Head of the Oxford and British associations for Buddhist studies, Gombrich (retired, Sanskrit, Oxford U.) argues that the Buddha was one of the most brilliant and original thinkers of all time. He introduces general readers to the Buddha's thought and thus to Buddhism. His topics include karma and its social context, Jain antecedents, assessing the evidence, the centrality of fire, pragmatism and intellectual style, and the Buddha as satirist. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)