< Issue No. 5 (2009)Article
The Vicissitudes of Memory and Early Buddhist Oral Transmission
Anālayo, Bhikkhu, Center for Buddhist Studies (University of Hamburg), Dharma Drum Buddhist College
Abstract
With the present paper, I attempt to develop a new perspective on the dynamics behind oral transmission in early Buddhism, in order to account for its two chief aspects of variation and similarity. For that purpose, I examine the early Buddhist oral tradition against its Vedic background and then turn to the findings of modern psychological research on the function and short-comings of memory, in order to apply these findings to the case of early Buddhism.