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

$54.00

$60.00

In stock

Free & Quick Delivery Worldwide

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.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sukumar Dutt

Dr. Sukumar Dutt was born in 1891 at Barisal (now in Bangladesh). He specialized during his academic career in English literature in which he held a doctorate. But his interest in Buddhism and ancient Indian history had been roused early in life by his uncle the late Aswini Kumar Dutt, a famous nationalist leader of Bengal of the first three decades of this century. Dr. Dutt had over many years carried on studies in this line and was recognized as one of the most accomplished scholars of Buddhism in this country. He was a Senior Research Fellow of the University of Delhi. His published works are The Buddha and Five After-centuries, Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India: Their History and their Contribution to Indian Culture; Buddhism in History and Culture of East Asian People; Mahaparinirbaner Katha (in Bengali). He was translating Bangalier Itihas by Prof. Niharranjan Ray when he died on April 9, 1970.