Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, 19 Nov 2002
The activities of the British orientalists in India are insufficiently appreciated, and this book is an excellent corrective to the current facile demonisation of these remarkable men. There are some wonderful characters here, and some inspiring stories. Certainly anyone with an interest in Buddhism should read this to appreciate just how much we owe our current understanding to these almost-forgotten sahibs.
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0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Misleading title is an irritant, 8 Jun 2009
'Men who discovered India's lost religion' - Buddhism was invented but also declined in quite a short space of time, supplanted or weakened - by Hinduism or invasions - and later by Islam. Somehow however it migrated across Tibet and to China and elsewhere.
'Six generations of his [Charles Allen's] family served under the British Raj.' I think all of this book apart from introductory and summary chapters is biographical, often including several men who worked together, or travelled together, or happened to meet. The bibliography lists many 19th century books, the authors of some of them being the subjects of chapters. It wouldn't surprise me if he has a personal library, though the 'Oriental and India Office Collection' at the British Library, and Journal of the Royal Asiatic |Society 1788-1848 loom large too.
India's 'lost religion' was not, in fact, lost. The men listed here did astounding work in languages (Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan) - there are analogues to the Rosetta stone - and translations (they 'discovered' many works in those languages, typically in monasteries). They excavated what often turned out to be Buddhist monuments - stupas/topes, robbed-out monuments, man made caves, Ashokan pillars, the remains of huge towns. They made maps, for example of Benares. But everywhere they were helped and assisted - Buddhism existed but the technically-advanced ability of whites to travel permitted them to explore comparative versions of Buddhism. The men who carried out these activities are the subject of the book. The Buddha is not such a large part as the title suggests. There is a lot of local colour - accounts of battles for example, as often between local groups (Gorkhas, Mauryas, Sikhs..) as the British.
The problem I found is that to extract a thread of Buddhism is very difficult - the author is like a raconteur with an agonisingly precise memory of detail that isn't immediately relevant to the topic. In fact the book's structure, with some plates in pre-photographic form, and some of structures long ago demolished, mirrors the jumbled chaos of an archaeological site, where the newcomer is faced with the task of piecing together what happened.
Another irritant is what I take to be the author's lack of empathy with the past. Thus, a huge piece of land reported to have had stupas or stopes as far as the eye could see, have been flattened as a result of war. (Imagine Salisbury Plain's monuments all crushed). Sundry - generally Muslim - invaders pulverised and smashed many monuments. Charles Allen dislikes such behaviour when it's the Chinese in Tibet, but lightly passes over it in India. The same comment is true when he discusses invasions and massacres. This is of course his stylistic choice, but it removes an important signpost for the reader, since close reading is needed to check whether an account describes something small, or huge devastation.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Forgotten lamp of Asia, 20 Oct 2008
Forgotten lamp of Asia
Well written book, After reading 3-4 chapter I don't feel to keep the book down until I finish it.
This is must read book, This book shows us the search for Buddha in India, and the glorified period of India in the time of Ashoka. We are really thankful to those people who discovered the places related with Buddha.
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by John Keay
by Charles Allen
by Charles Allen
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