Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India: Their History and Their Contribution to Indian CultureThough India is no longer a Buddhist country, Buddhism held its place among Indian faiths for nearly seventeen centuries (500 B.C.--A.D. 1200). During this long stretch of time the Buddhist monks were organized in Sanghas in most parts of the country and their activities and achievements have profoundly influenced India`s traditional culture. There are monumental remains of Buddhist monastic life scattered all over India: in the south there are about a thousand cave-monasteries, among them Ajanta, world-famous for its exquisite mural paintings; in the north, less spectacular, the ruins of monastic edifices from Taxila in the west to Paharpur in the east. A connected history of the Buddhist monks of ancient India, their activities, their monastic establishments and their contributions to Indian culture, is available for the first time in this work, which is remarkable also for its pervading human interest. In reconstructing the history of the emperors and kings who were patrons of Buddhism, the early missionaries and the illustrious monk-scholars of later times, the author has used sources in four languages--Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan. Contents The primitive sangha, The asoka-satavahana age 250 BC-AD 100 and its legacy, In the Gupta age (AD 300-550) and after, Eminent monk-Scholars of India, Monastic Universities, (AD 500-1200), Bib., Index. |
Contents
NOTES ON THE TEXT | 15 |
THE PRIMITIVE SANGHA | 33 |
The BHIKKHUSANGHA as a Sect among | 45 |
From Wandering to Settled Life | 53 |
Sangha Life and its Organization in Early | 66 |
CONTENTS | 79 |
The Rise of Monasteries LEŅAS | 92 |
THE ASOKASĀTAVĀHANA | 99 |
The BAGH CAVES | 162 |
Sangha Life in Transition | 169 |
BHAKTI in Later Buddhism | 179 |
Monasteries under the Gupta Kings | 195 |
The Devastation | 206 |
The Maitraka Monasteries of Valabhi | 224 |
From Study for Faith to Study for Knowledge | 319 |
Mahāvihāras that functioned as Universities | 328 |
Asoka and Moggaliputta Tissa | 107 |
Early Buddhist Culture and its TransVindhyan | 118 |
An Aftermath of Satavahana Culture | 126 |
CaveMonasteries LENAS of Western India | 138 |
The Pala Establishments | 349 |
381 | |
387 | |