Abstract
This is a remarkable text, not merely about the Buddha, as history, myth or legend, or Buddhism, as a religion well suited to the contemporary moment. More importantly, it seeks to establish the significance of Buddhist archaeological sites in India with a focus on pilgrimage sites as well as on the practice of Buddhism. Colonial historians and scholars had a particular view of Buddhist sites, emanating from a pristine position on the Buddha as a historical figure. Himanshu Ray alerts us to the regional variations in the archaeological sites and establishes the need to engage with this diversity to ascertain and understand a more widespread and varied practice of Buddhism. At the same time, one of the main arguments in this book is the emphasis on the international character of the spread of Buddhism. The author highlights the role of Westerners, especially members of the Theosophical Society and the Mahabodhi Society in the worldwide spread of Buddhism in the nineteenth century.
Ray’s method is to deny a linear view of history and to debunk the colonial interpretation that Buddhism became irrelevant after its decline in the twelfth century. Instead, she points to the survival of Buddhism in and through the work of scholars in the West and through its sites and symbols in the region. No doubt, linked with this ‘revival’ as it were are the aspirations of two prominent figures: Anagarika Dharmapala (1864–1933) in Sri Lanka and B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1933) in India. Through Dharmapala’s speech at the World Parliament of Religions in 1895, Ray traces efforts to establish Buddhism as an ‘international religion’. Ray also notes Ambedkar’s seminal contribution to the spread of Buddhism, linked no doubt with his political aspirations.
Ray’s writing makes use of evocative imagery to conjure up a past that finds place in the present through historical writings, symbolic representations and linking up the past with present Buddhist practices revealed through the then Dalai Lama’s person and presence as a Buddhist leader. In her engagement with Buddhism in Chapter 1, the author provides us with a fascinating discussion of the vast landscape that Buddhism inhabited, geographically, and through the languages and traditions of different lineages. Insights from archaeological findings are interwoven with the Buddha dhamma, textual analysis, as well as with implications for the laity. Ray’s accessible style and use of different sources makes for stimulating and engaging reading, especially for the non-specialist.
Chapter 2 is a scholarly exegesis, with fine and detailed documentation, into the search for the historical Buddha, taking into account archaeological discoveries and colonial records. By far, the most interesting section in this chapter is the reconstruction of the biography of the Buddha based on early texts, and the uncovering of archaeological sites at Bodh Gaya, Gaya, Sarnath and Sanchi, as well as Taxila. It was only 200–300 years after the Buddha’s death that the work of the reconstruction of his biography took place through very early texts such as the Mahavastu, the Buddhacarita and the Lalitavistara, and many others, all of which are meticulously considered by the author as are the archaeological sites.
The next chapter examines the archaeology of the edicts of Ashoka, one of the pillars of Buddhism, acknowledged by archaeologists, including Alexander Cunningham, the first head of the Archaeological Survey of India. The important conclusion that Ray arrives at is that the motive for the colonialists’ search for the ‘historical Buddha’ through an understanding of monastic sites across South Asia is based not merely on the need to recreate or re-establish the Buddhist doctrine. More importantly, she argues that in the nineteenth century, the focus was on ‘presenting a moral and ethical past to a country steeped in superstition, idol worship, caste hierarchies, and priestly or brahmana machinations’ (pp. 130–31). Hence, the colonial officials sought to provide a counterfoil to the prevailing Hindu culture, egged on by the Theosophical Society and the Mahabodhi Society, thus resulting in the redefined contours of the ‘sacred landscape’ associated with the Buddha.
At the same time, Buddhism in Tibet is considered a ‘degenerate’ form of Buddhism by colonial writers and through this exclusion of an authentic or pristine Buddhism, they seek to cite the avowed disappearance of Buddhism around the twelfth century. Ray sets out to disprove this claim through her analysis of pilgrimages by Tibetan, Chinese and other monks to Buddhist sites in India, thus establishing the continued presence and importance of Buddhism in the region. Significantly, and through some very interesting material, Ray includes monastic and pilgrimage sites in southern India in this discussion.
The concluding chapter is a fascinating essay on the archaeology of Buddhism ‘factored in’ (as she calls it) to the Indian constitution through embracing the symbols and visual imagery that represent it. For example, the inclusion in the national flag of the wheel symbol, the cakra, which as Nehru says, ‘is a symbol of India’s ancient culture’ (p. 216). Ray traces the various considerations and recommendations that went into this selection, all of which indicate links with an ageless tradition as well as with the archaeology of Buddhism in India.
This book is not the outcome of a mere intellectual exercise; it is a labour of love for the subject, for historical facts, for sources of different kinds, for the study of ancient texts and archaeological findings, and above all, of putting the right picture in place, establishing the continued importance of the Buddha dhamma in the region. Ray does this through recourse to not just archaeological excavations but also to ‘micro-histories’ and regional contexts, as well as, an understanding of memory and the national imagination that somehow retains the past, even as it seeks to break free from the immediate past, and go forth into an unencumbered and democratic future.