The History of Buddhist Thought c9.s1.7

c9.s1.7

north-west and Kashmir and south of the Ganges along the Vindhyas, turning south to the west coast. Along these routes great Buddhist communities arose, and there is no doubt that legends connecting Buddha with these places were invented. But they are quite absent from the first four Nikāyas of the Pāli Scriptures, and these collections, even if they were revised in their present form as late as two centuries after Buddha’s death, show us the only region which has a historical claim to be the cradle of Buddhism.