Tag Archives: buddha

Some further notes on the old Mongol religion-2

O fire mother, whose father is flint, whose mother is pebble, whose meal is yellow feather grass, whose life is an elm tree. An incantation to the Fire Goddess Ghalun-eke; translation from the Mongolian by Yönsiyebü Rinchen This note revisits … Continue reading

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Mongolica: The Tangut empire

In the early 1100s of the CE Rtsa-mi lotsawa Sangs-rgyas grags-pa was in Nālandā, India, to study and transmit the latest that the tāntrika strain of Bauddha-mata had to offer. Within a century both his world and that of his … Continue reading

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Exploring the history of Hindu festivals: the ancient strands of Holākā

Updated version of article published originally at IndiaFacts In Hindu tradition there is a clear demarcation of at least three distinct classes of ritual observances: 1) The most conservative of these are the śrauta rituals that deviate little from their … Continue reading

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A record of the nAstika attack on hi~NgulA

Hindu historical tradition holds that bauddha-s of the sindhu had made common cause with the the Arab marUnmatta-s as they launched invasion after invasion into jambudvIpa. This is not entirely surprising given that the bauddha-s (at least the sthaviravAdin-s) from … Continue reading

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A brief note on the Spitzer manuscript and related issues

In his famed kAvya the buddhacharita, ashvagoSha states that when the tathAgata was about to renounce the world he had an “akShaya-dharma-jAta-rAgaH”, i.e., a “passion” of the indestructible dharma was born in him. When we encountered this term we realized … Continue reading

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Meanderings in the vedAnta-nAstika interface

One of the central figures of classical advaita vedAnta is the AchArya gauDapAda. Hagiographic tradition holds that gauDacharaNa was the paramaguru of the great advaitAchArya shaMkara bhagavatpAda (and guru of govinda bhagavatpAda). This is confirmed by shaMkara in his concluding … Continue reading

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