Indian Buddhism (A Survey with Bibliographical Notes)

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This work presents a survey of Indian Buddhism with detailed bibliographical notes.

Basing itself on recent studies, it is intended to introduce studies in various aspects of Indian Buddhism carried on by Japanese scholars as well as Western and Asian, especially Indian, scholars.

The main text constitutes a general survey of the development of Indian Buddhism, and studies by scholars past and present are mentioned in full detail in copious footnotes with due evaluations.

This work can be regarded, so to speak, as a development with revisions, of the Buddhist portion of M. Winternitz' History of Indian Literature. Major studies before and after Winternitz' work are exhaustively mentioned. As a reference work also this book is extreme help to scholars and students alike.

The work has been edited by Prof. Ramesh Mathur.

About the Author

Professor Hajime Nakamura, D. Litt., Honorary D. Litt., Deshikottama (Visva-Bharati) is a distinguished scholar of international repute.

He was Professor of Indian and Buddhist Philosophy at the University of Tokyo for thirty years. Since his retirement he has been conducting the Eastern Institute, as the Founder Director. He is now Professor Emeritus of University of Tokyo, a member of the Academy of Japan, and was awarded the Order of Merit by the Emperor.

He was awarded the honorary degree of Vidya-Vacaspati by the President of the Republic of India, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan. He has been visiting Professor in various Universities of the world.

He is the author of History of Early Vedanta Philosophy; Early Buddhism (in Japanese); A Comparative History of Ideas and History of the Development of Japanese Thought and many other books and articles.

Foreword

The fortunate possessor of this remarkable survey of Buddhist bibliography by the Japanese savant Hajime Nakamura could scarcely anticipate the rich contents by the author's modest preface. Here he briefly details labors of over two decades, starting with articles on Japanese bibliography, reaching out in notes to Western bibliography. The range of Buddhist bibliography is encyclopedic, and the work is therefore properly entitled Indian Buddhism.

It is a pleasure for the editor and the publishing firm motilal Banarsidass to inaugurate the Buddhist Traditions Series by reprinting Professor Nakamura's annotated bibliography. The further volumes in this series will be of smaller format. The exception is gladly made for Professor Nakamura's work because a photographic reduction would have seriously impaired the consultation of the text and of the numerous Sino-Japanese characters.

Preface

This work will present a survey of Indian Buddhism with bibliographical notes. The main sentences will constitute a general survey, but studies by scholars are mentioned occasionally with evaluation.

Originally this work was intended to introduce recent studies carried on especially by the Japanese scholars; but in order to evaluate them the author had to pay due attention to the works of the Western and Asian, especially Indian scholars, hence they have also been included.

Several parts of this survey were published earlier in the following journals: Bukkyo Kenkyu, Hamamatsu, No. 3, August 1973, p. 88f; No. 5, March 1976, p. 167f.; No. 6, February 1977, p. 164f.

The Journal of Intercultural Studies, No. 2, 1975, pp. 84-122; No. 3, 1976, pp. 60-145; No. 4, 1977, pp. 77-135; No. 5, 1978, pp. 89-138.

These have been revised and enlarged and some sections on the historical background and logic have been newly added.

As this work of survey has been under preparation for over two decades, always improving the previous manuscripts, the style of citing sources and works is not consistent, but I hope that the main body of this book and the exhaustive, although not complete, footnotes will give readers fairly useful information and prove helpful to scholars in the future.

I am extremely grateful to Dr. Takako Tanimoto, President of the Kansai University of Foreign Studies, for establishing the Intercultural Research Institute ad for sponsoring the Journal of Intercultural Studies, a yearly journal with high academic and technical standards. I am thankful to Professor Haruo Koze, Director of the Intercultural Research Institute for including this survey in the monograph series of the institute. Dr. Ramesh Mathur took the initiative and responsibility to get this survey published in the present form and his colleague Ms. Kerstin Vidaeus shared equally the entire editing and publication work. Without the kind help and assistance of these ladies and gentlemen, this work would not have been brought to this state of completion. Herewith, I express my sincere gratitude to all of them.

I am very appreciative of the fine work done by the staff members, Mr. Eikichi Hirakawa and Mr. Tadashi Fujimura, and the workers of the Sanseido Press and commend them for their spirit of cooperation and hard work.