The Religion of India

The Religion of India
AuthorMax Weber
Original titleHinduismus und Buddhismus
Publication date
1916

The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism is a book on the sociology of religion written by Max Weber, a German economist and sociologist of the early twentieth century. The original edition was in German under the title Hinduismus und Buddhismus and published in 1916.[1] An English translation was made in 1958 and several editions have been released since then.

It was his third major work on the sociology of religion, after The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (1905) and The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism (1915). In this work he deals with the structure of Indian society, with the orthodox doctrines of Hinduism and the heterodox doctrines of Buddhism, with the changes wrought by popular religiosity and their influence on the secular ethic of Indian society.[2]

  1. ^ "General References". studysites.sagepub.com.
  2. ^ Reinhard Bendix, Max Weber: an intellectual portrait, University of California Press, 1977, p.142