Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s10.1

c12.s10.1

Although originally a Śramaṇa movement, Buddhism had emerged out of it in the 4th century B.C. as a distinct and powerful religion endowed with great potentiality for expansion. But the extent of this expansion before the time of the Emperor Aśoka is still a matter of conjecture. Its activity in pre-Aśokan times seems to have been confined to Kosala and Magadha but small communities of brethren had probably come into existence in the west in Mathurā and Ujjayinī. The traditional account of the second Buddhist council which is said to have taken place 100 years after the Nirvāṇa of Buddha at Vaiśālī, refers to invitations sent to the pātheyya monks and to the communities in such distant places as Avanti, Kauśāmbi, Sāṅkāśya and Kanauj. Pātheyya meant the western monks including probably the community of Mathurā. The Aśokan legends attach great importance to the monastery of Naṭabhaṭa on the Urumuṇḍa hill at Mathurā, as Upagupta, the spiritual guide of the Emperor, and Śāṇavāsa, the teacher of Upagupta, both belonged to that institution. The legends at least show that Mathurā had attained some importance in the Buddhist church already before the time of Aśoka.