137-456: The Samādhirāja Sūtra ( King of Samādhis Sūtra ) or Candrapradīpa Sūtra ( Moonlamp Sūtra ) is a Buddhist Mahayana sutra . Some scholars have dated its redaction from the 2nd or 3rd century CE to the 6th century (the date of the earliest manuscript found), but others argue that its date just cannot be determined. The Samādhirāja is a very important source for the Madhyamaka school and it
274-777: A शिरोरेखा śirorekhā , that runs along the top of full letters. In a cursory look, the Devanāgarī script appears different from other Indic scripts , such as Bengali-Assamese or Gurmukhi , but a closer examination reveals they are very similar except for angles and structural emphasis. Among the languages using it as a primary or secondary script are Marathi , Pāḷi , Sanskrit , Hindi , Boro , Nepali , Sherpa , Prakrit , Apabhramsha , Awadhi , Bhojpuri , Braj Bhasha , Chhattisgarhi , Haryanvi , Magahi , Nagpuri , Rajasthani , Khandeshi , Bhili , Dogri , Kashmiri , Maithili , Konkani , Sindhi , Nepal Bhasa , Mundari , Angika , Bajjika and Santali . The Devanāgarī script
411-421: A bodhisattva—including service and adoration at the feet of all buddhas." The Samādhirāja also uses the term to refer to itself, equating the sutra with samādhi and emptiness. The sutra then goes on to list over three hundred descriptions of this samadhi, such as: restraint of body, speech and mind, "purity of actions", "going completely beyond supports," "comprehension of the aggregates ", "indifference towards
548-626: A body of teachings incorporating esoteric tantric techniques, may be viewed as a separate branch or tradition within Mahāyāna. The Theravāda branch has a widespread following in Sri Lanka as well as in Southeast Asia, namely Myanmar , Thailand , Laos , and Cambodia . The Mahāyāna branch—which includes the East Asian traditions of Tiantai , Chan , Pure Land , Zen , Nichiren , and Tendai
685-657: A consecration ceremony for a painted scroll (pata) and for a western door of a tantric mandala . The sutra remains influential in Nepalese Buddhism , where it is one of the nine principal Mahayana texts (the "nine Dharmas") in that tradition, which include the four texts cited above as well as the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka (The White Lotus of the Good Dharma), Lalitavistara (The Play in Full), Tathāgataguhyaka (The Secret of
822-545: A later passage from chapter 4 of the sutra, Candraprabha asks the Buddha for a definition of "samadhi", the Buddha responds: Young man, the term samadhi is being used; that is to say: comprehension of the mind; not a state of rebirth; knowledge of non rebirth; the state of having laid aside one’s burden; knowledge of the Tathagatas; ... the protection of secret spells, harmlessness, the state of not oppressing those who are well behaved,
959-572: A major role in Asian culture and spirituality, eventually spreading to the West in the 20th century. According to tradition, the Buddha instructed his followers in a path of development which leads to awakening and full liberation from dukkha ( lit. ' suffering or unease ' ). He regarded this path as a Middle Way between extremes such as asceticism or sensual indulgence. Teaching that dukkha arises alongside attachment or clinging ,
1096-525: A phenomenon known as Greco-Buddhism . An example of this is evidenced in Chinese and Pali Buddhist records, such as Milindapanha and the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhāra . The Milindapanha describes a conversation between a Buddhist monk and the 2nd-century BCE Greek king Menander , after which Menander abdicates and himself goes into monastic life in the pursuit of nirvana. Some scholars have questioned
1233-399: A sentence or half-verse may be marked with the " । " symbol (called a daṇḍa , meaning "bar", or called a pūrṇa virām , meaning "full stop/pause"). The end of a full verse may be marked with a double- daṇḍa , a " ॥ " symbol. A comma (called an alpa virām , meaning "short stop/pause") is used to denote a natural pause in speech. Punctuation marks of Western origin, such as
1370-510: Is a table for Hindi, one for Sanskrit and Prakrit, etc. WX is a Roman transliteration scheme for Indian languages, widely used among the natural language processing community in India. It originated at IIT Kanpur for computational processing of Indian languages. The salient features of this transliteration scheme are as follows. ISCII is an 8-bit encoding. The lower 128 codepoints are plain ASCII ,
1507-497: Is an Indian religion and philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha , a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE . It is the world's fourth-largest religion , with over 520 million followers, known as Buddhists , who comprise seven percent of the global population. It arose in the eastern Gangetic plain as a śramaṇa movement in the 5th century BCE, and gradually spread throughout much of Asia. Buddhism has subsequently played
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#17328524104831644-642: Is associated with an application of the same name that enables typesetting in Indic scripts . The user inputs in Roman letters and the ITRANS pre-processor translates the Roman letters into Devanāgarī (or other Indic languages). The latest version of ITRANS is version 5.30 released in July 2001. It is similar to Velthuis system and was created by Avinash Chopde to help print various Indic scripts with personal computers. The disadvantage of
1781-428: Is called "the samādhi that is manifested as the sameness of the essential nature of all dharmas" ( sarva-dharma-svabhavā-samatā-vipañcita-samādhi ). Skilton notes that this samādhi is the main subject of the sutra. While Gomez and Silk take vipañcita to mean 'manifested', Skilton interprets the term as "elaborated", and sees this samādhi as (at least partly) a kind of literary theme which is explained and elaborated upon in
1918-461: Is cited by Candrakīrti (7th century) twenty times in his Prasannapadā , and it is also cited in his Madhyamakāvatāra . Indeed, Gomez and Silk write that "Candrakīrti quotes it so frequently in his Prasannapadā that one can construe many of his comments on Nagarjuna's Karikas as comments on the sutra, at least in the sense that they place the sutra within a wider interpretive context." Another important Madhyamaka author, Śāntideva quotes
2055-629: Is cited by numerous Indian authors like Chandrakirti , Shantideva and later Buddhist authors. According to Alex Wayman , the Samādhirāja is "perhaps the most important scriptural source for the Madhyamika ." The Samādhirāja is also widely cited in Tantric Buddhist sources, which promote its recitation for ritual purposes . A commentary to the sutra, the Kīrtimala (Tibetan: grags pa'i phreng ba ),
2192-566: Is closely related to the Nandināgarī script commonly found in numerous ancient manuscripts of South India , and it is distantly related to a number of southeast Asian scripts. Devanāgarī is formed by the addition of the word deva ( देव ) to the word nāgarī ( नागरी ). Nāgarī is an adjective derived from nagara ( नगर ), a Sanskrit word meaning "town" or "city," and literally means "urban" or "urbane". The word Nāgarī (implicitly modifying lipi , "script")
2329-523: Is divided into forty chapters. The Chinese edition meanwhile is in ten fascicles ( juans 卷). A complete Indian Sanskrit manuscript was discovered near Gilgit in 1938 which has been dated to the sixth century. According to Roberts, this text is "significantly shorter than the Tibetan translation, with fewer verses and prose passages." Other Sanskrit manuscripts which have been found in Nepal are longer and closer to
2466-439: Is equable towards all beings, his mind is beneficial, his mind is sympathetic, his mind is not inclined to retaliation, his mind is not vexatious." Silk and Gomez write that the Samādhirāja uses the term "samādhi" in a very broad way. This supreme samādhi "is at the same time the cognitive experience of emptiness , the attainment of the attributes of buddhahood, and the performance of a variety of practices or daily activities of
