A History Of Sanskrit Grammatical Literature In Tibet Assimilation Into Indigenous Scholarship

This first, systematic survey of the Tibetan non-canonical literature dealing with Sanskrit grammar, partly consists of translations of Indic works, such as revisions of canonical versions, and translations of works not contained in the canon, and partly of original Tibetan works. In the first chapter of the book a detailed description of these textual materials is presented – sixty-one titles in total – which were produced during all periods of Tibetan literary history, from the ninth to the twentieth centuries. The second chapter discusses one specific effect of the impetus of Indic traditional grammar within Tibetan scholastics, namely the influence of Indic models of linguistic description on Tibetan indigenous grammar. This particular assimilation of an Indic technical discipline into Tibetan scholarship is examined in detail, and it is shown that other segments of Indic Buddhism were sources of inspiration and derivation for the Tibetan grammarians as well.

This systematic survey presents Tibetan non-canonical literature dealing with Sanskrit grammar, including translations of Indic works and original Tibetan works. In the second chapter of the book, the influence of Indic models of linguistic description on Tibetan indigenous grammar is discussed.

The first comprehensive survey of the important corpus of Indic literature on Sanskrit grammar, extant in Tibetan translation in the Buddhist canon. Core of the study is the description of the forty-seven Sanskrit grammatical treatises covering some two thousand folios in the canon. The contents of these texts and the historical information regarding their Tibetan translators are examined in detail. Further chapters are devoted to the grammatical analysis in an eighth-century Tibetan handbook for translators, and to data from Tibetan historiography. The book offers the first systematic study of the extent and the historical development of the Tibetan expertise in Sanskrit grammar, a central scholastic discipline in Buddhism. It opens up a section of Tibetan literature essential to the understanding of the Indo-Tibetan indigenous grammatical traditions.

The first comprehensive survey of the important corpus of Indic literature on Sanskrit grammar extant in Tibetan translation in the Buddhist canon. A systematic study of the history of the Tibetans' expertise in this central scholastic discipline in Buddhism.

For three decades, E. Gene Smith ran the Library of Congress's Tibetan Text Publication Project of the United States Public Law 480 (PL480) - an effort to salvage and reprint the Tibetan literature that had been collected by the exile community or by members of the Bhotia communities of Sikkim, Bhutan, India, and Nepal. Smith wrote prefaces to these reprinted books to help clarify and contextualize the particular Tibetan texts: the prefaces served as rough orientations to a poorly understood body of foreign literature. Originally produced in print quantities of twenty, these prefaces quickly became legendary, and soon photocopied collections were handed from scholar to scholar, achieving an almost cult status. These essays are collected here for the first time. The impact of Smith's research on the academic study of Tibetan literature has been tremendous, both for his remarkable ability to synthesize diverse materials into coherent accounts of Tibetan literature, history, and religious thought, and for the exemplary critical scholarship he brought to this field.

This volume in Brill’s renowned Ajanta series discusses contentious views on Ajanta’s development, the often-dramatic changes in patronage, and the intriguing problem of why Ajanta’s original (Hinayana) caves were not refurbished by the Vakataka. A comprehensive appendix on Ajanta inscriptions is also included.

How did a society on the edge of collapse and dominated by wandering bands of armed men give way to a vibrant Buddhist culture, led by yogins and scholars? Ronald M. Davidson explores how the translation and spread of esoteric Buddhist texts dramatically shaped Tibetan society and led to its rise as the center of Buddhist culture throughout Asia, replacing India as the perceived source of religious ideology and tradition. During the Tibetan Renaissance (950-1200 C.E.), monks and yogins translated an enormous number of Indian Buddhist texts. They employed the evolving literature and practices of esoteric Buddhism as the basis to reconstruct Tibetan religious, cultural, and political institutions. Many translators achieved the de facto status of feudal lords and while not always loyal to their Buddhist vows, these figures helped solidify political power in the hands of religious authorities and began a process that led to the Dalai Lama's theocracy. Davidson's vivid portraits of the monks, priests, popular preachers, yogins, and aristocratic clans who changed Tibetan society and culture further enhance his perspectives on the tensions and transformations that characterized medieval Tibet.

The thirty-four essays in this volume follow the particular interests of Leonard van der Kuijp, whose groundbreaking research in Tibetan intellectual and cultural history imbued his students with an abiding sense of curiosity and discovery. As part of Leonard van der Kuijp’s research in Tibetan history, as he patiently and expertly revealed treasures of the Tibetan intellectual tradition in fourteenth-century Tsang, or seventeenth-century Lhasa, or eighteenth-century Amdo, he developed an international community of colleagues and students. The thirty-four essays in this volume follow the particular interests of the honoree and express the comprehensive research that his international cohort have engaged in alongside his generous tutelage over the course of forty years. He imbued his students with the abiding sense of curiosity and discovery that can be experienced through every one of his writings, and that can be found as well in these new essays in intellectual, cultural, and institutional history by Christopher Beckwith, the late Hubert Decleer, Franz-Karl Ehrhard, Jörg Heimbel and David Jackson, Isabelle Henrion-Dourcy, Nathan Hill, Matthew Kapstein, Kurtis Schaeffer, Michael Witzel, Allison Aitken, Yael Bentor, Pieter Verhagen, Todd Lewis, William McGrath, Peter Schwieger, Gray Tuttle, and others.