Anastasiya G. Guriya

The article studies the images of the ascetic and the king in the literary Sanskrit jātaka. Based on the two “Jātaka-mālās” by Arya Śūra and Haribhaṭṭa (III–IV and IV–V centuries AD respectively) we observe the ambiguity of the image of the king, who can be both righteous and guilty of bad deeds. As well as the image of the ascetic who undergoes transformations in literary jātakas. We have shown that, like the king, the ascetic can be portrayed both as the embodiment of the Buddhist ideal of non-possession, self-restraint and renunciation, and as the antagonist of the hero, sometimes portrayed as a villain. The connection between the archaic image of the gift-granting ascetic and the synthetic image of the pratyekabuddha is traced: he functionally replaces the brahmanical forest ascetic capable of granting boons. It is shown that the assessment of a character does not depend on his status, but on his attitude to bodhisattva in a particular jātaka. The idealized image of both king and ascetic appears as just one of many versions of the same ideal image of a bodhisattva. Buddhist authors adapt for their own purposes the traditional images of the king and ascetic, emphasizing in them only those motives and associated plot moves that correspond to their ideology and creative intention.

Comparing episodes from the Ayodhya book of Valmiki’s Ramayana and Tulsidas’s retelling, the article shows how changes in the characters’ motives reflect bhakti ideas and new models of virtuous conduct.

Yulia Markovna Alikhanova (17.06.1936 — 05.01.2024), who had worked over half a century at the Department of Indian Philology of IAAS MSU, an outstanding Sanskritologist, scholar of literature studies and master of literary translation, teacher of many generations of philologists at IAAS, author of lecture courses on literature and poetics of Ancient India, as well as basic theory of literary studies, — has passed away.

The article is devoted to the study of a possible genre classification of Sanskrit one-stanza poetry, using Bhartṛhari’s Śatakatrayam (3rd–4th centuries AD) and Vidyākara’s Subhāṣitaratnakośa (11th century AD) as examples. The existing division only by the genres of anthologies (śataka and kośa) seems too general. The article shows that several distinct genres can be identified among the poems ncluded in the anthologies, including blessings (nandī), panegyrics (praśasti), didactic maxims in their various forms (ascetic and urban didactics), compliments to a beauty (cāṭu), poems about canonical love situations, and seasonal landscape lyrics. Thematic and, where possible, structural and stylistic features of these genres are briefly described. A connection is established between the composition of blessing stanzas and the archaic ritual riddle (brahmodya). Features of developed literary panegyric poetry are demonstrated in single-stanza verses praising kings or allegorically censuring them. The question is raised about the connection between panegyric and love poetry of small forms and the court poem mahākāvya due to the commonality of style and imagery. Prospects for comparing minor genres with larger genres of Sanskrit literature are outlined.