Bangladeshi Buddhist monks feed fasting Muslims over Ramadan

[Spectre]

Buddhists have a soft spot for Muslims in this region, because of extreme oppression of local Buddhists in the hands of successive Hindu dynasties in pre-Islamic Northern India.

As an example..

Wonder why Dalai Lama didn't go to Pakistan then instead of India

 

[Biplab Bijay]

Ashoka's conversion was a turning point in Buddhist history and help spread the religion across much of the subcontinent. But that was in the early days of Buddhism. You're confusing different periods of India's history - being an Indian you should know better.

Don't know much about Burma, but know that the mostly Hindu British Indian army protected the Rohingyas and helped fight back the Buddhist Rakhines during the last great race riot in Arakan. The conflict has always had a racial angle to it.

I know better. I know what happened to Nalanda University, Taxila university, I know what happened to people of the subcontinent in different periods. You are out of this sub continent may be, that is why may be you dont know.

First you said Hindu oppression of Buddhist and now you are saying Hindu Army saving Buddhist. Know more about Burma and Sri Lanka and the cordial relationship between Buddhist and Muslims present there. China is a good example too.

 

[Maira La]

I know better. I know what happened to Nalanda University, Taxila university, I know what happened to people of the subcontinent in different periods. You are out of this sub continent may be, that is why may be you dont know.

You mean Takshashila?

Archaeological evidence supporting persecution[edit]
According to John Marshall (1955, 1975) there is evidence of damage to Buddhist establishments at Takshashila around the time of Sunga. ...
The destruction of Ghositarama monastery at Kaushambi, in 2nd century CE, is attributed to Pushyamitra Sunga.[24]
...
According to P.K.Misra,[24]

Although archaeological evidence is meager, it seems likely, that the Deorkothar stupa geographically located between Sanchi and Bharhut, was destroyed as a result of Pushyamitra Sunga's fanaticism. The exposed remains at Deorkothar bear evidence of deliberate destruction datable to his reign. The three-tiered railing is damaged; railing pillars lie broken to smithereens on stone-flooring. Twenty pieces of pillar have been recovered, each fragment itself fractured. The site offers no indication of natural destruction.(2001).

Nalanda was destroyed by Khilji. The Turkic warriors didn't specifically target Buddhists, they targeted all structures in their way to terrify the local populace to submission. Definitely condemn-able. But it didn't contribute to wiping the Buddhists off Northern India. That was accomplished by the local Hindu Rajas with over several centuries of persecution.

 

[Biplab Bijay]

You mean Takshashila?




Nalanda was destroyed by Khilji. The Turkic warriors didn't specifically target Buddhists, they targeted all structures in their way to terrify the local populace to submission. Definitely condemn-able. But it didn't contribute to wiping the Buddhists off Northern India. That was accomplished by the local Hindu Rajas with over several centuries of persecution.

Ok so when Khiliji does that, it is only to terrify local people. If Rajas do that it is Hatred for Buddhism.

And also according to many posters here, Hindus did not get much time to rule where as Invaders were rulers for 1000 years. So may be in those times these invaders were oppressing these Buddhists.

And let me give you some facts about decline of Buddhism in India and also Buddhism under Hindu Kings.

1. Guptas
Buddhism saw a brief revival under the Guptas. By the 4th to 5th century, Buddhism was already in decline in northern India, even as it was achieving spreading into Central Asia and along the Silk Road as far as China. It continued to prosper in Gandhara under the Shahi kingdom, who encouraged Buddhist religious ambassadors into Asia. Half of the population of the Gupta dynasty supported Buddhism and the five precepts were widely observed.[21] The Hindu rulers and wealthy laity gave lavish material support to Buddhist monasteries.

2.
Collapse of Harsha's Empire
In the north and west, the collapse of Harsha Vardana's kingdom (606–647 CE) gave rise to many smaller kingdoms, leading to the rise of the martial Rajputs clans across the Gangetic plains. It also marked the end of Buddhist ruling clans, along with a sharp decline in royal patronage until a revival occurred under the Pala Empire in the Bengal region.[citation needed]

Much of what we know about the state of Buddhism during Harsha's reign comes from the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, who travelled widely and documented his journey. Although he found many regions where Buddhism was still flourishing, he also found many where it had sharply and startlingly declined, giving way to Jainism and a Brahmanical order.[22]

