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Archaeology of Early Buddhism (Buddhism)

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Jun 23rd, 2018
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  1. Introduction
  2. The archaeology of Buddhism has been portrayed as the excavation of individual monuments and the chronological review of regional style. Reports focus on isolated monuments, and practitioners expose only the brick or stone walls of monuments. Technical studies relate architectural phasing to the exclusion of associated ceramic, small find, and specialist analyses, and there is a divergence of technique when comparing the excavation of Buddhist monuments and prehistoric sites. As a result, scholars in other disciplines rely on textual sources purporting to represent the social and economic context of early Buddhism rather than trying to interpret the results of excavations. This reliance is by no means new, as colonial pioneers also utilized archaeology to provide evidence for assumptions based on those early textual sources. Many early encounters were amateurish, but their founding assumptions persist, limiting the sophistication of our understanding of early practice. However, the archaeology of Buddhism offers the opportunity of tracing divergences between early precept and practice and investigating the social and economic transformations that accompanied its establishment. Indeed, Buddhism emerged at the same time as statehood and urbanization, as well as the creation of mercantile and urban elites, whose needs did not match established Brahmanical belief or the caste system. Furthermore, although much has been written on the life of the Buddha, we have little evidence from this early period, and the date of his death as well as the identity of his childhood home are still debated. The archaeology of Buddhism can readdress these lacunae but only through fresh excavations at key sites using advanced techniques. Such techniques can also be applied to examine monuments within their landscapes in order to understand their position and function within the networks of social and economic relationships that unified cityscapes with hinterlands. Finally, reference must be made to the potential represented by Buddhist ethnographies, which have recorded individual and collective motivations of communities, both lay and sacred. These allow us to develop analogues for the past as well as demonstrating that, far from being conservative, Buddhism has been adaptive, which explains its spread and resilience. In conclusion, the archaeology of Buddhism can provide more than the description of individual monuments as it alone can shed light on the physical character of early ritual practice; it alone can demonstrate how Buddhism interacted with its contemporary social, economic, and ritual context; and it alone can shed light on what early Buddhists actually did.
  3.  
  4. General Overviews
  5. For a broad overview, part 1 of Mitra 1971 offers a review of the life of the Buddha, part 2, a historical review, and part 3, a regional review. While the addition of another volume on Buddhist monuments in 1971 was not innovative in view of the tradition of Brown 1956 and Dutt 1962, it was striking that the volume was authored by a field archaeologist. Mitra’s approach remains differentiated from subsequent art historical and architectural reviews (Dehejia 1997) because it was written from an archaeological perspective. It is equally striking that, four years later, de Jong wrote that “Buddhist art, inscriptions and coins have supplied us with useful data, but generally they cannot be understood without the support given by the texts” (de Jong 1975, p. 14). This position was taken by many, relegating archaeologists to the production of data and leading to a state of affairs whereby it was possible to reconstruct the date of the Buddha without reference to archaeology (Gombrich 1992, cited under the Dating of the Life of the Buddha), but this imbalance led to a reaction led by a textual scholar, Gregory Schopen. Schopen 1997 notes the difference between the two evidence sets available to scholars of early Buddhism, characterizing them as either edited, canonical texts recording “what a small atypical part of the Buddhist community wanted that community to believe or practice” or physical archaeological and epigraphic material that reflected “what Buddhists . . . actually practiced and believed” (p. 1). Schopen demonstrates that whiles the former set may have been in ascendency, the latter indicated the presence of different past behaviors. Whereas archaeologists continued to augment the sequences of different regions, the questioning of the nature of Buddhist archaeology itself and archaeological attempts to engage with the archaeology of early Buddhism by archaeologists commenced only later. However, this led to a wider consideration of the state of the archaeology of Buddhism in 2001 during which the evidence for the earliest years of Buddhism and the date of the Buddha was questioned before moving on to questioning many of the generalizations and typologies of Buddhist archaeology (Coningham 2001). Reviewed after ten years (Coningham 2011), it is clear that more archaeologists are engaging, particularly from a landscape perspective, but that the archaeological exploration of the beginnings of Buddhism has barely begun.
  6.  
  7. Brown, Percy. Indian Architecture: Buddhist and Hindu Periods. 3d ed. Bombay: D. B. Taraporevala Sons, 1956.
  8.  
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  10.  
  11. This volume contains over five hundred photographs, plans, sections, and reconstructions of key monuments within south and Southeast Asia from the Mauryan period onwards. Brown uses sculptural base-reliefs and rock-cut monuments to aid the conjectural reconstruction of timber monuments of the early Buddhist period.
  12.  
  13. Find this resource:
  14.  
  15.  
  16. Coningham, Robin. “The Archaeology of Buddhism.” In Archaeology and World Religion. Edited by Timothy Insoll, 61–95. London: Routledge, 2001.
  17.  
  18. DOI: 10.4324/9780203463673Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  19.  
  20. A thematic review of the state of the archaeology of Buddhism that questions and confronts many of the traditionally accepted generalizations associated with Buddhism and its archaeology, with a focus on material culture.
  21.  
  22. Find this resource:
  23.  
  24.  
  25. Coningham, Robin “Buddhism.” In The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Ritual and Religion. Edited by Timothy Insoll, 934–947. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.
  26.  
  27. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199232444.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  28.  
  29. Ten-year thematic review of the state of the archaeology and “rematerialization” of Buddhism, examining its monuments and landscapes. The main drive of the chapter is to place monuments within their immediate and wider landscape and stress the need to consider their social and economic roles as well as their ritual ones.
  30.  
  31. Find this resource:
  32.  
  33.  
  34. Dehejia, Vidya. Discourses in Early Buddhist Art: Visual Narratives of India. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1997.
  35.  
  36. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  37.  
  38. A study of the development of Buddhist visual narratives on key monuments from the 1st century BCE to the 6th century CE and beyond, with special reference to the sites of Bharhut, Sanchi, Amaravati and Ajanta, and the region of Gandharan.
  39.  
  40. Find this resource:
  41.  
  42.  
  43. de Jong, Jan Willen. “The Study of Buddhism: Problems and Perspectives.” In Studies in Indo-Asian Art and Culture. Vol. 4. Edited by Perala Ratnam, 7–30. New Delhi: International Academy of Indian Culture, 1975.
  44.  
  45. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  46.  
  47. Powerful review of the study of Buddhism that advocates a predominate focus on textual sources in order to understand the role of “Buddhist art, inscriptions, and coins” in the development of early Buddhism.
  48.  
  49. Find this resource:
  50.  
  51.  
  52. Dutt, Sukumar. Buddhist Monks and Monasteries of India: Their History and Their Contribution to Indian Culture. London: Allen & Unwin, 1962.
  53.  
  54. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  55.  
  56. A comprehensive historical review of the Buddhist sangha and its monuments using textual, architectural, and archaeological sources from the earliest times to 1200 CE.
  57.  
  58. Find this resource:
  59.  
  60.  
  61. Mitra, Debala. Buddhist Monuments. Calcutta: Sahitya Samsad, 1971.
  62.  
  63. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  64.  
  65. A comprehensive overview containing a study of the development of Buddhist monuments within South Asia from the earliest times and a valuable regional-based description of key sites. Although still an essential source, its sequences and regional reviews are substantially out of date.
  66.  
  67. Find this resource:
  68.  
  69.  
  70. Schopen, Gregory. Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997.
  71.  
  72. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  73.  
  74. A collection of Schopen’s key challenges to the ways in which literary material has dominated the study of early South Asian Buddhism. His work utilizes architectural and epigraphic materials to demonstrate the importance of what monks, nuns, and laypeople actually did and demonstrates the difference between early practice and precept.
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  76. Find this resource:
  77.  
  78.  
  79. Nineteenth-Century Pioneers of Buddhist Archaeology
  80. Most of the individuals involved in the early years of Buddhist archaeology were not trained professionals but rather amateur antiquarians who were employed as army officers, judges, and administrators by the East India Company and its successor, the Raj. Of particular importance to the work of these early pioneers were the translations of the travel itineraries of Chinese Buddhist pilgrims to South Asia in the 1st millennium CE as they described not just distances between sites but also the appearance of the sites as well as the key pilgrimage monuments themselves (Beal 1869, Watters 1904, Beal 1911). Once translated into English, these itineraries allowed the comprehensive reconstruction of the historical topography of the early Buddhist world and resulted in the synthetic studies of Cunningham 1871, Fuhrer 1897, and Rhys-Davids 1903, which backed up tentative identifications with campaigns of field exploration and excavation. Note that those engaged with the South Asian past were not just British or European officers of the Raj; even in the early pioneering years, South Asian scholars played a substantial role. For example, General Khadga Shumsher Rana was a partner in the rediscovery of Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, alongside Dr. Fuhrer of the Archaeological Survey of India in December 1896. They were later followed to the site by Babu P. C. Mukerji, an archaeological surveyor, who cleared and planned the monuments at Lumbini in 1899 as well as those at the nearby site of Tilaurakot. In addition, not all sites were explored and conserved through the intervention of the Archaeological Survey of India as demonstrated by the role of generous South Asian patrons. The Begum of Bhopal, for example, funded Sir John Marshall’s excavations at the great stūpa of Sanchi, and the industrialist Sir Ratan Tata supported exploratory excavations at the ancient Mauryan capital of Pataliputra. Finally, many individual and collective groups of Buddhist pilgrims and activists, such as Angarika Dharmapala of the Mahabodhi Society, developed facilities for pilgrims at the newly rediscovered sites.
