Founder: Prof. Baidyanath Labh

Prof. Baidyanath Labh, the founder Secretary of Indian Society for Buddhist Studies was born in a remote village Dhanarhi, in the district of Sitamarhi, Bihar. After getting his early education at his native village, he qualified for his further school education for the prestigious Netarhat Residential School, presently in the state of Jharkhand and passed out with high marks in his Matriculation and Intermediate examinations. He was awarded the National Merit scholarship which continued upto his Post Graduate Education. He did his Graduation with History Honors and Sanskrit, Hindi, Maithili and English as subsidiary subjects. He passed his examination securing the First position in the L. N. Mithila University, Darbhanga. His deep interest in the Ancient Indian History, Culture and Philosophy drove him to join MA in Buddhist Studies (with specialization in Pali ) at the University of Delhi where once again he secured First position in the University. It may be mentioned that his marks at the MA Examination is still an unbroken record since 1981 at the University of Delhi. Also he was the First MA in Buddhist Studies. Further he passed his M. Phil. examination from the same institution securing the outstanding grade and first position in the merit list. He wrote his dissertation on the ‘The Buddha’s City of Righteousness as depicted in the Milindapañha.’ He did his Ph. D. research on ‘Paññā: A Philosophical Analysis with Special Reference to Visuddhimagga’ in 1987 from the University of Delhi itself, which was published as ‘Paññā in Early Buddhism’ in 1991. During his Ph. D. research including M.Phil. and Ph.D., he was a recipient of UGC Research Fellowship. Prof Labh was appointed Lecturer in the newly established Department of Buddhist Studies at the University of Jammu shortly after completing his PhD in the year 1987 as the founder teacher of the Department. He was promoted to the post of Reader in 1996 and to the post of Professor in 2006. He served the newly established Sanchi University of Buddhist-Indic Studies in Madhya Pradesh as Dean Academics for some time in 2016-17 also. During this period Prof. Labh supervised a number of PhD scholars who worked on various aspects and subjects of Buddhist Studies. He has edited 26 books in Hindi as well as English under the titles ‘Bauddha Prajñā Sindhu’ and ‘The Ocean of Buddhist Wisdom’ and contributed nearly 90 research papers on different aspects of Buddhism which have been published in the reputed journals of India ,USA, Thailand, Bhutan, Cambodia, Mongolia etc. He founded the Indian Society for Buddhist Studies in the year 2000–the Academic association of Buddhist studies which is the National Academic forum of senior as well as budding scholars of Pali and Buddhist studies. Needless to say the ISBS has created active interest amongst the scholars towards Buddhist learning and has helped Buddhist Studies to develop as a frontline academic discipline in India. He served the Society as its Secretary for 18 years (till 2018).

Presently he is the Vice President of the Society. He is also the Vice Chancellor of Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, Nalanda (Bihar) and Central Institute of Buddhist Studies, Leh, both these institutes are under Ministry of Culture, Government of India. He was honored with Rashtrabhasha Samman by the Jammu-Kashmir Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti in 2009 and was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Institute for Environment, Yoga and Social Security, New Delhi in the same year. He was also honored as Somayaji Ritwik by the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, Prayag which was conferred on him for his service to Hindi literature in 2004 .

He was honored with the title ‘Dharma Vibhusan by International Federation of Astrology and Spiritual Science, Chandigarh (India) and Matara (Sri Lanka) in 2005. He was honored with Dr. Beni Madhab Barua Memorial Award, 2018. Recently, he has been honored with Manjusri and Kamla Devi Jain Sammana, 2021.