Stefan Baums

The project will investigate the beginnings of Buddhist exchange across the Bay of Bengal based on the inscriptions of Vijayapuri (modern Nagarjunakonda) in India and Sriksetra (near modern Pyay) in Myanmar. Combining the expertise of five leading scholars from Europe and the United States, it will produce a state-of-the-art digital publication of these documents, and a volume of articles dealing with early Buddhist networks and the spread of Indian culture to Southeast Asia. Crossing the academic divide between South and Southeast Asia, it will make a key contribution to the decipherment of the Pyu language, address the challenge that early Buddhism in Myanmar poses to the notion of a ‘Sanskrit cosmopolis’, and refine current models of the diffusion of Buddhism across Asia.