Concept

History of Buddhism in India

Overview

Buddhism is an ancient Indian religion and philosophy, which arose in and around the ancient Kingdom of Magadha (now Bihar, India). It is based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha, who lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE and was deemed a "Buddha" or an "Awakened One".

In the 3rd century BCE and during the reign of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, the Buddhist community split into two schools: the Mahāsāṃghika and the Sthaviravāda, each of which spread throughout India and grew into numerous sub-schools. In modern times, three major branches of Buddhism exist: the Theravada in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and the Mahayana in the Himalayas and East Asia, and the Vajrayana throughout Asia and specifically in Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan.

The practice of Buddhism lost influence in India around the 7th century CE, after the collapse of the Gupta Empire. The last large empire to support Buddhism was the Pala Empire, that fell in the 12th century. By the end of the 12th century and after the invasions by the Turkic Muslims, Buddhism had largely disappeared from India with the exception of western and central Tibet and isolated remnants in parts of south India.

Since the 19th century, modern revivals of Buddhism have included the Maha Bodhi Society, the Vipassana movement, and the Dalit Buddhist movement spearheaded by B. R. Ambedkar. There has also been a growth in Tibetan Buddhism with the arrival of Tibetan diaspora and the Tibetan government in exile to India, following the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1950. According to the 2011 census, there are 8.4 million Buddhists in India (0.70% of the total population).

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.

He had another house upon the Mount Quirinalis, the site of which they show to this day. In all public processions and solemn prayers, criers were sent before to give notice to the people that they should forbear their work, and rest. They say that the Pythagoreans did not allow people to worship and pray to their gods by the way, but would have them go out from their houses direct, with their minds set upon the…
Plutarch, Plutarch
States what History of Buddhism in India is; the author is tied to History of Buddhism in India in the knowledge graph.
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
It was only when this unwieldy form of family came to be disintegrated by the advance of civilisation that it became necessary to specify the order of succession, and to determine who were a man's Near Kin; and, as we have seen, the earliest laws on this subject are but the old customs reduced to writing.
Plutarch, Plutarch's Romane Questions
States what History of Buddhism in India is; the author is tied to History of Buddhism in India in the knowledge graph.
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
The park containing the whole was the space of ground which the Vaisaya head, Sudatta, purchased by covering it with gold coins. The vihâra was exactly in the centre. Here Buddha lived for a longer time than at any other place, preaching his Law and converting men. At the places where he walked and sat they also subsequently reared topes, each having its particular name; and here was the place where Sundari [5]…
Confucius, Chinese literature
Close in meaning to History of Buddhism in India; the term itself is not named.
Read the chapter · Open in the reader

History of Buddhism in India

Overview

Possible passages

Philosophers who discussed History of Buddhism in India

Related ideas

Place in the tradition