1 00:00:16,460 --> 00:00:19,940 So very delighted today to have Christine Scheiber, 2 00:00:20,660 --> 00:00:26,090 who is professor of Religion and humanities in Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and a scholar of South Asian religions. 3 00:00:26,630 --> 00:00:32,810 I've been, uh, anticipating her talk for some time, and I'm I'm sure it's going to prove to be particularly interesting. 4 00:00:33,980 --> 00:00:40,730 Christine serves as chair of the religion department and read and she's co-pi for the Mellon funded Environmental Humanities 5 00:00:40,730 --> 00:00:47,090 Initiative and is co-chair of the Critical Theory and Discourses on Religion Unit of the American Academy of Religion. 6 00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:55,900 She received a BA in Religious Studies and Art history from Colby College, a master's in Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School, 7 00:00:56,230 --> 00:01:02,740 and a PhD from Harvard University with a dissertation for the Anxious Thrill and Serene Satisfaction of Good People. 8 00:01:02,770 --> 00:01:10,950 Rethinking the Polymer banks. Her philological grounded first book, reading The Major Banks The Literary Aims of a Terracotta Buddhist History. 9 00:01:11,230 --> 00:01:13,390 Columbia University Press, 2016. 10 00:01:13,900 --> 00:01:19,780 Challenges standard political readings of these Buddhist texts and foregrounds instead the literary imagination of contenders. 11 00:01:20,500 --> 00:01:27,190 She recently completed a co-authored volume as an homage to her mentor, John Strong, The Buddha A Storeyed Life. 12 00:01:27,220 --> 00:01:29,260 Oxford University Press, 2023. 13 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:35,890 Bringing together leading scholars of South Asian Buddhism to examine the paradigmatic episodes that constitute the Buddhist biography. 14 00:01:36,830 --> 00:01:41,330 She's currently working on fruitful Metaphors cultivating Faith in Hindu and Buddhist Imagination, 15 00:01:41,830 --> 00:01:46,400 a book considering the Bountiful and generative metaphorical uses of plants for moral cultivation, 16 00:01:46,670 --> 00:01:49,970 propagating, planting and harvesting seed, roots and fruit. 17 00:01:50,930 --> 00:01:55,900 So, Christian, thank you so much for coming. It's really, uh, really a great delight to have you. 18 00:01:55,910 --> 00:02:03,220 And over to you. Thank you so much for that introduction, Rob, and thanks so much for your interest in the Nagas. 19 00:02:03,240 --> 00:02:09,030 I'm looking forward to your upcoming talk, uh, where you'll be looking into India's Naga, 20 00:02:09,240 --> 00:02:17,160 India's Naga Nayak territory of territorial deity cosmologies, um, as models for Tibetan traditions. 21 00:02:17,970 --> 00:02:26,910 Um, so today I recognise this dip into Pali textual materials may feel a bit disorienting for those of you in Tibetan and Himalayan studies, 22 00:02:27,330 --> 00:02:37,210 but I look forward to our comparative conversation. And I begin here with a treasure, a palm leaf manuscript of the fifth century Pali Mahabharata. 23 00:02:37,230 --> 00:02:41,719 That's what you're looking at on the screen right now. It's shown here. 24 00:02:41,720 --> 00:02:46,760 Recently inducted into the Unesco memory of the World International Register. 25 00:02:47,510 --> 00:02:56,450 I'm amused that while Nagas are depicted as House of horror, as hoarders and valuers of treasures, we humans hoard and value treasures as well. 26 00:02:57,050 --> 00:03:00,920 What follows draws from the Naga and relic chapters of my book. 27 00:03:00,920 --> 00:03:04,880 Reading the map often set the literary aims of a tour about a Buddhist history. 28 00:03:05,990 --> 00:03:12,680 I assert that Nagas are not simply background characters or narrative hooks in the Pali Buddhist imagined their by stealing, 29 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:18,860 hoarding, and venerating various types of relics of the Buddha in their subterranean Naga loka, the Naga realm. 30 00:03:19,130 --> 00:03:25,370 They in fact define what a treasure is. We will consider four cases in the Mahabharata, 31 00:03:25,550 --> 00:03:33,320 where Nagas are used to draw attention to a variety of relic treasures that aid in establishing the Dharma on the island of Lanka. 32 00:03:34,370 --> 00:03:39,500 The first two cases show Nagas in relation to Parabolica relics or relics of use. 33 00:03:40,400 --> 00:03:47,000 The third case illustrates the connection of not as to chakra or bodily relics of the past upon Twitter, 34 00:03:48,050 --> 00:03:54,020 and the final case demonstrates that that there are unusual powers of Nagas. 35 00:03:54,380 --> 00:03:57,709 It illustrates their relationship with the Buddha during his lifetime, 36 00:03:57,710 --> 00:04:04,790 combine to enable Nagas to take the form of the Buddha himself, providing access to an image or Odesza relic. 37 00:04:06,070 --> 00:04:13,840 So our first case is in the opening chapter of the Maha function, which tells of the Buddha's three visits to the island of Lanka. 38 00:04:14,950 --> 00:04:19,599 As an island peripheral to the Buddha's homeland, and one connecting the Naga Underworlds. 39 00:04:19,600 --> 00:04:23,410 In the realms of the humans, Lanka is a liminal landscape. 40 00:04:24,070 --> 00:04:32,560 In spite of this position, or perhaps because of it, Lanka becomes an ideal repository for the dumber in the Buddha's estimation. 41 00:04:33,870 --> 00:04:36,900 Similar to the earlier third or fourth century DPR. Vanessa. 42 00:04:37,260 --> 00:04:48,330 The Maha Vanessa narrative opens with Lanka as the home to yuccas, yuccas who must first be expelled, and the Nagas, who must then be converted. 43 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:52,830 As there are no relics in this this episode, I'm going to skip it. 44 00:04:54,850 --> 00:05:01,180 But there are Nagas in the next. The Buddha returns to Lanka in the fifth year of his Buddhahood. 45 00:05:01,250 --> 00:05:04,960 Moved by his compassion for the Nagas and quote. 46 00:05:05,470 --> 00:05:10,900 To intervene in the impending war between Naga families over a bejewelled throne in Naga Deepa, 47 00:05:11,710 --> 00:05:16,600 the Naga malhotra's hordes of supporters live in his extensive sea palace. 48 00:05:16,600 --> 00:05:23,920 Described as 500 yojanas in length, he is from under the sea, a different Loka world than the impending battlefield. 