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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
BUDDHISM IN KASHMIR
In 1938, Pandit Madhusudan Kaul was deputed by the Kashmir Government to carry on further excavations at the site but he could not discover anything of importance in stūpa A, B, and D but he found 3 or 4 more mss. in stūpa C.
The script used in the mss. is mostly Upright Gupta of a date little later than those used in the mss.-remains found in Eastern Turkestan and similar to the script found in the Bower mss. The script of the Bower mss. is assigned to the 6th century A.C., and so the Gilgit mss. may also be dated in the 6th or at the latest in the 7th century A.C. This date takes us to the reign of kings preceding Lalitāditya who ruled about the middle of the 8th century. The Sāhis were then ruling over the region round about Udabhāndapura up to Gilgit and were occasionally coming into conflict with the Kashmir kings, ultimately succumbing to Lalitāditya in the middle of the eighth century. One would be tempted to identify the king mentioned in our ms. with a son of Vikramāditya, son of Raņāditya. According to Kalhaņa, Vikramāditya was succeeded by his brother Bālāditya; so it may be suggested that 'Vikramāditya Nanda' of the ms. was related to Vikramāditya and his name was 'Surendra' and his title 'Srideva Sāhi'. This prince probably ruled over the Dard country during the reign of king Bālāditya in Kashmir.
It will be observed that the kings, queens and ministers of Kashmir commencing from Meghavāhana patronised Buddhism more than any other faith, and a large number of vihāras was built at this time. After a short period, the Chinese travellers visited the country. The mss. copied for Yuan Chwang were therefore of the same time as our mss., and it is noteworthy that the Gupta scripts' preserved by the Chinese for transcribing the Sanskrit
Edited by A. F. R. Hoernle. 2 See Hocrnle's Intro. to the Bower Ms., chap. III.
I Vide the scripts (block prints) in the Taisho cdition of the Chinese Tripitaka.
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