History of Buddhism

The early sources state he was born in the small Shakya (Pali: Sakya) Republic, which was part of the Kosala realm of ancient India, now in modern-day Nepal.

[2] All texts agree however that Gautama renounced the householder life and lived as a sramana ascetic for some time studying under various teachers, before attaining nirvana (extinguishment) and bodhi (awakening) through meditation.

For the remaining 45 years of his life, he travelled the Gangetic Plains of eastern-central India (the region of the Ganges River and its tributaries), teaching his doctrine to a diverse range of people from different castes and initiating monks into his order.

The canonical sources record various councils, where the monastic Sangha recited and organised the orally transmitted collections of the Buddha's teachings and settled certain disciplinary problems within the community.

[5] The first Buddhist council is traditionally said to have been held just after Buddha's Parinirvana, and presided over by Mahākāśyapa, one of his most senior disciples, at Rājagṛha (today's Rajgir) with the support of king Ajātasattu.

[19] The Sthaviras gave birth to a large number of influential schools including the Sarvāstivāda, the Pudgalavāda (also known as Vatsīputrīya), the Dharmaguptakas and the Vibhajyavāda (the Theravādins being descended from these.

[20] In the third century BCE, some Buddhists began introducing new systematized teachings called Abhidharma, based on previous lists or tables (Matrka) of main doctrinal topics.

Some of the Edicts of Ashoka describe the efforts made by him to propagate the Buddhist faith throughout the Hellenistic world, which at that time formed an uninterrupted cultural continuum from the borders of India to Greece.

In addition, Ashoka's daughter, Saṅghamitta also established the bhikkhunī (order for nuns) in Sri Lanka, also bringing with her a sapling of the sacred bodhi tree that was subsequently planted in Anuradhapura.

"[57] Anthony Barber and Sree Padma also trace Mahayana Buddhism to ancient Buddhist sites in the lower Kṛṣṇa Valley, including Amaravati Stupa, Nāgārjunakoṇḍā and Jaggayyapeṭa.

They opine that following Ashoka's sponsorship of Buddhism, it is possible that Buddhist institutions fell on harder times under the Shungas, but no evidence of active persecution has been noted.

The Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius I (reigned c. 200–180 BCE) invaded the Indian Subcontinent, establishing an Indo-Greek kingdom that was to last in parts of Northwest South Asia until the end of the 1st century CE.

[77] Kushan royal support and the opening of trade routes allowed Gandharan Buddhism to spread along the Silk Road to Central Asia, the Tarim Basin and thus to China.

[78] Kanishka gathered 500 learned monks partly to compile extensive commentaries on the Abhidharma, although it is possible that some editorial work was carried out upon the existing Sarvastivada canon itself.

The main fruit of this council was the compilation of the vast commentary known as the Mahā-Vibhāshā ("Great Exegesis"), an extensive compendium and reference work on a portion of the Sarvāstivādin Abhidharma.

[85] Central Asia was home to the international trade route known as the Silk Road, which carried goods between China, India, the Middle East and the Mediterranean world.

[89] Central Asians played a key role in the transmission of Buddhism to China The first translators of Buddhists scriptures into Chinese were Iranians, including the Parthian An Shigao (c. 148 CE), the Yuezhi Zhi Qian and Kang Sengkai (from Samarkand).

[94] It was mainly a center of sravakayana Buddhism (that is, non-Mahayana), but was also a place for the study of numerous subjects including secular topics of higher education (such as medicine, logic and grammar).

[96] While reporting many deserted stupas in the area around modern day Nepal and the persecution of Buddhists by Shashanka in the Kingdom of Gauda in modern-day West Bengal, Xuanzang complimented the patronage of emperor Harṣavardana (c. 590–647 CE).

It was at these great Buddhist centers that scholars developed the philosophies of Vajrayana, Abhidharma, Madhyamaka, Yogacara and Pramana, as well as the study of linguistics, medicine, astronomy, music, painting, and sculpture.

By the end of the 12th century, following the Islamic conquest of the Buddhist strongholds in Bihar and Bengal by Delhi Sultanate's Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji, and the loss of political support coupled with social pressures, the practice of Buddhism retreated to the Himalayan foothills in the North and Sri Lanka in the south.

Despite a reversal in Buddhist influence which began under King Langdarma (836–842), the following centuries saw a colossal effort in collecting available Indian sources, many of which are now extant only in Tibetan translation.

Buddhist monks traveled to China from the kingdom of Funan in the 5th century CE, bringing Mahayana texts, a sign that the religion was already established in the region by this point.

The lands of the Mon and Pyu peoples in Myanmar show extensive evidence of Theravada presence in the Irrawaddy and Chao Phraya basins from the 5th century CE onwards.

