Indian Monastic Buddhism

The majority of scholars of Indian Buddhism concentrated on Buddhist commentarial and scriptural sources, which depict Buddhism in a prescriptive and idealized way until the latter part of the twentieth century. As such, Buddhist monks or nuns were portrayed as celibate renunciants who engaged in complex Philosophical debate and other austere meditative activities leading to enlightenment. The types of textual and archaeological materials that provide insight into the lives of Buddhist monastic culture were not given enough attention. What was the reality of monastic life? What did monks and nuns do to sustain their communities? What rituals and devotional practices did they practice and how did they relate to the laity?