Buddhism - Declined or Brutalized in the land of its birth?

[padamchen]

Let us examine in this thread the history of Buddhism. And its interactions with Hinduism in ancient India. Long before the advent of Islam.

Did Buddhism simply decline and fall out of favor with the people of the subcontinent, in favor of Hinduism, reformed and revitalized?

Did Buddhism fall prey to the same evils it sought to abolish and fight, and become victim to them?

Was Buddhism absorbed and did it morph peacefully into a pan-Dharmic identity under the larger umbrella of Hinduism?

Or was Buddhism systematically persecuted and exterminated to the point of insignificance?

@Tshering22 @SarthakGanguly @Guynextdoor2 @ranjeet @salimpheku

Cheers, Doc

 

[Kambojaric]

Rulers like Pushyamitra Shunga and Mihirakula heavily persecuted Buddhists, and must have played a role in the general decline (although other factors were probably at work too)

 

[salimpheku]

Two things happened in ancient India that impacted Buddhism.

1. revival of Hinduism. With advent of Sankaracharya & Hindus accepting & integrating Buddhism as part of Hinduism, the first blow was dealt. Still, the most revered Buddhist institutions and shrines shined through this phase.

2. Advent of Mughal invasion. This was a body blow literally. The Mughals took no prisoners. Buddhists didn't believe in fighting back. This was a match made in heaven for the Mughals. The destruction of Nalanda is a reflection of their brutality, which dealt the death blow to Buddhism in India.

 

[Śakra]

Pushyamitra Shunga and Mihirakula heavily persecuted Buddhists

If I looked like this I would be angry at the world too

Advent of Mughal invasion.

There werent Buddhists at the time of the Mughals. You're thinking of the Delhi Sultanates

 

[padamchen]

Some excerpts from

"How the Buddhists and Jains were Persecuted in Ancient India" by Murad A. Baig

Gaining and retaining power was a brutal business in all countries and at
every period of history with the possible exception of Buddhist societies
where violence was not common. Many genuinely believe that Hinduism had
always been a tolerant religion that assimilated other peoples and ideas
without bloody conflict. The ugly scars of brutality in the history of all
people are sanitized in school history books that understandably want to
play down racial or religious persecution so many cannot be blamed for
holding the opinion that brutality and violence in India were exclusive to
`invaders’ like the Greeks, Mongols, Turks and even the British. While these
were the `invaders’ condemned by legend, it must be remembered that most of
the Arya, Scythian and Jat tribes, who probably came to India from central
Asia, could also be described as `invaders’.

The idea of `invasion’ is actually a naive exaggeration. Most of north
western India was fairly sparsely populated in ancient times and the great
Indian cities (after the Harappan period) were mainly in the region of
present day Bihar until the 6th century BC so many alien tribes from less
fertile areas of the north simply entered with little opposition from the
local inhabitants. Pastoralists never made wars on each other and it was
only with urbanization that rulers of the evolving city states had to keep
standing armies that were dedicated to war.

There were therefore not many wars in ancient times though several probably
small tribal skirmishes that became exaggerated by legends as they evolved.
After Ashoka’s reportedly bloody battle against Kalinga, north India entered
a thousand year period of relative peace under predominantly Buddhist rulers
until the time of Harshavardhan who ruled from 606 to 647 AD. But there had
been many local wars between domestic kingdoms like the Cholas, Pallavas and
Pandyas competing with the Satvahanas and the Guptas or the Rashrakutas,
Gurjara Pratiharas and Palas in later times. There must have been
considerable bloodshed in all these conflicts even if not much is recorded
in Brahmin texts. These battles were however territorial and religion does
not seem to have been used to justify aggression.

Then there was a heady period of vigorous Brahmanical revivalism that
rapidly gathered strength after the 7th century AD. It has to be remembered
that this was not a `Hindu’ revival because the idea of Hindu as a religion
was not known at this time. During this Puranic period most people
worshipped numerous animist deities usually presided over by Brahmin priests
who chanted elevating Vedic hymns even though all the Vedic deities like
Indra, Rudra and Nasatyas had now vanished. Many animist deities including
and several goddesses were absorbed into a new Puranic Hinduism that
included non Vedic deities like Shiv, Ganesh, Hanuman, Kubera, Kali, Durga
and others and new philosophies like reincarnation, Karma and Dharma
borrowed from Buddhism and Jainism. Even the Vishnu of the Puranas was very
different from the Vedic Vishnu. At this time Ram or Krishna were still
heroes of legend and had not yet become deities of worship. A. R. Mujumdar
in The Hindu History (1979) observes … “From 650 AD, perhaps to suit the
needs of the age, Hindus rather suppressed history and invented nice legends
instead”.

Many local rulers, probably at the goading of their Brahmin ministers and
priests, now began to ruthlessly exterminate the previously dominant
Buddhist and Jain faiths. Although the class of Kshatriyas had completely
vanished from history during the thousand years of mainly Buddhist rule they
were reinvented at this time to serve Brahmin interests. No doubt the rich
lands and treasures of their monasteries and temples also gave material
incentives to this religious fervor and many Buddhist and Jain stupas and
monasteries were destroyed and Hindu temples established at their sites.
Similar material motives had actuated religious persecutions in many lands
including those by the nobles in England during the much more recent period
of the Reformation. There are many Hindu references to support this
assertion including the unedited versions of the original Puranas even
though most Buddhist and Jain accounts were destroyed.

Hiuen-Tsang, who visited India from 629 to 645 AD, describes the influence
of a south Indian Brahmin queen on her husband who ordered the execution of
many thousand Buddhists including 8,000 in Madurai alone. Kalhana’s
Rajatarangani (written by a Shaivite scholar about 1149 AD and the first
Brahmin account of India’s historic past from the time of Yudishthira)
relates that Mihirikula, the Hun ruler was converted by Brahmins (in 515 AD)
and unleashed a wave of violent destruction on Buddhist monasteries in
Punjab and Kashmir. He reports (verse 290 in book 1) that “crows and birds
of prey would fly ahead eager to feed on those within his armies reach”. He
proudly proclaimed himself as the killer of three crores.

Hired Brahmin killers later tried to assassinate the Buddhist ruler
Harshavardhana. As a Buddhist, he was unwilling to take life and so banished
500 Brahmins involved in the conspiracy to a remote area south of the
Vindhyas.

Kalhan also reports that several avaricious Hindu rulers looted the
treasuries and even burned Hindu temples of the Shahi and Katoch rulers in
neighboring areas long before the well known looting by Mahmud Ghazni.

According to The Rajatarangani (IV/112), Chandradip, a Buddhist ruler of
Kashmir, was killed by Brahmins in 722 AD. His successor Tarapida was killed
two years later. The newly anointed Brahma-Kshastra (Rajput) rulers usurped
power in the kingdoms of Sind and Kota. Graha Varman Maukhari, married to
Harsha’s sister, was treacherously killed by Sasanka, king of Gauda
(Bengal). He proudly destroyed many stupas and cut down the sacred Bodhi
tree at Gaya.

According to Gopinath Rao (East & West Vol 35) the old tribal shrine at
Jaganath Puri was usurped by Vaisnavas and the walls of the temple even
today displays gory murals recording the beheading and massacre of
Buddhists.

Epigraphica India Vol XXIX P 141-144 records that Vira Goggi Deva, a South
Indian king, described himself as… “a fire to the Jain scriptures, a hunter
of wild beasts in the form of the followers of Jina (Jains) and an adept at
the demolition of Buddhist canon”. It also records “the deliberate
destruction of non Brahminical literature like books of Lokayat/ Carvaca
philosophy by Brihaspati mentioned by Albaruni in the 11th century.” The
huge Buddhist complex at Nagarjunakonda was destroyed. According to Shankara
Dig Vijaya, the newly anointed Brahma-Kshastra kings ordered every Kshatriya
to kill every Buddhist young and old and to also kill those who did not kill
the Buddhists. A Jain temple at Huli in Karnataka had a statue of five Jinas
(Jain heroes) that was re carved into a Shaivite temple with five lingas.

E.S Oakley (Holy Himalaya) Rhys Davids (Buddhist India) and Daniel Wright
(History of Nepal) quote several Nepalese and Kumoani documents showing that
Buddhism had been the prevailing religion of the Himalayas with Badrinath
and Kedarnath as Buddhist temples until Shankaracharya (788 -820 AD) usurped
them in the 8th century and the shrines at Badri and Kedar were then
converted into shrines of Shiv and Vishnu. Wright records that “there had
been a curious intermixture of the two religions with Buddhist priests
officiating at the temples of Pashupati (Shiv) and all the four castes
following the religion of Buddha.” There is no evidence that Shankaracharya
directed such persecution but what is likely is that grasping local rulers
may have used his great name to lend legitimacy to their own destruction and
looting. Many local hill rajas now invited Brahmins to their domains to get
themselves elevated to the rank of Kshatriyas. And many were encouraged to
attack Buddhist monasteries.

