Buddhist Sects in India

This extraordinary book is the only authentic document of its kind. Beginning with a detailed and lucid exposition of the political background of India from Ajatasatru to Mahapadma nanda, it goes on to trace the sources of the Second Buddhist Council, to locate with unerring exactitude the disruptive forces in the Sangha and, in the fourth chapter, to classify the Sects. In the chapters that follow, the learned author deals with the Mahasanghikas, doctrines of Group II-V Schools. In every chapter, if not on every page, current but ill-founded assumptions are rejected and their illogicalities exposed to the reader's view. The eager student is given a panoramic view of the doctrinal developments that took place during the period concerned by this book. With irrefutable arguments and considerable ratiocinative skill does the writer conclude that the Mahasanghikas were evidently the earliest school of the Hinayanists to show a tendency towards conceiving Buddha docetically.

Review(s)

''..there are not many systematic and authentic accounts of the evolution o the Buddhist philosophy and the emergence of the different schools… Dr. Nalinaksha Dutt's book fills an important gap in this field. The author traces the political background of India from Ajatsatru to Mahapadmananda against the background in which the different sects had developed…The special doctrines of the Bahusrutiyas, Prajnapativadins and the Vetulyakas are also discussed along with the doctrines of the schools of the other groups.'' - Assam Tribune