This dissertation examines the theory and practice of a crucial aspect of the premodern religions of India: gift giving. Although much has been written on gift giving in India, rarely have the theory and practice of giving in India been considered simultaneously. I focus in particular on the role of the gift in Indian Mahayana, a Buddhist movement that appeared around the beginning of the Common Era and lasted until the disappearance of Buddhism from India in the late medieval period. Very little attention has been paid to gift giving and Indian Mahayana Buddhism, in part because the scholarship on Indian Mahayana has concentrated largely on its origins and early sources.

Mahayana gift theory is analyzed through a close reading of a range of textual sources, including both Sutra and Sastra, two major genres of Indian Mahayana Buddhist texts. As part of this project, I categorize the various types of discourses on the gift that appear in Mahayana Sutras. I also translate two Mahayana Buddhist texts that have until now not been translated into a Western language. The first text I translate is the Danaparamita-sutra, which is preserved only in the Tibetan Kanjur. The second is the Danapat&dotbelow;ala, a chapter of a Mahayana Sastric text called the Bodhisattvabhumi that is still extant in Sanskrit. The Danaparamita-sutra exhibits parallels with some Mahayana Sutras in their treatment of gift giving, but sharply diverges from others. And even though the Danaparamita-sutra and Danapat&dotbelow;ala ostensibly address the same topic and come from the same religious tradition, they are markedly different texts. It is clear that Mahayana textual discourse on the gift is extremely diverse. There are competing Mahayana gift theories rather than a unified Mahayana gift theory.

Mahayana giving in practice is explored through the epigraphic record. After first establishing how to identify a Mahayana inscription, I catalogue and analyze the content of Mahayana donative inscriptions. Two key patterns emerge. First, many Mahayana donative inscriptions express the wish that all beings attain a kind of knowledge possessed by awakened beings. Second, almost all Mahayana inscriptions record gifts of images. In neither pattern do we see much evidence of Mahayana textual theory, a discrepancy that raises important questions.