On some Buddhist Uses of the kaliyuga

Abstract

On some Buddhist Uses of the kaliyugaAlthough their respective cosmologies have much in common, Hinduism and Indian Buddhism have, from an early period, developed fairly independent eschatological doctrines and prophecies that testify to widely diverging apocalyptic anxieties and hermeneutic strategies.Whereas Hinduism, from the second-third centuries CE onward, invariably resorted to a four-period degeneration scheme ending with the dreaded kaliyuga (often compared with Iron Age as described by Hesiod), sure signs of which the Brahmins saw in foreign rule over India and the increase in "heresies" (e.g., Jainism and Buddhism), the Buddhists were (and to some extent remain) obsessed with the gradual decline and final demise of Buddhism itself, a scenario which they predicted with numerous and regularly updated timetables.Quite unexpectedly though, the Buddhists increasingly resorted to the Brahmanical kaliyuga, using it in a surprisingly wide variety of doctrinal and historical contexts and often side by side with their own traditional eschatological repertoire (the so-called five degenerations or corruptions).The present paper aims at collecting the most significant instances of the Indian Buddhist appropriation of the kaliyuga, discussing them and attempting to disclose their internal logic.It ends with a detailed discussion of the question whether and under which circumstances buddhas appear in the End Times.

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