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P R E . F il_C £ Mith the conversion o f the Mauryan Emperor A soka t a buddhism the Buddhist faith receiving royal paifeoruMM*. emarged as a d is t in c t re lig io n with gre^at p o te n tia lties for exp ansio n. according to the Suddhist chronicle Nahatfamse ffisoka convened the third Buddhist council, and later deputed m issionaries to d i f f e r e n t co untries with the purpose of spreading the message of the Buddha. U hile N a jjh a n tik a introduced the new fa it h in Kashmir and Gandhara, N aharaksita introduced it in the country of the Creeks in the w est. The statement a f the Mahavamsa is also corroborated by the evidence o f the Asokan in s c r ip t io n s . The rock e d ic t s I I sod V re fe r to &s o k a*s sending of m issionaries for humanitarian work and for preaching the Pharma to such countries as S y ria , EftlPt,Macedonia,Cyrene and E p ir u s . I t is nat u n lik e ly that- these m issionaries also extended t h e i r a c t i v i t i e s beyond the Hindukuah to the Central fllsian t e r r i t o r i e s * T h is is in d ic a te d by the fact that th e immediate successors of Asoka in Khorasan Aid B ac te ria , v i z ., the Bactrian and the Indo-*Greaks were favourably disposed towards Buddhism. Among the Bactrian and the Indo-Greek V kings who profas sad. Buddhist f a it h , mention may ba made of Menander who o f a ll the Greek k in g * has found th e prominent place in the Buddhist trad itio n as a scholar and a patron o f Buddhism. Buddhism seems to have continued to flo u rish during, the g re a t nomadic moviamanta of the Slcythians and th e Yue-chis th at awept Central & s i a during th e early centuries, pr a i d i n g the C h ristia n e r a . I t , however, entered intct i t s most g lo r io u s epoch during the regime o f the Yue-chis the p o l i t i c a l influance o f whose c h ie f s extended to t h is reg io n .Th e most cele brated king of th e Yue-chis was king K a n i n a whose empire included part of Central ftsia. Kanidka a fte r &soka was a g re at patron of Buddhism and h is reign w itnessed remarkable progress and popularity of Buddhism. Ha patronised the famous Gandhara school of art and the Mahay ah a sect o f Buddhism g ain ed an unprecedented popularity under h i s benign patronage. The name of Kanifka is clo sely associated with the fourth Buddhist council, which u as, Kashmir under tha most probably held in chairmanship and the vice-chairmanshif* o f Parsva and l/asumitra. I t was during t h a reign o f K aniska th at the B uddhist canonical tex ts appear to have, been carried to Central Slsia by the Buddhist m is sio n ar ie s. Some important Buddhist tex ts have been discovered, in Central & s i a , on l i n g u i s t i c , paleographic and other co n sideratio n s assigned to t h i s period. Among th ese, which can be sp e cia lly noteworthy are soma Buddhist -texts of Asvaghosa, fthe spiritual, advisor o f Kaniska) } the P ra k rit Dhammapada and the; S a n sk rit Udinavarga. The continued flourishing condition a f Buddhism in Central A s i a during the sub sequent c e n t u r ie s i s attested to by the: discovery of images and tha ramain s of Buddhist stupas, ah r in a s and v iharas b u i l t after Indian mattela and by a large number o f Buddhist t a x t s written in san sk rit and prakr.it as wall as in tha local languages a f Central A s i a and in tha Indian s c r ip ts of Kharoshthi and Brahml. For the information of the state o f Buddhism in Central A s i a in the fourth and the subsequent c e n tu ries ua are indebted to th a Chinesa pilgrim s Fa-hien and Yuan-chuang .Fa»hien passed through Central A s ia on way to India in 399/400 ft.D . while Yuarwchuang crossed the: region in 6 2 9 /3 0 A .D . on his way back t a C hina a fter h is v i s i t to I n d i a . The two pilgrim s scholars daacribe . in d eta il the condition of Buddhism in such famous Buddhist centres of Taklamakan region of Central A s ia as L a o «la n , Karashahr, Khotan ,K u chi, Yarkand, K a sh g h ar ,T u rfa n ,N iy a,G n d a re atcuThere wars pretty la rg a number o f man aster ia s at these cert t r ie s where thousands of monks resided.Both tha sects of Buddhism ***’ tk« H in ay an a and/ Nahavana flouriifcfcd and had a grtfat fo llo w in g . These c i t i e s yielded a pretty large number o f manuscripts o f important Buddhist texts belonging to tha Hinavana. Mahay ah a and the \Ia.i r ay-in a se cts of Buddhism. Besides the places mentioned