana-Prijta21n12, 22n1, 23, 24n,
25n1, 26
Mdhava1214, 18, 22n4, 23, 24n, 25n,
27, 29n
Madhav Nryana346, 348, 349
Mdhva373
Mahbhrata175, 177n6, 180, 182, 185 190,
193, 195, 196, 197, 199, 204n60, 205, 206,
207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 337
Mahtantra DhraSee Mahtantra
Dhra Verse
Mahtantra Dhra Verse253, 254n15,
255, 256, 257, 260, 262, 263, 267, 268,
269, 270
Mahendra (king)335, 352
Mahevara259
Makar Mel324357
Makar Sakrnti330, 341
Majur250n9, 254, 255, 257, 258, 260,
268, 268n27, 270, 271, 274
Mra250n8, 252, 253, 255, 256, 256n16,
257, 258, 260, 261, 265, 266, 269, 270
Maudgalyyana250, 250n8
Mahparinirva Stra175, 188, 189, 190,
196, 203, 204, 204n60, 205, 205n60, 206,
207, 209, 210, 212
Mahptaka or five great sins20, 22n27,
26n42
Mahvairocanbhisabodhi Stra298
Mahvastu194, 247n3
Mahyoga2967
mi3637, 40
male, transformation of female into108
Mnava Dharmastra18n2, 20n1, 21n1,
22n1, 28
Manu Sahit167
mapp96, 97, 99, 105, 107. See also
degenerate age, kali yuga
marriage, clerical105, 110
martyrdom33, 38, 4344, 53
meat, eating102, 104, 105, 110
Medicine
yurveda311, 316n18
disease/ illness313318, 321322
meditation219, 221, 227, 233, 235, 238
Mingguang234
Miscellaneous Dhra Collection245n1
Mitkar1013, 1516, 19, 21n1, 22, 24n,
25n1, 167
Mohe zhiguan241, 247 n2
Mohists, exceptional emphasis on
omniscient Heaven67
moral153155, 159, 161, 163165, 170
moral autonomy57
moral injunctions109
mugen jigokuSee hell
Mughals33, 38, 4042, 44, 45, 48, 53, 54
Mlasarvstivda vinaya190, 193, 205
Mulji, Karsondas364
name
Amida Buddhas96, 97, 99, 103, 105.
See also nembutsu
Nnak3137, 46
Nsik340, 351
Nembutsu or nenbutsu97, 99, 100, 101,
103, 104, 105, 109, 110, 115116, 122 126, 135,
1412
Hnens exclusive teaching of 11516,
11819, 12122, 124, 142
Nichirens criticism of 11617, 12022,
124125, 12526, 127, 128, 132, 134, 141
See also name, Amida Buddhas
Never Disparaging, Bodhisattva13940
Nepl Mdhav Kumr (Prime Minister)
342
Nepal Mahatmya328, 337, 337n37, 345
Nichiren11350
exclusive devotion to the Lotus
Stra113, 122, 12325, 12829, 130,
131, 142, 144, 146, 147
five principles (gogi)128
four admonitions (shika kakugen)131,
149n95
and intolerance 114, 14950
Izu exile128, 129
opposition to Dharma slander11314,
123, 125, 12627, 13032, 13335, 137,
138, 14647
subject index
Rissh ankoku ron125, 12627, 131

