Unit 8 · From India Across Asia

Around the 5th century BCE, the plain along the Ganges River in northern India was changing fast. Farmers grew rice in wide fields. Trade roads linked growing cities such as Rajagaha, Savatthi and Vesali. Kingdoms like Magadha and Kosala competed for power.

In this busy world, many people left home to seek answers about life and death. They were called shramanas (in Pali, samanas), wandering seekers who lived simply and debated ideas. They questioned the priests who led the older Vedic rituals.

The Pali suttas show the Buddha walking between these cities, meeting kings, merchants and fellow seekers. Scholars use the suttas, along with archaeology, to picture the Ganges valley of his time.

The Pali suttas name several rival teachers. One of them, called Nigantha Nataputta in Pali, is known to the Jains as Mahavira. Jains honor him as the last great teacher of their tradition.

Jains and Buddhists shared some ideas. Both taught karma, the belief that actions shape future lives, and both valued not harming living beings. They also disagreed. Jains stressed very strict fasting and self-denial, while the suttas show the Buddha calling for a middle way.

The Jain tradition is still alive today, with millions of followers in India and communities in Illinois. Studying the two together helps scholars understand what was new in each and what was shared.

Buddhist tradition and modern scholars do not agree on the Buddha’s dates. The Theravada tradition of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia traditionally dates his death to 544 or 543 BCE. Many Western scholars once used c. 563 to 483 BCE.

More recent research points later. Many scholars now place the Buddha’s death around 400 BCE, give or take a few decades. They get there by comparing king lists, the gap to Ashoka and the chronicles of different schools.

All sources agree the Buddha lived about 80 years. That is why a textbook may write ’c. 480 to c. 400 BCE’ and add ’dates vary’. Historians call this a chronology, a sequence of dates, and they treat each estimate as a hypothesis to test.

The Vinaya’s own account says that soon after the Buddha died, 500 senior monks met at Rajagaha. This meeting is called the First Council. The monk Mahakassapa led it. The account gives the reason simply: the teaching had to be kept whole.

According to the account, Upali recited the rules of the Vinaya, and Ananda, the Buddha’s attendant, recited the teachings, or suttas. The monks then chanted them together so they would be remembered.

Historians cannot check every detail of this story, and some think it grew over time. But it shows how Buddhists understood their scriptures: as teachings carried in shared memory by a community, not by one person.

Buddhist sources describe a Second Council at Vesali about a century after the Buddha. Monks there argued over monastic rules, such as whether monks could accept money. One such rule was whether monks might accept gold and silver.

Over the following centuries, the sangha split into several schools, groups that kept slightly different rules and texts. Later sources count eighteen early schools, though lists differ.

The Theravada tradition tells of a Third Council at Pataliputra under Ashoka, which it says confirmed its teachings. Other schools do not record this council. Scholars note that such accounts reflect each school’s own perspective.

The Mahaparinibbana Sutta (Digha Nikaya 16) says that after the Buddha’s cremation, his remains were divided among eight groups. Each built a stupa, a dome-shaped mound, over its share.

Buddhists treat these remains, called relics, with deep reverence. Pilgrims walk clockwise around a stupa, keeping it on their right, a sign of respect in Indian custom. Many still bring flowers and lamps.

The Great Stupa at Sanchi, in central India, was begun in Ashoka’s time in the 3rd century BCE and enlarged later. Its stone gateways, carved in the 1st century BCE, show scenes from the Buddha’s life and the Jatakas.

Ashoka ruled the Mauryan Empire from about 268 to 232 BCE. It covered most of South Asia. About eight years into his rule, he conquered Kalinga, on the east coast. Its capital was Pataliputra, near today’s city of Patna.

In Rock Edict 13, Ashoka describes the war’s huge toll and his remorse, or deep regret. He says he now prefers conquest by dhamma: winning people through good conduct rather than force.

