Friday 28 June 2024

What is the reason that Buddhism diminished in India while Jainism still exists?

 

What is the reason that Buddhism diminished in India while Jainism still exists?

Buddhism was a major religion for a long time in India and it spread very rapidly across the four corners of India as well as the world during the Emperor Ashoka rule and even after that. This you could understand from the monuments you find in the Afghanistan- Buddhas of Bamiyanthe stupas in Sarnath / Kushinagar, the Nalanda University, the Ajanta, Ellora, Kaneri Caves in Maharashtra, the Amaravati Stupa in Andhra Pradesh and even to the viharas in Sri Lanka.

If you look at history, for a religion to survive / spread, it always needed a royal patronage. Christianity spread due to Emperor Constantine, Islam with the Rashidun Caliphate and Buddhism too under the Magadha Empire, Mauryan Empire, Gupta Empire, Satvahana Empire. All was going well for Buddhism till the 8th century. Then the Hinduism revived due to many reasons. One of them can be attributed to Adi Shankara as well as by the rulers at those times.

When a religion spread from one place to other, it imbibes / cannibalise the local religion / gods to spread easier among the locals. This is one of the reasons you ll find many saints in Christianity - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patron_saints_of_occupations_and_activities and also you find dargahs / sufi saints among the Muslims in India. The same happened within Buddhism too. You ll find many Gods among them - http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php?title=Buddhist_Gods_and_Goddesses. They had various forms of Buddha, even Goddess to help them spread it among the people easily.

So, when the Hinduism revived, Buddha was made into one of the avatars of Lord Vishnu and they converted most of the Buddhists back easily - Dashavatara

You ll find the statue of Buddha among the pantheon of Hindu Gods in various temples. I am providing some photos from what I have seen from my travels
Rani ki Vav, Gujarat - 11th century
Here you see, Balarama in the left, Rama in the centre and Buddha in the right.


Airavatesvara Temple in Tamil Nadu - Built by Cholas - 12th century
Here you have Buddha in the centre along with Vishnu in the left and Shiva on the right. You might be even surprised to see Buddha sculpted in 2 places in the Tanjore Big Temple.


Ellora Caves, Maharashtra
Another beautiful example where you ll find the Buddhist caves along with Hindu & Jainism caves but the Buddhist caves declined after 6-7th century in that region.

Also, most of the Buddhist monument got converted into Hindu ones with the change of tide - Buddhist remains worshipped in Siva temples in Krishna district.

This resulted in the gradual decline of Buddhism and you ll find them vanished from the start of 12th century. Reason can be attributed to the invasion of Muslim invaders and people united under the local Kings / religion too.

Now lets come to survival of Jainism compared to Buddhism. It was never a threat to Hinduism like Buddhism was. Also, if you notice, Jainism flourished / survived in a certain belt. Even though you ll see Jainism monuments / major literary work contributed in local language by Jain monks in South India, you can't find much Jains now there. The region where it survived was West India and even with foreign invasions, the region was always under the Hindu Kings ( the Rajputs ) and some of them were neutral / patrons of Jainism.

Another point mentioned in the other answers was the number of Buddhists are more in India compared to Jains. The revival can be attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._R._Ambedkar who revived the Buddhism among the Dalits to fight against the caste system in India.

Disclaimer: I am neither a researcher nor an expert in the religions but my understanding is from my travels across India. I am open to any comments which point the errors in my understanding with valid proofs / facts.

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