major publications in PDF format

Richard S. Cohen


  • Beyond Enlightenment: Buddhism, Religion Modernity. Oxford and New York: Routledge, 2006.  (ISBN: 0415372941)
    [PDF link] / [PDF link] “Ajanta’s Inscriptions.” In Walter M. Spink, Ajanta: History And Development, volume 2: Arguments About Ajanta (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2006), pp. 273-339.

    [PDF link] “Response: The Circle Without a Center: Rethinking Religious Authority in India,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 73/1 (March 2005): 133-150.

    [PDF link] “Why Study Indian Buddhism?” In The Invention of Religion: Rethinking Belief in Politics and History ed. by Derek R. Peterson and Darren R. Walhof (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002), pp. 19-36.

    [PDF link] / [PDF link] “Shakyamuni: Buddhism’s Founder in Ten Acts.” In The Rivers of Paradise: Moses, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus and Muhammad As Religious Founders ed. by David Noel Freedman and Michael McClymond (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans, 2000), pp. 121-232, 663-671

    [PDF link] “Kinsmen of the Son: Sâkyabhiksus and the Institutionalization of the Bodhisattva Ideal,” History of Religions. 40/1 (August 2000): 1-31.

    [PDF link] “Nâga, Yaksini, Buddha: Local Deities and Local Buddhism at Ajanta,” History of Religions. 37/4 (May 1998): 360-400.

    [PDF link] “Problems in the Writing of Ajanta’s History: The Epigraphic Evidence,” Indo-Iranian Journal. 40/2 (April 1997): 125-48.

    [PDF link] “Discontented Categories: Hînayâna & Mahâyâna in Indian Buddhist History,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 63/1 (Spring 1995): 1-25.

    [PDF link] “How Useful is the Complexity Paradigm Without Quantifiable Data? A Test Case: The Patronage of Fifth Century Buddhist Caves in India.” In Chaos and Society ed by Alain Albert (Amsterdam: IOS Press, 1995), pp. 83-99.


  • Setting the Three Jewels: The Complex Culture of Buddhism at the Ajanta Caves. Ph.D. dissertation. The University of Michigan, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures: Program in Buddhist Studies. 1995.

    Please note: The page numbers in these files do not correspond to those in the Table of Contents or original dissertation.