Figments and Fragments of Mahāyāna Buddhism in India: More Collected Papers

The volume is organized into two major sections: Figments and Fragments, comprising fourteen chapters. Part I: Figments Chapter I: The Mahāyāna and the Middle Period in Indian Buddhism: Through a Chinese Looking-Glass This chapter questions the tendency to interpret Indian Mahāyāna through the history of Chinese Buddhism. Schopen argues that what became prominent in China may not have had the same institutional or cultural importance in India. He challenges the assumption that the Middle Period of Indian Buddhism can be meaningfully characterized as “Mahāyāna,” noting that inscriptions and art historical evidence do not clearly support such a view before the fifth or sixth century. Chapter II: The Phrase sa pṛthivīpradeśaś caityabhūto bhavet in the Vajracchedikā: Notes on the Cult of the Book in Mahāyāna This chapter examines the religious significance of the book in Mahāyāna Buddhism through a key phrase in the Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā. Schopen studies how written texts could become sacred objects and how the presence, copying, recitation, or enshrinement of a scripture could transform a place into a sacred site. Chapter III: The Bones of a Buddha and the Business of a Monk: Conservative Monastic Values in an Early Mahāyāna Polemical Tract This chapter explores the relationship between Mahāyāna polemics and monastic values. Schopen shows that some early Mahāyāna materials were not necessarily anti-monastic or institutionally radical; rather, they could preserve conservative monastic concerns about relics, discipline, property, and ritual authority. Chapter IV: On Sending the Monks Back to Their Books: Cult and Conservatism in Early Mahāyāna Buddhism This chapter continues the analysis of the “cult of the book.” Schopen argues that book worship in Mahāyāna should not be reduced to abstract doctrine. It involved ritual practices, textual preservation, recitation, copying, and the construction of sacred authority around scriptures. Chapter V: Sukhāvatī as a Generalized Religious Goal in Sanskrit Mahāyāna Sūtra Literature This chapter examines Sukhāvatī not merely as the object of a separate Pure Land school, but as a broader religious aspiration within Sanskrit Mahāyāna literature. Schopen argues that Indian evidence does not necessarily support the existence of an organized “Pure Land Buddhism” comparable to later East Asian forms, but Sukhāvatī functioned as a generalized salvific goal in various Mahāyāna texts. Chapter VI: The Generalization of an Old Yogic Attainment in Medieval Mahāyāna Sūtra Literature: Some Notes on Jātismara This chapter studies jātismara, the ability to remember former births. Schopen examines how an older yogic or ascetic attainment was generalized and reinterpreted in medieval Mahāyāna literature, showing the adaptive reuse of earlier Buddhist and Indian religious concepts. Part II: Fragments Chapter VII: Mahāyāna in Indian Inscriptions This chapter surveys inscriptional evidence for Mahāyāna in India. Schopen emphasizes that explicit references to Mahāyāna are comparatively late and limited. This evidence complicates the assumption that Mahāyāna was already institutionally dominant in India during the early centuries of the Common Era. Chapter VIII: The Inscription on the Kuṣāṇ Image of Amitābha and the Character of the Early Mahāyāna in India This chapter analyzes the famous inscription associated with an early image of Amitābha. Schopen uses this evidence to reassess the character of early Mahāyāna in India, especially the difficulty of moving from isolated inscriptional fragments to broad historical conclusions. Chapter IX: The Ambiguity of Avalokiteśvara and the Tentative Identification of a Painted Scene from a Mahāyāna Sūtra at Ajaṇṭā This chapter examines the problem of identifying Avalokiteśvara and Mahāyāna imagery in Indian art. Schopen stresses the ambiguity of visual evidence and warns against overconfident identifications when inscriptions, iconography, or textual correlations are uncertain. Chapter X: A Verse from the Bhadracaripraṇidhāna in a Tenth-Century Inscription Found at Nālandā This chapter studies an inscription from Nālandā containing a verse from the Bhadracaripraṇidhāna. It shows how Mahāyāna textual traditions entered epigraphical and devotional contexts in medieval India. Chapter XI: The Text on the “Dhāraṇī Stones from Abhayagiriya”: A Minor Contribution to the Study of Mahāyāna Literature in Ceylon This chapter examines dhāraṇī inscriptions from Abhayagiriya in Sri Lanka. Schopen uses these materials to study the presence and circulation of Mahāyāna-related literature and ritual technologies in Ceylon. Chapter XII: The Bodhigarbhālaṃkāralakṣa and Vimaloṣṇīṣa Dhāraṇīs in Indian Inscriptions: Two Sources for the Practice of Buddhism in Medieval India This chapter studies dhāraṇī inscriptions as evidence for Buddhist practice. Schopen argues that such materials are crucial because they reveal forms of Buddhism actually practiced in medieval India, including ritual, protective, and textual practices often neglected in doctrinal histories. Chapter XIII: A Note on the “Technology of Prayer” and a Reference to a Revolving Bookcase in an Eleventh-Century Indian Inscription This chapter examines an inscriptional reference to a revolving bookcase. Schopen interprets it as evidence for a “technology of prayer,” showing how texts, ritual devices, and devotional practice could be materially integrated in Buddhist institutions. Chapter XIV: Stūpa and Tīrtha: Tibetan Mortuary Practices and an Unrecognized Form of Burial Ad Sanctos at Buddhist Sites in India The final chapter compares Tibetan mortuary practice with Indian Buddhist sacred geography. Schopen examines burial near sacred sites and argues for recognizing forms of burial ad sanctos within Buddhist contexts. This chapter continues his broader interest in relics, death, sacred space, and material religion. The book concludes with three research tools: Index of Archaeological Sites and Findspots for Inscriptions, Index of Texts, and Index of Subjects. These indexes make the volume especially useful for advanced research on Indian Mahāyāna, inscriptions, Buddhist manuscripts, ritual practice, sacred books, dhāraṇīs, image cults, and the material history of Buddhism.