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BUDDHISM
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as the great authority on Vinaya and Ananda, the friend of Gautama, was questioned as the authority on Dhamma. This was the Council of Rajagriha held in the year of Gautama's death to settle the sacred text and fix it on the memory by chanting it together.
A century after the death of Gautama, a second council of 700 was held at Vaishali to settle disputes between the more and the less strict followers of Buddhism. It condemned a system of ten indulgences which had grown up, but it led to the separation of the Buddhists into two hostile parties who afterwards split into 18 sects. During the next 200 years Buddhism spread over northern India. About 257 B. C. Ashoka, the king of Magadha, became a zealous convert to this faith. He founded many religious houses and his kingdom is called the land of monasteries.
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