Author: Lella Karunyakara
Publisher: Gyan Publishing House
Year: 2002
Language: English
Pages: 284
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8121208130
Description
The present work is based on interdisciplinary approach for identifying the content and nature of the modernisation process that occurred in Buddhism. The study rightly identifies the features of post-modernism in the understanding of Ambedkar and Dalai lama about Buddhism. Post-modern roots are the result of modernizing the tradition.
The emergence of Buddhism in 6th B.C was the first social revolution in the history of India. The conversion of Ambedkar to Buddhism on 14 October 1956 was the revival of those revolutionary ideals. The presence of the Dalai Lama XIV in the land of the Buddha symbolizes with the continuity of revolutionary ideals propounded by Gautama Buddha. Equality, Social Justice and democracy are the three principles, with which the whole revival movement initiated by Ambedkar and Dalai Lama XIV, associated.
It is a study on the continuity of the revival legacy of Ambedkar and the Dalai Lama XIV. Modernisation of Buddhism as a religion and philosophy is the precondition for the revival. Historical inquiry has been made in the present study to understand the prerequisites for the revival of Buddhism. Modernisation has been identified as the first and foremost prerequisite for the purpose..
The tradition of Buddhism have been modernized by Ambedkar and Dalai Lama XIV which in turn resulted in producing synthesis called post-modern understanding of Buddhism, i.e., Dalit Buddhism or Adi Buddhism. The study touched the fringes of post-modern understanding of Buddhism, however, left it for further research. The present study mainly deals with the contribution of Ambedkar and Dalai Lama XIV to modernize the Buddhist tradition.