Buddhism in India | History

Buddhism in India

For Buddhists, India is a land of many Buddhas. From time immemorial, Bodhisattvas have been born within India’s borders, have awakened there, and have attained final Nirvāṇa. As the Buddha of our Present Era, Śākyamuni is crucial but not unique: The Dharma he taught has been found and lost countless times over the ages: Historians accept that Śākyamuni lived, taught, and founded a monastic order.

Sanchi Stupa, India

Buddhism is an ancient Indian religion, which arose in and around the ancient Kingdom of Magadha (now in Bihar, India), and is based on the teachings of the Gautama Buddha who was deemed a "Buddha" ("Awakened One"). Buddhism spread outside of Magadha starting in the Buddha's lifetime. With the reign of the Buddhist Mauryan Emperor Aśoka, the Buddhist community split into 2 branches: the Mahāsāṁghika

Bodh Gaya

In approximately 250 BCE, about 200 years after the Buddha attained Enlightenment, Buddhist Emperor Aśoka visited Bodh Gaya in order to establish a monastery and shrine on the holy site, which have today disappeared. Though the emperor Aśoka probably established Bodh Gaya and the Bodhi tree as Buddhism’s most sacred Buddhist Pilgrimage site and object, the earliest extant remains and inscriptions are from times of