  81.  
  82. Beal, Samuel. Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun: Buddhist Pilgrims to India 400 AD to 518 AD. London: Trubner, 1869.
  83.  
  84. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  85.  
  86. Early translation of the travel itineraries and descriptions recorded by the Chinese monks Faxian and Songyun in the middle of the 1st millennium CE. These translations played a key role in reconstructing the historical topography of the Buddhist landscapes and sites of South Asia.
  87.  
  88. Find this resource:
  89.  
  90.  
  91. Beal, Samuel. The Life of Hiuen-Tsiang. London: Trubner, 1911.
  92.  
  93. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  94.  
  95. Early translation of the travel itinerary and description recorded by the Chinese monk Xuanzang in the 7th century CE. This translation was also important in the reconstruction of the topography of the Buddhist landscapes and sites of South Asia.
  96.  
  97. Find this resource:
  98.  
  99.  
  100. Burgess, James. The Buddhist Stūpas of Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta. London: Archaeological Survey of Southern India, 1887.
  101.  
  102. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  103.  
  104. Burgess’s original survey of the stūpa of Amaravati in 1882 with plans, drawings, and photographs of the existing stone railings. Dating to the Satavahana period, they depict numerous narratives from the life of the Buddha.
  105.  
  106. Find this resource:
  107.  
  108.  
  109. Cunningham, Alexander. The Ancient Geography of India: The Buddhist Period. London: Trubner, 1871.
  110.  
  111. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  112.  
  113. The Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang toured most of South Asia between 629 and 645 CE, leaving behind a clear description of the location and state of the Buddhist monuments and sites that he encountered. General Cunningham used this itinerary to identify the historical ruins he encountered in the 19th century.
  114.  
  115. Find this resource:
  116.  
  117.  
  118. Cunningham, Alexander. The Stūpa of Bharhut. London: W. H. Allen, 1879.
  119.  
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  121.  
  122. When Cunningham reached Bharhut in 1874, its brick stūpa had already been robbed out. However, he recorded the remaining surrounding sandstone railings and cardinal torana gateways, which had been erected between the 1st and 2nd centuries BCE. They present a unique collection of scenes from the lives of the Buddha.
  123.  
  124. Find this resource:
  125.  
  126.  
  127. Fuhrer, Alois A. Monograph on Buddha Sakyamuni’s Birthplace in the Nepalese Terai. Allahabad, India: Archaeological Survey of India, 1897.
  128.  
  129. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  130.  
  131. The results of Fuhrer’s expedition to the Nepali Terai, which culminated in the discovery of Lumbini as well as the discovery of two other Asokan pillars. A classic example of historical topography involving the blending together of field monuments, inscriptions and the Chinese pilgrim itineraries. Dismissed for fraud, a number of his discoveries have been questioned.
  132.  
  133. Find this resource:
  134.  
  135.  
  136. Rhys-Davids, Thomas W. Buddhist India. London: Fisher Unwin, 1903.
  137.  
  138. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  139.  
  140. Early attempt to describe the history and culture of South Asian Buddhism with particular focus on the period between Asoka and the Mauryan Empire and the Kushan Empire of Kanishka. Mainly reconstructed from textual sources and itineraries, it includes references to inscriptions and monuments.
  141.  
  142. Find this resource:
  143.  
  144.  
  145. Watters, Thomas. On Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India: 629–645 A.D. London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1904.
  146.  
  147. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  148.  
  149. Early translation and study of Xuanzang’s travel itinerary across South Asia by the British Consul-General to Korea with an attempt to identify the modern names of sites and trace possible routes.
  150.  
  151. Find this resource:
  152.  
  153.  
  154. Nineteenth-Century Archaeological “Rediscovery” of Buddhism
  155. As noted in General Overviews, many of the challenges facing the emergence of a comprehensive archaeology of Buddhism arise from its origins as an academic discipline, and there are a number of readings that describe and critically engage with its early development (Lopez 1995, Singh 2004). Largely educated in Europe, the new breed of imperial antiquarians perceived of themselves as representatives of an enlightened power and thus believed they had a duty to preserve and present the history and antiquities of South Asia. They pursued their studies in parallel with the activities of learned societies within England and continental Europe (Leoshko 2003). Although some of their excavations were extremely primitive and destructive, others resulted in well-published and comprehensive studies, such as Cunningham’s reports (Iman 1966). Many of the excavated and collected antiquities were preserved in public and private collections—increasingly the former over time—but a number of scholars have identified the presence of less constructive motives, such as applying alien values to these early discoveries (Almond 2007). Indeed, while many were driven by curiosity, Chakrabarti 1988 suggests that others were driven by a desire to impose Christianity and still others by a desire to simply classify or divide. Even the latter could be misleading, however, and Curzon was perplexed at the presence of fuzzy boundaries at many sacred sites and unsuccessfully attempted to lessen the role of the Hindu Mahant at Bodhgaya through the courts in order to “return” the management of the site to Buddhists (Lahiri 1999). Some of these pioneers were, however, motivated by profit and the example of Dr. Fuhrer (Allen 2009) also reminds us how poor the actual data are and how much of our understanding of key sites is based on extremely weak evidence. Collectively, these origins remind us of the limitations of our current data and the fragility of the assumptions based on those findings.
  156.  
  157. Allen, Charles. The Buddha and Dr Fuhrer: An Archaeological Scandal. London: Haus, 2009.
  158.  
  159. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  160.  
  161. A review of one of the more unscrupulous individuals associated with the 19th-century “rediscovery” of Buddhism during the British Raj. In addition to discovering a number of key sacred sites, Dr. Alois Fuhrer fabricated others and manufactured “relics” to sell.
  162.  
  163. Find this resource:
  164.  
  165.  
  166. Almond, Philip C. The British Discovery of Buddhism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
  167.  
  168. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  169.  
  170. An investigation of the 19th-century “rediscovery” of Buddhism with a focus on the process that saw it transformed from a distant myth into historical fact. The volume also examines aspects of the Victorian society that drove the transformation and its own motivations and values.
  171.  
  172. Find this resource:
  173.  
  174.  
  175. Chakrabarti, Dilip K. A History of Indian Archaeology: From the Beginning to 1947. New Delhi: Munshiran Manoharlal, 1988.
  176.  
  177. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  178.  
  179. Review of the development of the discipline of archaeology within South Asia during British rule. Rich in detail, it describes the key events and characters as well as noting many of the philosophical and political motivations influencing them.
  180.  
  181. Find this resource:
  182.  
  183.  
  184. Iman, Abu. Sir Alexander Cunningham and the Beginnings of Indian Archaeology. Dacca, Bangladesh: Asiatic Society of Pakistan, 1966.
  185.  
  186. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  187.  
  188. Biography of one of the pioneers of South Asian archaeology, Sir Alexander Cunningham (b. 1814–d. 1893). Traces the transformations of amateur antiquarians into pioneering professionals.
  189.  
  190. Find this resource:
  191.  
  192.  
  193. Lahiri, Nayanjot. “Bodh-Gaya: An Ancient Buddhist Shrine and Its History (1891–1904).” In Case Studies in Archaeology and World Religion. Edited by Tim Insoll, 33–41. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1999.
  194.  
  195. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  196.  
  197. Detailed study of the unsuccessful attempt by the viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, to transfer legal authority and ownership of the Buddhist Temple of Bodhgaya from the incumbent Hindu Mahant to the Mahabodhi Society.
  198.  
  199. Find this resource:
  200.  
  201.  
  202. Leoshko, Janice. Sacred Traces: British Explorations of Buddhism in South Asia. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2003.
  203.  
  204. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  205.  
  206. A review of the development of historical topography and its use in the identification of sites associated with the life of the Buddha and the early Buddhist sangha. Written by an art historian, it blends contemporary texts, Chinese pilgrim itineraries, and the early discoveries.
  207.  
  208. Find this resource:
  209.  
  210.  
  211. Lopez, Donald S., ed. Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism Under Colonialism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.
  212.  
  213. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  214.  
  215. A collection of six chapters that examines the influence of key European and Japanese scholars who were engaged in the rediscovery and development of the study of Buddhism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and question a number of their foundational assumptions.
  216.  
  217. Find this resource:
  218.  
  219.  
  220. Singh, Upinder. The Discovery of Ancient India: Early Archaeologists and the Beginning of Archaeology. New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2004.
