This book is offered to the reader as an essay in the history of ideas. The particular tradition dealt with here is that of Theravāda Buddhism, a tradition whose ideas were conceived and elaborated in India and in certain Indian-influenced cultural settings in South and South-east Asia. In presenting my account of this tradition, however, I wish immediately to make two points. Firstly, in speaking of a ‘history’ of ideas here I will try to follow the advice and example of Louis Dumont (as indeed on many other occasions in this study): ‘The history of India must be read in an Indian way. It is better to seek first, by a synchronic study, to grasp the fundamental configurations or structure which constitute the framework in relation to which history – apart from the pure sequence of events – is defined.’ Secondly, although the particular subject-matter, and the treatment of it I have considered appropriate, are prima facie concerned only with India and with Buddhism, I hope very much that the book will be read with an awareness that this specialist Indological appearance is meant to be only skin-deep. Naturally, I have had to address myself to particular issues which the relevant scholarship, Indological and anthropological, has raised hitherto; indeed, I hope that on this level the book will be coherent simply as a contribution to the solution of certain classic problems in the study of Buddhist culture.