This essay is a study of the term ākāra in terms of its usages and meanings in abhidharma. The term ākāra has a remarkably rich history of meaning. It can mean “appearance” and “way” in pre-abhidharmic Sanskrit and Pāli sources, or “insight” (prajñā) in Sarvāstivādin Vaibhāṣikas’s orthodox definition in *Mahāvibhāṣāśāstra, ...

This dissertation is a study of Swami Niscaldas (1791-1863 CE), a highly regarded Advaita Vedantin and Dadupanthi, who lived in what is now the state of Haryana in Northern India. Niscaldas is best known for his Vicarsagar and Vrttiprabhakar, both written in Hindi. The dissertation examines Niscaldas's motivations for writing ...

This study is an attempt to elucidate the complex interrelationship between gender, sexuality, desire, and power by examining how premodern Japanese texts represent the gender-based ideals of women and men at the peak and margins of the social hierarchy. To do so, it will survey a wide range of premodern texts and contrast ...

This dissertation is an in-depth study of the dispute on the doctrines regarding the structure of mind as recorded in the fourth century CE Abhidharma work, the *Tattvasiddhi (成實論, TatSid hereafter) by Harivarman. Despite the specific differences among the various Buddhist Abhidharma analyses of mind, in general they can be ...

The concept and treatment of anxiety in Shri Harirayaji's <italic>Shikshapatra</italic>, an epistolary bhakti text from 17th century India, is examined here with translation of the original Sanskrit verses, their vernacular Brajbhasha commentary by Shri Gopeshvarji and a 20th century spoken commentary in Hindi by Shri ...

This paper analyzes Saigyo's little-discussed waka cycle on the six elements and four mandalas of Shingon. I first introduce the sequence in the context of other similar works by Saigyo, then turn to a discussion of the place of Saigyo's poetry as a whole within the history of Buddhist themes in Japanese poetry. Saigyo lived ...

This dissertation examines the role of metaphorical language in early Buddhist literature through the lens of two previously unpublished Gāndhārī sūtras on a manuscript from the Robert Senior Collection. At the microscopic level, I offer an edition, translation, and textual analysis of a Buddhist manuscript containing two ...