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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
Buddhism in Kashmir
It will be admitted by every scholar that Kashmir is the cradle of Sanskrit Buddhism, and it therefore behoves us to trace in detail the career of Buddhism in Kashmir. Though it is premature to make such an attempt with the scanty and scrappy materials that are at present available, we propose to bring together in these few pages the scattered information presented to us by distinguished scholars and archæologists, of whom the pioneer is Sir Aurel Stein whose labours and findings in this field are remarkable and comprehensive. As our main sources of informations are Kalhana and Taranatha, we shall have to satisfy ourselves with approximate dates and doubtful chronologies, but inspite of all these drawbacks we feel that such a nected account is required to serve as a background to the Buddhist Sanskrit texts that are going to be published in the Series initiated by His Highness the Maharaja of Kashmir.
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GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION
The kingdom of Kashmir appears in our ancient records as a part and parcel of Gandhāra. In the list of sixteen mahajanapadas the Buddhist texts mention Kasmira-Gandhara as one janapada indicating thereby that the two countries formed one political unit in the pre-Aśokan days. That it continued to be so is evidenced by the Greek records in which Kaspapyros (=Kasyapapura = Kashmir) is described as a Gandaric city.' In the Milindapañba,” which was composed about the beginning of the Christian era, the two countries are compounded as Kasmira Gandhara. The Chinese
1 Rajat., I, p. 27; Watters, I, p. 261; Raychaudhuri, PHAI. (1932), p. 103. 2 Milindapanha, p. 331: Alasanda-Kasmira-Gandhārā.
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