The Buddhist Heritage.

• Author: Cox, Collett

This book is a collection of papers that, for the most part, were originally delivered as part of a symposium of the same name held in 1985 at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. According to the editor's "Preface," this volume is the first volume in a projected series entitled Buddhica Britannica intended to embrace studies on various aspects of Buddhist traditions throughout Asia. Appropriate then for the inauguration of this series, the subject of this first volume is the "Buddhist Heritage" in India and in the larger Asian and Western worlds, here amply celebrated by a highly diverse assemblage of articles considering both scriptural and wider-ranging cultural expressions.

The initial contribution, David L. Snellgrove's "Multiple Features of the Buddhist Heritage," also serves as a kind of introduction, first discussing some of the significant characteristics shared by various branches of the Buddhist tradition throughout Asia, and then examining some changes in Buddhist practice and, in particular, the influence of tantric developments. In addition to setting forth certain generalizations, Snellgrove wishes to correct others, particularly those concerning Theravada versus Mahayana, where typically the former is seen as less ritualistic and the latter as devaluing monastic life.

In "Aspects of Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia," Heinz Bechert sketches some of the pivotal events and factors in the development of Buddhist religious life in Theravadin cultures. These include the institutional changes brought about by the progressive interaction of the original sangha with state authority, the interplay of "great" and "little" traditions, and the impact of the colonial period. In conclusion, Bechert refers to the problem of the emergence of Buddhist sects, which he sees as one of the most important and least understood factors in the development of Buddhism. To clarify this issue, Bechert appeals to a distinction between sects and schools, i.e., respectively disciplinary and doctrinal differences, which he has discussed at length in other works.

K. R. Norman, in "The Pali Language and Scriptures," systematically and with ample documentation from primary and secondary sources surveys the most important issues in the history of the Pali canon including among others: the councils, the bhanaka system, oral and written phases, linguistic developments, relationships with other traditions, later...