Xuanzang compliments the patronage of Harsha Vardana. He reported that Buddhism was popular in Kanyakubja, modern day Uttar Pradesh, where he noted "an equal number of Buddhists and heretics" and the presence of 100 monasteries and 10,000 bhikshus along with 200 "Deva" or Hindu temples.[23] He found a similarly flourishing population in Udra, modern Odisha, a mixed population in Kosala, homeland of Nagarjuna, and in Andhra and Dravida, which today roughly correspond to the modern day Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. In a region he calls Konkanapura, which may be Kolhapur in southern Maharashtra, he found great numbers of Buddhists coexisting with a similar number of non-Buddhists, and a similar situation in Northern Maharashtra. In Sindh he finds a large Sammitiya and Theravada population. He reports a fair number of Buddhists in what is now the rest of Pakistan.[24]

In Dhanyakataka, today's Vijayawada, he found a striking decline, with Jainism and Shaivism being more popular. In Bihar, the site of a number of important landmarks, he also found a striking decline and relatively few followers, with Hinduism and Jainism predominating. He also found relatively few Buddhists in Bengal, Kamarupa, or modern Assam, no Buddhist presence in Konyodha, few in Chulya or Tamil region, and few in Gujarat and Rajasthan, except in Valabhi where he found a large Theravada population.

3.
Palas
In the East under the Palas in Bengal, Mahayana Buddhism flourished and spread to Bhutan and Sikkim.[citation needed] The Palas created many temples and a distinctive school of Buddhist art. Mahayana Buddhism flourished under the Palas between the 8th and the 12th century, before it collapsed at the hands of the attacking Sena dynasty

4.
White Huns
Central Asian and North Western Indian Buddhism weakened in the 6th century after the White Hun invasion, who followed their own religions such as Tengri, and Manichaeism. Their Hindu Saivite King, Mihirakula (who ruled from 515 CE), suppressed Buddhism as well. He did this by destroying monasteries as far away as modern-day Allahabad.[44]

Muhammad bin Qasim
In AD 711, Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Sindh, bringing Indian societies into contact with Islam, succeeding partly because Dahir was an unpopular Hindu king that ruled over a Buddhist majority and that Chach of Alor and his kin were regarded as usurpers of the earlier Buddhist Rai Dynasty.[45][46] a view questioned by those who note the diffuse and blurred nature of Hindu and Buddhist practices in the region,[47] especially that of the royalty to be patrons of both and those who believe that Chach himself may have been a Buddhist.[48][49] The forces of Muhammad bin Qasim defeated Raja Dahir in alliance with the Jats and other regional governors.[citation needed]

The Chach Nama records many instances of conversion of stupas to mosques such as at Nerun[50] as well as the incorporation of the religious elite into the ruling administration such as the allocation of 3% of the government revenue was allocated to the Brahmins.[45] As a whole, the non-Muslim populations of conquered territories were treated as People of the Book and granted the freedom to practice their respective faiths in return for payment of the poll tax (jizya).[45] They were then excused from military service or payment of the tax paid by Muslim subjects – Zakat.[51] The jizya enforced was a graded tax, being heaviest on the elite and lightest on the poor.[51]

Mahmud of Ghazni
By the 10th century Mahmud of Ghazni defeated the Hindu-Shahis, effectively removing Hindu influence and ending Buddhist self-governance across Central Asia, as well as the Punjab region. He demolished both stupas and temples during his numerous campaigns across North-Western India, but left those within his domains and Afghanistan alone, even as al-Biruni recorded Buddha as the prophet "Burxan".[52] However, many Buddhist sites destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni, such as Mathura, show evidence of having been forcibly converted by Brahmanical rivals first.[53]

Mahmud of Ghazni is said to have been an iconoclast.[54] Hindu and Buddhist statues, shrines and temples were looted and destroyed, and many Buddhists had to take refuge in Tibet.[55]

Muhammad of Ghor


The image, in the chapter on India in Hutchison's Story of the Nations edited by James Meston, depicts the Turkish general Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khilji's massacre of Buddhist monks in Bihar. Khaliji destroyed the Nalanda and Vikramshila universities during his raids across North Indian plains, massacring many Buddhist and Brahmin scholars.[56]
Muhammad attacked the north-western regions of the Indian subcontinent many times. Gujarat later fell to Muhammad of Ghor's armies in 1197. Muhammad of Ghor's army was too developed for the traditional Indian army of that time to resist.[57]

In 1200 Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji, one of Qutb-ud-Din's generals, conquered a fort of the Sena army, such as the one at Vikramshila. Many Buddhist monks fled to Nepal, Tibet, and South India to avoid the consequences of war.[58]

