Presentation Schedule
Three Retellings of the Prakriti Story and Tagore’s Buddhist Drama About a Challenging, Untouchable Girl (103202)
Session Chair: Eiko Ohira
Saturday, 7 February 2026 11:15
Session: Session 1
Room: Tourmaline 209 (Level 2)
Presentation Type: Oral Presentation
In a Prakriti story, an untouchable girl named Prakriti falls in love with Ananda, a disciple of Buddha. Buddha persuades Prakriti to become a nun by teaching her that love is blind and that caste is an illusion. This tale appears in several Buddhist sutras and avadanas (stories about the previous lives of Buddha). Retellings of the story can be found in “Prakriti” (1932) by the Japanese modern novelist Koda Rohan, Buddha and His Dhamma (1957) by the Indian social reformer B. R. Ambedkar, and Old Path, White Clouds: Walking in the Footsteps of the Buddha (1991) by the Vietnamese Buddhist monk, poet and leader of Engaged Buddhism, Thich Nhat Hanh. These three retellings follow the basic elements of the Prakriti avadana tale. In his “Chandalika” (1933), however, Tagore portrays Prakriti as a desiring subject narrating Tagore's deeper view of Mahayana Buddhism, rather than as an object to be persuaded to become a nun. Tagore focuses on her suffering as an untouchable girl and her concept of liberation from illusion, which leads Ananda to embrace the bodhisattva way of life. Tagore’s Prakriti story is a noteworthy text from the perspective of gender studies, but a gender perspective alone does not delve into the true innovation and uniqueness of her argument. This story, which depicts the connection between a monk and a discriminated girl from the perspective of the bodhisattva path, is an unprecedentedly original work of Buddhist literature.
Authors:
Eiko Ohira, Otsuma Women’s University, Japan
About the Presenter(s)
Professor Eiko Ohira is a University Professor/Principal Lecturer at Otusma University in Japan
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