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 northeastern 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.

Sociology of Early Buddhism, Greg Bailey, Ian Mabbett, Cambridge, Paperback, 2003/2006, 284 Pages, $55.00

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.