Upaniṣadic Echoes in the Alagaddūpama Sutta

Abstract

Scholars have already identified verbal echoes of the Upaniṣads in the Alagaddūpama Sutta (‘Discourse on the Simile of the Water-snake’, M 22 pts i.130–42). In this article I argue that the Alagaddūpama Sutta also contains muffled verbal echoes of the famous story of Indra’s search for the self in Chāndogya Upaniṣad 8.7–12. By making this echo audible, I add to the evidence that the Alagaddūpama Sutta as a whole can be understood in terms of the Buddha’s rejection of an Upaniṣadic soteriology.