Previous Year Question
Why did Buddhism start declining in India in the early medieval times?
Buddha was by that time considered as one of the incarnations of Vishnu and thus became a part of Vaishnavism.
The invading tribes from Central Asia till the time of the last Gupta king adopted Hinduism and persecuted Buddhists.
The Kings of the Gupta dynasty were strongly opposed to Buddhism.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Correct Answer: A
Detailed Solution
Statement 1 is correct. By the early medieval period, the Puranic Vaishnava tradition had incorporated the Buddha among the incarnations of Vishnu. Direct textual evidence occurs in Bhagavata Purana 1.3.24, where Buddha is mentioned in the sequence of Vishnu's incarnations. The incorporation of the Buddha into the Vaishnava avatara tradition thus blurred, to some extent, the religious boundaries between Buddhism and developing Puranic Vaishnava traditions.
Statement 2 is incorrect. It cannot be generalised that all groups entering India from Central Asia adopted Hinduism and persecuted Buddhists. Some rulers of Central Asian origin in India became important patrons of Buddhism; the Kushana ruler Kanishka is a prominent example. There is evidence that Huna invasions damaged Buddhist institutions, but this cannot be equated with all Central Asian invading groups adopting Hinduism and systematically persecuting Buddhists. Therefore, the statement in the broad form in which it is framed is incorrect.
Statement 3 is incorrect. Describing the Gupta rulers as “strongly opposed” to Buddhism is inconsistent with the historical evidence. The Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Faxian spent several years in India during the reign of Chandragupta II while seeking Buddhist texts and sacred sites. Buddhist art and institutions also continued to flourish during the Gupta period. The surviving ancient brick Buddhist temple at Bodh Gaya is principally associated with architectural development of the late Gupta period, around the fifth–sixth centuries CE. Thus, the Gupta kings cannot collectively be characterised as strongly anti-Buddhist.
An important point is that the decline of Buddhism in India did not result from a single cause. Changes in royal patronage, the revival of Brahmanical-Puranic traditions, incorporation of the Buddha into the Vaishnava tradition, internal problems within some monasteries and later foreign invasions played roles at different times. However, among the three statements given here, only Statement 1 is correct.