Buddhism in North-Western India- Up to c. A.D. 650 (An Old and Rare Book)

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Buddhism was one of the important religions of ancient India. It originated in about the 6th century B.C. and spread to eastern and central parts of India by c. 5th-4th century B.C. The epigraphic and literary sources suggest that it reached the North-West by the 3rd century B.C. or at least during the reign of the Mauryan King Aśoka (c. 273 236 B.C.). Since then was the predominant religion till about the 5th century A.D. Thereafter, it was still a major living force till the end of the middle of the 7th century A.D.

It influenced the life of numerous people-Indian and also foreign. The north-western section of the Indian subcontinent was one of the main areas where foreigners felt the impact of Buddhism, and through this region the religion spread to Central Asia and China. In fact for understanding the influence of Buddhism in outside world as well as the development of the religion, with special reference to Popular Buddhism, in India's borderlands, a proper knowledge of the history of Buddhism in the North-West is a desideratum. An attempt has been made in the present book to fulfil this need.

The recent discoveries of birch bark manuscripts from Eastern Afghanistan, which are now in the Oriental and India Office Collections of the British library, London and in the Washington University library have added significantly to our knowledge of Buddhism in the north-west of Indian subcontinent and its borderlands. This has been also taken into account in this book.

Dr. Sarita Khettry was born in Kolkata and comes from a Punjabi Khatri family. She passed her M.A in Ancient Indian History and Culture from the University of Calcutta. She completed her Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. B. N. Mukherjee. In 1990 she was awarded 'Raja Rajendralal Mitra Research Fellowship' by the authorities of the Asiatic Society (Kolkata). In the year 2002 She was awarded UK Visiting Fellowship (2002-2003) by the authorities of the Nehru Trust for the Indian Collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum to work on a monograph entitled 'Early Mahayana Iconography of Gandhara'. From 1999 to 2004 she worked as research fellow in the project entitled 'Dictionary of Inscriptional Prakrit from earliest times to c. 400 A.D.' in the field of Oriental Studies in the Asiatic Society (Kolkata). At present she is lecturer in the Department of Ancient Indian History Culture and Archaeology, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. She has written several articles which were published in reputed journals from time to time. She is now engaged in preparing a dictionary of Prakrit inscriptions entitled 'Asokan Lexicon', which is on the verge of completion.

The present book deals with the history of development of Buddhism in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent and its borderlands in the light of available data and recent discoveries. This work substantially represents the results of my Ph. D. thesis, which has been carried out in the Department of Ancient Indian History and Culture of the Calcutta University under the supervision of Prof. B. N. Mukherjee. I received valuable guidance from him during my research, without which this work would never has been written. He allowed me to use his personal library freely. For his unstinting help and generosity, I am grateful to him.

During my course of research, I was awarded 'Raja Rajendralal Mitra Research Fellowship' by the authorities of the Asiatic Society. I express my heartfelt thank to the then General Secretary, The Asiatic Society for awarding me this Research Fellowship and giving me all sorts of facilities for the successful completion of my research work.

The remarkable discoveries of birch-bark manuscripts from eastern Afghanistan in the last one decade which are now in the British Museum and in the Washington University Libraries (and also reportedly in the collection of R. Senior of U.K.) have added significantly to our knowledge of Buddhism in the north-west of Indian subcontinent and its borderlands. These are written in the Gandhari language and the Kharoshti script. Several of the inscriptions etched or engraved on rocks and a number of figures etched or carved out on rocks in a few areas in the north-west of the Indian subcontinent (like Chilas, Hunza and Alambridge), now partly included in extreme northern Pakistan, have also enriched our information in this regard. These have made a survey of our knowledge of Buddhism in the north-western part of the subcontinent (now divided into India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) and its borderlands during its early phase in that region is a desideratum.

The Indian subcontinent is bounded on the north by the Himalayas, on the west by the Karakoram and associated chain of mountains, on the east by the Patkai, Naga, Lushai and Chin Hills, and on the south, south-east and south-west respectively by the Indian Ocean, Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea. Its north-west includes territory now politically in Pakistan (Pak-Punjab, North-West Frontier Province, Sind and Baluchistan), Jammu and Buddhism Kashmir (partly occupied by Pakistan), the Punjab and w divided parts of Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. In ancient period the culture of the North-West extended up to the Hindu Kush. So parts of Eastern Afghanistan up to that range may be considered as within the north-western section of the subcontinent for the study of an aspect of its cultural history of North-Western India in the ancient age.

**Contents and Sample Pages**