  221.  
  222. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  223.  
  224. Study of the development of South Asian archaeology with a focus on north India and a limited number of individuals, including Cunningham and Carlleyle. It also contains a very useful account of the dismemberment of the Amaravati stūpa as well as a review of the contribution by South Asians in the 19th century.
  225.  
  226. Find this resource:
  227.  
  228.  
  229. Historical and Archaeological Context of Early Buddhism
  230. Buddhism was one of the heterodoxical sects that emerged from mainstream South Asian belief systems in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE. Focused on the Ganga watershed, these included the Buddhist order led by Siddhartha Gautama—the Buddha, the Jains led by Mahavira, and the Ajivikas led by Gosaliputra. Offering separate dharmas or teachings, these sramanas, or renouncant seekers, were unified by a will to overcome the weaknesses of the physical body and escape the cycle of rebirth and desire through the examination of the laws of cause and effect. Such practices and philosophies were in contrast to the established priestly Brahmans, who held the highest position in the caste rank of purity, higher than the Kshatriyas (warriors), Vaishayas (merchants), and Sudras (workers) who made up the social and economic landscape of South Asia (Bailey and Mabbett 2003). This landscape was, however, being transformed by the emergence of more complex societies and the agglomerations of population within cities and towns, providing concentrated markets for merchants as well as income and surpluses through taxation systems. These agglomerations also allowed rulers to mobilize large numbers of people for communal constructions, such as irrigation tanks, moats, and city walls (Allchin 1995). Taxes also allowed the creation of permanent bureaucracies and armies, pacifying and expanding hinterlands, and merchants benefitted from wider sources and markets, which fed domestic and luxury markets as well as encouraging their organization into powerful guilds. The introduction of coinage was also transformative, allowing the conversion of perishables into an imperishable form that was light and easily transported and exchanged. However innovative, this was a highly unstable landscape where the maxim of the fish (matsya-nyaya), in which larger fish prey on smaller ones and are themselves preyed upon, ruled as state devoured state and the Achaemenid Empire advanced closer to the subcontinent’s western borders. In such an environment, merchants and rulers began to patronize sramanas on a more even footing than the superior Brahmans (Sharma 1983, Thapar 1984, Thapar 1978), and it has been forcefully argued that such patronage offered the hope of more than enlightenment but also of social legitimacy for emerging elites across South Asia (Coningham 1995, Smith 2005).
  231.  
  232. Allchin, F. Raymond, ed. The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
  233.  
  234. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  235.  
  236. Useful regional overview of the emergence of complex societies and the development of urban forms across South Asia during the 1st millennium BCE.
  237.  
  238. Find this resource:
  239.  
  240.  
  241. Bailey, Greg, and Ian W. Mabbett. The Sociology of Early Buddhism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
  242.  
  243. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511488283Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  244.  
  245. Review of the emergence of Buddhism as a major cult in the Early Historic period with a consideration of the fit of its early philosophy and practice within the changing economic, social, and religious context of South Asia at the time.
  246.  
  247. Find this resource:
  248.  
  249.  
  250. Coningham, Robin A. E. “Monks, Caves and Kings: A Reassessment of the Nature of Early Buddhism in Sri Lanka.” World Archaeology 27 (1995): 266–281.
  251.  
  252. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  253.  
  254. Coningham reexamines the archaeological and epigraphic evidence for the conversion of Sri Lanka to Buddhism in the 3rd century BCE. Suggesting that local elites competed for legitimacy and hegemony through the patronage of the newly arrived Buddhist practitioners, he concludes that the resultant relationship between state and sangha became increasingly interdependent.
  255.  
  256. Find this resource:
  257.  
  258.  
  259. Dehejia, Vidya. “Collective and Popular Bases of Early Buddhist Patronage: Sacred Monuments, 100 BC–AD 250.” In The Power of Art: Patronage in Indian Culture. Edited by B. Stoler-Miller, 35–46. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992.
  260.  
  261. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  262.  
  263. Discussion of the relationship between Buddhist monuments and their patrons with reference to the role of guilds and individual families in the western Deccan.
  264.  
  265. Find this resource:
  266.  
  267.  
  268. Sharma, R. S. Material Culture and Social Formations in Ancient India. New Delhi: Macmillan, 1983.
  269.  
  270. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  271.  
  272. Review of the Early Historic period that identifies the attraction of Buddhist thought to the newly emergent mercantile communities, who subsequently played a critical role in providing patronage to the early sangha.
  273.  
  274. Find this resource:
  275.  
  276.  
  277. Smith, Monica. “Networks, Territories and the Cartography of Ancient States.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 95 (2005): 832–849.
  278.  
  279. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8306.2005.00489.xSave Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  280.  
  281. While most scholars have assumed that the distribution of Asokan pillars within South Asia indicate the hegemony of the Mauryan state, Smith suggests that they formed a series of networks and routes through which commercial and ideological transactions could occur, resulting in “Mauryanization.”
  282.  
  283. Find this resource:
  284.  
  285.  
  286. Thapar, Romila. From Lineage to State: Social Formations in the Mid-first Millennium BC in the Ganga Valley. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984.
  287.  
  288. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  289.  
  290. Overview of the social and economic transformations that occurred during the second half of the 1st millennium BCE, which resulted in both the emergence of state-level societies and Buddhism as a major cult.
  291.  
  292. Find this resource:
  293.  
  294.  
  295. Thapar, Romila. Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations. Hyderabad, India: Orient Longman, 1978.
  296.  
  297. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  298.  
  299. Comprehensive study of social and religious context of Early Historic South Asia with a focus on Buddhism transformation of social mobility and its attractiveness as a vehicle for community reformation and change.
  300.  
  301. Find this resource:
  302.  
  303.  
  304. Economic and Archaeological Context of Early Buddhism
  305. Many early pioneers of Buddhist archaeology viewed monasteries and their religious communities as removed from economic interests and situated in isolated locations across South Asia (Brown 1956, cited under General Overviews). However, such communities were also dependent on donations of food and cloth from lay members as well as dependent on more powerful individuals for patronage and protection. Such donations had a major effect on Buddhist communities, and, within the island of Sri Lanka, epigraphic evidence allows us to trace the transformation of the sangha as seasonal occupiers of remote and rocky retreats to permanently established and wealthy landlords, benefitting from the incomes generated by shares in villages, pasturage, and irrigation reservoirs (Gunawardana 1979). Protected as independent legal entities, such communities were immune from state taxes and even inspections by civic authorities (Dias 2001). Although not as powerful in mainland South Asia to the north, Buddhist monasteries often flourished on trade routes, whether within central India (Hawkes and Shimada 2009, cited under the Buddhist Stūpa) or further south in the Deccan (Morrison 1995). Benefitting from donations from travellers and merchants, ocean-going monks and nuns had a major social and economic impact when they arrived in Southeast Asia (Ray 1994). Shaw and Sutcliffe 2003 suggests that Buddhist monks—far from being absentee landlords—constructed a number of the irrigation reservoirs within the Sanchi region; in parallel, an early reservoir dating to the 3rd century BCE has been identified in close proximity to a contemporary vihara (Coningham 2011, cited under General Overviews). In addition, the sangha were not passive business partners, as indicated by the presence of Buddhist texts describing the economic roles of various monastic functionaries (Silk 2008). Schopen 1994 demonstrates that monks were also engaged with the offering of contracts and loans. Finally, Prasad 2011 shows that both Buddhist and Brahmanical establishments played major economic roles in Bangladesh and eastern and southern India during the 1st millennium CE.
  306.  
  307. Dias, Malini. The Growth of Buddhist Monastic Institutions in Sri Lanka from Brahmi Inscriptions. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Archaeological Survey of Sri Lanka, 2001.
  308.  
  309. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  310.  
  311. A comprehensive review of the Brahmi inscriptions of Sri Lanka, which concludes that monasteries played major social and economic roles in the hinterland of the city of Anuradhapura by the end of the 1st millennium CE.
  312.  
  313. Find this resource:
  314.  
  315.  
  316. Gunawardana, R. A., H. Leslie. Robe and Plough: Monasticism and Economic Interest in Early Mediaeval Sri Lanka. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1979.
  317.  
  318. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319.  
  320. A pioneering review of the relationship between the sangha and secular communities in early medieval Sri Lanka. It examines the process by which royal and court donations altered the role of monastic communities from that of asceticism to that of landlord and revenue generator.
  321.  
  322. Find this resource:
  323.  
  324.  
  325. Morrison, Kathleen D. “Trade, Urbanism and Agricultural Expansion: Buddhist Monastic Institutions and the State in the Early Historic Western Deccan.” World Archaeology 27 (1995): 203–221.
  326.  
  327. DOI: 10.1080/00438243.1995.9980304Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  328.  
  329. An examination of the relationship between the establishment of the Satavahana Empire in the western Deccan of Peninsular India in the post-Mauryan period and creation of over eight hundred rock-cut Buddhist monasteries and shrines. Morrison concludes by suggesting that the latter did not provide a clear trade function although many were located on major routes.
