Buddhist Saints in India
by Reginald A. Ray

This study is the first comprehensive examination of the figure of the Buddhist saint in a wide range of Indian Buddhist evidence, particularly at the times of Buddhist origins and the formation of the Mahayana. Drawing on an extensive variety of sources, author Reginald Ray identifies the prototypical Buddhist saint as a "renunciant of the forest." He discusses the nature, dynamics, and history of Buddhist hagiography, surveying the ascetic codes, conventions, and traditions of Buddhist saints, and the cults both of living saints and of those who have "passed beyond."

About the Author:

REGINALD A. RAY is Professor of Buddhist Studies and Cochair of the Religious Studies Department at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado.REVIEWS: "Reginald Ray's Buddhist Saints in India will shortly take its place among the great studies on this topic, surpassing most of them for its thoroughness of investigation, uniqueness of perspective, and for its fearlessness in taking serious intellectual risks for the sake of new and important knowledge." --JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY"Reginald A. Ray's Buddhist Saints in India is an extraordinarily impressive contribution to the study of Buddhism. --THE JOURNAL OF RELIGION