DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.635#0071
CHAPTER IV
THE RISE OF MODERN HINDUISM
As Benares never played an important part in the
strife between the ancient kingdoms of northern India,
it is extremely difficult to ascertain any precise details
of its history from the time of the preaching of Buddha
down to the rise of modern Hinduism. We only know
that the Kosala kingdom, which had absorbed the
Kasi clan, the first Aryan settlers at Benares, was,
about b.c. 300, itself absorbed by the great empire of
Magadha, which had its capital at Pataliputra, the
modern Patna. Asoka, the third emperor of the
Magadha dynasty, became a member of the Buddhist
order, or Sangha, made Buddhism the state religion,
and sent missionaries to Kashmir, the Himalayan
regions, Afghanistan, Burma, southern India, and
Ceylon. He built magnificent stupas and monasteries
at Sarnath and many other places. It is probable that
Benares itself greatly diminished in importance during
the Buddhist supremacy, as the followers of Buddha
naturally esteemed most sacred the Deer-park and
the places in the neighbourhood of Sarnath, hallowed
by the associations of their great teacher.
The legends of Divodas, as recorded in the Kasi-
khanda, the mythical history of Benares by an un-
known Brahmin writer, probably refer to the occupa-
THE RISE OF MODERN HINDUISM
As Benares never played an important part in the
strife between the ancient kingdoms of northern India,
it is extremely difficult to ascertain any precise details
of its history from the time of the preaching of Buddha
down to the rise of modern Hinduism. We only know
that the Kosala kingdom, which had absorbed the
Kasi clan, the first Aryan settlers at Benares, was,
about b.c. 300, itself absorbed by the great empire of
Magadha, which had its capital at Pataliputra, the
modern Patna. Asoka, the third emperor of the
Magadha dynasty, became a member of the Buddhist
order, or Sangha, made Buddhism the state religion,
and sent missionaries to Kashmir, the Himalayan
regions, Afghanistan, Burma, southern India, and
Ceylon. He built magnificent stupas and monasteries
at Sarnath and many other places. It is probable that
Benares itself greatly diminished in importance during
the Buddhist supremacy, as the followers of Buddha
naturally esteemed most sacred the Deer-park and
the places in the neighbourhood of Sarnath, hallowed
by the associations of their great teacher.
The legends of Divodas, as recorded in the Kasi-
khanda, the mythical history of Benares by an un-
known Brahmin writer, probably refer to the occupa-