LOSE YOURSELF IN THE BUDDHIST EXPERIENCE INDIA IS THE GUARDIAN OF a rich and ancient culture, and the seat of Buddhism. Mystic monasteries on Himalayan slopes, richly carved stupas amid lush gardens, cavernous dwellings with exquisite paintings –India is home to all these and more. In this, her seventh book, respected historian Aruna Deshpande travels the length and breadth of the country to track down the imprints of Buddhism. Never before has any historian presented every major Buddhist site located in India in one book. Here are the architectural gems of Lumbini, the lesser known Tawang Monastery of Arunachal Pradesh, the unparalleled Bodh Gaya and a reliable guide to visiting all these places. A boon to pilgrims, travelers and armchair explorers alike, Buddhist India Rediscovered will fire the imagination and carry you on a memorable journey. “A remarkably thorough catalogue of India’s Buddhist sites. Whether their interest is in history and culture or Buddhist pilgrimage, I am sure many readers will find this work of great value.” From the foreword by HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA

India Rediscovered in not just another title. India always needed to be rediscovered for the future making of the nation. It needed to be rediscovered in the context of interplay of its inherent spirit and changing material conditions althrough the past. It needed to be rediscovered in the cycles of rise and fall, revival and rejuvenation of all its civilizational and cultural ethos. It needed to be rediscovered for a better understanding of the causes of a number of misgivings and misconceptions with a view to find a more positive and rational path of its rebuilding and finally it needed to be rediscovered to listen to the call of the age. Salient Features: • The book falls in the line of some exceptional writings on India’s past to its present in a surveying manner and style. • Analyses the direction of Indian history on the basis of the inter-relationship of spirit and matter with regard to general will of the people. • Evaluates the progress of civilization and culture, state and society in India in terms of maximum and total efficiency during different eras of Indian history which is altogether a new vision of looking at India’s past. • Very well studded with references and an exhaustive theme-index at the end for the benefit of readers and researchers with a view to open new vistas of research in the field and hence a big contribution to the knowledge.

1903. In this volume Rhys, the celebrated Buddhist scholar, attempts to describe ancient India, during the period of Buddhist ascendancy, from the point of view, not so much of the brahmin, as of the rajput. The two points of view naturally differ very much. Priest and noble in India have always worked very well together so long as the question at issue did not touch their own rival claims as against one another. When it did-and it did so especially during the period referred to-the harmony, as will be evident from the following pages, was not so great.

This book uses gender as a framework to offer unique insights into the socio-cultural foundations of Buddhism. Moving away from dominant discourses that discuss women as a single monolithic, homogenous category—thus rendering them invisible within the broader religious discourse—this monograph examines their sustained role in the larger context of South Asian Buddhism and reaffirms their agency. It highlights the multiple roles played by women as patrons, practitioners, lay and monastic members, etc. within Buddhism. The volume also investigates the individual experiences of the members, and their equations and relationships at different levels—with the Samgha at large, with their own respective Bhikşu or Bhikşunī Sangha, with the laity, and with members of the same gender (both lay and monastic). It rereads, reconfigures and reassesses historical data in order to arrive at a new understanding of Buddhism and the social matrix within which it developed and flourished. Bringing together archaeological, epigraphic, art historical, literary as well as ethnographic data, this volume will be of interest to researchers and scholars of Buddhism, gender studies, ancient Indian history, religion, and South Asian studies.

This book elucidates the early Buddhist teachings and beliefs concerning meditaions and its role in the process to liberation. In a number of cases, the Buddhist canonical texts reject practices which they accept elsewhere. When these practices-sometimes rejected, sometimes accepted-correspond to what is known about non-Buddhist practices, the conculsion in then proposed that they are non-Buddhist practices which have somehow found their way into the Buddhist texts. A similar procedure enables one to choose between conflicting beliefs.