Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks: Mobility and Exchange Within and Beyond the Northwestern Borderlands of South Asia
This exploration of early paths for Buddhist transmission within and beyond South Asia retraces the footsteps of monks, merchants, and other agents of cross-cultural exchange. A reassessment of literary, epigraphic, and archaeological sources reveals hisorical contexts for the growth of the Buddhist sa gha from approximately the 5th century BCE to the end of the first millennium CE. Patterns of dynamic Buddhist mobility were closely linked to transregional trade networks extending to the northwestern borderlands and joined to Central Asian silk routes by capillary routes through transit zones in the upper Indus and Tarim Basin. By examining material conditions for Buddhist establishments at nodes along these routes, this book challenges models of gradual diffusion and develops alternative explanations for successful Buddhist movement.
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Contents
Road Map for Travelers
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1 |
Chapter Two Historical Contexts for the Emergence and Transmission of Buddhism within South Asia
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65 |
Chapter Three Trade Networks in Ancient South Asia
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183 |
Chapter Four Old Roads in the Northwestern Borderlands
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229 |
Chapter Five Capillary Routes of the Upper Indus
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257 |
Chapter Six LongDistance Transmission to Central Asian Silk Routes and China
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289 |
Alternative Paths and Paradigms of Buddhist Transmission
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311 |
321 | |
363 | |
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Afghanistan archaeological Asian Aśoka avadāna Bactria Brāhmī Brāhmī inscriptions Brill Buddha Buddhist literary Buddhist transmission Cambridge Candragupta capillary routes Central Asia century BCE chapter Chilas China Chinese chronology coins cultural dated Delhi Dharma dhist donations donors dynasty early economic epigraphic evidence excavations exchanges Falk Foucher Fussman Gandhāra Gāndhārī Gérard Gilgit Greek Gupta Hellenistic Hephthalites Hinüber History images India Indian subcontinent Indo-Greek Indus River Institute Iranian Jettmar Journal Kaniska Kashmir Kharosthī inscriptions Khotan King Ksatrapas Kusāna Lamotte Leiden located long-distance trade Mahāyāna manuscripts Mathura Mauryan merchants monasteries monastic monks networks northern Pakistan northwestern numismatic Pakistan Pāli Palola Sāhis patronage period petroglyphs references region relics Religion religious Rock Edicts rulers Śaka Sakas Salomon sangha Sanskrit Sātavāhanas Schopen Shatial shrines Silk Road silk routes Sircar Sogdian sources South Asia Studies stūpas Swat Tarim Basin Taxila texts Thapar Tibetan tions traditions trans translated upper Indus Uttarāpatha Vākātakas valley Yuezhi Zürcher