Indian Buddhism

Dr. Warder is the Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit at The Uniersity of Toronto.
This book describes India’s Buddhism based on a comparison of all available original sources in different languages. It is divided into three parts that are roughly equal. The first part is a reconstruction based on the traditions of different schools. It mainly uses the existing methods of textual critic, drawing out the oldest extant texts from the various schools their common kernel. This is the common Buddhism that existed before the great schisms in the fourth and third centuries BC. Although it may be the Buddhism of Buddha himself, it cannot be proven. It is presupposed to be a Buddhism that existed around a hundred years after Parinirvana for the Buddha. There is no evidence to support the Buddha or his immediate disciples as the originator. The second section explains how the eighteen schools of early Buddhism developed their doctrines from the same kernel. This section shows how the Sthaviravada, or ‘Theravada,’ from the Pali tradition, among other things, modified or added to the original doctrine. The third section describes the Mahayana movement, the Mantrayana and the Way of the Bodhisattva. It is detailed how the Mahayana relates to early schools, and its possible affiliation to one of them (the Purva Saila), as indicated by the consensus evidence. This book focuses on the social teachings of Buddhism. It is the part that relates to the “world” rather than to Nirvana, and has been neglected in modern Buddhist writings.