Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys Davids (1857–1942) was a British writer and translator. She made a contribution to economics before becoming widely known as an editor, translator, and interpreter of

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

texts in the

Pāli Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or '' Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhi ...

language. She was honorary secretary of the Pāli Text Society from 1907, and its president from 1923 to 1942.

Early life and education

Caroline Augusta Foley was born on 27 September 1857 in Wadhurst, East Sussex, England to John Foley and Caroline Elizabeth Foley (née Windham). She was born into a family with a long ecclesiastic history: her father, John Foley, served as the vicar of Wadhurst from 1847–88; her grandfather and great grandfather had served as rector of

Holt, Worcestershire Holt is a village and civil parish in the Malvern Hills District of the county of Worcestershire, England. The church is dedicated to St. Martin, and dates from about the 12th century. Holt Bridge, over the River Severn, was designed by Thomas ...

and vicar of Mordiford, Herefordshire, respectively. Two years before her birth, five of her siblings died within one month in December 1855/January 1856 from

diphtheria Diphtheria is an infection caused by the bacterium '' Corynebacterium diphtheriae''. Most infections are asymptomatic or have a mild clinical course, but in some outbreaks more than 10% of those diagnosed with the disease may die. Signs and s ...

and are commemorated in the church of St Peter and St Paul, Wadhurst. One surviving brother, John Windham Foley (1848–1926), became a missionary in India and another, Charles Windham Foley (1856–1933), played in three

FA Cup Final The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official atten ...

s for Old Etonians, being on the winning side in

1852 Events January–March * January 14 – President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte proclaims a new constitution for the French Second Republic. * January 15 – Nine men representing various Jewish charitable organizations come tog ...

; he later had a career as a solicitor. Rhys Davids was home schooled by her father and then attended

University College, London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = � ...

studying philosophy, psychology, and economics (PPE). She completed her BA in 1886 and an MA in philosophy in 1889. During her time at University College, she won both the John Stuart Mill Scholarship and the Joseph Hume Scholarship. It was her psychology tutor George Croom Robertson who "sent her to Professor Rhys Davids", her future husband, to further her interest in Indian philosophy. She also studied Sanskrit and Indian Philosophy with Reinhold Rost.

Thomas Rhys Davids Thomas William Rhys Davids (12 May 1843 – 27 December 1922) was an English scholar of the Pāli language and founder of the Pāli Text Society. He took an active part in founding the British Academy and London School for Oriental Studies. ...

was elected a fellow of University College in 1896. Caroline Rhys Davids was awarded an honorary D.Litt. degree by the

Victoria University of Manchester The Victoria University of Manchester, usually referred to as simply the University of Manchester, was a university in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the college joined the federal Victoria University. Afte ...

(today

University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univ ...

) in 1919.

Career

As a student, she was already a prolific writer and a vocal campaigner in the movements for poverty relief,

children's rights Children's rights are a subset of human rights with particular attention to the rights of special protection and care afforded to minors.

, and

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

. Before moving into Buddhist studies, Rhys Davids made a contribution to Economics. She wrote seventeen entries for ''Palgrave Dictionary of Political Economy'' (1894-99/1910), including "Rent of ability," "Science, Economic, as distinguished from art," "Statics, Social, and social dynamics," as well as twelve biographical entries. Her entry, "Fashion, economic influence of," was related to her 1893 ''Economic Journal'' article, "Fashion," and reflects an unusual economic interest (see Fullbrook 1998). She also translated articles for the ''Economic journal'' from the German, French and Italian, including Carl Menger's influential 1892 article "On the Origin of Money". In 1896 Rhys Davids published two sets of lecture notes by her former teacher and mentor George Croom Robertson: one on psychology and one on philosophy. Rhys Davids was on the editorial board of the ''Economic Journal'' from 1891 to 1895. T. W. Rhys Davids encouraged his then pupil Caroline to pursue Buddhist studies and do research about Buddhist psychology and the place of women in Buddhism. Thus, among her first works were a translation of the Dhamma Sangani, a text from the

Theravāda ''Theravāda'' () ( si, ථේරවාදය, my, ထေရဝါဒ, th, เถรวาท, km, ថេរវាទ, lo, ເຖຣະວາດ, pi, , ) is the most commonly accepted name of Buddhism's oldest existing school. The school' ...

