This fifth volume in the Gandharan Buddhist Texts series (GBT) presents two fragmentary manuscripts of the poem "Songs of Lake Anavatapta." Previously known from versions in Sanskrit; Pali; Tibetan; and Chinese; the two recently discovered Gandhari-language versions confirm the poem's popularity in the ancient Buddhist world.The "Songs of Lake Anavatapta" consists of a series of narrations by the Buddha's foremost disciples (and finally by the Buddha himself) in which each reveals his own complex karmic history over many past lives and explains how; as a result of good deeds; he has come to be an enlightened disciple of the Buddha.An important theme is the complexity of karma; whereby not only the enlightened beings but even the Buddha himself suffer the effects of remnants of bad karma from evil deeds long-ago.
#2019056 in Books 1997-12-01Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.00 x .50 x 6.00l; .65 #File Name: 029597642X204 pages
Review
7 of 34 people found the following review helpful. Facts with wrong conclusionBy Muzaffer MuctehitzadeAuthor is certainly trying to create a subject for himself. He is trying to identify what he calls kul/harem and agricultural serfdom with slavery in the West. He never compares the conditions of the slaves in the west with his classification of slaves in Ottoman Empire; kul/harem subjects; what I call "adopted persons" or "willing to serve for better future" like volunteers in government offices or adoptive children. He can not count more than two digit persons as "slaves" in the Ottoman Empire while in the west it goes up to millions. He does not compare the conditions of the slaves in the west with conditions of those kul/harem that is far better than most of the Ottoman subjects. He does not see the difference that agricultural servants in Ottoman Empire were kick out by the Russians from Russia yet those in the West were captured. Although he states that most of the families were racing to give away their sons and daughters to so called slavery in Ottoman Empire yet in the West they were hunted. He concludes that lack of study of slavery in Muslim countries is due to political correctness in the west; which is a joke when they make all kinds of studies to tear apart the Holy Qur'an. In summary the information is correct for they can be verified from sources but I totally disagree with the conclusion and especially that there is a cover up.