49 00:05:24,340 --> 00:05:30,700 And on the other side of the battle his nephew Chulo Dara uh Tula Dara leads the mountain Nagas. 50 00:05:32,620 --> 00:05:39,989 You can see here. Uh, he displays light, he dispels darkness, and he frightens the Nagas. 51 00:05:39,990 --> 00:05:45,990 That's how he controls them. And then he reveals the light so that they can have pasada. 52 00:05:45,990 --> 00:05:49,380 The calmness that comes after the sun. They go the agitation. 53 00:05:51,100 --> 00:05:56,440 After this powerful display, the Buddha teaches the Donna a lights on the contested throne, 54 00:05:57,100 --> 00:06:04,300 which both groups of Nagas have gladly offered to him and significantly accepts food and drink from the Nagas. 55 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:07,010 From his station on the Naga shared terrain. 56 00:06:07,030 --> 00:06:15,760 The Buddha then establishes in refuges and precepts 80 counties, or about 800 million land and sea Nagas together. 57 00:06:16,690 --> 00:06:20,409 And this is an important point when we look into the Nagas throughout the Maha Bank. 58 00:06:20,410 --> 00:06:25,480 So we must bear in mind their long relationship to the Buddha and their status. 59 00:06:25,780 --> 00:06:28,840 They have taken refuge and they follow the precepts. 60 00:06:30,180 --> 00:06:33,479 Before the Buddha takes his leave to return to the job in a grove, 61 00:06:33,480 --> 00:06:41,250 hence rejoining his standard biography in Meteora, Mani Akaka, uh asks the elder Mani Akaka, 62 00:06:41,580 --> 00:06:47,430 a Naga Raja asks the Buddha if he might return to colony because Mani Akaka had heard the 63 00:06:47,430 --> 00:06:52,320 true doctrine preached and had become established in the refuges and the moral duties. 64 00:06:52,350 --> 00:07:01,740 Sheila. The Buddha then plants his Rajat in a tree parasol parasol that had accompanied him from his homeland to Sri Lanka, 65 00:07:02,460 --> 00:07:08,520 um and hands over the jewelled throne that he had been using, thus constituting two relics of use. 66 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:12,540 He hands them over to the Nagas to support their continued worship. 67 00:07:13,200 --> 00:07:18,060 He addresses the Nagas directly. He says. 68 00:07:19,580 --> 00:07:27,400 Naga kings do homage to this memorial shrine of the objects used by me, the Parry both gut check their children. 69 00:07:27,410 --> 00:07:36,320 This will be for your benefit and happiness. The Buddha thus explicitly authorises the Nagas continued attention to the relics, these relics of use. 70 00:07:36,860 --> 00:07:44,420 Now, Steve Collins notes that the Buddha's use of the familiar tata, or friends or beloved, or some familiar, 71 00:07:44,720 --> 00:07:52,820 familiar familial term of endearment, I translated it as children, um, that this uses paralytic and that the teka. 72 00:07:52,820 --> 00:07:56,480 The commentary explains that the shrine will inspire the Nagas to feel. 73 00:07:57,380 --> 00:08:03,320 And so the friendship in in the future the relics thus establish peace. 74 00:08:04,510 --> 00:08:09,640 And the Buddha does return to Sri Lanka for a third time in the eighth year after his awakening. 75 00:08:10,510 --> 00:08:15,010 Bear in mind the Nagas are now fitting patrons of the Buddha and his retinue of 500 monks, 76 00:08:15,280 --> 00:08:18,550 as they have been worshipping his relics of use in the meantime. 77 00:08:19,620 --> 00:08:25,410 This time the Buddha does not manipulate the light. In this trip, he instead highlights the landscape of Lanka, 78 00:08:25,770 --> 00:08:32,489 indicating the various sites that will in the future become repositories of the Buddhist charisma through the placement of his bodily relics, 79 00:08:32,490 --> 00:08:36,180 through planting of the tree, or through his association with the sites. 80 00:08:38,070 --> 00:08:41,070 And place. These become places of pilgrimage and devotion. 81 00:08:42,090 --> 00:08:46,860 Under a bejewelled canopy that would later mark the site of the Kalyani Chettiar. 82 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:51,840 The Naga king and his retinue served a meal to the Buddha and to the retinue of monks. 83 00:08:52,560 --> 00:09:01,750 The Buddha preached the Dharma and left another relic of use, his footprint on top of Mount Sumana Kuta and proceeded to several future sacred sites, 84 00:09:01,770 --> 00:09:05,669 among them the place for the future planting of the Bodie Tree and the building of the Maha, 85 00:09:05,670 --> 00:09:10,230 two sites that are connected to the next two relics we're going to consider. 86 00:09:11,270 --> 00:09:17,239 Within this light infused universe of the text, nagas act as signifiers to a secondary code for meaning, 87 00:09:17,240 --> 00:09:23,150 making a code that deals with the individual's readiness to be transformed through contact with the dharma and the relics. 88 00:09:23,480 --> 00:09:31,790 In other words, the treasures Nagas are ontologically incapable of reaping the satiric, logical benefits of proximity to the Buddha. 89 00:09:32,370 --> 00:09:37,090 I'm thinking of the vinegar passage of the Naga who desires membership in the Sangha. 90 00:09:37,100 --> 00:09:40,700 He shape shifts to a Brahmin boy form and joins the sangha. 91 00:09:41,060 --> 00:09:45,320 Uh, but then in his sleep, he slips back into his default Naga status. 92 00:09:45,320 --> 00:09:47,360 He's discovered and then rejected. 93 00:09:47,660 --> 00:09:53,360 And of course, this is the base story for why novices to this day are asked at ordination if they are in fact human. 94 00:09:54,720 --> 00:10:00,990 But the Nagas in our text are nevertheless effectively converted by the Buddha in Lanka and narrative. 95 00:10:01,470 --> 00:10:05,580 The Nagas lure the Buddha to the island and invite him back. 96 00:10:06,210 --> 00:10:09,390 They bear a crucial function in ferrying relics to Lanka. 97 00:10:13,110 --> 00:10:17,400 So the second case we'll dive into is from chapter 19. 98 00:10:17,730 --> 00:10:24,720 And this is the coming of this, the branch of the what are you tree, a treasure that literally transplants the Dharma in this new terrain. 