The Greatest Mystery
One of the greatest mysteries about Buddhism in India is the cause of its gradual decline in influence and then its total disappearance as an overtly practiced religion and way of life by the second millennium.
Facing such a great mystery, many scholars have sought social, political, religious, military and economic explanations on the reasons for its disappearance. Venerable Jin Yin summarized them into nine internal and four external factors. Those explanations do adequately render a rather comprehensive understanding to such topic. I agreed that it was difficult to identify exactly how and why Buddhism died out in India. There was no single cause but a complex confluence of forces from both the internal and external factors. And all these factors, if I may say, are nearly pointing to the most determined cause to the disappearance of Buddhism in India, i.e., the loss of its identity and social functions.
With reference to the various explanations from the different scholars as summed up by Venerable Jin Yin, I would try to confine my discussion on introducing a basic framework to show their co-dependent nature. The thirteen factors will be re-attributed into three inter-related dimensions: the spiritual development dimension, the social dimension, and the manifestation of Buddhism (Three Gems). I will also try to examine how the deterioration of the sangha community contributed to the loss of its identity and social functions, which resulted in making Buddhism disappeared in India eventually.
A Co-dependent Analysis: 3 Inter-related Triangular-structures
The sangha, as one of the inseparable components of Three Gems and the representative of the Dharma and Buddha, played an extra-ordinary role in promoting the identity and social functions of Buddhism in a given society; which also situated in a multi-dimensional and multi-layer context. This could be illustrated by three co-dependent triangular-structures:
Fig.1
The Spiritual Development Dimension
The first triangular-structure we are going to discuss is Sangha-Master-Vinaya. Spiritual Development is to pursue perfection of self both on wisdom and vinaya in the sense of Buddhist Morality. Therefore, master does play a prominent role in meeting the spiritual and philosophical needs of people and helping them to achieve a higher standard of moral life. However, after the time of Nagarjuna, Asanga and Vasubhandu, there was no comparable great master appeared in India to bring vigor and energy to Buddhism. It resulted in not only the laity but also the monks adopted a rather lax and even indolent lifestyle. Worse still, the Buddha’s teaching turned to be quite mindless upon its non-possession. Moreover, a report on a great Brahmin philosopher, Shankaracharya (788-820 CE) in engaging the Buddhists in public debates and each time he emerged triumphant which obviously reflected the degree of severity of deterioration.
The Social Dimension
The second triangular-structure, Sangha-Ruler-Laity, reflects the social dimension in our analysis. Sangha never stands alone on its own but necessarily co-exists with the non-sangha communities such as laity, rulers and even its opponents. Historically, when Buddhism gained royal patronage, it developed and flourished rapidly, however, when it was persecuted by the rulers, the destructive effects on Buddhism would definitely be the result. On the other hand, Buddhist monks lived in big monasteries with patronage from various kings. They devoted much time on meditation and became very attached to philosophical analyses on the Buddha’s teachings. As a result, they spent insufficient attention to the laity and became detached from people and the daily life of society.
Buddhism, no matter at its time of adversity or prosperity, seeks to peacefully co-exist with other religions. The cases of Upali and Emperor Asoka are the good examples. However, Brahmanism, Jainism, Saivism and Hinduism would closely monitor the development of Buddhism and to modify their doctrines to make themselves more appealing to the people so as to be competitive with and even to defeat Buddhism.
Furthermore, no matter it was the result of distancing between monks (spiritual elites) and laity or a strategy to popularize Buddhism, monks began to introduce image-worship, chanting, rituals, deities and so on from Hinduism. This naturally made Buddhism very similar to Hinduism. Yet, Buddhism became popular in society. At the same time, there were more folk-beliefs found as an important place in Buddhism which it decayed even faster. Eventually, the two religions lost their own identities and the laymen could not see the difference between the worship of Vishnu and the Buddha.
Overall speaking, the identity and social functions of Buddhism were thus weakened and blurred by the retreat of spiritual elites and the process of assimilation.
The Manifestation of Buddhism
The last triangular-structure is Sangha-Buddha-Dhamma, the Three Gems. When the sangha was at its adverse social condition and with poor spiritual development, the Buddha and the Dharma, as its co-dependent components, were also lost. The Buddha became the manifestation of the god Vishnu. The Dharma and some of its elements were stolen and absorbed by Saivism and Jainism to confuse people.
A Lesson from History
The disappearance of Buddhism in India is a historical event. It shows us no matter how successful the establishment is, once it loses its identity and social functions; it will be naturally renounced by its people and the society. If Conze is correct – the decline of Buddhism in India started even as early as 400BC. If so, Buddhism did go through a rather long journey of decline. Therefore, the disappearance of Buddhism in India was not due to any single incident in a particular time; but it was the consequence of a chain of causality of many inter-related factors over several hundred years as shown by the co-dependent analysis framework. It was noted that its vitality was worn out bit by bit as time passed by; while its identity and social functions were gradually lost and finally replaced by other religions. The invasion of Muslims in the 12th century was only dealing the final blow to Buddhism in India.
Reference
- Conze Edward. A Short History of Buddhism. Oxford: Oneworld, 2003.
- Jin Yin. “Brief History of Buddhism in India.” Course note for BSTC6002: Mahayana Buddhism. Master of Buddhist Studies, The Hong Kong University, 2007.
- Lal, Vinay. “Buddhism’s Disappearance from India.” U of California P. 5 May 2007 (Source: http://www.sscent.ucla.edu/southasia/Religions/paths/BuddhismDisappear.doc).
- Kinnard, Jacob N.. The Emergence of Buddhism. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2006.
- Omvedt, Gail, Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste. New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2003.
- Rahula, Walpola, What the Buddha Taught (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1997)
- 印順 (1985)，《印度之佛教》。臺北市：正聞出版社。