Buddhist Studies

Is the iconography of the Buddha’s nativity a borrowing from the Gaja-Lakṣmī motif, or a distinct Buddhist invention? This essay moves beyond that binary. Examining Bharhut–Sanchi, Amarāvatī, and Gandhāra, it argues that early Buddhist art operated within a shared symbolic ecology in which visual forms could remain continuous while their theological meaning was reoriented. The nativity scene thus marks not a simple transfer of motifs, but the emergence of a new visual theology within an inherited symbolic world.

Once among the most powerful and intellectually rigorous schools of early Indian Buddhism, the Sarvāstivāda tradition shaped vast monastic networks across Kashmir, Gandhāra, and the Silk Road frontier. Yet today it remains largely absent from popular memory, overshadowed by the familiar narratives of Theravāda and Mahāyāna. This essay revisits Sarvāstivāda not as a marginal sect, but as a major scholastic movement that transformed Buddhism into a systematic philosophical enterprise—developing sophisticated analyses of time, causality, and the ontology of dharmas. By tracing its historical rise, doctrinal innovations, and enduring legacy, the study restores a forgotten chapter of Buddhist intellectual history and reveals a tradition in which Buddhism became not only a path of practice, but a discipline of rigorous thought.

This study reconsiders the historical relationship between Buddhism and political authority in the Indo-Greek kingdoms of northwestern India. Challenging the modern assumption that Buddhism functioned primarily as an inward or apolitical tradition, the essay argues that the Dharma operated as an active social and ethical force embedded within structures of power. Drawing on archaeological evidence from Gandhāran and Mathuran art, the philosophical dialogues of the Milindapañha, and patterns of royal patronage inherited from Aśoka, the article demonstrates how Buddhism provided moral legitimacy, cultural cohesion, and intellectual frameworks for governance. Rather than standing apart from the state, Buddhism functioned as a form of non-coercive influence—what might be described as an ancient “soft power”—shaping both political practice and collective life across the Indo-Greek world.

Challenging the view that “Engaged Buddhism” is a modern innovation, this study argues that engagement has been a structural feature of Buddhism from its inception. From early lay encounters and Nikāya ethics to trade networks and Mahāyāna doctrine, the Dharma has consistently operated within social life rather than apart from it.

This study reconsiders early Buddhism as an oral and embodied tradition rather than a religion of texts. Through communal recitation, disciplined memory, and the Sangha as a “living archive,” the Dharma was preserved as practice and life, offering critical perspective on modern text-centered approaches to Buddhism.