Contents: Preface. Introduction. I. The primitive Sangha: (500-300 BC) Origin, development and organization: 1. 'Wandering Almsmen' in the upanisads. 2. The Bhikkhu-Sangha as a sect among the wanderers. 3. From wandering to settled life. 4. Early monk-settlements--Avasas and Aramas. 5. Sangha life and its organization in early settlements. 6. The rise of monasteries (Lenas). II. The Asoka-Satavahana age (250 BC-AD 100) and its legacy: 1. Monks of the 'eastern tract'. 2. Asoka and Moggaliputta Tissa. 3. Early Buddhist culture and its trans-Vindhyan expansion. 4. An aftermath of Satavahana culture--Nagarjunakonda. 5. Cave-monasteries (Lenas) of western India. 6. The bagh caves. III. In the Gupta age (AD 300-550) and after: 1. Sangha life in transition. 2. The Vinaya : its after-history. 3. Bhakti in later Buddhism. 4. Monasteries under the Gupta kings. 5. The devastation. 6. Survey of monastic remains of northern India. 7. The Maitraka monasteries of Valabhi. IV. Eminent monk-scholars of India: 1. Sources of information. 2. The Hinayana (Theravada) tradition of textual scholarship. 3. The Mahayana and its scholastic tradition. 4. The Acaryas and Mahayanist literature re-interpretation of the Hinayana. 5. The Acaryas. 6. Contemporaries and near-contemporaries of Hsiian-tsang and I-tsing. 7. Indian monk-scholars in China. Appendix--on I-tsing's 'account of fifty-one monks'. V. Monastic Universities (AD 500-1200): 1. From 'study for faith' to 'study for knowledge'. 2. Mahaviharas that functioned as Universities the University of Nalanda. 3. The Pala establishments. Appendix I--on the order of succession and approximate regnal years of kings of the Pala dynasty. a. Odantapura. b. Vikramasila. Appendix II--Tibetan cultural missions to India described in brom-ton's 'life of Atisa'. c. Somapura. d. Jagaddala. Bibliography. Index.
"Though India is no longer a Buddhist country, Buddhism held its place among Indian faiths for nearly seventeen centuries (500 B.C.--A.D. 1200). During this long stretch of time the Buddhist monks were organized in Sanghas in most parts of the country and their activities and achievements have profoundly influenced India's traditional culture.
"There are monumental remains of Buddhist monastic life scattered all over India : in the south there are about a thousand cave-monasteries, among them Ajanta, world-famous for its exquisite mural paintings; in the north, less spectacular, the ruins of monastic edifices from Taxila in the west to Paharpur in the east.
"A connected history of the Buddhist monks of ancient India, their activities, their monastic establishments and their contributions to Indian culture, is available for the first time in this work, which is remarkable also for its pervading human interest.
"In reconstructing the history of the emperors and kings who were patrons of Buddhism, the early missionaries and the illustrious monk-scholars of later times, the author has used sources in four languages--Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan." (jacket)
[Sukumar Dutt also wrote Early Buddhist Monachism and The Buddha and Five After-Centuries.]
