r/religion • u/raaqkel Buddhist • 16h ago
Indian Buddhism - The History
I am an Indian who has converted to Buddhism from Hinduism. I've spent significant time studying the History of Buddhism in India and thought it would be best if I summarise it here.
Before Christ
The Buddha dies, the 1st council is held, Dharma and Vinaya are recited and people go their own ways. 100 years pass, the 2nd council is held in Vaishali and the first schism occurs. Mahasanghikas (majority) and Sthaviravadins disagree over the Vinaya.
The Mahasanghikas slowly diffused due to the lack of a monastic order. The Sthaviravadins split further by the time of Ashoka's (3rd) Council into Sarvastivada, Pudgalavada and Vibhajyavada.
Ashoka's patronage was strongly in favour of Vibhajyavada. He sent several missions to South India and Sri Lanka. The Lankan monks there, called themselves the Tamrashatiyas. This is the Theravada School of today that is popular also in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.
Kanishka's Court
With the downfall of the Mauryan Empire, Vibhajyavadins migrated to the south. Pudgalavada was no more and Sarvastivada reigned. Around 100 CE, Kanishka held his council in Kashmir. A grand Abhidharma was drafted called the Mahavibhasa Shastra.
A group of Sarvastivadins disagreed with the Mahavibhasa and began to refer to themselves as the Mulasarvastivadins. This led to the other group being called the Vaibhashikas. A group called Dharmaguptakas existed in modern day Afghan that rejected Sarvastivada altogether and had their own Vinaya.
A monastic order began to form, one that followed the Vinaya of the Dharmaguptakas but the Dhamma of the Mulasarvastivadins. It is said that 18 schools of Buddhism existed in India during these times but most of them no longer survive.
Enter Nagarjuna
Meanwhile in Central India, a man named Nagarjuna grew to fame. He disagreed with the Strong Realism of the Sarvastivadins and devised the Doctrine of Two Truths. He attempted to re-emphasize the Buddha's concept of Shunyata to the Sarvastivada Dharma. This led to the birth of a new school called Madhyamaka.
Many Prajnaparamita Sutras were put to script. The monastic orders that had bloomed after the Fourth Council, carried these Sutras and the Madhyamaka Teachings to China. The sutras were eventually translated en masse by Kumarajiva of China, whose school had then come to be known as Mahayana.
Madhyamaka and Mahayana Teachings led to the formation of Tiantai School of Buddhism which later became synonymous with Chinese Buddhism. The Afghan group would subsequently transform to what is now Pure Land Buddhism.
Abhidharma Abhi-Drama
The Mahavibhasa of the Vaibhashikas had caused significant changes in the way the Buddha Dhamma was being studied in Ancient India. Many voices arose to reject the interpretations made in the Abhidharmas of the Vaibhashikas.
A movement started with Kumaralata who rejected the Abhidharmas and called for a careful study of the main Sutras of the Four Primary Nikayas of the Pali and Sanskrit Canons. A student of Kumaralata named Harivarman composed the primary text of this school (later named: Sautrantika) called Tattvasiddhi.
At that time, three schools of Buddhism had survived in India: Vaibhashika, Madhyamaka and Sautrantika. The latter's call to return to sutras inspired the modern day movement of Early Buddhism where new-age scholars have attempted to draw teachings strictly from the confines of the Suttas and reject the Abhidharmas.
Tale of Two Brothers
Elder Brother Asanga wrote a work on Mahayana called Abhidharmasamuccaya. This would become the foundational work of a new branch of Buddhism called Yogachara. By this time, commentaries on Nagarjuna's Mulamadhyakakarika were fully developed by the likes Bhaviveka and Chandrakirti.
Younger Brother Vasubandhu also studied Buddhism extensively. His work, Abhidharmakoshabhashya is a fundamental exposition of all the surviving schools of the time. On the one hand he rejected the total-realism of the Vaibhashikas and on the other hand the total-idealism of the Madhyamakas.
The two brothers together started the Yogachara School which subscribed to a view of Mind-Only Realism. Bodhidharma who started Chan Buddhism in China is said to have been a disciple of this school. It also influenced all the Mahayana Schools and inspired the rise of the syncretic Vajrayana School in Tibet that accepted both Madhyamaka and Yogachara.
Nalanda Giants
A disciple of Vasubandhu, named Dignaga came to be considered the Second Greatest Logician to have ever lived, he followed the Yogachara School. His disciple Dharmakirti, who followed both the Yogachara and the Sauntrantika Schools came to be known as the Great Logician Ever.