  330.  
  331. Find this resource:
  332.  
  333.  
  334. Prasad, Birendra Nath, ed. Monasteries, Shrines and Society: Buddhist and Brahmanical Religious Institutions in India in their Socio-Economic Context. New Delhi: Manak, 2011.
  335.  
  336. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  337.  
  338. Edited collection of papers examining the broader social and economic roles of religious institutions within South Asia in the 1st millennium CE. It usefully covers both Buddhist and Brahmanical establishments and focuses mainly on Bangladesh and eastern and southern India.
  339.  
  340. Find this resource:
  341.  
  342.  
  343. Ray, Himanshu P. Winds of Change: Buddhism and the Maritime Links of Early South Asia. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1994.
  344.  
  345. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  346.  
  347. Focusing on the dynamics of Indian Ocean trade, Ray suggests that networks across the Bay of Bengal also facilitated the movement of Hindu and Buddhist practitioners and specialists to Southeast Asia. This was to have a major social and economic impact resulting in the emergence of state-level societies.
  348.  
  349. Find this resource:
  350.  
  351.  
  352. Schopen, Gregory. “Doing Business for the Lord: Lending on Interest and Written Loan Contracts in the Mulasarvastivada-Vinaya.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 114 (1994): 527–554.
  353.  
  354. DOI: 10.2307/606161Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  355.  
  356. Study of the relationship between the Buddhist sangha and the lay world through an examination of the economic role and functions of monks and monasteries as preserved within epigraphic records of the 1st centuries CE.
  357.  
  358. Find this resource:
  359.  
  360.  
  361. Shaw, Julia, and John Sutcliffe. “Water Management, Patronage Networks and Religious Change.” South Asian Studies 19 (2003): 73–104.
  362.  
  363. DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2003.9628622Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  364.  
  365. Preliminary study that chronologically links the creation of dams within the Sanchi landscape with the development of Buddhist monasteries.
  366.  
  367. Find this resource:
  368.  
  369.  
  370. Silk, Jonathan A. Managing Monks: Administrators and Administrative Roles in Indian Buddhist Monasteries. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
  371.  
  372. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  373.  
  374. An extremely useful review of the titles and responsibilities of administrators within Buddhist institutions in South Asia as preserved within Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, and Chinese textual sources. It sheds light not only on their duties but also on the types of activities performed by monasteries.
  375.  
  376. Find this resource:
  377.  
  378.  
  379. Archaeology of the Buddha
  380. Most scholars agree that the Buddha was born Gautama Siddhartha at Lumbini in the first half of the 1st millennium BCE and that he was the son of the Sakya ruler Suddhodana of Kapilavastu and Maya Devi, daughter of the ruler of the neighboring kingdom of Devahaha (Beal 1869, cited under Nineteenth-Century Pioneers of Buddhist Archaeology). At the age of twenty-nine, the prince abandoned his family and kingdom and adopted the life of a wandering renouncer, one of many practicing meditation and experimenting with austerities. At Bodhgaya he defeated the attempts of Mara to tempt him and thus achieved Buddhahood and became an “enlightened one.” He preached his first sermon at Sarnath, and, after successfully attracting thousands of converts and followers from all levels of urban and rural society over the next forty-five years of teaching and wandering, underwent his great passing away or mahaparanirvana at Kusinagara at the age of eighty (see Dutt 1962, cited under General Overviews). Before his passing, he is recorded as having advised his cousin, the monk Ananda, that four sites were worthy of pilgrimage: Lumbini, his birthplace; Bodhgaya, where he achieved enlightenment; Sarnath, where he preached his first sermon; and Kusinagara, where he achieved nirvana (see Mitra 1971, cited under General Overviews). While descriptions of these four sites were available through the Pali texts and travel itineraries of the early Chinese pilgrims to the Ganga plain in the 1st millennium CE, their physical locations were lost over time. As discussed above, their identification was a priority for early antiquarians and was steadily realized with the “rediscovery” of Bodhgaya (Cunningham 1892), Sarnath (Majumdar 1937) and Kusinagara (Patil 1957) in the 1860s, and Lumbini in the Nepal Terai in 1899 (Mukherji 1901, cited under the Dating of the Life of the Buddha). While recent multidisciplinary studies of the extant data, such as Leoshko1988, Trevithick 2006, and Lahiri 1999 at Bodhgaya and Falk 1991 and Deeg 2003 at Lumbini, are extremely helpful in reviewing the evidence for their identification and later development, little is actually known about the detailed chronology and development of the four main sites of Buddhist pilgrimage, and only fresh excavations can shed light on the very earliest phases and physical character of Buddhism.
  381.  
  382. Cunningham, Alexander. Mahabodhi or the Great Buddhist Temple Under the Bodhi Tree at Buddha-Gaya. London: Allen, 1892.
  383.  
  384. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  385.  
  386. Cunningham’s original report of his excavations and clearances at Bodhgaya in the 1890s, which included research within the Gupta-Pala temple. With some evidence of Mauryan features, the earliest monuments date from the 1st century CE.
  387.  
  388. Find this resource:
  389.  
  390.  
  391. Deeg, Max. The Places Where Siddhartha Trod: Lumbini and Kapilavastu. Lumbini, Nepal: Lumbini International Research Institute, 2003.
  392.  
  393. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  394.  
  395. Useful critical overview of the travel itineraries and descriptions of Lumbini and Kapilavastu as recorded by Faxian, Xuanzang, and Cien-si-zhuan.
  396.  
  397. Find this resource:
  398.  
  399.  
  400. Falk, Harry. “Zur Geschichte vom Lumbini.” Acta Orientalia 52 (1991): 70–90.
  401.  
  402. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  403.  
  404. Overview of the history of the discovery of Lumbini at the end of the 19th century and its full identification as the birthplace of the Buddha.
  405.  
  406. Find this resource:
  407.  
  408.  
  409. Lahiri, Nayanjot. “Bodh-Gaya: An Ancient Buddhist Shrine and Its Modern History.” In Case Studies in Archaeology and Religion. Edited by Timothy Insoll, 33–43. Oxford: Archaeopress, 1999.
  410.  
  411. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  412.  
  413. Overview of the discovery of Bodh Gaya and the struggle for control of the shrine during the 19th and 20th centuries.
  414.  
  415. Find this resource:
  416.  
  417.  
  418. Leoshko, Janice, ed. Bodhgaya: The Site of Enlightenment. Bombay: Marg, 1988.
  419.  
  420. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  421.  
  422. Multidisciplinary study of Bodhgaya with individual chapters on sculpture, architecture, and artifacts as well as the sites’ links beyond India to Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, and Nepal.
  423.  
  424. Find this resource:
  425.  
  426.  
  427. Majumdar, Bhavatosa. Guide to Sarnath. Calcutta: Manager of Publications, 1937.
  428.  
  429. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  430.  
  431. Short but useful guide and summary of the major monuments at Sarnath. There is no definitive excavation report for the site.
  432.  
  433. Find this resource:
  434.  
  435.  
  436. Patil, D. R. Kusinagara. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 1957.
  437.  
  438. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  439.  
  440. Short guide to the monuments of Kusinagara, the capital of the Malla tribe and the site of the great passing away of the Buddha. Again, there is no definitive excavation report for the site.
  441.  
  442. Find this resource:
  443.  
  444.  
  445. Trevithick, Alan. The Revival of Buddhist Pilgrimage at Bodh Gaya 1811–1849: Angarika Dharmapala and the Mahabodhi Temple. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2006.
  446.  
  447. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  448.  
  449. Useful review of the transformation of Bodh Gaya into a key site of Buddhist pilgrimage in the 19th and 20th centuries and the role played by the Sri Lankan Buddhist reformer Angarika Dharmapala.
  450.  
  451. Find this resource:
  452.  
  453.  
