Describes the Buddhism of India on the basis of the comparison of all the available original sources in various languages. It falls into three approximately equal parts. The first is a reconstruction of the original Buddhism presupposed by the traditions of the different schools known to us. The second part traces the development of the 'Eighteen Schools' of early Buddhism, showing how they elaborated their doctrines out of the common kernel. The third part describes the Mahäyäna movement and the Mantrayäna, the way of the boshisattva and the way of ritual. Particular attention is paid in this book to the social teaching of Buddhism, the part which relates to the 'world' rather than to nirväna and which has been generally neglected in modern writers on Buddhism. -- Book jacket.