THE SOCIOLOGY OF EARLY BUDDHISM by Greg Bailey, Ian Mabbett ( 9780521025218 )

Item Details

Title:

THE SOCIOLOGY OF EARLY BUDDHISM

By:

Greg Bailey, Ian Mabbett

Format:

Paperback

List price:

£42.00

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£36.75

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12.5% off

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£5.25

ISBN 10:

0521025214

ISBN 13:

9780521025218

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Publisher:

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

11 February, 2006

Pages:

296

Description:

An analysis of early Buddhism in social and economic contexts.

Synopsis:

Early Buddhism flourished because it was able to take up the challenge represented by buoyant economic conditions and the need for cultural uniformity in the newly emergent states in north-eastern India from the fifth century BCE onwards. This book begins with the apparent inconsistency of Buddhism, a renunciant movement, surviving within a strong urban environment, and draws out the implications of this. In spite of the Buddhist ascetic imperative, the Buddha and other celebrated monks moved easily through various levels of society and fitted into the urban landscape they inhabited. The Sociology of Early Buddhism tells how and why the early monks were able to exploit the social and political conditions of mid-first millennium north-eastern India in such a way as to ensure the growth of Buddhism into a major world religion. Its readership lies both within Buddhist studies and more widely among historians, sociologists and anthropologists of religion.

Publication:

Imprint:

Cambridge University Press

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A HISTORY OF STATE AND RELIGION IN INDIA