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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
BUDDHISM IN KASHMIR
taries on Sūtras being only distinguished as Upadeśa and not as Vibhāṣā Šāstras. It is a matter for regret that the Šāstras exist only in Chinese translation and have not yet been studied adequately. About the merits of the works Yuan Chwang tells us that in these "there is evidence of great study and research. In them we find an extraordinary insight into the Buddhist lore of various kinds and also into the Brahmanical learning, Indian alphabets, and the Vedas and their Angas."
Distinguished Ācāryas The composition of the Vibhāsā-śāstras in Kashmir indicates that Kashmir grew up to be an academic centre attracting distinguished ācāryas from other places. The accounts of the Chinese travellers and Paramārtha show that Katyāyaniputra, Ašvaghoșa, Vasubandhu, Vasumitra, Dharmatrāta, Sanghabhadra, Visuddhasimha, Jinabandhu, Sugatamitra, Süryadeva, Jinatrāta," KanakaVatsa' and many other distinguished teachers and writers lived in Kashmir, from the time of Kanishka. Tāranātha tells us that during the reign of Kanishka one wealthy brahmin called Sūtra maintained the Vaibhāsika teacher Dharmatrāta and the earliest Sautrāntika teacher Mahābhadanta Sthavira along with their disciples."
1 Watters, I, p. 278.
2 Buston, II, p. 142: A great number of Pratyekabuddhas had formerly expresscd in their entreaties the desire that that country should be the place where the Abhidharma was to be spread. 3 Watters, I, p. 283.
4 Buston, II, p. 122. 5 The Tib. text (p. 47, l. 10-11) is as follows: 155 g za 3787 ཁ་ཆེའི་ བཙུན པ་ ཆེན་པོ་ གནས་ བརྟན་ འཁོར་ དགེ་ སློང ལྔ་ སྟོང །
Schiefner translates it thus: den ersten der Sautrāntika's den Kasmiraschen grossen geehrten Sthavira mit einer Schaar von 5000 Bhiksus fortwährend bechrte.
Can the Mahābhadanta bc Srilābha? Scc Schiefner p. 67.
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