Author: Karl H Potter
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass
Year: 1998
Language: English
Pages: 636
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8120808959
Description
Soon after the time of Gautama the Buddha a literature began to grow involving the reported words of Gautama, the rules and procedures governing the order of monks he founded, and attempts to set forth his philosophical teachings as understood and developed by his immediate pupils and the schools of Buddhist thought which grew in succeeding generations. The present volume undertakes to summarize the gist of these philosophical teachings, termed Abhidharma, from the first texts that developed after the Buddha up to and including the mammoth text called 'Mahavibhasa', generated from a convention held in the first or second century A.D.
Thus all the texts here summarized originated in a period from no earlier than 350 B.D. through no later than 150 A.D. The authors of these texts are mainly concerned to set forth the tenets and arguments of Buddhist philosophy as understood by what came to be two main literary traditions of Abhidharma. One of these traditions migrated eventually to Sri Lanka, and it is its literary corpus that is now known as the Pali Canon. The other tradition, which stemmed from the northern part of India, came to be known as Sarvastivada, as in its texts it was proposed that the momentary factors (dharma) that comprise the components of the Buddhist universe really exist, not only such factors presently occurring but past and future ones as well. Each of these two schools had its own Abhidharma, two sets of seven texts each, in which their views are set forth in extensive detail. It is the thoughts presented in these texts, together with a handful of other sources of the period, that comprise the contents of the present volume.
Contents
Preface to the Omnibus Edition - Geoffrey C Ward
TIGER-WALLAHS
Saving the Greatest of the Great Cats
Illustrations
Return Passage
A Tigercidal Thirst
The Large-Hearted Gentleman
The Presiding Deity
No Axe Falls
The Rajput
Stress of Circumstances
Besieged
Massacre
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Bibliography
MAN-EATERS OF KUMAON
Author's Note
The Champawat Man-Eater
Robin
The Chowgarh Tigers
The Bachelor of Powalgarh
The Mohan Man-Eater
The Fish of My Dreams
The Kanda Man-Eater
The Pipal Pani Tiger
The Thak Man-Eater
Just Tigers
THE SECRET LIFE OF TIGERS
List of Illustrations
Introduction
The Tigress and her Cubs
The Father
A Tiger's Ikingdom
Growing Up
Independence
The End of a Century
Postscript
Epilogue
Further Reading
TIGER HAVEN
List of Illustrations
Author's Note
The Discovery of Tiger Haven
Jasbirnagar
Early Days at Tiger Haven
Establishing the Sanctuary
Animals of the Open Plains
The Tiger - Species in Peril
The Tiger - King of Cats
Man-eaters
The Forest Animals
Animal Nearer
Securing the Sanctuary
The Shutter and the Trigger
The Kind and I
The Lost Cause?
Epilogue
Select Bibliography