Probable causes for the decline of Buddhism in Orissa

From the above discussion it is evident that Buddhism in Orissa was a popular religion, since the time of Lord Buddha. It influenced the life, culture, art and architecture of the region in the past and its traces can still be seen in the daily life of the people of Orissa. What were the forces and factors that relegated Buddhism in to oblivion and made it disappear. It is for certain that no one cause was responsible for its disappearance; it was a combination and transmutation of number of factors.

If one thoroughly studies the religious history of India, it can be envisaged that Buddhism in all probability never attained a measure of success that it could act as a challenge to the very existence of Brahmanical Hinduism. Wassilieff has remarked that “Buddhism in India was propagated only temporarily and locally, this is a fact, which should not be lost sight of in tracing the decline of Buddhism, if we are not to consider its total disappearance from India as a absolute miracle” (Mitra 1959:14).

Buddhism never had an independent entity; from the very beginning it had rudiments of Brahmanical Hinduism within it. In the later phase also, Mahayana with its mass appeal was but an extended bastion of Hinduism. The Hindu and the Buddhist Tantras have openly associated with one another (Mitra 1959:137). When Buddhism was in a flourishing state in the Northwest and in the middle kingdom in the fifth century CE, in the eastern region it was to a great extent a matter of surmise. Whereas, in the eastern region, when it was at the height of its glory under the Pala’s, its decline had already been long accomplished in the Northwestern and its surrounding areas. In North India at the time of Hiuen-Tsangs visit, Buddhism had found new centers of strength at Kanauj and Ayodhya. While it was gaining influence in Banaras and Nalanda and was still in a prosperous condition at Pataliputra.

Political persecutions were carried out by Pushyamitra Sungha, Mihirakula, Sasanka of Karnasuvarna, Prataprudradeva, Kalapahar etc. These persons along with some other personalities in the course of history directly or indirectly persecuted the Buddhists in their sphere of influences. Buddhism suffered the most in the hands of the Brahmanical Hinduism, which not only at times waged holy wars on Buddhism (examples could be cited of Kumarila, Samkarachariya and others) but also ideologically, by trying to assimilate Buddhism in to the fold of Hinduism. In this regard, the conception of Buddha as a compassionate incarnation can be traced to a very early period.

After Buddha with the rise of many sub-sects within Buddhism lead to corruption and downfall. One of the main causes of downfall was the induction of the females. Besides this lack of discipline, proper education and sincerity on the part of the monks led to its collapse. This is testified in the accounts of the foreign travelers and in the contemporary literature i.e. Hiuen-Tsang refers to the neglect of study by the monks at Bharukaccha, the dirty habits of few monks in the Chola country, and the debauchery of the Sindh priests. I-sting regrets lack of faith on several occasions and complains of discipline not being strictly observed. The lavish and luxurious life of the Buddhist monks is described in the Matta-Vilasa, a seventh century dramatic work by King Mahendra Varman.

Buddha had himself made prophesy about the beginning of the end of his religion after one thousand years, in reaction to the induction of women in to the holy order (Mitra 1959:11). Even Hiuen-Tsang, amidst the bustle and grandeur of Nalanda was hunted by a prophetic dream, in which he foresaw the evil days that would follow the death of Harshavardhana i.e. a fire would devastate the celebrated centre of Buddhism and the humming halls of Nalanda would be deserted. Thus, it is seen that the Buddhists themselves forecast their decline and were in fear of an approaching deluge.

The Hindu revivalism was one of the strongest factors in the eclipsing of Buddhism in the background and its gradual disappearance. New-Brahmanism appealed more powerfully, to the common man’s senses and sentiments. It caught their eyes by means of its magnificent temples and beautiful images as much as it swayed their hearts by its glamorous festivals, devotional songs and mystery plays. Its splendid folklore and inexhaustible tales of myths and legends warmed up the imagination of the people to an unconscious enthusiasm. Its gods and goddesses, all too human in their imperfections, and embroidered with long and colourful legends, struck harmony in every heart and stirred people to passionate devotion (Mitra 1959:159). These developments put the Buddhist in a vicious circle where, if they were strictly Buddhists they were not popular, and if they sought to make their religion popular, they ceased to be really Buddhists. Even in countries where Buddhism still survives, as in China or Japan, only some of its fundamental ideas are generally accepted to make it acceptable and popular among the masses (Mitra 1959:161).

