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| RUPEE NEWS | November 30th, 2008 | Moin Ansari | معین آنصآرّی | اخبار روپیہ | Why did Buddhism disappear from South Asia? A summary of Buddhist Hindu wars
Persecution of Buddhists in India–Rebuttal to Sudha Ramachandran
SUBJECT: India has its own ’soft power’ – Buddhism By Sudha Ramachandran
Dear Editor:
I really enjoy reading Sudha Ramachandran’s article however in the article (India has its own ’soft power’ – Buddhism) Ramachandran referred to Buddhism “it declined in the land of it’s birth” as if it was a crop of daisys that withered away because of lack of rain.
According to Jawaharlal Nehru “>Glimpses of World History and other books). Buddhism was hounded out of India by Brahman Cruelty and Hindu intolerance.
“Why did Buddhism disappear from South Asia? Brahmin atrocities that destroyed Buddhism in the Subcontinent”
Why did Buddhism disappear from South Asia? Brahmin atrocities that destroyed Buddhism in the Subcontinent the great Kashmiri historians, Kalhana and Ratnakar the Buddhist monks were tortured, and their temples converted into Hindu temples. The 2nd century historian Ashokavadana describes in detail the campaign of destruction Buddhist temples, and pillage carried on by King Pusyamitra. The Divyavadana ascribes to him the razing of stupas and viharas built by Ashoka, and describes him as one who wanted to undo the work of Ashoka. Brahmanism (a strict social organization on the basis of some religious ideas) tried to dilute Buddhism by presenting it as a kind of Hinduism. Thus, from the 7th century Buddha was included in the list of Avataras of Vishnu. Incorporating Buddha into Hinduism is rejected by pure Buddhists all over the world. With the decline of the Guptas, the nomadic tribes of Central Asia called the Huns invaded India. Their leader Tormana invaded Kashmir (500 AD).
“Buddhist texts such as the Ashokavadana and Divyavadana, written about four centuries after his reign, they contain accounts of the persecution of Buddhists during his reign.
“Jawaharlal Nehru in his book Glimpses of World History says “Skandagupta, the fifth of the Gupta line had to face this Hun invasion…gradually they spread all over Gandhara and the greater part of Northern India. They tortured the Buddhists and committed all manner of frightfulness….There must have been continuous warfare against them, but the Guptas could not drive them away. Fresh waves of Huns came .”..
Nehru says, “The treatment of men was sometimes worse then that of animals (some of the animals like cows were actually revered because they were Gods). Lower caste Hindus had a miserable life. Other historians have commented that the treatment of women was even worse, specially women of lower castes, they were considered the property of the upper caste Hindus, to be molested and/or raped at will. In many cases the new bride had to stay a night with the village Brahman before she was married off. Kashmir converted to Islam during this time period. It was cruelty like this that led to the whole sale conversion to Islam. The new religion offered them equality and saved them from the Brahmans.”
Jawaharlal Nehru says the following about the Hindu Huns …”Torman installed himself king . He was bad enough, but after him came his son Miharagula, who was an unmitigated savage and fiendishly cruel. Kalhana in his history of Kashmir–the Rajatrangini–tells us that one of his Miharagulas amusements was to have elephants thrown over the great precipices into the valley below. “
Today only 7 million Buddhists remain in India, the land of the Birth of Lord Buddha. If India wants to show repentance towards Buddhists, Hinduism needs to acknowledge the independence of Buddhism as a religion, and rebuilding of Buddhists temples all over India.
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SUMMARY OF BRAHMAN ATROCITIES THAT DESTROYED BUDDHISM IN INDIA
1) The Divyavadana (ed. Vaidya, 282). The most important of the murderous Hindu bigots who carried out their systematic campaign of violence against the peaceful followers of Lord Buddha was Pushyamitra (184-48 B.C.), the founder of the Shunga dynasty. For details and refrences do see BELOW
2) Goyal [430] “The culprit in this case was Toramana, a member of the same dynasty as the Shaivite Mihirakula who did “immense damage to the Buddhist shrines in Gandhara, Punjab and Kashmir.” For details and refrences do see BELOW
3) Mihirakula is said to have razed 1600 viharas, stupas and monasteries, and “put to death 900 Kotis, or lay adherents of Buddhism” [Joshi, 404].
