A Panorama Of Indian Buddhism

Festschrift honoring a historian from Kerala; contributed articles.

This extraordinary book is the only authentic document of its kind. Beginning with a detailed and lucid exposition of the political background of India from Ajatasatru to Mahapadma nanda, it goes on to trace the sources of the Second Buddhist Council, to locate with unerring exactitude the disruptive forces in the Sangha and, in the fourth chapter, to classify the Sects. In the chapters that follow, the learned author deals with the Mahasanghikas, doctrines of Group II-V Schools. In every chapter, if not on every page, current but ill-founded assumptions are rejected and their illogicalities exposed to the reader's view. The eager student is given a panoramic view of the doctrinal developments that took place during the period concerned by this book. With irrefutable arguments and considerable ratiocinative skill does the writer conclude that the Mahasanghikas were evidently the earliest school of the Hinayanists to show a tendency towards conceiving Buddha docetically.

Indian Buddhist Pandits, describing the life and works of the major Buddhist Master of Ancient India, translated from the second volumne of The Jewel Garland of Buddhist History, compiled by the Tibetan Masters,will surely serve as an inspiration to all the students and scholars of the Buddhist philosophy. Between the covers of this slim volumn, the reader is offered glimpses of the courage, compassion, dedication and the devotion with which luminous Buddhist Masters like Nāgārjuna, Āryadeva, Asanga, Chandrakīrti, Šāntideva, Šāntirakşita and Dharmakīrti, etc. upheld the Buddhist philosophy and contributed to its enrichment and propagation. Abve all, this volumn offers a well-abridged biography of the beloved Atiśa, the Indian Buddhist Master, who arrested the decline and fall of Buddhism in Tibet and revived it once again with his chief disciple Dromtonpa.

1: The Place Of Buddhism In The Development Of Religious Thought - Lectures. 2. The Pali Pitakas-Lecture 3: The Buddhist Theory Of Karmas-Lecture. 4: Buddhist Lives Of The Buddha-Lecture 5: Gotam`S Order -Lecture. 6: Later Forms Of Buddhism.