99 00:10:26,080 --> 00:10:33,250 But first, a little bit of background. In chapter 17, we see my gender at the behest of the tiara mogul, 100 00:10:33,250 --> 00:10:39,880 who put that of India at the end of the Third Council sent forth to convert people in the adjacent countries, 101 00:10:40,060 --> 00:10:48,940 the borderlands as an envoy, an envoy to a Lanka now populated by humans who have yet to be made aware of the Buddhist way of life. 102 00:10:49,210 --> 00:10:52,810 Mahinda laments the absence of the Buddha, whom we might see and venerate. 103 00:10:53,350 --> 00:11:02,170 Remember the relics of use the Buddha himself left behind in Lanka were intended for and functional only for ritual use by the Nagas, not the humans. 104 00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:13,210 The curious and historical uh third century BCE King MP sympathiser asks Mahinda, how can he see the Buddha who is already passed into Nibbana? 105 00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:18,090 Mahendra explains. When you see the relics, you see the conqueror. 106 00:11:19,140 --> 00:11:23,190 Uh. This recalls the Buddha's didactic but reproachful formula. 107 00:11:23,310 --> 00:11:27,390 He who sees the Dharma sees me. He who sees me sees the Dharma that was used. 108 00:11:27,420 --> 00:11:33,420 Uh, it was uttered to virtually a monk exceedingly desirous of the Buddha's image from the summit in Achaia. 109 00:11:35,250 --> 00:11:41,160 In other words, to experience emotional satisfaction and the quelling of agitation, one must have some imagination. 110 00:11:41,310 --> 00:11:52,050 It's a mental condition that an adept and experienced senior Tera uh, such as Mahinda, cultivated the imaginative process necessary for the work. 111 00:11:53,520 --> 00:12:00,240 Likewise for the audience of the. And the good to us people called forth in refrain that chapter. 112 00:12:00,660 --> 00:12:05,940 They too must cultivate the ability to equate the relics with the Buddha. 113 00:12:07,330 --> 00:12:10,540 I'll skip the story of the bowtie tree sectioning off its own southern branch, 114 00:12:10,540 --> 00:12:16,839 miraculously plotting itself in a golden vase with the potted branch rising in the air and staying for seven days, 115 00:12:16,840 --> 00:12:22,480 invisible in the region of this house that might pertain to the and studies folks. 116 00:12:23,110 --> 00:12:24,600 All of this miraculous, 117 00:12:24,610 --> 00:12:35,020 uh horticulture fulfils one of the Buddha's five great in nibbana bed so not deathbed party nibbana bed prognostications as narrated in chapter 17. 118 00:12:36,620 --> 00:12:40,610 But then in chapter 19, the Navajos were among the various classes of. 119 00:12:42,690 --> 00:12:47,280 Self watch over Woody Tree Branch prior to a voyage to Lanka. 120 00:12:48,780 --> 00:12:56,940 It has a supernatural sea voyage to Lanka. The sea stands still for surrounding yojana while flowers and music envelop it. 121 00:12:57,750 --> 00:13:02,180 Even though some Nagas are among the beings charged with protection of the body during its 122 00:13:02,190 --> 00:13:07,110 travels up Nagas in which and are overwhelmed with the desire to possess and worship it, 123 00:13:07,830 --> 00:13:26,090 and they seem to take some magic. That's that's the power of the tokens historically that ensured here inspired uh, that. 124 00:13:28,350 --> 00:13:36,490 You know. But. 125 00:13:38,190 --> 00:13:42,030 Tried to scare off kids. Terrify the darkness first. 126 00:13:43,780 --> 00:13:46,850 The. He referenced. 127 00:13:48,250 --> 00:13:51,940 Seven days, seven nights for my son. 128 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:59,340 And. This is a case of a relic. 129 00:13:59,610 --> 00:14:08,890 Uh. Of the Buddha actually being taken by force to the Naga loka for worship, before it becomes an active site for veneration in Lanka. 130 00:14:09,700 --> 00:14:14,709 As the Maha answer explains, quote, it's up on the screen trembling. 131 00:14:14,710 --> 00:14:19,130 The great snakes begged the Terry the Great Terry to stop scaring them. 132 00:14:19,150 --> 00:14:25,840 Thereupon they carried away the great Bodhi tree to the snake realm, having worshipped it with manifold very veneration, 133 00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:31,330 and with the kingship of the Nagas for seven days, they brought it back to the ship, and had it set up there. 134 00:14:32,970 --> 00:14:36,870 Thus, on the same day the great booty came here to jumbo colour. 135 00:14:38,370 --> 00:14:42,479 The stalling of the relic serves to heighten the suspense. In some ways, 136 00:14:42,480 --> 00:14:48,750 perhaps this interlude is included precisely to change the pace of the chronicle and add some emotional effect for 137 00:14:48,750 --> 00:14:56,010 the audience by being part of the textual community that is sustained by the relic veneration narrated by the text. 138 00:14:56,460 --> 00:15:02,340 The audience already knows the outcome of the Maha Vance's suspenseful relic procurement stories, 139 00:15:02,340 --> 00:15:07,320 even before they're told they can in fact visit the boat trees transplanted around the island. 140 00:15:07,770 --> 00:15:15,509 The story of the Nagas taking the boti tree to their abode attests to the value and temptation of the relics, and for the audience outside the text, 141 00:15:15,510 --> 00:15:22,650 it instantiates a instantiates a certain gratitude that the relics described therein are so readily accessible. 142 00:15:23,250 --> 00:15:29,930 I note that in this painting you'll see in the bottom right hand corner the, uh, outstretched arms of David Pisa. 143 00:15:30,090 --> 00:15:37,680 Uh, Devin on Piazza, the king who greets the ship as it enters, uh, the waters close to Lanka. 144 00:15:38,100 --> 00:15:45,569 And I can't help but think it evokes a sense of the Nagas petitioning, uh, for the branch to come down to the Naga. 145 00:15:45,570 --> 00:15:57,840 Lucas. So for the third case we're going to examine today, we're switching from relics of use the parabolica to the shot era, 146 00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:05,250 the bodily relics of the Buddha, and the story of the procurement of doughnut relics, or Drona in Sanskrit for the second century BCE. 147 00:16:05,730 --> 00:16:10,860 King to the Khamenei's Great Stupa, as told in chapter 31 of the Maha function. 