[Buddha-l] Earliest Buddhist Customs and Liturgy

[Richard Hayes]

On Tuesday 18 September 2007 21:15, jkirk wrote:

> I'm wondering about the very earliest forms of Buddhist liturgy, things
> bhikkhus would have said and done during the life of the Buddha. Did they
> have standard forms of address? Were there ritual phrases of thanks, of
> greeting, of leave-taking? Had they developed rituals for funerals? For
> dhamma talks? For meals?

Joan Links wrote her PhD thesis on this topic in 1975 or so at University of 
Toronto. She built upon work in the area done by her supervisor, Narain K. 
Wagle. Dr Links read the entire Pali canon in search of forms of address and 
discovered correlations between forms of address among monks and the social 
status that they had had before becoming monks. (So much for early Buddhism 
abandoning caste!) I believe she also covered many of the other topics you 
inquire about.

I'd guess you could find the exact title of her thesis by going to the 
University of Toronto on-line catalog. A copy would also be available in the 
national archive in Ottawa. 

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico