The Sociology of Early Buddhism

An analysis of early Buddhism in social and economic contexts.

Greg Bailey (Author), Ian Mabbett (Author)

9780521831161, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 November 2003

296 pages
23.6 x 16.2 x 2.6 cm, 0.625 kg

'This is a substantial work of scholarship, closely written, a mass of facts and arguments, with an impressive bibliography. It is certainly a useful compilation.' Bulletin of the SOAS

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.

Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Introduction
1. The problem: asceticism and urban life
Part I. Context: 2. The social elite
3. Economic conditions
4. Urbanization, urbanism and the development of large-scale political structures
5. Brahmins and other competitors
6. Folk religion and cosmology: meeting of two thought worlds
Part II. Mediation: 7. The holy man
8. Preparation of the monk for the mediatory role. Evidence from the Sutta Nipata
9. The Dhammapada and the images of the bhikkhu
10. The mediating role as shown in the Canon
11. Exchange
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Anthropology [JHM], Sociology & anthropology [JH], Buddhism [HRE], History of religion [HRAX], Archaeology [HD]