  454. The Dating of the Life of the Buddha
  455. Initially cleared, planned, and photographed during the pioneering phases of antiquarian exploration, Lumbini, Bodhgaya, Sarnath, and Kusinagara were all subject to seasons of clearing and mapping. Although many of these campaigns were recorded in detail, as in Cunningham 1892 (cited under Archaeology of the Buddha) on Mahabodhi, most were reported with a focus on major monuments of stone or brick but with little attention given to stratigraphy, photography, drawing, or the study of small finds. This state of affairs continued, and we are now left with a situation where little is known about the detailed chronology of the four main sites of Buddhist pilgrimage, including the exact dates of the birth and death of the Buddha himself. Indeed, the date of the Buddha’s passing away or mahaparanirvana varies between extremes of 2420 and 290 BCE (Coningham 2001, cited under General Overviews). However broad, the main debate is between a long, uncorrected “southern or Ceylonese Buddhist” chronology of 544/543 BCE or a long corrected “southern Buddhist” chronology of 480 BCE and a short one of 368, 383, 384, 386, 390, or 340 BCE (Bechert 1995a, pp. 12–16). However surprising this range may be, it reflects the outcome of different calculations undertaken by different Buddhist traditions of the number of years between the Emperor Asoka’s consecration and the Buddha’s nirvana, and this controversy is far from resolved (Gombrich 1992). Little assistance may be gained from a review of the archaeological evidence, as most sites were substantially remodelled during the Mauryan period and then stripped out of early in situ layers by the early archaeological pioneers (Hartel 1995). Furthermore, the identification of other sites associated with the life of the Buddha is still subject to debate. For example, while the fortified site of Tiluarakot was identified as Kapilavastu—the childhood home of the Buddha—with reference to historical topography at the beginning of the 20th century (Mukherji 1901), this was later challenged in Mitra 1972. That author’s claim that there was no evidence of occupation earlier than the 2nd and 3rd centuries BCE has since been refuted by fresh excavations accompanied by radiocarbon dates (Coningham, et al. 2010), but another site on the Indian side of the border has been advanced as a rival Kapilavastu (Srivastava 1996). While the chronometric dating of both sites would offer one solution to this debate, the uncertain date of the Buddha’s birth and nirvana makes this unlikely, and only fresh excavations at key sites associated with his life will shed light on this critical chronology.
  456.  
  457. Bechert, Heinz. “Introductory Essay: The Dates of the Historical Buddha.” In When Did the Buddha Live? Edited by Heinz Bechert, 11–36. New Delhi: Sri Satguru, 1995a.
  458.  
  459. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  460.  
  461. Authoritative review of the debate as to the date of the Gautama Buddha with reference to textual sources and regional traditions. Presents dates for Buddha’s death of between 2420 and 290 BCE but presents the conclusions of his symposium that “the Buddha died within a few years of 480 BC.”
  462.  
  463. Find this resource:
  464.  
  465.  
  466. Bechert, Heinz, ed. When Did the Buddha Live? New Delhi: Sri Satguru, 1995b.
  467.  
  468. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  469.  
  470. A collection of twenty-one papers presented to a symposium on the controversy of the dating of the historical Buddha held at the Academy of Sciences in Gottingen. Its papers are drawn from epigraphers, literary specialists, and archaeologists and reflect the complexity of the question of the date of the Buddha’s life.
  471.  
  472. Find this resource:
  473.  
  474.  
  475. Coningham, Robin A. E., Kosh Prasad Acharya, Armin Schmidt, and Basanta Bidari. “Searching for Kapilavastu.” In Sirinimal Lakdusinghe Felicitation Volume. Edited by Prishanta Gunawardhana, Gamini Adikhari, and Robin Coningham, 55–66. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Neptune, 2010.
  476.  
  477. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  478.  
  479. A study of the archaeological search for Kapilavastu, the childhood home of the Buddha, and review of the archaeological evidence from the site of Kapilavastu in the Nepal Terai.
  480.  
  481. Find this resource:
  482.  
  483.  
  484. Gombrich, Richard F. “Dating the Buddha: A Red Herring Revealed.” In Dating the Historical Buddha. Edited by Heinz Bechert, 237–257. Gottingen, Germany: Vandendoeck & Ruprecht, 1992.
  485.  
  486. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  487.  
  488. Gombrich’s overview of alternative dates of the life of the Buddha and his own suggestion that the Buddha was born in the last decades of the 5th century BCE. This suggestion is based on textual sources.
  489.  
  490. Find this resource:
  491.  
  492.  
  493. Hartel, Herbert. “Archaeological Research on Ancient Buddhist Sites.” In When Did the Buddha Live? Edited by Heinz Bechert, 141–160. New Delhi: Sri Satguru, 1995.
  494.  
  495. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  496.  
  497. One of the few evaluations of the dating of the Buddha’s life to approach the subject from an archaeological perspective. Finding little evidence before the Asokan period, Hartel concludes by suggesting a date of between the 4th and 5th centuries BCE.
  498.  
  499. Find this resource:
  500.  
  501.  
  502. Mitra, Debala. Excavations at Tilaura-Kot and Kodan and the Explorations in the Nepalese Tarai. Kathmandu, Nepal: Department of Archaeology, His Majesty’s Government of Nepal, 1972.
  503.  
  504. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  505.  
  506. Excavation and survey report of the sites of Tilaurakot, Lumbini in Nepal, as undertaken by an officer of the Archaeological Survey of India. The volume is extremely detailed, but its dating of Tilaurakot remains controversial.
  507.  
  508. Find this resource:
  509.  
  510.  
  511. Mukherji, Poorno Chunder. A Report on a Tour of Exploration of the Antiquities in the Tarai, Nepal. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1901.
  512.  
  513. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  514.  
  515. Record of the initial survey and excavation of the site of Lumbini after its rediscovery by Dr. A. Fuhrer and General Khadga Shumsher J. B. Rana in 1899. It also includes a description of the site of Tilaurakot, which Mukherji identified as Kapilavastu.
  516.  
  517. Find this resource:
  518.  
  519.  
  520. Srivastava, Krishna Murari. Excavations at Piprahwa and Ganwaria. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 1996.
  521.  
  522. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  523.  
  524. Records excavations at the stūpa of Piprahwa and adjacent settlement of Ganwaria in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and attempts to identity the latter as the ancient city of Kapilavastu.
  525.  
  526. Find this resource:
  527.  
  528.  
  529. The Buddhist Stūpa
  530. The stūpa is one of the oldest Buddhist monuments and is the most resilient, being solid and constructed out of brick, clay, or stone. It has been subject of multidisciplinary studies (e.g., Hawkes and Shimada 2009). Early Buddhist texts record that the Buddha’s ashes, embers, and cremation urn were separately enshrined within ten stūpas. The Emperor Asoka is said to have opened all but one of these and redistributed their relics within 84,000 more stūpas. The linked stratigraphy of a stūpa and Asokan pillar at Gotihawa (Verardi 2007) and the presence of caskets recording his relics at sites such as Devnimori (Mehta and Chowdhary 1966) confirm relic circulation. The stūpa of Sanchi (Cunningham 1854) is thought to represent an exemplary form in terms of design. It comprised an 8-meter-high brick hemisphere with a diameter of 18 meters, surmounted by a stone umbrella and surrounded by a processional walkway defined by a 3.2-meter-high outer stone railing and 8.5-meter-high cardinal gateways. However, Sanchi was the result of over three hundred years of patronage and embellishment. Other parallels have been recorded by archaeologists, including the identification of a pre-Asokan clay core below later brick casing at the stūpa of Vaisali (Sinha and Roy 1969) and phases of timber railings preceding a stone-built railing at Pauni (Deo and Joshi 1972). According to the Pali canon, stūpas were to be erected at sites associated with the Buddha’s life, over objects used by him and his disciples, or over relics of him and his disciples, although Asoka’s inscription on the Nigli Sagar pillar states that the emperor enlarged the existing stūpa dedicated to one of the former Buddhas, the Kanakamuni Buddha (Coningham 2011, cited under General Overviews). This complex picture is intensified by the presence of an Early Historic stūpa at Mathura dedicated to the Jains and the hypothesis that the stūpa cult emerged out of the megalithic traditions of South Asia (DeCaroli 2008). Evidence for the latter is limited to the presence of a cemetery under the stūpa courtyard at Saidhu Sharif in Pakistan (Noci, et al. 1997). The cult of the stūpa was particularly important in Sri Lanka where relic chambers were embellished to resemble the center of the Buddhist universe and where they reached gigantic sizes at Polonnaruva after the 1st millennium CE (Silva 2004).
  531.  
  532. Cunningham, Alexander. The Bhilsa Topes or Buddhist Monuments of Central India. London: Smith, Elder, 1854.
  533.  
  534. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  535.  
  536. The prototype for the study of Buddhist sites within South Asia as undertaken by Sir Alexander Cunningham at Sanchi. The site is approached comprehensively with attention paid to topography, adjacent sites, inscriptions, and artifacts as well as the architecture and construction details of the key monuments themselves.
  537.  
  538. Find this resource:
  539.  
  540.  
  541. DeCaroli, Robert. “Text versus Image: The Implications of Physical Evidence for Buddhist History.” In Belief in the Past: Theoretical Approaches to the Archaeology of Religion. Edited by David S. Whitley and Kelley Hays-Gilpin, 119–128. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast, 2008.
  542.  
  543. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  544.  
  545. Short reflection on the colocation of megalithic burial sites in Swat and South India and later Buddhist sites and worship; reaches the conclusion that early Buddhism incorporated elements of existing “spirit-deity” propitiation and veneration in its early practice and that this aspect assisted in its popularity and spread.
  546.  
  547. Find this resource:
  548.  
  549.  
  550. Deo, Shantaram Bhalchandra, and Jagat Pati Joshi. Pauni Excavation, 1969–70. Nagpur, India: Nagpur University, 1972.
