[Buddha-l] Anomalous doctrines

[Dan Lusthaus]

> Not according to Basham, who says [...]
> that Xuang Zhang had found  (7th c.) that the "Lesser Vehicle"
> was "almost extinct in most of India, and only flourishing in a few parts 
> of
> the West"
>
> Have these interpretations of the historical record been seriously 
> revised,
> or discarded altogether?
> Joanna

What would need to be discarded is Basham's misrepresentation of the 
historical record. Etienne Lamotte, in his History of Indian Buddhism 
(available these days in English as well as the original French), tabulates 
a more accurate accounting of what Xuanzang found in India, and Theravada, 
etc., were not tiny. Additionally, to Xuanzang's consternation, from the 
time he left China until he arrived in Kashmir, he did not meet a single 
Mahayana center. "Central Asia" was exclusively 'little vehicle'.

Since, as I mentioned recently, Pudgalavadins would be reckoned as little 
vehicle folks by Mahayanists, and they were clearly the majority in India 
when Xuanzang was in India, Basham is just out to lunch.

Dan Lusthaus