above, Buddhism was widely prevalent a ll over the h il l y region between the TaidLm-basin and the v alley atf the upper S in d h * Fa-hien h as given a graphic description o f the predominance of Buddhism a ll over the region .Yuan-chwang also saw abundant traces o f Buddhism in t h is re g io n .B a lk h was a g re at centre o f Buddhism and had one hundred monasteries containing three thousand monks. Othefc cen tres o f Buddhism were GLhazni, Kunduz and various other places between Badakshan and Kashghar. Buddhism was,however,on decline in the time of Yuan-chwiang in the land between the Amu and S y r Qarya, Yuan-chwang did not see any trace o f Buddhism in th is r e g io n . B ut the influence of Buddhism had not completely waned. The g r e a t Khan of western Turks who liv e d west of X s s iq Kol held Buddhism in high reverence .Yuan-chwang received warm welcome at h is h ands. I t seems that Buddhism had begun to exercise i t s influ en ce over the western Tutks who were the dominant power in t h is re g io n . The g re at Khan le a rn t Buddhist fa ith from the Indian monk Prabh&karaaitra o f Naland a . yLLth th e ascendancy of Islam and th e expansion of Islam ic cu lture in Central A s ia the d e c lin e of Buddhism fa st set i n . The centre of Buddhist a c tiv ity now sh ifte d to Tibet where Buddhism was f i r s t introduced in the seventh century in the reign of Sron-bSran- sHam-po who under the influence of his tuo Buddhist queens adopted Buddhist re lig io n and; had tem ple 3 and monasteries b u il t a n d a. number of Buddhist tex ts t r a n s la te d . Among the: Buddhist centres of learning of ancient I n d i a , Kashmir h a & a pride of place .A s a re su lt of K a n isk a ’ s council, referred, to above there, burst forth considerable lite ra r y a c tiv ity In the v alle y and soon a galaxy of distin gu ish ed teachers and philosophers bias produced who by t h a i r eruditio n and scho larship made Kashmir a crad le of Buddhistic learning for several c e n tu r ie s . They attracted large number of adherents and scholars not only from d if f e r e n t parts of the country but also from abroad.The Chinese pilgrim s Yuan-chuang and Q»kong speak highly of these sc ho lars. Gtdjuuring the. contents of t h e i r works Yuan-chuang remark "thajtafc was evidence of g re at sduidy and re se a rc h . In them could be found an extraordinary insig h t into the Buddhist lore of various kinds and also into the Brahmanical l e a r n i n g ." The Buddhist scholars of Kashmir were so inebriated with missionary zeal and enthusiasm that they did not rejnain content with confining t h a ir spheres of activ ity w ithin the boundaries of th e valley but fe l t keen urge to dissem inate and preach the gospal o f the Buddha ix across, the Pamirs and. the Karakosura. Tha cont&ibutiQn mads by Kashmir in that spreading of Buddhism in C entral A s i a , C h in a and. T ib et i s s ig n ific a n t .Most of tha B-uddhist m issionaries uho preached the Buddhist fa ith in Central A s ia , either hailed from Kashmir or u ara educated in Kashmir .Among the host of Kashmiri m issio naries mention may be made of Uai.ro can a, Slanghabhuti, P uo yatrata,Dharraayasas, Buddhayaaas, \Jiraalaksa, e t c . The most famous and cele brated Buddhist savant of Central A s ia named Kumarajlva though b o m Tibetan at Kuchi u a s e d u c a t e d in Kashmir.Many scholars also seceiaed th e ir i n i t i a l education in Kashmir. There are very feu works dealing with the history of Buddhism in Central A s ia .K s h a n ik a S a h a 's " Buddhism in Central A s i a " i s very b r ie f and sketchy and the study is co n fined only to eastern Turkestan .The highly erudite e n title d paper of the Russian scholar L it v in sky -Outline History of Buddhism in Central A s i a " though very inform ative and scholarly is mainly based on the^ archaeological sources and here too the study has been confined only to a part of Central A s ia v i z . Ultestern Turkttstan. No s ig n ific a n t attempt has been made t i l l date to write a comprehensive and an authentic account of Buddhism in Central A s ia based on archaeo lo gical, ® pigraphic,num ism atic and l it e r a r y [email protected] as said above numerous Kashmiri scholars elected to uork outside In d i a in v ario u s parts of Central A s ia .U n fo r tu n a te ly , the ancient records of In d i a including these of Kashmir are g e n e ra lly silen t abaut the missionary a c t i v i t i e s of her. scholars in propogatif3g