Haunting the Buddha

Haunting the Buddha
Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Total Pages : 241
Release :
ISBN-10 : 9780198037651
ISBN-13 : 0198037651
Rating : 4/5 (51 Downloads)

Book Synopsis Haunting the Buddha by : Robert DeCaroli

Download or read book Haunting the Buddha written by Robert DeCaroli and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2004-09-30 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Early European histories of India frequently reflected colonialist agendas. The idea that Indian society had declined from an earlier Golden Age helped justify the colonial presence. It was said, for example, that modern Buddhism had fallen away from its original identity as a purely rational philosophy that arose in the mythical 5th-century BCE Golden Age unsullied by the religious and cultural practices that surrounded it. In this book Robert DeCaroli seeks to place the formation of Buddhism in its appropriate social and political contexts. It is necessary, he says, to acknowledge that the monks and nuns who embodied early Buddhist ideals shared many beliefs held by the communities in which they were raised. In becoming members of the monastic society these individuals did not abandon their beliefs in the efficacy and the dangers represented by minor deities and spirits of the dead. Their new faith, however, gave them revolutionary new mechanisms with which to engage those supernatural beings. Drawing on fieldwork, textual, and iconographic evidence, DeCaroli offers a comprehensive view of early Indian spirit-religions and their contributions to Buddhism-the first attempt at such a study since Ananda Coomaraswamy's pioneering work was published in 1928. The result is an important contribution to our understanding of early Indian religion and society, and will be of interest to those in the fields of Buddhist studies, Asian history, art history, and anthropology.


Haunting the Buddha Related Books

Haunting the Buddha
Language: en
Pages: 241
Authors: Robert DeCaroli
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2004-09-30 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Early European histories of India frequently reflected colonialist agendas. The idea that Indian society had declined from an earlier Golden Age helped justify
Haunting the Buddha
Language: en
Pages: 240
Authors: Robert DeCaroli
Categories: Religion
Type: BOOK - Published: 2004-09-30 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Early European histories of India frequently reflected colonialist agendas. The idea that Indian society had declined from an earlier Golden Age helped justify
Haunting the Buddha
Language: en
Pages: 230
Authors: Robert DeCaroli
Categories: Art and mythology
Type: BOOK - Published: - Publisher:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Buddha and the Borderline
Language: en
Pages: 280
Authors: Kiera Van Gelder
Categories: Biography & Autobiography
Type: BOOK - Published: 2010-08-01 - Publisher: New Harbinger Publications

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Kiera Van Gelder's first suicide attempt at the age of twelve marked the onset of her struggles with drug addiction, depression, post-traumatic stress, self-har
Image Problems
Language: en
Pages: 274
Authors: Robert Daniel DeCaroli
Categories: Art
Type: BOOK - Published: 2015-03-01 - Publisher: University of Washington Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This deft and lively study by Robert DeCaroli explores the questions of how and why the earliest verifiable images of the historical Buddha were created. In so