Buddha Buddhism
Posted in Antiques on 12/10/2010 08:51 pm by admin
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Buddha has to be dated from 1800 BC
One of the most important calculations in the history of India that has been made based on the life of a certain Indian Emperor called Ashoka, considered one of the greatest emperors in world history. It was a Buddhist emperor was responsible for the spread of Buddhism, to the far corners India and neighboring countries, by sending large numbers of Buddhist missionaries to these places. Built thousands of Buddhist stupas and many Buddhist monasteries established throughout the empire stretching from Iran to Bangladesh and Central Asia (Afghanistan) and southern India. A large number of stones and pillars, present in all its empire, have registered with their edicts and enactments of his subjects, written in Magadhi, Sanskrit, Greek and Aramaic languages. Initially it was a cruel king who killed a large number of his brothers in order to ascend the throne. He inherited a large empire and tried to expand it to wage a war against the neighboring kingdom of Kalinga. Won the war but the terrible vision of thousands of mutilated corpses in the war completely changed his heart. He felt sorry for this, he stopped his spree expanding empire, and converted to Buddhism after being attracted to the Buddhist principles of non violence and renunciation.
We have two sources to thank many of these information on Ashoka - his rock edicts and Buddhist scriptures (an Indian and two Sri Lanka). The Scriptures speak of Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty. Mainstream historians are not Ashoka aware of the Gupta dynasty. According to them, only one Ashoka - Ashoka of the Maurya dynasty, as indicated by the Buddhist scriptures. And these edicts of Ashoka mention five kings rock neighboring Greeks and Egyptians - Antiochus, Ptolemy (second), Antigonus, Magas, Alejandro (second). Since these are the kings dated to 250-300 before Christ, this has been the arrival of Ashoka (Maurya). According to Buddhist scriptures, Ashoka (Maurya) was crowned two hundred and eighteen years after the death of Buddha. This would mean that the date of the Buddha is about 500 BC. And this date fits perfectly with the date of 500 BC came through the methodology Aryan invasion. The calculations seem completely perfect and very straight forward, and mainstream historians have accepted these calculations completely during the past 200 years.
The most worrying aspect of these calculations is that there are two dates and two Ashoka Chandragupts in the history of India. And according to the writings of Megasthenes Greek traveler, the Gupta dynasty ruled India around 300 BC. And these writings has been calculated Megashtenes Puranic too. And the history of India does not speak Ashoka Chandragupts two or two of India's ruling at the same time. While traditional sources of Indians and Greeks speak of the ruling dynasty of India Ashoka Gupta around 300 BC, the leading historians have concluded that the Ashoka Maurya dynasty was ruling in India around 300 BC. So either have to detached from the writings of Megashtenes and Puranic sources completely, or we have to see if the majority of historians have the wrong date of Ashoka.
Several traditional historians are unaware of this controversy. Even if you are aware, to dismiss as a writer Megasthenes unreliable and fire to Hindu scriptures as pure mythology. Even easily shrug away the fact that other Greek accounts at the time of Megasthenes not talk much about the presence of Buddhism in India. And almost all the mainstream historians are blissfully unaware of the presence of two Ashoka in the history of India. A handful of Indian historians are aware of this puzzle, but have suggested that the Ashoka of Buddhist sources belonging to the Gupta dynasty ruled India around 300 BC. However, the Buddhist Scripture clearly talk about Emperor Ashoka to be belonging to the Maurya dynasty, completely denies the arguments of historians dealing handful few Indians to wriggle out of the dilemma. more This was the puzzle that India has pursued the historical estimates more than a century, almost like a Sherlock Holmes and the mystery of Hercules Poirot.
Does this mean that mainstream historians are completely happy and not at all embarrassed by their calculations? The answer is surprisingly no, they are still very intrigued by the most important things.
The rock edicts of Ashoka mention that Ashoka converted to Buddhism by the remorse he felt because of the war of Kalinga. However, both India and the Sri Lanka Buddhist scriptures differ with this, these scriptures do not talk anything about the war in Kalinga! Ashoka talk about becoming a serene teaching novice Buddhist monk certain Samudra / Nyagrodha.
Why are the Buddhist scriptures in silence about the war of Kalinga?
While the Scriptures speak of 84,000 monasteries established by Ashoka, the edicts are silent on this, not to mention the activities related to Buddhism by Ashoka. The Buddhist scriptures discuss missionary activities Ashokan Kashmir, Maharashtra, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Mysore, in the Himalayas West India, and the Greek nation. However, the decree speaks of medical help for their neighboring kingdoms, talk about the names of kings and dynasties around his empire as Chodas, Pandya, Satiyaputra, Kerala, Sri Lanka, and five Greek kingdoms. The Scriptures do not speak of the Dharma called Mahamatras officials in his kingdom, as professed by the edicts. There are several other discrepancies, as well as the basic details of his life.
