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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
BUDDHISM IN KASHMIR
Tukhāra and established the religion there during the reign of Minara and Imaśya.'
Asoka's patronage In the edicts of Asoka, the northernmost countries are mentioned as those inhabited by the Yonas, Kambojas and Gandhāras, which must have included the region round about Shahbazgarhi and Mansehra where his edicts were discovered. Kashmir, it seems, came within his ken in the latter part of his life when he saw through his mistake of supporting one section of Buddhist monks to the exclusion of another. The Pali tradition speaks of the earlier part of his life when he adhered to the Theravāda view point. The probability of such a bias for the Theravādins may be traced to his residence in Avanti during the period of his viceroyalty. As it was the principal centre of the Theravādins it was at this time that he imbibed the Theravāda doctrines. The Sanskrit tradition refers evidently to the latter part of his life when he inclined towards the Sarvāstivādins. It is stated in the Pāli chronicles that Asoka convened a council under the guidance of Moggaliputta Tissa who insisted on recognising as orthodox only those monks who subscribed to the Theravāda view-point, dismissing the rest as un-orthodox. It is not known how far Asoka carried out his directions, but it will be apparent from the accounts given below that the monks other than the Theravādins, particularly the Sarvāstivādins, had to leave Magadha for some distant regions. Yuan Chwang records the above event in another form. He writes that during Aśoka's reign there was in Magadha a distinguished monk called Mahādeva who was “a subtle investigator of name and reality and who put his
I Schicfner p. 23. Tāranātha adds (p. 25): Zu dieser Zeit etwa war es, also König Asoka nicht lange vorher geboren wurde: but how far this statement can be taken at its worth is apparent.
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