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4) The Aryamanjushrimulakalpa tells us that Pushyamitra “destroyed monasteries with relics and killed monks of good conduct.” [Jayaswal, 18-19]
5) As Goyal [394] notes, “According to many scholars hostility of the Brahmanas was one of the major causes of the decline of Buddhism in India.”
6) The celebrated Tibetan historian Lama Taranatha mentions the march of Pushyamitra from Madhyadesha to Jalandhara. In the course of his campaigns, the book states, Pushyamitra burned down numerous Buddhist monasteries and killed a number of learned monks The archaeological evidence for the ravages wrought by Pushyamitra and other Hindu fanatic rulers on famous Buddhist shrines is abundant.
7) The Brhannaradiya-purana lays it down as a principal sin for a Brahmana to enter the house of a Buddhist even in times of great peril.
8) The drama Mrchchhakatika shows that in Ujjain the Buddhist monks were despised and their sight was considered inauspicious.
9) The Vishnupurana (XVIII 13-18) also regards the Buddha as Mayamoha who appeared in the world to delude the demons. Kumarila is said to have instigated King Sudhanvan of Ujjain to exterminate the Buddhists.
10) The Kerala-utpatti describes how he exterminated the Buddhists from Kerala.”
11) The Chinese traveller Yuan Chwang (Huen Tsang), who visited India in the seventh century records the oppressions of Shashanka, the king of Gauda, who was a devotee of Shiva.
12) Yuan Chwang’s account reads, “In recent times Shashanka, the enemy and oppressor of Buddhism, cut down the Bodhi tree, destroyed its roots down to the water and burned what remained.” [Watters II p.115] He also says that Shashanka tried “to have the image (of Lord Buddha at Bodhgaya) removed and replaced by one of Shiva”.
13) Another independent account of Shashanka’s oppressions is found in the Aryamanjushrimulakalpa, which refers to Shashanka destroying “the beautiful image of Buddha” [Jayaswal, 49-50].
14) Another prominent seventh century murderer of Buddhists was Sudhanvan of Ujjain, already mentioned in the quotation from Goyal above as having been supposedly instigated by Kumarila Bhatt.
15) Madhava Acharya, in his “Sankara-digvijayam” of the fourteenth century A.D., records that Suddhanvan “issued orders to put to death all the Buddhists from Ramesvaram to the Himalayas”.
16) Even after the Islamic invasions of India, Hindu bigotry and hatred for Buddhists was not subdued. According to Sharmasvamin, a Tibetan pilgrim who visited Bihar three decades after the invasion of
Bakhtiaruddin Khilji in the 12th century, the biggest library at Nalanda was destroyed by Hindu mendicants who took advantage of the chaos produced by the invasion.
He says that “they (Hindus) performed a Yajna, a fire sacrifice, and threw living embers and ashes from the sacrifice into the Buddhist temples. This produced a great conflagration which consumed Ratnabodhi, the
nine-storeyed library of the Nalanda University”. [Prakash, 213]. Numerous destroyed Buddhist shrines were converted into Hindu temples after their destruction.
17) Ahir [58] notes that “The Seat of Buddha’s Enlightenment was in the possession of a Hindu Mahant till 1952.
18) Similarly, at Kushinara, where the Buddha had entered into Mahaparinirvana, the cremation stupa had been converted into a Hindu temple, and on top of it stood the temple of Rambhar Bhavani when Cunningham discovered the site in 1860-61.
19) Among the shrines which still continue to be dedicated to Hindu gods mention may be made of the Caityas of Chezrala and Ter in Andhra Pradesh which are now Shiva and Vishnu temples respectively.
20) The temple of Madhava at Sal Kusa, opposite Gauhati in Asam, was once a sacred shrine of the Buddhists. …
21) And the famous Jagannatha temple at Puri in Orissa was also originally a Buddhist shrine.
