Intertextuality

This rubric deals with issues of intertextuality in the broad sense, that is, how Buddhist works frequently reuse pre-existing segments of hallowed text, rearranging and reconfiguring them according to the needs of the compilers. This holds true for commentarial treatises and their inclusion of larger and shorter quoted passages, yet perhaps even more so for works deemed to be Buddha speech (Skt. buddhavacana)—whether they be anonymously produced or revealed/compiled by known individuals—where we often witness the wholesale incorporation and re-presentation of older scriptural and ritual segments of varying lengths. The papers published under this rubric aim to deepen our appreciation of the modular nature of Buddhist literature.