| Temples & Legends Of Bihar |
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| Temples & Legends Of India |
MAHABODHI |
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| From this
period we have more reliable evidence of big kingdoms and the currents of life and
thought. The kingdom of Magadha was intimately associated with Buddhism. Bimbisara,
Ajatashatru, Mahapadmananda, and later Chandra Gupta Maurya, his grandson Asoka, are some
of the famous figures in Indian history closely associated with Buddhism. Asoka's rule
was, as is well known, the golden age for Buddhism. His inscriptions are probably the oldest epigraphical testimony that we have. It is because of Asoka that Buddhism had spread to Ceylon and, later, to Burma. The present town of Patna has got great landmarks of the golden age of Buddhism. The next eventful era for Buddhism was the age of the Guptas. Fa-Hien and Hieun-Tsang visited India and Bihar. Harshavardhana drove back Sasanka, the anti-Buddhist king of Bengal, who had usurped Magadha. However, it was also Harshavaradhana's age that saw the beginning of the decline of Buddhism. The later Pala kings of Bihar and Bengal patronized Buddhism, which had taken a peculiar turn by incorporating various beliefs and currents of thoughts. In the Pala age Buddhism was introduced into Tibet and there was a good deal of contact between Bihar and Tibet. The Pala kings have left a considerable quantity of Buddhist antiquities depicting later Buddhism in Bihar. |
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| About Mahabodhi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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