148 00:16:11,490 --> 00:16:15,750 But first, a reminder of why the Nagas relate to the dono relics at all. 149 00:16:16,920 --> 00:16:24,780 So this image here, which is in, uh, I see John Guy is out there, this phenomenal book that came out from the met, 150 00:16:25,080 --> 00:16:30,720 uh, Tree and Serpent that collect that, that is the catalogue of their recent show. 151 00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:35,550 Um, this particular image illustrates Drona here. 152 00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:43,650 Um, it's this this image is from Nagarjuna Konda, a site about 160km from Amravati in Andhra Pradesh. 153 00:16:44,040 --> 00:16:52,110 And here we see a panel. We see Drona in the centre, and he's holding two relic caskets before Nagas on either side. 154 00:16:53,980 --> 00:17:03,520 This is after the, um, the the relics have been, um, uh, processed the eight drone, um, measures according to the Maha pa nibbana sutta, 155 00:17:03,850 --> 00:17:09,220 after the Buddhist corporeal relics were divided into eight dona portions after his cremation, 156 00:17:09,580 --> 00:17:15,700 the portion that was enshrined on the banks of the Ganges at the Rama Gama, uh, washed out to sea in a flood. 157 00:17:15,910 --> 00:17:24,100 The last lines here in Tanis Arabic translation remark that eight portions where the relics of the one with vision the highest, 158 00:17:24,100 --> 00:17:31,270 the foremost of men, seven honoured in Jambu Jambu dripper and one in Rama Gama honoured by the kings of the Nagas. 159 00:17:33,050 --> 00:17:38,870 Uh, it goes on to say that, uh, the Buddha's relics are worshipped by David kings, 160 00:17:38,870 --> 00:17:43,070 Naga kings, human kings, and likewise worshipped by the most excellent people. 161 00:17:43,280 --> 00:17:50,940 So pay homage to him with a hands palm to palm over the heart, for the awakened are rarely encountered in the course of 100 aeons. 162 00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:54,950 Buddha ghost is commentary on the Mahayana Nibbana. Sita, however, 163 00:17:55,040 --> 00:18:02,990 refuses to address the final verses dealing with the Buddha's prediction that this final one eighth portion of his relics will be enshrined in Lanka, 164 00:18:03,320 --> 00:18:07,760 probably because it was assumed at the time, uh, that the commentary was produced. 165 00:18:08,180 --> 00:18:14,960 Um, at the time the commentary was produced, that this material was in accretion, uh, sumo angular velocity. 166 00:18:14,990 --> 00:18:23,900 Um, uh, it's closing versus it says that the closing verses of the Maha nibbana suta were quote spoken by the elders of Tamba pani, 167 00:18:24,380 --> 00:18:31,820 thus not original Buddha. Virginia. Here we see the Rama Rama Relics stupa. 168 00:18:31,940 --> 00:18:34,430 Uh, at, uh, this is at Amravati. 169 00:18:34,550 --> 00:18:44,750 Um, anything that haphazardly finds its way into the sea becomes fair game, uh, for the poaching, hoarding ways of the Nagas who inhabit the water. 170 00:18:45,230 --> 00:18:51,050 And the relics come into their possession. This story serves the later, relic centred Sri Lankan tradition. 171 00:18:51,500 --> 00:19:00,049 Ever concerned to preserve the impression of its status as preordained by the Buddha himself in that it allows for a significant portion, 172 00:19:00,050 --> 00:19:07,100 a full eighth of Sri Lanka relics to be brought to the island in the time of death ignominy two centuries before the Common era. 173 00:19:08,240 --> 00:19:13,700 This cache of corporeal relics is entrusted to the Nagas guardianship here seen in this panel. 174 00:19:14,180 --> 00:19:21,380 You see the Rama Gama relics being worshipped and protected by the Nagas in a net like security over the top. 175 00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:26,630 Uh, this image is also interesting, as it illustrates the range of Naga forms, 176 00:19:26,900 --> 00:19:32,809 from the fully anthropomorphic sporting palace Cephalus headdresses to the left and the right, uh, 177 00:19:32,810 --> 00:19:37,520 worshipping the relics to the naturalised, albeit multi-headed, 178 00:19:37,520 --> 00:19:45,410 nagas knotted around the top of the stupa to the stylised etchings on the side of the stupa depicted within the frame. 179 00:19:47,300 --> 00:19:48,620 According to them, I have onsa. 180 00:19:48,980 --> 00:19:56,330 This cache of relics reveals that Nagas also maintain a relationship with the corporeal relics of the Buddha, the Shara. 181 00:19:57,500 --> 00:20:04,549 As the story goes, this is our case. King Domini prepares the pre-ordained site for the Buddha's corporeal relics. 182 00:20:04,550 --> 00:20:11,000 The Maha at ruin. Willy with great pomp and circumstance, the stupa is built. 183 00:20:11,450 --> 00:20:20,239 The crowds have gathered, the ceremony is already underway and the music is even playing before anyone seeks to retrieve the one eighth portion 184 00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:25,910 of the Buddha's corporeal relics that had been in storage in the Naga Loka for this very legitimising reason. 185 00:20:27,660 --> 00:20:34,440 The king depends on the specialised skills of the Sangha to procure this most essential treasure to enliven his stupa. 186 00:20:35,340 --> 00:20:42,150 The Nagas, however, had grown quite attached to the relics in the intervening centuries and are reluctant to part with their charge. 187 00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:52,110 The novice monk Sonu Thara, on account of his highly developed eating or meditative powers, is dispatched to recover the relics from the Nagas. 188 00:20:52,680 --> 00:20:57,750 He enters into meditative states conducive to this sort of inter intra world travel, 189 00:20:58,710 --> 00:21:04,740 and when he hears the music in the city indicating the ceremony has already begun by means of his I.D., 190 00:21:04,740 --> 00:21:10,230 he enters the earth to reach the Naga, Loka says in chapter 31. 191 00:21:11,490 --> 00:21:17,100 After being greeted respectfully, Sunita explains to the Naga Raja the purpose for his visit. 192 00:21:17,820 --> 00:21:25,380 The Naga Raja mentions motions pardon me. The Nagarajan motions to his nephew Vasily Data, who takes the hint. 193 00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:33,000 He swallows the relic casket and hurries off to the base of Mount Meru, where he coils up in an immense circle. 194 00:21:34,100 --> 00:21:39,590 In a desperate attempt to outwit this visitor. The Nagas behave in a most Naga like way. 195 00:21:39,830 --> 00:21:46,940 They steal away with the treasure. Here, the relics of the Buddha and lie at a mound here, none other than Mount Meru itself. 