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Open research questions in Indian and Buddhist Studies

39 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 3,545 Indian and Buddhist Studies papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • Abstract This paper explores a hitherto unstudied Persian masnawī in praise of the sacred city of Vāraṇāsī, the Kāšī-stut (a phonetically Persianized variant of kāśī stuti , “Hymn to Vārāṇasī”) composed in 1778–9 by a little known Kāyastha scribe from Allahabad, Matan Lāl Āfarīn.

    The Black Stone and the City of Light: Devotional Cityscapes and the Poetics of “Idolatry” in Matan Lāl Āfarīn Persian Masnawī on Vārāṇasī (1778–9) · 2024 · DOI

  • Rnam bshad is very long and contains extensive and detail explanation of SNS, which has rarely been studied in academia in spite of having different and new interpretation from the commentary of Woncheuk.

    The Structural System of Vikalpayogaparivarto nāma ṣaṣṭamah in Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra: Focusing on 'phags pa dgong pa nges par 'grel pa'i mod'i rnam par bshad pa · 2023 · DOI

  • I contend that since the jātakas themselves are lacking in specific external referents they can easily be given a location, whilst their framing in the ‘present’ time of the Buddha’s teaching career grounds the stories in both time and place, without infringing on the flexibility of the individual stories.

    A place for the Bodhisatta: The local and the universal in jātaka stories · 2007 · DOI

  • It is seen that the Tibetan Buddhist philosophical idealism, while challenging traditional paradigms, has potential to explain some previously inadequately understood NDE findings such as personal and cultural variations.

    Views from Tibet: NDEs and the Book of the dead. · 1985 · DOI

  • \nThe literature has been organized in the following sections: 1) An Introductory Overview; 2) The Sacred Pipe in Mythology; 3) American Indian Attitudes towards the Sacred Pipe; 4) The Sacred Pipe in Ceremony; 5) The Chief and the Sacred Pipe; 6) The Sacred Pipe in the Societies; 7) The Sacred Pipe in Peace and War; 8) The Sacred Pipe as a Sacramental for All Needs; 9) The Sacred Pipe as the Symbolic Man; 10) The Sacred Pipe and Christianity; 11) Further Research on the Sacred Pipe.

    The Sacred Pipe in American Indian Religions · 1984 · DOI

  • It was, for example, found in Case V that in order to be a predic- tor of death, a mythical symbol like Dhruva alone is insufficient, unless it is conceived of as a group of relations expressed iinguistically as &dquo;location of Dhruva star by an old person&dquo;. If the penultimate column is incorrectly interpreted; and the mythemes insufficiently understood (in terms of the bundles of relations that they represent), it is most likely that one may lose the &dquo;correct&dquo; message of the narrative.

    Prediction of Death Among the Kanya- Kubja Brahmans : a Study of Predictive Narratives · 1967 · DOI

  • Remains to be answered is a systematic, long-term rebuilding of how the mechanisms of knowledge transmission changed over different historical periods between prehistoric oral to script-based monasticism to the institutionalization of the Pirivena system within one analytical paradigm.

    A Qualitative Historical Review of Educational Paradigm Shifts in Pre-Modern Sri Lanka (Prehistoric Settlements to c. 1505 CE) · 2026 · DOI

  • This large-format two-volume set offers a bountiful harvest of insight into the character and historical development of an understudied but vital cultural instrument for the transmission of knowledge.

    Tibetan Manuscripts and Early Printed Books, Vol. 1: Elements; Vol. 2: Elaborations · 2026 · DOI

  • This novel development is likely connected to the growing theatrical culture of the Song, but also reflects an understudied conceptual development during the Tang-Song transition.

    Anchoring the Sacred in the Mundane · 2024 · DOI

  • Our publication is intended to renew the existing Ukrainian academic interest in the Upaniṣads, which was interrupted by the Soviet authorities in the 1920s and 1930s, and to draw attention to some still insufficiently researched aspects of the Śvetāśvatara-Upaniṣad.

    Śvetāśvatara-Upaniṣad 1.1-16 / Translation from Sanskrit, Introductory Article and Commentaries by Yu. Zavhorodnii · 2024 · DOI

  • However, recent work on late premodern Indian philosophy has raised the possibility of constructing alternative genealogies for modern religious textual practices, though the methodologies that may allow the characterisation of premodern texts as ‘popular’ canonical works remain uncertain.

