Professor Lokesh Chandra, aged 84, is one of India’s leading experts on Sanskrit and Buddhism

(By Tsem Rinpoche and Joy Kam)

The Birth of One of India’s Great Scholars

A renowned scholar of the Vedas, Buddhism and the Indian arts, a philosopher, and one of India’s great thinkers, Professor Lokesh Chandra was born to an illustrious family of educationists in Ambala, Haryana State, in 1927.

He is currently the Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Cultural Relationships (ICCR) and a film director at the International Academy of Indian Tradition. In 2006, he was awarded India’s prestigious Padma Bhushan award, the nation’s third-highest civilian award, for his great contributions to literature and education.

Widely travelled all over Asia, Europe and Russia, Professor Lokesh Chandra has published close to 600 written works and texts. Some of these very precious and rare manuscripts are considered to be classics such as the Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary (1961), Buddhist Iconography of Tibet (1986), Materials for a History of Tibetan Literature (1963), and the 20 volumes of the Dictionary of Buddhist Iconography.

Life and Works

Professor Lokesh Chandra is currently the Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Cultural Relationships (ICCR)

Professor Lokesh Chandra’s father, Professor Raghu Vira, was himself a world-renowned thinker, a well-known politician, a great Sanskrit scholar and a linguist who made significant contributions to the development of India’s linguistic diversity and the understanding of Asian culture.

With his father’s guidance, Professor Chandra learnt Sanskrit and several other classical Indian languages, including Pali and the Prakrit languages. He also mastered Latin, Classical Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Old Persian, Avestan of the Parsis and many other important languages of cultural significance to India. He also learnt many Indian languages such as Tamil, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam and Uriya.

In 1943, Professor Chandra helped his father translate a compilation of the Chinese Dictionary of Indian Geographical Names, originally written in 517 CE and composed from the various accounts of travellers that existed in Chinese literature.

When Professor Chandra attended university, he teamed up with his father to create Indian language glossaries for scientific terms used in the subjects of physics, chemistry, mathematics, zoology and botany.

In 1947, Professor Chandra received his Master’s Degree from the Punjab University at Lahore and in 1949, with the discovery of fresh manuscripts, he edited the Gavamayana section of Jaiminiya Brahmana’s Vedic texts. The restoration of the text to its original state, ensuring that the purity of its teachings were maintained, was a long and arduous process which took Professor Chandra several years to complete.

For these efforts, Professor Chandra was conferred a Doctorate of Literature and Philosophy by the State University of Utrecht (Netherlands) in 1950. However, it was only in 1954 that Professor Chandra finally completed the restoration of the Jaiminiya Brahmana texts.

Professor Lokesh Chandra was conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters (D. Lit) in recognition of his immense scholarship, vast experience and great contributions to the fields of linguistics, culture and social advancement in India and in the world. His Holiness Samdech Tep Wong, the Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia presented the degree at a ceremony held on 10 May 2016 at Chaktomukh Conference Centre, Phnom Penh

The following year, Professor Lokesh Chandra took on the challenging task of creating a Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary. From 1955 to 1960, he worked on this arduous project which resulted in a collection of 12 main volumes; a further seven supplementary volumes were published between 1992 and 1994.

This was the world’s first comprehensive lexicographical (alphabetically ordered) Tibetan-Sanskrit Dictionary. Its contents provided the reader a comprehensive understanding of Tibetan literature and culture, and had an influence in the highest, most remote and most isolated regions of Asia.

Another of Professor Chandra’s amazing accomplishments is his editing of volume upon volume of historical Tibetan texts that include the history of Tibet’s first monastery, Samye Monastery. On top of this, he also edited the text titled “The Golden Annals of Mongolia” by Tsawa Tamdin and a study of 19 Mongolian polymaths.

In his three-volume book titled “Materials for a History of Tibetan Literature” Professor Lokesh Chandra presented to the world the limitless dimensions of the profound wisdom and life in the Land of Snows — Tibet — as well as the Mongolian plains.

He teamed up with his father again to research and write on the many aspects of iconography derived from Trans-Himalayan Asian art, as far as the regions of Volga and Siberia — hard to reach places that were rarely explored or written about. This wealth of knowledge is meticulously recorded in a 20-volume book called A New Tibeto-Mongol Pantheon (1961).

Professor Chandra is seen here with the Gilgit Manuscripts. “It will probably take another 50 years to understand it completely. Scholars from Germany, Japan and Korea are currently trying to decipher the text as sporadic translations in Sanskrit and Chinese have helped them get some idea of the missing links in the original texts.”