196 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:52,370 The very stabilising centre of the Buddhist universe. As if it were a safety zone. 197 00:21:53,420 --> 00:22:01,520 But this is no ordinary snake. Vasilisa creates various other regular snakes through his own super powers. 198 00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:05,990 His machete, the same type of special powers that Sony Buddha has. 199 00:22:06,890 --> 00:22:13,010 The image that is conjured is that of a snake pit, a seemingly safe place to hide a treasure. 200 00:22:13,370 --> 00:22:18,709 Encircled as it is by treacherous snakes. Just like this one on the Amravati bot. 201 00:22:18,710 --> 00:22:24,280 Relief. Vasiliy Ortiz hiding act is far from discreet. 202 00:22:24,280 --> 00:22:35,650 However, it attracts the attention of many onlooker Nagas and divas who approached the site thinking, quote, we will witness the battle of both Nagas. 203 00:22:37,650 --> 00:22:41,100 The Naga Sunetra and the Naga who's hiding the relic? 204 00:22:42,330 --> 00:22:48,420 Meanwhile, the Naga Raja explains to Sonu Tara that he has no relics, thinking he has outsmarted him so new. 205 00:22:48,420 --> 00:22:50,520 Tara responds by recounting the story. 206 00:22:50,790 --> 00:22:58,350 Literally the pedigree or visa of the relics, and explains how they are destined to be enshrined in Lanka on that very day. 207 00:22:58,830 --> 00:23:07,530 The Naga Raja tries another tack. He points out the superiority of the gem encrusted, encrusted cheetah on the knot in the Naga loka, 208 00:23:07,980 --> 00:23:14,190 contending that human worship is far less lavish and sumptuous than the veneration paid by the Nagas, he says. 209 00:23:14,400 --> 00:23:21,140 See Bhikkhu. This chitta, adorned with various gems in various ways, and the nobly built temple for the Chettiar. 210 00:23:21,600 --> 00:23:28,470 All the jewels and the whole island of Lanka are not so great worth as the moon stone slab at the foot of the steps. 211 00:23:29,070 --> 00:23:37,620 What shall be said of the other treasures? He says it would not do to move the relics from such a high place to such a low place. 212 00:23:38,670 --> 00:23:47,520 The logical argument that we can provide better service than you can following write upon Sinatra's recapitulation of the story of the relics, 213 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:53,880 suggests that hearing Sinatra's account only further entrenches the Nagarajan and in his proprietary position. 214 00:23:54,720 --> 00:23:59,670 So Neutra then argues with the Naga Raja over who is in a better position so theologically 215 00:23:59,940 --> 00:24:05,070 to benefit from the worshipping the relics and who can provide better veneration of them, 216 00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:12,180 veneration that is actually conducive to bearing out the Buddha's intentions that relics can be used to help transcend samsara. 217 00:24:13,600 --> 00:24:18,040 And Sinatra even charges that the Nagas don't have access to the truth. 218 00:24:19,400 --> 00:24:26,210 I consider the Nagas debate with. A narrative device that engages the audience in productive tension. 219 00:24:26,930 --> 00:24:32,570 The audience, just like the multitude of nagas and divas, is privy to a fundamental debate of worthiness. 220 00:24:32,870 --> 00:24:37,100 And reading this provocative passage prompts the audience's imagination. 221 00:24:38,210 --> 00:24:42,350 For the fifth century textual community, the winner of the debate is already known. 222 00:24:43,460 --> 00:24:50,810 Due to nominees. Mahatma bears material evidence and the feeling of gratitude towards Sunetra and the Sangha of the past, 223 00:24:50,810 --> 00:24:54,560 and even to the wily Nargis, who had to release the relics, May said in. 224 00:24:56,170 --> 00:25:02,410 True to his trickster nature, the Naga king tells Signatera that he may have the relics if he can see them, 225 00:25:02,950 --> 00:25:06,880 thinking that they are well hidden and that the novice has no chance of finding them. 226 00:25:07,270 --> 00:25:15,669 But so Neutra uses his ithi empowered vision to detect the whereabouts of the hidden relics, and then causes his arm to become very skinny snakelike, 227 00:25:15,670 --> 00:25:21,700 even so that he is able to slip it down into the belly of vassal data to retrieve the relic casket. 228 00:25:22,570 --> 00:25:30,160 So Neutra then shouts Stay Naga and returned successfully to the ceremony already taking place in Sri Lanka. 229 00:25:31,550 --> 00:25:39,410 While the Naga spectators lament the loss of the relics, the divas who had assembled there celebrate the victory of the Naga among bikers. 230 00:25:40,190 --> 00:25:45,900 This could mean the novice among the ques, though Naga can also mean elephant and gesture toward a great man. 231 00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:50,660 So Neutra is a Naga, a novice, but he's also a naga, an elephant among men. 232 00:25:50,840 --> 00:25:54,530 And most significantly, he behaves like a naga, a snake like being. 233 00:25:54,530 --> 00:25:59,990 By tricking the Naga Raja and his nephew, fashioning a snake like arm to retrieve the relic casket, 234 00:26:00,230 --> 00:26:04,610 stealing the treasure, and moving between the Naga Loka and the world of the humans. 235 00:26:04,610 --> 00:26:14,720 About. In a sympathetic postscript to the story, the Nagas disregard so notorious command to stay behind and instead grieving. 236 00:26:15,050 --> 00:26:19,280 Complain to the Sangha about the loss of their beloved relics. 237 00:26:20,030 --> 00:26:28,700 Out of compassion and in an illustration of true goodness and generosity, the Sangha gives a few relics back to the Nagas and the Nagas, 238 00:26:28,700 --> 00:26:33,830 then bring treasure treasures as offerings to the enshrinement ceremony happening above. 239 00:26:34,790 --> 00:26:41,300 It's an exchange of treasures, as it were, thus participating in the humans enshrinement ceremony. 240 00:26:42,550 --> 00:26:50,590 In this story, sacred space is already primed. The enshrinement ceremony is already underway before the relics arrive as final confirmation. 