UpdateBot: robot: Update article (please report if you notice any mistake or error in this edit)

2022-01-26T06:09:02Z

robot: Update article (please report if you notice any mistake or error in this edit)

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:39, 26 January 2022
Line 1:		Line 1:
			{{Short description\|2nd-century BCE Indo-Greek Buddhist master}}
	{{no footnotes\|date=October 2019}}		{{no footnotes\|date=October 2019}}
	[[Image:SL Anuradhapura asv2020-01 img11 Ruwanwelisaya Stupa.jpg\|thumb\|300px\|[[Ruwanwelisaya\|Great Stupa]] in [[Anuradhapura]], [[Sri Lanka]]]]		[[Image:SL Anuradhapura asv2020-01 img11 Ruwanwelisaya Stupa.jpg\|thumb\|300px\|[[Ruwanwelisaya\|Great Stupa]] in [[Anuradhapura]], [[Sri Lanka]]]]

imported>A.Savin: new pic

2020-08-23T02:58:43Z

new pic

New page

{{no footnotes|date=October 2019}}
[[Image:SL Anuradhapura asv2020-01 img11 Ruwanwelisaya Stupa.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Ruwanwelisaya|Great Stupa]] in [[Anuradhapura]], [[Sri Lanka]]]]

'''Mahadhammarakkhita''' ([[Sanskrit]]: '''Mahadharmaraksita''', literally "Great protector of the [[Dharma]]") was a Greek (in Pali:"[[Yona]]", lit. "[[Ionia]]n") Buddhist master, who lived during the 2nd century BCE during the reign of the [[Indo-Greek]] king [[Menander I|Menander]].

In the [[Mahavamsa]], a key [[Pāli|Pali]] historical text, he is recorded as having travelled from “Alasandra” (thought to be [[Alexandria of the Caucasus]], around 150 kilometers north of today's [[Kabul]], or possibly [[Alexandria of the Arachosians]]), with 30,000 monks for the dedication ceremony of the Maha Thupa ("Great [[stupa]]") at [[Anuradhapura]] in [[Sri Lanka]], when it was completed shortly after the death of the Sri Lankan king [[Dutthagamani Abhaya]] (r. 161 - 137 BCE).

The Mahamvasa lists the congregations that visited Sri Lanka for the dedication of the Maha Thupa, explaining that:

:"From Alasanda the city of the [[Yona]]s came the thera (elder) Yona Mahadhammarakkhita with thirty thousand [[bhikkhu]]s." ([[Mahavamsa]], XXIX)

This reference is seen as having several implications regarding the role of the Greeks in the Buddhist community at that time:{{Citation needed|date=February 2016}}

* [[Alexandria of the Caucasus]] or [[Alexandria of the Arachosians]], cities under the control of the Greek king Menander, had a Buddhist monk population of possibly as many as 30,000, indicating a flourishing Buddhist culture under the Greeks.
* The head of this Buddhist community was a Greek (Yona) Buddhist elder whose religious name was Mahadhammarakkhita ("Great protector of the Dharma), indicating the direct involvement of Greeks in the development of the faith, in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent.
* They were able to travel unhindered south as far as Sri Lanka, indicating some kind of stable political situation along the west coast of the Indian subcontinent, especially at a time when the [[Shunga Empire|Shunga]] Empire in the east was persecuting Buddhists.

It is also separately established through another text, the [[Milinda Panha]], and archeological evidence that [[Menander I|Menander]] himself ruled a vast empire in northern India, and that he became a Buddhist [[arhat]]. {{Citation needed|date=July 2008}} According to Buddhist tradition he was a great benefactor of the Buddhist faith, on a par with [[Ashoka]] or the Kushan [[Kanishka]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2008}}

==See also==
*[[Dharmaraksita]]
*[[Greco-Buddhist monasticism]]
*[[Edicts of Ashoka]]
*[[Greco-Buddhism]]
*[[History of Buddhism]]

==References==
* “The shape of ancient thought. Comparative Studies in Greek and Indian philosophies”, by Thomas Mc Evilly (Allworth Press, New York 2002) {{ISBN|1-58115-203-5}}

==External links==
* [http://lakdiva.org/mahavamsa/chapters.html Full text of the Mahavamsa]
* [http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/milinda.htm Full text of the Milinda Panha]

{{Buddhism topics}}

[[Category:Greek Buddhists]]
[[Category:2nd-century BC people]]
[[Category:Indian Buddhist missionaries]]

Mahadharmaraksita - Revision history

UpdateBot: robot: Update article (please report if you notice any mistake or error in this edit)

imported>A.Savin: new pic