Abhidhamma Piṭaka, which she published under the title ''A Buddhist manual of psychological ethics: Being a translation, now made for the first time, from the original Pāli, of the first book in the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, entitled: Dhamma-sangaṇi (Compendium of States or Phenomena)'' (1900); a second early translation was that of the Therīgāthā, a canonical work of verses traditionally ascribed to early Buddhist nuns (under the title ''Psalms of the Sisters''

909 __NOTOC__ Year 909 ( CMIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Britain * King Edward the Elder and his sister, Princess Æthelflæd of Mercia, raid Danish ...

. Rhys Davids held two academic positions: Lecturer in Indian Philosophy at

(today

) (1910–1913); and Lecturer in the History of Buddhism at the School of Oriental Studies, later renamed the

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury a ...

(1918–1933). While teaching, she simultaneously acted as the Honorary Secretary of the Pāli Text Society which had been started by T. W. Rhys Davids to transcribe and translate

Buddhist texts in 1881. She held that position from 1907 until her husband's death in 1922; the following year, she took his place as President of the Society. Her translations of Pāli texts were at times idiosyncratic, but her contribution as editor, translator, and interpreter of Buddhist texts was considerable. She was one of the first scholars to translate Abhidhamma texts, known for their complexity and difficult use of technical language. She also translated large portions of the Sutta Piṭaka, or edited and supervised the translations of other PTS scholars. Beyond this, she also wrote numerous articles and popular books on Buddhism; it is in these manuals and journal articles where her controversial ''volte-face'' towards several key points of Theravāda doctrine can first be seen. After the death of her son in 1917 and her husband in 1922, Rhys Davids turned to

Spiritualism Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and Mind-body dualism, dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (w ...

. She became particularly involved in various forms of

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws ...

communication with the dead, first attempting to reach her dead son through seances and then through

automatic writing Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged spir ...

. She later claimed to have developed

clairaudience Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...

, as well as the ability to pass into the next world when dreaming. She kept extensive notebooks of automatic writing, along with notes on the afterlife and diaries detailing her experiences. These notes form part of her archive jointly held by the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

and the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. Although earlier in her career she accepted more mainstream beliefs about Buddhist teachings, later in life she rejected the concept of '' anatta'' as an "original" Buddhist teaching. She appears to have influenced several of her students in this direction, including A. K. Coomaraswamy, F. L. Woodward, and I. B. Horner.

Family

Caroline Augusta Foley married

Thomas William Rhys Davids Thomas William Rhys Davids (12 May 1843 – 27 December 1922) was an English scholar of the Pāli language and founder of the Pāli Text Society. He took an active part in founding the British Academy and London School for Oriental Studies. ...

in 1894. They had three children: Vivien Brynhild Caroline Foley Rhys Davids (1895–1978),

Arthur Rhys Davids Arthur Percival Foley Rhys-Davids, (26 September 1897 – 27 October 1917) was a British flying ace of the First World War. Rhys-Davids was born in 1897 to a distinguished family. His father was a professional academic and his mother a prolifi ...

(1897–1917), and Nesta Enid (1900–1973). Vivien won the Clara Evelyn Mordan Scholarship to St Hugh's College, Oxford in 1915, later serving as a Surrey County Councillor, and receiving an MBE in 1973. Arthur was a gifted scholar and a decorated World War I fighter ace, but was killed in action in 1917. Neither Vivien nor Nesta married or had children. Rhys Davids died suddenly in

Chipstead, Surrey Chipstead is a predominantly commuter village in north-east Surrey, England, that has been a small ecclesiastical parish since the Domesday Survey of 1086. Its rolling landscape meant that Chipstead's development was late and restricted compar ...

on 26 June 1942. She was 84.

