Early History of the Spread of Buddhism & the Buddhist Schools

This work analyses the forces that helped in the propagation of Buddhism in India, and delineates the missionary activities of Buddha in detail. There are scholarly biographies of the great Teacher touching incidentally on topics connected with his missionary activities. Such sketches, details which have been laboriously collected from the Buddhist scriptures and arranged in such a way so as to enable one to see the details about Buddha's career in their logical and chronological relations as far as possible, certainly have a value in the eyes of scholars interested in the history of the spread of Buddhism.

A detailed delineation of the four principal schools of Budhdism including resumes of their doctrines as far as they have been ascertained at present is discussed in the second part. The author in his sketches of the four principal schools has taken a stock of the information available at present, enabling the reader to acquaint himself without much labour with what is now known about the schools. The portions of the sketches bearing on the origin, development, and activities of the schools have been drawn fro the first time from the existing material.