2603-493: Is impossible to be sure when this work first appeared in writing; indeed, the sūtra is very likely a compilation of earlier shorter works. None of the complete extant Sanskrit manuscripts can be dated to earlier than the sixth century." However, he also notes that it is cited in the Sūtrasamuccaya (c. 4th century or later) and also may have been referenced to by Asanga (4th century). Gomez and Silk write that "an educated guess
2740-409: Is indicated by diacritics . The vowel अ ( a ) combines with the consonant क् ( k ) to form क ( ka ) with halant removed. But the diacritic series of क , ख , ग , घ ( ka, kha, ga, gha , respectively) is without any added vowel sign, as the vowel अ ( a ) is inherent . The combinations of all Sanskrit consonants and vowels, each in alphabetical order, are laid out in
2877-517: Is instead an "eclectic and universalistic, so that it would be pointless to attempt to box it in some general category." Whatever the case, the Samādhirāja was a very important and authoritative text for Mādhyamika scholars in India (while it was ignored in Yogacara ) and its doctrines have "a strong leaning towards a philosophic position that can be described as akin to that of the Madhyamaka." The sutra
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#17328524104833014-472: Is not clear whether the terms or epithets are meant as definitions or descriptions or if they are attributes of the samadhi, its causes or effects." On the other hand, Constantin Regamey argues that this samadhi (i.e. this list) is "the subject of the concentration, a verbal formula to be meditated upon." He thinks that this was to be done by repeating the formula in a similar manner to a dharani . He also notes that
3151-546: Is part of the Brahmic family of scripts of India , Nepal , Tibet , and Southeast Asia . It is a descendant of the 3rd century BCE Brāhmī script , which evolved into the Nagari script which in turn gave birth to Devanāgarī and Nandināgarī . Devanāgarī has been widely adopted across India and Nepal to write Sanskrit , Marathi , Hindi , Central Indo-Aryan languages , Konkani , Boro , and various Nepalese languages. Some of
3288-567: Is predominantly practised in Nepal , Bhutan , China , Malaysia , Vietnam , Taiwan , Korea , and Japan . Tibetan Buddhism , a form of Vajrayāna , is practised in the Himalayan states as well as in Mongolia and Russian Kalmykia . Japanese Shingon also preserves the Vajrayana tradition as transmitted to China . Historically, until the early 2nd millennium , Buddhism was widely practiced in
3425-512: Is recorded in Chinese sutra catalogues. Andrew Skilton writes that this large sutra is probably a composite work which "bears certain affinities with the Prajñāpāramitā literature and other early Mahayana scriptures". He also writes that there were various recensions and versions of this sutra in circulation in India. According to Roberts, "at least two shorter independent works that may have existed earlier appear to have been incorporated into
3562-400: Is scholarly disagreement on whether insight was seen as liberating in early Buddhism or whether it was a later addition to the practice of the four jhānas . Scholars such as Bronkhorst also think that the four noble truths may not have been formulated in earliest Buddhism, and did not serve in earliest Buddhism as a description of "liberating insight". According to Vetter, the description of
3699-640: Is shown by a large increase in epigraphic and manuscript evidence in this period. However, it still remained a minority in comparison to other Buddhist schools. Mahāyāna Buddhist institutions continued to grow in influence during the following centuries, with large monastic university complexes such as Nalanda (established by the 5th-century CE Gupta emperor, Kumaragupta I ) and Vikramashila (established under Dharmapala c. 783 to 820) becoming quite powerful and influential. During this period of Late Mahāyāna, four major types of thought developed: Mādhyamaka, Yogācāra, Buddha-nature ( Tathāgatagarbha ), and
3836-495: Is that the text took form between the second century C.E., when it is generally believed Madhyamaka thought emerged as a distinct philosophical tradition, and the sixth century, the date of the Gilgit manuscript, the earliest extant recension of the text. This does not mean that the text was not in existence in some form before the second century." They also note that a Chinese translation of the text by An Shigao (fl. mid-second century CE)
3973-450: Is the best in terms of ligatures but, because it is designed for Vedic as well, requires so much vertical space that it is not well suited for the "user interface font" (though an excellent choice for the "original field" font). Santipur OT is a beautiful font reflecting a very early [medieval era] typesetting style for Devanagari. Sanskrit 2003 is a good all-around font and has more ligatures than most fonts, though students will probably find
4110-467: Is the fourth most widely adopted writing system in the world, being used for over 120 languages. The orthography of this script reflects the pronunciation of the language. Unlike the Latin alphabet, the script has no concept of letter case . It is written from left to right, has a strong preference for symmetrical rounded shapes within squared outlines, and is recognisable by a horizontal line, known as
4247-671: Is the standard keyboard layout for Devanāgarī as standardized by the Government of India. It is inbuilt in all modern major operating systems . Microsoft Windows supports the InScript layout, which can be used to input unicode Devanāgarī characters. InScript is also available in some touchscreen mobile phones. This layout was used on manual typewriters when computers were not available or were uncommon. For backward compatibility some typing tools like Indic IME still provide this layout. Such tools work on phonetic transliteration. The user writes in
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4384-460: Is used for writing languages other than Sanskrit, conjuncts are used mostly with Sanskrit words and loan words. Native words typically use the basic consonant and native speakers know to suppress the vowel when it is conventional to do so. For example, the native Hindi word karnā is written करना ( ka-ra-nā ). The government of these clusters ranges from widely to narrowly applicable rules, with special exceptions within. While standardised for
4521-474: Is vast, with many different textual collections in different languages (such as Sanskrit , Pali , Tibetan , and Chinese ). Buddhist schools vary in their interpretation of the paths to liberation ( mārga ) as well as the relative importance and "canonicity" assigned to various Buddhist texts , and their specific teachings and practices. Two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars: Theravāda ( lit. ' School of
4658-485: Is visible in the Kutila inscription of Bareilly dated to VS 1049 (992 CE), which demonstrates the emergence of the horizontal bar to group letters belonging to a word. One of the oldest surviving Sanskrit texts from the early post- Maurya period consists of 1,413 Nāgarī pages of a commentary by Patanjali , with a composition date of about 150 BCE, the surviving copy transcribed about 14th century CE. In
4795-446: Is wanting in more than one respect. It is, unfortunately, at its best a conflation of manuscripts, at its worst a reconstruction from the Tibetan." They also note that a more recent edition by P. L. Vaidya (1961) is "equally problematic" since it is "essentially a copy of Dutt's edition" with some modifications by the author. They finally add that "a more rigorous task has been accomplished by Seiren Matsunami." The King of Samādhis Sūtra
