The Buddha and His Dhamma
The Buddha and His Dhamma, is a 1957 posthumous work by the Indian scholar and social reformer B. R. Ambedkar on Buddha's life and philosophy.
It presents Ambedkar's interpretation of Buddhism, reinterpreting traditional teachings in a modern framework that emphasises social equality, ethics, and the rejection of the caste system. The book serves as a foundational text for Navayana, where it is regarded as a sacred scripture by followers.
Ambedkar completed the manuscript shortly before his death and his public conversion to Buddhism in October 1956.
Publication history
The book was published posthumously in 1957, following Ambedkar's death on 6 December 1956. It was republished in 1979 by the Education Department of the Government of Maharashtra as Volume 11 of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, including a list of sources and an index.A critical edition, edited by Aakash Singh Rathore and Ajay Verma, was published by Oxford University Press in 2011. This edition includes annotations, references to Buddhist canonical sources, and analysis of Ambedkar's adaptations of traditional material.
Originally written in English, the book has been translated into several Indian languages, including Hindi, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Bengali, and Kannada.
Related works
Ambedkar viewed The Buddha and His Dhamma as part of a set of works essential for understanding his vision of Buddhism. The other two are:Buddha and Karl Marx- ''Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Ancient India''