'The Multi-life Stories of Gautama Buddha and Vardhamana Mahavira'

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

Like Buddhist traditions, Jain traditions preserve many stories about people’s past lives. Unlike Buddhist traditions, relatively few of these stories narrate the past lives of the tradition’s central figure, the jina. In Jainism there is no equivalent path to the bodhisatt(v)a path; the karma that guarantees jinahood is bound a mere two births before that attainment, and the person who attracts that karma cannot do so willfully, nor is he aware of it being bound. There is therefore no Jain equivalent to the ubiquitous jātaka literature. In this paper I will explore what the absence of a jātaka genre in Jain traditions tells us about the genre’s role in Buddhism. Focusing upon the multi-life stories of Gautama Buddha and Vardhamāna Mahāvīra, I will ask how these two strikingly similar narratives betray some fundamental differences between Buddhist and Jain understandings of the ultimate religious goal and the method of its attainment.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5-16
Number of pages12
JournalBuddhist Studies Review
Volume29
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • Buddha
  • Buddhism
  • Mahāvīra
  • Jainism
  • biography

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of ''The Multi-life Stories of Gautama Buddha and Vardhamana Mahavira''. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this