Buddhist Monastic Discipline contains two significant Buddhist monastic disciplinary texts -- the Sanskrit Pratimoksa Sutras of the Mahasamghikas and Mulasarvastivadins -- for the first time translated into English. They are printed on facing pages for ease of comparison. One of the texts is that of a very early Buddhist school first appearing in the 4th century BCE, and the other is one not mentioned in the records until the 7th century CE. The contrasting texts thus highlight the development of Buddhist sectarian practices.
Two introductory chapters precede the translated Sutras. The first gives an overview of the rise of Buddhist monasticism; analyzes Vinaya, that portion of the Buddhist canon regulating the life of monks and nuns; and provisionally identifies the problematics inherent in Pratimoksa study, pointing the way to needed research. The second chapter describes how the two translated Sutras were found and edited.
The translated texts are thoroughly annotated, often highlighting hitherto unknown grammatical variants in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, and are followed by a concordance table of Bhiksu Pratimoksa Sutras preserved in Indic languages and by selected bibliography.

Buddhist Monastic Discipline, Charles S. Prebish, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Hardcover, 156 pages, $15.00

Charles Prebish came to Utah State University in January 2007 following more than thirty-five years on the faculty of the Pennsylvania State University. During his tenure at Utah State University, he was the first holder of the Charles Redd Endowed Chair in Religious Studies and served as Director of the Religious Studies Program. During his career, Dr. Prebish published more than twenty books and nearly one hundred scholarly articles and chapters. His books Buddhist Monastic Discipline (1975) and Luminous Passage: The Practice and Study of Buddhism in America (1999) are considered classic volumes in Buddhist Studies. Dr. Prebish remains the leading pioneer in the establishment of the study of Western Buddhism as a sub-discipline in Buddhist Studies. In 1993 he held the Visiting Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies at the University of Calgary, and in 1997 was awarded a Rockefeller Foundation National Humanities Fellowship for research at the University of Toronto. Dr. Prebish has been an officer in the International Association of Buddhist Studies, and was co-founder of the Buddhism Section of the American Academy of Religion. In 1994, he co-founded the Journal of Buddhist Ethics, which was the first online peer-reviewed journal in the field of Buddhist Studies; and in 1996, co-founded the Routledge "Critical Studies in Buddhism" series. He has also served as editor of the Journal of Global Buddhism and Critical Review of Books in Religion. In 2005, he was honored with a "festschrift" volume by his colleagues titled Buddhist Studies from India to America: Essays in Honor of Charles S. Prebish. Dr. Prebish retired from Utah State University on December 31, 2010, and was awarded emeritus status. He currently resides in State College, Pennsylvania.