Roughly about a century after Lord Buddhas demise, his teachings came to be closely scrutinized, when the meanings and significance of traditional Buddhist ideas were intensely examined and diverse hypotheses advanced to elucidate and harmonize them internally within the context of Buddhist thought, as also with the ideas which were, then, current in the general intellectual milieu of the times. The present study attempts to analyze the world of thought presented in the Kathavatthu, an important canonical text on doctrinal controversies. The tradition ascribes it to the age of Mauryan Emperor Asoka. It is indeed gratifying to place before the students of Buddhist studies a second edition of the Cross Currents in Early Buddhism. An important feature of the new edition is the addition of an exhaustive introduction to the work and a concluding chapter entitled, Threshold of Mahayana, which shows that its emergence was not accidental. lt was in the making for a long as reflected in the novel ideas put forth by the dissident sects like Mahasa ghaikas and their sub-sects.
Preface in the second edition
Extracts from the Preface to the First Edition
Abbreviations
Introduction
Section A: Genesis and Growth of Controversies
Section B: Controversies Reflecting Religious Development and the
Mahasamghika Impact
Section C: Controversies Reflecting Philosophical Development and the
Beginnings of new School
Bibliography
Index
Surendra Nath Dube (b. 1941) is a former Tagore Professor and Head of the Department of History and Indian Culture, University of Rajasthan, where he taught for 35 years. Beside several research papers, both in Indian and foreign journals, his major publications include, History of Indian Civilization and Culture (1985), Religious Movements in Rajasthan (1996), Ideas and Movements in the Age of the Mauryas.
