Question

Was Buddhist the first religion to be established in kalinga other than the Hindu religion?

Answer 1

Emperor Asoka was born to a Brahman lady called Dharma by her husband King Bindusara, who was also a practicing Hindu, thus he was born as a Hindu. The misconception that Asoka was a Jain is because his grandfather Emperor Chandragupta Maurya in his last days, lived the life of a Jain, practiced that religion and even died by starvation - followed by the Jains. Some people may argue that this make even Bindusar a Jain but no, he wasn’t. Emperor Bindusar lived as a Hindu and it was only when he descended on the throne did Chandragupta Maurya accept Jainism in his last days.

Answer 2

There is no question that - as several people have stated - Buddhism was destroyed by Muslim invasions starting in the 12th to 16th century. Monasteries were raised to the ground and monks simply exterminated. Since Buddhism is a peaceful religion, it does not react well to absolute forces.

It is also true that Buddhism was only one religion out of many in India, and except for the Ashoka period, it was probably not the dominant one. Since it does not proselytize, it does not expand readily without official support.

A valid question is why then did Hinduism survive, even though it was subject to the same Muslim invasions. Scholars believe that this has to do with the fact that Buddhist institutions were concentrated in a few centers like Nalanda, and somewhat removed from the populace, unlike Hinduism, which was based much closer to the populace in villages and towns. Except for the Pure Land tradition which arose much later, the Buddhist ideal (Arahat or Boddhisatva) is quite hard to attain. In that sense, Buddhism can be considered to be somewhat elitist in its philosophy and practice, and thus not readily accessible to the majority.