Yājñavalkya’s Characterization of the Ātman and the Four Kinds of Suffering in early Buddhism

Abstract The paper is based on the author’s article in Japanese “Yājñavalkya no ātmán- no keiyōgo to Buddha no shiku”, Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies 44-2 (1996) pp. 887–879. This present form is a revised and enlarged version, based on discussions with Junko SAKAMOTO-GOTŌ and her articles, especially:
“Das Jenseits und iṣṭā-pūrtá- ‘Wirkung des Geopferten-und-Geschenkten’ in der vedischen Religion”, Indoarisch, Iranisch und die Indogermanistik. Arbeitstagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft vom 2. bis 5. Oktober 1997 in Erlangen, Wiesbaden 2000, pp. 475–490, cf. also her article with the same title in Japanese in Indoshisō to bukkyōbunka (Indian Thoughts and Buddhist Culture). Essays in Honour of Professor Junkichi Imanishi on His Sixtieth Birthday, Tōkyō 1996, pp. 862–882. The manuscript was originally written in the spring of 2000 for an omnibus volume of Japanese Indology which has not yet been published till today.