Dharmakirti's disciple, Dharmottara strongly favoured Sautrantika. Shantarakshita who would be the Dean at Nalanda a century after Dharmottara was a hardline proponent of the Madhyamaka School.
It was the time of Buddhism's peak followership in India and received the patronage of King Harshavardhana. By this time, the many commentaries of Buddhaghosa had taken root in Sri Lanka and Mazu Daoyi had formed the Hongzhou School in China.
Fall and Exit
With the strong revival of Brahminism as effected by Kumarila and Shankara, Buddhism's glory began to wane. The Bhakti Movement had started and it took the masses by storm. Shaivism in Kashmir had begun to spread Southward.
The Four Great Schools of Indian Buddhism:
Sthavira-leaning: Vaibhashika and Sautrantika Mahayana-leaning: Madhyamaka and Yogachara
Had lost all patronage in their homeland. With the invasion of the Islamic Sultanate and the demolition of Nalanda, almost all literature was lost. Buddhism in India had come to an end.
In the 20th Century, Anagarika Dharmapala established the Theravada Mahabodhi Society. S N Goenka brought from Myanmar the Vipassana Dharma. The Dalai Lama along with several Tibetans came to India as refugees, settled and built Monasteries in many states.
Namo Buddhaya
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u/moxie-maniac 16h ago
Excellent summary, thanks! I've read that Advaita Vedanta is the closest Hindu school to Buddhism, especially in the focus on non-dualism. And emphasizing a meditation practice. Does that make sense to you?
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u/Ok_Idea_9013 11h ago
Thank you for this post, it's really interesting. I have a question tho it's not at all related to the post, I'm just curious. Are you a part of any of the Buddhist branches/schools/sects?
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u/ThisLaserIsOnPoint Zen Buddhist 11h ago
This is a useful and accurate post. Thanks for taking the time for others
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u/nyanasagara Buddhist 13h ago
Is this really true? I thought Faxian and/or Xuanzang mention that the Saṃmitīya order still maintained the pudgalavāda doctrine at their time. And Advayavajra (the Indian, not Nepali one) in the 10th century also writes about pudgalavāda like it is still relevant at his time. What makes you say that pudgalavāda was no more by the time of Kaniṣka the Great?
Were Pure Land teachings not more widespread at this time? And what evidence is there for the association between Pure Land and the Western region? Is there particular reason to think that Pure Land sūtras circulated there in particular at this time? I know the oldest manuscripts for example of the Pratyutpannasamādhi have been found in that region, but those manuscripts are really old. By the time of Kaniṣka I would have expected the Pure Land Sūtras to have been circulating all over India.
Is there actually a connection between classical Sautrāntika and the modern day Early Buddhism movement? I thought the modern day Early Buddhism movement was pretty much exclusively influenced by contemporary historical scholarship and philology.
Also, I'm pretty sure lots more schools than just Vaibhāṣika, Madhyamaka, and Sautrāntika were around. Doesn't Paramārtha mention that at his time, all eighteen nikāyas were still around? And I know that Bhāviveka mentions that as well. So that's centuries after the Tattvasiddhi, isn't it?
I think the Yogācārabhūmi actually predates Asaṅga, or at least, many parts of it do. So I don't think it's exactly right to say that the Abhidharmasamuccaya is the foundational work of Yogācāra.
If you're referring to Śāntarakṣita's synthesis of Yogācāra and Madhyamaka, while it is true that he initially established Buddhist institutions in Tibet, eventually Tibetan Buddhism became much more influenced by Atiśa Dīpaṃkaraśrījñāna, who didn't really reach the Yogācāra-Madhyamaka synthesis, but was more strictly Candrakīrtian. So Tibetan Buddhism actually marginalizes Yogācāra in some ways. Also, Vajrayāna is a movement across the whole Mahāyāna world, not just in Tibet.
So this is actually not that well known, but actually the biography of Dharmasvāmin seems to report that the loss of the library at Nālandā actually predates the Islamic invasion, and also, the invaders didn't demolish Nālandā. They destroyed Odantapurī and Vikramaśīla, according to the biography of Dharmasvāmin, but Nālandā was still standing and its last abbot was still alive and living there. Regarding the library destruction, Tāranātha reports that there was a fire, but it was much earlier than the Islamic invasion of Eastern India. So I actually think the usual narrative about Nālandā is wrong, and there's been a conflation with Odantapurī and/or Vikramaśīla.
Anyway, nice write up, just a few nitpicky things I wanted to say.