What is Early Buddhism?

412.52 ppm

C. van Gog, 01 November 2019

Sea battle during the Ionian Revolt in 495 BCE, as painted by Jacques-Louis David — The Ionian Revolt (499-3 BCE). Source: Dall-E.

Early Buddhism refers to the earliest period in the history of Buddhism, from about the 5th to the 3rd century BCE (Analayo 2012*, esp. p243n60; quoted in, e.g., Analayo 2019†, p. 2341; i.e., the Buddhism between the Ionian Revolt and the instigation of the Second Macedonian War). I will have to say more about both papers later.</p>

Now that I defined early Buddhism, the time is ripe for an introduction to the early Buddhist thought world. I would highly recommend Excursions into the Thought-world of the Pāli Discourses, which is also freely available online in two volumes: the first and the second.

*10/ddh3; see cuboids.page.link/references for how to use shortDOIs.
†10/ddh4

Shortened URL: cuboids.page.link/eb