Abstract
THE REFLECTIONS OF BUDDHISM IN THE STORY OF PRINCE KALYANAMKARA AND PAPAMKARA
The story, which bears Sanskrit name “Prince Kalyanamkara and Papamkara” was written with the purpose of teaching Buddhism, which was mostly accepted by the ruling class, to the public during the Uighurs period. This story is one of the thousands of manuscripts that were put in a cave in Dunhuang at the beginning of the 11th century and sealed, then were discovered and opened towards the 1900s. This eighty-page long Uighur manuscript was discovered by Paul Pelliot in 1908 and brought to Paris.
In this article, a parallelism was established between the Buddhist teachings in the story of Kalyanamkara and Papamkara and the preaching book Dhammapada, which is considered sacred for this religion. The points that overlap with the rumors attributed to Buddha's life were examined by making a comparative reading and the reflections of Buddhism in this story were revealed.
Keywords
Buddhism, The Story of Kalyanamkara and Papamkara, Buddhist Literature, Gotama Buddha, Dhammapada.