4932-531: Is written in mixed prose and verse. Gomez and Silk outline the main stylistic form of the sutra's chapters (this analysis uses the long version found in the Tibetan translation and some Sanskrit mss) as follows: The King of Samādhis Sūtra claims its main theme is a samādhi (which is the "King of Samādhis") that is the key to all virtues of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas and is thus "the single dharma [ekadharmena] that summarizes all teachings and practices". This samādhi
5069-749: The Siddhaṃ matrika script (considered as the closest precursor to Nāgarī) was in use by Buddhists . Nāgarī has been the primus inter pares of the Indic scripts. It has long been used traditionally by religiously educated people in South Asia to record and transmit information, existing throughout the land in parallel with a wide variety of local scripts (such as Moḍī , Kaithi , and Mahajani ) used for administration, commerce, and other daily uses. Sharada remained in parallel use in Kashmir . An early version of Devanāgarī
5206-483: The bārākhaḍī ( बाराखडी ) or bārahkhaṛī ( बारहखड़ी ) table. In the following barakhadi table, the IAST transliteration of each combination will appear on mouseover: The following letter variants are also in use, particularly in older texts and in specific regions: As mentioned, successive consonants lacking a vowel in between them may physically join as a conjunct consonant or ligature . When Devanāgarī
5343-654: The Dharma of the Buddha , fójiào in Chinese, bukkyō in Japanese, nang pa sangs rgyas pa'i chos in Tibetan, buddhadharma in Sanskrit, buddhaśāsana in Pali. Devanagari Devanagari ( / ˌ d eɪ v ə ˈ n ɑː ɡ ə r i / DAY -və- NAH -gə-ree ; देवनागरी , IAST : Devanāgarī , Sanskrit pronunciation: [deːʋɐˈnaːɡɐriː] ) is an Indic script used in
5480-809: The Dharmaguptaka school. The Islamic conquest of the Iranian Plateau in the 7th-century, followed by the Muslim conquests of Afghanistan and the later establishment of the Ghaznavid kingdom with Islam as the state religion in Central Asia between the 10th- and 12th-century led to the decline and disappearance of Buddhism from most of these regions. The origins of Mahāyāna ("Great Vehicle") Buddhism are not well understood and there are various competing theories about how and where this movement arose. Theories include
5617-498: The Government of India . A standard transliteration convention was codified in the ISO 15919 standard of 2001. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brāhmic graphemes to the Latin script. The Devanāgarī-specific portion is nearly identical to the academic standard for Sanskrit, IAST . The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is the academic standard for
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5754-582: The Indian subcontinent . Also simply called Nāgari ( Sanskrit : नागरि , Nāgari ), it is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system ), based on the ancient Brāhmi script. It is one of the official scripts of the Republic of India and Nepal . It was developed and in regular use by the 8th century CE and achieved its modern form by 1000 CE. The Devanāgari script, composed of 48 primary characters, including 14 vowels and 34 consonants,
5891-628: The King of Samadhis Sutra ." These are: The King of Samadhis was translated into Chinese by Narendrayaśas (517–589), an Indian monk from Orissa , who titled it The Sūtra of the Samādhi of the Lamp of the Moon (月燈三昧經, Taishō 639). Two other Chinese translations include an alternative version of the equivalent of the sixth fascicle by Xiangong (逮慧三昧經, The Attainment of Wisdom Samādhi Sūtra ) and an alternative translation of
6028-668: The King of Samādhis Sūtra was studied by the Kadampa school of Atiśa (980–1054), for whom it was an important source. One of his students, Nagtsho Lotsawa, translated the commentary to this sutra, the Kīrtimālā ( The Garland of Fame ), by the Indian Mañjuśrīkīrti. The Samādhirāja is often cited as an important source for śamatha instructions by the Kagyu tradition, particularly via commentary by Gampopa , although Andrew Skilton notes that
6165-673: The Milindapanha version, expressing doubts whether Menander was Buddhist or just favourably disposed to Buddhist monks. The Kushan empire (30–375 CE) came to control the Silk Road trade through Central and South Asia, which brought them to interact with Gandharan Buddhism and the Buddhist institutions of these regions. The Kushans patronised Buddhism throughout their lands, and many Buddhist centres were built or renovated (the Sarvastivada school
6302-465: The Pali canon . The history of Indian Buddhism may be divided into five periods: Early Buddhism (occasionally called pre-sectarian Buddhism ), Nikaya Buddhism or Sectarian Buddhism (the period of the early Buddhist schools), Early Mahayana Buddhism , Late Mahayana, and the era of Vajrayana or the "Tantric Age". According to Lambert Schmithausen Pre-sectarian Buddhism is "the canonical period prior to
6439-589: The Samādhirāja are known, one of which is Manjushrikirti 's Kīrtimala ( Garland of Fame, Toh 4010; P 5511). Chandragomin (c. 5th to 7th-century CE) also wrote a commentary, which has not survived. The Samādhirāja remained a popular source in the Tantric Age , and it is cited in numerous Buddhist tantric works, some of which also promote its recitation. Roberts writes that "the Maṇḍala Rite of Cakrasamvara says that four sūtras should be recited, one in each of
6576-659: The Tarim Basin . The first documented Buddhist texts translated into Chinese are those of the Parthian An Shigao (148–180 CE). The first known Mahāyāna scriptural texts are translations into Chinese by the Kushan monk Lokakṣema in Luoyang , between 178 and 189 CE. From China, Buddhism was introduced into its neighbours Korea (4th century), Japan (6th–7th centuries), and Vietnam ( c. 1st –2nd centuries). During
6713-555: The Theravada tradition had not established any deities, but were epistemologically cautious rather than directly atheist . Later Buddhist traditions were more influenced by the critique of deities within Hinduism and therefore more committed to a strongly atheist stance. These developments were historic and epistemological as documented in verses from Śāntideva 's Bodhicaryāvatāra , and supplemented by reference to suttas and jātakas from
6850-683: The colon , semicolon , exclamation mark , dash , and question mark have been in use in Devanāgarī script since at least the 1900s, matching their use in European languages. A variety of Unicode fonts are in use for Devanāgarī. These include Akshar, Annapurna, Arial , CDAC-Gist Surekh, CDAC-Gist Yogesh, Chandas, Gargi, Gurumaa, Jaipur, Jana, Kalimati, Kanjirowa, Lohit Devanagari, Mangal, Kokila, ,Preeti, Raghu, Sanskrit2003, Santipur OT, Siddhanta, and Thyaka. The form of Devanāgarī fonts vary with function. According to Harvard College for Sanskrit studies: Uttara [companion to Chandas ]
6987-533: The epistemological tradition of Dignaga and Dharmakirti . According to Dan Lusthaus , Mādhyamaka and Yogācāra have a great deal in common, and the commonality stems from early Buddhism. During the Gupta period (4th–6th centuries) and the empire of Harṣavardana ( c. 590 –647 CE), Buddhism continued to be influential in India, and large Buddhist learning institutions such as Nalanda and Valabahi Universities were at their peak. Buddhism also flourished under
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#17328524104837124-584: The Śramaṇa traditions. New ideas developed both in the Vedic tradition in the form of the Upanishads, and outside of the Vedic tradition through the Śramaṇa movements. The term Śramaṇa refers to several Indian religious movements parallel to but separate from the historical Vedic religion , including Buddhism, Jainism and others such as Ājīvika . Several Śramaṇa movements are known to have existed in India before