The Ashoka of Buddhist scriptures is an exceptionally devout individual who used to prostrate at the feet of even the lay Buddhist monks. I was desperate to be known as the greatest of all donors to the faith of Buddha. Indian scriptures mention that, at the end of his life, won almost everything he had to Buddhist monasteries. He was someone who wanted to make sure that Buddhism spread throughout the world. In Bengal, a follower Mahavira was a drawing that shows an inclination of Buddha at the foot of Mahavira. Ashoka learned of this and ordered that all the followers of Mahavira in that place will be implemented - 1800 of them were killed in one day! Ruled in a similar manner on another occasion, with the promise of gold that brought the heads of the dead are not Buddhists! Ashoka and went out of his way to convert people to Buddhism as shown by some legends. He wanted his brother Veetashoka convert to Buddhism, to do this, a drama was enacted. One day, he managed to get Veetashoka ministers to sit on the throne of the emperor for a few minutes. Then, as if he was not aware of events his brother caught in the act. He declared that his brother sitting on his throne is an act of treason and ordered his brother to run. Ashoka, however, gave a once a week for the execution and allow his brother to enjoy all the real comforts for a week, as if he (Veetashoka) were the emperor. At the end of the week Ashoka called his brother and asked him if he liked the week, one of the heavenly comforts of an emperor. Veetashoka told that death hanging over his head did not allow enjoy the comforts of heaven at all. Ashoka then said, "if you are oblivious to the pleasures only because of imminent death, how bright hopes monks to be happy about the comforts of life when they have to fear the death of hundreds of lives in future births? "Veetashoka was taken by this and becomes himself a Buddhist monk.
However, the rock edicts of Ashoka gives us a completely different picture. In one of the edicts, which profess their faith in the Buddha, but is about it. There is no evidence that he conducted any missionary activity. None of his rock edicts mention anything about the teachings of the Buddha. In fact, Ashoka's rock edicts speaks of the equality of all religions! One of the edicts, state:
"Beloved of the gods, Piyadasi Rey (Ashoka) no value gifts and honors as well as the values of this - that there should be growth in the essentials of all religions. Growth in essentials can be done in different ways but all of them as his moderation in the speech of the root, that is, not praising one's religion, or condemning the religion of others without good cause. And if there is cause for criticism, it should be in a mild form. But it is better to honor other religions for this reason. Thus, the benefits of a religion, and so do other religions, while doing otherwise harms one's religion and the religions of others. Whoever praises his own religion, due to excessive devotion, and condemns others with the thought "Let me glorify my own religion," only harms his own religion. Therefore contact (between religions) is good. One must listen to and respect the doctrines professed by others. Beloved of the gods, the king Piyadasi (Ashoka), wishes that all should be well learned in the good doctrines of other religions. Those who are happy with their own religion, they should read as follows: beloved of the gods, the king Piyadasi (Ashoka), not value gifts and honors as both values growth should be the essence of all religions. And for that are working - Dhamma Mahamatras, Mahamatras by neighborhood women, the officers responsible for peripheral areas, and other such officials. And the fruit of this is that one's own religion grows and the Dhamma is illuminated also. "
Can not be explained these dichotomies, some mainstream historians have dismissed as unreliable Buddhist scriptures, but they go only by the rock edicts to image Ashoka's personality, based on the historical aspects of Buddhist scriptures. We can see how selective about the episode have been Ashokan all - who have rejected Megasthenes as a liar, who have rejected the Hindu scriptures as pure mythology, they listened to other Greek writings, and they have finally ruled out even the Buddhist scriptures! I think they have a lot of answering to do with the episode of Ashoka, although they seem to think that now that his calculations are right.
I think all the confusion has arisen because there are two emperor Ashoka, and both are Buddhists! The Ashoka of Buddhist scriptures belonging to the Maurya dynasty in 1500 BC. He was a compulsive individual, devotees of their faith, and took steps to spread their religion across the sending of missionaries and the construction of Buddhist monasteries and stupas. However, he had nothing to do with the edicts and the war of Kalinga. The Buddhist scriptures is the Ashoka Maurya. The Scriptures speak mostly about the parts within India - Kashmir Maharahtra, Mysore, Himalaya, western India. Buddhism did not spread further in India for their time - as the Bible is clearly talking about the spread Buddhism in India under the Maurya emperor Ashoka.
Ashoka's edicts belongs to the Gupta dynasty in 300 BC. It was he who was involved in the war of Kalinga. He felt remorse and later converted to Buddhism. However, for your time, and Buddhism spread all over and there was no need that the sending of missionaries. In addition, for your time, Buddhism was reeling under the attack of the Vedic religion Sankarcharya and was making a comeback. As discussed later in this discussion, Buddhism was in a state of confusion about his ideology, because of the theological attack by Shankaracharya. Buddhism was in a transition stage and did not give much scope for outreach. Therefore, the Gupta Ashoka was not hard-line religion, but was much more tolerant of all religions. And the places mentioned in his edicts are mostly its neighboring kingdoms - the edicts are not talking about places in India. The places mentioned in the edicts Chodas Pandya, Satiyaputra, Kerala and Sri Lanka in the south of his empire in southern India, and five Greek kingdoms in the northwest of the empire. Places mentioned are clearly not talking about the spread of Buddhism in India.
Ashoka The two are completely different. The confusion has arisen because the two are Buddhists, therefore stupas and edicts are assigned to a single person. If we consider that the edicts of belonging to an emperor, while the stupas and monasteries belong to another, the mystery is solved. The two have merged Ashoka one of the historians.
So if we date from 1500 BC by the Buddhist emperor Ashoka Maurya, according to Buddhist scriptures, we can easily get to the date of the Buddha. Ashoka Buddha above two hundred eighteen. So this would Buddha anywhere between 1700 BC and 1800 BC. This more or less coincides with Puranic and calculations, which put the Buddha dated to around 1800-1900 BC.
About the Author
Excepts from Prithviraj R's book on history - "19000 Years of World History: The Story of Religion" - a religious perspective of world history, taking into account the historical aspects of the major religions of the world. Prithvi's blog: http://19000years.blogspot.com.
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