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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
www.kobatirth.org
20
BUDDHISM IN KASHMIR
The Council Tāranātha commences the story of the Council with the conversion of king Simha of Kashmir to Buddhism. It is said that king Simha became an arhat and his name after ordination was Sudarśana. He preached the religion in Kashmir. Kanishka was then the king of Jalandhara. He heard of Sudarśana and came to Kashmir to listen to his discourses."
The Buddhist Sangha was then divided into eighteen schools. The Venerable Pārsva had come to Kashmir from the east, and advised Kanishka to collect all the monks at Kundalavanavihāra? (in Kashmir). 500 Arhats, 500 Bodhisattvas and 500 Panditas' took part in the Council. An attempt was made to reconcile the conAlicting opinions of the different schools and settle once more the Vinaya, Sūtra and Abhidharma texts. Bu-ston gives an account similar to the above adding only that “after recitation of the texts it was settled that the texts acknowledged by the eighteen sects were all of them the word of the Buddha.”: Yuan Chwang's account is substantially to the same effect. He attributes the session of the Council to the confusion that Kanishka had while listening to the conflicting interpretation of Buddha's words as given by the adherents of the different sects. Pārsva explained to the king the cause of his confusion and advised him to hold a Council in order to
1 Schiefner, chapter XII. There is a Kashmirian king of this name in the Rājatarangini. It may be that king Simha was only a prince. Buston (II, p. 160) preserves a tradition that Sudarśana delivered the teaching of Vinaya) to Anāgāmin and the latter to Anivartitabuddhi who in his turn imparted it to Guimaprabha.
2 Tib. 59980276721977 | Chinese: Kien tho lo. 3 Tib.
5 =Pythagjana-pandita, ic. the panditas who are not srotāpannas. Bu-ston, II, p. 97. 4 Schiefner, p. 60.
5 Bu-ston, II, p. 97.
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