Impact of Buddhism on Punjab

Submitted by - Harshit Thakur

 Buddhism
● Buddhism is one of the world's largest religions, having originated in India 2,500
years ago. Buddhists believe that the human life is one of suffering and that the only
way to achieve enlightenment, or nirvana, is through meditation, spiritual and
physical labour, and good behaviour.
● Buddhists believe in a rebirth wheel in which souls are reborn into different bodies
based on how they behaved in previous lives. This is related to "karma," which
refers to how a person's past or previous lives' good or bad actions can affect them
in the future.
● There are two main groups of Buddhism: Mahayana Buddhism and Theravada
Buddhism.
 4 Noble truths of Buddha

● The truth of suffering (dukkha)

● The truth of the cause of suffering (samudaya)
● The truth of the end of suffering (nirhodha)
● The truth of the path that frees us from suffering
(magga)
 Impact of Buddhism on Punjab
● Buddhists arrived in Punjab via the Buddha himself and established a stronghold in
the Punjab-Gandhara region within 300 years of the Buddha's Mahaparinirvana in
483 B.C. For the next 1,000 years, Buddhism was the dominant religion of the
people of the region.
● During that time, a galaxy of Buddhist saints, scholars, artists, poets, and
philosophers such as Nagasena, Asvaghosa, Asanga, and Vasubandhu not only
enriched the culture of the North-West region, but also influenced and moulded the
destiny of India's Buddhism kings: Milinda, Kanishka, and Harsha flourished in the
united Punjab, while the fourth, the most renowned Buddhist Emperor, Ashoka
 Sanghol
● Only Satadru or Sanghol, one of the three locations described by Hiuen Tsang, has
been discovered and excavated in modern Punjab. Sanghol is 65 kilometers from
Ludhiana and 40 kilometers from Chandigarh on the Ludhiana-Chandigarh
highway. Sanghol is 16 kilometers from Sirhind railway station by road.
● The stupa and monastery complex are the most important monuments discovered
at Sanghol by experts from the Punjab Department of Archaeology and Museums.
● The stupa, which appears to have been built by Ashoka in the third century B.C.,
follows the Dhamma – Chakra pattern (Wheel of Law).