The Buddhist encounters with Turkics are well documented. According to one myth, Chandrakirti (Nagarjuna's greatest disciple) rode a stone lion to scare away the Turkish army.[59]

The Mongols
In 1215, Genghis Khan conquered Afghanistan and devastated the Muslim world. In 1227, after his death, his conquest was divided. Chagatai then established the Chagatai Khanate. In 1260, Hulagu Khan established Ilkhanate at Iran plateau where his son Arghun made Buddhism the state religion. At the same time, he came down harshly on Islam and demolished mosques to build many stupas. his son Ghazan who converted to Islam and in 1295 changed the state religion. Meanwhile in Chagatai Khanate was split into two part of eastern and western, after splitting of the Chagatai Khanate, Tarmashirin(1331-1334) was converted to Islam, then little mention of Buddhism or the stupas built by the Mongols can be found in Afghanistan and Central Asia.[60]

Timur (Tamarlane)
Timur was a 14th-century warlord of Turco-Mongol descent,[61][62][63][64] conqueror of much of Western and central Asia, and founder of the Timurid Empire.

Timur destroyed Buddhist establishments and raided areas in which Buddhism had flourished.[65][66]

Theory of persecution by Muslims and conversion to Islam
According to this theory, by the time of the Muslim conquests in India, there were only glimpses of Buddhism nor any evidence of a provincial government in control of the Buddhists.[67] During the 7th to 13th centuries when Islam arrived, this theory claims that it replaced Buddhism as the great cosmopolitan trading religion in many places accompanied by a consolidation of the communal peasant religions of Hinduism.[67] The Tibetan scholar of the 17th century Taranatha writes that during the time of the Sena king Stag-gzigs (Turks) had begun to appear on horses and that monasteries had been fortified with troops stationed in them; however, they were overrun and monks at Uddandapura were massacred, the monastery razed and replaced by a new fort and further north-east Vikramshila was destroyed as well.[68] Hardly any contemporary evidence however exists on the destruction of Buddhist monasteries.[67]



Ruins of Vikramaśīla University
Brief Muslim accounts and the one eye witness account of Dharmasmavim in wake of the conquest during the 1230s talks about abandoned viharas being used as camps by the Turukshahs.[67] Later historical traditions such as Taranathas are mixed with legendary materials and summarised as "the Turukshah conquered the whole of Magadha and destroyed many monasteries and did much damage at Nalanda, such that many monks fled abroad" thereby bringing about a sudden demise of Buddhism with their destruction of the Viharas.[67] Buddhism lingered longer in Iran than South Asia and was officially professed under fifty years of Mongol conquest.[67] With the conversion of Ghazan to Islam in 1295, the backlash resulted in the destruction of many Buddhist places of worship and the further migration of monks into Kashmir.[67]

Many places were destroyed and renamed. For example, Udantpur's monasteries were destroyed in 1197 by Mohammed-bin-Bakhtiyar and the town was renamed.[69] Taranatha in his History of Buddhism in India (dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i chos bskor gyi byung khungs nyer mkho) of 1608,[70] gives an account of the last few centuries of Buddhism, mainly in Eastern India. His account suggests a considerable decline but not an extinction of Buddhism in India in his time.

At least read nd

Atleast read it and say that Buddhism in North India is destroyed by Invaders who you glorify now a days in the name of Islam. Yes Some Hindu kings like Chalukya Dynasty has oppressed Buddhists too but in South India, not in North India.

 

[samv]

Are the food packets halal certified?

 

[Maira La]

Ok so when Khiliji does that, it is only to terrify local people. If Rajas do that it is Hatred for Buddhism.

And also according to many posters here, Hindus did not get much time to rule where as Invaders were rulers for 1000 years. So may be in those times these invaders were oppressing these Buddhists.

And let me give you some facts about decline of Buddhism in India and also Buddhism under Hindu Kings.

1. Guptas
Buddhism saw a brief revival under the Guptas. By the 4th to 5th century, Buddhism was already in decline in northern India, even as it was achieving spreading into Central Asia and along the Silk Road as far as China. It continued to prosper in Gandhara under the Shahi kingdom, who encouraged Buddhist religious ambassadors into Asia. Half of the population of the Gupta dynasty supported Buddhism and the five precepts were widely observed.[21] The Hindu rulers and wealthy laity gave lavish material support to Buddhist monasteries.

