Studies in the Buddhistic Culture of India

It is a pioneer attempt of its kind to study Indian Buddhism in its entirety as a system of rational philosophy, profound faith, and as a historical matrix of creative human culture and civilized institutions -during the 7th and 8th centuries A.D., the brilliant epoch of the University of Nalanda, the mere name of which spells the great wonder that was Buddhism in Ancient India.

Here is an authoritative and systematic record, based on a close study of contemporary Buddhist, Brahmanical and secular literary texts and epigraphic and monumental antiquities of India together with the Chinese and Tibetan documents bearing on the period, and it presents a living picture of Buddhist faith, worship, monachism, moral culture, art, education, literature, scholasticism, esoteric mysticism, sectarian controversies, metaphysical and epistemological theories, rapprochement with Brahmanism, and its tendencies towards decline and transformation in India. A chapter on the contribution of Buddhism to Indian Civilization has also been added. The treatment of the subject is critical and integral though not traditional.

About the Author:

PROF. LAL MANI JOSHI (1935-1984) was a renowned Indian scholar and historian, particularly recognized for his contributions to the study of Buddhism. Studies in the Buddhistic Culture of India continues to be a classic since its publication in 1967. Subsequently, while at Harvard University's Center for the Study of World Religions in 1969-70, he published Brahmanism, Buddhism, Hinduism (Kandy 1970). His other notable works include Facets of Jaina Religiousness in a Comparative Light (1981), collaborative translations and scholarly editions of The Vajrachhedika Prajnaparamitasutra and The Vimalakirtinirdesha Sutra (1978 and 1981 CIHTS, Sarnath), and Discerning the Buddha (Munshiram Manoharlal, 1983). He was a Professor of Religion at Punjabi University Patiala before taking up prestigious teaching assignments as a Visiting Professor at Amherst College and Haverford College between 1981-84.