Buddhism Under the Great Kings of India Buddhism By Arjanyai At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

By the time of Asoka, Brahmanism or Hinduism had been in the process of developing from a religion of sacrificial rituals into cults of worshipful devotion (Bhakti) to gods of various names, such as Hari, Narayana, Vishnu and Siva. During his reign, though Buddhism became the ruling faith of the people, the Brahmins were still influential and formed a large part of the ruling class. As soon as Asoka died, a Brahminical reaction set in. His empire became weakened and began to break up. About fifty years after Asoka’s death, the Brahmin Pushyamitr, commander in chief of the last Mauryan ruler, assassinated his master and made himself the first king of the Sunga dynasty.

Pushyamitr, in an effort to return northern India to Brahmanism, made two great horse sacrifices and began persecuting the Buddhists. He burnt their monasteries, killed the monks, and even made a declaration that he would reward anyone who presented him with the head of a Buddhist.

However, Pushyamitr was not so powerful as the great kings of the Mauryas and Buddhism did not come to an end through his hostile efforts. In spite of the persecution, most people remained devoted to their faith. Moreover, Buddhism flourished in other kingdoms, both in the north and in the south, which broke away from the former empire of the Mauryas both before and during Pushyamitr’s reign. Especially in the northwest, it even found an energetic patronage under an IndoGreek king called Menander.

Menander or Milinda was a great king who, ruled the kingdom of the Bactrian Greeks in northwest India during the same period as Pushyamitr. As a Buddhist, he was both a scholar and a great patron of the religion. A great dialogue on Buddhism between the king and the Elder Nagasena was recorded in the Milindapanha, a well-known Pali masterpiece which was named after him. Around this time, through the Greek influence, there appeared for the first time the making of images of the Buddha. Within a century, this practice became common in northwest India as a development of the Gandhara school of art and tnen spread and was accepted in all Buddhist lands. The creation of Buddha-images as objects of worship contributed much to the development of religious ceremonies, temples, paintings, sculptures, crafts, and music in later centuries.

Also by this time, a new movement, the so-called Mahayana, had begun to be active in northwest India. Then and there both the Theravada and the Mahayana flourished side by side. From there they spread to Central Asia and, some time before or during the reign of King Mingti (58-75 C.E.), further to China. As time passed by, the centres of the Theravada moved toward the south and flourished outside its homeland. In northern India the Mahayana became stronger while the Theravada weakened. In the ninth century B.E. (4th century C.E.), the Theravada was so weak that the centre at Buddhagaya had to send Buddhaghosa to Ceylon to translate the commentaries back into Pali and bring them back to India.

The Mahayana found great support and flourished under Kanishka, a great king who ruled the Kushan Empire in northwest India and Pakistan in the early half of the seventh century B.E. (1st-2nd century C.E.), and can be said to have taken a separate course of history ever since.

It should be noted that of the five greatest kings of Indian history (from B.E. I till the British occupation in B.E. 2327/1784 C.E.), three were devout Buddhists, one was a softened Hindu, and another one was a Muslim who sought to found a new religion of his own.

The first and the greatest of the greatest was Asoka (B.E.218-260) whose devoted support to the early form of Buddhism caused it to spread for the first time beyond the borders of India, become a world religion and develop into the so-called Buddhist culture of southern Asian countries.

The second was Kanishka (B.E. 621-644/78-101 C.E.), the great patron of Mahayana, who completed the work of Asoka and helped the northern branch of Buddhism to spread far and wide.

The third was Chandragupta II Vikramaditya (B.E.923-956/380-413 C.E.) of the Hindu Gupta dynasty, who reigned during the period when Buddhist institutions had attained great prosperity and been so influential that the Hindu rulers had to depend on Buddhists (such as their own generals or advisers) and Buddhist institutions for their own power and glory, and were forced or induced to become tolerant of Buddhism and to support the Buddhist cause or even became converted to Buddhism themselves.

The fourth was Harsha or Harsha-Vardhana or Harsha Siladitya (B.E. 1149-1191/606-648 C.E.), the last Buddhist emperor of India, who kept the light of Indian Buddhism glowing for a short interval after it had been worn out both by foreign invasions and internal persecution and degeneration, and before it disappeared, through the same causes, from the religious scene of India.

The fifth and last was Akbar (B.E.2103-2148/1560-1605 C.E.) who came to the throne of the Moghul Empire during the Muslim period when Buddhism had long disappeared from India, and, finding himself dissatisfied with the existing faiths, created his own religion of reason called din Ilahi or the Divine Faith which died with him.

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