2.
Collapse of Harsha's Empire
In the north and west, the collapse of Harsha Vardana's kingdom (606–647 CE) gave rise to many smaller kingdoms, leading to the rise of the martial Rajputs clans across the Gangetic plains. It also marked the end of Buddhist ruling clans, along with a sharp decline in royal patronage until a revival occurred under the Pala Empire in the Bengal region.[citation needed]

Much of what we know about the state of Buddhism during Harsha's reign comes from the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang, who travelled widely and documented his journey. Although he found many regions where Buddhism was still flourishing, he also found many where it had sharply and startlingly declined, giving way to Jainism and a Brahmanical order.[22]

Xuanzang compliments the patronage of Harsha Vardana. He reported that Buddhism was popular in Kanyakubja, modern day Uttar Pradesh, where he noted "an equal number of Buddhists and heretics" and the presence of 100 monasteries and 10,000 bhikshus along with 200 "Deva" or Hindu temples.[23] He found a similarly flourishing population in Udra, modern Odisha, a mixed population in Kosala, homeland of Nagarjuna, and in Andhra and Dravida, which today roughly correspond to the modern day Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. In a region he calls Konkanapura, which may be Kolhapur in southern Maharashtra, he found great numbers of Buddhists coexisting with a similar number of non-Buddhists, and a similar situation in Northern Maharashtra. In Sindh he finds a large Sammitiya and Theravada population. He reports a fair number of Buddhists in what is now the rest of Pakistan.[24]

In Dhanyakataka, today's Vijayawada, he found a striking decline, with Jainism and Shaivism being more popular. In Bihar, the site of a number of important landmarks, he also found a striking decline and relatively few followers, with Hinduism and Jainism predominating. He also found relatively few Buddhists in Bengal, Kamarupa, or modern Assam, no Buddhist presence in Konyodha, few in Chulya or Tamil region, and few in Gujarat and Rajasthan, except in Valabhi where he found a large Theravada population.

3.
Palas
In the East under the Palas in Bengal, Mahayana Buddhism flourished and spread to Bhutan and Sikkim.[citation needed] The Palas created many temples and a distinctive school of Buddhist art. Mahayana Buddhism flourished under the Palas between the 8th and the 12th century, before it collapsed at the hands of the attacking Sena dynasty

4.
White Huns
Central Asian and North Western Indian Buddhism weakened in the 6th century after the White Hun invasion, who followed their own religions such as Tengri, and Manichaeism. Their Hindu Saivite King, Mihirakula (who ruled from 515 CE), suppressed Buddhism as well. He did this by destroying monasteries as far away as modern-day Allahabad.[44]

Muhammad bin Qasim
In AD 711, Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Sindh, bringing Indian societies into contact with Islam, succeeding partly because Dahir was an unpopular Hindu king that ruled over a Buddhist majority and that Chach of Alor and his kin were regarded as usurpers of the earlier Buddhist Rai Dynasty.[45][46] a view questioned by those who note the diffuse and blurred nature of Hindu and Buddhist practices in the region,[47] especially that of the royalty to be patrons of both and those who believe that Chach himself may have been a Buddhist.[48][49] The forces of Muhammad bin Qasim defeated Raja Dahir in alliance with the Jats and other regional governors.[citation needed]

The Chach Nama records many instances of conversion of stupas to mosques such as at Nerun[50] as well as the incorporation of the religious elite into the ruling administration such as the allocation of 3% of the government revenue was allocated to the Brahmins.[45] As a whole, the non-Muslim populations of conquered territories were treated as People of the Book and granted the freedom to practice their respective faiths in return for payment of the poll tax (jizya).[45] They were then excused from military service or payment of the tax paid by Muslim subjects – Zakat.[51] The jizya enforced was a graded tax, being heaviest on the elite and lightest on the poor.[51]

Mahmud of Ghazni
By the 10th century Mahmud of Ghazni defeated the Hindu-Shahis, effectively removing Hindu influence and ending Buddhist self-governance across Central Asia, as well as the Punjab region. He demolished both stupas and temples during his numerous campaigns across North-Western India, but left those within his domains and Afghanistan alone, even as al-Biruni recorded Buddha as the prophet "Burxan".[52] However, many Buddhist sites destroyed by Mahmud of Ghazni, such as Mathura, show evidence of having been forcibly converted by Brahmanical rivals first.[53]

Mahmud of Ghazni is said to have been an iconoclast.[54] Hindu and Buddhist statues, shrines and temples were looted and destroyed, and many Buddhists had to take refuge in Tibet.[55]

