Researches in Buddhist Studies- A Descriptive Bibliography

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The Department of Buddhist Studies was established in 1957. Earlier, the subject had been a part of the Philosophy Department of the University of Delhi. It is in the year 1956 when entire Buddhist world was celebrating 2550th year of Buddha Jayanti, Government of India under the instigation of Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the First President of India, and Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru, then the Prime Minister of India, in order to pay tribute to the Buddha, decided to celebrate this pious occasion in a befitting manner throughout India. In order to do so, Government of India had created several centres to promote, preserve and propagate Buddhism in India and abroad. As a result of this policy, in 1957 our Department of Buddhist Studies, in University of Delhi, came into existence after bifurcating Department of Philosophy. In the initial stage, it functioned as a small research unit under the Chairmanship of Prof. P.V. Bapat. Originally it was started as a research unit and in course of time, it became a research-cum- teaching Department. Later on, the Department had introduced several courses like M.A., M. Phil., Ph.D., Certificate and Diploma courses in Tibetan and Pali languages, to educate the interested learners of Buddhism more exhaustively. During the last 50 years of its long history, it has remarkably grown by leaps and bound. It has been able to attract the scholars and students not only from India but also from abroad. As a part of imparting Buddhist education to our students apart from regular course work to the post graduate students and to the research scholars of the Department, our Department has a long tradition of organizing seminars/conferences at National and International level and also publishes its own journal in the name of Buddhist Studies. It may be pointed out that the Department of Buddhist Studies is the biggest Department of Buddhist Studies in India. It has on its rolls over 250 foreign students from as many as 37 countries.

The present work is primarily based on research work presented by the research scholars of the Department of Buddhist Studies, University of Delhi. In this compiled work an attempt has been made to provide a detailed research works undertaken in the past and also present before the Buddhist scholars food for thought to do the research with the help of these researches in future. While presenting such a data to the Buddhist scholars an effort has been made to get their attention to. The main aim of this present book is to present before the readers of the researches done by our research scholars in the field of Buddhist Studies, and to incite the scholars for exploring new and developing areas of Buddhism.

The main idea behind bringing out this book was firstly, to make an exposition of the research works done on different topics by the research scholars of this Department to the elite world; secondly, to make them aware of the contributions made by the Department and its scholars who are deeply engaged in the field of Buddhist Studies in India and abroad; thirdly, to widen one's understanding of the Dhamma by developing the interdisciplinary approach; fourthly, to have a better knowledge of researches undertaken by the Department till date and finally; for paving the way in deciding topics for future research in Buddhism.

All the Ph. D. research works in the field of Buddhist Studies have been incorporated in the form of this book that contain a plethora of research works undertaken till now from the date of the establishment of the Department of Buddhist Studies.