Remarks On Religious Predominance In Kashmir Hindu Or Buddhist

SR No.: 269553
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Toru Funayama
Publisher: Toru Funayama
Total Pages: 9
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 925 KB

Page 3

Remarks on Religious Predominance in Kashmir; Hindu or Buddhist?
originated from Madhyāntika's missionary work. According to the oldest Chinese version of the legend, there lived a great nāgas who resisted Madhyāntika. It was only after they competed for over a week, each by means of his own supernatural powers, that the defeated nāga finally conceded to the propagation of Buddhism. This suggests that Buddhists who composed this story held the feeling that at first Buddhism had not been warmly welcomed by orthodox Kashmirians.
More evidences of antagonism in later periods are found in the Datang Xiyuji (tig tot az, abbrev. as Xiyuji, hereafter) by Xuanzang (**; 600/602-664 A.D.) who probably visited Kashmir in the reign of King Durlabhavardhana. Xuanzang reports: After Madhyāntika died, a group of *krītas (? REFU; people who had been traded from outside) put up their own king. After King Kaniska died, too, they put up a new king and dispelled the Buddhist monks in an attempt to destroy Buddhism. Then the king of *Himatala (? P/10 ) of Tokhāra came to this land, dispelled the ministers of the anti-Buddhist government, restored Kashmirian Buddhism as before, and then went back to his country. And thus, having described some historical/legendary events before his time, Xuanzang states the contemporary state of religion in the following way:
As Buddhists had overturned their religion and exterminated traditional rituals, the krītas for generations increasingly felt a grudge against and hatred for the Law of Buddha. Long time passed, they now again state that they have their own king. This is the reason why the people of this country at present do not make much of (Buddhism) and devote themselves to anti-Buddhism and deva-temples.
It is difficult to trace accurately all these descriptions as long as we have neither evidence of krītas nor the king of Himatala. As for the latter, Xuanzang states elsewhere that Kaniska ascended the throne in the 400th year after Buddha's nirvāṇa, on the one hand, and that the king of Himatala flourished in the 600th year, on the other. That is, according to the Xiyuji, the king of Himatala restored Kashmirian Buddhism about two hundred years after King Kaniska. The above stated report suggests that the orthodox religion was predominant over Buddhism in ca. 630 A.D. when Xuanzang visited Kashmir.
Comparing these descriptions in the Xiyuji with those in the RT, we get the table (next page).
It is of course dangerous to correlate each event in the two texts, believing all the descriptions in the written order, because the sources for their chronological sequences are completely different. However, several events in the texts seem to correspond to each other as indicated with lines in the table. According to the
-- 369 —