Several Nepalese accounts state that the followers of Buddha were ruthlessly
persecuted, slain, exiled and forcibly converted. Though many converted
rather than face death, humiliation or exile. The attackers tested their
faith by making them perform ‘Hinsa’, or the sacrifice of live animals, that
was abhorrent to Buddhists and Jains. Many bhikshunis, or nuns, were
forcibly married and the learned Grihasthas were forced to cut off the
distinguishing knot of hair on top of their heads. 84,000 Buddhist works
were searched for and destroyed.

It is believed that Shankara introduced pilgrimages to these holy places in
the Himalayas for the first time to prevent their relapse into Buddhist or
animist ways. As sufficient local Brahmins could not be found who were
willing to preach in such remote places he imported Nambudri Brahmin priests
from Kerala who, to this day, officiate at Badrinath, and Kedarnath.

Later as the mountain settlements grew, other Brahmins like the Joshis and Pants from Maharashtra, Gairolas from Bengal and Negis from Gujarat were also invited to settle in the hills. Holy pilgrimages then ensured a constant influx of Hindu pilgrims with the presence of many traders, priests, and rulers who had a vested interest in sustaining Hindu pilgrimages to these sacred spots.

@Kaptaan

P.S. @The_Showstopper

Glad you chanced upon the thread on your own.

I did not want to foster the impression of further Hindu victim-hood of minority consolidation and coming together.

Now that you're here, do contribute. I'd like to put things in perspective about innate tolerance and secularity.

Cheers, Doc

 

[Kambojaric]

Two things happened in ancient India that impacted Buddhism.

1. revival of Hinduism. With advent of Sankaracharya & Hindus accepting & integrating Buddhism as part of Hinduism, the first blow was dealt. Still, the most revered Buddhist institutions and shrines shined through this phase.

2. Advent of Mughal invasion. This was a body blow literally. The Mughals took no prisoners. Buddhists didn't believe in fighting back. This was a match made in heaven for the Mughals. The destruction of Nalanda is a reflection of their brutality, which dealt the death blow to Buddhism in India.

With regards to "2" I think you mean the Delhi Sultans especially the early ones. Bakhtiyar Khilji is the man you are specifically looking for. They were certainly the final nail in the coffin for the practise of Buddhism amongst the masses. However the decline had already begun amongst the masses long before as your "1" points out.

 

[padamchen]

With regards to "2" I think you mean the Delhi Sultans especially the early ones. Bakhtiyar Khilji is the man you are specifically looking for. They were certainly the final nail in the coffin for the practise of Buddhism amongst the masses. However the decline had already begun amongst the masses long before as your "1" points out.

The final nail was 1 on a continental scale.

The royal sanctioned extermination (not decline) had begun long before 1 (Brahmanical revivalism).

Buddhism was already confined to the peripheries of the continental power sphere when the Islamic invasions happened.

Cheers, Doc

 

[gulli]

Some excerpts from

"How the Buddhists and Jains were Persecuted in Ancient India" by Murad A. Baig

Gaining and retaining power was a brutal business in all countries and at
every period of history with the possible exception of Buddhist societies
where violence was not common. Many genuinely believe that Hinduism had
always been a tolerant religion that assimilated other peoples and ideas
without bloody conflict. The ugly scars of brutality in the history of all
people are sanitized in school history books that understandably want to
play down racial or religious persecution so many cannot be blamed for
holding the opinion that brutality and violence in India were exclusive to
`invaders’ like the Greeks, Mongols, Turks and even the British. While these
were the `invaders’ condemned by legend, it must be remembered that most of
the Arya, Scythian and Jat tribes, who probably came to India from central
Asia, could also be described as `invaders’.

The idea of `invasion’ is actually a naive exaggeration. Most of north
western India was fairly sparsely populated in ancient times and the great
Indian cities (after the Harappan period) were mainly in the region of
present day Bihar until the 6th century BC so many alien tribes from less
fertile areas of the north simply entered with little opposition from the
local inhabitants. Pastoralists never made wars on each other and it was
only with urbanization that rulers of the evolving city states had to keep
standing armies that were dedicated to war.

There were therefore not many wars in ancient times though several probably
small tribal skirmishes that became exaggerated by legends as they evolved.
After Ashoka’s reportedly bloody battle against Kalinga, north India entered
a thousand year period of relative peace under predominantly Buddhist rulers
until the time of Harshavardhan who ruled from 606 to 647 AD. But there had
been many local wars between domestic kingdoms like the Cholas, Pallavas and
Pandyas competing with the Satvahanas and the Guptas or the Rashrakutas,
Gurjara Pratiharas and Palas in later times. There must have been
considerable bloodshed in all these conflicts even if not much is recorded
in Brahmin texts. These battles were however territorial and religion does
not seem to have been used to justify aggression.

Then there was a heady period of vigorous Brahmanical revivalism that
rapidly gathered strength after the 7th century AD. It has to be remembered
that this was not a `Hindu’ revival because the idea of Hindu as a religion
was not known at this time. During this Puranic period most people
worshipped numerous animist deities usually presided over by Brahmin priests
who chanted elevating Vedic hymns even though all the Vedic deities like
Indra, Rudra and Nasatyas had now vanished. Many animist deities including
and several goddesses were absorbed into a new Puranic Hinduism that
included non Vedic deities like Shiv, Ganesh, Hanuman, Kubera, Kali, Durga
and others and new philosophies like reincarnation, Karma and Dharma
borrowed from Buddhism and Jainism. Even the Vishnu of the Puranas was very
different from the Vedic Vishnu. At this time Ram or Krishna were still
heroes of legend and had not yet become deities of worship. A. R. Mujumdar
in The Hindu History (1979) observes … “From 650 AD, perhaps to suit the
needs of the age, Hindus rather suppressed history and invented nice legends
instead”.

Many local rulers, probably at the goading of their Brahmin ministers and
priests, now began to ruthlessly exterminate the previously dominant
Buddhist and Jain faiths. Although the class of Kshatriyas had completely
vanished from history during the thousand years of mainly Buddhist rule they
were reinvented at this time to serve Brahmin interests. No doubt the rich
lands and treasures of their monasteries and temples also gave material
incentives to this religious fervor and many Buddhist and Jain stupas and
monasteries were destroyed and Hindu temples established at their sites.
Similar material motives had actuated religious persecutions in many lands
including those by the nobles in England during the much more recent period
of the Reformation. There are many Hindu references to support this
assertion including the unedited versions of the original Puranas even
though most Buddhist and Jain accounts were destroyed.

Hiuen-Tsang, who visited India from 629 to 645 AD, describes the influence
of a south Indian Brahmin queen on her husband who ordered the execution of
many thousand Buddhists including 8,000 in Madurai alone. Kalhana’s
Rajatarangani (written by a Shaivite scholar about 1149 AD and the first
Brahmin account of India’s historic past from the time of Yudishthira)
relates that Mihirikula, the Hun ruler was converted by Brahmins (in 515 AD)
and unleashed a wave of violent destruction on Buddhist monasteries in
Punjab and Kashmir. He reports (verse 290 in book 1) that “crows and birds
of prey would fly ahead eager to feed on those within his armies reach”. He
proudly proclaimed himself as the killer of three crores.

Hired Brahmin killers later tried to assassinate the Buddhist ruler
Harshavardhana. As a Buddhist, he was unwilling to take life and so banished
500 Brahmins involved in the conspiracy to a remote area south of the
Vindhyas.

Kalhan also reports that several avaricious Hindu rulers looted the
treasuries and even burned Hindu temples of the Shahi and Katoch rulers in
neighboring areas long before the well known looting by Mahmud Ghazni.

According to The Rajatarangani (IV/112), Chandradip, a Buddhist ruler of
Kashmir, was killed by Brahmins in 722 AD. His successor Tarapida was killed
two years later. The newly anointed Brahma-Kshastra (Rajput) rulers usurped
power in the kingdoms of Sind and Kota. Graha Varman Maukhari, married to
Harsha’s sister, was treacherously killed by Sasanka, king of Gauda
(Bengal). He proudly destroyed many stupas and cut down the sacred Bodhi
tree at Gaya.

