The development of perfection: The interiorization of buddhist ritual in the eighth and ninth centuries

Abstract

Since the nineteenth century, the conventional western narrative of the development of Indian philosophy has portrayed the sixth century B.C.E. as a turning point. Before this point, we are told, Indian thought was dominated by the idolatrous rituals of the Vedas. Only with the appear ance of the Aranyakas and the Upanisads was this state of affairs improved. The authors of these new works sought to internalize the Vedic rituals, to discover, 'the inward universe of man himself, and from that point forward Indian philosophy was freed from the 'magic machinery of priestly ritual'.1 Contemporary with the Upanisads, early Buddhism was seen as a parallel reaction against Vedic ritualism, and therefore as similarly free from ritual. The conventional narrative goes on to represent the introduction of tantric ritual into Buddhist practice as a crucial moment of pollution which led to Buddhism's eventual decline in India. In recent years this narrative has been largely rejected. The existence of a pure Buddhism consisting of bare philosophical notions and unencumbered by ritual is now widely recognized as nothing more than a European creation. Over the past decade in particular, archaeological and textual research has revealed ritual practice throughout early Buddhism.2