Bones, Stones, and Buddhist Monks : : Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy, and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India / / Gregory Schopen.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Hawaii Press Archive eBook-Package Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: Schopen, Gregory,
• MitwirkendeR: Lopez, Donald S.,
• Place / Publishing House: Honolulu : : University of Hawaii Press, , [2021]; ©1997
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in the Buddhist Traditions
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (316 p.)

The present volume provides an essential foundation for a social history of Indian Buddhist monasticism. Challenging the popular stereotype that represented the accumulation of merit as the domain of the layperson while monks concerned themselves with more sophisticated realms of doctrine and meditation, Professor Schopen problematizes many assumptions about the lay-monastic distinction by demonstrating that monks and nuns, both the scholastic elites and the less learned, participated actively in a wide range of ritual practices and institutions that have heretofore been judged 'popular,' from the accumulation and transfer of merit; to the care of deceased relatives; to serving as sponsors and donors, rather than always the recipients, of gifts; to (possibly) the coining of counterfeit currency. Taken together, the studies contained in this volume represent the basis for a new historiography of Buddhism, not only for their critique of many the idées reçues of Buddhist Studies but for the compelling connections they draw between apparently disparate details.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- I. Archaeology and Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of Indian Buddhism -- II. Two Problems in the History of Indian Buddhism -- III. Filial Piety and the Monk in the Practice of Indian Buddhism -- IV. The Ritual Obligations and Donor Roles of Monks in the Pāli Vinaya -- V. The Stūpa Cult and the Extant Pāli Vinaya -- VI. Monks and the Relic Cult in the Mahāparinibbāna-sutta -- VII. Burial Ad Sanctos and the Physical Presence of the Buddha in Early Indian Buddhism -- VIII. On the Buddha and His Bones The Conception of a Relic in the Inscriptions of Nāgārjunikonda -- IX. An Old Inscription from Amāravatī and the Cult of the Local Monastic Dead in Indian Buddhist Monasteries -- X. On Avoiding Ghosts and Social Censure Monastic Funerals in the Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya -- XI. On Monks, Nuns, and "Vulgar" Practices -- XII. The Buddha as an Owner of Property and Permanent Resident in Medieval Indian Monasteries -- Index of Archaeological Sites and Inscriptions -- Index of Texts -- Index of Words, Phrases, and Formulae -- Index of Subjects