  551.  
  552. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  553.  
  554. Report of the excavations of the brick-built stūpa complex at Pauni in Maharashtra between 1969 and 1970. The excavation showed the presence of a sequence of timber railings surrounding the stūpa before they were later replaced by stone.
  555.  
  556. Find this resource:
  557.  
  558.  
  559. Hawkes, Jason, and Akira Shimada, eds. Buddhist Stūpas in South Asia: Recent Archaeological, Art Historical and Historical Perspectives. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009.
  560.  
  561. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  562.  
  563. Broad collection of papers providing a useful collection of reflections on the symbolic, architectural, archaeological, and historical aspects of the stūpa.
  564.  
  565. Find this resource:
  566.  
  567.  
  568. Mehta, Ramanlal Nagarji, and S. M. Chowdhary. Excavation at Devnimori. Baroda, India: University of Baroda, 1966.
  569.  
  570. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  571.  
  572. Report of the excavation of the stūpa and vihara complex at Devnimori in Gujrarat between 1960 and 1963 before the site was submerged by a newly built dam. Of particular interest was the recovery of a relic casket from the core of the stūpa itself that is thought to contain relics of the Buddha.
  573.  
  574. Find this resource:
  575.  
  576.  
  577. Noci, Francesco, Roberto Macchiarelli, and Domenico Faccenna. Saidu Sharif I (Swat, Pakistan): 3, The Graveyard. Rome: IsMEO, 1997.
  578.  
  579. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  580.  
  581. Final report of the excavations at Saidu Sharif in the Swat Valley. Undertaken by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan between 1979 and 1982, it presents intriguing evidence that the Buddhist monastery and stūpa terrace were erected directly above a known cemetery.
  582.  
  583. Find this resource:
  584.  
  585.  
  586. Silva, Roland. Architecture and Town Planning in Sri Lanka during the Early and Medieval Periods: Part 2, Thūpa, Thūpaghara and Thūpa-Pāsāda. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Department of Archaeology, 2004.
  587.  
  588. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  589.  
  590. Survey and review of the stūpa in Sri Lanka from its initial development up to the medieval period. Well illustrated and compares plans and elevations of surviving examples with base reliefs and reliquaries.
  591.  
  592. Find this resource:
  593.  
  594.  
  595. Sinha, B. P., and Sita Ram Roy. Vaisali Excavations, 1958–1962. Patna, India: Directorate of Archaeology and Museums, 1969.
  596.  
  597. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  598.  
  599. Unique sequence through the stūpa outside Vaisali that demonstrates the presence of a pre-Asokan core of clay that was later encased with three skins of brick, the second of which has been associated with the Asokan period.
  600.  
  601. Find this resource:
  602.  
  603.  
  604. Verardi, Giovanni. Excavations at Gotihawa and Pipri, Kapilbastu District, Nepal. Rome: IsIAO, 2007.
  605.  
  606. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  607.  
  608. The report of the Nepali-Italian Archaeological Mission’s excavations at the stūpa and Asokan pillar of Gotihawa in the Terai. This is one of the few well-documented excavations at a Mauryan Buddhist site, and the recorded stratigraphy successfully catches the extremely rare underlying pre-Asokan landscape at the site.
  609.  
  610. Find this resource:
  611.  
  612.  
  613. The Buddhist Griha or Shrine
  614. The griha is the second fundamental element that comprised a Buddhist complex, and its forms ranged in shape from apsidal and circular to quadrangular (Sarkar 1966). The former have been associated with the period of Asokan patronage, and Allchin has identified Asoka as a builder of the brick apsidal shrine close to the Asokan pillar at Sarnath (Allchin 1995). However, the apsidal shape predated the emergence of Buddhism, as the earliest example at Charsadda dates to the 1st centuries of the 1st millennium BCE. The form was also utilized by other traditions, and the Mauryans donated the Lomās Rsi rock-cut apsidal shrine at the Barabar hills to the Ajivika sect (Huntington 1974–1975). While some early examples appear to have no apparent cult focus, others were built around relics encased within a stūpa, as at Bairat. The excavation is described in Sahni 1937 and reinterpreted in Piggott 1943. This early Mauryan shrine comprised a small brick stūpa enclosed within a brick-built and plaster-coated circular shrine with a diameter of 10 meters. The shrine was subdivided by an inner ring of twenty-seven octagonal timber pillars separating the outer processional path from the sanctum. To add to this diversity, a rectangular and partially open shrine was constructed at Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, adjacent to the Asokan pillar. A number of scholars have recorded the transition from aniconic to iconic veneration and the very different patterns of patronage and worship associated with this class of monument (Dehejia 1972 and Fogelin 2003). It remained a core feature of Buddhist establishments and reached gigantic proportions with the construction of a 22-meter-high shrine in the center of the monastic quadrangle at Paharpur in Bengal in the 8th century CE (Dikshit 1938, cited under the Buddhist Vihara or Monastery). While griha housing stūpas or images are well known (Sarkar 1966), the category of bodhi-griha, or tree shrine, is far less well represented by physical examples, although there are depictions on the reliefs decorating the stūpas of Bharhut, Sanchi, and Amaravati. Bandaranaike focused on this problem of archaeological visibility within Sri Lanka with some success, identifying twenty-five square and elliptical platforms dating to between the 7th and 10th centuries CE. Focused on a single central stone-lined pit (Bandaranayake 1974), the author believes that these pits, which were filled with dark, organic soil, are indicative of bodhi-griha—an assumption that is yet to be scientifically tested.
  615.  
  616. Allchin, F. Raymond. “Mauryan Architecture and Art.” In The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States. Edited by Raymond Allchin, 222–273. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
  617.  
  618. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  619.  
  620. A useful description and review of some of the earliest examples of Buddhist monuments in north and central India and Pakistan. Mostly dating from the Mauryan period, this review stresses the lack of evidence from pre-Mauryan levels.
  621.  
  622. Find this resource:
  623.  
  624.  
  625. Bandaranayake, Senake D. Sinhalese Monastic Architecture: The Viharas of Anuradhapura. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 1974.
  626.  
  627. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  628.  
  629. An excellent study of the chronological and architectural development of the Buddhist viharas surrounding the city of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka. Bandaranayake’s methodology for comparing and depicting monument zone development remains one of the best examples.
  630.  
  631. Find this resource:
  632.  
  633.  
  634. Dehejia, Vidya. Early Buddhist Rock Temples: A Chronological Study. London: Thames and Hudson, 1972.
  635.  
  636. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  637.  
  638. Detailed study of the form and chronology of the Buddhist rock-cut caves of the Deccan as well as a consideration of construction and pattern of patronage.
  639.  
  640. Find this resource:
  641.  
  642.  
  643. Fogelin, Lars. “Ritual Presentation in Early Buddhist Religious Architecture.” Asian Perspectives 42.1 (2003): 129–154.
  644.  
  645. DOI: 10.1353/asi.2003.0021Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  646.  
  647. Fogelin uses shrine and stūpa plans from the 1st century BCE to the 2nd century CE to compare sight lines and postulate ritual practices. He concludes that rock-cut stūpa shrines were more corporate in nature and that the latter presented an architectural emphasis on individuality.
  648.  
  649. Find this resource:
  650.  
  651.  
  652. Huntington, John C. “The Lomās Rsi: Another Look.” Archives of Ancient Art 28 (1974–1975): 34–56.
  653.  
  654. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  655.  
  656. Detailed review of the Lomās Rsi apsidal rock-cut cave in the Barabar Hills. It is thought to have been donated to the Ajivika sect by Asoka, the Mauryan emperor, in the 3rd century BCE.
  657.  
  658. Find this resource:
  659.  
  660.  
  661. Piggott, Stuart. “The Earliest Buddhist Shrines.” Antiquity 17 (1943): 2–6.
  662.  
  663. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  664.  
  665. Piggott’s reinterpretation of Sahni’s earlier excavations at the circular Mauryan temple at Bairat. Rather than assuming that the small stūpa at the center of the shrine had been surrounded by two high walls, Piggott suggests that the innermost timber wall was originally designed as a colonnade as found in a number of known rock-cut shrines but was later blocked up.
  666.  
  667. Find this resource:
  668.  
  669.  
  670. Sahni, Daya Ram. Archaeological Remains and Excavations at Bairat. Jaipur, India: Jaipur State Department of Archaeology and Historical Research, 1937.
  671.  
  672. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  673.  
  674. Report of Sahni’s excavation of one of the earliest known Buddhist shrines in South Asia. Close to an Asokan edict, it was centered on a small stūpa and comprised an inner timber and brick wall surrounded by an outer brick circular wall. Sahni dates the structure to the 3rd century BCE.
  675.  
  676. Find this resource:
  677.  
  678.  
  679. Sarkar, H. Studies in Early Buddhist Architecture of India. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 1966.
  680.  
  681. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  682.  
