Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies, Volume VII: Abhidharma Buddhism to 150 A.D.

Abhidharma Buddhism to 150 A.D. provides a comprehensive introduction to the formative centuries of Buddhist philosophical analysis. Beginning with the historical and doctrinal foundations of the Buddha’s teaching, the volume traces how early Buddhist schools developed increasingly sophisticated systems for classifying phenomena, explaining cognition and causation, interpreting karma, and mapping the path to liberation. Through detailed summaries of major canonical and post-canonical works, it presents Abhidharma not merely as a collection of doctrinal lists but as a rigorous analytical tradition that shaped Buddhist psychology, ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics throughout Asia.