A History of Sanskrit Grammatical Literature in Tibet, Volume 2 Assimilation into Indigenous Scholarship


Book Description

This first, systematic survey of the Tibetan non-canonical literature dealing with Sanskrit grammar, partly consists of translations of Indic works, such as revisions of canonical versions, and translations of works not contained in the canon, and partly of original Tibetan works. In the first chapter of the book a detailed description of these textual materials is presented – sixty-one titles in total – which were produced during all periods of Tibetan literary history, from the ninth to the twentieth centuries. The second chapter discusses one specific effect of the impetus of Indic traditional grammar within Tibetan scholastics, namely the influence of Indic models of linguistic description on Tibetan indigenous grammar. This particular assimilation of an Indic technical discipline into Tibetan scholarship is examined in detail, and it is shown that other segments of Indic Buddhism were sources of inspiration and derivation for the Tibetan grammarians as well.




A History of Sanskrit Grammatical Literature in Tibet, Volume 1 Transmission of the Canonical Literature


Book Description

The first comprehensive survey of the important corpus of Indic literature on Sanskrit grammar, extant in Tibetan translation in the Buddhist canon. Core of the study is the description of the forty-seven Sanskrit grammatical treatises covering some two thousand folios in the canon. The contents of these texts and the historical information regarding their Tibetan translators are examined in detail. Further chapters are devoted to the grammatical analysis in an eighth-century Tibetan handbook for translators, and to data from Tibetan historiography. The book offers the first systematic study of the extent and the historical development of the Tibetan expertise in Sanskrit grammar, a central scholastic discipline in Buddhism. It opens up a section of Tibetan literature essential to the understanding of the Indo-Tibetan indigenous grammatical traditions.




A History of Sanskrit Grammatical Literature in Tibet


Book Description

The first comprehensive survey of the important corpus of Indic literature on Sanskrit grammar extant in Tibetan translation in the Buddhist canon. A systematic study of the history of the Tibetans' expertise in this central scholastic discipline in Buddhism.




Studies in the Grammatical Tradition in Tibet


Book Description

This volume reprints — with additions and corrections — seven papers originally published 1962–1973, on the indigenous grammars of Tibet and their linguistic tradition. Two ancient treatises commonly attributed to “Thon-mi Sambhoṭa” are studied extensively, as well as extracts from many other Tibetan texts, with translations, commentaries, and detailed bibliographical data, covering a wide range of linguistic doctrines, from the early 11th to the beginning of the 20th century. The final article incorporates a complete grammatical sketch of Classical Tibetan; this, together with the comprehensive indexes of Tibetan and Indic grammatical and technical terms, proper names, titles, etc., will facilitate the use of the volume as a basic reference-source for all future work on the Tibetan grammarians.




The Dharma's Gatekeepers


Book Description

A study of the seminal Tibetan Buddhist work, Gateway to Learning.










Ideology and Status of Sanskrit


Book Description

The present volume is the outcome of a seminar on the Ideology and Status of Sanskrit held in Leiden under the auspices of the International Institute for Asian Studies. The book contains studies of crucial periods and important areas in the history of the Sanskrit language, from the earliest, Vedic and pre-Vedic periods, through the period in which the (restricted) use of Sanskrit spread over practically all of South (including part of Central) and Southeast Asia (sometimes referred to as the period of "Greater India"), up to the recent history of Sanskrit in India. The contributions of this volume are divided into three sections: (1) Origins and Creation of the "Eternal Language"; (2) Transculturation, Vernacularization, Sanskritization; (3) The Sanskrit Tradition: Continuity from the past or Construction from the present?




Middle Indo-Aryan and Jaina Studies


Book Description

The VIIth World Sanskrit Conference was held in August 1987, at the Kern Institute in Leiden. Panels constituted one of its special features. More than half of these panels will be published in the present series. The titles of the first ten volumes are: "The Sanskrit Tradition and Tantrism", "Earliest Buddhism and Madhyamaka", "The History of Sacred Places in India as Reflected in Traditional Literature", "Sense and Syntax in Vedic", "Pāṇini and the Veda", "Middle Indo-Aryan and Jaina Studies", "Sanskrit Outside India", "Medical Literature from India, Sri Lanka and Tibet", "Indian Art and Archaeology", "Rules and Remedies in Classical Indian Law". Each volume contains contributions by several specialists, and has one or more editors of international reputation in the field concerned.




Buddhism and Empire


Book Description

This book convincingly reassesses the role of political institutions in the introduction of Buddhism under the Tibetan Empire (c. 620-842), showing how relationships formed in the Imperial period underlie many of the unique characteristics of traditional Tibetan Buddhism. Taking original sources as a point of departure, the author persuasively argues that later sources hitherto used for the history of early Tibetan Buddhism in fact project later ideas backward, thus distorting our view of its enculturation. Following the pattern of Buddhism’s spread elsewhere in Asia, the early Tibetan imperial court realized how useful normative Buddhist concepts were. This work clearly shows that, while some beliefs and practices per se changed after the Tibetan Empire, the model of socio-political-religious leadership developed in that earlier period survived its demise and still constitutes a significant element in contemporary Tibetan Buddhist religious culture.