  683. Review of the layout and architectural detail of Buddhist shrines within South Asia as well as a consideration of differences and similarities with Hindu structures.
  684.  
  685. Find this resource:
  686.  
  687.  
  688. The Buddhist Vihara or Monastery
  689. The early Buddhist sangha differentiated itself from other groups of wandering mendicants and organized heterodoxical sects through its adoption of a corpus of institutional behaviors, the Vinaya or framework of monastic discipline (Dhirasekera 2007, originally published in 1982). One of these advocated the gathering of wandering Buddhist monks during the monsoon season, or vasa, providing an annual opportunity for agglomerate and retreat, while others described the boundaries for monasteries and the construction materials to be used. The Vinaya divided these complexes into aramas, close to cities, and avasas, within the countryside, and the Pali Buddhist canon recorded the donation of retreats close to the cities of Rajagriha and Kausambi (Dutt 1962, cited under General Overviews). It is assumed that the earliest were timber and thatch; none have been identified through excavations, although there are depictions of such buildings on the reliefs at Bharhut. Indeed, the features of the rock-cut viharas at Ajanta preserve the timber traditions of their free-standing predecessors (Brown 1956, cited under General Overviews). As a result, the earliest evidence for formal residences comes from Sri Lanka, where natural granite caves and shelters were donated to the sangha in the 3rd century BCE (Paranavitana 1970). Natural cavities were adapted by cutting a simple channel or drip ledge above the entrance to prevent rainwater from running down into the interior (Rāhula 1993). The well-known quadrangular form of monastic enclosure appears to have been developed some centuries later, and John Marshall suggests that they developed from simple ranges of cells fronted by a veranda, reflecting a major change in sangha and laity relations (Coningham 2001, cited under General Overviews). Few monastic complexes have been scientifically excavated, but those that have been have produced perplexing finds of figurines, animal bones, and spearheads (Callieri 1989), highlighting differences between practice and precept. There is evidence of sectarianism within Sri Lankan viharas in the latter half of the 1st millennium CE, differentiating orthodox monasteries from those engaged with meditation practice (Wijesuriya 1998), although diversity is anticipated elsewhere. Regional differentiation was also present, as a form of vihara gigantacism occurred at Paharpur in Bengal in the 8th century CE with the construction of the largest vihara ever built centered around a single quadrangle covering 22 hectares (Dikshit 1938). Monasteries were more than just residences of monks; they also hosted hospitals, and some, like Nalanda (Mani 2008), were internationally renowned for their scholastic training and education. Sadly, the study of the role of nuns within such institutions is grossly underdeveloped (Shah 2001).
  690.  
  691. Callieri, Pierfrancesco. Saidu Sharif I (Swat, Pakistan): 1, The Buddhist Sacred Area: The Monastery. Rome: IsMEO, 1989.
  692.  
  693. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  694.  
  695. Second report of the excavations at Saidu Sharif in the Swat Valley. Undertaken by the Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan between 1977 and 1982, it represents one of the most detailed architectural and artifactual records of a Buddhist monastic compound within the region of Gandhara.
  696.  
  697. Find this resource:
  698.  
  699.  
  700. Dhirasekera, Jotiya. Buddhist Monastic Discipline: A Study of Its Origin and Development in Relation to the Sutta and Vinaya Pitakas. Dehiwala, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Cultural Centre, 2007.
  701.  
  702. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  703.  
  704. Useful overview and introduction to the regulations guiding monastic life with reference to the Pali Suttas and the Vinaya Pitakas.
  705.  
  706. Find this resource:
  707.  
  708.  
  709. Dikshit, Ras Bahadur K. N. Excavations at Paharpur. New Delhi: Manager of Publications, 1938.
  710.  
  711. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  712.  
  713. Report of the excavations at Paharpur, the largest single Buddhist monastic quadrangle in the world. Built in the 8th century CE, the quadrangle measured 250 meters on each side and contained 177 cells fronted by a veranda.
  714.  
  715. Find this resource:
  716.  
  717.  
  718. Mani, C., ed. The Heritage of Nalanda. New Delhi: Aryan, 2008.
  719.  
  720. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  721.  
  722. Multidisciplinary study of Nalanda with individual chapters on the art, archaeology, medieval scholarship, and education associated with this important Gupta and Pala monastic complex.
  723.  
  724. Find this resource:
  725.  
  726.  
  727. Paranavitana, Senarat. Inscriptions of Ceylon: Containing Cave Inscriptions from Third Century BC to First Century AC. Vol. 1. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Department of Archaeology, 1970.
  728.  
  729. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  730.  
  731. Texts and translation of 1276 early Brahmi inscriptions recording donations to the Buddhist sangha in Sri Lanka. They offer a powerful textual record of patronage at this early date and include laypeople, monks, and nuns alongside royalty.
  732.  
  733. Find this resource:
  734.  
  735.  
  736. Rāhula, Walpola. History of Buddhism in Ceylon: The Anuradhapura Period. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Gunasena, 1993.
  737.  
  738. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  739.  
  740. Based on literary and epigraphical records, this is one of the key overviews of the development of Buddhism in Sri Lanka between the 3rd century BCE and the 10th century CE.
  741.  
  742. Find this resource:
  743.  
  744.  
  745. Shah, Kirit K. The Problem of Identity: Women in Early Indian Inscriptions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.
  746.  
  747. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  748.  
  749. Pioneering study of the issue of the visibility of women within the archaeology of early Buddhism based on epigraphic records.
  750.  
  751. Find this resource:
  752.  
  753.  
  754. Wijesuriya, Gamini. Buddhist Meditation Monasteries of Sri Lanka. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Department of Archaeology, 1998.
  755.  
  756. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  757.  
  758. Review of the evidence for Buddhist meditational monasteries within the architectural and textual records of the island of Sri Lanka. Concludes by suggesting that there was a strong tradition for such communities and that their monasteries followed a very different architectural and monumental plan.
  759.  
  760. Find this resource:
  761.  
  762.  
  763. Buddhist Archaelogical Landscapes
  764. Most contemporary archaeologists, art historians, and architects within South Asia have followed a tendency to focus purely on monumental Buddhist forms in isolation, as exemplified by the detailed studies of stūpas or on specific categories of monuments such as Silva 2004 (cited under the Buddhist Stūpa). However, this was not always the case, as a number of the early archaeological pioneers paid attention to the topographical contexts of sites, as exemplified by the report of Alexander Cunningham on Sanchi (Cunningham 1854, cited under the Buddhist Stūpa). This approach was also adopted by Sir John Marshall within the Valley of Taxila, where over twenty years of excavations at numerous urban, rural, religious, and secular sites allowed Marshall to refer to the presentation of “a graphic picture . . . of the development of Buddhism” (Marshall 1951, p. xvii). However, so high was the level of investment necessary to undertake surveys and explorations of this nature that only the flooding of an entire archaeological landscape in the vicinity of Nagarjunakonda in the 1950s allowed such intensive description of sites to be undertaken again after independence in India, revealing a diverse extramural landscape of Buddhist and Hindu temples (Sarkar and Misra 1966). Indeed, intensive research surveys of Early Historic landscapes only recommenced in the 1990s with a survey of the citadel of Sigiriya’s hinterland, identifying a network of manufacturing sites, monasteries, and agricultural settlements (Bandaranayake, et al. 1990). This pioneering survey has recently been intensified to the north in the hinterland of the city of Anuradhapura and its Buddhist shrines, where five seasons of intensive survey and excavations have identified that monasteries played key social and economic functions within the landscape (Coningham, et al. 2007; Coningham, et al. 2012; Coningham 2011, cited under General Overviews) but also that they interacted within a landscape full of multiple hierarchies following very different traditions. Less intensive and less intrusive surface surveys in the vicinity of Sanchi and Bharhut in central India (Shaw 2007) and Thotlakanda in Andhra Pradesh (Fogelin 2006) have demonstrated that this pattern is far from unique within South Asia as a whole. Recent reanalyses of the distribution of cult and ritual activities within the city of Sirkap in the Taxila Valley demonstrate that such pluralistic and contested landscapes within Early Historic South Asian were not restricted to rural hinterlands but also included urban intramural landscapes (Michon 2007).
  765.  
  766. Bandaranayake, Senake, Mats Mogren, and Seneviratne Epitawatte, eds. The Settlement Archaeology of the Sigiriya-Dambulla Region. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology, University of Kelaniya 1990.
  767.  
  768. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  769.  
  770. First comprehensive multidisciplinary settlement survey within Sri Lanka, and South Asia as a whole. First survey to focus on the importance of recording all settlements, whether manufacturing site, agricultural village, or monastery.
  771.  
  772. Find this resource:
  773.  
  774.  
  775. Coningham, Robin A. E., Prishanta Gunawardhana, Mark J. Manuel, et al. “The State of Theocracy: Defining an Early Medieval Hinterland in Sri Lanka.” Antiquity 81.313 (2007): 699–719.