241 00:26:51,070 --> 00:26:55,180 The authenticity of the relic is proven by the fact that it was in the care of the Nagas, 242 00:26:55,390 --> 00:26:58,900 and by the fact that the Nagas were extraordinarily reluctant to give it up. 243 00:26:59,470 --> 00:27:05,530 To accommodate the traditions penchant for keeping a reserve portion of relics in the hands of Nagas for possible future use. 244 00:27:05,830 --> 00:27:11,380 The narrative acquiesces to the Nagas petition for some relics to be returned to the Naga loka. 245 00:27:12,340 --> 00:27:16,900 Of course, in the story, this gesture is seen to be an act of generosity and compassion on behalf of the Sangha, 246 00:27:17,050 --> 00:27:21,520 not a selfish act to ensure the song gives future access to a store of relics. 247 00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:26,800 It's interesting that the story is nowhere included in the earlier deep of Ossa. 248 00:27:27,190 --> 00:27:30,460 So it illustrates a type of literary turn in the Mohave answer. 249 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:34,900 The story of the procurement of the relics, with the exciting battle between the Nagas, 250 00:27:35,290 --> 00:27:41,680 is a particularly salient story that showcases the type of ethical lessons that arise throughout the Maha Bassa. 251 00:27:42,160 --> 00:27:49,440 According to the logic of this text, the procurement of the relics by Sony is absolutely not a theft, but a legitimate act. 252 00:27:49,450 --> 00:27:55,660 Simply confirming the prognostications and actualising the intentions of the Buddha himself cited in earlier chapters. 253 00:27:57,020 --> 00:28:01,729 Delivering the relics from the Naga Loka to Lanka is thus seen to be a legitimate act, 254 00:28:01,730 --> 00:28:09,049 and draws the audience's attention and imagination into a realisation that the Buddha has done so much that even after his passing, 255 00:28:09,050 --> 00:28:16,340 he affects the world for the audience outside the text, the Maha Vances textual communities who might be looking right at the Great Stupa. 256 00:28:16,910 --> 00:28:22,340 This story is it is included precisely so it will engender some vigour and passata in them. 257 00:28:24,120 --> 00:28:32,850 The supernaturally gifted novice senator is himself classified as a naga, as all novices are until they've taken full ordination. 258 00:28:33,540 --> 00:28:38,310 The story thus presents a Naga novice who is sent to outwit wit, a Naga super snake, 259 00:28:38,880 --> 00:28:45,750 and all the transactions of value of power occur in liminal regions, regions of easy access for both kinds of Nagas. 260 00:28:47,080 --> 00:28:49,480 Relic theft is a tantalising topic. 261 00:28:49,750 --> 00:28:57,400 Unlike other religious traditions, such as the Roman Catholic tradition, where relic theft is confined to the human realm and human agents, 262 00:28:57,730 --> 00:29:05,740 the Polish vampires maintain that thievery happens between worlds and is perpetrated primarily by non-human agents. 263 00:29:06,310 --> 00:29:12,490 While all of these traditions, what all of these traditions have in common, though, is that the perpetrators here, the Nagas, 264 00:29:12,730 --> 00:29:19,690 may not be motivated by greed, but rather by extreme piety and the desire to serve and worship the relics appropriately. 265 00:29:20,440 --> 00:29:24,249 Following Patrick Geary's ideas about relic theft in the Catholic context, 266 00:29:24,250 --> 00:29:30,250 I suggest that thievery points to the extreme value of the relics and even generates additional value. 267 00:29:30,730 --> 00:29:36,820 Thievery also heightens the imaginative involvement the audience of the Maha Venza has with the story. 268 00:29:37,270 --> 00:29:40,690 For the textual community, much is at stake regarding the theft of relics. 269 00:29:40,900 --> 00:29:43,390 It really is no surprise to hear of the theft, 270 00:29:43,510 --> 00:29:51,160 because the story is narrated expressly to attribute the pedigree Avancer an authoritative link to the Buddha himself. 271 00:29:52,340 --> 00:29:58,520 Within the text. In the case of Sonu Tura, stealing relics is an essential part of the on a Dr. 272 00:29:59,530 --> 00:30:04,430 One second. Uh. 273 00:30:07,220 --> 00:30:13,190 It's a requisite layover before a relic can be activated in the landscape proper and enshrined for human veneration. 274 00:30:13,610 --> 00:30:16,610 Thievery, as a word, might be too strong possession. 275 00:30:16,610 --> 00:30:18,200 Maybe it occurs in liminal, 276 00:30:18,260 --> 00:30:26,839 liminal spaces in the betwixt and between worlds that happens as relics are in transition from their original location to the island of Laga, 277 00:30:26,840 --> 00:30:36,560 requiring Naga assistance. And just one further note about the story sequence with 861 verses through chapters 22 and 32. 278 00:30:36,710 --> 00:30:42,630 More than a quarter of the initial instalment of the Mahabharata, the due to go epidemic. 279 00:30:42,980 --> 00:30:51,250 Um, it's what Geiger called it. Um, the deep of answer doesn't even include the Torah narrative at all. 280 00:30:51,260 --> 00:30:59,480 It only briefly references due to Goscinny. Even so, this shows again something of them having says literary manoeuvres. 281 00:31:00,530 --> 00:31:11,660 And our final case provides a counterpoint of sorts, just as the Sarita, or corporeal and parabolica usage relics span vast swaths of time. 282 00:31:11,900 --> 00:31:14,440 Nagas have exceptionally long lives, 283 00:31:14,450 --> 00:31:20,270 which makes them particularly useful characters and narratives because they have been firsthand witnesses of the Buddha. 284 00:31:21,020 --> 00:31:27,500 They can even be called upon to to become relics themselves by taking on the image of the Buddha. 285 00:31:27,530 --> 00:31:32,870 Nagas, in essence, become the third classification of relics Odesza or image relics, 286 00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:37,249 so that worshippers who are unable to view the countenance of the Buddha himself 287 00:31:37,250 --> 00:31:41,330 during his lifetime might still view a glimpse of his magnificent being. 288 00:31:42,610 --> 00:31:51,340 A sole example of Odessa, aka relic uh appears in a salient story embedded in the Asoka cycle in Madhavan Said chapter five. 289 00:31:51,910 --> 00:32:00,729 There a Naga represents or represents the image of the Buddha, and this might remind you of similar stories elsewhere. 