The search for the Buddha

"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."--BOOK JACKET.