Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan


Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan was a Buddhist monk, scholar, traveller and a prolific writer from India. He is considered as one of the great activists of Buddhism of the 20th century. He was influenced by the Buddhist scholar and social reformer Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan and B. R. Ambedkar.

Personal life

Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan was born Harnam Das on 5 January 1905 in Sohana Village of Ambala District in Punjab. He did BA from National College in Lahore. His travels took him to different parts of World for promoting Buddhism like his mentor, Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan. He always wanted to have experience of travelling far distances across many countries and discover new things. His aim was to continue the tradition started by his inspirations. He is one of the pioneers of Indian travel literature.

Works

He contributed a lot to Indian travel literature and Hindi. He worked for Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Prayag, Rastrabhasha Prachar Samiti, Vardha etc. He used very simple language in his books that everyone can easily understand. He wrote many essays, novels, books on his travel to different places. He also wrote many books on Buddhism. More than 20 of his books were published.
Ambedkar left behind lacs of Buddhist followers who were in need of strong Buddhist leader, particularly in Maharashtra. Kausalyayan travelled and guided Maharashtrian Buddhists and also translated Ambedkar's work The Buddha and His Dhamma into Hindi. He also traced and collected original resources from Pali Tripitika and other Buddhist literature, which Ambedkar could not do.
He was also recongined as a India freedom fighter, he was participated in Quit India Movement with his friend Bhadant Rahul Sankrityayan.

Books

Death

Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan died on 22 June 1988.