During the 11th and 12th centuries, Tibetan culture underwent fundamental changes. It was during this period that Buddhism became firmly rooted on the Tibetan plateau and its major traditions originated. At the same time, Tibetan Buddhist teachers and scholars created new and influential genres of Buddhist literature. One of these teachers is Po-to-ba Rin-chen-gsal, whose instructions on the “graded path” (to awakening) are one of the earliest specimens of the important lam rim genre. Po-to-ba combines elements of Indian Buddhism with indigenous Tibetan elements, such as local anecdotes, proverbs and stories about contemporary teachers, which makes his dPe chos (“Dharma exemplified”) a highly interesting source for the cultural history of this period. This monograph contains the first translation of this work into a Western language and provides a detailed study of the Indian and Tibetan context of Po-to-ba’s instructions on the graded path.

The focus of this study on Indian book illumination are the miniatures of six Jain Kalpasūtra manuscripts produced in western India (Gujarat and Rajasthan) as well as in Jaunpur, the capital of a Sultanate located further to the northeast, during the 15th and 16th centuries; all manuscripts belong to the so-called 'Western Indian School'. The study starts with an art-historical examination of the individual motifs and pictorial contents. In a second step their position is defined within the framework of literary history of the texts they are associated with. Furthermore, the contents of the pictures will be located in their cultural, religious, and historical context and their symbolism will be explained

Das Werk präsentiert über tausend Siegel, Siegelabdrücke und Verwandtes aus Gandhara aus der Zeit des Hellenismus bis zu den Guptas. Die Sammlung Aman ur Rahmans findet sich durchweg in Farbe wiedergegeben, wie auch die Sammlungen der Museen in Taxila und Peshawar. Harry Falk bietet eine schrift- und kulturgeschichtliche Einleitung, mit Schwerpunkten bei den Kulten der Bhima aus der Höhle Kashmir Smast und den Lesungen aller Epigramme in indischen und griechischen Schriften verbunden mit einer namenskundlichen Analyse.