Description

Those who are engaged in serious studies in Buddhism could never overlook the name of E. Lamotte who is noted as one of the greatest scholars in the twentieth century for his monumental contributions to the study of Buddhism. However, little is known of his contributions to the study of Hinduism in his youth. That is to say, as early as in 1929 his monograph Notes sur la Bhagavadgita was published in Paris, with a preface by Louis de La Vallee Poussin. Three years later, J. Przyluski published an article entitled "Bouddhisme et Upanisad", and there he found the best possible collaborator in Lamotte. Readers of these two writings of Professor Lamotte could never fail to be impressed by his profound scholarship both in Bhagavadgita and Upanisads, for the former still remains one of the most important contributions to the text even after 80 years, and the tradition established in the latter, that is the comparative study of Buddhism and Hinduism, still continues to the present day. From these two writings, we realize that Professor Lamotte started his brilliant career as an Indologist, not as a Buddhologist as it is usually understood. This book makes these two texts available again.