The Gilgit Manuscripts contain the texts on Vinay Vastu, the treatises on monastic discipline. It also contains texts on Ayurvedic medicine such as Anna Panna Vidhi and the Bhaisajya Guru Sutra. It includes references to iconometry, folk tales, philosophy and culinary skills and also has a chronological list of the various Buddhist Shahi Kings of Gilgit.

With Professor Lokesh Chandra’s knowledge and understanding of the spiritual expression of India’s ancient scriptures of the Vedic tradition, he went on to discuss this subject with representatives from India, Tibet, Mongolia, China, Japan, Korea, Philippines and South East Asia.

Professor Chandra was recognised for his outstanding achievements and elected as an Honorary Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for his great contribution towards editing the 108 great volumes of the Mongolian Kanjur or Kangyur (Buddhist Canon). He is the first Indian to have been given this great honour in the past 100 years.

The Mongolian Buddhist monk Jaya Pandita Losang Trinley (1642 – 1708)

A very interesting work published by Professor Lokesh Chandra through the International Academy of Indian Culture (1981, Vol. 4, Folios 43-60) is the catalogue of received teachings (thob yig) of the Mongolian Buddhist monk Jaya Pandita Losang Trinley (1642 – 1708).

These include several prophecies related to Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen, a long list of Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen’s incarnations as well as their brief biographies, as well as Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen’s rnam thar (spiritual biography), a year by year account of the great master’s life.

Prior to Professor Lokesh Chandra’s publication, Lobsang Tamdin, a Mongolian scholar and lineage holder of many practices and teachings, had also incorporated the biography of Tulku Drakpa Gyaltsen and compiled a list of his incarnations into a work called sprul sku grags pa rgyal mtshan gyi sngon byung ‘khrungs rabs dang bcas pa’i rnam thar (dza ya pandi ta blo bzang ‘phrin las kyi gsan yig nas zur du bkod pa bzhugs so). This formed part of Lobsang Tamdin’s be bum (collected works).

Lobsang Tamdin (1867 – 1937) was a Mongolian scholar and lineage holder of many practices and teachings. He is well-known for his compilation of numerous and significant texts by Mongolian and Tibetan masters.

Apart from spiritual subjects, Professor Lokesh Chandra also has an interest in the natural sciences. Hence, he was the editor for the international research journal, Advancing Frontiers of Plant Sciences. The 30-volume journal consists of scholarly articles on plant morphology and physiology, phytopathology, economic botany, systematic botany, plant cytology, horticulture, paleo-botany, genetics, and many other areas of scientific research concerned with plant species.

On 27 October 2014, Professor Lokesh Chandra was appointed the President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations by the President of India, Pranab Mukherjee. He is also the Honorary Director of the International Academy of Indian Culture.

Professor Chandra has previously held the important positions of Vice President of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, and Chairman of the Indian Council for Historical Research. Besides that, he also served as a Member of the Indian Parliament for two terms from 1974 to 1980 and from 1980 to 1986.

Professor Lokesh Chandra with Mr. Alexander Losyukov, President of the International Centre of the Roerichs (ICR), Moscow and a famous Russian diplomat, Alexander Kadakin, Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Republic of India, during the grand opening of an exhibition on the Roerich family which included a traditional Indian ceremony of lighting an oil lamp.

Professor Lokesh Chandra’s most recent writings include Buddhism Across the Grasslands of Chinggis Khan; and Lord Siva and Buddha in the Golden Isles of Indonesia.

He is currently engaged in writing about the cultural influences between India and China during the last two millennia. His other works also contain insightful research on the arts, literature, philosophy, and archaeology of Buddhist cities around the world, which took him all over Europe, Russia and Asia for research purposes.

His Eminence Gangchen Rinpoche and Professor Lokesh Chandra at Borobudur Temple

VIDEO – Oral History: Dr. Lokesh Chandra in conversation with Dr. Yashaswini Chandra

Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/InterviewWIthLokeshChandra.mp4

Popular Buddhist Books by Professor Lokesh Chandra

1. Dictionary of Buddhist Iconography (15 volumes)

Publisher: Aditya Prakashan
(1st Edition: August 1999)

The Dictionary of Buddhist Iconography is one of the greatest works by Professor Lokesh Chandra and his father Professor Raghu Vira who undertook the arduous task of identifying, classifying, describing and explaining the perplexing variations in Buddhist icons, which took them half a century to compile. These findings date back to the time when the Buddha was depicted on a coin during the reign of Kushan Emperor Kaniska. Professor Lokesh Chandra continued to research and gather the immense iconic material from where his father left off, which he started in the 1930s.