7261-504: The 1200s. The Silk Road transmission of Buddhism to China is most commonly thought to have started in the late 2nd or the 1st century CE, though the literary sources are all open to question. The first documented translation efforts by foreign Buddhist monks in China were in the 2nd century CE, probably as a consequence of the expansion of the Kushan Empire into the Chinese territory of
7398-556: The 6th century BCE (pre-Buddha, pre- Mahavira ), and these influenced both the āstika and nāstika traditions of Indian philosophy . According to Martin Wilshire, the Śramaṇa tradition evolved in India over two phases, namely Paccekabuddha and Savaka phases, the former being the tradition of individual ascetic and the latter of disciples, and that Buddhism and Jainism ultimately emerged from these. Brahmanical and non-Brahmanical ascetic groups shared and used several similar ideas, but
7535-699: The 7th century, under the rule of Songtsen Gampo of the Tibetan Empire , Thonmi Sambhota was sent to Nepal to open marriage negotiations with a Nepali princess and to find a writing system suitable for the Tibetan language. He then invented the Tibetan script based on the Nāgarī used in Kashmir. He added 6 new characters for sounds that did not exist in Sanskrit. Other scripts closely related to Nāgarī (such as Siddhaṃ ) were introduced throughout East and Southeast Asia from
7672-603: The 7th to the 10th centuries CE: notably in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Japan. Most of the Southeast Asian scripts have roots in Dravidian scripts, but a few found in south-central regions of Java and isolated parts of southeast Asia resemble Devanāgarī or its prototypes. The Kawi script in particular is similar to the Devanāgarī in many respects, though the morphology of the script has local changes. The earliest inscriptions in
7809-422: The 9th century copper plate inscription of Devapaladeva (Bengal) which is also in early Devanāgarī script. The term kawi in Kawi script is a loan word from kāvya (poetry). According to anthropologists and Asian studies scholars John Norman Miksic and Goh Geok Yian, the 8th century version of early Nāgarī or Devanāgarī script was adopted in Java, Bali , and Khmer around the 8th–9th centuries, as evidenced by
7946-501: The Bhairava Vidyapitha tantras. Ronald M. Davidson meanwhile, argues that Sanderson's claims for direct influence from Shaiva Vidyapitha texts are problematic because "the chronology of the Vidyapitha tantras is by no means so well established" and that the Shaiva tradition also appropriated non-Hindu deities, texts and traditions. Thus while "there can be no question that the Buddhist tantras were heavily influenced by Kapalika and other Saiva movements" argues Davidson, "the influence
8083-435: The Buddha advised meditation practices and ethical precepts rooted in non-harming . Widely observed teachings include the Four Noble Truths , the Noble Eightfold Path , and the doctrines of dependent origination , karma , and the three marks of existence . Other commonly observed elements include the Triple Gem , the taking of monastic vows , and the cultivation of perfections ( pāramitā ). The Buddhist canon
8220-484: The Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term "the middle way". In time, this short description was elaborated, resulting in the description of the eightfold path. According to numerous Buddhist scriptures, soon after the parinirvāṇa (from Sanskrit: "highest extinguishment") of Gautama Buddha, the first Buddhist council was held to collectively recite the teachings to ensure that no errors occurred in oral transmission. Many modern scholars question
8357-403: The Chinese Tang dynasty (618–907), Chinese Esoteric Buddhism was introduced from India and Chan Buddhism (Zen) became a major religion. Chan continued to grow in the Song dynasty (960–1279) and it was during this era that it strongly influenced Korean Buddhism and Japanese Buddhism. Pure Land Buddhism also became popular during this period and was often practised together with Chan. It
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#17328524104838494-458: The Devanāgarī-like scripts are from around the 10th century CE, with many more between the 11th and 14th centuries. Some of the old-Devanāgarī inscriptions are found in Hindu temples of Java, such as the Prambanan temple. The Ligor and the Kalasan inscriptions of central Java, dated to the 8th century, are also in the Nāgarī script of north India. According to the epigraphist and Asian Studies scholar Lawrence Briggs, these may be related to
8631-495: The Elders ' ) and Mahāyāna ( lit. ' Great Vehicle ' ). The Theravada tradition emphasizes the attainment of nirvāṇa ( lit. ' extinguishing ' ) as a means of transcending the individual self and ending the cycle of death and rebirth ( saṃsāra ), while the Mahayana tradition emphasizes the Bodhisattva ideal , in which one works for the liberation of all sentient beings. Additionally, Vajrayāna ( lit. ' Indestructible Vehicle ' ),
8768-502: The Indian subcontinent before declining there ; it also had a foothold to some extent elsewhere in Asia, namely Afghanistan , Turkmenistan , Uzbekistan , and Tajikistan . The names Buddha Dharma and Bauddha Dharma come from Sanskrit : बुद्ध धर्म and बौद्ध धर्म respectively ("doctrine of the Enlightened One" and "doctrine of Buddhists"). The term Dharmavinaya comes from Sanskrit: धर्मविनय , literally meaning "doctrines [and] disciplines". The Buddha ("the Awakened One")
8905-890: The Indic language Misplaced Pages and other wikiprojects, including Hindi, Bhojpuri, Marathi, and Nepali Misplaced Pages. While some people use InScript , the majority uses either Google phonetic transliteration or the input facility Universal Language Selector provided on Misplaced Pages. On Indic language wikiprojects, the phonetic facility provided initially was java-based, and was later supported by Narayam extension for phonetic input facility. Currently Indic language Wiki projects are supported by Universal Language Selector (ULS) , that offers both phonetic keyboard (Aksharantaran, Marathi: अक्षरांतरण , Hindi: लिप्यंतरण, बोलनागरी ) and InScript keyboard (Marathi: मराठी लिपी ). The Ubuntu Linux operating system supports several keyboard layouts for Devanāgarī, including Harvard-Kyoto, WX notation , Bolanagari and phonetic. The 'remington' typing method in Ubuntu IBUS
9042-418: The Indic term samadhi. This practice of "preserving the samadhi" is said to lead to many merits, which are outlined in the sutra. Another element of this samadhi is a kind of mindfulness of the Buddha ( buddhānusmṛti ). The Buddha also explains how all phenomena are to be seen as being without essence, like a dream or a magic show, which is the "essential nature of all phenomena" ( sarva-dharma-svabhavā) . In
9179-405: The Latin alphabet and the IME automatically converts it into Devanāgarī. Some popular phonetic typing tools are Akruti, Baraha IME and Google IME . The Mac OS X operating system includes two different keyboard layouts for Devanāgarī: one resembles the INSCRIPT/KDE Linux, while the other is a phonetic layout called "Devanāgarī QWERTY". Any one of the Unicode fonts input systems is fine for
9316-503: The Perfection of Wisdom sutras, the Samādhirāja also discusses only two bodies of the Buddha, the rupa-kaya and the Dharma-kaya and does not mention the later " Trikaya " doctrine. Mark Tatz calls the sutra's thought "early Madhyamika" and "closely rooted in the Perfection of Wisdom." Gomez and Silk note that even though the Samādhirāja has been seen as a Madhyamaka school text by some scholars, "the sutra's doctrinal position cannot be described accurately as unambiguously Mādhyamika" and
9453-451: The Tathāgatas), Suvarṇaprabha (The Golden Light), and Daśabhūmika (The Ten Bhūmis) . In East Asian Buddhism , the Samādhirāja was never really very popular and is seldom quoted or commented upon . According to Gomez and Silk, "although it is questionable how much the sutra itself was read in Tibet, it is often cited in Tibetan philosophical literature, probably mostly on the basis of quotations found in Indian texts." In Tibet,
9590-416: The Theravada Majjhima Nikaya and Sarvastivada Madhyama Agama contain mostly the same major doctrines. Richard Salomon , in his study of the Gandharan texts (which are the earliest manuscripts containing early discourses), has confirmed that their teachings are "consistent with non-Mahayana Buddhism, which survives today in the Theravada school of Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, but which in ancient times
9727-402: The Tibetan translation, some Nepalese versions even contain material not found in the Tibetan. The Sanskrit versions of the sutra are mostly composed in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (BHS) or strongly influenced by BHS. A Sanskrit version of the sutra was published in Devanagari along with an English summary of the chapters in 1941 by Nalinaksha Dutt . According to Gomez and Silk, "Dutt's edition
9864-520: The Vinaya (monastic rule), and this caused a split with the conservatives who rejected this change, they were called Mahāsāṃghikas . While most scholars accept that this happened at some point, there is no agreement on the dating, especially if it dates to before or after the reign of Ashoka. Buddhism may have spread only slowly throughout India until the time of the Mauryan emperor Ashoka (304–232 BCE), who
10001-651: The above ASCII schemes is case-sensitivity, implying that transliterated names may not be capitalised. This difficulty is avoided with the system developed in 1996 by Frans Velthuis for TeX , loosely based on IAST, in which case is irrelevant. ALA-LC romanisation is a transliteration scheme approved by the Library of Congress and the American Library Association, and widely used in North American libraries. Transliteration tables are based on languages, so there
10138-573: The adoption of Nāgarī scripts. For example, the mid 8th-century Pattadakal pillar in Karnataka has text in both Siddha Matrika script, and an early Telugu-Kannada script; while, the Kangra Jawalamukhi inscription in Himachal Pradesh is written in both Sharada and Devanāgarī scripts. The Nāgarī script was in regular use by the 7th century CE, and it was fully developed by about
10275-458: The age of 80 in Kushinagar , India. The Buddha's teachings were propagated by his followers, which in the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE became various Buddhist schools of thought , each with its own basket of texts containing different interpretations and authentic teachings of the Buddha; these over time evolved into many traditions of which the more well known and widespread in
10412-759: The ancient religion Jainism , is also claimed to be ksatriya by his early followers. ) According to early texts such as the Pali Ariyapariyesanā-sutta ("The discourse on the noble quest", MN 26) and its Chinese parallel at MĀ 204, Gautama was moved by the suffering ( dukkha ) of life and death, and its endless repetition due to rebirth . He thus set out on a quest to find liberation from suffering (also known as " nirvana "). Early texts and biographies state that Gautama first studied under two teachers of meditation, namely Āḷāra Kālāma (Sanskrit: Arada Kalama) and Uddaka Ramaputta (Sanskrit: Udraka Ramaputra), learning meditation and philosophy, particularly
10549-451: The bases of consciousness", "withdrawal from the sense-fields ," "abandonment of craving," "direct realization of non-arising," " friendliness ," "sweetness," good conduct, lack of aversion and attachment, knowledge of the Truths, the teaching, the analytical knowledges, knowledge of "the divisions of words and syllables," and so on. Skilton argues that the list is explicitly introduced as being
10686-660: The buddhas, as many as there are, Have abundantly explained phenomena. But if those skilled in meaning Were to study only the phrase: All things are emptiness The doctrine of the Buddha would not be scarce. Constantin Regamey translates a passage from the Samadhiraja Sutra discussing the Dharmakaya : ...the Body of the Tathagata [i.e. Buddha] should be defined as … having its essence identical with Space, invisible, surpassing
10823-616: The bulk of the sutra contains various passages on other ancillary topics like " buddhānusmṛti , the nature and virtues of a buddha, a buddha's body, the nature of his speech and silence, his realization of emptiness" as well as the six perfections and the precepts . They also note that "one should not underestimate the importance of the narrative sections, both as fine examples of Buddhist literature and as doctrinal statements." Peter Alan Roberts writes that this sutra "contains teachings on emptiness , bodhisattva conduct, and mendicancy , as well as tales of previous lifetimes and prophecies for
10960-467: The development of different schools with their different positions". The early Buddhist Texts include the four principal Pali Nikāyas (and their parallel Agamas found in the Chinese canon) together with the main body of monastic rules, which survive in the various versions of the patimokkha . However, these texts were revised over time, and it is unclear what constitutes the earliest layer of Buddhist teachings. One method to obtain information on
11097-618: The earliest Mahāyāna sūtras to include the first versions of the Prajnaparamita series, along with texts concerning Akṣobhya , which were probably composed in the 1st century BCE in the south of India. There is no evidence that Mahāyāna ever referred to a separate formal school or sect of Buddhism, with a separate monastic code (Vinaya), but rather that it existed as a certain set of ideals, and later doctrines, for bodhisattvas. Records written by Chinese monks visiting India indicate that both Mahāyāna and non-Mahāyāna monks could be found in
11234-606: The earliest epigraphic evidence attesting to the developing Sanskrit Nāgarī script in ancient India is from the 1st to 4th century CE inscriptions discovered in Gujarat . Variants of script called nāgarī , recognisably close to Devanāgarī, are first attested from the 1st century CE Rudradaman inscriptions in Sanskrit, while the modern standardised form of Devanāgarī was in use by about 1000 CE. Medieval inscriptions suggest widespread diffusion of Nāgarī-related scripts, with biscripts presenting local script along with
11371-708: The early texts, which has led most scholars to conclude that Gautama Buddha must have taught something similar to the Four Noble Truths , the Noble Eightfold Path , Nirvana , the three marks of existence , the five aggregates , dependent origination , karma and rebirth . According to N. Ross Reat, all of these doctrines are shared by the Theravada Pali texts and the Mahasamghika school's Śālistamba Sūtra . A recent study by Bhikkhu Analayo concludes that
11508-684: The end of first millennium. The use of Sanskrit in Nāgarī script in medieval India is attested by numerous pillar and cave-temple inscriptions, including the 11th-century Udayagiri inscriptions in Madhya Pradesh , and an inscribed brick found in Uttar Pradesh , dated to be from 1217 CE, which is now held at the British Museum . The script's prototypes and related versions have been discovered with ancient relics outside India, in places such as Sri Lanka , Myanmar and Indonesia . In East Asia,
11645-500: The ending of the mental defilements ( asavas ), the ending of suffering, and the end of rebirth in saṃsāra . This event also brought certainty about the Middle Way as the right path of spiritual practice to end suffering. As a fully enlightened Buddha , he attracted followers and founded a Sangha (monastic order). He spent the rest of his life teaching the Dharma he had discovered, and then died, achieving " final nirvana ", at
11782-423: The equivalent of the seventh fascicle by Xiangong (文殊師利菩薩十事行經, The Ten Practices of Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva Sūtra ). Fragments from three Central Asian Sanskrit manuscripts of the sutra have been found. They date to the fifth or sixth centuries. A Tibetan translation was made in the ninth century by Śīlendrabodhi and Chönyi Tsultrim (Dharmatāśīla). This Tibetan version is longer than the earlier Chinese translation and
11919-627: The four main directions around the maṇḍala . The sūtras are the Prajñāparāmitā (Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Verses); Gaṇḍavyūha (Array of Trees), which is the last chapter of the Avataṃsaka ; Laṅkāvātara (Entry into Laṅka); and Samādhirāja (King of Samādhis) . Similarly, the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa teaches the recitation of the Samādhirāja for two ritual occasions: for
12056-428: The future." Roberts writes that the Samādhirāja emphasizes Buddhist mendicancy , forest living, having few possessions and other austere Buddhist monastic practices while criticizing Buddhist monks who do not follow this lifestyle. The sutra also "likens nirvāṇa to a flame being extinguished, bringing any activity to an end." It also repeatedly emphasizes how bodhisattvas take many aeons to reach Buddhahood . Like
12193-493: The historicity of this event. However, Richard Gombrich states that the monastic assembly recitations of the Buddha's teaching likely began during Buddha's lifetime, and they served a similar role of codifying the teachings. The so called Second Buddhist council resulted in the first schism in the Sangha . Modern scholars believe that this was probably caused when a group of reformists called Sthaviras ("elders") sought to modify
12330-434: The idea that it began as various groups venerating certain texts or that it arose as a strict forest ascetic movement. The first Mahāyāna works were written sometime between the 1st century BCE and the 2nd century CE. Much of the early extant evidence for the origins of Mahāyāna comes from early Chinese translations of Mahāyāna texts, mainly those of Lokakṣema . (2nd century CE). Some scholars have traditionally considered
12467-518: The keyboard. This makes typing in Harvard-Kyoto much easier than IAST. Harvard-Kyoto uses capital letters that can be difficult to read in the middle of words. ITRANS is a lossless transliteration scheme of Devanāgarī into ASCII that is widely used on Usenet . It is an extension of the Harvard-Kyoto scheme. In ITRANS, the word devanāgarī is written "devanaagarii" or "devanAgarI". ITRANS
12604-610: The maintenance of a political state during succession and wars to resist invasion. During the Middle Ages, Buddhism slowly declined in India, while it vanished from Persia and Central Asia as Islam became the state religion. The Theravada school arrived in Sri Lanka sometime in the 3rd century BCE. Sri Lanka became a base for its later spread to Southeast Asia after the 5th century CE ( Myanmar , Malaysia , Indonesia , Thailand , Cambodia and coastal Vietnam ). Theravada Buddhism
12741-399: The many contemporaneous inscriptions of this period. The letter order of Devanāgarī, like nearly all Brāhmic scripts, is based on phonetic principles that consider both the manner and place of articulation of the consonants and vowels they represent. This arrangement is usually referred to as the varṇamālā (" garland of letters"). The format of Devanāgarī for Sanskrit serves as
12878-412: The meditative attainment of "the sphere of nothingness" from the former, and "the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception" from the latter. Finding these teachings to be insufficient to attain his goal, he turned to the practice of severe asceticism , which included a strict fasting regime and various forms of breath control . This too fell short of attaining his goal, and then he turned to
13015-573: The meditative practice of dhyana . He famously sat in meditation under a Ficus religiosa tree—now called the Bodhi Tree —in the town of Bodh Gaya and attained "Awakening" ( Bodhi ). According to various early texts like the Mahāsaccaka-sutta, and the Samaññaphala Sutta , on awakening, the Buddha gained insight into the workings of karma and his former lives, as well as achieving
13152-478: The modern era are Theravada , Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Historically, the roots of Buddhism lie in the religious thought of Iron Age India around the middle of the first millennium BCE. This was a period of great intellectual ferment and socio-cultural change known as the "Second urbanisation" , marked by the growth of towns and trade, the composition of the Upanishads and the historical emergence of
13289-653: The most important of the Madhyamaka sutras after the Perfection of Wisdom sutras. Roberts also writes that "the sūtra is also much quoted in the best known commentarial works of the great scholars of all traditions, including several of the early Sakya masters, Longchenpa , Minling Terchen, and Drikung Chökyi Trakpa, as well as those of later authors like Jamgön Kongtrul , Mipham , Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo , and Jigme Tenpai Nyima." Buton cites it numerous times in his History of Buddhism ( chos ' byung ). The following list contains English translations of various chapters of
13426-522: The most part, there are certain variations in clustering, of which the Unicode used on this page is just one scheme. The following are a number of rules: The pitch accent of Vedic Sanskrit is written with various symbols depending on shakha . In the Rigveda , anudātta is written with a bar below the line ( ◌॒ ), svarita with a stroke above the line ( ◌॑ ) while udātta is unmarked. The end of
13563-596: The oldest core of Buddhism is to compare the oldest extant versions of the Theravadin Pāli Canon and other texts. The reliability of the early sources, and the possibility to draw out a core of oldest teachings, is a matter of dispute. According to Vetter, inconsistencies remain, and other methods must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies. According to Schmithausen, three positions held by scholars of Buddhism can be distinguished: According to Mitchell, certain basic teachings appear in many places throughout
13700-627: The origins of early Vajrayana has been taken up by various scholars. David Seyfort Ruegg has suggested that Buddhist tantra employed various elements of a "pan-Indian religious substrate" which is not specifically Buddhist, Shaiva or Vaishnava. According to Indologist Alexis Sanderson , various classes of Vajrayana literature developed as a result of royal courts sponsoring both Buddhism and Saivism . Sanderson has argued that Buddhist tantras can be shown to have borrowed practices, terms, rituals and more form Shaiva tantras. He argues that Buddhist texts even directly copied various Shaiva tantras, especially
13837-639: The precise dates are uncertain, although the 5th century BCE seems to be the best estimate. Early texts have the Buddha's family name as "Gautama" (Pali: Gotama), while some texts give Siddhartha as his surname. He was born in Lumbini , present-day Nepal and grew up in Kapilavastu , a town in the Ganges Plain , near the modern Nepal–India border, and he spent his life in what is now modern Bihar and Uttar Pradesh . Some hagiographic legends state that his father
13974-619: The prototype for its application, with minor variations or additions, to other languages. The vowels and their arrangement are: The table below shows the consonant letters (in combination with inherent vowel a ) and their arrangement. To the right of the Devanāgarī letter it shows the Latin script transliteration using International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration , and the phonetic value ( IPA ) in Hindi . The table below shows consonants with common vowel diacritics and their ISO 15919 transliteration. Vowels in their independent form on
