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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
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BUDDHISM IN KASHMIR
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
had a soft corner for Buddhism hailing as he did from Gandhāra a predominantly Buddhistic country. His queen Amṛtaprabhā of Prāgjyotiṣa is said to have built for the use of Buddhist monks a lofty vihāra called Amṛtabhavana (III. 9), to which a reference is made by Ou K'ong. Her guru (4) was a Tibetan, a native of Loh (i.e. Ladakh). His other queens also built monasteries and stūpas of which the one built by Khadana is located at Khādaniya "about miles below Varahamūla on the right bank of the Vitastā."
1
Meghavahana cherished also same Aśokan ideas inasmuch as he himself was not only keen about observing the dharma but compelled his neighbouring kings to abstain from killing living beings (III. 27). With him are associated some Avadanas which extol his extreme sacrifices for the sake of others. His services to Buddhism were so great that the people attributed to his pious deeds an atonement for the sins of his forefather Mihirakula (III. 57). The long rule of this line of kings was only once interrupted by the rule of the poet Matrigupta for four years as a viceroy of Vikramaditya of Ujjayini. The kings were mostly worshippers of Siva and supporters of Brahmanism, but during the reign of Pravarasena II, the king's maternal uncle Jayendra built the Jayendra-vihāra2 and placed in it the colossal statue of Buddha, known as Brhadbuddha. In this vihara, Yuan Chwang stayed and received inctructions in the various Šāstras.3
During the reign of Yudhisthira II, his ministers constructed vihāras and caityas (III. 380-1), one of which is Skandabhavanavihara built by Skandagupta. During the reign of Raṇāditya, one
1
1 Stein, Intro., I, p. 74 n. See infra, p. 37-8.
2 It offered shelter to king Partha and his queens (V. 428), and was destroyed later on by Kṣemagupta. See infra, p. 31.
3 Stein, I, p. 103 n.
4 It is located by Stein at Khandabavan, in Srinagar (Stein, I, p. 105 n.).
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