The dictionary consists of thousands of photographs, painted scrolls, statues, wooden carvings, line drawings, sketches from manuscripts and xylographs, microfilms, and index cards of various Buddhist deities. It documents the origins of Asian art, from hot desert plains to snow-capped mountains. They represent the artistic and divine heritage of the ancient cities of India, Nepal, Mongolia, Tibet, Buryatia, Central Asia, China, Japan, Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and other parts of the globe.

The dictionary records findings from the last twenty centuries, with comparative research done across various unique geographical areas. This is on top of the visualisations from many great masters who introduced the multitudes of extraordinary divine forms of the Buddhas, found in dharanis and sadhanas.

Volume 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Volume 4

Volume 5

Volume 6

Volume 7

Volume 8

Volume 9

Volume 10

Volume 11

Volume 12

Volume 13

Volume 14

Volume 15

2. Buddhist Iconography of Tibet

Publisher: Rinsen Book Co. (1986)

The work for this book was initiated by Professor Lokesh Chandra’s father, Professor Raghu Vira, and was completed by Professor Chandra himself. The book reveals the detailed iconography of Buddhist deities from the Tibetan pantheon. The original book consisted of three volumes. Volume 1 has more than 100 illustrated line drawings with detailed descriptions, and Volume 2 has over 1,400 such images and associated descriptions. Volume 3 is an index volume.

This work is definitely an aid for Buddhist practitioners who visualise these deities as part of their meditation practice. Therefore it is extremely important that the iconography of each deity is accurate, and that they understand the meaning of each symbol associated with that particular deity. This fantastic work provides practitioners with all they need for this.

Contents:

• Foreword by G. Tucci
• Preface by Herbert V. Guenther
• Introduction by Lokesh Chandra in Volume I
• The Pantheon of the Mongolian Kanjur
• The Narthang Pantheon
• The Bhadrakalpika-Sutra Pantheon
• The Three Hundred Icons
• Literature Cited
• Plates
• Volume II: The Bhadrakalpika-Sutra Pantheon
• Volume II: The Astasahasrika Pantheon
• Volume II: The Three Hundred Icons
• Volume III: Index and Japanese Explanatory Notes

3. Tibetan-Sanskrit dictionary

Publisher: South Asia Books
(1st Edition: March 1, 1993)

This is perhaps one of the most important books Professor Lokesh Chandra has ever published as it unlocks the doors to the vast works of Tibetan literature. Here, Professor Chandra presents a host of information and resources in one book, making it one of the most comprehensive Tibetan-Sanskrit dictionaries available.

4. Buddhist Iconography

Publisher: Aditya Prakashan (1988)

This book discusses the pantheon of Tibetan Buddhism, which is presented through the 500 Buddhist deities and teachers known as the Five Hundred Gods of Narthang, making it accessible to scholars of the modern era.

5. The Tibetan Iconography of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Other Deities

By: Lokesh Chandra & Fedrick Bunce
Publisher: D.K. Printworld (2002)

There is an astonishingly large array of mystical and enlightened deities within the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon, as there are various distinct lineages in Tibet and even various sects within each lineage. The Tibetan Iconography of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Other Deities presents a rare collection of 360 sets of wood cuts or xylographs, authored by Lalitavajra or Rolpa Dorje, who was an imperial preceptor of Emperor Qianlong (1711-1799). They represent different forms of manifestations of the enlightened Buddhas complemented by 360 praises in Chinese. The name of each deity is also provided in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Mongolian, Manchurian and Chinese.

6. Tibetan Art

Publisher: Niyogi Books (16 Aug 2012)

This book presents the richness of Tibetan art, which arises from mystical realisations of the esoteric universe. This art reveals the depth of wisdom attained by practitioners and masters during their meditations, which was then interpreted into two-dimensional or three-dimensional Tibetan art called thangkas. These majestic symbols have great meaning and are presented in this book through a thorough and comprehensive introduction to the complexity of thangka iconography. The divine artwork in this book allows readers a glimpse of the mystical land of Tibet, taking the reader on a journey of self-realisation as each Buddha deity embodies an aspect of our innate enlightened potential, symbolising qualities that we can achieve.

