Abstract
Abstract This chapter defines the basic approach of the book and suggests that one should think more carefully about what is meant by “text” in early Buddhism. It suggests that the main texts of early Buddhism are the formulas of which texts are composed, rather than the full discourses that one reads today. The chapter introduces the theory of “the play of formulas” through a discussion of the Udumbarika-sutta, and especially of its opening section, a text that has received intense scholarly consideration. All extant versions of this text are discussed in order to show that each version is indeed just that—a version in the strong sense of an idiosyncratic retelling, which does not reduce to a core, original text. The chapter addresses some of the main theoretical questions regarding the nature of the literature, their oral nature, and their relation to performance, and what the term “discourse” may imply.
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