"Offering perspectives from a distinguished group of international scholars, this book provides a multidisciplinary inquiry into the various forms of Buddhism that thrived during the early centuries of the common era in the Krishna River Valley areas of what is now the modern state of Andhra Pradesh in India. The contributors explore not only the factors that led to the rise of Buddhist communities, but also the significance of these early Buddhist communities in the unfolding of the greater history of Buddhism throughout the Asian world."--Jacket.