LECTURES ON BUDDHA AND BUDDHISM
RADHAGOVINDA BASAK
SAMBODHI PUBLICATIONS PRIVATE LIMITED
Twenty two Strand road Calcutta one
CONTENTS
The life and teachings of Buddha
The Life of Buddha as depicted by Asvaghosa
Buddha, the conqueror of Mãra
The conversion of Sãriputra and Maudgalyãyana
Some aspects of Buddhism as in the Mahãvastu-Avadãna
Buddhist emperor Asoka’s liberality
The interrelation between Brãhmanism and Buddhism
Index
PREFACE
Since my retirement more than twenty years ago from the educational service as a Professor, I have devoted myself, among other studies, to an intensive study of some Pali and Buddhist Sanskrit works. The Mahãvastu-avadãna on which I based some of my lectures published in this book had given me a very great impetus to my study on the various episodes of Buddha’s life and many aspects of his religion (Buddhism). The seven lectures which are published in the present book are all on Buddhist topics and they were delivered in meetings hold by the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Calcutta on different dates and were published in its Bulletins. Only the first lecture was published in the Prabuddha-Bhãrata. Lectures 2,3,4,5 and 7 were respectively published in the July and August issue of 1956, the November issue of 1953, the February issue of 1953, the June issue of 1960 and the April and May issues of 1957 in the Bulletins of the institute. Lecture 1 was published in the May and June issues of 1952 in the Prabuddha-Bhãrata of Mayavati, Almora. Lecture 6 will be published in an issue of the institute’s Bulletin.