According to Gopinath Rao (East & West Vol 35) the old tribal shrine at
Jaganath Puri was usurped by Vaisnavas and the walls of the temple even
today displays gory murals recording the beheading and massacre of
Buddhists.

Epigraphica India Vol XXIX P 141-144 records that Vira Goggi Deva, a South
Indian king, described himself as… “a fire to the Jain scriptures, a hunter
of wild beasts in the form of the followers of Jina (Jains) and an adept at
the demolition of Buddhist canon”. It also records “the deliberate
destruction of non Brahminical literature like books of Lokayat/ Carvaca
philosophy by Brihaspati mentioned by Albaruni in the 11th century.” The
huge Buddhist complex at Nagarjunakonda was destroyed. According to Shankara
Dig Vijaya, the newly anointed Brahma-Kshastra kings ordered every Kshatriya
to kill every Buddhist young and old and to also kill those who did not kill
the Buddhists. A Jain temple at Huli in Karnataka had a statue of five Jinas
(Jain heroes) that was re carved into a Shaivite temple with five lingas.

E.S Oakley (Holy Himalaya) Rhys Davids (Buddhist India) and Daniel Wright
(History of Nepal) quote several Nepalese and Kumoani documents showing that
Buddhism had been the prevailing religion of the Himalayas with Badrinath
and Kedarnath as Buddhist temples until Shankaracharya (788 -820 AD) usurped
them in the 8th century and the shrines at Badri and Kedar were then
converted into shrines of Shiv and Vishnu. Wright records that “there had
been a curious intermixture of the two religions with Buddhist priests
officiating at the temples of Pashupati (Shiv) and all the four castes
following the religion of Buddha.” There is no evidence that Shankaracharya
directed such persecution but what is likely is that grasping local rulers
may have used his great name to lend legitimacy to their own destruction and
looting. Many local hill rajas now invited Brahmins to their domains to get
themselves elevated to the rank of Kshatriyas. And many were encouraged to
attack Buddhist monasteries.

Several Nepalese accounts state that the followers of Buddha were ruthlessly
persecuted, slain, exiled and forcibly converted. Though many converted
rather than face death, humiliation or exile. The attackers tested their
faith by making them perform ‘Hinsa’, or the sacrifice of live animals, that
was abhorrent to Buddhists and Jains. Many bhikshunis, or nuns, were
forcibly married and the learned Grihasthas were forced to cut off the
distinguishing knot of hair on top of their heads. 84,000 Buddhist works
were searched for and destroyed.

It is believed that Shankara introduced pilgrimages to these holy places in
the Himalayas for the first time to prevent their relapse into Buddhist or
animist ways. As sufficient local Brahmins could not be found who were
willing to preach in such remote places he imported Nambudri Brahmin priests
from Kerala who, to this day, officiate at Badrinath, and Kedarnath.

Later as the mountain settlements grew, other Brahmins like the Joshis and Pants from Maharashtra, Gairolas from Bengal and Negis from Gujarat were also invited to settle in the hills. Holy pilgrimages then ensured a constant influx of Hindu pilgrims with the presence of many traders, priests, and rulers who had a vested interest in sustaining Hindu pilgrimages to these sacred spots.

@Kaptaan

P.S. @The_Showstopper

Glad you chanced upon the thread on your own.

I did not want to foster the impression of further Hindu victim-hood of minority consolidation and coming together.

Now that you're here, do contribute. I'd like to put things in perspective about innate tolerance and secularity.

Cheers, Doc

Murad A baigarati is a nice source to Indian History, truth is in India people do not believe in any religion but there own believes buddhist believes did not interested many so the religion did not grew in India.

 

[padamchen]

Murad A baigarati is a nice source to Indian History, truth is in India people do not believe in any religion but there own believes buddhist believes did not interested many so the religion did not grew in India.

It is natural that some sources will question the credibility of a historian and historical facts based on the faith and name of the person telling the history.

Cheers, Doc

Let me help you with a Korean paper on the History of Buddhist Persecution in India

The History of Persecution of the Buddhist Faith

Korean Minjok Leadership Academy
International Program
Son, Bo Kyung

III.1 India

III.1.1 2nd century BCE
Buddhism was on its high before 185 BCE: early Buddhism became widespread under the Mauryan Emperor Asoka (273-232 BCE), reaching various countries such as modern Sri Lanka, Burma and some Greek kingdoms including the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. Stupas were built, the 3rd Buddhist Council was held in 250 BCE, and many missionaries were sent. The Maurya Empire being the world's first major Buddhist state, the religion flourished until before the Empire's demise in 2c BCE.
After assassinating the last Mauryan Emperor Brhadrata in 185 BCE, military commander-in-chief Pusyamitra Sunga founded the Sunga Empire which controlled the Magadha and neighboring territories including Narmada, Jalandhar, Sialkot, and the city of Ujjain. Sunga kings were orthodox Brahmins, thus were known to have patronized Brahminism at the expense of other religions and persecuted Buddhism which had previously flourished during the Mauryan Empire. Buddhist texts such as Asokavadana and Divyavadana write that Pusyamitra (185-149 BCE) destroyed 84,000 Buddhist stupas which had been built by Asoka and offered 100 dinars(gold coins) per each monk head. (1) Pusyamitra also allegedly converted viharas(Buddhist monasteries) to Hindu temples in places such as Nalanda, Bodhgaya, Sarnath, and Mathura. (2) The texts accuse later kings as well to have remained hostile to Buddhists.
However, some scholars refute these traditional Buddhist accounts. Etienne Lamotte and Romila Thapar stress out that there is no evidence of active prosecution under Pusyamitra's reign, claiming that the texts are merely hyperbolic portraits of Pusyamitra's attack of the Mauyras and reflect the frustration religious figures had when they faced the declined importance of their religion under the Sungas. (3) Kings after Pusyamitra were seen as more tolerant to Buddhism that they contributed to the construction of stupas at Bharhut. There is also an inscription at the Mahabodhi Temple accounting the building of the temple to be "The gift of Nagadevi the wife of Emperor Brahmamitra" (4), which indicates that the Sunga kings supported Buddhism in some degree.

III.1.2 Early 4th century CE
The Pallava dynasty in Southern India ruled the northern Tamil Nadu region and the southern Andhra Pradesh region from 275 CE to late 13th century. The Pallavas were followers of Hinduism but were generally tolerant to other faiths. However, at least two attempts of overt persecution of Buddhism took place. Simhavarma, known to be the father of Naravarma who reigned from 404 CE, and Trilochana are known to have destroyed Buddhist stupas and have had Hindu temples built over them. (5)
Nonetheless, it will be inaccurate to say that the two kings' persecution of Buddhism played a big role in making the downfall of the religion; it was rather the general popularity of Hinduism, especially Vaishnavite Hinduism, in the region that led to a sharp decline of Buddhism and had sanghas greatly diminished.

