orthodoxy. Unfortunately, with the exception of the
Theravada’s canon in Pali, and scattered fragments
from other nikayas,little of this once vast literary cor-
pus survives.
Institutionalization and the worship of stupas
(fifth through third century B.C.E.)
Monastic competition after S ́akyamuni’s death was not
the only agent of institutional change. Traditional
tellings of S ́akyamuni’s biography do not end with his
final nirvana in Kus ́inagara. These narratives describe
the people gathered at S ́akyamuni’s death as observing
a body progressively emptied of personal vitality. The
body was cremated. But a dispute soon arose over who
owned the funerary remains. The people of Kus ́ina-
gara claimed these relics (s ́arlra) for themselves, since
S ́akyamuni had chosen their territory for his final nir-
vana. But the people of other territories swiftly de-
manded relics as well. To stave off war, equal shares of
S ́akyamuni’s remains were given to all. Each of these
measures was then housed in a memorial STUPA.
Why would people have been willing to go to war
over the funerary fragments of a dead holy man? Here
one finds a window onto early Indian Buddhism.
Stupas associated with S ́akyamuni provided sacred
sites at which lay and monastic Buddhists alike were
able to enter his otherwise inaccessible presence.
Once in that presence, they could make offerings and
reap merit. Thus, stupas promised spiritual power to
the kings who controlled them, and particularly pres-
tigious sites would also have generated great revenues
from pilgrims who traveled from far and near for
worship. Similarly, caityas (shrines commemorating
places visited, and objects used, by S ́akyamuni) also
became pilgrimage centers.
PILGRIMAGEwas enormously important in Bud-
dhism’s development. Laymen, laywomen, monks, and
nuns all encountered one another traversing the
Ganges basin, from sacred site to sacred site. Such
shared ritual, in turn, became the foundation of a
shared religious identity, an all-inclusive community
called “the fourfold assembly” in Buddhist texts. But
even though patterns of worship gave the laity a bona
fide position within this assembly, the institutional-
ization of pilgrimage also granted additional duties and
opportunities to the monks. Large monastic commu-
nities grew up around major stupas; these monaster-
ies’ inhabitants served as caretakers, priests, and
teachers. Acting for the good of the buddha, of their
brotherhood, and of their kingdom, monks made Bud-
dhism a fixture of the Indian religious landscape for
nearly two millennia.As ́oka Maurya (third century B.C.E.)
Artifacts dating to the reign of AS ́OKA, ruler of the
Mauryan dynasty (third century B.C.E.), provide the
oldest extant evidence for Buddhism in India. As ́oka
was an important early patron of the san ̇gha, and his
exertions on its behalf are celebrated in traditional
Buddhist writings from Sri Lanka to China. Legend
holds that As ́oka raided the original group of stupas in
order to redistribute S ́akyamuni’s relics into eighty-
four thousand stupas, making that presence available
throughout his kingdom. As ́oka is said to have held a
grand council in order to reestablish a single ortho-
doxy within the san ̇gha; he also supposedly made pil-
grimage to all the places important to S ́akyamuni’s life.
Though hyperbolic, these literary paeans point to
As ́oka’s prominent role in Buddhism’s institutional-
ization. Archaeological remains provide more precise,
through less glorified, evidence of As ́oka’s activities.
Among the many edicts As ́oka incised on pillars and
boulders, several speak to his interest in Buddhism.
The Bhabraedict, for instance, recommends a set of
seven texts for Buddhist monks and laity to read and
study (all the texts focus on ethics, suggesting that, for
As ́oka, good Buddhists were also good citizens). The
Kaus ́ambedict denounces disunity within the san ̇gha,
ordering schismatic monks to return to lay status. The
Nigliva inscription tells that As ́oka doubled the size of
a stupa dedicated to a past buddha named Konaka-
mana. In short, although sectarian Buddhist writings
on the religion’s early historical development cannot
be trusted in their details, archaeological evidence from
As ́oka’s reign allows us to accept these texts’ broad
characterization of this era, when worship focused on
stupas, devoted Buddhists made pilgrimages, and nos-
talgic tales of S ́akyamuni’s harmonious san ̇gha con-
trasted with the sharp-edged glare of contemporary
circumstances.A time of change and development (second
century B.C.E. to fourth century C.E.)
The Mauryan empire did not long survive As ́oka. It
was followed by five centuries of political turmoil,
during which indigenous dynasties and foreign in-
vaders vied for supremacy. Although Buddhism es-
tablished a base identity during Mauryan times, the
succeeding era of political competition and social di-
versification fostered new doctrinal and institutional
expressions. During these centuries, monastic spatsINDIA