290 00:32:00,730 --> 00:32:03,490 I'm thinking of John Strong's translation of Ashoka Vedanta, 291 00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:09,670 where of course we have beings taking on the form of the Buddha for the purpose of veneration. 292 00:32:11,500 --> 00:32:17,290 So in this case, King Asoka honours the image of the Buddha as if it were the Buddha himself, 293 00:32:17,440 --> 00:32:23,649 which provides an interpretive community the opportunity to explore issues of the Buddha's absence and presence, 294 00:32:23,650 --> 00:32:31,870 as well as the role of the Naga in negotiating or mediating the chasm between the temporally distant Buddha and future generations of Buddhists. 295 00:32:32,380 --> 00:32:40,840 This story also allows for an exploration of Buddhist concepts of time and space, as the Naga here just as important, is named Maha Carla. 296 00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:47,200 So great time! Um, and some of you may recognise that name from the Jataka Nandana Katara, 297 00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:57,249 where Mahakali resides in the river near Ranjana and is the one to receive the bowl that the the Buddha go to my son's upstream with his progeny. 298 00:32:57,250 --> 00:33:00,670 Dana. That if I am going to be enlightened in this day, may this bowl sink. 299 00:33:00,880 --> 00:33:07,060 The bowl sinks, hits the bowls of all the former Buddhas, and wakes up that Naga who's also named time. 300 00:33:09,730 --> 00:33:18,459 Anyway. McCullough in the Mahabharata has likewise lived to see the four Buddhas in this aeon as conceived in of out of Buddhism, 301 00:33:18,460 --> 00:33:22,690 when one is spatially and temporally removed from the presence of a historical Buddha. 302 00:33:23,110 --> 00:33:28,360 Nagas can function as intermediaries to bring images and relics forth for ethically motivated 303 00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:33,760 connection to the Buddha and for the primed interpreter and counting encountering these Naga stories. 304 00:33:34,150 --> 00:33:39,460 Uh, it just enables this, this imaginative work to happen. 305 00:33:39,940 --> 00:33:44,530 Uh, imagination that's provoked by encounter results in a satisfying experience. 306 00:33:44,530 --> 00:33:50,200 Pasada conducive to intensified religious practices such as continued relic veneration. 307 00:33:51,630 --> 00:33:57,660 Our story of the Odessa Koa relic occurs in the midst of the account of the Third Buddhist Council in chapter five, 308 00:33:57,870 --> 00:34:02,000 where we see Ahsoka's faith developing just before the story of the Naga, 309 00:34:02,010 --> 00:34:07,830 Asoka is depicted increasing his contributions to the Sangha in response to his developing faith. 310 00:34:08,400 --> 00:34:12,120 Everything changes when he hears about the powerful Nagarajan Mahakali, 311 00:34:12,480 --> 00:34:16,650 who has lived through the errors of the previous four Buddhas and therefore has seen each of them. 312 00:34:17,960 --> 00:34:21,590 So when Mahakali manifests the Buddha. 313 00:34:24,490 --> 00:34:26,290 I think I have a slide. 314 00:34:29,640 --> 00:34:37,320 He made by miracle the delightful form of the Buddha, endowed with the 32 major signs and blazing with the 80 minor attributes of a Buddha, 315 00:34:37,530 --> 00:34:42,180 encircled by a fathom long halo and shining with a Garland of lightning beams. 316 00:34:42,660 --> 00:34:50,460 The king's response after seeing him is them higher, uh, amazement and pasada, the serene satisfaction, 317 00:34:51,150 --> 00:34:56,970 the same emotional qualities that the audience is expected to experience upon hearing this particular story. 318 00:34:57,750 --> 00:35:01,830 Then a showcase exclaims by him by Mahakali. 319 00:35:02,100 --> 00:35:05,420 This image is such like the form of the Buddha. 320 00:35:05,430 --> 00:35:08,880 How much more so than the form of the to target to himself. 321 00:35:10,240 --> 00:35:18,160 After viewing the Odessa, CA relic courtesy of the Nagarajan, Ashoka is increasingly struck by the emotion of joy. 322 00:35:19,910 --> 00:35:28,760 This viewing lasts for seven days. Again, where the great King, uh, of great power, keeps the great festival named the acupuncture. 323 00:35:28,760 --> 00:35:37,040 The veneration by the eyes. Just as the Nagas commanded the boti tree en route to Lanka and worshipped commandeered party. 324 00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:42,190 Pardon me. Just as the Nagas commandeered the boat tree en route to Lanka and worshipped it for seven days, 325 00:35:42,200 --> 00:35:45,709 here we see a Naga manifesting himself as the greatest treasure of all. 326 00:35:45,710 --> 00:35:50,930 The Buddha worshipped for seven days, providing an image that responds to the faithful. 327 00:35:50,930 --> 00:35:58,520 Ashoka's religious needs within the text. The Naga also thus offers the audience outside the text and image to provoke the right emotions. 328 00:35:58,910 --> 00:36:03,020 The story reveals just how close the Nagas are to the relics of the Buddha. 329 00:36:03,380 --> 00:36:07,760 They can even shapeshift and manifest the greatest treasure, the Buddha himself. 330 00:36:09,680 --> 00:36:13,280 In conclusion, this story is not actually on the map. 331 00:36:13,450 --> 00:36:17,500 So this is the area popped into this story. Relics. 332 00:36:17,890 --> 00:36:22,300 I just like the image. Relics and relic worship are critical to the living. 333 00:36:22,330 --> 00:36:27,309 Tradition instigated by the fourth and fifth century Maha Vihara monks responsible for the Mohave 334 00:36:27,310 --> 00:36:33,580 answer and in the form says they produced the Nagas can be seen as model agents regarding relics. 335 00:36:34,240 --> 00:36:43,390 Nagas determine or attribute value. Attribute value to the relics, as Geary suggests of the Catholic uh context in his book For to Sacra, 336 00:36:43,600 --> 00:36:46,059 the value of relics can be determined by their theft, 337 00:36:46,060 --> 00:36:56,440 and the relics in the vultures are habitually being stolen by the Nagas, especially when they are en route to an enshrinement, and only temporarily. 338 00:36:57,460 --> 00:37:01,390 This motif is so important that in the bombshells I'd say, um, 339 00:37:01,390 --> 00:37:04,719 I would say that a trip through the hands of the Nagas or the bellies of the 340 00:37:04,720 --> 00:37:10,060 Nagas is requisite before a relic is fully activated or of value for Lanka. 