Introduction

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Illustrations ix
4. Tables xi
5. Conventions Used in This Book xiii
6. Acknowledgments xv
7. Introduction 1
8. I. The Gift-of-the-Body Genre 26
9. II. Conventions of Plot 52
10. III. Conventions of Rhetoric 90
11. IV. Dāna: The Buddhist Discourse on Giving 140
12. V. A Flexible Gift 167
13. VI. Bodies Ordinary and Ideal 199
14. VII. Kingship, Sacrifice, Offering, and Death: Some Other Interpretive Contexts 242
15. Conclusions 266
16. Appendix: A Corpus of Gift-of-the-Body Jātaka 273
17. Notes 285
18. Bibliography of Works Cited 337
19. Index 359