Works and translations

Books

*''Buddhism: A Study of the Buddhist Norm'' (1912) *''Buddhist Psychology: An Inquiry into the Analysis and Theory of Mind in Pāli Literature'' (1914) *''Old Creeds and New Needs'' (1923) *''The Will to Peace'' (1923) *''Will & Willer'' (1926) *''Gotama the Man'' (1928) *''Sakya: or, Buddhist Origins'' (1928) *''Stories of the Buddha : Being Selections from the Jataka'' (1929) *''Kindred Sayings on Buddhism'' (1930) *''The Milinda-questions : An Inquiry into its Place in the History of Buddhism with a Theory as to its Author'' (1930) *''A Manual of Buddhism for Advanced Students'' (1932) *''Outlines of Buddhism: A Historical Sketch'' (1934) *''Buddhism: Its Birth and Dispersal'' (1934) - A completely rewritten work to replace ''Buddhism: A Study of the Buddhist Norm'' (1912) *''Indian Religion and Survival: A Study'' (1934) *''The Birth of Indian Psychology and its Development in Buddhism'' (1936) *''To Become or not to Become (That is the Question!): Episodes in the History of an Indian Word'' (1937) *''What is your Will'' (1937) - A rewrite of ''Will & Willr'' *''What was the original gospel in 'Buddhism'?'' (1938) *''More about the Hereafter'' (1939) *''Wayfarer's Words, V. I-III'' - A compilation of most of C. A. F. Rhys Davids articles and lectures, mostly from the latter part of her career. V. I (1940), V. II (1941), V. III (1942 - posthumously)

Translations

*''A Buddhist manual of psychological ethics or Buddhist Psychology, of the Fourth Century B.C., being a translation, now made for the first time, from the Original Pāli of the First Book in the Abhidhamma-Piţaka, entitled Dhamma-Sangaṇi (Compendium of States or Phenomena)'' (1900). (''Includes an original 80-page introduction.'') Reprint currently available fro
Kessinger Publishing
.

By C. A. F. Rhys Davids. London: Pāli Text Society, 1909, at
A Celebration of Women Writers
*''Points of controversy; or, Subjects of discourse; being a translation of the Kathā-vatthu from the Abhidhamma-piṭaka'', Co-authored with Shwe Zan Aung (1915)

Articles

By C. A. F. Rhys Davids. ''The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland''. (1898) pp. 47–59

By C. A. F. Rhys Davids. ''The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland''. (1901) pp. 859–888

By C. A. F. Rhys Davids. ''The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland'' (1903) pp. 587–591

By C. A. F. Rhys Davids. ''The Buddhist Review'' Vol. 1 No. 1. (1909) pp. 13–23

By C. A. F. Rhys Davids. ''The Buddhist Review''. Vol. 2. No. 1 (1910) pp. 99–115

By Shwe Zan Aung and C. A. F. Rhys Davids. ''The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society''. (1917) pp. 403–406

By C. A. F. Rhys Davids. ''The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland''. (1929) pp. 27–36

By C. A. F. Rhys Davids. ''Melanges chinois et bouddhiques''. July 1939. pp. 371–382

Notes

References

*'DAVIDS, Caroline A. F. Rhys', in ''Who Was Who'', Oxford University Press, 2014. (online edn, April 2014
accessed 28 Sept 2017
*Neal, Dawn. (2014) The Life and Contributions of CAF Rhys Davids. The Sati Journal, 2: 15–31. https://www.academia.edu/11805005/The_Life_and_Contributions_of_CAF_Rhys_Davids *Robert W. Dimand. (1999) Women Economists in the 1890s: Journals, Books and the Old Palgrave. ''Journal of the History of Economic Thought'', 21 (3): 269 *Snodgrass, Judith (2007). "Defining Modern Buddhism: Mr. and Mrs. Rhys Davids and the Pāli Text Society." Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. 27:1, 186–202. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cst/summary/v027/27.1snodgrass.html. *Wickremeratne, Ananda. ''The Genesis of an Orientalist: Thomas William Rhys Davids and Buddhism in Sri Lanka''. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1984. . *Stede, W. (1942). "Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys Davids: (27th September, 1857 – 26th June, 1942)", ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland'' 3, 267-268

External links

By Teresina Rowell Havens. ''Philosophy East & West''. V. 14 (1964) pp. 51–58
Records of Caroline Rhys Davids at Senate House Library, University of London
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhys Davids, Caroline Augusta Foley British economists British women economists English Indologists English Theosophists Buddhist translators Pali–English translators Pali People from Wadhurst 1857 births 1942 deaths British scholars of Buddhism Alumni of University College London