History of Indian Buddhism.

Rating:
Summary: After all these years, still a standard for one-volume works
Review: Etienne Lamotte's 'History of Indian Buddhism' has all the information on Buddhism from its origins to the Shaka-era in pp. 800+. It contains extended information on texts, iconography, archaeology, politics, social background, the Greek presence in India, comparisons of different text versions. Although the book is hard to obtain it's a must-have for every buddhologist, needing a book that covers a wide area of sources in such detail. The book is a translation from the French (Lamotte worked for the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium) and it was first published in 1958 and translated in 1988. Now, this work might be outdated on some topics, considering the advance Buddhist Studies have made, which is why the bibliography is updated, but you won't find so much information in one single volume.