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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
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www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
BUDDHISM IN KASHMIR
they offered the same to Majjhantika who then delivered to them a discourse on äświșa (venom of a serpent) and converted them to Buddhism. From that day up to the time of composition of the Mahāvamsa, i.e., the 5th century A.C., the author says that Kasmira-Gandhāra continued to be illumined by yellow robes.
A legend similar to the above appears with slight variations in the Tibetan Dul-va and the traditions derived from it, e.g., in the works of Taranatha, Bu-ston, Aśokāvadāna, and in Yuan Chwang's Records. The story runs as follows: Madhyāntika, a disciple of Ananda, was a teacher of Varanasi. His pupils were so numerous that the lay-devotees of Vārāṇaśī found it difficult to maintain them; so Madhyantika left the town for Mount Usira in the north,' where he stopped for three years. After this period Madhyāntika went to Kashmir and settled down on the bank of a lake inhabited by the Nāgas. His presence was resented by the Nagas, who however were subdued by his supernatural powers. Tāranātha adds that at this time there were in Kashmir nine cities, many villages of mountain-dwellers, a royal residence and twelve vihāras, and that Madhyantika brought with him many monks and lay-devotees, and increased the wealth of the country by introducing the cultivation of saffron, for which Kashmir is famous even to-day. Madhyāntika resided in Kashmir for twenty years and propagated the religion widely. After his death, when road-communication was established between Kashmir and Tukhāra, Kashmirian monks went to
I Identified with a mountain near Mathura. See Watters, I, p. 308; B. C. Law, Geog. of Early Buddhism, p. 34.
2 Kalhana also says that Kashmir was full of lakes inhabited by Nāgas. Yuan Chwang says that "according to the native records, Kashmir was originally a dragon lake." Watters, I, p. 265.
3 Cf. Watters, I, p. 262: Madhyantika carried this valuable plant from Gandhamadana and introduced it in Kashmir. See Sarvāstivāda Vinaya, Tsa-shih,
Ch. 40.
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