Poetics and Noetics in the Therī gātā in terms of their presentation of ‘Transience’

Abstract

Therī Gātā is a recreation of the stark truth of transience the Therīs have inevitably experienced in the secular world in the form of poetry. The philosophy presented through their understanding of transience and the rhetoric through which they have presented their experiences of renunciation include poetics and noetics into these poetry of the nuns at the time of the Buddha. Thērī Subhā‘s verses where her eyes which are appreciated to be similar to a ‗kinnari‘ inside a mountain and to a bud of a blue lotus, have immediately been turned to be a little ball set in a hollow with tears and eye secretion could be pointed out as a beautiful example of the blend of poetics and noetics in the Therī gātā. The present work thus expects to study various instances in the Therī gātā where poetics and noetics have been used, with the main objective of finding out the possibility for them to be categorized with the mainstream literature of the present world and thus introducing them to the school and university syllabi. The research thus falls into the category of qualitative type of research and thus an extensive study of the related literature to the topic under concerned was carried out. (words: 202)