Religions (May 2023)
The Establishment of Buddhist Creation Myth Text—Investigation Based on Narrative Context and Clues
Abstract
The creation myths recorded in the Buddhist canon (Skt. Tripiṭaka; Pal. Tipiṭaka) reveal to us the various genesis scenarios adopted by early Buddhists concerning the formation of the world and the emergence of human beings in this world. The contents of these stories can be divided into three basic narrative elements: (1) the calamities and the formation of the world; (2) the devolution of sentient beings and the establishment of a worldly ruling order; and (3) the origin of the caste system and the royal pedigree of the Śākya clan. There are differences in the various accounts and in the details of the narratives as they appear in the Āgamas. Through a comparison of the narrative structure and content of various texts, this article will extrapolate on the narrative context that informed these myths. This article will argue, among other things, that when these myths were composed, they were directed at followers (Pal. bhikkhus) from Brahminical backgrounds. Segments of the genesis story were, moreover, incorporated into the Vinaya texts as narrative aids to help communicate certain lessons. The purpose of this article is to explore the topic of cosmology in texts such as the Shiji jing 世紀經 in the Dīrgha-āgama and the “Qiri pin” 七日品 in the Ekottara-āgama, both of which were later additions to these larger Āgamas. The Poluopo tang jing 婆羅婆堂經 in the Madhyama-āgama and the Aggañña-sutta in the Dīgha-nikāya both contain similar formulaic sentences and descriptions which show that they may come from the same source. The Poluopo tang jing might, however, be an older text. Finally, the different contents found in texts such as the Xiaoyuan jing 小缘經 that contains details on the five castes indicate that it may have come from a different source.
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