The central idea of the Lotus Sutra is integration, that the teaching of three vehicles is an expedient to enable all to reach enlightenment. The Lotus Sutra can be considered the scripture of a religious movement within Mahayana Buddhism that set out to integrate the religion, thought, and culture of the peoples who lived in northwestern India around the beginning of the common era.

This book verifies the historical background, together with the relevant social and cultural factors that encouraged such religious harmony and fostered establishment of the idea of integration. It approaches those phenomena through not only philology but also historical science, archaeology, art history, paleography, epigraphy, and numismatics.

Keisho Tsukamoto, a professor emeritus at Tohoku University, is a specialist in Indology and the history of Buddhism. He served as dean of the Faculty of Buddhist Studies at Rissho University and later as president of Hosen Gakuen College.

496 pp. 15.1 x 22.7 cm. Maps. Figures. Tables. Bibliography. Index. (softcover)