The Search for the Buddha: The Men Who Discovered India's Lost Religion [Paperback]

Charles Allen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 4, 2004

Acclaimed historian Charles Allen brings to life a handful of extraordinary eighteenth- and nineteenth-century characters and takes readers to lost holy places across the Asian world as he chronicles how Westerners found the Buddha. The author traces his roots right back to India where his teachings had been suppressed by Islam and Hinduism. Allen’s cast includes the eccentric Hungarian wanderer Alexander Csoma di Koros, the soldier-turned-archaeologist Alexander Cunningham, and the brilliant scientist James Prinsep, who in six weeks cracked the code of the mysterious lettering inscribed on the Great Stupa at Sanchi, near the vast caves of Western India. Illustrated throughout with superbly telling the stories of these men who spurred a revival of Buddhism in the nineteenth century, Allen has recorded the Western birth of a religion whose influence in America has increased tremendously in the past half-century.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With the variety of resources on Buddhism so effortlessly available to us today, it's easy to forget that not so long ago, Buddhism was simply unknown in the West and had also been all but forgotten in India itself. Allen (Tales from the Dark Continent) weaves an engrossing tale of the process by which some of Britain's brightest military men, civil servants and employees of the powerful East India Company began in the late 18th century to uncover both the existence of Buddhism and its enormous impact on ancient Indian history. He focuses on the careers of several remarkable Orientalists, including Oriental Jones, a judge in Bengal who pioneered the influential Asiatic Society to foster archeological and linguistic study of India's remote past, and James Prinsep, an employee of the East India Company who eventually deciphered an important form of Sanskrit. In the space of a century, these and other men achieved remarkable success, including completing a chronology of ancient Indian monarchs, excavating numerous topes or stupas, identifying important Buddhist sites and introducing Buddhism to the West. With the aid of dozens of b&w photographs and illustrations, Allen helps the reader to imagine the excitement of discovery, like the early, tantalizing finding of a 1,000-year-old stone plaque with an inscription commemorating Bood-ha, a mysterious, heretofore forgotten deity. Allen has written a deeply appealing book that is certain to engage historians and students of Buddhism alike.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"This account of the discovery of Buddhism's origins in India is a fabulous detective story." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 322 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf (May 4, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786713747
• ISBN-13: 978-0786713745
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,797,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The keys to ancient India, March 4, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Search for the Buddha: The Men Who Discovered India's Lost Religion (Hardcover)

Ancient India was virtually unknown before the 18th Century. Even the Indians had no idea of their own history. The British Orientalists started the unravelling of a complex puzzle that revealed the buried secrets of ancient India, emperor Asoka and Buddhism. Allen's book reveals this stunning tale.

This is very much an unfinished story with more leads than Allen explores but he has related how the keys to the history of India were discovered via Burma and Sri Lanka in deciphering the Brahmi script and making sense of mysterious pillars that dotted the Indian landscape.

This book is also of great interest from the archaelogical angle. Far more has been found in terms of buildings, ruins and places actually frequented by the Buddha than of Jesus though many scholars still ignore the physical evidence about the Buddha and pretend we only know him from oral traditions. In fact, undoubted relics of the Buddha after his cremation have also been found as detailed in this book. Allen indicates how recorded pilgrimages by Chinese monks lead to the rediscovery of lost monasteries, caves and the ancient city of Pataliputra.

Allen also details the history of Buddhist scholarship in the 19th century and how missionaries and their influences both dogged and abetted researches and a revival in Buddhism.

Allen's work will interest historians, archaeologists, linguists and those interested in Buddhism. There is a great deal more to be done in terms of archaeology, translation and reconstructing Indian history from the fifth century BCE and this book is an ideal launching pad. Not since Rhys David's Buddhist India has a similar tale seen the light. A major publication.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reads Like a Buddhist Detective Story, November 16, 2003

By 

Eric Van Horn (Colchester, VT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Search for the Buddha: The Men Who Discovered India's Lost Religion (Hardcover)

I bought this book in preparation for a trip to India, in which I will visit many of the sites that are discussed in this book. This book turned out to be a treasure, and I could hardly put it down. Starting in the 18th century, Allen takes you through the rediscovery of lost, ancient Buddhist sites, the way in which the early Indian portion of Buddhist history was reconstructed, and - perhaps most importantly - the heroic efforts of the remarkable people who accomplished all of this. Weaving the story together is Allen's prose, which is written like a detective story. He takes you through the process of the discoveries in a way that is captivating and engaging. This book is a real page-turner, which is saying something about a book that is ostensibly about archeology!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars stumbling onto a find, June 7, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Search for the Buddha: The Men Who Discovered India's Lost Religion (Hardcover)

If you're one of those people who finds stumbling onto an ancient treasure exciting, then this modern treasure by Charles Allen is a book that won't disappoint. It's a phenomenal book for people who are serious about learning something. A rarity among writer's today, Allen packs the book with facts not only words and in doing so creates a wealth of knowledge for the student of things ancient. The book does get a bit crusty at points and dry to read, much like an ancient archaeological dig itself, but the dust makes the finds that much more captivating. If you thought you knew something about Buddhism, Britain and/or India this book will humbly remind you that knowledge has her vast stretches of uncharted territory. Of the books that have been written on Buddhism, this is one that will last, and outlast most. Happy hunting. -JL