Buddhist Thought and Culture: Indo-Japan Seminar on Buddhist Philosophy (With Special Reference to the Thoughts and Works of Professor Hajime Nakamura)

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India and Japan have very old cultural contacts. Many travelers and scholars have contributed immensely to this living tradition between the two countries. Among these names Professor Hajime Nakamura and Kaviguru Rabindranath Tagore in contemporary times come to the forefront. Nakamura was an outstanding thinker and interpreter of Indian culture. He was a scholar of international repute and a recipient of many prestigious awards in Japan and India apart from several other countries of the world. He was a great friend of India and an ardent admirer of Indian culture. He was closely associated with Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the late President of Republic of India, who had profuse admitation for him.

In the words of Dr. K. R. Narayanan, another former President of the republic of India, "Nakamura was well known in India as one of the outstanding and eminent scholars, and true friend of our country".

The central axis of Nakamura's scholarship was Indian which he studied and expounded with remarkable depth and compression, and with admirable width and breadth of philosophical perspectives. He was proud of his association with Indian culture and he declared this in unequivocal terms.

The present Volume is an outcome of Indo-Japan International Seminar in the form of a befitting tribute and discharge of "Guru ma" to the late Nakamura. The papers included here reflect his astounding scholarship in all systems of philosophical thoughts of classical and modern India. It is hoped that this Volume would significantly contribute to better understanding not only of Indian philosophical systems but also of the rise and spread of Buddhism in Japan.

Professor Siddheshwar Rameshwar Bhatt is an eminent philosopher, Sanskritist and profound thinker. He retired as Professor and Head of Department of Philosophy and Coordinator of University Grant Commission's Special Assistance Programme in Philosophy in the University of Delhi. Presently he is Emeritus Fellow of the UGC in Delhi University.

Professor Bhatt is an internationally known authority on Ancient Indian Philosophy and Culture, having specialization in Nyaya, Buddhism, Jainism and Vedänta. He has been the General President of Indian Philosophical Congress and All India Philosophy Association (Akhil Bharatiya Darshan Parishad). He is a member of the federation of the International Societies of Philosophy, World Association of Vedic Studies, Society for Comparative and Asian Philosophy, International Vedanta Congress etc. and a Regional Coordinator of Council for Research in Values and Philosophy which has brought out 130 books on would cultures and civilizations.

Professor Bhatt has lectured in many universities and research institutes of India, Japan, China, South Korea, North Korea, Germany, United States of America, Turkey and Trinidad. He has organized more than 50 national and international seminars and conferences. He has authored and edited several books and research papers on themes pertaining to philosophy, culture, values and society.

The history of human kind has witnessed rise of many cultures and civilizations on the surface of the earth. Though human thoughts and value pursuits know no geographical boundaries or barriers, there is something unique and distinctive in each individual culture and civilization that gets shared, or perhaps may remain unshared as well, at trans-geographical spheres. These unique and distinctive elements have developed some times in isolation but quite often they have interacted and interfaced between and among themselves. In this process of sharing there have been encounters and confluences, assimilations and absorptions, fortifications or admixtures of identities, submerging or over powering of identities etc. In these enterprises and adventures one thing emerges out prominently and that is the fact that the values posited, pursued and realized in each individual culture and civilization are global and universalizable and yet the ways they are posited, pursued and realized are uniquely local. Therefore there is striking similarity and also bewildering diversity. The commonalities and contrasts are vivid and glaring, wonderous and baffling but they are academically quite stimulating and interesting. In the absence of tangible historical records, or extinction of some such records, many facets of these human achievements are eclipsed to our awareness and may remain so for ever. Some of the archeological findings, deeper explorations and newer researches are providing us glimpses of scattered and concealed evidences which need to be worked on though it may not be easy.

India and Japan have very old cultural contacts. Many travelers and scholars have contributed immensely to this living tradition between the two countries. Among these names Professor Hajime Nakamura and Kaviguru Rabindranath Tagore in contemporary times come to the forefront. Nakamura was an outstanding thinker and interpreter of Indian culture. He was a scholar of international repute and a recipient of many prestigious awards in Japan and India apart from several other countries of the world. He was a great friend of India and an ardent admirer of Indian culture. He was closely associated with Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the late President of our Republic, who had profuse admitation for him.

In the words of Dr. K. R. Narayanan, another former President of the republic of India, "Nakamura was well known in India as one of the outstanding and eminent scholars, and true friend of our country".

The central axis of Nakamura's scholarship was Indian which he studied and expounded with remarkable depth and compression, and with admirable width and breadth of philosophical perspectives. He was proud of his association with Indian culture and he declared this in unequivocal terms. His perceptive understanding of Indian culture and his exposition of all the systems of Indian philosophical thought were excellent. The sweep of his scholarship was exceedingly vast and encompassing. In every field of his research he was original, novel, pioneering and authoritative.

The quality and quantity of Nakamura's published works are astonishing, far exceeding than the works of any single individual in our times.