Between 399 and 414 CE, the Chinese monk Faxian (Fa-Hsien, Fa Hien) undertook a trip via Central Asia to India seeking better copies of Buddhist books than were currently available in China. Although cryptic to the extent that we cannot always be sure whe...
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Digital Rare Book:
The Pilgrimage of Fa Hian
From the French edition of FOE KOUE KI of MM. Remusat, Klaproth and Landresse
By Faxian (337 CE - 422 CE)
Printed by J. Thomas, Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta - 1848
Digital Rare Book:
Travels of Fah-Hian and Sung-Yun
Buddhist pilgrims from China to India (400 A.D. and 518 A.D.)
Translated from the Chinese by Samuel Beal
Published by Trubner & Co., London - 1869
Digital Rare Book:
Legends and Miracles of Buddha, Sakya Sinha
Translated from the Avadan Kalpalata (Former lives and good deeds of Buddha) of Bodhi-Sattwas, of the great Sanskrit poet Kshemendra (11 century)
By Nobin Chandra Dasa
Published by Jadu Nath Seal, Calcutta - 1895
Digital Rare Book:
The Buddha-karita of Asvaghosha
Edited by Edward Byles Cowell
Introduction in English
Printed at The Clarendon Press, Oxford - 1893
In Sanskrit
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Aśvaghoṣa (c. 80 – c. 150 CE) was an Indian phil...
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Running youths holding the tails of a humped bull and a winged lion - Fragments of railing copings from the Great Stupa of Amaravati - 1853
Wash drawing by Murugesa Moodaliar of fragments of railing copings from the Great Stupa of Amaravati. This is one of 42 sheets (89 drawings) depicting sculp...
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Afghanistan or Pakistan, Gandhara, late Kushan Period (1st century-320)
Stucco
By this period, individual bodhisattvas were beginning to be revered as ideal figures who would deliberately postpone their own enlightenment and entrance into final ni...
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Seated Sakyamuni, late 1st century - early 2nd century A.D.
India, Mathura, Kushan Period (1st century-320)
Red mottled sandstone
This Buddha is placed on a lion pedestal, part of which is broken off. The pedestal was undoubtedly flanked on both sides by seated lions in profile; its center is d...
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Digital Rare Book:
The Diamond Sutra (Chin-kang-ching), or, Prajna-paramita
By William Gemmell
Published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Turner & Co., London - 1912
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How did the Diamond Sutra get its name?
The sutra answer...
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Digital Rare Book:
A record of the Buddhist religion as practised in India and the Malay archipelago (A.D. 671 - 695)
By I-Tsing
Translated by J.Takakusu
Printed at The Clarendon Press, Oxford - 1896
Digital Rare Book:
Literary History of Sanskrit Buddhism
(From Winternitz, Sylvain Levi, Huber)
By Gushtaspshah Kaikhushro Nariman
Published Indian Book Depot, Bombay - 1923
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Image:
Buddha Shakyamuni
India, Andhr...
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Standing Bodisattva Maitreya (Buddha of the Future)
ca. 3rd century
Pakistan (ancient region of Gandhara)
Schist
Maitreya is the Buddha of the next age, much as Shakyamuni is the Buddha of our age. He resides in Tushita heaven waiting for his final rebirth. As befits his highest rebirth, he wea...
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Digital Rare Book:
The Indian Buddhist Iconography
Mainly based on The Sadhanamala
By Benoytosh Bhattachacharyya
Published by Firma K.L.Mukhopadhyay, Calcutta - 1958
The Great Departure and the Temptation of the Buddha
Ikshvaku period
ca. first half of the 3rd century
India (Andhra Pradesh, Nagarjunakonda)
Limestone
The lower scene shows Siddhartha on horseback leaving his father's palace in order to seek enlightenment. A groom leads the horse, whose hoofs ...
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Digital Rare Book:
The life of the Buddha, and the early history of his Order
Derived from Tibetan works Bkah-Hgyur and Bstan-Hgyur
By William Woodville Rockhill (1854-1914)
Published by Turner & Co., London - 1884
Kushan period
ca. 2nd century
Pakistan (ancient region of Gandhara)
Schist
Female attendants and guards, one of whom holds a sword, surround Maya, who is sleeping on a bed that has turned legs and is covered with an elegant floral textile. Maya ...
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