14111-567: The range of vision – thus is the Absolute Body to be conceived. Inconceivable, surpassing the sphere of thought, not oscillating between bliss and suffering, surpassing the illusory differentiation, placeless, surpassing the voice of those aspiring to the Knowledge of Buddhi, essential, surpassing passions, indivisible, surpassing hatred, steadfast, surpassing infatuation, explained by the indications of emptiness, unborn, surpassing birth, eternal from
14248-424: The recommendation found throughout the sutra to read, recite and learn this samadhi indicate how important this list of terms was for the authors of the sutra. After listing the various qualities or descriptions of the samadhi, the Buddha urges Candraprabha to practice and "preserve the samadhi" which refers to preserving the text in memory or in written form as well as a variety of spiritual exercises associated with
14385-497: The romanisation of Sanskrit. IAST is the de facto standard used in printed publications, like books, magazines, and electronic texts with Unicode fonts. It is based on a standard established by the Congress of Orientalists at Athens in 1912. The ISO 15919 standard of 2001 codified the transliteration convention to include an expanded standard for sister scripts of Devanāgarī. The National Library at Kolkata romanisation , intended for
14522-400: The romanisation of all Indic scripts, is an extension of IAST. Compared to IAST, Harvard-Kyoto looks much simpler. It does not contain all the diacritic marks that IAST contains. It was designed to simplify the task of putting large amount of Sanskrit textual material into machine readable form, and the inventors stated that it reduces the effort needed in transliteration of Sanskrit texts on
14659-402: The samadhi itself, while the Chinese translations suggests that they are aspects or benefits of the samadhi. According to Skilton, the sutra uses the term "samadhi" here to refer to the list of terms itself and he argues that this usage is also found in other Mahayana texts. He also lists various passages from the sutra which speak of "hearing", "memorizing", "reciting," and "holding in one's hand"
14796-500: The samadhi taught in this sutra. Skilton argues that these passages show that the term samadhi must be referring to a text (i.e. the list of over 300 items). Gomez and Silk meanwhile write that the list contains "the virtues or extraordinary qualities" and "the merits and powers" of the samadhi, which they describe as a deep meditative state (which is the typical meaning of the term samadhi in Indian Buddhism). They also write that "it
14933-402: The same monasteries, with the difference that Mahāyāna monks worshipped figures of Bodhisattvas, while non-Mahayana monks did not. Mahāyāna initially seems to have remained a small minority movement that was in tension with other Buddhist groups, struggling for wider acceptance. However, during the fifth and sixth centuries CE, there seems to have been a rapid growth of Mahāyāna Buddhism, which
15070-593: The schisms, each Saṅgha started to accumulate their own version of Tripiṭaka (triple basket of texts). In their Tripiṭaka, each school included the Suttas of the Buddha, a Vinaya basket (disciplinary code) and some schools also added an Abhidharma basket which were texts on detailed scholastic classification, summary and interpretation of the Suttas. The doctrine details in the Abhidharmas of various Buddhist schools differ significantly, and these were composed starting about
15207-467: The society he grew up in may have been invented and interpolated at a later time into the Buddhist texts. Various details about the Buddha's background are contested in modern scholarship. For example, Buddhist texts assert that Buddha described himself as a kshatriya (warrior class), but Gombrich writes that little is known about his father and there is no proof that his father even knew the term kshatriya . ( Mahavira , whose teachings helped establish
15344-599: The spacing of the CDAC-Gist Surekh font makes for quicker comprehension and reading. The Google Fonts project has a number of Unicode fonts for Devanāgarī in a variety of typefaces in serif, sans-serif, display and handwriting categories. There are several methods of Romanisation or transliteration from Devanāgarī to the Roman script . The Hunterian system is the national system of romanisation in India , officially adopted by
15481-493: The standpoint of common experience, undifferentiated in the aspect of Nirvana, described in words as ineffable, quiescent in voice, homogenous with regard to conventional Truth, conventional with regard to the Absolute Truth – Absolute according to the true teaching. Buddhist Buddhism ( / ˈ b ʊ d ɪ z əm / BUUD -ih-zəm , US also / ˈ b uː d -/ BOOD - ), also known as Buddha Dharma ,
15618-465: The state of possessing subtle speech, the state of being free from the entire threefold world system, acceptance in conformity with emptiness in respect of all dharmas,, a state of intense desire for the knowledge of the All Knowing; the term samadhi is being used thus, young man. Correct and not incorrect practice (avi/pratipatti) in respect of such items (dharmas) as these—it is this, young man, for which
15755-639: The support of the Pāla Empire (8th–12th centuries). Under the Guptas and Palas, Tantric Buddhism or Vajrayana developed and rose to prominence. It promoted new practices such as the use of mantras , dharanis , mudras , mandalas and the visualization of deities and Buddhas and developed a new class of literature, the Buddhist Tantras . This new esoteric form of Buddhism can be traced back to groups of wandering yogi magicians called mahasiddhas . The question of
15892-474: The sutra (and one full translation). Dudjom Rinpoche (1904–1987), a prominent Nyingma lama, quotes the following passage from the Samādhirāja Sūtra : In thousands of world systems The sūtras which I have explained Differ in words and syllables but have the same meaning. It is impossible to express them all, But if one meditates deeply on a single word, One comes to meditate on them all. All
16029-419: The sutra twenty times in his Śikṣasamuccaya. The sutra is also cited by Śāntarakṣita in his Madhyamakālaṃkāra , by Kamalaśīla in his Bhāvanākrama ( Stages of Meditation ), by Prajñākaramati in his Bodhisattvacaryāvatārapañjikā (A Commentary on Śāntideva 's Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra ) as well as by Atiśa Dīpankara , Vimalamitra , and Jñānaśrīmitra (fl. 975-1025 C.E.) . Two Indian commentaries on
16166-425: The sutra. The sutra begins at Vulture Peak , where the main bodhisattva in this sutra, Candraprabha, asks the Buddha how to acquire certain important qualities of the Buddhas. The Buddha replies that there is "one single dharma" which leads to these virtues. The Buddha first describes the samadhi called "the elaboration of the sameness in their essence of all phenomena" through the following short statement: "his mind
16303-612: The sūtra itself does not contain much meditation instruction. It is asserted in the Kagyu tradition that the Samādhirājasūtra predicted the dharma activity of Gampopa and the Karmapas . The modern Kagyu lama, Thrangu Rinpoche , has published an extensive commentary on this sutra. The Samādhirāja is also widely cited by Gelug authors. Tsongkhapa quotes the sūtra thirteen times in his Lamrim Chenmo . His student Khedrup Jé also cites it widely in his works. Khedrup sees this sutra as
16440-446: The term samadhi is used. While the sutra claims to be about samādhi, it does not only focus on this topic or on meditation in general. Rather, the sutra covers numerous topics and also contains many long narrative passages ( avadanas ) related to the Buddha's past lives which illustrate different teachings. Interspersed with these narratives are verse teachings given by past Buddhas, some of which are widely celebrated and quoted verses on
