Placing the Origins of the Buddha
Placing the Origins of the Buddha

Author: Bhadrajee S. Hewage

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2022-08-04

Total Pages: 133

ISBN-13: 1527584712

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Our understanding that the Buddha emerged from the Middle Gangetic region of the Indian subcontinent has been largely unchallenged for the past 200 years. However, can we truly trust our existing knowledge regarding the geographical locations associated with early Buddhism? Could the Buddha’s origins, in fact, lie elsewhere? Tracking the general theory explaining the Buddha’s emergence from the Middle Ganges, this book explores the lesser-known story of colonial Sri Lanka’s connections to the wider nineteenth-century orientalist quest of placing the Buddha across the northern expanses of the subcontinent. By doing so, this book highlights the many flaws and inconsistencies that continue to inform our current understanding of the Buddha’s geographical origins and urges us to rethink the very foundation on which our knowledge of early Buddhism is based.

The Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy
The Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy

Author: William Edelglass

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-08-15

Total Pages: 871

ISBN-13: 1351030884

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The Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy is the first scholarly reference volume to highlight the diversity and individuality of a large number of the most influential philosophers to have contributed to the evolution of Buddhist thought in India. By placing the author at the center of inquiry, the volume highlights the often unrecognized innovation and multiplicity of India’s Buddhist thinkers, whose unique contributions are commonly subsumed in more general doctrinal presentations of philosophical schools. Here, instead, the reader is invited to explore the works and ideas of India’s most important Buddhist philosophers in a manner that takes seriously the weight of their philosophical thought. The forty chapters by an international and interdisciplinary team of renowned contributors each seek to offer both a wide-ranging overview and a philosophically astute reading of the works of the most seminal Indian Buddhist authors from the earliest writings to the twentieth century. The volume thus also provides thorough coverage of all the main figures, texts, traditions, and debates animating Indian Buddhist thought, and as such can serve as an in-depth introduction to Buddhist philosophy in India for those new to the field. Essential reading for students and researchers in Asian and comparative philosophy, The Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy is also an excellent resource for specialists in Buddhist philosophy, as well as for contemporary philosophers interested in learning about the rigorous and rich traditions of Buddhist philosophy in India.

Figures of Buddhist Modernity in Asia
Figures of Buddhist Modernity in Asia

Author: Jeffrey Samuels

Publisher: University of Hawaii Press

Published: 2016-07-31

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0824858581

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This book introduces contemporary Buddhists from across Asia and from various walks of life. Eschewing traditional hagiographies, the editors have collected sixty-six profiles of individuals who would be excluded from most Buddhist histories and ethnographies. In addition to monks and nuns, readers will encounter artists, psychologists, social workers, part-time priests, healers, and librarians as well as charlatans, hucksters, profiteers, and rabble-rousers—all whose lives reflect changes in modern Buddhism even as they themselves shape the course of these changes. The editors and contributors are fundamentally concerned with how individual Buddhists make meaning and display this understanding to others. Some practitioners profiled look to the past, lamenting the transformations Buddhism has undergone in recent times, while others embrace these. Some have adopted a “new asceticism,” while others are eager to explore different religious traditions as they think about their own ways of being Buddhist. Arranging the profiles according to these themes—looking backward, forward, inward, and outward—reveals the value of studying individual Buddhists and their idiosyncratic religious backgrounds and attitudes, thus highlighting the diversity of approaches to the practice and study of Buddhism in Asia today. Students and teachers will welcome sections on further readings and additional tables of contents that organize the profiles thematically, as well as by tradition (Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana), region, and country.

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and the Question of Socialism in India
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar and the Question of Socialism in India

Author: V. Geetha

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-12-03

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 3030803759

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This book offers a reading of Bhimrao Ambedkar’s engagement with the idea and practice of socialism in India by linking it to his lifelong political and philosophical concerns: the annihilation of the caste system, untouchability and the moral and philosophical systems that justify either. Rather than view his ideas through a socialist lens, the author suggests that it is important to measure the validity of socialist thought and practice in the Indian context, through his critique of the social totality. The book argues its case by presenting a broad and connected overview of his thought world and the global and local influences that shaped it. The themes that are taken up for discussion include: his understanding of the colonial rule and the colonial state; history and progress; nationalism and the questions he posed the socialists; his radical critique of the caste system and Brahmancal philosophies, and his unusual interpretation of Buddhism.

