‘LIKE EMBERS HIDDEN IN ASHES, OR JEWELS ENCRUSTED IN STONE’: RA ¯ HUL SA ¯ N ˙ K _ RTYA ¯ YAN, DHARMA ¯ NAND KOSAMBI ¯ AND BUDDHIST ACTIVITY IN COLONIAL INDIA Douglas Ober Two of the most important modern Indian Buddhist pioneers are the polyglot explorer and Marxist revolutionary, Ra ¯hul Sa ¯n ˙k _ rtya ¯yan (1893–1963), and the Pali scholar and Gandhian nationalist, Dharma ¯nand Kosambı ¯ (1876–1947). Although best known as scholars of Buddhism, it is their lesser-known personal lives—namely, their political involvement in anti-colonial efforts, social reform projects, and travels abroad—that are of primary focus in this study. Through an examination of their activities and writings, this essay reveals the methods they employed and the networks of support they utilized in order to propagate Buddhism. In particular, it focuses on two features common to both of their lives: first, their relations with transnational Buddhist organizations and Euro-American and other Asian intellectuals, and second, their collaborative efforts with Indian elites whom they shared similar social, educational and national concerns. These two factors, I argue, were essential to their reconfiguration of a modern Indian Buddhism that was relevant to contemporary Indian concerns. Studies of the rebirth of Buddhism in colonial India have largely focused on two major social developments. First among these is the European ‘discovery’ of Buddhism affiliated with the archaeological excavations and Orientalist scholar- ship of the colonial period. The second major development concerns the efforts of the Ceylonese reformer, Anaga ¯ rika Dharmapa ¯la (1864 – 1933), and the activities of the Maha ¯ Bodhi Society more widely. While both of these developments are pivotal to understanding the spread of Buddhism in modern India, the emphasis on them has oversimplified the diversity and neglected the vitality of other Indian Buddhist figures and movements active during the same period. In fact, the voices Contemporary Buddhism, 2013 Vol. 14, No. 1, 134–148, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14639947.2013.785246 q 2013 Taylor & Francis