By P.K.Balachandran/Sunday Observer
Colombo, February 2: Indian historian Shashank Shekhar Sinha has challenged the widely accepted theory that Buddhism vanished from India, its birth place, in the 13 th. Century.
In his latest book, Casting the Buddha: A Monumental History of Buddhism in India (Macmillan, New Delhi, 2024), Sinha points out that Indians had been having debates about Buddhism’s doctrines and absorbing many of them through the centuries after the faith was declared “dead” in India.
Buddhism certainly weakened, partly due to the iconoclastic Indian Muslim rulers in the 13 th., Century, and partly due to the simultaneous ideological re-emergence of the Brahmin-led, “Vedic” Hinduism. But it remained a major subject of conversation in India and many of its doctrines were incorporated into Hinduism. The latter phenomenon went to the extent of portraying the Buddha as an avatar or incarnation of Vishnu, and therefore, a Hindu God in his own right.
Sinha also points out that through its role in social emancipation and political movements, Buddhism came back to the centre-stage in Indian thought, politics and international relations especially in the 19 th. and 20th.Centuries.
Between 1861 and 1865, Cunningham had identified 160 Buddhist sites in North India. The Gandhara area (now Pakistan and Afghanistan) was excavated and the Bamiyan Buddha was discovered in Afghanistan. By 1884, the Mahabodhi temple complex in Bodh Gaya in Bihar was renovated. It became one of the four holy sites related to the life of the Buddha, and particularly to the attainment of Enlightenment.
The Mahabodhi Temple Complex was first built by Emperor Asoka in the 3rd century BC. The present (subsequently renovated) temple was built in Gupta period (4 th, to the 6th Century CE). It is one of the earliest Buddhist temples built entirely in brick, which is still standing.It is considered to have had significant influence in the development of brick architecture over the centuries, Sinha says.
The next Director General of the Archaeological Survey, Sir John Marshall (1902-28), was more interested in discovering and restoring stupas and monasteries associated with Emperor Asoka.
“The stupa’s remains were correlated with contents in the written texts to get a full picture of the ideas and practices of Buddhism in various places. The sculptures gave evidence of Buddhist practices. Coins, inscriptions and artefacts helped tell the story with greater accuracy. Marshall was able to link the sites of Asoka with the 5th.centry Buddhist text Divyavadana.” Sinha points out.
Fascination with World Religions was a feature of Western intellectual life in the second half of the 19 th. Century. Interest in Buddhism, Hinduism and reformist sects grew. Edwin Arnolds The Light of Asia (1879) was an adaptation of the Buddhist text Lalitavistara, a narrative poem on the life, times and the philosophy of the Buddha. The Light of Asia was translated into several Indian languages. Soon, it inspired, top Indian leaders like B.R.Ambedkar, Jawaharlal Nehru and Rabindranath Tagore. The World Parliament of Religions was held in Chicago in 1893, where Anagarika Dharmapala of Ceylon gave a lecture on “World’s debt to Buddhism.”
Hindu reform movements like Brahmo Samaj and Prarthana Samaj also helped create an interest in Buddhism. Buddhist societies were formed in many parts of India and these societies produced Buddhist literature. Tagore included Buddhist themes in his artistic productions.
Even the Hindu Mahasabha patronized Buddhism though it maintained that Buddhism was only “reformed Hinduism” and not a separate religion. Hindu business houses also supported and propagated Buddhism, Sinha reveals.
The Hindu Birlas patronised Buddhism. Jugal Kishore Birla (1883-1967) financed 15 major Buddhist temples. He financially supported the Hindi translation of Pali texts. J.K.Birla was aided by leftists and Marxists like D.N.Kosambi and Rahul Sankritayayan .
There is, therefore, no dispute that Buddhist ideas and beliefs survived, albeit in the margins of religious thought in the Indian subcontinent. In that sense, Europe cannot be entirely credited for the discovery or revival of Buddhism in India, Sinha maintains.
Buddhism also inspired anti-caste movements, and efforts to build of an equalitarian society through the Constitution of independent India. After independence, Buddhism was grafted into State craft, nation building and international relations too.
Politicians use Buddhism to promote egalitarian and equalitarian ideas. Even orthodox believers in caste are co-opting Buddhism to interpret Brahminical Hindusim as containing within itself the Buddhist idea of a caste-free society. They portray Buddha as the 9 th. incarnation of the Hindu God Vishnu..
India is using its Buddhist past to establish “civilizational” links with Buddhist countries and is promoting its Buddhist monuments to attract pilgrims and tourists from Asia. Indeed, as Sinha says: “The Buddha has come to occupy the Centre-stage again.”
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