Vimuttimagga and Visuddhimagga: A Comparative Study

The book begins by situating the Vimuttimagga within the Chinese Buddhist canon and by examining its relationship to the Visuddhimagga, especially through questions of authorship, chronology, textual transmission, and doctrinal correspondence. The main body then compares the two works chapter by chapter, beginning with the introductory section on liberation and proceeding through discussions of morality, ascetic practices, concentration, meditation subjects, kasina practice, impurity meditation, recollections, divine abodes, immaterial attainments, wisdom, dependent origination, noble truths, and the path of liberation. Across these sections, Bapat highlights both close parallels and significant differences: some passages agree almost verbatim in meaning, while others reveal different classifications, altered explanations, omitted topics, or expanded doctrinal analysis. The study pays special attention to technical Buddhist terminology, Pāli and Chinese correspondences, similes, doctrinal lists, and the way each text organizes the path from ethical purification to meditative cultivation and liberating insight. Through this comparative framework, the book presents the Vimuttimagga not merely as a secondary text but as an important witness to an older or parallel scholastic tradition that helps illuminate the formation of the Visuddhimagga and the broader development of Buddhist doctrinal manuals.