Historians debate how much the edicts show Ashoka’s inner life and how much is royal message. Buddhist chronicles later told dramatic stories about his conversion. The edicts themselves are the earliest and most direct evidence.

Ashoka’s messages were carved on large rocks and on polished stone pillars across his empire. Most were in Prakrit languages written in the Brahmi script. In the northwest, some used Greek and Aramaic.

The edicts urge respect for all religious groups. Rock Edict 12 asks people to honor other sects and not to praise their own while condemning others. Other edicts ban some animal sacrifices and describe wells and shade trees along roads.

The top of one pillar at Sarnath shows four lions standing back to back. This lion capital was adopted as the national emblem of India in 1950. The wheel under the lions also appears on India’s flag.

For over a thousand years after Ashoka, Buddhism thrived in India. Great monastic universities like Nalanda drew students from across Asia, including Chinese pilgrims. Monks there studied logic, medicine and grammar as well as scripture.

Slowly, Buddhism declined in the land of its birth. Historians point to several causes: loss of royal support, the growth of Hindu devotional movements, and the destruction of monasteries such as Nalanda by invading armies around 1200 CE.

Historians disagree on which cause mattered most, and the decline was gradual, not sudden. Meanwhile, Buddhism was flourishing in Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia, Tibet and East Asia, so its texts were preserved there.

In the 1800s, archaeologists found and restored many Buddhist sites in India. In 1891, Anagarika Dharmapala of Sri Lanka founded the Maha Bodhi Society to restore Bodh Gaya, where Buddhists believe the Buddha reached awakening.

The largest revival came from Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the leader who helped write India’s constitution. He was born into a community treated as ’untouchable’ under the caste system. He saw Buddhism as a path to equality.

In 1956, in Nagpur, Ambedkar became a Buddhist together with hundreds of thousands of followers. Their community, sometimes called Navayana or Ambedkarite Buddhism, is today one of India’s largest Buddhist groups. This event is often called a conversion movement.

Theravada means ’the teaching of the elders’. Its followers see it as keeping the early teachings closely. Today it is the main form of Buddhism in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

The Theravada chronicles of Sri Lanka say that Mahinda, a monk and son of Ashoka, brought Buddhism to the island in the 3rd century BCE. Sri Lanka became a center of Theravada learning.

Theravada Buddhists use the Pali Canon as their scripture, along with commentaries. Monks chant in Pali, even where daily life uses Thai, Burmese or Sinhala. The ideal figure is the arahant, one who has reached nibbana.

Mahayana means ’great vehicle’. It arose in India around the start of the Common Era, scholars say, as new sutras began to circulate. It became the main form of Buddhism in China, Korea, Japan and Vietnam.

Mahayana Buddhists honor the bodhisattva, a being who seeks awakening in order to help all beings. Famous bodhisattvas include Avalokiteshvara, called Guanyin in China, and Manjushri, linked to wisdom.

Mahayana Buddhists read many sutras beyond the Pali Canon, such as the Lotus Sutra, the Heart Sutra and the Pure Land sutras. Many of these were translated into Chinese and later spread across East Asia.

Vajrayana means ’diamond vehicle’ or ’thunderbolt vehicle’. It grew within Mahayana in India and became central in Tibet, Bhutan, Mongolia and parts of the Himalayas. Many Vajrayana Buddhists see it as a fuller form of Mahayana.

Buddhism reached Tibet in the 7th and 8th centuries CE. Tibetan tradition honors the Indian teacher Padmasambhava for helping establish it. Vajrayana uses tantra: ritual, mantras, visualizations and close study with a teacher.

The teacher is called a lama. The Dalai Lama is the best-known Tibetan Buddhist teacher today. Tibetan Buddhists gather their scriptures into two great collections, the Kangyur and the Tengyur.

The Silk Road was a web of trade routes linking China, Central Asia, India, Persia and the Mediterranean. Merchants carried silk, spices and horses. Monks traveled with them, carrying texts and images.

