Dr. Rajkumar Singh
With the coming of Buddhism in Kashmir, a new chapter began in its history. The whole credit for spread of Buddhism in the valley must go to the great kings like Asoka of Gupta dynasty and Kanishka, the most famous king of Kushan. It was after the terrible slaughter in the war of Kalinga that Asoka decided to abandon warfare in the full tide of victory. He refrained from any further aggression, and his mind turned, under the influence of Buddha’s gospel. Undoubtedly Asoka was a Buddhist and much of the ideology of Dhamma which he enunciated was inspired by Buddhism. Asoka’s Dhamma aimed at creating an attitude of mind among his subjects in which social behaviour had the highest relevance. It stressed toleration, non-violence, respect for those in positions of authority, including both the Brahmans and the Buddhist monks, consideration and kindness towards inferiors and the general acceptance of ideals conducive to human
dignity.
Themes of Buddhist philosophy
The ethical, social and practical idealism of Buddha and his religion that influenced our people had left their imperishable marks upon them. It was like the ethical ideals of Christianity and Islam to which we may not pay much attention, but their human, social and practical approach influenced many people who were not attracted by its religious forms and beliefs. The teachings of Buddha went deep down into the hearts of the people. ‘Go unto all lands’, had said the Buddha to his disciples, ‘and preach this gospel. Tell them that the poor and the lowly, the rich and the high, are all one, and that all castes unite in this religion as do the river in the sea’. His message was one of universal benevolence, of love for all. For ‘Never in this world does hatred cease by hatred; hatred ceases by love.’ And ‘Let a man overcome anger by kindness, evil by good. According to him ‘one may overcome a thousand men in battle, but he who conquers himself is the greatest victor’. Not by birth by his conduct alone, does a man become a low caste or a Brahmin. A man’s position in society is determined not by birth (Jati) but by worth, by conduct and by character rather than by descent.
Buddha preached without any religious sanction or any reference to God or another world. He relies on reason, logic, experience and asks the people to seek truth in their minds. He himself said about the teachings,’ One must not accept my law from reverence, but first try it as gold is tried by fire.’ Ignorance of truth was the causes of all misery. Whether there is a God or an Absolute or not, he does not say. He neither affirms nor denies. He had repeatedly warned his people against learned controversy over metaphysical problems. He is reported to have said, ‘Truth was to be found in life itself and not in argument about matters outside the scope of life and therefore beyond the ken of human intellect. He had sown the seeds of revolt against the conventional practice of the religion of his day. It was not his theory or philosophy that was objected to. The old system was free and flexible in thought, allowing for every variety of opinion, but in practice it was rigid.
Effects of Buddhism in Jammu and Kashmir
It was Asoka, wrote Stien, who founded Srinagari, the ancient capital of Kashmir with its ninety-six lakhs of housed resplendent with wealth. According to Hiuen, Tsiang, Asoka settled 5,000 monks in Kashmir which had in earlier times played a great part in the traditions of Buddhism, Arhat Madhyantika having first spread the Buddhist law in the land. He found a hundred convents in the country but Ou-Kong who visited it in 725 A. D. found more than three hundred and a considerable number of stupas and sacred images. Asoka’s empire was extended from Bengal to the Deccan, to Afghanistan and the Punjab. The results and influences of Buddhism may be seen to this day in Kashmir, in the remains of Buddhist temples and statues and the ruins of cities founded by him.
The new awakening in the history of India, that did not arise out of political necessity but of compassion born knowledge, found a particularly fertile soil in Kashmir, where people loved knowledge and learning. Hiuen Tsiang found in the seventh century the people of Kashmir as love learning and well instructed. Kashmir played a great part in the traditions of Buddhism. For centuries it served as a centre of spread of Buddhism to the Central Asia. The two major routes from India to Central Asia led one through the high Kashmir passes of the Gilgit into the Wakhan and the second through Gandhara. The route through Gandhara was less difficult and it was this route that the early Buddhist missionaries to Central Asia selected. The Buddhist missionaries began to go to foreign lands in the reign of Asoka who had renounced war and violence as an instrument of State policy.
Other impacts of Buddhism
Apart from life Buddhism also affected the art and architecture of Kashmir. This is seen as much in the painted scrolls presented to their Jajmans to this day. About the people of Gilgit and their past history Toynbee wrote, ‘Gilgit’s past is almost a blank. Although wrapped in obscurity Gilgit appears to have had a similar experience. Her people must once have been Buddhists before they became Muslims. Her eastern neighbour Ladakh is still Buddhist today, and her Western neighbour Afghanistan was Buddhist till the ninth century of the Christian era’.
Buddhism achieved new popularity and power with the three Turkish kings, Huska, Juska and Kanishka. It spreaded further under Kanishka whose capital was at Peshawar and empire extended to the Kabul in west and Kashgar in north. Kanishka, identified with the great Kushan ruler of north-western India, held the third great Buddhist Council in Kashmir which drew up the northern Canon or “Greater Vehicle of the Law”. In the seventh century Hiuen Tsiang, on his visit to Kashmir, found local traditions about that king. It was during the period that a great schism like Buddhism divided into two sections – the Mahayana and the Hinayana. A great controversy between the two arose and the issue was put to great assemblies, to which representatives came from all over the country. Kashmir was situated near the centre of the empire and was full of this debate and of cultural activities. One name stands out in this controversy, that of Nagarjuna, who lived in the first century A. C. He was a towering personality, great in Buddhist scholarship and Indian philosophy, and it was largely because of him that Mahayana triumphed in India.
(The Author is an Professor and Head P.G. Department of Political Science
BNMU, West Campus P.G.Centre, Saharsa Bihar, can be reached at 

rajkumarsinghpg@gmail.com

DISCLAIMER:

The views expressed in the Article above are Dr. Rajkumar Singh’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article.

Courtesy: The State Times:  15th December, 2019