Contents:

• Preface: Unto the Mindground of Tibetan Art: Lokesh Chandra
• Tibet: The Land of Spaces and Silences
• Buddhas
• Bodhisattvas
• Goddesses
• Tantras and Mandalas
• Masters, Mystics & Kings
• Medical Thangkas
• Stupas
• Guardian Deities
• Conclusion

7. Buddhism Across the Grasslands of Chinggis Khan

Published by: Aditya Prakashan (2013)

This book reviews traditional Buddhist art, literature, the history of Mongolia, its monasteries, and the trans-creation of more than 6,000 writings from the Kangyur and Tangyur. It also brings to light 220 philosophical teachings and rituals; and hagiographical and historical works from the Manchu Dynasty to the 1920s.

It tells of the unfortunate destruction of 750 large monasteries, how they were uprooted, and the burning of 5 million xylographs and manuscripts. The major cathedrals of Buddhism, Erdeni Dzu and Choijin Lamin Sum were desecrated and a genocide against monks was carried out. Iconic intellectuals like Professor Rinchen, Lobsang Vandan, and Damdin Suren tell their accounts of these shocking events in their own words. Letters from Professor Rinchen about the obliteration of the Mongolian identity and how the Mongol script was substituted by Cyrillic are well documented here for the first time.

In Kalmykia and Buryatia, monasteries were destroyed, and books and scriptures were burnt in furnaces, as were millions of sacred images. This book reveals it all. The book also presents the tales of Bhoja, Vikramaditya and Krishna, the reproduction of the Tangyur, and the narration of international networking by Mongolistics across Asia, Europe, the USA and USSR which were provided by the efforts of Professor Raghu Vira.

Contents:

1. Power and virtue and the Mongols
2. In search of Mongolian Buddhist Sutras
3. Prof. Raghu Vira’s first visit to Mongolia (Dec. 1955)
4. Re-pristinisation of the Indo-Mongol tradition
5. Echo of Sanskrit in Mongol life and history
6. Exploring the inter-being of Sanskrit Mongolian literature
7. Visit to Mongolia in 1957
8. The dreams of 1958
9. The frozen patrimony flows in a global renaissance (1959)
10. India the home Mongolian culture (1960-63)
11. Sanskrit grassroots of Mongolia’s golden heritage (1963-67)
12. Opening the treasury of classical culture (1967-1980)
13. Embodying the classical heritage (1981-88)
14. The new paradigm of Mongolia (1988-90)
15. Time transcending Sanskrit-Mongol culture (1991-2012)
16. Buryatia: the land of Vajrapani
17. In search of Buddhist manuscripts in Buryatia (June 1967)
18. Bandido Hambo Lama in India (1967, 1971) can we see the lotuses on which deities sit?
19. The new cultural space of Buryatia (1972)
20. Supernal advent of the divine: chariot festival of Maitreya (1975)
21. Kalmykia: the only Buddhist republic in Europe
22. The Manchu Tripitaka
23. Index

8. Transcendental Art of Tibet

Publisher: Aditya Prakashan
(1st Edition April 1, 1996)

“The Transcendental Art of Tibet by Professor Lokesh Chandra traces the evolution of the vast Buddhist pantheon in India and Tibet, characterises the morphology of outstanding divinities and describes around seventy Tibetan thangka scrolls. The volume comprises three sections: theogony, theophany and scrolls.

“The form is elemental in Buddhism. The icon is substantial nothingness, an impelling for philosophic imagination, the power of the creative worshipped in many locales, inter-fused with endless multiplication, inspired by the gloom of the forest, the darkness of the cavern, the flow of rivers and fountains, arborescent earth and luminous heaven. The tangled web of multiplicity of Buddhist divinities weave several strands in a many-coloured veil of mythology. Popular worship and exogenous influences become nuclei for new sutras to breath attributes of awe and majesty to interpenetrate human life. The external form is the active symbolisation of the pure, substantive, infinite energy of the within. It is the psychology of horizons, the desire to flow into contemplation, and the energy to gallop into form, into iconography.

The earliest phase of Buddhist iconography is the representation of scenes from the life of Shakyamuni and his earlier incarnations (the Seven Buddhas), the subsequent history of the division of the relics and their further distribution by Asoka. The earliest iconographic achievements can be viewed under three heads of the representation of:

• (i) events centering around Lord Sakyamuni,
• (ii) the eternalisation of Buddhism in the Jatakas,
• (iii) and the internalisation of the prevalent cults of yaksas into Buddhist caityas.

The reliefs at Bharhut and Sanchi represent the Jatakas. Thus one of the early expressions of Buddhist art was the Jatakas. They sought to convey to the new evolving Buddhist order that the Dharma of Shakyamuni is eternal, sanatana, rooted in a remote time. Shakyamuni had lived hundreds of lives, before he became the Buddha. It was the Art of Eternalisation.