[159] Important figures in this new movement include the American convert Henry Olcott (1832–1907) and Anagarika Dharmapala (1864–1933), who promoted Buddhist schools, lay organizations and the printing of newspapers.

[162] In Burma, a central modern figure is King Mindon (r. 1853–1878), who convened the 5th Buddhist council (1868–71), where different editions of the Pali Canon were cross-checked and a final version was inscribed on 729 stone slabs, currently still the world's largest book.

Sir Edwin Arnold's book-length poem The Light of Asia (1879), a life of the Buddha, was a successful early publication on Buddhism that led to much interest among English speaking middle classes.

[178] The late 19th century also saw the first-known modern western conversions to Buddhism, including leading Theosophists Henry Steel Olcott and Helena Blavatsky in 1880 in Sri Lanka.

Another important element leading to the growth of Buddhism in the west was the large scale immigration of Chinese and Japanese to the United States and Canada in the late 19th century.

[181] Asian Buddhists such as DT Suzuki, Hsüan Hua, Hakuun Yasutani and Thích Nhất Hạnh were influential in teaching Zen Buddhism in the West in the 20th century.

The image, in the chapter on India in Hutchison's Story of the Nations , depicting Ajātasattu visiting the Buddha to assuage his guilt.
Buddhist expansion, from Buddhist heartland in northern India (dark orange) starting 5th century BC, to Buddhist majority realm (orange), and historical extent of Buddhism influences (yellow). Mahayana (red arrow), Theravada (green arrow), and Tantric-Vajrayana (blue arrow).
The Mahajanapadas were sixteen most powerful and vast kingdoms and republics around the lifetime of Gautama Buddha (563–483 BCE), located mainly across the fertile Indo-Gangetic plains , there were also a number of smaller kingdoms stretching the length and breadth of Ancient India .
The Maurya Empire under Emperor Aśoka was the world's first major Buddhist state. It established free hospitals and free education and promoted human rights. Territories of the Maurya Empire conceptualized as core areas or linear networks separated by large autonomous regions in the works of scholars such as: historians Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund ; [ 7 ] Burton Stein ; [ 8 ] David Ludden; [ 9 ] and Romila Thapar ; [ 10 ] anthropologists Monica L. Smith [ 11 ] and Stanley Tambiah ; [ 10 ] archaeologist Robin Coningham ; [ 10 ] and historical demographer Tim Dyson . [ 12 ]
Mallakas defending the city of Kusinagara , as depicted at Sanchi . The leader of the Mallakas, under siege, by the seven gods, during the War of the Relics , which were objects associated with the Buddha.
The Mallakas were an ancient Indian republic ( gaṇasaṅgha ) that constituted one of the solasa (sixteen) Mahajanapadas (great realms) of ancient India as mentioned in the Anguttara Nikaya . [ 13 ]
Map of the Buddhist missions during the reign of Ashoka .
Jetavanaramaya in Anuradhapura , Sri Lanka is the biggest brick structure in the world. [ 37 ]
A relief depicting the Amarāvatī Stupa , a major site in Andhra Pradesh, India .
A Greco-Buddhist statue, one of the first representations of the Buddha, 1st–2nd century CE, Gandhara .
Kushan territories (full line) and maximum extent of Kushan dominions under Kanishka the Great (dotted line), which saw the height of Gandhāran Buddhist expansion.
Map of the major geographical centers of major Buddhist schools in South Asia, at around the time of Xuanzang 's visit in the seventh century.
* Red: non-Pudgalavāda Sarvāstivāda school
* Orange: non-Dharmaguptaka Vibhajyavāda schools
* Yellow: Mahāsāṃghika
* Green: Pudgalavāda (Green)
* Gray: Dharmaguptaka
Extent of Buddhism and trade routes in the 1st century CE.
Blue-eyed Central Asian and East-Asian Buddhist monks, Bezeklik , 9th-10th centuries.
A Tantric Buddhist statue of Mahakala , holding a flaying knife ( kartika ) and skullcup ( kapala ).
Extent of the Han Empire
The One Pillar Pagoda is a historic Mahayana Buddhist temple in Hanoi , the capital of Vietnam.
The Tripiṭaka Koreana in storage at Haeinsa , South Korea .
Daibutsu (Great Buddha), Kamakura .
The Dalai Lama meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in 2016.
Main Hall of Hsi Lai , a Chinese-American temple in Los Angeles County, California . Completed in 1988, it is one of the largest Buddhist temples in the Western Hemisphere .
Das Buddhistische Haus , a Theravada Buddhist vihara in Berlin , Germany. It is considered the oldest Theravada Buddhist center in Europe. [ 176 ]