ng career and flourished in
Kashmir and Central Asia.

Confused as are the notices of these ancient sects, we see with some
clearness that in opposition to the Theravada there was another body
alluded to in terms which, though hostile, still imply an admission of
size and learning, such as Mahasanghika or Mahasangitika, the people of
the great assembly, and Acaryavada or the doctrine of the Teachers. It
appears to have originated in connection with some council and to embody
a popular protest against the severity of the doctrine there laid down.
This is natural, for it is pretty obvious that many found the
argumentative psychology of the Theravadins arid and wearisome. The
Dipavamsa accuses the Mahasanghikas of garbling the canon but the
Chinese pilgrims testify that in later times their books were regarded
as specially complete. One well-known work, the Mahavastu, perhaps
composed in the first century B.C., describes itself as belonging to the
Lokuttara branch of the Mahasanghikas. The Mahasanghikas probably
represent the elements which developed into the Mahayana. It is not
possible to formulate their views precisely but, whereas the Theravada
was essentially teaching for the Bhikkhu, they represented those
concessions to popular taste from which Buddhism has never been quite
dissociated even in its earliest period.

2

For some two centuries after Gotama's death we have little information
as to the geographical extension of his doctrine, but some of the
Sanskrit versions of the Vinaya[577] represent him as visiting Muttra,
North-west India and Kashmir. So far as is known, the story of this
journey is not supported by more ancient documents or other arguments:
it contains a prediction about Kanishka, and may have been composed in
or after his reign when the flourishing condition of Buddhism in
Gandhara made it seem appropriate to gild the past. But the narratives
about Muttra and Kashmir contain several predictions relating to the
progress of the faith 100 years after the Buddha's death and these can
hardly be explained except as references to a tradition that those
regions were converted at the epoch mentioned. There is no doubt of the
connection between Kashmir and the Sarvastivadins nor anything
improbable in the supposition that the first missionary activity was in
the direction of Muttra and Kashmir.

But the great landmark in the earlier history of Buddhism is the reign
of Asoka. He came to the throne abo