Sado exile132, 133, 137, 138, 139
See also Lotus Stra, nenbutsu, slander
of the True Dharma
Nirva Stra94, 95, 96, 217. See also
Mahparinirva Stra
Noumenal confession (lichan)82
Nupchen Sangye Yeshe (Gnubs chen sangs
rgyas ye shes)296n, 306
Obstacle/hindrance (bdha)316n18,
317318
OfumiSee pastoral letters, Rennyos
Okite109
order, divine3435, 36, 42
original sin61, 75, 76, 79
other-powerSee tariki
outcaste10, 1820
outcasting29, 357381
Pcrthika299
panth31, 32, 33, 38, 40, 45, 5051, 53
Parara Smti12, 21n1, 22n, 23, 26, 27n1,
167
parad16, 1926, 2829
past Buddhas245, 264, 270n29
past Seven Buddhas269, 272
Seven Buddhas246, 253, 269, 272
past Six Buddhas270
pastoral letters Rennyos106, 108
Pupata299
ptaka10, 11n1, 13n2, 20, 22n2, 26n2
patita5152
penance181, 183, 187, 188n190, n39, 202,
203, 336, 336n35, 337, 352 364n 28
determination of24
public1420, 2223, 24n3, 2529
secret1419, 2829
Petavatthu180
Phenomenal confession (shichan)82
Phulcok M (Durg Bhavn)329, 340
Physical mark (stain)89, 90
Pollution, impurity311, 316, 319
Prabuddharauhieya177
Pratp Malla329
Prayg328
pryacitta175n3, 182, 190n, 202, 362.
See also penance, atonement, remedial
measures
precepts244, 245, 253, 257n18, 261, 263,
263n21, 264268, 271273
Full221223
Heinous sins229
Lay217, 222, 237, 240
385
Six senses229
Ten good226, 229, 240
Three collections of220, 223
Three refuges217, 238
Precious Scroll of the Liang Emperor
(Lianghuang baochan)86
prediction (to achieve Buddhahood)246,
252, 253, 267, 268, 269, 270
purge/cessation (oivu)315, 319, 322
purification74
purohit155, 156, 160
Pure Land93109, 238, 241
Pure Land Stras94, 95, 96, 108
purity1112, 2527
Pusa dichi jing219221, 227
Qifo bapusa suoshuo da tuoluoni shenzhou
jing244, 245
Qing Guanshiyin pusa xiaofu duhan
tuoluoni zhou jing245
Qing Guanyinjing shu247n2
radical evil94, 107
rahit4447, 49, 5053. See also code and
Rahit-nm
Rahit-nm4446. See also code and rahit
Ramayana176, 181n14, 327n7, 330, 337
Ranade, M.G.363, 369
Ramivimalaviuddhaprabha
Dhra284285, 290
Rto Matsyendranth330
Realization of Buddhahood with this very
body235236
rebirth1012, 29, 35, 35n14, 36, 36n16,
180, 181, 183, 184n19, 185, 186, 195, 196 197,
203, 226, 249, 252
Remedial measures
prayacitta310, 313, 318, 320322
Reparation (parihram, pratividhi)
319, 320
remorse175, 181, 184, 185, 186, 186n24,
187, 188, 189, 189n37, 190, 190n39, 191,
192, 193, 193n4660, 194, 195, 197, 199, 203,
204n, 205, 208, 210, 211
Rennyo106, 107, 108, 109
repeated nembutsu doctrine
(tanengi)103
repentance80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 187,
187n, 309320
Repentance Ritual of the Great Compassion
[Cibei daochang chanfa]86
reverse connection (gyakuen)136, 137,
140, 144
Ricouer, Paul57
386
subject index
gveda16
rules of conductSee okite
sacrifice160, 314315, 320
Offerings in fire (hmam)313315,
320, 322
Sahlins, Marshall62
Saich222, 230236
aivism297, 299
kyamuni95, 96, 303, 305
samdhi244, 246, 249n6, 250n9, 254,
254n14, 255
Samantamukhapravea Dhra283284,
290
samaya304
Saghabhedavastu190, 193, 194, 194n,
205, 206, 207, 208
saprdaya34, 39n29, 47, 49. See also
sect
Sandalwood Flower [Buddha]261, 264,
265
sagat32, 45, 51
Sagha Stra279280, 290
Sanguo zhi (Record of Three Kingdoms)
87, 88
ntideva79
Sants3133
riputra250, 250n9, 258, 259, 260, 268
Sarvadurgatipariodhana (Tantra)3023
Sarvakarmvaraaviodhan
Dhra283, 289
athapatha Brhmaa175, 175n2
Sun Sakrnti330n22
Satyavar (king)339, 340
scripture9, 1319, 22
Scripture of the Divine Spells the Great
Dhras Taught by the Seven Buddhas
and Eight BodhisattvasSee Qifo
bapusa suoshuo da tuoluoni shenzhou
jing
seven-day (ceremony, practice, rituals,
also seven days)254n15, 262, 263, 267,
268n27, 269, 269n28, 271
sea-voyage357, 359, 362, 370, 374, 375
sect34, 47, 49, 52. See also saprdaya
Seizan-ha238
self-effortSee jiriki
Seven Article Pledge (Shichikaj kishmon)
102, 104
shakubuku13237, 139, 147, 148, 149
sex95, 102, 104, 110
shame1, 2, 57, 58, 58n5, 58n6, 59, 59n20,
60, 60n12, 69, 71, 72, 73, 86, 88, 163, 177,
179, 231
Shangshou254, 254n14, 257n18, 260, 261,