III.1.3 470 - Early 7th century CE
Prior to this period, Buddhism flourished under the Gupta Empire. There was great development of Hinduism, but Buddhism was still prominently practiced in the Ganges Plain.
However, this was the period when Hindus, especially Shaivites, took aggressive action against Buddhism. At least two kings, the Hephthalite king Miharakula in the early 6th century and the Bengal king Sasanka in the early 7th century reportedly have persecuted Buddhism.
Skandagupta died in 470 and was followed by weak rulers, which allowed the Hephthalites or by the Sanskrit name, the Huna, make fresh incursions of the northwestern frontier of the Gupta Empire. Attacked by Toramana and his successor Mihirakula, the Gupta Empire disintegrated. Toramana is said to have destroyed the Ghositarama Buddhist monastery at Kausambi. On top of that, in Gandhara and the northwestern part of India ruled by the Hunas, Mihirakula, who is recorded in Buddhist tradition as uncouth and extremely cruel, (6) started his role of a determined enemy of Buddhism and a systematic destroyer of monasteries. A patron of Shaivism, he is known to have virtually annihilated the religious communities of the Kabul valley and Northern India, destructing Buddhist temples and monasteries as far as Kaushambi (around modern Allahabad). In fact, Hsuan Tsang writes that he have found most of the stupas and monasteries in ruin as he visited the holy sites a century later from Mihirakula's actions. Later, Mihirakula was engaged in wars against Narashima Gupta, in which he was defeated; many historians account this struggle to be not merely political but also strongly religious, (7) which means anti-Buddhist activities done by Mihirakula intensified the conflict between the Gupta and the Huna. Later in 528 CE, Mihirakula esacped to Kashmir after he was defeated by a confederation of monarchs of central India and the Deccan, and he continued to establish a reign of terror over the Buddhists. Here, the Kashmiri rulers including Kalasa Kshemagupta and Harsha(not to be mistaken for Harshavardhana of Harsha Empire, a great patron of Buddhism) were notorious for being brutal to Buddhists.
The anti-Buddhist policy was reversed by Mihirakula's son, and the emperors of the Second Gupta Period(late 6th century-750) strove to repair the damage done by Mihirakula. According to the pilgrims Sung-Yuen and Hui-Sheng who visited Udyana and Gandhara during the time of Huna domination, the Hephtalite persecution failed to completely destroy the faith in northwestern India; they wrote that the population of Gandhara still had a great respect for Buddhism. (8) Hsuen-Tsang also found Buddhism still flourishing in places around Magadha, Nalanda, Mahabodhi, and Kashmir.
Sasanka of the Gauda Kingdom of central Bengal in the early 7th century also worshipped Shiva and endeavored to extirpate the Buddhists from his dominions. Having murdered Rajyavardhana, a Buddhist king of Thanesar, he have put thousands of Buddhist monks to death, particularly all those in the area around Kushinagar were known to be slaughtered. (9) He also cut down the holy bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, the act for which Hsuen-Tsang maligned the king, and managed to break the stone carved with the footprints of the Buddha at Pataliputra in about 600 CE, (10) Nevertheless, Buddhism survived from Sasanka's persecution as the Emperor Harshavardhana of Harsha Empire, a great patron of Buddhism, defeated Sasanka and saved Buddhism.
However, before and after the persecution of the faith by Shaivite kings, Buddhism could not be the top religion that could outdo all competitors; pilgrims such as Fahien, Sung Yun, Hui-Sheng, I-Ching, and the monk Hsuan-Tsing reported that Buddhism was on its decline between 400-700 CE. In fact, Hsuan-Tsang wrote that he had witnessed a much greater numbers of non-Buddhists such as Jains and Shaivites than Buddhists in places such as Prayag, Sravasti, and Varanasi, where previously Buddhism was dominant. (11)
Shaivism and Vaishnavism flourished also in central and southern parts of India where the Chalukya dynasty ruled from the 6th century. In contrary to previous Andhra and Pallava Dynasties that were Hindu but sympathetic to Buddhism, the Chalukyans were known to have ruined and deserted Buddhist temples.

III.1.4 Early 8th - mid 16th century CE
There always had been hatred Brahmins had against Buddhists, which was well expressed in Brahminical texts, literature, and works of Brahmin philosophers that included fierce strictures against Buddhists: Manu Smriti has a verse that "If a person touches a Buddhist or a flower of Pachupat, Lokayata, Nastika and Mahapataki, he shall purify himself by a bath." (12) The same doctrine is preached in Aparaka's Smriti and Vradha Harit, and even dramas and puranas written by Brahmins contained anti-Buddhist propaganda such as entering the house of a Buddhist or conversing with Buddhists should be a principal sin. Udayanacarva, the tarkika, in Bauddhadhikaram, criticized Buddhism for its denial of Isvara, the creator of the universe.
Kumarila Bhatta in the early 8th century (roughly 700 CE) and Shankaracharya in 788-820 CE were two important Hindu philosophers who added to the malignity against Buddhism. At their time of life, Hinduism was increasing its influence in India at the expense of Buddhism and Jainism; they additionally weakened Buddhist theories and caused a noticeable increase in discrimination and persecution toward Buddhists in most regions in India but Bihar and Bengal where the Pala dynasty patronized Buddhism. Kumarila, the mimamsaka, in his Tarkapadam, attacked Buddhism for its refusal to accept vedic rituals. He publicly debated Jain and Buddhist teachers and attempted to stop the expansion of those two religions in South India. His work was taken up by Shankara who continued to have public debates with Buddhists and was triumphant each time. (13) Although he adopted several ideas from Buddhist teachings such as non-dualism that was radical to contemporary Hinduism, he managed to attack certain Buddhist doctrines in his Bhagavatpada: the doctrine of the aggregates, the chain of causation, the doctrine of momentaries, the budd definition of space (aakaa'sa), and the theory that origin comes only from destruction. (14) He also persuaded the rulers and wealthy laity to withdraw their patronage of Buddhist monasteries, describing the Buddha as an enemy of the people. (15) Anti-Buddhist propaganda was reaching its peak during the 8th century when Shankara modeled his monastic order after the Buddhist sangha. (16) He is determined to have played a leading role in the later forceful takeover of the Buddhist temples by Hindus: Amarnath in Kashmir, Kedarnath and Badrinath in the Himalayas. (17)
Not only Hindus but also Muslims persecuted Buddhists; in fact, it was Islam that struck a critical blow at Buddhism to virtual extinction in India. From 712, Muhammad bin Qasim at Sindh (now part of Pakistan) made non-Muslims including Hindus and Buddhists who were not willing to convert into Islam pay Jizyah, a fixed tribute. This made Hindus and Buddhists flee to other regions than Sindh in order to maintain the faith of their ancestors and their property.
Mahmud of Ghazni, Sultan of the Ghaznavid Empire in 997-1030, was depicted to be an iconoclast who destroyed the most delicately carved and highly expressive images of the Buddha and treasures of the Buddha art. He reportedly had looted and burned down a great multitude of monasteries, and he also killed a huge number of Buddhist scholars, making many Buddhist monks take refuge in Tibet. (18) Mahmud of Ghazni ended Buddhist self-governance across the Punjab region.
The Ghaznavid rule in North India was overthrown by the Ghurids under Muhammad Ghuri (1162-1206). The Ghurids invaded north India, and successfully had the region from Khyber Pass to Bengal under their control. In order to secure their hold on power they followed the age-old Muslim custom of temple destruction, destroying at least 80 Hindu and Buddhist temples during this period, albeit considering that the records of destruction are vastly inflated in Muslim conquest literature as well as Hindu and Buddhist histories. (19) Among the destroyed temples, 2/3 were Buddhists, and this was critical to Buddhism's ability to remain as a formal religion because they had already lost all but a few institutions in Nalanda, Odantapuri, and Vikramasila, over the previous centuries. (20)
The Nalanda University, a great Buddhist center of learning, was raided by Turkic Muslim invaders under Bakhtiyar Khalji, a general of the Turkish commander Qutb-ud-din Aybak, in 1193. He committed documented executions, harassed and tortured erudite monks, killing 15,000 scholars and 200 faculty of the University. (21) The campus and invaluable works of art including the images of the Buddha were destroyed and the enormous manuscript library of the University was burned down. He also destroyed the monastries in Vikramshila, which were in modern Bihar, as well as many monastries in Odantapuri in 1197. As he persecuted Buddhism, he supported Muslim missionaries and made the biggest number of converts to Islam under his reign. (22) By the end of the 12th century, many Buddhist monks retreated to Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet and Southern India. (23)
Persecution of Buddhism was accelerated in this period by Brahmin revivalists who kicked the Buddhist monks out of Buddhist monasteries and temples in order to transform the places into Hindu institutions; they were seeking protection from Muslim invasions by facilitating the installation of Brahmin gods. (24) No less than 1000 Buddhist temples were appropriated by Hindus, (25) particularly in Ayodhya, Sabarimala, Tirupati, Badrinath, and Puri. The Mahabodhi Vihara at Bodh Gaya and the cremation stupa of the Buddha at Kushingar were converted into Hindu temples as well. This trend went on until the 16th century, with Buddhist monuments and Buddha's images being further destroyed; Kolatheri Sankara Menon says that all over Kerala Brahminism made a bonfire of the rich treasure of rare Buddhist books. (26)
The Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire until Akbar the Great's reign in 1556 are also reported to have destroyed Buddhist shrines.
Likewise, with Hinduism absorbing Buddhism since the 4th century, continued persecution of Buddhists by Hindus and Muslims made Buddhism in India hardly exist outside the monastic institutions by the 12th century, (27) and as a formal religion almost disappeared by the 13th century except for in several regions: in Kashmir valley, it survived mainly until the introduction of Islam in 1323 and into the 15th century when King Zain ul Abidin's minister was a Buddhist. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala, there were Buddhist icons remaining and the religion survived until the 15-16th century, and in some southern regions, it might had survived longer, (28) but undeniably, remained weak.

Source: https://www.zum.de/whkmla/sp/1112/sbk/sbk2.html#iv11

Hope that helps @gulli ?

Cheers, Doc

 

[salimpheku]

It is natural that some sources will question the credibility of a historian and historical facts based on the faith and name of the person telling the history.

