The search for the Buddha : the men who discovered India's lost religion / Charles Allen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Allen, Charles, 1940-2020.

Contributor:

Rev. Shojo Honda Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Buddhist antiquities--India.

Buddhist antiquities.

Buddhism--Study and teaching.

India.

Buddhism--Study and teaching--India.

Buddhism.

Physical Description:

xii, 322 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Edition:

First Carroll and Graf edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003.

Summary:

"Now 2,500 years old, Buddhism has 300 million followers worldwide and between two and three million adherents in the United States. Yet, until the late eighteenth century when Sir William "Oriental" Jones - a British judge in India - broke the Brahmins' prohibition on learning the sacred language of Sanskrit, the Buddha's teachings were treasures unappreciated by Westerners. Jones, who began to uncover clues about Buddhism's origins from inscriptions on pillars and rocks, became the first of an enthusiastic, and often eccentric band whose search for the Indian subcontinent's secret religion is chronicled in this book of monumental historical detection infused with the air of high adventure."--Jacket.

Contents:

Prologue: the orientalists

The botanising surgeon

Tales from the east

Oriental Jones and the Asiatic society

Jones and the language of the gods

Dr. Buchanan and the Messengers form Ava

Three Englishmen an a Hungarian

Tigers, topes, and rock-cut temples

James Prinsep the scientific enquirer

Triumph and disaster

Prinsep and the beloved of the gods

Alexander Cunningham and the Chinese pilgrims

Cunningham and the archaeological survey

The Welshman, the Russian spiritualist, the American Civil war colonel and the editor of the Daily Telegraph

The search for Buddha's birthplace

Epilogue: the sacredness of India.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 303-308) and index.

ISBN:

0786711973

9780786711970

OCLC:

51726663

Online:

Publisher description