EARLY BUDDHIST MONACHISM
By SUKUMAR DUTT M.A., PH.D
PREFACE
A revised edition of this book was a long –felt-need. Published originally in 1924 by Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench. Trubner and Company of London in Trubner`s Oriental Series, the book went out of print in about a couple of years of its publication. For various reasons it was found to be impossible to bring out a fresh edition, through since its publication, it has been cited and referred to continuously up to date in works dealing with Buddhism both in India and in Europe and America.
No study of Buddhism can indeed be compiled without a proper understanding, which this book is intended to help, of the growth, development and organization of the Sangha, the Buddhism, there has been a demand for the re-issue of this book and I am grateful the Asia Publishing House of Bombay for its readiness to undertake it.
Indian culture is composite, and the Buddhist contribution to it during the two millennia and half that Buddhism was a living religion in India is so much a part and parcel of it that no true view of India culture is possible by ignoring the Buddhist monasteries and the monk organizations of which the history is practically unknown.
SUKUMAR DUTT
NEW DELHI 1960
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
INTRODUCTION
I. THE LAWS OF THE VINAYAPITAKA AND THEIR INTERPRETATION
II. THE PRIMITIVE PARIVRAJAKAS: A THEORY OF THEIR ORIGIN
III. THE SANGHA AND THE PATIMOKKHA: DEVELOPMENT OF THE LATER
IV. THE PATIMOKKHA AS A RITUAL
V. THE GROWTH OF THE BUDDHIST OCENOBIUM
VI. THE INTERNAL POLITY A BUDDHIST SANGHA
VII. COMMUNAL LIFE AT AN AVASA
LIST OF BOOKS CONSULTED
INDEX