A talk by Lauren Bausch

There is an underlying assumption that the post-Vedic Brāhmaṇical sources that many scholars rely on to represent the Vedas reflect what the Vedas themselves say. The Brāhmaṇa texts predate Gotama Buddha and were known to varying degrees to brahmins that he taught. These middle and late Vedic works consist of bursts of insight from sages about the meaning of and directions for performing ritual offerings, but for reasons that this talk will explain, were largely stripped of the explanatory portion in post-Vedic Brāhmaṇical tradition. Select examples will demonstrate that the explanations (arthavāda) in the Brāhmaṇa texts are our most promising extant asset for ascertaining the relationship between late Vedic and early Buddhist thought.

About the Speaker

Lauren M. Bausch is professor at Dharma Realm Buddhist University. A specialist in the Brāhmaṇa texts, she investigates the relationship between Vedic tradition and early Indian Buddhism. Her forthcoming monograph The Brāhmaṇa Texts as Philosophy follows her edited volume Self, Sacrifice, and Cosmos: Vedic Thought, Ritual, and Philosophy (2019). She is the author of various articles, including: “The Kāṇva Brāhmaṇas and Buddhists in Kosala,” “Dual varṇa in Vedic texts,” “Avalokiteśvaro Viśvarūpī,” and “Vedic Travel: The Agnihotra and Beyond.” She completed her PhD in Sanskrit in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley in 2015.

Date: Wednesday, October 28
Time: 11:30 AM to 12:30 PM
Location: First Floor Lounge, DRBU, 1991 Virtue Way, Ukiah