DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51766#0874
816
J. Ph. Vogel
tinent. Those which we have mentioned supply but scanty Information regarding the
religious and secular motives underlying this populär worship. According to Hsüan-
tsang’s informants a sevenfold circumambulation of the shrine of Käsyapa at
Mahäbodhi procured the faithful the remembrance of their previous existences
(jätismarana). No more precise indications are available and we are therefore reduced
to hypothesis. The inscriptions on images and relic-caskets supply some indications
on the benefits generally desired by the donors. In the Kharosthi inscriptions found
on Buddha images and relic-caskets in Gandhära a favour frequently solicited by the
donor is the bestowal of health (arogadaksina)32 on himself, his relatives and in a
single case on all beings. But in other votive inscriptions of the Kusäna period it is
stated that the image was dedicated for the worship of all Buddhas (sarvabuddhänäm
püjärthairi).
We may well assume that it was this Buddhabhakti, first paid to the Teacher and
soon extended to his predecessors, which prompted his followers to consecrate
tangeable monuments to their memory. Stupas were built not only to enshrine their
bones and other bodily relics, but also to mark the hallowed spots where great events
in their career were believed to have taken place. The creation of the Buddha image
enabled the faithful to expand their fervour on effigies of the Master which often
were invested with miraculous properties such as he himself had possessed. Among
the innumerable Buddha figures adorning the ancient sanghärämas many may have
been meant to represent the Buddhas of the past. Western critics will be inclined to
question what blessings the worshipper could expect from superhuman beings, who,
after preaching the Doctrine in remote ages, had passed into the state of parinirväna.
But in religious matters the mind of the believers is not moved by rational motives
but by promptings of sentiment.
3a Sten Konow, op. cit. p. 181, List of Words, i. v. arogadakshinae.
J. Ph. Vogel
tinent. Those which we have mentioned supply but scanty Information regarding the
religious and secular motives underlying this populär worship. According to Hsüan-
tsang’s informants a sevenfold circumambulation of the shrine of Käsyapa at
Mahäbodhi procured the faithful the remembrance of their previous existences
(jätismarana). No more precise indications are available and we are therefore reduced
to hypothesis. The inscriptions on images and relic-caskets supply some indications
on the benefits generally desired by the donors. In the Kharosthi inscriptions found
on Buddha images and relic-caskets in Gandhära a favour frequently solicited by the
donor is the bestowal of health (arogadaksina)32 on himself, his relatives and in a
single case on all beings. But in other votive inscriptions of the Kusäna period it is
stated that the image was dedicated for the worship of all Buddhas (sarvabuddhänäm
püjärthairi).
We may well assume that it was this Buddhabhakti, first paid to the Teacher and
soon extended to his predecessors, which prompted his followers to consecrate
tangeable monuments to their memory. Stupas were built not only to enshrine their
bones and other bodily relics, but also to mark the hallowed spots where great events
in their career were believed to have taken place. The creation of the Buddha image
enabled the faithful to expand their fervour on effigies of the Master which often
were invested with miraculous properties such as he himself had possessed. Among
the innumerable Buddha figures adorning the ancient sanghärämas many may have
been meant to represent the Buddhas of the past. Western critics will be inclined to
question what blessings the worshipper could expect from superhuman beings, who,
after preaching the Doctrine in remote ages, had passed into the state of parinirväna.
But in religious matters the mind of the believers is not moved by rational motives
but by promptings of sentiment.
3a Sten Konow, op. cit. p. 181, List of Words, i. v. arogadakshinae.