Cheers, Doc

What historical facts?
The fact that Nalanda survived for thousand years under Hindus only to be destroyed by Mughals?

I just hope future seculars don't blame Sangh for destruction of Buddhist statues in Afghanistan

 

[The_Showstopper]

Some excerpts from

"How the Buddhists and Jains were Persecuted in Ancient India" by Murad A. Baig

Gaining and retaining power was a brutal business in all countries and at
every period of history with the possible exception of Buddhist societies
where violence was not common. Many genuinely believe that Hinduism had
always been a tolerant religion that assimilated other peoples and ideas
without bloody conflict. The ugly scars of brutality in the history of all
people are sanitized in school history books that understandably want to
play down racial or religious persecution so many cannot be blamed for
holding the opinion that brutality and violence in India were exclusive to
`invaders’ like the Greeks, Mongols, Turks and even the British. While these
were the `invaders’ condemned by legend, it must be remembered that most of
the Arya, Scythian and Jat tribes, who probably came to India from central
Asia, could also be described as `invaders’.

The idea of `invasion’ is actually a naive exaggeration. Most of north
western India was fairly sparsely populated in ancient times and the great
Indian cities (after the Harappan period) were mainly in the region of
present day Bihar until the 6th century BC so many alien tribes from less
fertile areas of the north simply entered with little opposition from the
local inhabitants. Pastoralists never made wars on each other and it was
only with urbanization that rulers of the evolving city states had to keep
standing armies that were dedicated to war.

There were therefore not many wars in ancient times though several probably
small tribal skirmishes that became exaggerated by legends as they evolved.
After Ashoka’s reportedly bloody battle against Kalinga, north India entered
a thousand year period of relative peace under predominantly Buddhist rulers
until the time of Harshavardhan who ruled from 606 to 647 AD. But there had
been many local wars between domestic kingdoms like the Cholas, Pallavas and
Pandyas competing with the Satvahanas and the Guptas or the Rashrakutas,
Gurjara Pratiharas and Palas in later times. There must have been
considerable bloodshed in all these conflicts even if not much is recorded
in Brahmin texts. These battles were however territorial and religion does
not seem to have been used to justify aggression.

Then there was a heady period of vigorous Brahmanical revivalism that
rapidly gathered strength after the 7th century AD. It has to be remembered
that this was not a `Hindu’ revival because the idea of Hindu as a religion
was not known at this time. During this Puranic period most people
worshipped numerous animist deities usually presided over by Brahmin priests
who chanted elevating Vedic hymns even though all the Vedic deities like
Indra, Rudra and Nasatyas had now vanished. Many animist deities including
and several goddesses were absorbed into a new Puranic Hinduism that
included non Vedic deities like Shiv, Ganesh, Hanuman, Kubera, Kali, Durga
and others and new philosophies like reincarnation, Karma and Dharma
borrowed from Buddhism and Jainism. Even the Vishnu of the Puranas was very
different from the Vedic Vishnu. At this time Ram or Krishna were still
heroes of legend and had not yet become deities of worship. A. R. Mujumdar
in The Hindu History (1979) observes … “From 650 AD, perhaps to suit the
needs of the age, Hindus rather suppressed history and invented nice legends
instead”.

Many local rulers, probably at the goading of their Brahmin ministers and
priests, now began to ruthlessly exterminate the previously dominant
Buddhist and Jain faiths. Although the class of Kshatriyas had completely
vanished from history during the thousand years of mainly Buddhist rule they
were reinvented at this time to serve Brahmin interests. No doubt the rich
lands and treasures of their monasteries and temples also gave material
incentives to this religious fervor and many Buddhist and Jain stupas and
monasteries were destroyed and Hindu temples established at their sites.
Similar material motives had actuated religious persecutions in many lands
including those by the nobles in England during the much more recent period
of the Reformation. There are many Hindu references to support this
assertion including the unedited versions of the original Puranas even
though most Buddhist and Jain accounts were destroyed.

Hiuen-Tsang, who visited India from 629 to 645 AD, describes the influence
of a south Indian Brahmin queen on her husband who ordered the execution of
many thousand Buddhists including 8,000 in Madurai alone. Kalhana’s
Rajatarangani (written by a Shaivite scholar about 1149 AD and the first
Brahmin account of India’s historic past from the time of Yudishthira)
relates that Mihirikula, the Hun ruler was converted by Brahmins (in 515 AD)
and unleashed a wave of violent destruction on Buddhist monasteries in
Punjab and Kashmir. He reports (verse 290 in book 1) that “crows and birds
of prey would fly ahead eager to feed on those within his armies reach”. He
proudly proclaimed himself as the killer of three crores.

Hired Brahmin killers later tried to assassinate the Buddhist ruler
Harshavardhana. As a Buddhist, he was unwilling to take life and so banished
500 Brahmins involved in the conspiracy to a remote area south of the
Vindhyas.

Kalhan also reports that several avaricious Hindu rulers looted the
treasuries and even burned Hindu temples of the Shahi and Katoch rulers in
neighboring areas long before the well known looting by Mahmud Ghazni.

According to The Rajatarangani (IV/112), Chandradip, a Buddhist ruler of
Kashmir, was killed by Brahmins in 722 AD. His successor Tarapida was killed
two years later. The newly anointed Brahma-Kshastra (Rajput) rulers usurped
power in the kingdoms of Sind and Kota. Graha Varman Maukhari, married to
Harsha’s sister, was treacherously killed by Sasanka, king of Gauda
(Bengal). He proudly destroyed many stupas and cut down the sacred Bodhi
tree at Gaya.

According to Gopinath Rao (East & West Vol 35) the old tribal shrine at
Jaganath Puri was usurped by Vaisnavas and the walls of the temple even
today displays gory murals recording the beheading and massacre of
Buddhists.

Epigraphica India Vol XXIX P 141-144 records that Vira Goggi Deva, a South
Indian king, described himself as… “a fire to the Jain scriptures, a hunter
of wild beasts in the form of the followers of Jina (Jains) and an adept at
the demolition of Buddhist canon”. It also records “the deliberate
destruction of non Brahminical literature like books of Lokayat/ Carvaca
philosophy by Brihaspati mentioned by Albaruni in the 11th century.” The
huge Buddhist complex at Nagarjunakonda was destroyed. According to Shankara
Dig Vijaya, the newly anointed Brahma-Kshastra kings ordered every Kshatriya
to kill every Buddhist young and old and to also kill those who did not kill
the Buddhists. A Jain temple at Huli in Karnataka had a statue of five Jinas
(Jain heroes) that was re carved into a Shaivite temple with five lingas.

E.S Oakley (Holy Himalaya) Rhys Davids (Buddhist India) and Daniel Wright
(History of Nepal) quote several Nepalese and Kumoani documents showing that
Buddhism had been the prevailing religion of the Himalayas with Badrinath
and Kedarnath as Buddhist temples until Shankaracharya (788 -820 AD) usurped
them in the 8th century and the shrines at Badri and Kedar were then
converted into shrines of Shiv and Vishnu. Wright records that “there had
been a curious intermixture of the two religions with Buddhist priests
officiating at the temples of Pashupati (Shiv) and all the four castes
following the religion of Buddha.” There is no evidence that Shankaracharya
directed such persecution but what is likely is that grasping local rulers
may have used his great name to lend legitimacy to their own destruction and
looting. Many local hill rajas now invited Brahmins to their domains to get
themselves elevated to the rank of Kshatriyas. And many were encouraged to
attack Buddhist monasteries.

Several Nepalese accounts state that the followers of Buddha were ruthlessly
persecuted, slain, exiled and forcibly converted. Though many converted
rather than face death, humiliation or exile. The attackers tested their
faith by making them perform ‘Hinsa’, or the sacrifice of live animals, that
was abhorrent to Buddhists and Jains. Many bhikshunis, or nuns, were
forcibly married and the learned Grihasthas were forced to cut off the
distinguishing knot of hair on top of their heads. 84,000 Buddhist works
were searched for and destroyed.

It is believed that Shankara introduced pilgrimages to these holy places in
the Himalayas for the first time to prevent their relapse into Buddhist or
animist ways. As sufficient local Brahmins could not be found who were
willing to preach in such remote places he imported Nambudri Brahmin priests
from Kerala who, to this day, officiate at Badrinath, and Kedarnath.

Later as the mountain settlements grew, other Brahmins like the Joshis and Pants from Maharashtra, Gairolas from Bengal and Negis from Gujarat were also invited to settle in the hills. Holy pilgrimages then ensured a constant influx of Hindu pilgrims with the presence of many traders, priests, and rulers who had a vested interest in sustaining Hindu pilgrimages to these sacred spots.