  776.  
  777. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  778.  
  779. A review of the findings of five years of settlement survey and excavations in the hinterland of the Buddhist pilgrimage city of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka. In view of the absence of towns, the paper suggests that the city’s hinterland was organized by networks of powerful Buddhist monasteries.
  780.  
  781. Find this resource:
  782.  
  783.  
  784. Coningham, Robin A. E., Prishanta Gunawardhana, Christopher Davis, et al. “Contextualising the Tabbova-Maradanmaduva ‘Culture’: Excavations at Nikawewa, Tirappane District, Anuradhapura District, Sri Lanka.” South Asian Studies 28.1 (2012): 1–14.
  785.  
  786. DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2012.659877Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  787.  
  788. Review of sites associated with animal and human terracotta figures within the hinterland of Anuradhapura, concluding that they represent a separate regional category of formal ritual sites contemporary with, but outwith, the networks of rural Buddhist monasteries.
  789.  
  790. Find this resource:
  791.  
  792.  
  793. Fogelin, Lars. Archaeology of Early Buddhism. Lanham, MD: AltaMira, 2006.
  794.  
  795. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  796.  
  797. Published PhD dissertation that examines the development of a small Early Historic monastic complex at Thotlankanda and concludes that while it was isolated from surrounding settlements, it still had economic and social links with them.
  798.  
  799. Find this resource:
  800.  
  801.  
  802. Marshall, John Hubert. Taxila: An Illustrated Account of Archaeological Excavations Carried Out at Taxila under the Orders of the Government of India Between the Years 1913 and 1934. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1951.
  803.  
  804. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  805.  
  806. The report of Marshall’s excavations and surveys within the Valley of Taxila provide a unique archaeological landscape of urban and rural monastic monuments and a unique insight into the development of Buddhism between the 3rd century BCE and the 5th century CE.
  807.  
  808. Find this resource:
  809.  
  810.  
  811. Michon, Daniel M. “Material Matters: Archaeology, Numismatics, and Religion in Early Historic Panjab.” PhD diss., University of California, Santa Barbara, 2007.
  812.  
  813. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  814.  
  815. Detailed analysis of the evidence for intramural ritual within the city of Sirkap in the Taxila Valley, which concludes that Buddhist worship was conducted in both formal and domestic settings and took place alongside other traditions.
  816.  
  817. Find this resource:
  818.  
  819.  
  820. Sarkar, H., and B. N. Misra. Nagarjunakonda. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India, 1966.
  821.  
  822. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  823.  
  824. Report of the survey and excavations at Nagarjunakonda undertaken before the valley of Krishna River was flooded by the construction of a new dam. Although occupied from the Neolithic period onwards, the thirty Early Historic suburban monasteries provide evidence for the presence of sects from across South Asia, including Sri Lanka.
  825.  
  826. Find this resource:
  827.  
  828.  
  829. Shaw, Julia. Buddhist Landscapes in Central India: Sanchi Hill and Archaeologies of Religious and Social Change. London: British Association for South Asian Studies, 2007.
  830.  
  831. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  832.  
  833. Report of a survey of Sanchi and its surroundings that investigates the development of the Buddhist sites in the context of other sites of ritual significance.
  834.  
  835. Find this resource:
  836.  
  837.  
  838. Archaeology and Anthropology of Buddhism
  839. Although it is possible to revise many earlier assumptions concerning early Buddhist practice with reference to inscriptions and other forms of material culture, there are limits to the fullness of our understanding. One way of bridging those limits is through reference to the body of anthropologies and ethnographies of contemporary Buddhist communities. Indeed, by 1971 Gombrich had already blended epigraphic and textual sources with modern practice to explore differences between Buddhist practice and precept in Sri Lanka (Gombrich 1971). This pioneering exploration was further developed by Carrithers, who studied modern meditating forest monks and the behavior of their patrons across South and Southeast Asia (Carrithers 1983). Carrithers concludes that forest-dwelling ascetics refreshed and reformed urban monastic practice in contemporary society and were part of pervasive tradition of reformation dating back to the beginning of the institutionalized sangha. Also focused on forest monks, Taylor 1993 suggests that such individuals played a role in the process of domesticating and integrating more peripheral jungle zones into states—a process that one can hypothesize occurred in the distant past. Tambiah 1984 and Trainor 1997 also highlight the importance and integrity of relic worship within modern communities of Buddhists in Thailand, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. The authors further suggest that there is evidence that its importance is not a recent impulse or an erosion of earlier practice but rather is part of a pervasive regional culture of veneration. Additionally, Bond 1992 demonstrates that alien colonization, and even the quest for independence, transformed the nature of Buddhist practice and organization within Sri Lanka. Collectively and individually, these studies indicate that part of Buddhism’s success, strength, and attraction has been its adaptability, demonstrating that it is not an unresponsive religious tradition. Indeed, these ethnographies indicate that while precept may have followed a conservative development (although the development of the Buddha image and Mahayana tradition hardly lack in innovation), Buddhist practice was never static and differentiated itself widely through time and space. Such a feature was undoubtedly present at its inception, but, as yet, we lack the physical evidence for earlier adaptations and transformations due to the weaknesses of the dominant methodologies accompanying Buddhist archaeology. There are still few ethnographic studies on such topics as the role of nuns (Bartholomeusz 1994) and the practice of pilgrimage (Huber 2008). Although few archaeologists have engaged with such analogues, the potential is clearly immense, as exemplified in Coningham 1995 (cited under Historical and Archaeological Context of Early Buddhism).
  840.  
  841. Bartholomeusz, Tessa J. Women Under the Bō Tree: Buddhist Nuns in Sri Lanka. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
  842.  
  843. DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511896026Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  844.  
  845. A rare study of the social history of Buddhist nuns in Sri Lanka reflecting on the official status of nuns today and in the past. Reinforces the absence of more substantial archaeological or textual studies of gender within Buddhist studies.
  846.  
  847. Find this resource:
  848.  
  849.  
  850. Bond, George D. The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka: Religious Tradition, Reinterpretation and Response. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1992.
  851.  
  852. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  853.  
  854. Broad study of colonial postcolonial developments within Sri Lankan Buddhism and the degree to which some of its earliest champions borrowed from other traditions to develop a program of modernization.
  855.  
  856. Find this resource:
  857.  
  858.  
  859. Carrithers, Michael. The Forest Monks of Sri Lanka: An Anthropological and Historical Study. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1983.
  860.  
  861. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  862.  
  863. Study of the contemporary role of ascetic forest-dwelling monks within South and Southeast Asia, with special attention to communities within Sri Lanka. Carrithers makes use of the island’s rich textual records to suggest that such communities also played an important role within the Early Historic and Medieval period.
  864.  
  865. Find this resource:
  866.  
  867.  
  868. Gombrich, Richard F. Buddhist Precept and Practice: Traditional Buddhism in the Rural Highlands of Ceylon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971.
  869.  
  870. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  871.  
  872. Classic ethnographic study examining the divergence between canonical precept and contemporary practice within the hill country of Sri Lanka. The study concludes by suggesting that such divergences have been a feature of Buddhism since its earliest times.
  873.  
  874. Find this resource:
  875.  
  876.  
  877. Huber, Toni. The Holy Land Reborn: Pilgrimage and the Tibetan Reinvention of Buddhist India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
  878.  
  879. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  880.  
  881. An investigation into the creation and development of concepts of Tibetan sacred landscapes within South Asia. It also demonstrates that such landscapes are not fixed but have adapted over time.
  882.  
  883. Find this resource:
  884.  
  885.  
  886. Tambiah, Stanley J. The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of Amulets: A Study in Charisma, Hagiography, Sectarianism and Millennial Buddhism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
  887.  
  888. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  889.  
  890. Historic and ethnographic study of Thai forest-dwelling ascetic meditational monks and their amulets. The latter objects have played a critical role both at an individual level as well as within sectarian rivalries and offer an understanding of the dynamism and charisma of material culture.
  891.  
  892. Find this resource:
  893.  
  894.  
  895. Taylor, Jim L. Forest Monks and the Nation-State: An Anthropological and Historical Study in Northeast Thailand. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993.
  896.  
  897. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  898.  
  899. Study of the relationship between the ascetic forest monks and lay communities in northeast Thailand during the 19th century and the role that the former played in the “domestication” of those lands and their integration into the modern Thai state. Taylor also considers the transformations that affected the monks themselves during this process.
  900.  
  901. Find this resource:
  902.  
  903.  
  904. Trainor, Kevin. Relics, Ritual, and Representation in Buddhism: Rematerializing the Sri Lankan Theravāda Tradition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
  905.  
  906. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  907.  
  908. Review of the role and position of relic worship across early South Asia with particular reference to Sri Lanka. Combining epigraphical and literary sources, Trainor argues for a more central position for the veneration of relics than that accepted today.
  909.  
  910. Find this resource:
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