Civilisation in the Buddhist Age: B.C. 320 to A.D. 500

The book is arranged as “Book IV: Buddhist Period, B.C. 320 to A.D. 500” and consists of eighteen chapters. It begins with Buddhist sacred literature, explaining the place of the Three Piṭakas and the early textual foundations of Buddhism. It then presents the life of Gautama Buddha, his doctrines, and his moral precepts, followed by chapters on the history of Buddhism and the history of Jainism. The middle chapters move into political and dynastic history, discussing Chandragupta and Aśoka the Great, language and alphabet, the kings of Magadha, Kashmir and Gujarat, and the Gupta kings. The book then turns to foreign testimony through Fa-Hian’s account of India, followed by chapters on Buddhist architecture and sculpture, caste, social life, administration, laws, and astronomy and learning. Taken together, these chapters present the Buddhist age as an integrated civilizational period in which religious ideals, imperial power, literary culture, social institutions, and intellectual traditions interacted to shape ancient Indian society.