Spread Of buddhism

The Spread of Buddhism

During the centuries after the death of Buddha, the Sangha divided into 18 regional schools, each sharing a veneration of the Buddha and his teaching but evolving in different ways.

Then in the 3rd century BCE, the movement spread dramatically due to conversion of the Emperor Ashoka, in North India. Ashoka has just punished a rebellious group of subjects with a reign of terror, and was deeply affected by the bloodshed he had created.

When he chance upon a Buddhist monk, Nigrodha, he realized that he could use his immense power to promote peace.

He converted to Buddhism, perform many charitable works, and had edicts carved in rocks across his empire, exhorting his people to act generously and abhor violence.
In place of armies, he sent missionaries far and wide o spread the Dharma, enjoying lasting success in Sri Lanka, where the Theravada tradition still flourishes.

The patronage of Ashoka did much to established Buddhism as a popular religion.

Later, the support of Greek King Menandros (c155-130 BCE) in the north and the Scythian leader Kanishka (1st Century BCE) in the northwest continue the tradition.

In the south, scholars of the Theravada school in Sri Lanka committed their entire canon to writing during the first century.

This became the Pali Canon.
Of the original eighteen schools, only this school has survived, from Sri Lanka, it was then spread across to south -east Asia.

During the 5th century CE, the Gupta Dynasty recognized Buddhism, and the centers began to grow in numbers, with an increasing intellectual orientation.

By the seventh century there were four major Buddhist university across India.
But this was to be the religion high point, for by the beginning of the 13th century, Muslim invaders had driven out most monks and scholars.

Many went to the kingdom of the Himalayas: Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet.
More than sic hundred years passed before Buddhism made a comeback in the land of its birth.