Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India: Their History and Their Contribution to Indian Culture

Front Cover
Motilal Banarsidass Publishe, 1988 - Religion - 397 pages

Though 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
BIBLIOGRAPHY
381
INDEX
387
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