About this item: 20.500.12592/jtr4t5
Sketches from Nipal. Historical and Descriptive with an Essay on Nipalese Buddhism and Illustrations of Religious Monuments and Architecture
1880
Summary
The extravagant polytheism and gross idolatry encouraged by the Brahmans and more particularly the cruel character of their ritual which enjoined the constant slaughtering of animals and the occasional sacrifice of even human victims as the only means of propitiating the deity caused great disgust to many of the Vaishnavas (or followers of Vishnu) as well as to many others among the Hindus w [...] Having thus obtained the support of an influential portion of the educated classes by flattering their pride and exciting their hopes of a party triumph the reformers then apealed to the passions and secured the good will of the masses by declaring open war against the social abuses of Hinduism and by proposing to abolish all those invidious distinctions of caste by means of which the Brahma [...] They held the same general views as to a future state of existence as to there being a series of hells for the punishment of the wicked and of heavens for the reward of the righteous ; but the new school placed the Buddhist heavens at the top of the list and far above those which 'were assigned to the Hindu gods and their followers. [...] Having adopted the garb and habits of a mendicant ascetic Sakya proceeded towards the city of Gaya in the neighbourhood of which sacred place he spent six years in the study of the most abstruse doctrines of religion at the same time undergoing the severest penance and reducing himself to the verge of starvtion in the hope that by mortifying the flesh he should more surely attain to the [...] The works or volumes collected by Sakya constitute the primitive scriptures of the Buddhists and they were designed to be a permanent record of the early history of their Church as well as to form the sacred and therefore the only authoritative exponent of the doctrines and practices of the Buddhist religion.
| Title | Pages | Author/Editor | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frontmatter | i-v | Ambrose Oldfield | |
| Chapter I. History of Nipal | 1-18 | Ambrose Oldfield | |
| Chapter II. History of Nipal—(continued) | 19-31 | Ambrose Oldfield | |
| Chapter III.Early History of Buddhism in India | 32-68 | Ambrose Oldfield | |
| Chapter IV.Buddhism in Nipal | 69-85 | Ambrose Oldfield | |
| Chapter V.Principles of Buddhism as Laid Down in the Buddhist Scriptures | 86-130 | Ambrose Oldfield | |
| Chapter VI.Present State of Buddhism in Nipal | 131-155 | Ambrose Oldfield | |
| Chapter VII.Objects of Buddhist Worship More or Less Peculiar to Nipal | 156-205 | Ambrose Oldfield | |
| Chapter VIII.Buddhist Temples | 206-274 | Ambrose Oldfield | |
| Chapter IX.Vihars (Monasteries) | 275-283 | Ambrose Oldfield | |
| Chapter X.Religious Festivals as Now Observed by the Buddhists of Nipal | 284-i | Ambrose Oldfield | |
| Chapter XI.Buddhist Festivals—(continued) | 323-356 | Ambrose Oldfield | |
| Index | 357-364 | Ambrose Oldfield |
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