Harsha Gautam

Focusing on early Buddhist religious actors other than the Buddha and the monks, this project studies subject-formation and the processes of “othering” within the early Buddhist sangha and when it engages with society at large. The “othering” is measured in terms of the agency each subject can assert vis-à-vis the apex authority. By investigating and comparing the religious narratives in Pali canonical texts and early Buddhist art, this project explores the power dynamics between religious actors, locates the agency of those who are or seem to be either subordinate or peripheral to the authority and/or the hegemony, and notes instances of subversion of that authority. It examines six subjects in this study: nuns, students, brahmanas, lower castes, serpent-deities, and royal patrons.