The Questions of King Milinda, Vol. 1 of 2 (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Loewe, Louis W. Rhys

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1451001592 ISBN 13: 9781451001594

Verlag: Forgotten Books, 2010

Über diesen Titel

Reseña del editor

Thomas William Rhys Davids, otherwise known as T.W. Rhys Davids, was a University of Breslau scholar who learned Pali during his posting in Sri Lanka. His facility with the language enabled him to translate Sri Lankan inscriptions and literary works, one of which is the The Questions of King Milinda. The availability of an English translation of this Southern Buddhist classic gave readers in the Western hemisphere an invaluable opportunity of discovering the wisdom of the Eastern ancients.

This revered tome mainly contains a dialogue between King Milinda, who rules the city of Sagala, and Nagasena, a Buddhist scholar. In Book I, the readers are introduced to the scholar and the circumstances that led him to cross paths with the King. Books II to IV unveil the arguments of the two personalities, with King Milinda offering questions ranging from the trivial and mundane to the profound. Nagasena, for his part, manages to respond with aplomb and to the inquirer's satisfaction.

The topics of the questions and their answers involve various Buddhist principles, specifically those practiced South of India, that are echoed in many Buddhist teachings. In The Questions of King Milinda, these are dressed in various ways - as a tale, allegory, or analogy - and are revealed by using the dialogue as a literary tool.

This translated work is something that even non-Buddhists will enjoy reading as the truths and concepts explained are also relevant to other faiths and belief systems.

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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Reseña del editor

INTRODUCTION. THE work of which a translation is here, for the first time, presented to the English reading public, has had a strange and interesting history. vVritten in Northern India, at or a little after the beginning of the Christian era, and either in Sanskrit itself or in some North Indian Prakrit, it has been entirely lost in the land of its origin, and (so far as is at present known) is not extant in any of the homes of the various sects and schools of the Buddhists, except only in Ceylon, and in those countries which have derived their Buddhism from Ceylon. It is true that General Cunningham says 1 that the name of Milinda ' is still famous in a 11 Buddhist countries.' But he is here drawing a very wide conclusion from an isolated fact. For in his note he refers only to Hardy, who is good evidence for Ceylon, but who does not even say that the' Milinda > was known elsewhere. Preserved there, and translated at a very early date into Pali, it has become, in

Table of Contents

CONTENTS; PAGE; INTRODUCTION XI; The SiJJlhalese version of the llilinda XII; Buddbaghosa's four references to it xiv; lISS and edition of the text XVI; King lIiIinda the same as lIenander xviii; Notices of him in classical writers xix; His coins xx; His birthplace, Kalasi, probably = Karisi X X III; The author not the same as Nagargulla xxv; Passages in the Pi/akas referred to silently xxvii; Pali books, &c, referred to by name xxix; Pi/aka passages quoted XXXI; Length of the Pitakas xxxyi; Results of these comparisons XXXVIIl; Differences between our author and the Pitakas xl; Proper names outside the Pi/akas xliii; Differences of language between our author and the; Pi/akas xlv; The lIiIinda as a work of art xlviii; TRANSLATION OF THE TEXT; Book 1 The Secular Narrative; Description of Sagala 2; Previous births of lIilinda

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Forgotten Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1451001592
• ISBN 13: 9781451001594
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Sprache: Englisch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 432