hinduwoman

There seems to be a number of political and social reasons for Buddhism's decline before the arrival of Muslims:

(i) Buddhism as such had nothing to say about kingship as it was focused on renunciation. On the other hand in Hindu political doctrine the king is very important. Therefore though we have a number of Buddhist kings, kings preferred to support Hinduism out of ideological reasons. Many kings were devout Hindus, and many supported both out of conviction, but I think this kingship doctrine is one reason why Hinduism continued to be patronized by the State.

(ii) When Buddha came society had become ritual obsessed and too dominated by Brahamanical orthodoxy. Buddhism offered release from both. As a result mass conversions, among both the upper and lower classes occurred. Alarmed at this, samajpatis were forced to undertake reforms. And of course there were many who genuinely desired to reform Hinduism without leaving it. The Gita is one example of such a process. Slowly Hindu society became less rigid and forms of worship more personal. This lessened the hold of Buddhism and many became adherents of both faiths. Adi Shankaracharya with his brilliant debating powers, organizing capacity and revival of ancient places of worship weakened it even more. Finally Hinduism coopted Buddhism by turning Buddha into an avatar. So most Hindus who felt the urge to follow Buddha simply worshipped him as another form of Vishnu.

(iii) Buddhism itself had been affected through the centuries. Buddha professed atheism, but his followers turned him to the God. They dragged in stories of jataka and other myths. They built huge temples and performed rites of worship very like Hindus. As a result the mass of ordinary people could no longer see much difference between the two.

(iv) Any institution that gets power becomes more interested in keeping that power. With many rich people and kings becoming Buddhists the priests indulged in gathering wealth and doing in other sects which could threaten them. They meddled in affairs of states, including succession quarrels. in short Buddhist leaders became politicians --- and who the hell respects politicians?. Of course the common people was no longer as impressed as they were by Buddha.

(v) Corruption within the sangha. Many became monks and nuns to get away from the world or to enjoy the good life, instead of genuine spiritual searching. There were many scandals about their sexual misconduct and general behaviour. In fact by 200 B.C, conditions have so detoriated that a statecraft manual says that Buddhist monks and nuns make good spies.

(vi) This process of decline took several centuries to complete., until Buddhism was just another sect among many. Finally when the Muslims came there was forced conversions of course. More importantly, they destroyed the universities and libraries, and slaughtered the monks. Ambedkar points out that since in Buddhism a priest has to be ordained this was a serious blow, because there was hardly anyone or any schools left to teach one how to be a priest. Inevitably Buddhism disappeared and only survived in isolated pockets.

Seraphim

1. What kingship? You mean in the past or present?

2. True. Buddhism is toward self-approach to finding truth, doesn't say much about God (Vishnu) and says the least about Brahmins. In society where Brahmins considered to be the centre, having to deal with a teaching which doesn't need their "help" wasn't very reassuring.

3. Not all ... there are still places where Buddhism still observed by its original form ... toward Self-finding rather than in need of God to help out.

4. Greed is human nature, you will find such examples whereever you go and whatever religions/teaching you study.

5. True.

6. True.

Sattwic

Hindu woman, you need to add two points about the role of Bakthi movement (both Saiva and Vaishnava) in erasure of Buddhism from India (specially S.India)... and the philosophical 'defeat' by Sankara of many buddhist philosophers with revivalism of Advaita. Advaita is seen as the final deathblow to Buddhism so requires a seperate point IMO.

Also conversion of many Buddhist Kings to Saivism/Vaishnavism made buddhism loose royal patronage. Monastries became harder to maintain without lay people's contributions..
Add to the (vi) references to Islamic sacking of Gandhara (Kandhahar), Buddhist Universites all over Northern India, (lalitgiri, ratnagiri, nalanda, peshawar, etc)

andy_d

Good post Hinduwoman! Fascinating!

I agree with all of it, but find the first point particularly interesting. I've read numerous accounts of "Buddhist" kings who found that their profession didn't mesh well with their spirituality.

In particular, they seemed to misunderstand the concept of karma and thought that by advancing the cause of Buddhism and suppressing competing philosophies, they would gain merit. Building a temple doesn't gain you any merit if you build it for the precise purpose of gaining merit!

karthik

In South India there were also cases of Hindu Kings destroying Buddhist and Jain monastries and small scale inquisitions. Interestingly this happened in conjunction with the revivalist bhakthi movement.

The Stranger

Very interesting, can you point me to some resources on that?

Answerer

Well, I recalled that I was quite insisted on going against my hindi friends whatever they claimed that Buddhism is a part of hinduism. Perhaps the fall of Buddhism in India is predestined and now, I see the same trend in China and Southeast Asia but this time, the 'agression' came in the form of Christinity and Islam.

Sattwic

Names of the Kings and names of the respective monastries they destroyed please.
Mr. Karthik you will henceforth be deemed to be a flamebait if you don't come up with proper references to your words. (Please no urls to moronic Islamist or Leftist sites however)

Thank you.

karthik

Sattwic, If you are aware of anything about the Pallava dynasty you must be familiar with the conversion of Mahendra Varma pallavan (who was a jain) to Hinduism. This conversion spelled trouble for the Jain community in the South. A temple in Madurai shows inscriptions about the impaling of 8000 jains there;Jains in Karnataka were persecuted by the vira saivite movement. Jains never made a revival until the advent of the vijayanagar dynasty

Sattwic

Which temple in Madurai?