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 Gautama Buddha[note 1] who was deemed a "Buddha" ("Awakened One"[3]), although Buddhist doctrine holds that there were other Buddhas before him. Buddhism spread outside of Magadha starting in the Buddha's lifetime.
During the reign of the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, the Buddhist community split into two branches: the Mahāsāṃghika and the Sthaviravāda, each of which spread throughout India and split into numerous sub-sects.[4] In modern times, two major branches of Buddhism exist: the Theravada in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, and the Mahayana throughout the Himalayas and East Asia. The Buddhist tradition of Vajrayana is sometimes classified as a part of Mahayana Buddhism, but some scholars consider it to be a different branch altogether.[5]
The practice of Buddhism lost influence in India around the 7th century CE, after the collapse of the Gupta Empire. The last large state to support Buddhism—the Pala Empire—fell in the 12th century. By the end of the 12th century, Buddhism had largely disappeared from India with the exception of the Himalayan region and isolated remnants in parts of south India. However, 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 refugees and the Tibetan government in exile to India, following the Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1950.[6] According to the 2011 Census there are 8.4 million Buddhists in India (0.70% of the total population).
^UNESCO World Heritage Centre. "Mahabodhi Temple Complex at Bodh Gaya". Archived from the original on 5 November 2020. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
^Smith, Vincent A. (1914). The Early History of India from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest Including the Invasion of Alexander the Great (3rd ed.). London: Oxford University Press. pp. 168–169. Archived from the original on 11 November 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
^Monier-Williams, Monier. Dictionary of Sanskrit. OUP. Archived from the original on 26 September 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2012.
^Akira Hirakawa, Paul Groner, A history of Indian Buddhism: from Śākyamuni to early Mahāyāna. Reprint published by Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1993, page 2.
^"Buddhism: Description of the Vajrayāna tradition". Religious Tolerance. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. 25 April 2010. Archived from the original on 13 January 2017. Retrieved 26 November 2014.
^"Tibet in India: A people's history of the Tibetan resistance". 22 July 2023.
Cite error: There are <ref group=note> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=note}} template (see the help page).
and 26 Related for: History of Buddhism in India information
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...
Buddhism, which originated inIndia, gradually dwindled and was replaced by approximately the 12th century. According to Lars Fogelin, this was "not a...
The historyofBuddhism can be traced back to the 5th century BCE. Buddhism arose in Ancient India, in and around the ancient Kingdom of Magadha, and is...
HistoryofBuddhisminIndia and Tibet (Tibetan: བུ་སྟོན་ཆོས་འབྱུང, Wylie: bu ston chos 'byung) is a historical work written by Buton Rinchen Drub, a famous...
The historyof Chinese Buddhism begins in the Han dynasty, when Buddhism first began to arrive via the Silk Road networks (via overland and maritime routes)...
centuries), Buddhism waned in Tibet, only to rise again in the 11th century. With the Mongol invasion of Tibet (1240 onwards) and the establishment of the Mongol...
The historyof Theravāda Buddhism begins in ancient India, where it was one of the early Buddhist schools which arose after the first schism of the Buddhist...
(2012), p. 151. Davidson, Ronald M. (2012). Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social Historyof the Tantric Movement. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-50102-6...
Buddhismin Central Asia mainly existed in Mahayana forms and was historically especially prevalent along the Silk Road. The historyofBuddhismin Central...
Buddhism is the second oldest religion in Indonesia after Hinduism, which arrived from India around the second century. The historyofBuddhismin Indonesia...
Buddhismin Nepal started spreading since the reign of Ashoka through Indian and Tibetan missionaries. The Kirati people were the first people in Nepal...
similar to the Pala Dynasty Buddhismof Bengal, and of the Nalanda University in northern India. "The Bengal University of Nalanda in Megadha (now Behar) was...
movement among Dalits inIndia which was started by B. R. Ambedkar. It re-interpreted Buddhism and created a new school ofBuddhism called Navayana. The...
Rothermund 2004, pp. 112, 119. HistoryofBuddhisminIndia, Translation by A Shiefner Chandra, Satish (2009). Historyof Medieval India. New Delhi: Orient Blackswan...
Buddhism and Hinduism have common origins in the culture of Ancient India. Buddhism arose in the Gangetic plains of Eastern Indiain the 5th century BCE...
Buddhism, a religion founded by Gautama Buddha, first arrived in modern-day Afghanistan through the conquests of Ashoka (r. 268–232 BCE), the third emperor...
Japan. Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayāna teachings of eighth-century India, is practised in the Himalayan states as well as in Mongolia and...
Tibetan Buddhism is a form ofBuddhism practiced in Tibet, Bhutan and Mongolia. It also has a sizable number of adherents in the areas surrounding the...
Groner) (1993. A Historyof Indian Buddhism. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass: pp. 253, 263, 268 "The south (ofIndia) was then vigorously creative in producing Mahayana...
Buddhism is the third-largest religious affiliation and formed about 0.63% of the population of Bangladesh. It is said that Buddha once in his life came...
Institutions of Chinese Buddhism Chinese Buddhism or Han Buddhism (simplified Chinese: 汉传佛教; traditional Chinese: 漢傳佛教; pinyin: Hànchuán Fójiào; Jyutping:...
Tendai Buddhism with 2.8 million, and only about 700,000 for the six old schools established in the Nara period (710-794). Originating inIndia, Buddhism arrived...
Korean Buddhism is distinguished from other forms ofBuddhism by its attempt to resolve what its early practitioners saw as inconsistencies within the...