Why did Buddhism not succeed in India?
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The decline of Buddhism has been attributed to various factors, especially the regionalisation of India after the end of the Gupta Empire (320–650 CE), which led to the loss of patronage and donations, and a competition with Hinduism and Jainism; and the conquest and subsequent persecutions by Huns, Turks and Persians.
Buddhism was mainly an urban religion with the rural India always Hindu. When Islam came to India, it impacted the urban regions first and thus Buddhism became the first victim. Nalanda and other Buddhist centers were mercilessly wrecked by some of the invading powers that impacted the survival of the religion. It was already declining by then and Islam just put a final nail on the coffin of Buddhism.
Hinduism got a major renaissance around 8th century AD. Adi Sankara led an onslaught on Buddhism & won debates all over India. He was invincible with his debating skills and in a scholarly environment, he took many of the defeated Buddhist monks as his Hindu "soldiers". He also greatly cleaned up Hinduism and brought a very forward outlook. Eventually, his efforts were assisted by other south Indian gems like Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya and Hindu empires such as the Cholas & later the Vijayanagar Nayaks. Meera, Tulsidas and other revived Hinduism in the north. Buddhism didn't have correspondingly great supporters in either the religion or among the rulers who could keep the flame alive. I'm not aware of any great Indian Buddhist monk or king in the past 1200 years [after Devapala].
Hinduism is better at facing adversity than most religions. As a religion, it is designed to be highly distributed and highly robust. It is like going after a torrent distribution. It can run fine without prophets, books, monastries and the like. Buddhism got choked and could not withstand a similar onslaught of foreign religions
hope you understand
Buddhism was mainly an urban religion with the rural India always Hindu. When Islam came to India, it impacted the urban regions first and thus Buddhism became the first victim. Nalanda and other Buddhist centers were mercilessly wrecked by some of the invading powers that impacted the survival of the religion. It was already declining by then and Islam just put a final nail on the coffin of Buddhism.
Hinduism got a major renaissance around 8th century AD. Adi Sankara led an onslaught on Buddhism & won debates all over India. He was invincible with his debating skills and in a scholarly environment, he took many of the defeated Buddhist monks as his Hindu "soldiers". He also greatly cleaned up Hinduism and brought a very forward outlook. Eventually, his efforts were assisted by other south Indian gems like Ramanujacharya, Madhvacharya and Hindu empires such as the Cholas & later the Vijayanagar Nayaks. Meera, Tulsidas and other revived Hinduism in the north. Buddhism didn't have correspondingly great supporters in either the religion or among the rulers who could keep the flame alive. I'm not aware of any great Indian Buddhist monk or king in the past 1200 years [after Devapala].
Hinduism is better at facing adversity than most religions. As a religion, it is designed to be highly distributed and highly robust. It is like going after a torrent distribution. It can run fine without prophets, books, monastries and the like. Buddhism got choked and could not withstand a similar onslaught of foreign religions
hope you understand
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