@Kaptaan

P.S. @The_Showstopper

Glad you chanced upon the thread on your own.

I did not want to foster the impression of further Hindu victim-hood of minority consolidation and coming together.

Now that you're here, do contribute. I'd like to put things in perspective about innate tolerance and secularity.

Cheers, Doc

Source: Revenge and Reconciliation: Understanding South Asian History - By Rajmohan Gandhi

Sri Sanni Siddheswara temple of Nidumolu, 16-km away from Machilipatnam, remains a classical example of how temples were built on Buddhist sites.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities...emples-in-krishna-district/article4686099.ece

Source: Trans Himalayan Buddhism: Re-connecting Spaces, Sharing Concerns -- Ms Suchandana Chatterjee

 

[salimpheku]

http://4freedoms.com/group/heritage...da-library-university-and-monastery-destroyed

The Islamic Destruction of Nalanda (India, 1193AD)

• Alan LakeArtist & Heritage Victims of Kuffarphobia
• Back to Artist & Heritage Victims of Kuffarphobia Discussions

alanda is the name of an ancient university in Bihar, India. The site of Nalanda is located in the Indian state of Bihar, about 55 miles south east of Patna, and was a Buddhist center of learning from 427 CE to 1197 CE partly under the Pala Empire.[1][2] It has been called "one of the first great universities in recorded history."[2] Nalanda is located at 25.135766° N 85.444923° ECoordinates: 25.135766° N 85.444923° E. Nalanda was identified by Alexander Cunningham with the village of Baragaon[3].

Contents
1 Etymology
2 Nalanda in the time of the Buddha (500 BC)
3 Arising and establishment of Nalanda University
4 Description of Nalanda University
5 Libraries
6 Curriculum
6.1 Influence on Buddhism
7 Decline and end
8 Ruins
9 Plans for revival
10 See also
11 Picture Gallery
12 References
13 External links

Etymology
The name is a Sanskrit word that means giver of knowledge, (possibly from nalam, lotus, a symbol of knowledge and da, to give).[4] The Chinese pilgrim-monk Xuanzang[5] gives several explanations of the name Nalanda. One is that it was named after the Naga who lived in a tank in the middle of the mango grove. Another - and accepted by him - is that Shakyamuni Buddha once had his capital here and gave "alms without intermission," hence the name.

Nalanda in the time of the Buddha (500 BC)
The Buddha is mentioned as having several times stayed at Nalanda. When he visited Nalanda he would usually reside in Pavarika's mango grove, and while there he had discussions with Upali-Gahapati and Dighatapassi[6], with Kevatta[7], and also several conversations with Asibandhakaputta[8].

The Buddha visited Nalanda during his last tour through Magadha, and it was there that Sariputta uttered his "lion's roar," affirming his faith in the Buddha, shortly before his death[9]. The road from Rajagaha to Nalanda passed through Ambalatthika[10], and from Nalanda it went on to Pataligama[11]. Between Rajagaha and Nalanda was situated the Bahuputta cetiya[12].

According to the Kevatta Sutta[13], in the Buddha's time Nalanda was already an influential and prosperous town, thickly populated, though it was not until later that it became the centre of learning for which it afterwards became famous. There is a record in the Samyutta Nikaya[14], of the town having been the victim of a severe famine during the Buddha's time. Sariputta, the right hand disciple of the Buddha, was born and died in Nalanda.[1]

Nalanda was the residence of Sonnadinna[15]. Mahavira is several times mentioned as staying at Nalanda, which was evidently a centre of activity of the Jains. Mahavira is believed to have attained Moksha at Pavapuri, which is located in Nalanda (also according to one sect of Jainism he was born in the nearby village called Kundalpur).[citation needed]

King Asoka (250 BC) is said to have built a temple there[1]. According to Tibetan sources, Nagarjuna taught there[16].

Arising and establishment of Nalanda University
Historical studies indicate that the University of Nalanda was established 450 CE under the patronage of the Gupta emperors, notably Kumaragupta.[1]

Description of Nalanda UniversityPilgrimage to Buddha's Holy Sites

The Four Main Sites
Lumbini · Bodh Gaya
Sarnath · Kushinagar

Four Additional Sites
Sravasti · Rajgir
Sankissa · Vaishali

Other Sites
Patna · Gaya
Kosambi · Mathura
Kapilavastu · Devadaha
Kesariya · Pava
Nalanda · Varanasi
Later Sites
Sanchi · Ratnagiri
Ellora · Ajanta
Bharhut

Nalanda was one of the world's first residential universities, i.e., it had dormitories for students. It is also one of the most famous universities. In its heyday it accommodated over 10,000 students and 2,000 teachers. The university was considered an architectural masterpiece, and was marked by a lofty wall and one gate. Nalanda had eight separate compounds and ten temples, along with many other meditation halls and classrooms. On the grounds were lakes and parks. The library was located in a nine storied building where meticulous copies of texts were produced. The subjects taught at Nalanda University covered every field of learning, and it attracted pupils and scholars from Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Indonesia, Persia and Turkey.[2] The Tang Dynasty Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang left detailed accounts of the university in the 7th century.

Libraries
The library of Nalanda, known as Dharma Gunj (Mountain of Truth), was the most renowned repository of Buddhist knowledge in the world at the time. Its collection was said to comprise hundreds of thousands of volumes, so extensive that it burned for months when set aflame by Muslim invaders. The library had three main buildings as high as nine stories tall, Ratnasagar (Sea of Jewels), Ratnodadhi (Ocean of Jewels), and Ratnaranjaka (Delighter of Jewels)[17]

Curriculum
In an unattributed article of the Dharma Fellowship (2005), the curriculum of Nalanda University at the time of Mañjusrimitra contained:

...virtually the entire range of world knowledge then available. Courses were drawn from every field of learning, Buddhist and Hindu, sacred and secular, foreign and native. Students studied science, astronomy, medicine, and logic as diligently as they applied themselves to metaphysics, philosophy, Samkhya, Yoga-shastra, the Veda, and the scriptures of Buddhism. They studied foreign philosophy likewise.[18]

Berzin (2002) outlines the 'four systems of Buddhist tenets' or 'four doxographies' (Tibetan: grub-mtha’) taught at Nalanda, the Vaibhashika (Tibetan: bye-brag smra-ba) and Sautrantika (Tibetan: mdo-sde-pa) of the Sarvastivada (Tibetan: thams-cad yod-par smra-ba); and the Chittamatra (Sanskrit: sems-tsam-pa) and Madhyamaka (Tibetan: dbu-ma-pa) of the Mahayana:

In the Indian Mahayana Buddhist monasteries, such as Nalanda, monks studied four systems of Buddhist tenets. Two – Vaibhashika and Sautrantika – were subdivisions of the Sarvastivada school within Hinayana. The other two – Chittamatra and Madhyamaka – were subdivisions within Mahayana.[19]

Influence on Buddhism
A vast amount of what came to comprise Tibetan Buddhism, both its sutric Mahayana traditions and its (Vajrayana) traditions, stems from the late (9th-12th century) Nalanda teachers and traditions. The scholar Dharmakirti (circa 7th century), one of the Buddhist founders of Indian philosophical logic, as well as and one of the primary theorists of Buddhist atomism, taught at Nalanda.

Other forms of Buddhism, like the Mahayana followed in Vietnam, China, Korea and Japan, found their genesis within the walls of the ancient university.

Also Theravada Buddhism was taught at Nalanda University. But the teachings of Theravada were not developed further in Nalanda, as Nalanda was not a strong center of Theravada.

Decline and end
In 1193, the Nalanda University was sacked by Bakhtiyar Khilji[20]; this event is arguably seen by modern Brahiminist scholars as a milestone in the decline of Buddhism in India. Legend has that the only thing Khilji asked was if there was a copy of the Koran at Nalanda before he sacked it. The Persian historian Minhaz, in his chronicle the Tabaquat-I-Nasiri, reported that thousands of monks were burned alive and thousands beheaded,[21] and the burning of the library continued for several months and "smoke from the burning manuscripts hung for days like a dark pall over the low hills."[22]. When the Tibetan translator Chag Lotsawa (Chag Lo-tsa-ba, 1197 - 1264) visited the site in 1235, he found it damaged and looted, with a 90 year-old teacher, Rahula Shribhadra, instructing a class of about seventy students, apparently with the support of a local Brahmin.[23][24].