262, 263, 264, 264n23, 265, 266, 269n28,
271
Shen Yue69
Shandao96
Shanjie jing220, 221
Shengman jing233
Shen Yue (441513)83, 84
Shichikaj kishmonSee Seven Article
Pledge
Shin Buddhism93110
Shingon102
Shinpon kaigi239
Shinran93109
shju13233, 149
Shou pusajie yi228, 239240
Shjish6
sickness87, 88, 89, 200, 296, 232, 244,
332
Siddhesvar Mahdev35, 352
Sikh Gurdur Prabandhak Kame
(SGPC)4951
Sikh Rahit Maryd4953
Sikh symbols39
Sikhs3154
ikhin Buddha269
iksamuccaya79, 80, 184, 184n20
204n60, 209n62
Simha Mel350, 351
Sigh Sabh49
single nembutsu doctrine (ichinengi)103
Sinification77, 90
ivartri341, 343n49
slander of the True Dharma (hb)114,
115, 126, 14142, 147, 14849
avoiding complicity in13435, 137,
14243, 144
cause for birth in the Avci Hell113,
115, 121, 129, 132, 134, 139, 140, 144,
146
expiating13840, 14445
in Mahyna stras114
Nichirens understanding of123,
12829, 13031, 146, 150
See also nenbutsu, Nichirens criticism
of, Nichiren
Smrta361, 364, 374, 376
Smti9, 13n, 2025, 28
Ska Gakkai 147
Sorcery/ witchcraft311, 314, 318
Spirits/ ghosts311, 314, 318, 320
Possession by314, 316
prtam315316, 318, 320
Standaert, Nicolas57, 69
subject index
subaltern groups101
suppression102, 103
Srya Nryan346n51
Stra of Brahms Net [Fanwang jing]83
Suvaraprabhsottama Stra80
Svasthn346, 347, 349, 352, 353
taboos109
tanakhh4547, 51, 53
tanengiSee repeated nembutsu doctrine
Tannish97, 98, 99, 100, 106, 107, 109
Tr338, 354
tariki (other-power)98, 100
Tarkajvl300
Tathgatabimbaparivarta80
Telang, K.T.369
ten evil acts (jaku)94, 95, 96, 106, 108
Tendai102
three subjugations (sanj)108
trial153, 154, 163, 164, 169, 170
Trive347, 348,
Tuolinnipo jing244
twelve dream kings256, 257, 262, 269
Twelve Great Kings256
Twelve Mra Kings256, 257, 269
Uavijaya Dhra281
Uttararmacarita176, 183
uposatha78, 85, 90
Vajrapi305
Vajrasattva3045
Vajrayogin354
Vsuki Ng333, 334, 335, 348
Veda18, 2021, 2967, 300
Vijnevara1314, 18, 22
Vimalakrti Stra111
vinaya78, 216, 218, 252, 263, 273n30
Vipka Stra180
Vasu254, 257n18, 258, 259, 260, 261
387
Vipayin Buddha269
vision243, 244, 246, 247, 248, 251n11, 252,
254, 257, 261, 264, 269, 270, 271, 273
Vivabh [Buddha]269
Vivarpa1718
vow, Amida Buddhas96, 97, 98, 99, 100,
101, 103, 104, 107, 108
ways to increase security in
pleasure-taking65
widow361, 365
women107, 108, 109
Wu, Emperor of Liang Dynasty217
Wuliangmen weimichi jing244
Xunzi, as most influential thinker67
Xindi guang jing235
Yjavalkya Smti10, 11n4, 12, 13n, 1418,
20n1, 22n1, 167
Yamuna328
Yellow Turban movement87
Yingluo jing226
Youposai jie jing237
Yudhihira185, 190, 191, 193, 195, 196, 197,
198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 204n60,
205, 206, 207, 209, 210211
Yuqie lun221222
Zhang Daoling88
Zhang Lu87
Zhang Jue87, 88
Zhanran228, 230238, 241
Zhiyi82, 83, 218, 235, 238, 241, 247n2
Zhuhong (15351615)85
Zizhi lu Record of Self Knowledge85
zaku mugeSee licensed evil
Zonkaku106, 107, 110
Zunshi237

