Synopsis Weber's claim that Buddhism is an other worldly religion is only partially true. Early sources indicate that the Buddha was sometimes diverted from supramundance interest to do well on a variety of politically-related matters. The significance of Asoka Maurya as a paradigm for later traditions of Buddhist kingship is also well-attested.

However, there has been little scholarly effort to integrate findings on the extent to which Buddhism interacted with political order in the classical land modern states of Theravada Asia into a wider, comparative study.