The Image of the Indian City in Tripitaka
The Image of the Indian City in Tripitaka

Summary/Abstract: Several apologues included in Tripiaka open up with one and the same formula: “Look what story has been told to me: One day, the Buddha was to be found in Śrāvastī, in the Jetavana, in the garden of Anāthapiada.” In all the apologues introduced by this formula, the Buddha and the community (Sagha) of monks and nuns surrounding him are situated in an urban milieu. An exegesis of three of the apologues of this type throw into relief the Indian city or urban milieu in three hypostasis: the city as a literary symbol which serves to prove a moral exhortation included in the Dharma concerning the damnation of human beings through their self-abandonment to limitless passions; the city as social milieu which harbors a dialogue or rather a spiritual-rhetorical tournament between two sages on the Buddhist doctrine; the city as social milieu for religious disputations between two schools of the Hinduist sages, as well as between Hinduist sages and Buddhist monks.

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