xii, 322 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : 25 cm; Prologue: the orientalists -- The botanising surgeon -- Tales from the east -- Oriental Jones and the Asiatic society -- Jones and the language of the gods -- Dr. Buchanan and the Messengers form Ava -- Three Englishmen an a Hungarian -- Tigers, topes, and rock-cut temples -- James Prinsep the scientific enquirer -- Triumph and disaster -- Prinsep and the beloved of the gods -- Alexander Cunningham and the Chinese pilgrims -- Cunningham and the archaeological survey -- The Welshman, the Russian spiritualist, the American Civil war colonel and the editor of the Daily Telegraph -- The search for Buddha's birthplace -- Epilogue: the sacredness of India.; "Now 2,500 years old, Buddhism has 300 million followers worldwide and between two and three million adherents in the United States. Yet, until the late eighteenth century when Sir William "Oriental" Jones - a British judge in India - broke the Brahmins' prohibition on learning the sacred language of Sanskrit, the Buddha's teachings were treasures unappreciated by Westerners. Jones, who began to uncover clues about Buddhism's origins from inscriptions on pillars and rocks, became the first of an enthusiastic, and often eccentric band whose search for the Indian subcontinent's secret religion is chronicled in this book of monumental historical detection infused with the air of high adventure."--Jacket.; 

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