During the time of the Buddha, the homeland of the Śākyas appears to have possessed a cult of the buddhas of the past, a faith in the existence of a number of successive buddhas who had brought people to salvation and then passed into nirvana, and in a coming buddha who was soon to appear. In later times there were accounted either six or twenty-four buddhas of the past; then, including Śākyamuni, categories of the seven or twenty-five buddhas of the past were devised (the Jainas had similar legends). The seven buddhas were Vipaśyin, Śikhin, Viśvabhuj, Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, Kāśyapa, and Śākyamuni. The final four are called the four buddhas of the Bhadra-kalpa (the present cosmic period). According to Asoka’s edict at Nigālī Sāgar (Nigliva in Nepal), he enlarged and refurbished the Stupa of the former buddha Kanakamuni and made offerings to it. Also Fa-hsien recorded in the “Kosala” section of the Fo-kuo chi (T. 51:861a, no. 2085) that when he visited the region (in the fifth century) followers of Devadatta were to be found there; they venerated the buddhas Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, and Kāśyapa – Śākyamuni alone they did not venerate, commented Fa-hsien. We have here an indication of the existence of a religious community that preserved an ancient belief and lifestyle different from that of the orthodox Buddha-Saṃgha.