Question
Mention the reasons for the decline of Buddhism in India.
Solution
Causes for the decline of Buddhism in India are mentioned below:
(a) It became a victim to the evils of Brahmanism against which it had fought in the beginning.
(b) In order to meet the challenge of Buddhism, the Brahmanas reformed their religion.
(c) The Brahmanas stressed the need for preserving the cattle wealth and assured women and Shudras of admission to heaven.
(d) On the other hand, the Buddhist monks were cut off from the mainstream of people’s life. They gave up Pali which was the language of the common men and looked into the Sanskrit which was the language of the intellectuals.
(e) The Buddhist began to practise idol worship on large scale from the first century A.D. onwards. Apart from this, the monks began to receive a lot of gifts from the devotees which made their lives more easier.
(f) By seventh century A.D., the Buddhist monasteries became a centre of ease-loving people and they began to dominate these monasteries and it became a centre of corrupt practices which Buddha had prohibited.
