A Manual of Buddhism : A Manual of Buddhism: In its Modern Development

by R. Spence Hardy

This is one of the earliest works on Buddhism and a pioneer attempt to analyse the deeds and doctrines attributed to Gotama. It also gives a compendium on the ontology and ethics of Buddhism with an appendix indicating the twelve sources from which the materials were drawn by the learned author, who collected no less than four hundred and sixty-five works from Ceylon in original Sanskrit, Pali and Sinhalese and Elu. The author begins his thesis with the system of the Universe, and deals in the subsequent chapters with the primitive inhabitants of the earth, the Buddhas who preceded Gotama, the Bodhisat: his ancestors, his legendary life, his dignity, powers and virtues, his teachings on caste, in fact, every cognate matter that is associated with the founder of Buddhism.