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Buddhism of the Northern School
- By Arjanyai
- Published 07/21/2009
- Spirituality
- Unrated
Under King Kanishda, a great Council, not recognized by the Theravada, was held in Kashmir or Jalandhar. It was regarded as the Third Council of the Mahayanists who did not accept the Third Council of Patฺaliputra, and as the Fourth Council of India. It was presided over by the learned monks Vasumitra and Parsva and attended by five hundred monks. At this Council, a new set of scriptures in Sanskrit was approved together with fundamental Mahayana principles. A great scholar named Asvaghosฺa, who was the spiritual adviser of the Emperor and who took a leading part in the Council, wrote many of the first Mahayana commentaries. He was also known as the greatest poet of India before Kalidasa. About half a century after him, Nagarjuna, a great Buddhist philosopher, founded the Madhyamika school of Mahayana.
Nagarjuna was born in Andhra, the empire of the Satavahana kings in central India to the south of the Kushan Empire, which arose after the fall of the Mauryan Empire and prospered until the 8th century B.E. (3rd cent. C.E.). He was a friend of King Yajnasri, who ruled the empire from B.E.709 to 739, and flourished under his patronage. The Satavahana kings were patrons of Buddhism and spent large sums on the upkeep of great monasteries such as those at Sanchi, Amaravati and Nagarjunikonda and on Building schools, rest-houses, wells, tanks, bridges and ferryboats.
In his capital at Purushpura, King Kanishka built a great Buddhist stupa, now ruined, measuring at the base 285 feet from side to side and 638 feet in height, which was regarded an one of the wonders of the world. Under his patronage, Sanskrit literature and the Gandhara school of art flourished. And through the influence of the Council, the works of the scholars and the encouragement of the royal patron, Mahayana Buddhism spread steadily through Central Asia to China and then to Korea and Japan, and became firmly established in these countries.
By this time a Buddhist educational centre had been established at Nalanda. Nagarjuna also spent many years of his life there. During the Gupta period (B.E. 863-1010; 320-467 C.E.) it grew both in size and in importance till it became the great university of Nalanda where 3,000-10,000 monks (and laymen) lived, teaching and studying, at a time, and where various subjects were taught such as Buddhism, logic, philosophy, law, medicine, philology, grammar, Yoga, alchemy and astrology. Nalanda was supported by kings of several dynasties and served as the great international centre of learning until it was destroyed by the Turks in about
1750 B.E. (c. 1200 C.E.). The classical Buddhist paintings in 29 caves excavated in the rock at Ajanta (about 250 miles northeast of Bombay), which dated from about B.E.350 (about 150 B.C.), also attained their maturity during the Gupta period.
Around this time also (in the 9th century B.E.; 4th century C.E.), Asanga and Vasubandhu, the two brothers, founded the Yogacara school of thought. As the doctrine of Sunyavada of the Madhyamikas is proclaimed in their chief work of the Prajiiaparamitas, so is the doctrine of Vijdanฺavada of the Yogacara taught in the Lankavatarasutra. These two systems of the Mahayana were influential in shaping the Buddhism of China, Korea, Japan and Tibet.
Around the year 944 B.E. (401 C.E.) Kumarajiva, the greatest of the Mahayana translators, was brought from Central Asia to China as a captive of war. After some time he was welcomed to the Chinese court at Ch’ang-an. With the aid of his Chinese disciples, Kumarajiva translated a vast number of Sanskrit texts including Nagarjuna’s works into Chinese. His translations remained for centuries standard works in Chinese and he was honoured by the Buddhists of China as the most trustworthy authority on the Buddhist doctrine. It was he who made Buddhism popular in China and who laid the foundation for the conversion of eastern Asia into a Mahayana land. After him, other scholars, both Chinese and foreign, translated the Yogacara texts and made them widely known in China.
Between 944 and 953 (401-410 C.E.), a Chinese pilgrim, Fa-Hsien, who was a disciple of Kumarajiva, visited India in search of Buddhist sacred books. He wrote about the conditions in the reign of Chandragupta II, showing that Indian society had advanced greatly under the influence of Buddhism. The people were happy and prosperous. In comparison with the Roman empire and China, India was probably the most civilized region at that time. The account of Fa-Hsien’s travels is one of the chief sources of Indian and Buddhist history of that period.