22) Similarly, the Vishnupada temple at Gaya was also once a Buddhist shrine.” As Rajendralal Mitra notes in his famous work of 1878 [quoted in Ahir, 59] the feet of Buddha at Gaya were rechristened the feet of Vishnu and held as the most sacred object of worship in the new Vishnupada temple.
23) According to the records of Hieun Tsang and Kalhana’s Rajaatarangini, Asoka the great repented, converted to Buddhism (273-232 BC) and did a lot for Buddhism. Asoka renounced violence, and renounced his religion after the Kalinga war, and he became a Buddhist. During Asoka, Buddhism had become the state religion. The Brahmans did not like him, and many historians think the Brahaman opposition to Asoka led to the destruction of the Muyarian dynasty.
24) In Glimpses of World History Jawahrlal Nehru says the following about the Kushans (emphasis is mine and not Nehru’s): ” This Kushan Empire is interesting in many ways. IT WAS A BUDDHIST EMPIRE, and one of its famous rulers-the Emperor Kanishka-was ardently devoted to the dharma…the Kushans were Mongolians or closely allied to them. From the Kushan capital there must have been a continuous coming and going to the Mongolian homelands, and Buddhist learning and Buddhist culture must have gone to China and Mongolia…the Kushan Empire sat like a colossus astride the back of Asia, in between the Greaco-Roman world in the south. It was a halfway house both between India, and Rome, and India and China. The Kushan period corresponded with the last days of the Roman Republic when Julius Ceaser was alive, and first 200 years of the Roman Empire
25) THE HINDU KASHATRIYA HINDU AND BUDDHIST WARS
Jawarhalal Nehru in his book Glimpses of World History says (Page 103 and 104) “Chandragupta proclaimed his holy war “against all foreign rulers in India. The Kashatriyas and the Aryan aristocracy, deprived of their power and positions by the aliens (Kushans), were at the back of this war. After a dozen or so years of fighting, Chandragupta managed to gain control over Northern India including what is now called UP. He then crowned himself king of kings. Thus began the Gupta dynasty. It was a period of somewhat aggressive Hinduism and nationalism. The foreign rulers-the Turkis and Parathions and other Non-Aryans were rooted our and forcibly removed. We thus find racial antagonism at work. The Indo-Aryan aristocrat was proud of his race and looked down upon these barbarians and malachas. Indo-Aryan States and rulers were conquered by the Guptas were dealt with leniently, But there was not leniency for non-Aryans.
26) Jawarhalal Nehru in his book Glimpses of World History says “
27) HINDU BUDDHIST CONFLICT
Jawarhalal Nehru in his book Glimpses of World History says “The Gupta revival of Aryanism and Hinduism was naturally not very favorably inclined towards Buddhism. This was partly because this movement was aristocratic, with the Kashatriya chiefs backing it, and Buddhism had more democracy in it; partly because the Mahayana form of Buddhism was closely associated with the Kushans and other alien rulers of northern India….but Buddhism declined in India…Chandragupta the first was a contemporary of Constantine the great, the Roman Emperor who founded Constantinople. “
28) HINDU IMPERIALISM SAILS TO THE FAR EAST AND DESTROYS THE MALAY CIVILIZATION
The years of ANO DOMINI saw the beginning of Hindu imperialism outside India. Just like the Ferocious Aryans destroyed the IVC, these Hindu invaders destroyed the 2500 year old civilization of the Malay peninsula and imposed a foreign culture upon the peace loving people of the far east. Local temples were destroyed, people were enslaved, and the local language was abolished. Being polite, Jawahalal Nehru in the
understatement of the century writes in his book Glimpses of World History says:
Jawarhalal Nehru in his book Glimpses of World History says “
29) During this time Fa-hien visited India to study Buddhism (399 AD) and found “gaya wa waste and desolate”. He gives a detailed account of Buddhist persecution by the Brahman Aryans.
