Buddhism is a faith that was founded by Siddhartha Gautama (“the Buddha”) more than 2,500

years ago in India. With about 470 million followers, scholars consider Buddhism one of the

major world religions. Its practice has historically been most prominent in East and Southeast

Asia, but its influence is growing in the West.

Founder of Buddhism:

Buddhism, founded by Siddhartha Gautama (the "Buddha"), is an important religion in most of

the countries of Asia.

Siddhartha Gautama was the warrior son of a king and queen. According to legend, at his birth a

soothsayer predicted that he might become a renouncer (withdrawing from the temporal life). To

prevent this, his father provided him with many luxuries and pleasures and made sure that he

would never see the world of pain outside the palace. But even after all luxuries sidhartha was

not satisfied. He used to wonder that what is life and why we are here. Is this all there is? Then

one day he asked what lies beyond the walls of palace, for the first time he went out in the city

where he first saw the more severe forms of human suffering: old age, illness, and death (a

corpse), as well as an ascetic renouncer. First he saw an old man, wrinkled and toothless. And

man eaten up by decease coughing and sweating and covered in boils. Then he saw a funeral

procession. A dead body was being burnt and family of the dead person was crying and wailing

in the grief. On his way back to palace he saw a holy man who had nothing but seemed to be at

peace The contrast between his life and this human suffering made him realize that all the

pleasures on earth were in fact temporary, and could only mask human suffering. Leaving his

wife and son he took on several teachers and tried severe renunciation in the forest until the point

of near-starvation. Finally, realizing that this too was only adding more suffering, he ate food and

sat down beneath a tree to meditate. By morning or some say six months later or After six years
of searching, Buddhists believe Gautama found enlightenment (Nirvana) while meditating under

a Bodhi tree. He spent the rest of his life teaching others about how to achieve this spiritual state.

Now the Buddha ("the Enlightened or Awakened One") began to teach others these truths out of

compassion for their suffering. The most important doctrines he taught included the Four Noble

Truths and the Eight-Fold Path.

Buddhism History

When Gautama passed away around 483 B.C(5th century B.C). his followers began to organize a

religious movement. Buddha’s teachings became the foundation for Buddhism. They also

engaged in such practices as visiting the Buddha's birthplace; and worshipping the tree under

which he became enlightened (bodhi tree), made Buddha images in temples, and the relics of his

body were housed in various stupas or funeral mounds.

Expansion of buddhism

During its first century of existence, Buddhism spread throughout much of northern India,

including the areas of Mathura and Ujjayani in the west. By the middle of the 3rd century BCE,

Buddhism had gained the favour of a Mauryan king, Ashoka, who had established an empire that

extended from the Himalayas in the north to almost as far as Sri Lanka in the south. The first

Mauryan emperor, Chandragupta (321-297 BCE), patronized Jainism and, according to some

traditions, finally became a Jain monk. His grandson, Ashoka, who ruled over the greater part of

the subcontinent from about 268 to 232 BCE, played an important role in Buddhist history

because of his support of Buddhism during his lifetime.

the early part of Ashoka’s reign was apparently quite bloodthirsty, he became a follower of the

Buddha’s teachings after his conquest of Kalinga. According to a contemporary text, the Edicts
of Ashoka, Ashoka converted to Buddhism because he “felt remorse on account of the conquest

of Kalinga because, during the subjugation of a previously unconquered country, slaughter,

death, and taking away captive of the people necessarily occur.”

After conquest of Kalinga, Asoka dedicated the rest of his life trying to apply Buddhist principles
to the administration of his vast empire. He had a crucial part to play in helping Buddhism to
spread both throughout India and abroad, and probably built the first major Buddhist
monuments.
As a Buddhist emperor, Ashoka believed that Buddhism is beneficial for all human beings, as

well as animals and plants, so he built a number of stupas. He also helped spread Buddhism to

neighboring kingdoms. Following Ashoka’s example, other kings established monasteries,

funded the construction of stupas, and supported the ordination of monks in their kingdom.

Edicts of Ashoka were displayed throughout his vast kingdom. Asoka's edicts are mainly
concerned with the reforms he instituted and the moral principles he recommended in his attempt
to create a just and humane society. A collection of 33 inscriptions were found on the Pillars of
Ashoka, as well as boulders and cave walls, made by Ashoka of the Mauryan Empire during his
reign. The first actual Buddhist “texts” that are still extant are inscriptions (including a number of
well-known Ashokan pillars) that Ashoka had written and displayed in various places throughout
his vast kingdom.
Ashoka’s empire began to crumble soon after his death, and the Mauryan dynasty was finally

overthrown in the early decades of the 2nd century BCE. Next great empire in India was Gupta

dynasty which was at its peak at the end of 4th century CE.

During the approximately five centuries between the fall of the Mauryan dynasty and the rise of

the Gupta dynasty, major developments occurred in all aspects of Buddhist belief and practice

and Buddhism became a leading religious tradition in India. Beginning in the 3rd century BCE

and possibly earlier, magnificent Buddhist monuments such as the great stupas at Bharhut and

Sanchi were built. During the early centuries of the 1st millennium CE, similar monuments were

established throughout the subcontinent. Numerous monasteries emerged too, some in close
association with the great monuments and pilgrimage sites. During this period Buddhist monastic

centres thrived.

Buddhism under the Guptas and Palas

Gupta dynasty (c. 320–c. 600 CE), During this period, for example, some Hindus practiced

devotion to the Buddha, whom they regarded as an avatar (incarnation) of the Hindu deity

Vishnu. Also during the Gupta period, there emerged a new Buddhist institution, the Mahavihara

(“Great Monastery”), which often functioned as a university.

After the destruction of numerous Buddhist monasteries in the 6th century CE by the Huns,

Buddhism revived, especially in the northeast, where it flourished for many more centuries under

the kings of the Pala dynasty.