Buddhism in these far flung B esid es the accounts of the Chinese areas* pilgrim s a good amount of information of these celebrated sons of Kashmir is a v a ila b le in Central A s ia n ,C h in e s e and Tibetan documents which needed to be t a p p e d for an extensive a n a ly s is of the contribution o f Kashmiri scholars in the development of Buddhist lore in Central Aisi a . The present th e sis f i l l s in th is v it a l lacuna in the development of Buddhist l o r e . B esides, presenting an authentic and comprehensive account of Buddhism in Central A s i a an attempt has been made to d is c u s s in detail'- the co n trib u tio n s made by Kashmiri. Buddhist scholars in popularising the Buddhist fa ith in Central A s i a .T o make the uork o rig in a l and authentic use has been made of the relevant 1 ite ra r y ,e p ig ra p h ic and archaeological material a v a il a b l e on the su b ject.T he uork has been divided into eig ht chapters. Chapter I presents tha geography and topography of Can te a l A s i a . A ls o , various routes leading to Central Asia: from I n d i a and Kashmir have been described in d etail. In Chapter: I I attempt h a * been made to trade the history of the introduction of Buddhism in various partts of Central A s i a . The study is baded on ep ig raph ic, a r c h a e o lo g ic a l,t r a d it io n a l and lit e r a r y sources* Chapter I I I discu sses the progress o f Buddhism unde^the Indo-Greek ru ler s and among the nomadic t r i b e s of Central A s ia i . e . the aakas (scy th ian s) and Kush an as (yue-chis) t i l l the third cenfcury A , D . A b r ie f desdription of the position of Buddhism in various parts of Central A s ia ,d u r in g the fourth and the seventh cen tu ries i s presented on the b a s is of the tr a v e l accounts of the C hinese pilgrim s Fa-hien and Yuan-«chuang. Chapter IV traces a b r ie f history of Buddhism in Kashmir from its i n i t i a l introduction in the third century B .C . to the thirteenth century & . D . Chapter \l discusses: various aspects of the saocvastivada Buddhism — an important school of Kashmir Buddhism. I t has been shown that there did thrive, side by side other schools of buddhism also , in the v a l l e y . Chapter V I presents the accounts: of the l i f e and th a a c t i v i t i e s o f Kashmiri Buddhist scholars in the spread of Buddhism in Central A s ia ,C h in a and T ib e t . The chapter also presents an account of some Central Asian and Tibetan Budxihist scholars who received t h e ir i n i t i a l education in Kashmir. C o n trib u tio n s to Buddhist lit e r a t u r e made by Kashmiri Buddhist scholars forms the theme of chapter V I I . The gradual development of t h is lit e r a t u r e from H In ay an a ttutouah Wahavana t b l l the introduction o f various esoteric practices (Buddhist tan tr ism) , ■&<& has bean given and it has/shoun houu. Kashmiri ctt'ft scholars mere a c tiv e in writing t r e a t is e s or tran slatin g vario us te x ts in a ll th e se branches of iu d d h is t learning .S in c e the d i g i t Buddhist manuscripts a re an important source of information on the h is t o r ic a l development o f Buddhist learning and p ractices, separate treatment of the sanie forms a part of t h is chapter. In chaptar V I I I e ffo r t has been made to trac e Kashm ir’ s c o n tr ib u tio n s to Buddhist art and a rch itectu re in Central A s i a and T i b e t . »*« XIII In the conduct o f present study, I have received encouragement and help from various people. I express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor D r . B .K.K au l,D em bi, D ir e c to r , CCAS, Kashmir University for h is valuable guidance and continued encouragement. I also express my thanks to D r . Z . L . ZJalla and Sri 3 .L .B h a n for their h e lp . Hy thanks are due to the concerned people of the •lib r a r ie s of Research and Publication Department, o f Central Asian Stu dies Lib rary , U n iv e rsity ; Sri Pratap Singh L ib ra ry , Panjab University Lib rary , in Iqbal Lib ra ry , providing Kashmir Srinagar and Chandigarh for t h e ir co-operdtLon me the relevant data a v a ila b le with them. I am also thankful to the a u th o r itie s of ICSSR, Zone, Centre Northern for providing me a trav ellin g grant for data c o lle c t io n . L a s t bu t n o t t h e l e a s t I express my p r o f o u n d gratitude to my family members for th eir co-operation and constant help in various re sp e cts. Advaitavadini Kaul Srinagar, IJoVj^nber, Kashmir. 17, 1987.