The Mahayana form of Buddhism, possibly under the influence of aboriginal popular cults in the lower strata of society came to assume a darker and debased form of Tantirism. This might have resulted from a misunderstanding of the symbolic language of the esoteric texts of the tantric school. Magic and sorcery and secret rites and rituals introduced into later Buddhism, particularly in respect of the female deities, no doubt, estranged the people. People were antagonized by some of the corrupt practices of the tantrics. This breaches made in the defenses of Buddhism, by Tantrism resulted in its capitulation to Hindu influences was facilitated (Bapat 1956:7).

Another formidable loophole of Buddhism was its incurable pessimism. Its basic teaching, “that all is sorrow, all is ephemeral, all is void” many fortify a philosopher in the storm and struggle of his life, but it was poor consolation for the weakness of the faltering heart. The common man preferred being deceived with shadowy harp than being raised to a bleak consciousness of such a devastating reality (Bapat 1956:162). Then the Buddhist denial of god implied an outrage on the spiritual carving of man, which no amount of righteousness could redeem and no amount of righteousness could condone. It should be remembered that from the days of the Vishnu Purana to the age of Sri Chaitanya, the perpetual refrain of all triads against Buddhism is not a moral laxity or factious feuds, but its negation of god (Mitra 1959:163). It has left behind in the form of nothingness, universal compassion, etc. thus it can be said that the strain of pessimism and a certain lack of absorbing interest in life, that characterises the Indian mind, may be a legacy from the Buddhist. The Muslim invasions led to the ultimate disappearance of Buddhism from this land.

On the basis of the above review, it may be inferred that not a single reason was responsible for the decline of Buddhism but it was together a number of factors that combined over a prolonged period of time and led to the decay and disappearance of Buddhism.

In Orissa the process of extinction of Buddhism was the slowest and most prolonged. Buddhism in Orissa even in its better days in the seventh century was not the prevailing religion. Though it received active patronage from some of the rulers of Orissa but they were very occasional and short in duration. It was during the Bhaumakara period that it received the greatest impulsion.

The archaeological finds of the tenth-eleventh century clearly shows a two-fold process of evolution. On the one hand there was the gradual incorporation of Buddha in the Hindu pantheons and on the other, the usual development of later Mahayana and Vajrayana features with borrowings from Brahmanism. Decadence was evident in the artistic form as well, in the depiction of the soulless formalism of the Bodhisattvas of this period in contrast to the freshness and sincerity of earlier figures at Udaygiri and Lalitgiri.

The Muslim invasions led by Muhammed-bin-Bakhtiyar Khilji, tremendously affected Buddhism and the Buddhist edifices of North India including Orissa. The Muhammedian invaders sacked and burnt the monastic institutions of Nalanda, Vikramshila, Odantapuri in the thirteenth century CE (Mitra 1980:18). In Orissa Buddhist establishments like Ratnagiri, Lalitgiri, Udaygiri, Jagaddala (vihara), Vajragiri, Kolangiri, Langudi hill, together with other equally potential Buddhist centers also succumbed to unrestrained Muslim vandalism. Particularly noteworthy amidst these, is the existing tomb worshipped by both Hindus and Muslims called Durgadasa satyapira on the crest of so called Alamgiri dotted with important Buddhist ruins. According to an inscription engraved on the lintel, the said mosque was built by Muhmmed Sujauddin a Deputy Subedar of Murshid-quli-khan, the Nawab of Bengal in 1711 CE (Banerjee 1870).

The immunity from Muslim attack, which Orissa enjoyed till 1568 CE, made this region a new home for the Buddhist refugees from the north; Taranath also narrates the story of Buddhist scholars taking refuge in Orissa among other places, after the destruction of the monasteries of Vikramshila and Odantapuri. Next to Muslim vandalism, the orthodox Brahmanical Hinduism (Saivism, Saktism and Vaishnavism) supplanted Buddhism in Orissa, a large number of Brahmanical shrines and temples sprang over the Buddhist establishments.