Sins and Sinners

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Sins and Sinners

Numen Book Series

Steven Engler (Mount Royal University, Calgary, Canada)

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/nus

Sins and Sinners

Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara

SINNING IN ASIAN RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS

Living Without Sin: Reflections on the Pre-Buddhist World of

Sin, Sinification, Sinology: On the Notion of Sin in Buddhism and

The Evil Person is the Primary Recipient of the Buddhas

The Sin of Slandering the True Dharma in Nichirens Thought..... 113

DEALING WITH SIN

an exploration of Western reluctance to speak about sin in Buddhism.

example of the transformation of the concept of sin in the Sikh tradition

day: famines, epidemics, and the threat of Mongol invasion. To rebuke

Sinning in asian Religious Traditions

Social and Soteriological Aspects of Sin and Penance in

this situation by providing a useful framework for understanding certain

social and soteriological aspects of sin and penance

Hence, Dharmastric theology places effectively equal emphasis on the

Thus, by all accounts, it denotes that penances thoroughly expiate sins

7Parara-Mdhava 8.1: dvividh hi ppasya akti narakotpdik vyavahravirodhik

social and soteriological aspects of sin and penance

words kmato []vyavahryas as either kmata vyavahrya or kmata

To this position, universally held within the Dharmastra tradition,

He then refutes this objection as follows:

social and soteriological aspects of sin and penance

prose.12 Despite the importance of this distinction, however, it is not

Thus, a secret penance is a penance that one secretly performs in order

A public penance, by contrast, is a penance that one publicly performs

14Mitkar 3.300ab: yo doo yvatkartsapdyas tato nyair vikhyto vijto doo

social and soteriological aspects of sin and penance

17Vivarpa 3.296: rahasya vrata prvasthair apy avidita dharmavyjdin

Here Vivarpa proposes three reasons that secret penances should be

social and soteriological aspects of sin and penance

Hence, as this statement indicates, a person guilty of a publically known

this strict requirement: An individual performing a penance on his own

social and soteriological aspects of sin and penance

Thus, according to this Smti and the medieval commentators, a parad

26See, for instance, Mnava Dharmastra 12.11213 (cited at Mitkar 3.300ab),

social and soteriological aspects of sin and penance

Commenting on this verse, the Madana-Prijta, a fourteenth-century

Summarizing the contents of this passage, Mdhava writes, The author

Having established the proper constitution of a parad, the medieval

social and soteriological aspects of sin and penance

This obligation to quote explicit scriptural support seems to be yet another

na hi tem atikramya vacanni mahtmanm |

social and soteriological aspects of sin and penance

As the above passage indicates, the central component of this ceremony

social and soteriological aspects of sin and penance

of loss of caste and negative rebirths sometimes supplemented by royal

Sin and Expiation in Sikh Texts and Contexts:

themselves from the advocates of sagu traditions who worship Dev,

sin and expiation in sikh texts and contexts

sin and expiation in sikh texts and contexts

13Nnak, di Granth, 24.

unregenerate spirit), is thus in danger of remaining bound to the wheel

This grace is manifested by a voice, called guru in early Sikhism, uttering

15di Granth, 1057.

sin and expiation in sikh texts and contexts

This is how finally, at the time of death, a manmukh, overwhelmed with

Expiation, in such a human condition, means basically regenerating ones

19Amar Ds, di Granth, 127.

sin and expiation in sikh texts and contexts