Seeking Sakyamuni
Seeking Sakyamuni

Author: Richard M. Jaffe

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2019-05-20

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 0226391159

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Though fascinated with the land of their tradition’s birth, virtually no Japanese Buddhists visited the Indian subcontinent before the nineteenth century. In the richly illustrated Seeking Śākyamuni, Richard M. Jaffe reveals the experiences of the first Japanese Buddhists who traveled to South Asia in search of Buddhist knowledge beginning in 1873. Analyzing the impact of these voyages on Japanese conceptions of Buddhism, he argues that South Asia developed into a pivotal nexus for the development of twentieth-century Japanese Buddhism. Jaffe shows that Japan’s growing economic ties to the subcontinent following World War I fostered even more Japanese pilgrimage and study at Buddhism’s foundational sites. Tracking the Japanese travelers who returned home, as well as South Asians who visited Japan, Jaffe describes how the resulting flows of knowledge, personal connections, linguistic expertise, and material artifacts of South and Southeast Asian Buddhism instantiated the growing popular consciousness of Buddhism as a pan-Asian tradition—in the heart of Japan.

Crossing the Himalayas
Crossing the Himalayas

Author: Nian Peng

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-10-27

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 9811658080

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This book aims to analyze two contrasting trends of integration and rivalry among great powers and regional states of Himalaya. It examines the interactions between the great powers and the small states in the Himalayan region, analyzes the multiple effects of the great power rivalry on the regional cooperation, and predicts the possible directions of the future of the geo-politics and geo-economy in the Himalayan region by incorporating the most recent developments. The main content of the book is divided into 11 parts. The Introduction briefly explains the aims and scope of this book. The following chapter focuses on the Buddhist ties between China and the Himalayan states in the past two millennia and its dual influence in the Himalayan region. The rest 9 chapters provide an in-depth analyses of the security dilemma between China and India, Indian perspectives on China-South Asian relations, Chinese perspectives on U.S. and Japan's engagement with South Asia and Indo-Myanmar relations, and Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal's responses to the regional integration and great power rivalry in the Himalayan region respectively. This is the first study which brings the Himalaya region at the center of geopolitical and geo-economics cooperation and rivalry thus highlighting its significance in Asian politics. It offers a comprehensive analysis of the complicated geo-political and geo-economic competition in the Himalayan region by inviting experts from both South Asia and China to contribute chapters. It also balances the west-centered views on the great power rivalry by introducing cultural perspective and small state perspective. The broad approach adopted in the book with focus on all important countries expands the scope of readership beyond specific academic community. The book will interest academics, policy makers, journalists, general reader and students of Asian politics.

Handbook on Ministerial and Political Advisers
Handbook on Ministerial and Political Advisers

Author: Richard Shaw

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Published: 2023-05-09

Total Pages: 453

ISBN-13: 1800886586

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Making a significant, novel contribution to the burgeoning international literature on the topic, this Handbook charts the various methodological, theoretical, comparative and empirical dimensions of a future research agenda on ministerial and political advisers.

Oxford Handbook of Caste
Oxford Handbook of Caste

Author: Surinder S. Jodhka

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2023-10-16

Total Pages: 689

ISBN-13: 0198896719

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The Oxford Handbook of Caste brings together a wide range of essays encompassing various academic disciplines to lay the foundations for a new understanding of caste, capturing emerging research trends, imaginations, and the lived realities of caste.

2500 Years of Buddhism
2500 Years of Buddhism

Author: P.V. Bapat

Publisher: Publications Division Ministry of Information & Broadcasting

Published:

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 8123023049

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About the life of Buddha

Buddhism in India
Buddhism in India

Author: Gail Omvedt

Publisher: SAGE Publications Pvt. Limited

Published: 2014-04-02

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9788132110286

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SAGE Classics is a carefully selected list that every discerning reader will want to possess, re-read and enjoy for a long time. These are now priced lower than the original, but is the same version published earlier. SAGE`s commitment to quality remains unchanged. This fascinating book constitutes a unique exploration of 2,500 years of the development of Buddhism, Brahmanism and caste in India. Taking Dr Ambedkar`s interpretation of Buddhism as its starting point, Dr Gail Omvedt has researched both the original source of the Buddhist cannon and recent literature to provide an absorbing account of the historical, social, political and philosophical aspects of Buddhism. In the process, she discusses a wide range of important issues of current concern. Dr Omvedt maintains that the revolutionary audacity of Dalit leaders such as Dr B,R. Ambedkar, despite their often subversive reinterpretation of the Buddhist tradition, is in tune with the basic ethos of original Buddhism. Ambedkar found his own middle way by avoiding both the straitjacket of the Marxist ideological response to suppression and the tame reformist within the fold of Hinduism. Since there has always been a struggle of hegemony between competing religious systems, the author argues that given the ascendant position of Buddhism from the 4th century BC to the 6th century AD, ancient India should actually be described as ‘Buddhist India’ and not ‘Hindu India’. Providing an entirely new interpretation of the origins and development of the caste system, which boldly challenges the ‘Hindutva’ version of history, this book will attract a wide readership among all those who are concerned with the state of contemporarty India’s policy and social fabric.