Ahir considers the destruction of the temples, monasteries, centers of learning at Nalanda and northern India to be responsible for the demise of ancient Indian scientific thought in mathematics, astronomy, alchemy, and anatomy.[25] Ling and Scott, however, point out that centres of learning were already declining, before the presence of Muslims.[20] Fortified Sena monasteries along the main route of the invasion were destroyed, and being off the main route both Nalanda and Bodh Gaya survived. Many institutions off the main route such as the Jagaddala Monastery in northern Bengal were untouched and flourishing.[citation needed]

Ruins
A number of ruined structures survive. Nearby is the Surya Mandir, a Hindu temple. The known and excavated ruins extend over an area of about 150,000 square metres, although if Xuanzang's account of Nalanda's extent is correlated with present excavations, almost 90% of it remains unexcavated.

Nalanda is no longer inhabited. Today the nearest habitation is a village called Bargaon.

In 1951, a modern centre for Pali (Theravadin) Buddhist studies was founded nearby by Bhikshu Jagdish Kashyap, the Nava Nalanda Mahavihara. Presently, this institute is pursuing an ambitious program of satellite imaging of the entire region.

The Nalanda Museum contains a number of manuscripts, and shows many examples of the items that have been excavated.

India's first Multimedia Museum was opened on 26th Jan 2008 which recreates the history of Nalanda using a 3D animation film narrated by Shekhar Suman. Besides this there are four more sections in the Multimedia Museum: Geographical Perspective, Historical Perspective, Hall of Nalanda and Revival of Nalanda.

Plans for revival
On December 9, 2006, the New York Times detailed a plan in the works to spend $1 billion to revive Nalanda University near the ancient site. A consortium led by Singapore and including China, India, Japan and other nations will attempt to raise $500 million to build a new university and another $500 million to develop necessary infrastructure.[2]
On May 28, 2007, Merinews reported that the revived university's enrollment will be 1,137 in its first year, and 4,530 by the fifth. In the 'second phase', enrolment will reach 5,812. [26]
On June 12, 2007, News Post India reported that the Japanese diplomat Noro Motoyasu said that "Japan will fund the setting up an international university in Nalanda in Bihar". The report goes on to say that "The proposed university will be fully residential, like the ancient seat of learning at Nalanda. In the first phase of the project, seven schools with 46 foreign faculty members and over 400 Indian academics would come up." ... "The university will impart courses in science, philosophy and spiritualism along with other subjects. A renowned international scholar will be its chancellor."[27]
On August 15, 2007, The Times of India reported that Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has accepted the offer to join the revived Nalanda International University sometime in September 2007."[28]
NDTV reported on May 5, 2008 that, according to Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen, The foundation of University would likely be in the year 2009 and the first teaching class could begin in a few years from then. Sen, who heads the Nalanda Mentor Group, said the final report in this regard, is expected to be presented to the East Asia Summit in December 2008.
On May 11, 2008, The Times of India reported that host nation India and a consortium of East Asian countries met in New York to further discuss Nalanda plans. It was decided that Nalanda would largely be a post-graduate research university, with the following schools: School of Buddhist studies, philosophy, and comparative religion; School of historical studies; School of International Relations and Peace; School of Business Management and Development; School of Languages and Literature; and, School of Ecology and Environmental Studies. The objective of the school was claimed to be "aimed at advancing the concept of an Asian community...and rediscovering old relationships."[29]

https://www.rt.com/news/buddhist-temples-torched-bangladesh-342/

Seculars continuing their work against buddhists

 

[The_Showstopper]

Hundreds of Buddhist statues, stupas and viharas were destroyed in India between AD 830 and AD 966 in the name of Hindu revivalism, Jayaprakash said. Literary and archaeological sources within and outside India speak of this.

Source: https://www.telegraphindia.com/1101009/jsp/nation/story_13037587.jsp

 

[salimpheku]

http://www.chakranews.com/invaluabl...d-in-maldives-by-extremist-islamic-group/2224

Another country, another group of seculars destroying Buddhism.
Damn the Hindus for not being present in these countries for taking the blame!!

 

[gulli]

It is natural that some sources will question the credibility of a historian and historical facts based on the faith and name of the person telling the history.

Cheers, Doc

Let me help you with a Korean paper on the History of Buddhist Persecution in India

The History of Persecution of the Buddhist Faith

Korean Minjok Leadership Academy
International Program
Son, Bo Kyung

III.1 India

III.1.1 2nd century BCE
Buddhism was on its high before 185 BCE: early Buddhism became widespread under the Mauryan Emperor Asoka (273-232 BCE), reaching various countries such as modern Sri Lanka, Burma and some Greek kingdoms including the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom. Stupas were built, the 3rd Buddhist Council was held in 250 BCE, and many missionaries were sent. The Maurya Empire being the world's first major Buddhist state, the religion flourished until before the Empire's demise in 2c BCE.
After assassinating the last Mauryan Emperor Brhadrata in 185 BCE, military commander-in-chief Pusyamitra Sunga founded the Sunga Empire which controlled the Magadha and neighboring territories including Narmada, Jalandhar, Sialkot, and the city of Ujjain. Sunga kings were orthodox Brahmins, thus were known to have patronized Brahminism at the expense of other religions and persecuted Buddhism which had previously flourished during the Mauryan Empire. Buddhist texts such as Asokavadana and Divyavadana write that Pusyamitra (185-149 BCE) destroyed 84,000 Buddhist stupas which had been built by Asoka and offered 100 dinars(gold coins) per each monk head. (1) Pusyamitra also allegedly converted viharas(Buddhist monasteries) to Hindu temples in places such as Nalanda, Bodhgaya, Sarnath, and Mathura. (2) The texts accuse later kings as well to have remained hostile to Buddhists.
However, some scholars refute these traditional Buddhist accounts. Etienne Lamotte and Romila Thapar stress out that there is no evidence of active prosecution under Pusyamitra's reign, claiming that the texts are merely hyperbolic portraits of Pusyamitra's attack of the Mauyras and reflect the frustration religious figures had when they faced the declined importance of their religion under the Sungas. (3) Kings after Pusyamitra were seen as more tolerant to Buddhism that they contributed to the construction of stupas at Bharhut. There is also an inscription at the Mahabodhi Temple accounting the building of the temple to be "The gift of Nagadevi the wife of Emperor Brahmamitra" (4), which indicates that the Sunga kings supported Buddhism in some degree.

III.1.2 Early 4th century CE
The Pallava dynasty in Southern India ruled the northern Tamil Nadu region and the southern Andhra Pradesh region from 275 CE to late 13th century. The Pallavas were followers of Hinduism but were generally tolerant to other faiths. However, at least two attempts of overt persecution of Buddhism took place. Simhavarma, known to be the father of Naravarma who reigned from 404 CE, and Trilochana are known to have destroyed Buddhist stupas and have had Hindu temples built over them. (5)
Nonetheless, it will be inaccurate to say that the two kings' persecution of Buddhism played a big role in making the downfall of the religion; it was rather the general popularity of Hinduism, especially Vaishnavite Hinduism, in the region that led to a sharp decline of Buddhism and had sanghas greatly diminished.

