A district in Northern India, the modern
Kashmir. In the Pali texts it is always mentioned with Gandhára and probably
once formed part of that kingdom. (See also PHAI., p.93. The Játakas mention the
countries separately as comprising two kingdoms ruled by a single king, e.g.,
J.iii.364, 378). At the end of the Third Council, Moggaliputta sent the thera
Majjhantika to propagate the religion in Kasmíra-Gandhára. Majjhantika quelled
the power of the Nága-king Aravála (q.v.), who was a menace to the inhabitants,
and converted him to the faith, while the yakkha Pandaka and his wife Háritá,
with their five hundred sons, became sotápannas. The thera preached the
Ásívisúpama Sutta to the assembled multitude and won eighty thousand converts,
while one hundred thousand persons entered the Order. We are told that from that
time onwards the yellow robe was held in great esteem in Kasmíra. (Mhv.xii.3,
In Hiouien Thsang's time Kasmíra seems to have been an independent kingdom whose king was given to serpent-worship while his queen was a follower of the Buddha. Near the capital was a stúpa which enshrined a tooth of the Buddha. This tooth was soon after taken away by Harsavardhana of Kanoj. (CAGI.104ff; Beal, i.116f, etc.)
Ságala is mentioned as being twelve leagues from Kasmíra (Mil.82).