Speaking of Monks

The two essays in this volume explore how monks in medieval India and China wrote about themselves and their fellow monks. Phyllis Granoff translates and discusses biographies and auto-biographies of two Jain monks who lived in the 11th and 14th centure C.E. Dr. Koichi Shinohara tells us how a community of Chinese Buddhists viewed the life of the founder of their group, and how his biography reflected the changes that the community underwent. The essays are a result of a joint research project on religious biographies.