Critical edition and study of Upāsakajanālaṅkāra

Abstract

The Upásakajanálarìkára is a unique work in that it is the most comprehensive Pali manual dealing with the Buddha's teachings for the layman. This work was first brought to the notice of Western scholars by Dr. L.D. Barnett as far back as 1901 in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Nevertheless no scholar has made any serious study of this book up to the present day. In the meantime, however, attempts have been made by certain scholars to define Buddhism as a purely monastic religion having no relevance to the lay life, though without any basis for such an assumption. The Upásakajanálarikára is in itself an ample testimony to discredit this assertion.My interest in the Upásakajanálaiikára was first aroused not only as an attempt to make available this book to Western orientalists by making a critical edition of it, but also as a means by which, with the general introduction, to dispel the wrong impression created in the minds of some regarding Buddhism.