Muhammad of Ghor


The image, in the chapter on India in Hutchison's Story of the Nations edited by James Meston, depicts the Turkish general Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khilji's massacre of Buddhist monks in Bihar. Khaliji destroyed the Nalanda and Vikramshila universities during his raids across North Indian plains, massacring many Buddhist and Brahmin scholars.[56]
Muhammad attacked the north-western regions of the Indian subcontinent many times. Gujarat later fell to Muhammad of Ghor's armies in 1197. Muhammad of Ghor's army was too developed for the traditional Indian army of that time to resist.[57]

In 1200 Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji, one of Qutb-ud-Din's generals, conquered a fort of the Sena army, such as the one at Vikramshila. Many Buddhist monks fled to Nepal, Tibet, and South India to avoid the consequences of war.[58]

The Buddhist encounters with Turkics are well documented. According to one myth, Chandrakirti (Nagarjuna's greatest disciple) rode a stone lion to scare away the Turkish army.[59]

The Mongols
In 1215, Genghis Khan conquered Afghanistan and devastated the Muslim world. In 1227, after his death, his conquest was divided. Chagatai then established the Chagatai Khanate. In 1260, Hulagu Khan established Ilkhanate at Iran plateau where his son Arghun made Buddhism the state religion. At the same time, he came down harshly on Islam and demolished mosques to build many stupas. his son Ghazan who converted to Islam and in 1295 changed the state religion. Meanwhile in Chagatai Khanate was split into two part of eastern and western, after splitting of the Chagatai Khanate, Tarmashirin(1331-1334) was converted to Islam, then little mention of Buddhism or the stupas built by the Mongols can be found in Afghanistan and Central Asia.[60]

Timur (Tamarlane)
Timur was a 14th-century warlord of Turco-Mongol descent,[61][62][63][64] conqueror of much of Western and central Asia, and founder of the Timurid Empire.

Timur destroyed Buddhist establishments and raided areas in which Buddhism had flourished.[65][66]

Theory of persecution by Muslims and conversion to Islam
According to this theory, by the time of the Muslim conquests in India, there were only glimpses of Buddhism nor any evidence of a provincial government in control of the Buddhists.[67] During the 7th to 13th centuries when Islam arrived, this theory claims that it replaced Buddhism as the great cosmopolitan trading religion in many places accompanied by a consolidation of the communal peasant religions of Hinduism.[67] The Tibetan scholar of the 17th century Taranatha writes that during the time of the Sena king Stag-gzigs (Turks) had begun to appear on horses and that monasteries had been fortified with troops stationed in them; however, they were overrun and monks at Uddandapura were massacred, the monastery razed and replaced by a new fort and further north-east Vikramshila was destroyed as well.[68] Hardly any contemporary evidence however exists on the destruction of Buddhist monasteries.[67]



Ruins of Vikramaśīla University
Brief Muslim accounts and the one eye witness account of Dharmasmavim in wake of the conquest during the 1230s talks about abandoned viharas being used as camps by the Turukshahs.[67] Later historical traditions such as Taranathas are mixed with legendary materials and summarised as "the Turukshah conquered the whole of Magadha and destroyed many monasteries and did much damage at Nalanda, such that many monks fled abroad" thereby bringing about a sudden demise of Buddhism with their destruction of the Viharas.[67] Buddhism lingered longer in Iran than South Asia and was officially professed under fifty years of Mongol conquest.[67] With the conversion of Ghazan to Islam in 1295, the backlash resulted in the destruction of many Buddhist places of worship and the further migration of monks into Kashmir.[67]

Many places were destroyed and renamed. For example, Udantpur's monasteries were destroyed in 1197 by Mohammed-bin-Bakhtiyar and the town was renamed.[69] Taranatha in his History of Buddhism in India (dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i chos bskor gyi byung khungs nyer mkho) of 1608,[70] gives an account of the last few centuries of Buddhism, mainly in Eastern India. His account suggests a considerable decline but not an extinction of Buddhism in India in his time.

At least read nd

Atleast read it and say that Buddhism in North India is destroyed by Invaders who you glorify now a days in the name of Islam. Yes Some Hindu kings like Chalukya Dynasty has oppressed Buddhists too but in South India, not in North India.

Of course Palas were nice, they were a Buddhist dynasty, lol!

How come you skipped the Senas? Assuming you're a Bengali, it's absurd you'd leave them out, unless it's deliberate.

