T. W. Rhys Davids, born on May 12, 1843, in Colchester, England, and deceased on December 27, 1922, in Chipstead, was a pioneering British scholar of Pāli texts and Buddhist history. A former civil servant in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), he became one of the founders of the Pāli Text Society, an institution dedicated to translating and preserving Theravāda Buddhist scriptures. His major works, including Buddhist India and Early Buddhism, helped lay the foundations of Buddhist studies in the West. Rhys Davids's scholarship was marked by philological precision and a deep respect for the intellectual depth of early Buddhist teachings. 

T. W. Rhys Davids, born on May 12, 1843, in Colchester, England, and deceased on December 27, 1922, in Chipstead, was a pioneering British scholar of Pāli texts and Buddhist history. A former civil servant in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), he became one of the founders of the Pāli Text Society, an institution dedicated to translating and preserving Theravāda Buddhist scriptures. His major works, including Buddhist India and Early Buddhism, helped lay the foundations of Buddhist studies in the West. Rhys Davids’s scholarship was marked by philological precision and a deep respect for the intellectual depth of early Buddhist teachings.

 T. W. Rhys Davids, born on May 12, 1843, in Colchester, England, and deceased on December 27, 1922, in Chipstead, was a pioneering British scholar of Pāli texts and Buddhist history. A former civil servant in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), he became one of the founders of the Pāli Text Society, an institution dedicated to translating and preserving Theravāda Buddhist scriptures. His major works, including Buddhist India and Early Buddhism, helped lay the foundations of Buddhist studies in the West. Rhys Davids's scholarship was marked by philological precision and a deep respect for the intellectual depth of early Buddhist teachings.