History of Buddhism in India


is an ancient Indian religion and philosophy, which arose in and around the ancient Kingdom of Magadha. It is based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha, who lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE and was deemed a "Buddha" or an "Awakened One". Buddhist records in the Theravada tradition list Gautama Buddha as the fourth Buddha of our kalpa, while the next buddha will be Maitreya Buddha. Buddhism spread outside of Northern India beginning in the Buddha's lifetime.
In the 3rd century BCE and during the reign of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, the Buddhist community split into two schools: the Mahāsāṃghika and the Sthaviravāda, each of which spread throughout India and grew into numerous sub-schools. In modern times, three major branches of Buddhism exist: the Theravada in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and the Mahayana in the Himalayas and East Asia, and the Vajrayana throughout Asia and specifically in Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan.
The practice of Buddhism lost influence in India around the 7th century CE, after the collapse of the Gupta Empire. The last large empire to support Buddhism was the Pala Empire, that fell in the 12th century. By the end of the 12th century and after the invasions by the Turkic Muslims, Buddhism had largely disappeared from India with the exception of western and central Tibet, Mongolia, and isolated remnants in parts of south India.
Since the 19th century, modern revivals of Buddhism have included the Maha Bodhi Society, the Vipassana movement, and the Dalit Buddhist movement spearheaded by B. R. Ambedkar. There has also been a growth in Tibetan Buddhism with the arrival of Tibetan diaspora and the Tibetan government in exile to India, following the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1950. According to the 2011 census, there are 8.4 million Buddhists in India.

Background

Gautama Buddha

The Buddha was born to a Kapilavastu head of the Shakya republic named Suddhodana. He employed sramana practices in a specific way, denouncing extreme asceticism and sole concentration-meditation, which were sramanic practices. Instead, he propagated a Middle Way between the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, in which self-restraint and compassion are central elements.
According to tradition, as recorded in the Pali Canon and the Agamas, Siddhārtha Gautama attained awakening sitting under a pipal tree, now known as the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, India. Gautama referred to himself as the tathagata, the "thus-gone"; the developing tradition later regarded him to be as a Samyaksambuddha, a "Perfectly Self-Awakened One." According to tradition, he found patronage in the ruler of Magadha, emperor Bimbisāra. The emperor accepted Buddhism as a personal faith and allowed the establishment of many Buddhist "Vihāras." This eventually led to the renaming of the entire region as Bihar.
According to tradition, in the Deer Park in Sarnath near Varanasi| in northern India, Buddha set in motion the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the group of five companions with whom he had previously sought liberation. They, together with the Buddha, formed the first Sangha |, the company of Buddhist monks, and hence, the first formation of the Triple Gem was completed.
For the remaining years of his life, the Buddha is said to have travelled in the Gangetic Plain of Northern India and other regions.
Buddha died in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India. Modern historians place his death, according to tradition at the age of 80, in the decades around 400 BC, several decades later than the date in Buddhist tradition.

Adherents

Followers of Buddhism called Buddhists in English, referred to themselves as Saugata. Other terms were Sakyans or Sakyabhiksu in ancient India. Sakyaputto was another term used by Buddhists, as well as Ariyasavako and Jinaputto. Buddhist scholar Donald S. Lopez states they also used the term Bauddha. The scholar Richard Cohen in his discussion about the 5th-century Ajanta Caves, states that Bauddha is not attested therein, and was used by outsiders to describe Buddhists, except for occasional use as an adjective.

Early developments

Early Buddhist Councils

The Buddha did not appoint any successor and asked his followers to work toward liberation following the instructions he had left. The teachings of the Buddha existed only in oral traditions. The Sangha held a number of Buddhist councils in order to reach consensus on matters of Buddhist doctrine and practice.
  1. Mahākāśyapa, a disciple of the Buddha, presided over the first Buddhist council held at Rājagṛha. Its purpose was to recite and agree on the Buddha's actual teachings and monastic discipline. Some scholars consider this council fictitious.
  2. The Second Buddhist Council is said to have taken place at Vaiśālī. Its purpose was to deal with questionable monastic practices like the use of money, the drinking of palm wine, and other irregularities; the council declared these practices unlawful.
  3. What is commonly called the Third Buddhist Council was held at Pāṭaliputra, and was allegedly called by Emperor Aśoka in the 3rd century BC. Organized by the monk Moggaliputta Tissa, it was held in order to rid the sangha of the large number of monks who had joined the order because of its royal patronage. Most scholars now believe this council was exclusively Theravada, and that the dispatch of missionaries to various countries at about this time had nothing to do with it.
  4. What is often called the Fourth Buddhist council is generally believed to have been held under the patronage of Emperor Kaniṣka in Kashmir, though the late Monseigneur Professor Lamotte considered it fictitious. It is generally believed to have been a council of the Sarvastivāda school.

