The Questions of King Milinda: An Abridgement of the Milindapañhā

"Today the encounter between Buddhism and Western civilization has been hailed as a cultural event of far-reaching significance, promising to exercise a major impact on both partners to the meeting. However, the first encounter between Buddhism and the West took place long ago, in Northwest India during the age of Alexander the Great, and it issued in one of the most sublime works of Buddhist literature, The Questions of King Milinda. This work, preserved in the Pali language, is an imaginative record of a series of discussions between the Bactrian Greek King Milinda, who reigned in the Punjab, and the Buddhist sage Bhante Nagasena. Their spirited dialogue, dramatic and witty, eloquent and inspired, explores the diverse problems of Buddhist thought and practice from the perspective of a probing Greek intellectual who is both perplexed and fascinated by the strangely rational religion he discovered on the Indian subcontinent. The present abridged edition has been adapted from existing scholarly translations, and includes in an easily readable style the most essential passages of the original classic."

The BPS edition is based on the translation of Isaline Blew Horner in 1969.