The section of theogony deals with the formative processes of eternalisation, interiorisation, apotheosis of concepts, naimittika divinities for specific purposes like health or wealth, groupings, representation of historical personages, phototropic and erototropic divinities of the outer and inner tantras, assimilation of local deities: all this led to the continuing emergence and dissemination of new deities.

These Buddhist deities became the divine imagination of forms and visualisations in the search of a beside and a beyond. Their materialisation into a scroll, a bas-relief, a sculpture in a templum rousing the inner being inducted the hierophant into the innermost mindscape. The book describes at length the visual characteristics and the envisioned symbols of the foremost Buddhist deities beginning with the Goddess of Eight Auspicious Emblems (Asta-mangala-devi), Shakyamuni and his sixteen apostles (Arhats), Maitreya, Amitabha, Vairocana, Kalacakra, and others, the indigenous Dpal-Idan-Lha-mo, Red Tsihu, Begtse, Pehar, and great masters like Padmasambhava, Ma-gcig Labsgron-ma, Tsongkhapa and a multitude of others. About seventy full-page coloured plates provide an awareness that melts.”

Source: https://www.namsebangdzo.com/Transcendental_Art_of_Tibet_Lokesh_Chandra_p/10565.htm

9. Mudras in Japan

Publisher: Vedams (1978)

“The book is the first comprehensive and illustrated treasury of esoteric mudras in the English language. Mudras in Japan by Lokesh Chandra and his late wife Sharada Rani is a collection of symbolic hand postures used in the rituals of Japanese Esoteric Buddhism of the Shingon denomination. The mudras have been an integral part of Buddhist iconography as well as of ritual. In Tantric rituals, the recitation of a mantra was accompanied by a mudra, and a ritual action. In the Mahavairocana-sutra, mudras are vital constituents of worship and meditation. Japan has the earliest manuscript of the mudras. The most ancient scroll is from the pen of Subhakarasimha of Nalanda, who lived from 637 to 735. The copy at the Onjoji monastery is dated 855. Another manuscript dated 864 has Mudras of the Susiddhi-tantra.”

Source: https://books.google.com.my/books/about/Mudr%C4%81s_in_Japan.html

10. Ninth Century Scroll of the Vajradhatu Mandala

Publisher: Aditya Prakashan
(1st edition: September 1, 1997)

“This scroll is the earliest known scroll of Buddhist iconography. The ninth century scroll of the Vajradhatu mandala is the earliest known scroll of Buddhist iconography and thus it is of inestimable value for the history of Buddhist art. It is the first known sketch book for a mandala, which represents the philosophic dimensions of the tantric vision in pictorial constellations. It illustrates the six mandalas of the Vajradhatu system in conformity with the Sanskrit text.”

Source: https://www.biblio.com/ninth-century-scroll-of-by-chandra-lokesh/work/1635186

The Origin of Avalokita-svara (click to download PDF)

Article

• Lokesh Chandra (1984).
• “The Origin of Avalokita-svara“.
• Indologica Taurinenaia.
• International Association of Sanskrit Studies. XIII (1985–1986): 187–202.
• Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 June 2014.
• Retrieved 26 July 2014.

Sources:

• http://iccr.gov.in/content/bio-profile-prof-lokesh-chandra-president-iccr
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lokesh_Chandra#Books
• http://www.mea.gov.in/press-releases.htm?dtl/24157/
• https://www.sanchiuniv.edu.in/pdf/Lokesh%20Chandra%20CV.pdf
• https://biography.wiki/lokesh-chandra/

For more interesting information:

• Kazi Dawa Samdup: a Pioneering Translator of Tibetan Buddhist Texts
• Professor Garma C.C. Chang -The Illustrious Pioneer
• Alexandra David-Néel
• Herbert Guenther – Master of Languages & Buddhism
• Ekai Kawaguchi – Three Years in Tibet
• Danzan Ravjaa: The Controversial Mongolian Monk
• Agvan Dorjiev: The Diplomat Monk
• John Blofeld and His Spiritual Journey
• George Roerich – Light of the Morning Star
• The Russian Princess Buddhist Nun
• In the Footsteps of Joseph Rock
• Nicholas Roerich & art (1874-1947)
• Wonderful Sri Lanka
• Rabindranath Tagore: A beacon for humanity
• Bill Porter (Red Pine): The Translator of Chinese Poems and Promoter of Zen Buddhism

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