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The author has made a good attempt to write this short treatise. His main object has been to acquaint the public, as far as possible, with what the ancient Buddhists thought about spirits and spirit world. A study of the Preta belief among the Southern Buddhists is likely to be attractive. Materials have been drawn for the first time from the Hinayana Buddhist literature and specially from the Paramatthadipani (The Elucidation of the Highest Meaning) on the Petavatthu (Preta stories), that is the commentary on the Petavatthu which is one of the books of the Khuddaka Nikaya, written by Dhammapala of Kancipura (Conjevaram). He fully agrees with Rhys Davids that the foolish little poems contained in the Petavatthu are no good but the stories given in its commentary present before us a very interesting side of the Preta belief. There are six chapters in this book and they deal with: Pretas and Pitaras, the first expression of the sprit be belief, the formal expression of belief, physical description of the sprits, sprit stories and ends with a chapter on doctrinal bearings of the sprit stories. This book is a reprint of the 1936 edition.
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ISBN : 9788121231817
Pages : 128
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