Tales of the Great Brahmin: Creative traditions of the Buddhist poet-saint Saraha

Tales of the Great Brahmin is a study of the many types of Tibetan religious literature dedicated or attributed to the Indian Buddhist poet-saint, Saraha---known also as the Great Brahmin. The central argument of the thesis is that members of the Buddhist traditions who were heir to Saraha's legacy in India, Nepal, and primarily Tibet transformed and adapted works by and about him in the process of transmission, and thus were instrumental in the formation of both his enduring saintly image and the religious works associated with his name. The thesis thus shows how images, tales, and teachings of the Great Brahmin were transmitted, transformed, and created by the members of diverse Buddhist traditions in Tibet from the 11th to the 19th centuries.; The thesis consists of an introduction and ten chapters, and is divided into two parts. Part One discusses the hagiographic literature dedicated to Saraha. Chapters One and Two provide a comprehensive survey of the different hagiographic traditions dedicated to Saraha as they developed in Tibet from the 11th to the 19th centuries. Chapter Three looks at liturgical and iconographic guides, hymns of praise, and accounts of meeting Saraha in mystic visions. Chapter Four details the polemical uses to which the figure of Saraha was put in Tibet.; Part Two deals with the songs attributed to Saraha, and in particular his famous Treasury of Doha Verses. Chapter Five provides a historical survey of the seventeen occasions on which the Treasury of Doha Verses was transmitted from India or Nepal to Tibet. Chapter Six presents the Tibetan debates regarding the authenticity of Saraha's works. Chapter Seven introduces the genre in which the majority of Saraha's teachings are preserved, surveys Tibetan views on the creation of Saraha's works, and discusses an important corpus of Tibetan anthologies of Buddhist tantric songs in which Saraha's works figure. Chapter Eight shows how redactors, of Saraha's Treasury of Doha Verses transformed the work. Chapters Nine and Ten present translations and editions of the Treasury of Doha Verses and a 13th century Tibetan commentary on the work.