[Buddha-l] buddha-l gathering - Bodhisattva/Bodisav/Budhasaf/Yudasaf/Iodasaf/Ioasaph/Josaphat

[Blezer, H.W.A.]

Dear Budhasafists

For those who would like to see a brief and fairly recent overview of the meanderings of the Josaphat legends, but shy away from older and often very detailed comparative studies, such as by Ernst Kuhn, see Philip Almond's eminently readable 1987 survey, The Buddha of Christendom: A Review of the Legend of Barlaam and Josaphat, easily available at Jstor: http://www.jstor.org/pss/20019231 (thanks again, Dan!).

The long itinerary of the legend to Europe presumably starts from Buddhist India and possibly proceeds through eclectic Manichaean hands, such as attested by documents from Turfan in Central Asia; but in any case the legends seem to have reached our earliest Christian versions, probably in the form of a Georgian text (see work by D.M. Lang), via earlier Arabic versions; and eventually continue to fan out into many, many European languages, via early Greek and further via Latin translation. Other itineraries exist for other regions.

To my best present knowledge, in the Dutch language community, Philip van Utenbroeke may have first included a substantial version of the legend in his sequel to Jacob van Maerlant's Spieghel Historiael, at around 1300.

http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/uten001twee01_01/uten001twee01_01_0014.htm
http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/download.php?ec=uten001twee01_01
http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/uten001twee02_01/

The itinerary incidentally may also enlighten us on the possible transformation of the name Bodhisattva to Josaphat:
E.g.: Bodhisattva (India)/ Bodisav (Turkish) / Budhasaf (Arabic) / Yudasaf (Arabic, apparently only one diacritical dot different)/ Iodasaf (Georgian)/ Ioasaph (Greek)/ Josaphat (Latin).

Particularly Ngawang Dorje may find Almond's article 'enlightening', for instance, for appreciating of how Josaphat and Bodhisattva/Buddha possibly relate.

Almond, like Wilfred Cantwell Smith (mentioned by Bradley Clough), takes care first to point out the immense popularity, starting at around the eleventh c. AD, of these legends and the attendant narratives in Europe. Some of the attending stories and fables equally go back to Indian origins, and some also survived independently of the Josaphat legends. The stunning amount of extant MSs, translations, borrowings, and references amply underline their impact.

The Josaphat legends apparently were greatly loved and thus seem to have had a profound impact in Christian 'Europe', not only on story traditions, by their apparently enchanting fables and stories (some will beg to differ, of course), but certainly also vis-à-vis the main theme: appreciation of ascetism. They indirectly or directly influenced figures such as Shakespeare and Tolstoi.

One cannot help but wonder how this matrix of Buddhist-derived and otherwise accrued narratives may have facilitated later reception(s) of Buddhism in (Christian) Europe, which indeed is the question which incited Almond to embark on his journey. As said, I (still) feel little inclination to get into comparative study of this huge, multi-lingual, literary complex, but considering the apparent appeal and wide spread of the legends, its impact may be both considerable and considerably understudied. If not the legends and stories themselves, in any case the history of them may not only be 'fascinating' but also revealing.

OK, I still have to fit in some pieces of the Holy Cross into their proper place. I don't know about yours, but mine is slowly starting to look like a sauna hut.
I could certainly use one.
Best,


Henk