Pusyamitra Sunga (reigned 185 to 151 BCE) assassinated the last Mauryan emperor Brhadrata in 185 BCE, and subsequently founded the Sunga dynasty. From the mid 3rd century BC, under Ashoka, Buddhist proselytization had begun to spread beyond the subcontinent. Buddhist texts such as the Ashokavadana and Divyavadana, written about four centuries after his reign, they contain accounts of the persecution of Buddhists during his reign. They ascribe to him the razing of stupas and viharas built by Ashoka, the placement of a bounty of 100 dinaras on the heads of Buddhist monks and describe him as one who wanted to undo the work of Ashoka (Ashok Kumar Anand, “Buddhism in India”, 1996, Gyan Books, ISBN 8121205069, pg 91-93 )
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 647AD. 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.Were Buddhists and Jains Persecuted in Ancient India? Murad A Baig May 26, 2008
Force is all-conquering, but its victories are short-lived. ~Abraham Lincoln In 1821
2009: On August 15, India’s independence day, Lal Chowk, the nerve centre of Srinagar, was taken over by thousands of people who hoisted the Pakistani flag and wished each other “happy belated independence day”:-- Arundhati Roy
(Pakistan celebrates independence on August 14)
Modi & Hindu fundamentalist Modi in “India” funded by US Gujaratis
Governor Bobby Jindal is financed by Indian American Hotel Association and he supports the IAHA which funds Modi
Indian Hotel Association hosts Modi after US denied him a visa 
“We should have nothing to do with conquest.“ In Thomas Jefferson 1791
The PPPP emptied the treasury in 6 months!
Mr. Modi the Chief Minister was implicated in these riots--supported by Indian Hotel Owners Association in America--the same group that supports Gov. Bobby Jindal
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Laden's secure mountain hideout?
Chinese scholars traveling through the region between the 5th and 8th centuries CE, such as Faxian, Xuanzang, I-ching, Hui-sheng, and Sung-Yun, began to speak of a decline of the Buddhist sangha, especially in the wake of the White Hun invasion. Central Asian and North Western Indian Buddhism weakened in the 6th century following the White Hun invasion, who followed their own religions such as Tengri, Nestorian Christianity, and Manichean. Their 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, before his son reversed the policy.
A continuing decline occurred after the fall of the Pala dynasty in the 12th century CE. Buddhism was virtually extinct by the end of the 19th century. During the British rule of India, it was totally disregarded. In recent times, Buddhism has seen a revival in India from the influence of Anagarika Dharmapala, Kripasaran Mahasthavir.
Following the Mauryans, Pusyamitra Sunga is linked in legend with the persecution of Buddhists and a resurgence of a form of Hinduism that forced Buddhism outwards to Kashmir, Gandhara and Bactria. There is some doubt as to whether he did or did not persecute Buddhists actively.
A Buddhist tradition holds him as having taken steps to check the spread of Buddhism as “the number one enemy of the sons of the Sakya’s and a most cruel persecutor of the religion”. The Divyavadana ascribes to him the razing of stupas and viharas built by Ashoka, the placing of a bounty of 100 dinaras upon the heads of Buddhist monks (bhiksus) and describes him as one who wanted to undo the work of Ashoka. This account has however been described as “exaggerated”.Historian Romila Thapar writes that the Asokavadana legend is, in all probability, a “Buddhist version of Pusyamitra’s attack of the Mauryas”, and reflects the fact that, with the declining influence of Buddhism in the Imperial court, Buddhist monuments and institutions would receive less attention.
The accuracy of the Buddhist texts that record Pushyamitra’s persecution of Buddhists has been debated by historians. The first accounts appear two centuries after Pushyamitra’s reign in Asokâvadâna and the Divyâvadâna. Sir John Marshall states that it is possible that the original brick stupa built by Ashoka was destroyed by Pusyamitra and then restored by his successor Agnimitra. Archaeological evidence is scarce and uncertain. Following Ashoka’s sponsorship of Buddhism, it is possible that Buddhist institutions fell on harder times under the Sungas.
