Sramana Vidya Studies in Buddhism

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Immediately after the sudden and sad demise of Prof. Jagannath Upadhayaya on 15th September, last year friends and admirers of Upadhayayaji stunned with an unexpected cruel blow on his death met and decided to do something promptly to perpetuate his memory. As a first phase of the programme of paying homage to this great Acarya of our times it was planned to publish a Commemoration Volume to be released on his first death anniversary. Professor Venerable S. Rinpoche Principal / Director, Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies as is his wont went immediately into action. Invitations for contributions to the proposed Volume in English and Hindi were sent to scholars. We received more enthusiastic response from writers in English from India and abroad and it was decided by the Editorial Board to publish first volume in English. It is a strong irony that although Professor Upadhayaya was more Popular in Hindi world and his major contribution in Buddhist Studies is Hindi world Sanskrit and Pali we could not get sufficient articles in Hindi in time; but now the Hindi volume is in the Pipeline and will soon be published as Vol. II.

I was entrusted the work of editing the Volume by the Editorial Board and seeing it through the press. Although I do not fell competent to do this stupendous job in such a short time, Upadhayayaji's unforgettable affection and memory and some unknown power gave me some strength to perform this arduous task. I am quite conscious of my failings and I therefore would seek indulgence of scholars for my shortcomings.

I have done the least editing due to shortage of time. There is no uniformity in style and punctuation in the main body of articles and footnotes. Generally author's own style as presented in the article is maintained. Words like sutra, Mahayana, Theravada, nirvana and Tantricare given in some articles with or without diacritical marks as given by the author. Also words like Acarya and Sankara are slept Acharya Shankara etc. These discrepancies may be found in this Volume.

Three more points:

(1) Padmasiri de Silva's article is Published without notes in the main body of the volume as notes were not received along received along with the article. Ven. Rinpoche sent an urgent letter not to Professor de Silva for rushing notes. Still they could not reach us in time. The Editorial Board however wanted to get the article published even without notes in view of its importance. However, now notes have been received and they are added at the end of Volume in the Addenda.

. (2) Chinese Characters in David Kalupahana's article could not be included in the main body. Due heavy showers in Varanasi for four days continuously we could not arrange to prepare blocks of the Chinese characters. These characters have also been added in the Addenda. Notes indicating Roman figures refer serially to Chinese characters in the Addenda.

(3) Some diacritical marks used in German., French and romanisation of Chinese and Japanese characters have been omitted as the Press did not have them. We hope readers will overlook these shortcomings in the volume due to circumstances beyond our control.

A general Index is added to the Volume.

Finally, I must thank my assistants; Samten Chophel Pema Dorjee (Kongpo) Dr. K. S. Dubey and Miss A. Heitmann for their help in editing, proof- checking and preparing the Index. To Shri Vipul Shankar, the young Manager of Ratna Printing Works, thanks are also due for his expeditious publication of the Volume inspite of very rough weather in Varanasi during the last days of publication.

May all of them earn the fruit of their merits.