Decline of Buddhism in India - Rise and Decline of Buddhism's Indian Social Base

Rise and Decline of Buddhism's Indian Social Base

The Buddha's period saw not only urbanization, but also the beginnings of centralized states. In turn, the successful expansion of the Buddhist movement, with its surge of monasteries and monuments, depended on the growing economy of the time, together with increased centralized political organization capable of change.

During the Maurya Empire, during which Ashoka banned Vedic sacrifices as contrary to Buddhist benevolence, Buddhism began its spread outside of its Magadha homeland. The succeeding Shungas reinstated the sacrifices. They also built the large Sanchi stupa next to a Shunga capital. The overall trend of Buddhism's spread across India and state support by various regional regimes continued. The consolidation of monastic organization made Buddhism the center of religious and intellectual life in India. Pushyamitra the first ruler of the Sunga Dynasty built great Buddhist topes at Sanchi in 188 BC. The succeeding Kanva Dynasty had four Buddhist Kanva Kings.

The Gupta Empire period was a time of great development of Hindu culture, but even then, in the Ganges Plain half of the population supported Buddhism, and the five precepts were widely observed. The Hindu rulers and wealthy laity gave lavish material support to Buddhist monasteries. After the Guptas, the Shaivite kings of Gujarat (as well as Nepal and Kashmir) also patronized Buddhist monasteries, building a great center of Buddhist learning at Valabhi. The Buddhist emperor Harsha and the later Buddhist Pala dynasty (8th-11th Centuries CE) were great patrons of Buddhism, but Buddhism had already begun to lose its political and social base.

The gradual expansion in the scope and authority of caste regulations shifted political and economic power to the local arena, reversing the trend of centralization. The caste system gradually expanded into secular life as a regulative code of social and economic transactions. In ancient times, the four varnas were primarily a categorization scheme; the Vedas did contain prohibitions regarding intermarriage. There were, however, large numbers of jatis, probably originally tribal lineage groups.

According to the historian S. R. Goyal, the decline of Buddhism in India is the result of the hostility of the Hindu priestly caste of Brahmans. The Hindu Saivite ruler Shashanka of Gauda (590–626) destroyed the Buddhist images and Bo Tree, under which Siddhartha Gautama is said to have achieved enlightenment. Pusyamitra Sunga (185 BC to 151 BC) was hostile to Buddhism, he burned Sūtras, Buddhists shrines and massacred monks.

With the surge of Hindu philosophers like Adi Shankara, along with Madhvacharya and Ramanuja, the trinity of the Revival of Hindu Philosophy, Buddhism started to fade out rapidly from the landscape of India.