Buddhism reached China around the 1st century CE. Chinese tradition tells of Emperor Ming dreaming of a golden figure and sending envoys west. Historians treat the story as legend but agree Buddhism arrived in that period.

Oasis cities like Dunhuang became Buddhist centers. The cave temples there hold paintings and once held tens of thousands of manuscripts. Translators such as Kumarajiva (344–413) turned Sanskrit texts into fine Chinese. Such translation shaped Chinese Buddhism.

Around 399 CE, a Chinese monk named Faxian set out for India. He was troubled that China lacked complete copies of the Vinaya, the rules for monks. He was already over sixty years old, his biography says.

Faxian crossed the Gobi desert and the mountains. He spent years in India copying texts, then sailed to Sri Lanka, where he found more. He returned to China by sea around 412 CE, after a dangerous voyage.

His travel record, called A Record of Buddhist Kingdoms, describes monasteries, festivals and customs. Historians still use it as evidence for life in India around 400 CE, while checking it against other sources.

Xuanzang left China in 629 and returned in 645. His biography says he brought back 657 texts, as well as relics and images. He and his team translated many of them, including a well-known Chinese version of the Heart Sutra.

Xuanzang’s Record of the Western Regions describes over a hundred kingdoms. Archaeologists in India have used it to find sites such as Nalanda. The book is still read by historians today.

Centuries later, his journey inspired the famous Chinese novel Journey to the West (16th century). In it, a monk based on Xuanzang travels with a clever Monkey King. The novel is fiction, but it shows how famous he became.

On the island of Java, in today’s Indonesia, stands Borobudur. It was built around the late 8th and early 9th centuries CE. It is one of the largest Buddhist monuments in the world.

Borobudur rises in stacked terraces, like a stepped mountain. Pilgrims walk clockwise up its levels. Its walls are covered with carved panels showing the Buddha’s life, Jataka tales and scenes from Mahayana sutras.

At the top, open terraces hold many bell-shaped stupas, each with a seated Buddha inside. Many scholars read the climb as a picture of the path toward awakening. It is still a pilgrimage site on Vesak. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Each tradition understands itself in its own way. Theravada Buddhists may stress faithfulness to the early teachings. Mahayana Buddhists may stress the bodhisattva’s compassion. Vajrayana Buddhists may stress powerful methods passed down by teachers. Scholars try to describe all three fairly.

The name Hinayana, ’lesser vehicle’, appears in some Mahayana texts for earlier paths. Theravada Buddhists do not use it for themselves, and many find it insulting. Scholars today avoid it when naming a living tradition.

A fair comparison looks for similarities and differences. All three honor the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. All teach karma and the goal of freedom from suffering, though they describe the path differently.

A canon is the set of texts a community treats as scripture. Theravada uses the Pali Canon, in the Pali language. It has three parts, the Tipitaka. Its teachings, rules and extra books fill many volumes.

East Asian Buddhists use the Chinese canon, a huge collection printed in China and Korea. It includes early texts, Mahayana sutras and commentaries. Korea’s Tripitaka Koreana, carved on more than 80,000 wooden blocks in the 13th century, still survives.

Tibetan Buddhists use the Kangyur (words of the Buddha) and the Tengyur (commentaries), translated from Sanskrit. Each canon reflects its community’s history and authority, the reasons it trusts a text.

Buddhist texts have been put into Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, Japanese, Korean and more. Each translation had to find words for new ideas. Some texts survive today only in translation, because the originals were lost.

Early Chinese translators sometimes borrowed Daoist words to explain Buddhist ideas. Later translators like Kumarajiva and Xuanzang worked to be more exact. Tibetan translators built careful word lists so each Sanskrit term had one Tibetan match.

Scholars say these choices shaped Buddhism in each land. A reader in Kyoto and a reader in Colombo may be reading the same teaching through very different words. This is part of Buddhist diversity.