III.1.3 470 - Early 7th century CE
Prior to this period, Buddhism flourished under the Gupta Empire. There was great development of Hinduism, but Buddhism was still prominently practiced in the Ganges Plain.
However, this was the period when Hindus, especially Shaivites, took aggressive action against Buddhism. At least two kings, the Hephthalite king Miharakula in the early 6th century and the Bengal king Sasanka in the early 7th century reportedly have persecuted Buddhism.
Skandagupta died in 470 and was followed by weak rulers, which allowed the Hephthalites or by the Sanskrit name, the Huna, make fresh incursions of the northwestern frontier of the Gupta Empire. Attacked by Toramana and his successor Mihirakula, the Gupta Empire disintegrated. Toramana is said to have destroyed the Ghositarama Buddhist monastery at Kausambi. On top of that, in Gandhara and the northwestern part of India ruled by the Hunas, Mihirakula, who is recorded in Buddhist tradition as uncouth and extremely cruel, (6) started his role of a determined enemy of Buddhism and a systematic destroyer of monasteries. A patron of Shaivism, he is known to have virtually annihilated the religious communities of the Kabul valley and Northern India, destructing Buddhist temples and monasteries as far as Kaushambi (around modern Allahabad). In fact, Hsuan Tsang writes that he have found most of the stupas and monasteries in ruin as he visited the holy sites a century later from Mihirakula's actions. Later, Mihirakula was engaged in wars against Narashima Gupta, in which he was defeated; many historians account this struggle to be not merely political but also strongly religious, (7) which means anti-Buddhist activities done by Mihirakula intensified the conflict between the Gupta and the Huna. Later in 528 CE, Mihirakula esacped to Kashmir after he was defeated by a confederation of monarchs of central India and the Deccan, and he continued to establish a reign of terror over the Buddhists. Here, the Kashmiri rulers including Kalasa Kshemagupta and Harsha(not to be mistaken for Harshavardhana of Harsha Empire, a great patron of Buddhism) were notorious for being brutal to Buddhists.
The anti-Buddhist policy was reversed by Mihirakula's son, and the emperors of the Second Gupta Period(late 6th century-750) strove to repair the damage done by Mihirakula. According to the pilgrims Sung-Yuen and Hui-Sheng who visited Udyana and Gandhara during the time of Huna domination, the Hephtalite persecution failed to completely destroy the faith in northwestern India; they wrote that the population of Gandhara still had a great respect for Buddhism. (8) Hsuen-Tsang also found Buddhism still flourishing in places around Magadha, Nalanda, Mahabodhi, and Kashmir.
Sasanka of the Gauda Kingdom of central Bengal in the early 7th century also worshipped Shiva and endeavored to extirpate the Buddhists from his dominions. Having murdered Rajyavardhana, a Buddhist king of Thanesar, he have put thousands of Buddhist monks to death, particularly all those in the area around Kushinagar were known to be slaughtered. (9) He also cut down the holy bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya, the act for which Hsuen-Tsang maligned the king, and managed to break the stone carved with the footprints of the Buddha at Pataliputra in about 600 CE, (10) Nevertheless, Buddhism survived from Sasanka's persecution as the Emperor Harshavardhana of Harsha Empire, a great patron of Buddhism, defeated Sasanka and saved Buddhism.
However, before and after the persecution of the faith by Shaivite kings, Buddhism could not be the top religion that could outdo all competitors; pilgrims such as Fahien, Sung Yun, Hui-Sheng, I-Ching, and the monk Hsuan-Tsing reported that Buddhism was on its decline between 400-700 CE. In fact, Hsuan-Tsang wrote that he had witnessed a much greater numbers of non-Buddhists such as Jains and Shaivites than Buddhists in places such as Prayag, Sravasti, and Varanasi, where previously Buddhism was dominant. (11)
Shaivism and Vaishnavism flourished also in central and southern parts of India where the Chalukya dynasty ruled from the 6th century. In contrary to previous Andhra and Pallava Dynasties that were Hindu but sympathetic to Buddhism, the Chalukyans were known to have ruined and deserted Buddhist temples.

III.1.4 Early 8th - mid 16th century CE
There always had been hatred Brahmins had against Buddhists, which was well expressed in Brahminical texts, literature, and works of Brahmin philosophers that included fierce strictures against Buddhists: Manu Smriti has a verse that "If a person touches a Buddhist or a flower of Pachupat, Lokayata, Nastika and Mahapataki, he shall purify himself by a bath." (12) The same doctrine is preached in Aparaka's Smriti and Vradha Harit, and even dramas and puranas written by Brahmins contained anti-Buddhist propaganda such as entering the house of a Buddhist or conversing with Buddhists should be a principal sin. Udayanacarva, the tarkika, in Bauddhadhikaram, criticized Buddhism for its denial of Isvara, the creator of the universe.
Kumarila Bhatta in the early 8th century (roughly 700 CE) and Shankaracharya in 788-820 CE were two important Hindu philosophers who added to the malignity against Buddhism. At their time of life, Hinduism was increasing its influence in India at the expense of Buddhism and Jainism; they additionally weakened Buddhist theories and caused a noticeable increase in discrimination and persecution toward Buddhists in most regions in India but Bihar and Bengal where the Pala dynasty patronized Buddhism. Kumarila, the mimamsaka, in his Tarkapadam, attacked Buddhism for its refusal to accept vedic rituals. He publicly debated Jain and Buddhist teachers and attempted to stop the expansion of those two religions in South India. His work was taken up by Shankara who continued to have public debates with Buddhists and was triumphant each time. (13) Although he adopted several ideas from Buddhist teachings such as non-dualism that was radical to contemporary Hinduism, he managed to attack certain Buddhist doctrines in his Bhagavatpada: the doctrine of the aggregates, the chain of causation, the doctrine of momentaries, the budd definition of space (aakaa'sa), and the theory that origin comes only from destruction. (14) He also persuaded the rulers and wealthy laity to withdraw their patronage of Buddhist monasteries, describing the Buddha as an enemy of the people. (15) Anti-Buddhist propaganda was reaching its peak during the 8th century when Shankara modeled his monastic order after the Buddhist sangha. (16) He is determined to have played a leading role in the later forceful takeover of the Buddhist temples by Hindus: Amarnath in Kashmir, Kedarnath and Badrinath in the Himalayas. (17)
Not only Hindus but also Muslims persecuted Buddhists; in fact, it was Islam that struck a critical blow at Buddhism to virtual extinction in India. From 712, Muhammad bin Qasim at Sindh (now part of Pakistan) made non-Muslims including Hindus and Buddhists who were not willing to convert into Islam pay Jizyah, a fixed tribute. This made Hindus and Buddhists flee to other regions than Sindh in order to maintain the faith of their ancestors and their property.
Mahmud of Ghazni, Sultan of the Ghaznavid Empire in 997-1030, was depicted to be an iconoclast who destroyed the most delicately carved and highly expressive images of the Buddha and treasures of the Buddha art. He reportedly had looted and burned down a great multitude of monasteries, and he also killed a huge number of Buddhist scholars, making many Buddhist monks take refuge in Tibet. (18) Mahmud of Ghazni ended Buddhist self-governance across the Punjab region.
The Ghaznavid rule in North India was overthrown by the Ghurids under Muhammad Ghuri (1162-1206). The Ghurids invaded north India, and successfully had the region from Khyber Pass to Bengal under their control. In order to secure their hold on power they followed the age-old Muslim custom of temple destruction, destroying at least 80 Hindu and Buddhist temples during this period, albeit considering that the records of destruction are vastly inflated in Muslim conquest literature as well as Hindu and Buddhist histories. (19) Among the destroyed temples, 2/3 were Buddhists, and this was critical to Buddhism's ability to remain as a formal religion because they had already lost all but a few institutions in Nalanda, Odantapuri, and Vikramasila, over the previous centuries. (20)
The Nalanda University, a great Buddhist center of learning, was raided by Turkic Muslim invaders under Bakhtiyar Khalji, a general of the Turkish commander Qutb-ud-din Aybak, in 1193. He committed documented executions, harassed and tortured erudite monks, killing 15,000 scholars and 200 faculty of the University. (21) The campus and invaluable works of art including the images of the Buddha were destroyed and the enormous manuscript library of the University was burned down. He also destroyed the monastries in Vikramshila, which were in modern Bihar, as well as many monastries in Odantapuri in 1197. As he persecuted Buddhism, he supported Muslim missionaries and made the biggest number of converts to Islam under his reign. (22) By the end of the 12th century, many Buddhist monks retreated to Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet and Southern India. (23)
Persecution of Buddhism was accelerated in this period by Brahmin revivalists who kicked the Buddhist monks out of Buddhist monasteries and temples in order to transform the places into Hindu institutions; they were seeking protection from Muslim invasions by facilitating the installation of Brahmin gods. (24) No less than 1000 Buddhist temples were appropriated by Hindus, (25) particularly in Ayodhya, Sabarimala, Tirupati, Badrinath, and Puri. The Mahabodhi Vihara at Bodh Gaya and the cremation stupa of the Buddha at Kushingar were converted into Hindu temples as well. This trend went on until the 16th century, with Buddhist monuments and Buddha's images being further destroyed; Kolatheri Sankara Menon says that all over Kerala Brahminism made a bonfire of the rich treasure of rare Buddhist books. (26)
The Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire until Akbar the Great's reign in 1556 are also reported to have destroyed Buddhist shrines.
Likewise, with Hinduism absorbing Buddhism since the 4th century, continued persecution of Buddhists by Hindus and Muslims made Buddhism in India hardly exist outside the monastic institutions by the 12th century, (27) and as a formal religion almost disappeared by the 13th century except for in several regions: in Kashmir valley, it survived mainly until the introduction of Islam in 1323 and into the 15th century when King Zain ul Abidin's minister was a Buddhist. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala, there were Buddhist icons remaining and the religion survived until the 15-16th century, and in some southern regions, it might had survived longer, (28) but undeniably, remained weak.


Hope that helps @gulli ?

Cheers, Doc

Why are you telling me all this??