Ashoka in Ancient India

Ashoka in Ancient India
Author: Nayanjot Lahiri
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 472
Release: 2015-08-05
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0674915259

In the third century BCE, Ashoka ruled an empire encompassing much of modern-day India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. During his reign, Buddhism proliferated across the South Asian subcontinent, and future generations of Asians came to see him as the ideal Buddhist king. Disentangling the threads of Ashoka’s life from the knot of legend that surrounds it, Nayanjot Lahiri presents a vivid biography of this extraordinary Indian emperor and deepens our understanding of a legacy that extends beyond the bounds of Ashoka’s lifetime and dominion. At the center of Lahiri’s account is the complex personality of the Maurya dynasty’s third emperor—a strikingly contemplative monarch, at once ambitious and humane, who introduced a unique style of benevolent governance. Ashoka’s edicts, carved into rock faces and stone pillars, reveal an eloquent ruler who, unusually for the time, wished to communicate directly with his people. The voice he projected was personal, speaking candidly about the watershed events in his life and expressing his regrets as well as his wishes to his subjects. Ashoka’s humanity is conveyed most powerfully in his tale of the Battle of Kalinga. Against all conventions of statecraft, he depicts his victory as a tragedy rather than a triumph—a shattering experience that led him to embrace the Buddha’s teachings. Ashoka in Ancient India breathes new life into a towering figure of the ancient world, one who, in the words of Jawaharlal Nehru, “was greater than any king or emperor.”

The Snake and the Mongoose

The Snake and the Mongoose
Author: Nathan McGovern
Publisher: Paperbackshop UK Import
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2019
Genre: History
ISBN: 0190640790

In The Snake and The Mongoose, Nathan McGovern turns the commonly-accepted model of the origins of early Indian religions on its head. Instead of assuming a fundamental dichotomy between Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical in ancient India, McGovern shows that there were many different groups who all saw themselves as Brahmanical, and out of whose contestation with one another the distinction between Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical emerged.

Origin and Nature of Ancient Indian Buddhism

Origin and Nature of Ancient Indian Buddhism
Author: K. T. S. Sarao
Publisher:
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2010
Genre: Religion
ISBN:

Description: This book offers a serious exploration of the many different aspects of ancient Indian Buddhism. In the recent past controversy relating to date of the Buddha has been resurrected. The author has discussed this issue in detail and has suggested his own date for the Mahaparinibbana. Buddhist attitude towards women and ahimsa has also been analyzed from a new perspective. The book examines in detail the background to the origin of Buddhism especially the role of iron in it. The issue as to what extent Buddhism was an urban religion has also been discussed. Most of the arguments in the book have been based on extensive data collected from the Pali Tipitaka. This data is provided in the form of appendices at the end of the book.

Buddhism and Jainism

Buddhism and Jainism
Author: K.T.S Sarao
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 1423
Release: 2017-03-31
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9789402408539

This volume focuses on Buddhism and Jainism, two religions which, together with Hinduism, constitute the three pillars of Indic religious tradition in its classical formulation. It explores their history and relates how the Vedic period in the history of Hinduism drew to a close around the sixth century BCE and how its gradual etiolation gave rise to a number of religious movements. While some of these remained within the fold of the Vedic traditions, others arose in a context of a more ambiguous relationship between the two. Two of these have survived to the present day as Buddhism and Jainism. The volume describes the major role Buddhism played in the history not only of India but of Asia, and now the world as well, and the more confined role of Jainism in India until relatively recent times. It examines the followers of these religions and their influence on the Indian religious landscape. In addition, it depicts the transformative effect on existing traditions of the encounter of Hinduism with these two religions, as well as the fertile interaction between the three. The book shows how Buddhism and Jainism share the basic concepts of karma, rebirth, and liberation with Hinduism while giving them their own hue, and how they differ from the Hindu tradition in their understanding of the role of the Vedas, the “caste system,” and ritualism in religious life. The volume contributes to the debate on whether the proper way of describing the relationship between the three major components of the classical Indic tradition is to treat them as siblings (sometimes as even exhibiting sibling rivalry), or as friends (sometimes even exhibiting schadenfreude), or as radical alternatives to one another, or all of these at different points in time.

The Origin of Buddhist Meditation

The Origin of Buddhist Meditation
Author: Alexander Wynne
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 171
Release: 2007-04-16
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1134097417

Based on the early Brahminic literature, the author asserts the origin of the method of meditation learned by the Buddha from his two teachers and identifies some authentic teachings of the Buddha on meditation.

The Origins of Philosophy in Ancient Greece and India

The Origins of Philosophy in Ancient Greece and India
Author: Richard Seaford
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 387
Release: 2020
Genre: History
ISBN: 1108499554

Explains for the first time the genesis and early form of both Indian and Greek philosophy, and their striking similarities.

Ancient India and Ancient China

Ancient India and Ancient China
Author: Xinru Liu
Publisher: Delhi ; New York : Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 276
Release: 1988
Genre: History
ISBN:

India and China are two of the most important civilizations of the ancient world. Looking at the relations between these empires before the 6th century A.D., Xinru Liu conclusively establishes the transmission of Buddhism from India to China, and describes the various items of commercial trade.

Classical Indian Philosophy

Classical Indian Philosophy
Author: Peter Adamson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 480
Release: 2020-03-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0192592661

Peter Adamson and Jonardon Ganeri present a lively introduction to one of the world's richest intellectual traditions: the philosophy of classical India. They begin with the earliest extant literature, the Vedas, and the explanatory works that these inspired, known as Upaniṣads. They also discuss other famous texts of classical Vedic culture, especially the Mahābhārata and its most notable section, the Bhagavad-Gīta, alongside the rise of Buddhism and Jainism. In this opening section, Adamson and Ganeri emphasize the way that philosophy was practiced as a form of life in search of liberation from suffering. Next, the pair move on to the explosion of philosophical speculation devoted to foundational texts called 'sutras,' discussing such traditions as the logical and epistemological Nyāya school, the monism of Advaita Vedānta, and the spiritual discipline of Yoga. In the final section of the book, they chart further developments within Buddhism, highlighting Nagārjuna's radical critique of 'non-dependent' concepts and the no-self philosophy of mind found in authors like Dignāga, and within Jainism, focusing especially on its 'standpoint' epistemology. Unlike other introductions that cover the main schools and positions in classical Indian philosophy, Adamson and Ganeri's lively guide also pays attention to philosophical themes such as non-violence, political authority, and the status of women, while considering textual traditions typically left out of overviews of Indian thought, like the Cārvaka school, Tantra, and aesthetic theory as well. Adamson and Ganeri conclude by focusing on the much-debated question of whether Indian philosophy may have influenced ancient Greek philosophy and, from there, evaluate the impact that this area of philosophy had on later Western thought.