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THE EASTERN BUDDHIST
plained the meaning of Nirvāņa. The usefulness of his book is diminished by the fact that the author was not sufficiently equipped for this difficult task. Apart from these three books there are of course many other publications which contain useful information. The most important will be mentioned in due course.
The first chapter deals very briefly with the period up to about 1825. Although important work had been done before that date, it mostly remained unpublished and became known much later. More will be said in this chapter about the period 1826-1877, in which Eugène Burnouf is the dominating figure. The second chapter begins in 1877 and ends about 1942. This period witnesses the work of such great scholars as Sylvain Lévi, Louis de La Vallée Poussin, Hermann Oldenberg, Th. Stcherbatsky and the Rhys Davidses. The third chapter deals with the most recent period, whereas the final chapter sketches some of the tasks which will require the attention of scholars in coming
years.
In this brief sketch it is of course impossible to deal adequately with all aspects of Buddhist studies. The main emphasis has been put on philological studies. From a geographic point of view India is the principal country dealt with but developments in the Theravada countries and in China and Tibet have not been entirely neglected. No attempt has been made to include studies on Japanese Buddhism and the history of Japanese Buddhist studies. This is a topic which can only be adequately treated by Japanese scholars.
4 For a review of his work see Journal of Indian Philosophy, 1, 1972, pp. 396-403.
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