    Early schools of Buddhism

The Early Buddhist Schools were the various schools in which pre-sectarian Buddhism split in the first few centuries after the passing away of the Buddha. The earliest division was between the majority Mahāsāṃghika and the minority Sthaviravāda. Some existing Buddhist traditions follow the vinayas of early Buddhist schools.
  • Theravāda: practised mainly in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Bangladesh.
  • Dharmaguptaka: followed in China, Korea, Vietnam, and Taiwan.
  • Mūlasarvāstivāda: followed in Tibetan Buddhism.
The Dharmaguptakas made more efforts than any other sect to spread Buddhism outside India, to areas such as Afghanistan, Central Asia, and China, and they had great success in doing so. Therefore, most countries which adopted Buddhism from China, also adopted the Dharmaguptaka vinaya and ordination lineage for bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs.
During the early period of Chinese Buddhism, the Indian Buddhist sects recognized as important, and whose texts were studied, were the Dharmaguptakas, Mahīśāsakas, Kāśyapīyas Sarvāstivādins, and the Mahāsāṃghikas. Complete vinayas preserved in the Chinese Buddhist canon include the Mahīśāsaka Vinaya, Mahāsāṃghika Vinaya, Dharmaguptaka Vinaya, Sarvāstivāda Vinaya, and the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya. Also preserved are a set of Āgamas, a complete Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma Piṭaka, and many other texts of the early Buddhist schools.
Early Buddhist schools in India often divided modes of Buddhist practice into several "vehicles". For example, the Vaibhāṣika Sarvāstivādins are known to have employed the outlook of Buddhist practice as consisting of the Three Vehicles:
  1. Śrāvakayāna
  2. Pratyekabuddhayāna
  3. Bodhisattvayāna

    The early spread of Buddhism

In the sixth and fifth centuries BC, economic development made the merchant class increasingly important. Merchants were attracted to Buddhist teachings, which contrasted with existing Brahmin religious practices. The latter focused on the social position of the Brahmin caste to the exclusion of the interests of other classes. Buddhism became prominent in merchant communities and then spread throughout the Mauryan empire through commercial connections and along trade routes. In this way, Buddhism also spread through the silk route into central Asia.

Ashoka and the Mauryan Empire

The Mauryan Empire reached its peak at the time of emperor Ashoka, who converted to Buddhism after the Battle of Kalinga. This heralded a long period of stability under the Buddhist emperor. The power of the empire was vast—ambassadors were sent to other countries to propagate Buddhism. Greek envoy Megasthenes describes the wealth of the Mauryan capital. Stupas, pillars, and edicts on stone remain at Sanchi, Sarnath, and Mathura, indicating the extent of the empire.
Emperor Ashoka the Great was the ruler of the Mauryan Empire from 273 BC to 232 BC. Ashoka reigned over most of India after a series of military campaigns. Emperor Ashoka's kingdom stretched from South Asia and beyond, from present-day parts of Afghanistan in the north and Balochistan in the west, to Bengal and Assam in the east, and as far south as Mysore.
According to legend, emperor Ashoka was overwhelmed by guilt after the conquest of Kalinga, following which he accepted Buddhism as a personal faith with the help of his Brahmin mentors Radhasvami and Manjushri. Ashoka established monuments marking several significant sites in the life of Śakyamuni Buddha, and according to Buddhist tradition was closely involved in the preservation and transmission of Buddhism.
In 2018, excavations in Lalitgiri in Odisha by the Archaeological Survey of India revealed four monasteries along with ancient seals and inscriptions which show cultural continuity from post-Mauryan period to 13 century AD. In Ratnagiri and Konark in Odisha, Buddhist history as discovered in Lalitagiri is also shared. A museum has been made to preserve the ancient history and was inaugurated in December 2018 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.