Development of Buddhism in Uttar Pradesh

The book is arranged into eighteen chapters. It begins with “Ancient Countries in Uttar Pradesh,” identifying the major political and cultural regions connected with early Buddhism, including Kāśī, Kosala, Vatsa, Pañcāla, Sūrasena, the Śākyas, Mallas, and related territories. The second chapter analyzes the religious and social conditions of northern India before the Buddha, including Vedic ritualism, non-Brahmanical cults, social organization, economic life, guilds, and intellectual movements. The following chapters discuss the early life of Gautama Buddha, his missionary activities, his interaction with Brahmanas of Kosala, and his relationship with kings such as Pasenadi and Udena. The middle chapters study the training of lay devotees, the gradual discipline of monks, practices conducive to nirvāṇa, and philosophical issues such as causation, karma, anattā, tathāgata-existence after death, and nibbāna. Later chapters examine the monastic system, Upagupta and Aśoka, Sarvāstivādins and Saṃmitiyas, Chinese pilgrims’ accounts of Buddhism in Uttar Pradesh, major Buddhist centres and monuments, Buddhist art, Buddhist architecture, and Aśoka’s edicts.