It is Louis Renou who drew the attention of the author on the particular situation of Kashmir in the context of the Indian culture.

Kasmir indeed acts as an extraordinary mediator between two worlds, India and Tibet. Protected by its geographical position, the country constituted a particularly prestigious cultural centre in Norther India at the epoch where this very norther region was the pray of profound troubles and was progressively gained by Islam.

The Buddhism that the Kasmiris conveyed to their homeland and to Tibet originated from the monastic universities of North-Eastern India. Too often still, it is depreciated as "late Buddhism", qualification which betrays more ignorance and misunderstanding than an objective approach of the subject. However, this last phase of Buddhism in the Indian soil was fruitfully inheritated by the Kasmiris and Tibetans. A careful analysis brings to light that this Buddhism was not, at the time, deprived from its scholastic, speculative as well as mystic activities; it also shows that the Kasmiri Buddhists have not been strangers to this internal development of the though on its way to Tibetan Buddhism.

Buddhists of Kasmir, Jean Naudou, Agamm Kala Prakashan, Hardcover, 334 pp, $15.00

Jean Naudou (1921) is at present professor of Sanskrit and of Indian culture at the University of Lille III (France). Earlier he was also a professor at the University of Brussels (Belgium).

As a research-Scholar of the French Council of Scientific Research (C.N.R.S) he pursued research on the role of the Kasmiri Buddhists in the diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet as well as on their place in the development of the thought. His interest in buddhism convinced him later to write a biography of the Enlightened one (Le Bouddha, Paris, 1973).

For the last few years, he has also devoted attention to the temary structure which appear at various places of the Indian though and which can be related to a wide Indo-European background.

Besides, the author has constantly shown through all his life of researcher, a deep interest for the study of Indian art, more particularly in defence of the "method of evolution of (decorative) motifs" which has been systematically applied by Ph. Stm and his students in the field of Indian and South-East Asian history of art (Au Service d'une biologie de l'art, with English Summaries, Villeneuve-d'Ascq. 1978). J. Naudou has otherwise contributed to many scientific journals of Indology and has participated to various congresses.

CONTENTS: Buddhists of Kasmir
Preface	xi
Abbreviations	xvi
CHAPTER I Preamble
Role of Kasmir in the history of Buddhism	1
Considerations of method	8
The Sources	15
Chronological problems	21
Geographical situation	27
CHAPTER II From the pilgrimage of Hiouan-ts'ang to the persecution of Glan Dar-ma
Kasmiri Buddhism at the start of 7th century	38
Political confusion and cosmopolitanism	49
Kasmiri master-teachers of the 7th and 8t centuries	61
CHAPTER III From Kasmiri Gateways to Tibet
Cycles of Samvara and of Hevajra and the Pancakrama	78
Kasmiri monks in Tibet	96
Padmasambhava	106
CHAPTER IV Kasmiri Buddhism from the persecution of Glan Dar-ma to the mission of Rin-chen bzan-po
Gaps of an information due to the interruption of relations with Tibet	116
Study of logic, and the datation of the great commentators of the Pramanasamuccya	122
"Tantrism" and "Mantrayana"	129
At the eve of the "second propagation"	148
CHAPTER V Kasmiri Buddhism and the "Second propagation of the Law" (980-1055)
The end of the Utpala dynasty and the coming of the first Lohara dynasty	155
The generation of Kasmiri master-teachers of Rin-chen bzan-po	168
The kasmiri collaborators of Rin-chen bzan-po	190
Kasmiris in Tibet at the time of Lha-lde and of 'Od-lde	195
Ksemendra	200
CHAPTER VI At the time of Kalasa and of Harsadeva
Kasmiri buddhism at the time of the lo-ca-ba Blo-ldan ses-rab and Ni-ma grags	203
The lay brothers of Srinagar	217
Jnanasribhadra	221
The logicians	227
The translators of Ratnaguptavihara at Lha-sa and in Chan-si	231
CHAPTER VII The centuries of decline (XII-XIVth centuries)
Political conditions of the cultural life in Kasmir	237
XIIth century: Alankarakalasa	240
Sakyasribhadra, last "rector" of Vikramasila and the destruction of the famous university by the Turco-Afgans. Scattering of the pandits	244
Buddhasrijnana and Sugatasri	250
The last great Kasmiri Buddhists	252
CHAPTER VIII Backward glance	259
Panel I: Royal Kasmiri chronology	266
Panel II: Pala chronology	268
Panel III: Compared chronology of the kings from Kasmir, Tibet and Bengal from VIIth to IXth century	270
Panel IV: Indian sovereigns anterior to the Pala	272
Annex I: Simplified genealogy of the kings of Guge.	274
Annex II: List of Kasmiri authors and translators	275
Bibliography	279
Indices	285