ADVENT AND RISE OF BUDDHISM IN SOUTH INDIA*

Abstract

One of the unique philosophies that emerged at the time of global intellectual ferment in the 6th century BC, much further impactful than Socrates, Plato, Confucius and Lao, was the idea of Buddha. His ideas were shaped into a religion after his death that eventually attracted the classes and masses alike. The success of the new religion is attributed to the desire of an individual to find solace and salvation in an entity that could satisfy their spiritual needs, cost less and enable equality. The excavated Buddhist sites of South India such as Amaravati, Nagarjunakonda, Jaggayyapeta, Salihundam, Sankaram, Sannati and Kanaganahalli reveal that Buddhism was active in the region from the third century B.C. There is a distinct relationship between the development of trade routes, brisk trade contacts between North and South and overseas trade with the spread of Buddhism in South India. The paper presents an overview of the advent of Buddhism in South India and the interrelationship of the Spread of Buddhism and Trade relations using the archaeological and literary sources of the period.

*The geographical scope of the topic is as defined in the ancient times during the Mauryan and Satavahana times.