16577-680: The third century BCE and through the 1st millennium CE. According to the edicts of Aśoka , the Mauryan emperor sent emissaries to various countries west of India to spread "Dharma", particularly in eastern provinces of the neighbouring Seleucid Empire , and even farther to Hellenistic kingdoms of the Mediterranean. It is a matter of disagreement among scholars whether or not these emissaries were accompanied by Buddhist missionaries. In central and west Asia, Buddhist influence grew, through Greek-speaking Buddhist monarchs and ancient Asian trade routes,
16714-509: The three Vedic sacrificial fires, reinterpreting and explaining them as ethical conduct. The Śramaṇa religions challenged and broke with the Brahmanic tradition on core assumptions such as Atman (soul, self), Brahman , the nature of afterlife, and they rejected the authority of the Vedas and Upanishads . Buddhism was one among several Indian religions that did so. Early Buddhist positions in
16851-449: The top and in their corresponding dependent form (vowel sign) combined with the consonant ' k ' on the bottom. ' ka ' is without any added vowel sign, where the vowel ' a ' is inherent . A vowel combines with a consonant in their diacritic form. For example, the vowel आ ( ā ) combines with the consonant क् ( k ) to form the syllabic letter का ( kā ), with halant (cancel sign) removed and added vowel sign which
16988-473: The ultimate nature of phenomena. The Samādhirāja contains a broad and eclectic range of teachings and ideas and so it is hard to place it in a single category. According to Gomez and Silk, the sutra "makes room for more than one dimension of Buddhist religion: meditation , worship of the Buddhas, the cult of the Book, philosophical speculation, rehearsal of myth (in avadanā style) and so on." They also write that
17125-642: The upper 128 codepoints are ISCII-specific. It has been designed for representing not only Devanāgarī but also various other Indic scripts as well as a Latin-based script with diacritic marks used for transliteration of the Indic scripts. ISCII has largely been superseded by Unicode, which has, however, attempted to preserve the ISCII layout for its Indic language blocks. The Unicode Standard defines four blocks for Devanāgarī: Devanagari (U+0900–U+097F), Devanagari Extended (U+A8E0–U+A8FF), Devanagari Extended-A (U+11B00–11B5F), and Vedic Extensions (U+1CD0–U+1CFF). InScript
17262-563: The Śramaṇa traditions also drew upon already established Brahmanical concepts and philosophical roots, states Wiltshire, to formulate their own doctrines. Brahmanical motifs can be found in the oldest Buddhist texts, using them to introduce and explain Buddhist ideas. For example, prior to Buddhist developments, the Brahmanical tradition internalised and variously reinterpreted the three Vedic sacrificial fires as concepts such as Truth, Rite, Tranquility or Restraint. Buddhist texts also refer to
17399-595: Was a Śramaṇa who lived in South Asia c. 6th or 5th century BCE. Followers of Buddhism, called Buddhists in English, referred to themselves as Sakyan -s or Sakyabhiksu in ancient India. Buddhist scholar Donald S. Lopez asserts they also used the term Bauddha , although scholar Richard Cohen asserts that that term was used only by outsiders to describe Buddhists. Details of the Buddha's life are mentioned in many Early Buddhist Texts but are inconsistent. His social background and life details are difficult to prove, and
17536-468: Was a king named Suddhodana , his mother was Queen Maya. Scholars such as Richard Gombrich consider this a dubious claim because a combination of evidence suggests he was born in the Shakya community, which was governed by a small oligarchy or republic-like council where there were no ranks but where seniority mattered instead. Some of the stories about the Buddha, his life, his teachings, and claims about
17673-615: Was a public supporter of the religion. The support of Aśoka and his descendants led to the construction of more stūpas (such as at Sanchi and Bharhut ), temples (such as the Mahabodhi Temple ) and to its spread throughout the Maurya Empire and into neighbouring lands such as Central Asia and to the island of Sri Lanka . During and after the Mauryan period (322–180 BCE), the Sthavira community gave rise to several schools, one of which
17810-540: Was also during the Song that the entire Chinese canon was printed using over 130,000 wooden printing blocks. During the Indian period of Esoteric Buddhism (from the 8th century onwards), Buddhism spread from India to Tibet and Mongolia . Johannes Bronkhorst states that the esoteric form was attractive because it allowed both a secluded monastic community as well as the social rites and rituals important to laypersons and to kings for
17947-905: Was apparently mutual". Already during this later era, Buddhism was losing state support in other regions of India, including the lands of the Karkotas , the Pratiharas , the Rashtrakutas , the Pandyas and the Pallavas . This loss of support in favor of Hindu faiths like Vaishnavism and Shaivism , is the beginning of the long and complex period of the Decline of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent . The Islamic invasions and conquest of India (10th to 12th century), further damaged and destroyed many Buddhist institutions, leading to its eventual near disappearance from India by
18084-727: Was composed by the Indian Manjushrikirti and this survives in Tibetan. The text is commonly known as the King of Samadhis Sutra ( Samādhirājasūtra , Tib. ting nge 'dzin gyi rgyal po'i mdo ), and it is also known as the Moon Lamp Sutra (Skt. Candrapradīpa Sutra , Tib. zla ba sgron me’i mdo ) after the main bodhisattva in this sutra. The full Tibetan title in the Kanjur is: The Chinese have preferred Yueh-teng san-mei ching , corresponding to *Candrapradīpa-samādhisūtra ( Moon Lamp Samadhi Sutra ). Peter Alan Roberts writes that "it
18221-480: Was particularly favored), especially by Emperor Kanishka (128–151 CE). Kushan support helped Buddhism to expand into a world religion through their trade routes. Buddhism spread to Khotan , the Tarim Basin , and China, eventually to other parts of the far east. Some of the earliest written documents of the Buddhist faith are the Gandharan Buddhist texts , dating from about the 1st century CE, and connected to
18358-478: Was represented by eighteen separate schools." However, some scholars argue that critical analysis reveals discrepancies among the various doctrines found in these early texts, which point to alternative possibilities for early Buddhism. The authenticity of certain teachings and doctrines have been questioned. For example, some scholars think that karma was not central to the teaching of the historical Buddha, while other disagree with this position. Likewise, there
18495-584: Was the Theravada school which tended to congregate in the south and another which was the Sarvāstivāda school, which was mainly in north India. Likewise, the Mahāsāṃghika groups also eventually split into different Sanghas. Originally, these schisms were caused by disputes over monastic disciplinary codes of various fraternities, but eventually, by about 100 CE if not earlier, schisms were being caused by doctrinal disagreements too. Following (or leading up to)
18632-635: Was the dominant religion in Burma during the Mon Hanthawaddy Kingdom (1287–1552). It also became dominant in the Khmer Empire during the 13th and 14th centuries and in the Thai Sukhothai Kingdom during the reign of Ram Khamhaeng (1237/1247–1298). The term "Buddhism" is an occidental neologism, commonly (and "rather roughly" according to Donald S. Lopez Jr. ) used as a translation for
18769-409: Was used on its own to refer to a North Indian script, or perhaps a number of such scripts, as Al-Biruni attests in the 11th century; the form Devanāgarī is attested later, at least by the 18th century. The name of the Nandināgarī script is also formed by adding a prefix to the generic script name nāgarī . The precise origin and significance of the prefix deva remains unclear. Devanāgarī
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