A district in Northern India, the modern Kashmir. In the Pali texts it is
always mentioned with Gandhāra and probably once formed part of that kingdom.
(See also PHAI., p.93. The Jātakas 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 Kasmīra-Gandhāra. Majjhantika quelled the power of the Nāga-king
Aravāla (q.v.), who was a menace to the inhabitants, and converted him to the
faith, while the yakkha Pandaka and his wife Hāritā, with their five hundred
sons, became sotāpannas. The thera preached the āsīvisūpama 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 Kasmīra. (Mhv.xii.3,
In Hiouien Thsang's time Kasmīra 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 stūpa which enshrined a tooth of the Buddha. This tooth was soon after taken away by Harsavardhana of Kanoj. (CAGI.104ff; Beal, i.116f, etc.)
Sāgala is mentioned as being twelve leagues from Kasmīra (Mil.82).