About a quarter of a century after Fa-Hsien’s visit to Java on his way back to China, an Indian monk called Gunฺavarman also visited this island. He succeeded in converting the Queen Mother to Buddhism. Then the king and the people also adopted the religion. After this, Gunฺavarman was invited by the Chinese Emperor to visit China. There the monk spread the teachings of “The Lotus of the Wonderful Law,” and founded an order of nuns.
In B.E. 1069 (526 C.E.), the Indian monk Bodhidharma went to China and was invited to the imperial court at Lo-yang or Nanking. There he founded the Ch’an sect or Contemplative Buddhism, which in a few centuries spread all over China and about six centuries later became established in Japan as Zen Buddhism.
Nagarjuna was born in Andhra, the empire of the Satavahana kings in central India to the south of the Kushan Empire, which arose after the fall of the Mauryan Empire and prospered until the 8th century B.E. (3rd cent. C.E.). He was a friend of King Yajnasri, who ruled the empire from B.E.709 to 739, and flourished under his patronage. The Satavahana kings were patrons of Buddhism and spent large sums on the upkeep of great monasteries such as those at Sanchi, Amaravati and Nagarjunikonda and on Building schools, rest-houses, wells, tanks, bridges and ferryboats.
In his capital at Purushpura, King Kanishka built a great Buddhist stupa, now ruined, measuring at the base 285 feet from side to side and 638 feet in height, which was regarded an one of the wonders of the world. Under his patronage, Sanskrit literature and the Gandhara school of art flourished. And through the influence of the Council, the works of the scholars and the encouragement of the royal patron, Mahayana Buddhism spread steadily through Central Asia to China and then to Korea and Japan, and became firmly established in these countries.
By this time a Buddhist educational centre had been established at Nalanda. Nagarjuna also spent many years of his life there. During the Gupta period (B.E. 863-1010; 320-467 C.E.) it grew both in size and in importance till it became the great university of Nalanda where 3,000-10,000 monks (and laymen) lived, teaching and studying, at a time, and where various subjects were taught such as Buddhism, logic, philosophy, law, medicine, philology, grammar, Yoga, alchemy and astrology. Nalanda was supported by kings of several dynasties and served as the great international centre of learning until it was destroyed by the Turks in about
Around this time also (in the 9th century B.E.; 4th century C.E.), Asanga and Vasubandhu, the two brothers, founded the Yogacara school of thought. As the doctrine of Sunyavada of the Madhyamikas is proclaimed in their chief work of the Prajiiaparamitas, so is the doctrine of Vijdanฺavada of the Yogacara taught in the Lankavatarasutra. These two systems of the Mahayana were influential in shaping the Buddhism of China, Korea, Japan and Tibet.
Around the year 944 B.E. (401 C.E.) Kumarajiva, the greatest of the Mahayana translators, was brought from Central Asia to China as a captive of war. After some time he was welcomed to the Chinese court at Ch’ang-an. With the aid of his Chinese disciples, Kumarajiva translated a vast number of Sanskrit texts including Nagarjuna’s works into Chinese. His translations remained for centuries standard works in Chinese and he was honoured by the Buddhists of China as the most trustworthy authority on the Buddhist doctrine. It was he who made Buddhism popular in China and who laid the foundation for the conversion of eastern Asia into a Mahayana land. After him, other scholars, both Chinese and foreign, translated the Yogacara texts and made them widely known in China.
Between 944 and 953 (401-410 C.E.), a Chinese pilgrim, Fa-Hsien, who was a disciple of Kumarajiva, visited India in search of Buddhist sacred books. He wrote about the conditions in the reign of Chandragupta II, showing that Indian society had advanced greatly under the influence of Buddhism. The people were happy and prosperous. In comparison with the Roman empire and China, India was probably the most civilized region at that time. The account of Fa-Hsien’s travels is one of the chief sources of Indian and Buddhist history of that period.
About a quarter of a century after Fa-Hsien’s visit to Java on his way back to China, an Indian monk called Gunฺavarman also visited this island. He succeeded in converting the Queen Mother to Buddhism. Then the king and the people also adopted the religion. After this, Gunฺavarman was invited by the Chinese Emperor to visit China. There the monk spread the teachings of “The Lotus of the Wonderful Law,” and founded an order of nuns.
In B.E. 1069 (526 C.E.), the Indian monk Bodhidharma went to China and was invited to the imperial court at Lo-yang or Nanking. There he founded the Ch’an sect or Contemplative Buddhism, which in a few centuries spread all over China and about six centuries later became established in Japan as Zen Buddhism.