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Twist, ‘Devotion and Politics’ (2008)

Twist, Rebecca L. Patronage, Devotion and Politics: A Buddhological Study of the Paṭola Śāhi Dynasty’s Visual Record. PhD diss., Ohio State University, 2008. 393 pp. [abstract/PDF]

A few lines from the abstract:

During the 6th – 8th centuries, the Paṭola Śāhi dynasty ruled the country of Bolor, which is Baltistan and Gilgit […] a number of Buddhist artworks […] can be attributed through inscriptions to a donation by members of the royal Paṭola Śāhi family. This study focuses on these inscribed works and other extant visual culture of the Paṭola Śāhi dynasty. […] the Paṭola Śāhis were devout Buddhist practitioners, some of them adherents of early Vajrayāna Buddhism.

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Peipina, ‘The Piṃgalātreya sūtra’ (2008)

Peipina, Lita. The Piṃgalātreya sūtra of the (Mūla)sarvāstivādins: its edition and study. Investigation of the Piṃgalātreya sūtra’s status within the Dīrghāgama “Collection of Long (Discourses of the Buddha)”. MA diss., University of Oslo, 2008. 85 pp. [abstract/PDF]

Contains a diplomatic edition and critical edition of the Gandhāran MS discovered in 1999. Supervised by Jens Braarvig.

Piṃgalātreya: Gandhāran MS
Piṃgalātreya Gandhara MS

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McKeown, ‘From Bodhgayā to Lhasa to Beijing’ (2010)

Arthur McKeown. From Bodhgayā to Lhasa to Beijing: The Life and Times of Śāriputra (c.1335–1426), Last Abbot of Bodhgayā. PhD diss., Harvard University, 2010. 570 pp.

According to a note kindly sent by Dr. McKeown, whom I first met in Kathmandu a couple of years ago, the dissertation “includes the transcription and translation of all three biographies of Śāriputra, as well as transcription and translation of the three siddha biographies (Virūpakṣa, Goraknātha, Golenātha) he dictated to Jñānaśrī.”

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Clarke, ‘Pārājika: the Myth of Permanent and Irrevocable Expulsion’ (1999)

One of the few scholars currently focusing on vinaya literature is Shayne Clarke. His Masters’ thesis is now available online:

Clarke, Shayne. Pārājika: the Myth of Permanent and Irrevocable Expulsion from the Buddhist Order: A Survey of the Śikṣādattaka in Early Monastic Buddhism. M.A. diss., University of Canterbury, 1999. (URI & abstract / PDF.)

Dr. Clarke and myself had the pleasure of meeting at the 2007 Hamburg Conference on the Ordination of Women, where his learned presentation stood out. (Incidentally, my report of this event became controversial enough to warrant a face-to-face meeting with one of the organizers; they have since put their own views into print. Update: Readers may also wish to consult the conference papers directly. [I trust that the participants gave their consent for online publication.])

If I may say so, Clarke’s thesis reads as an unusually accomplished piece of work for an M.A. (even in its slightly expurgated online form). His understanding of the vinaya as formulated in India is based, as it ought to be, on a survey of multiple nikāyas. In subsequent publications — see this list at his official site — Dr. Clarke effortlessly bins the received view of the Pali canon as the definitive record of the lives of Indian Buddhists.

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Sakai, Dharmottara / kṣaṇikatvānumāna (2010)

Sakai, Masamichi. Dharmottaras Erklärung von Dharmakīrtis kṣaṇikatvānumāna (Dharmottara / proof of monentariness [sic]). Dissertation, Universität Wien (Philologisch-Kulturwissenschaftliche Fakultät), 2010. [abstract; PDF.]

Supervised by Helmut Krasser; contains a critical edition of Pramāṇaviniścayaṭīkā II on Pramāṇaviniścaya II vv.53–55 (‘MS: 83a5–91a4’*). Continue reading “Sakai, Dharmottara / kṣaṇikatvānumāna (2010)”