Nāgas and Relics

Surveys the moral world illumined by this particular reading of the Mahāvaṃsa, and the role of the especially salient character of the nāgas in that world. This chapter argues that the nāgas drive the entire narrative arc of the text, beginning with the initiatory, physical visit of the Buddha, their successful conversion by the Buddha himself, through the acquisition, enshrinement, and right veneration of his relics. This chapter goes on to show how the textual community envisions the world without the enduring, living presence of the Buddha, where relics are a viable technology developed by a community seeking continues proximity to the Buddha. Nāgas are utilized as particularly salient characters to facilitate the ongoing connection with the Buddha as they help determine the value of relics, they locate and guard relics, they are simultaneously model worshippers and unworthy hoarders of relics, and they mark time and recall the Buddha by becoming relics. After exploring the tripartite classification of relics operative in the early medieval textual community responsible for the Mahāvaṃsa, we will investigate the nāgas’ relationships to relics of use (pāribhogika), corporeal relics (sarīrika), and representation or image relics (uddesika).