    Scholarly worlds and popular texts: The Bhagavad Gðtå’s vernacular communities in early modern India · 2024 · DOI

  • That said, Morey and Schöpf acknowledge that much of their work consisted of gathering good data, as not much is known about Tangsa culture and languages outside of their communities.

    Ritual Speech in the Himalayas: Oral Texts and Their Contexts · 2024 · DOI

  • Through a geographical lens, the research concludes that Nabadwip was indeed the birthplace of Sri Chaitanya, but the exact location within Nabadwip remains unknown.

    In Search of Birthplace of Sri Chaitanya: Part I. A Study on Hagiographies Up to 17th Century · 2023 · DOI

  • In this article, I contribute to the development of the sociology of prayer focusing on the practice of bhaktiyoga, or yoga of devotion, within the largely influential, although substantially understudied, Mooji’s neo-Guru movement.

    Praying interaction rituals: Prayer, ritual, and spiritual capital in a contemporary neo-Guru movement · 2023 · DOI

  • The original beliefs of the Uyghurs, which have been overshadowed by their conversion to Manichaeism and Buddhism, have not been thoroughly studied until recently.

    Pre‐Manichaean Beliefs of the Uyghurs <scp>II</scp>: Other Religious Elements · 2023 · DOI

  • Even though the nine ponds play an important role in the religious landscape of the site and the life of the religious community, they have not been studied till now.

    Nine Ponds (navatīrthas) of Śrīraṅgam · 2022 · DOI

  • It makes this case by examining an understudied genre of vernacular legal texts that has influenced the regulation of monks in Sri Lanka for more than a millennium.

    Buddhist Law beyond the Vinaya: Monastic Constitutions (<i>katikāvata</i>s) and Their Transformations in Colonial Sri Lanka · 2021 · DOI

  • Despite recent moves among philosophers of religion to avoid undue abstraction by giving closer attention to religion’s practical dimensions, such moves commonly remain limited to a relatively narrow range of religious traditions.

    “Mountains of Flesh and Seas of Blood”: Reflecting Philosophically on Animal Sacrifice through Dramatic Fiction · 2017 · DOI

  • ABSTRACT This study represents a detailed inquiry into the rhetoric of Jainism, an understudied religious-philosophical tradition that arose among Hinduism and Buddhism on the Indian subcontinent.

    <i>Anekāntavāda</i> and Engaged Rhetorical Pluralism: Explicating Jaina Views on Perspectivism, Violence, and Rhetoric · 2014 · DOI

  • Although little known among scholars today, Kadwāhā was a site of local significance as a major religious center that was actively patronized by kings ruling at Chanderi and Narwar.

    Fortified <i>Maṭhas</i> and Fortress Mosques: The Transformation and Reuse of Hindu Monastic Sites in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries · 2009 · DOI

  • I start by comparing the little known first English translation by Daniel Gogerly from 1840 with the influential 1870 translation by Max Müller.

    <i>Dhammapada</i> Traditions and Translations · 2009 · DOI

  • However, if literary ties between Hindu India and the Malay world, both direct and mediated by Javanese literature, have frequently drawn the attention of researchers, creative stimuli that came to the Malays from Muslim India remain inadequately studied.

    Structure, date and sources of Hikayat Aceh revisited: The problem of Mughal-Malay literary ties · 2008 · DOI

  • The main reason for lacking research on this interaction is a rather stylistic approach, which dominates art history and pays too little attention to understanding the idea and provenance of śilpaśātras.

    ‘Inside’ the Tradition of the Śilpaśāstras: Introductory Remarks on the Historical Study of Indian Texts on Art · 2004 · DOI

  • While Western views on the relationship between church and state have been studied and debated profusely, relatively little is known about the relationship between Buddhist tradition and the state.

    Applied Idealism: A Buddhist Perspective on the Necessity of Government · 1998

  • While passages in various Buddhist texts can be found which attack the Brahmanical view of how society should be organized, nevertheless little is known about how, in fact, Buddhists related to their Hindu neighbours.

    Buddhist Brahmans · 1974 · DOI

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39 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 3,545 Indian and Buddhist Studies papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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