[Buddha-l] Are we sick of dogma yet? (2nd of 2)

[L.S. Cousins]

Dan,

>I failed to mention, while questioning Yijing's reliability in details, that
>despite his claim of no Sammitiyas in the north, there is evidence to
>contrary. Did he just not consider Sind the north, or was he unaware of
>Sammitiya presence there?

You did not read what I quoted carefully enough. He explicitly says 
that they are dominant in Laat.a and Sindh. When referring to the 
north he is excluding Magadha and perhaps the whole of  central India.

>  Derryl Maclean, in his _Religion and Society in
>Arab Sind_ (Leiden, 1989), which covers the period 711-1026, claims, on the
>basis of Muslim and Indian records, that the Buddhists there were
>predominantly Sammitiya (unitl they gradually became Muslims).

So in this (their strongest) region at least, they gradually declined 
in numbers.

>  That would
>also answer the question of whether the destruction of Valabhi terminated
>Sammitiya presence. Obviously not.

Of course not. Neither did the later destruction of Naalandaa 
terminate monastic presence in Magadha. It simply became much less 
than before.

>A review of the book by Fritz Lehmann,
>that discusses the Sammitiyas, can be found in JAOS, 112, 3, (July-Sept
>1992) 538-39.

Noted.

Lance