341 00:37:10,750 --> 00:37:15,670 Um, this is an idea much more cautiously expressed by by John Strong, uh, 342 00:37:15,670 --> 00:37:23,649 who observed that the Naga layover seems related to the period of provisional ordination experienced by novices in the Sangha. 343 00:37:23,650 --> 00:37:25,900 He writes, uh, in relics of the Buddha. 344 00:37:26,290 --> 00:37:34,930 The Naga State is thus something that needs to be abandoned, but it is also something that needs to be passed through on the way to its abandonment. 345 00:37:35,440 --> 00:37:42,310 The same may perhaps be said of relics, for which enshrinement in a stupa may be a kind of ordination. 346 00:37:42,910 --> 00:37:51,790 No relic can become enshrined without undergoing a rite of passage, symbolised here by passing through, or at least being in the possession of Nagas. 347 00:37:53,420 --> 00:38:01,910 The bowtie tree, having been established by Ananda, is the most suitable substitute, uh, as a relic of use for the Buddha um, in his absence. 348 00:38:02,060 --> 00:38:05,719 This is explained in Kalinga body Jataka. Um. 349 00:38:05,720 --> 00:38:14,030 The body tree endures a baptism or consecration by Nagas, as its branch is whisked away to the Naga loka for the textual community of the Mohave. 350 00:38:14,030 --> 00:38:22,310 Onset by the function. By this function of value attribution, the Nagas help to determine where the practical ritual focus should be on the relics. 351 00:38:23,180 --> 00:38:28,400 Often simply, though uncritically designated by scholars as phonic deities. 352 00:38:28,820 --> 00:38:34,190 Nagas serve to ground, locate and guard various kinds of relics in the Maha mansa. 353 00:38:34,520 --> 00:38:39,169 Nagas guard relics of all types, the bodily relics, both bones, 354 00:38:39,170 --> 00:38:44,600 the internal body parts available only after the Buddha's bodily death, and hair and teeth, 355 00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:49,190 which are the dead parts of the Buddha that might be given during the Buddha's lifetime by the 356 00:38:49,190 --> 00:38:54,650 Buddha himself are important because they viscerally connect the present worshipper with the Buddha. 357 00:38:55,340 --> 00:39:00,499 Relics of use appear frequently in the Bom shows, such as the tree that was used as a parasol to shade him, 358 00:39:00,500 --> 00:39:03,770 and the throne upon which he sat during his second visit to Lanka. 359 00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:10,939 Narrated in the first chapter. Nagas also oversee the places designated by the Buddha as Chettiar in his second and 360 00:39:10,940 --> 00:39:15,200 third visits to the island until they receive their intended relics in the future, 361 00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:19,879 and Nagas seem to be equipped with some sort of homing device that leads them to 362 00:39:19,880 --> 00:39:24,890 treasures that have been abandoned or that are not receiving adequate human attention. 363 00:39:25,970 --> 00:39:30,110 Nagas are thus naturally inclined to find and guard the relics of the Buddha, 364 00:39:30,530 --> 00:39:34,730 and it is a convenient trope in the Pali narrative tradition that they consider any relics 365 00:39:35,120 --> 00:39:38,180 that have been buried in the ground or washed out to sea as their rightful property. 366 00:39:38,660 --> 00:39:41,120 This crucial behaviour, captured in narrative form, 367 00:39:41,120 --> 00:39:48,679 provides the tradition with a perpetual source of relics for future instalments that the Nagas always retain a reliable 368 00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:54,590 source of relics leads the audience of the Maharana said to feel gratitude upon reading or hearing about them. 369 00:39:55,580 --> 00:39:59,840 Finally, Nagas model ideal veneration of the relic treasures. 370 00:40:00,650 --> 00:40:04,010 While Nagas may be of dubious, so tier a logical aptitude, 371 00:40:04,250 --> 00:40:09,140 there is a productive tension in the tradition regarding the relationship of relics to Nagas. 372 00:40:09,530 --> 00:40:13,489 Nagas are simultaneously cast as ideal worshippers of the Buddha and as 373 00:40:13,490 --> 00:40:17,960 karmically incapable of receiving the full benefit benefit of relic veneration. 374 00:40:19,220 --> 00:40:26,780 As we saw in the account of the novice monk Sonu Taro, when Nagas are outwitted by the novice and divested of their precious relics, 375 00:40:26,930 --> 00:40:32,300 they argue that they are actually better equipped than humans to lavishly and appropriately worship relics. 376 00:40:32,900 --> 00:40:36,500 The Nagas are located outside the social framework as non-humans, 377 00:40:36,740 --> 00:40:41,990 and yet they challenge that framework as an eminently Buddhist in an eminently Buddhist way. 378 00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:48,530 It was the Buddha, after all, who said that behaviour determines virtue and potential, not one's birth station. 379 00:40:48,650 --> 00:40:51,799 And also bear in mind, in chapter one, they became Buddhist. 380 00:40:51,800 --> 00:40:57,450 They took precepts. The Nagas are depicted as ideal worshippers of the Buddha's relics, 381 00:40:57,450 --> 00:41:05,460 and yet they are thieves in direct violation of one of the five fundamental moral precepts in Buddhism, namely taking what is not given. 382 00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:08,750 But as we saw in the first chapter of the Madhavan said, 383 00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:14,250 the Buddha himself converts the Nagas who undertake the precepts and who are thereby bound to honour them. 384 00:41:14,670 --> 00:41:20,490 They seem to provoke pity from the audience, perhaps jealousy, even insofar as they have immediate access to relics. 385 00:41:20,670 --> 00:41:28,830 But they also generate gratitude insofar as their relationship to the relics affords the possibility for future caches for human worship. 386 00:41:29,430 --> 00:41:36,570 Nagas, as portrayed in narrative literature of the moral answer, are especially susceptible to the power of relics, 387 00:41:36,900 --> 00:41:43,620 and they are in the enviable position of having access to them in spite of their so to your illogical ineptitude. 388 00:41:43,650 --> 00:41:44,910 Thank you very much for this.