The Sungas were patrons of Hinduism and their lack of royal patronage was also a setback to Buddhism, resulting in the splintering of Buddhism into many forces. Some of them were: the Saravastivadins, Mahasargikas, Sthaviravadha, and Yogacara. This resulted in a diversity of opinions and interpretations that led to a conflict between warring schools shortly after the fall of the Mauryans.
Traditional Hinduism is said by some writers to have competed in political and spiritual realm with Buddhism in the gangetic plains while Buddhism flourished in the realms of the Bactrian kings.
In the North and west the collapse of Harshavardana’s kingdom gave rise to many smaller kingdoms. This led 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. This carried on until a revival under the Pala Empire in the Bengal region.
In the south of India while there was no overt persecution of Buddhists at least two Pallava rulers Simhavarma and Trilochana are known to have destroyed Buddhist stupas and have had Hindu temples built over them. However, Bodhidharma, a patriarch of Zen Buddhism of was a Brahmin prince from the Pallava dynasty.
Nagarjuna, the founder of Mahayana Buddhism, was a Brahmin from southern India.
The Satavahanas were worshipers of Buddha as well as other Hindu gods such as Krishna, Shiva, Gauri, Indra, the sun and moon. Under their reign Amaravati, the historian Durga Prasad notices that Buddha had been worshiped as a form of Vishnu.
Furthermore a vigorous Hindu revival of Vaishnavite Hinduism in the region led to a sharp decline of Buddhism
In AD 711, Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Sindh bringing Indian societies into contact with Islam. He succeeded partly because Dahir was an unpopular Hindu king that ruled over a Buddhist majority. Chach of Alor and his kin were regarded as usurpers of the earlier Buddhist Rai Dynasty. The forces of Muhammad bin Qasim defeated Raja Dahir in alliance with the Jats and other Buddhist governors. His campaign’s success is ascribed to the support of Buddhists and the people of lower castes like Jats, Meds and Bhutto tribes.
The Chach Nama records a couple of instances of conversion of stupas to mosques such as at Nerun 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. As a whole, the non-Muslim populations of conquered territories were treated as People of the Book and granted Hindu and Buddhist religions the freedom to practice their faith in return for payment of the poll tax (jizya). They were then excused from military service or payment of the tax paid by Muslim subjects – Zakat. The jizya enforced was a graded tax, being heaviest on the elite and lightest on the poor.
While proslytization occurred, the social dynamics of Sind were no different from other Muslim regions such as Egypt, where conversion to Islam was slow and took centuries, and generally came from among the ranks of Buddhists.
If Muslims had used forced then their would also be no Hindus in India! Did you kknow that ISLAM is the fastest growing religion in the world? in the last 50 Years it has grown by 245% whereas Christanity 46% and Hinduism 67% and Buddhism by 78%, I’m asking you which war took place in the last 50 years where Muslims forced non-muslims to accept Islam? Dont be a fool, be truthful and realistic! even in the 2004 survey ISLAM is the fastest growing religion in UK, USA, and Europe! who is forcing them?
Both Buddha and Mahavira is treated as God and Avtars in Hindu Culture.
Had there been enmity between Hinduism and Buddhism them Dalai Lama won’t took refuse in India, He would Hve gone to Pakisthan!!!!
Indian State Arunachal Pradesh where 95% population is Buddhist wants to stay with India nt with China? tell me Why? because Gautama Buddha was himself was a Hindu and Buddhism is a sect of Buddhism, like Jainsm and Sikhism.
what about the thousands of hindu temples destroyed by muslim invaders over centuries? I one day alone more than a 1000 temples were destroyed at Sarnath. The history of India is long and complex.
The university at Nalanda was overrun completely and destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khalji when there were still budhist monks there in the 13th century.
Budhism flourished in India for more than 1400 years, please question and ask how long did it take for the hindu populations in pakistan and bangladesh to decline after partition?
There are a lot of things wrong with India, but 90% of the stuff you spew here is complete and utter rubbish.
Please come to India and judge facts by yourself.