While we're discussing North Indian history, as I mentioned "in this region" in my very first post, how come you're switching to Central Asian history, .. Mongols, lol. Not the brightest Indian are you?! ;p

The guy you mentioned at the end is Khilji, as I already said in post #19 his vandalism is condemn-able but the time these guys arrived in North India, Buddhism was only confined to Bengal and almost extinct in the mainland North india.

 

[Biplab Bijay]

Of course Palas were nice, they were a Buddhist dynasty, lol!

How come you skipped the Senas? Assuming you're a Bengali, it's absurd you'd leave them out, unless it's deliberate.

While we're discussing North Indian history, as I mentioned "in this region" in my very first post, how come you're switching to Central Asian history, .. Mongols, lol. Not the brightest Indian are you?! ;p

The guy you mentioned at the end is Khilji, as I already said in post #19 his vandalism is condemn-able but the time these guys arrived in North India, Buddhism was only confined to Bengal and almost extinct in the mainland North india.

May be your reading is selective too.

1. Central Asian and North Western Indian Buddhism weakened in the 6th century after the White Hun invasion, who followed their own religions such as Tengri, and Manichaeism.

2. The Chach Nama records many instances of conversion of stupas to mosques such as at Nerun[50] as well as the incorporation of the religious elite into the ruling administration such as the allocation of 3% of the government revenue was allocated to the Brahmins.[45]

3.Mahmud of Ghazni
By the 10th century Mahmud of Ghazni defeated the Hindu-Shahis, effectively removing Hindu influence and ending Buddhist self-governance across Central Asia, as well as the Punjab region. He demolished both stupas and temples during his numerous campaigns across North-Western India.

Mahmud of Ghazni is said to have been an iconoclast.[54] Hindu and Buddhist statues, shrines and temples were looted and destroyed, and many Buddhists had to take refuge in Tibet.[55]

4. Muhammad of Ghor


The image, in the chapter on India in Hutchison's Story of the Nations edited by James Meston, depicts the Turkish general Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khilji's massacre of Buddhist monks in Bihar. Khaliji destroyed the Nalanda and Vikramshila universities during his raids across North Indian plains, massacring many Buddhist and Brahmin scholars.[56]
Muhammad attacked the north-western regions of the Indian subcontinent many times. Gujarat later fell to Muhammad of Ghor's armies in 1197. Muhammad of Ghor's army was too developed for the traditional Indian army of that time to resist.[57]

In 1200 Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khilji, one of Qutb-ud-Din's generals, conquered a fort of the Sena army, such as the one at Vikramshila. Many Buddhist monks fled to Nepal, Tibet, and South India to avoid the consequences of war.[58]


Theory of persecution by Muslims and conversion to Islam
According to this theory, by the time of the Muslim conquests in India, there were only glimpses of Buddhism nor any evidence of a provincial government in control of the Buddhists.[67] During the 7th to 13th centuries when Islam arrived, this theory claims that it replaced Buddhism as the great cosmopolitan trading religion in many places accompanied by a consolidation of the communal peasant religions of Hinduism.[67] The Tibetan scholar of the 17th century Taranatha writes that during the time of the Sena king Stag-gzigs (Turks) had begun to appear on horses and that monasteries had been fortified with troops stationed in them; however, they were overrun and monks at Uddandapura were massacred, the monastery razed and replaced by a new fort and further north-east Vikramshila was destroyed as well.[68] Hardly any contemporary evidence however exists on the destruction of Buddhist monasteries.[67]



Ruins of Vikramaśīla University
Brief Muslim accounts and the one eye witness account of Dharmasmavim in wake of the conquest during the 1230s talks about abandoned viharas being used as camps by the Turukshahs.[67] Later historical traditions such as Taranathas are mixed with legendary materials and summarised as "the Turukshah conquered the whole of Magadha and destroyed many monasteries and did much damage at Nalanda, such that many monks fled abroad" thereby bringing about a sudden demise of Buddhism with their destruction of the Viharas.[67]

Many places were destroyed and renamed. For example, Udantpur's monasteries were destroyed in 1197 by Mohammed-bin-Bakhtiyar and the town was renamed.[69] Taranatha in his History of Buddhism in India (dpal dus kyi 'khor lo'i chos bskor gyi byung khungs nyer mkho) of 1608,[70] gives an account of the last few centuries of Buddhism, mainly in Eastern India. His account suggests a considerable decline but not an extinction of Buddhism in India in his time.



Please read. I think according to you these are peaceful muslim Kings who had dealt with Buddhists cordially. May be Punjab, Sindh, Gujrat, Bihar are central Asian places too.