Why Did Buddhism Disappear from Its Own Birthplace? Unraveling History’s Great Tragedy

This is history’s greatest and most painful question: on the very soil of India where the Tathagata Buddha was born, where he attained enlightenment, and where paramount emperors like Ashoka and Kanishka unfurled the banner of dhamma [the Buddha’s spiritual teaching and righteous path] across the whole of Asia—how did that very Buddha Dhamma virtually vanish from its own birthplace, India? Why is it that the dhamma which remains the heartbeat of daily life even today in China, Japan, Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Tibet, has been reduced in India to nothing more than a relic in ruins, statues, and archaeological museums?

In his deeply researched book, ‘Buddha Dhamma and India’, N. Singh undertakes an objective post-mortem of this historic tragedy. He writes:

‘It is often simplistically assumed that medieval Muslim invaders like Bakhtiyar Khilji burnt down Buddhist viharas [monasteries] and slaughtered monks, and that this was why the dhamma was destroyed. This is only half the truth. No idea or religion can ever be destroyed merely by the force of external swords, unless its roots have already hollowed out from within!
The Buddha’s dhamma was defeated in India because the Buddhist sangha [monastic order] gradually lost its living contact with the common people. The Pali language in which the Buddha had travelled from village to village to preach—the monks abandoned that vernacular language of the people and took to scriptural debates in the convoluted Sanskrit of royal courts. Monasteries came into immense wealth, gold, and estates, replacing spiritual discipline with luxury and occult rituals. When the inner life force has withered away, any external storm can topple even a colossal tree.’
— ‘Buddha Dhamma and India’

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Major Internal Causes of Decline: Weaknesses of the Sangha

1. Abandonment of Pali, the Language of the People: The Buddha had given a clear injunction—“Sakaya niruttiya buddhavacanam pariyapunitum”, that is, let the words of the Buddha be learned in the everyday spoken language of one’s own region. Yet in later times, during the era of Mahayana and Vajrayana, the monks became entangled in Sanskritised philosophical disputations, which completely cut them off from the common people.
2. Excessive Opulence and Corruption in Monasteries: Lavish donations by emperors and wealthy merchants turned Buddhist viharas into centres of immense wealth and property. Where there ought to have been renunciation, aparigraha [non-possession and non-attachment], and meditation, property management and decadence took over.
3. Vajrayana and Tantric Distortions: By the eighth and ninth centuries, tantric rituals, occult practices, and depravities associated with intoxicants and ritual copulation crept into Buddhism. The very superstition and hypocrisy against which the Buddha had fought his entire life slipped in through the back door, cloaked in the robes of Buddhism.

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Major External Causes of Decline: Reactionary Assaults

1. Brahmanical Revival and Political Suppression: The last Buddhist emperor of the Maurya dynasty, Brihadratha, was assassinated by his commander-in-chief, Pushyamitra Shunga. Shunga and subsequent rulers unleashed severe atrocities upon Buddhists. Historical texts such as the Divyavadana record that bounties were declared for severing the heads of Buddhist monks.
2. Assimilation through Avatarhood: When even violence and suppression failed to completely extinguish the Buddha’s influence, an exceptionally clever strategic move was made—the Buddha was declared the ninth avatar [incarnation] of Lord Vishnu. He was enshrined in the temple, but his egalitarian, anti-caste, and rational ideas were completely suppressed.
3. The Final Blow of Foreign Invasions: Towards the end of the twelfth century, Bakhtiyar Khilji burnt great Buddhist universities like Nalanda, Vikramashila, and Odantapuri to ashes and massacred thousands of unarmed monks. Since Buddhism was wholly dependent upon monasteries and an organised monastic order (and lacked a household priest system in every home like Hinduism), once the monks were killed or fled to Tibet, there was no one left to teach the dhamma to the common people.

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What Lessons Must Modern Society Learn from This Tragedy?

• Disconnecting from the Masses is the Death of Any Movement: No progressive idea or social revolution can survive unless it remains rooted in the language of the common person and connected to their daily livelihood struggles.
• The Transformation of Ideology into Luxury is Fatal: When a revolutionary movement becomes institutionalised and entangled in air-conditioned rooms, foreign funds, and massive wealth, its downfall becomes inevitable.
• The Resurgence of Superstition: If you do not continuously nurture reason and scientific temper, old dogmas and superstitions will return in one guise or another to swallow your revolution whole.

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How Can Buddha Dhamma Be Revived Today?

1. Keeping the Dhamma Free from Ritualism: The dhamma will not return merely by crafting statues of the Buddha and lighting incense sticks before them; one must embody the Tathagata’s Eightfold Path and shila [moral conduct and ethical virtue] in personal and public life.
2. Propagating a Scientific and Rational Outlook: Popularising the Buddha’s principle of ‘Ehipassiko’ (come and see/examine for yourself) among educational institutions and the younger generation.
3. Social Harmony and Fraternity: Turning ‘Maitri’ [loving-kindness] and ‘Karuna’ [compassion] into a nationwide movement against the hatred brewing on the lines of caste, language, and creed.

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A Question Worth Contemplating

If we continue to repeat the very same mistakes today—ostentation, superstition, and alienation from the people—will we be able to leave behind a rational society for our future generations?

To understand this greatest blunder in Indian history and the true causes of the rise and fall of Buddha Dhamma, this chapter from N. Singh’s book ‘Buddha Dhamma and India’ is an essential read.