Did Br?hmaoeas and Br?hmanical-Hinduism Cause the Decline of Indian Buddhism?

Abstract

It is sometimes alleged that the br?hma?as despised the Buddhists and that their animosity, though not persistent and sustained, broke out in a frenzy from time to time till Buddhism was overpowered and wiped out from India. According to L.M. Joshi, “Among the external factors the most important was the Br?hma?ical hostility towards Buddhism... This hostile attitude was vigorously sustained till Buddhism was overpowered in India and disappeared from the land of its birth.” Similarly, Yamakami was of the opinion that “there is no reason to doubt that the Sanskrit Tripi?aka met, at the hands of the Brahmin persecutors of Buddhism, a treatment not dissimilar to that which the Indian Buddhists themselves received.” G. Verardi claims to have found sufficient evidence on the violent end of Indian Buddhism at the hands of br?hma?as. He feels that religious tolerance was alien to pre British India and there is sufficient actual or circumstantial evidence available all over India, from Kathmandu to Orissa and the Deccan, in the Br?hma?ical sources (inscriptions, literary works, oral tradition), as well as in the archaeological record, testifying to the destruction of monasteries by the br?hma?as and the creation by them of special militias aimed at intimidating the Buddhist monks and the laity.