ABSTRACT
As per Buddhist legends, once Sakyamuni renounced his family and was living the life of a wandering ascetic in the forests, he practiced several of the dominant religious traditions under various masters, but all in vain. It is believed that Sakyamuni realized enlightenment sitting under the holy Bodhi tree at Bodhgaya in 589 bce. The historical accounts reveal that at the time of his parinirvana in 544 bce, the Buddhist order consisted only of small groups of mendicants mainly concentrated in central India. It is important to note that while Asoka was a Buddhist, he never forced his people to convert to Buddhism and respected all other prevailing religions, including Brahmanism, during his reign. The early Mahayana Buddhism period began to develop at the start of the Common Era (ce). The followers of Mahayana looked down mainly upon the adherents of the Sarvastivada Nikaya school and called them Hinayana Buddhists.