Mahayana Buddhism radically transformed to an detestable and enigmatic doctrine of Vajrayana, completely foreign to the teachings of Buddha with the influx of elaborate ritualistic practices, hideous tantric sadhanas, dhyanas, mudras, andalas, became directly competing with the Brahmanical Tantrism and thus lost popular appeal. Further the cult of violence, as is evident from the worship of such ghastly and cannibalism in Buddhist tantric deity. Like Mahakala, who was invoked to devour the raw flesh and blood of the anti-Buddhist heretics, who did not offer obeisance to the tri-ratnas and its preceptors, was rather completely esoteric and antagonistic to the Buddha’s doctrine of non-violence (ahimsa). The secret portals of Sri Kalachakra tantra, Kalachakrayana and Sahajayana together with the most violent and blood-thirsty cult of Mahakala were introduced into Orissa for the first time at Ratnagiri. The rational and highly ethical teachings of Buddha were repressed under an impending burden of superstitions, elaborate rituals, and the enigmatic worship of numerous deities, carnal eroticism and immoral life against which Buddha had crusaded ceaselessly. Consequent upon which Buddhism lost common mass appeal in Orissa and thus was abandoned (Prusty 1997:47).

In Orissa Buddhism suffered more due to absorption than destruction. Temples like Buddha linga, Buddhalingesvara, Tara-tarini, Bhattarika, Buddha-chandi, Trivaradia-Buddha, Narayana Bhattaraka Mahaprabhu, Dharmeswara-archaeologically speaks of doctrinal fusion, absorption and interaction between Buddhism and Brahmanical Hinduism or vice-versa (Prusty 1997:48).

The irresistible flood of Vaishnaivism saturated by the lofty ideals of universal equality, secularism and untarnished devotion (Bhakti) swept over the popular mind and drew adherents in over whelming number. As a result Buddhism being an obsolete and invertebrate, morbid and decadent motive fare too weak to counteract against Vaishnaivism, and could not survive.

At the same time Vaishnavism was exceedingly liberal to acknowledge the greatness of Buddha and incorporated him as one of the ten incarnations (avatar) of Lord Vishnu as is evident from the benedictory versions of Jayadeva in his grand liturgical versions of Vaishnavite text Geeta Govinda, composed in about thirteenth century CE. Jayadeva invokes Lord Buddha as the ninth incarnation of Vishnu.

But Buddhism was collapsing. The fading vestiges of the religion, which can be caught in the literature of the sixteenth-seventeenth century, are but a poor exhibition of Pseudo-Buddhism in a state of rapid dissolution amidst Vaishnavite belief and practices. It was made to believe that in the Kaliyuga, the Buddhists must disguise themselves and worship Hari, who had been incarnated as Buddha, and must wait patiently till Buddha reappears again. This was a consoling obituary notice on Buddhism and it symbolizes the whole lesson of the later Buddhism in India.

From the above discussion it becomes clear that the reason for the decay and disappearance of Buddhism in Orissa in particular and India in general was basically the same. The only difference being that Orissa remained the strong hold of the Buddhist for a little prolonged period due to its immunity from the Muslim attacks till the sixteenth century. But at last, it also suffered due to the Muslim inroads. In Orissa most of the destruction caused whether to the Hindu, Buddhist or Jaina monuments, the legends ascribe it to Kalapahar, a convert Muslim. Who due to his personal vendetta is said to have desecrated all the monuments of the infidels during his attacks.

Thus, discarded by the enlightened, devoid of being backed by the innate devotional urge of the halfhearted laity, lack of royal patronage and decline in the active maritime trade with Southeast Asian countries owing to the speedy sedimentation of riverine ports, the centuries long golden reign of Buddhism, the glorious Buddhist heritage and the benign name of Buddha gradually flickered and subsequently faded from the popular mind. But Buddhism in Orissa is not yet a matter to be relegated to the pales of history, for it still survives in certain pockets in parts of Orissa.

After discussing ‘Geomorphological, Political and religious History of Orissa’, and the landscape, the soil-formation, the geographical location of Orissa, the political history from second-third century BCE to sixteenth century and religious history till present day, in the next chapter ‘Development of Stupa Architecture in India’ gradual development of stupa architecture from a earthen mound to a magnificent stupa through ages has been done.

This understanding of geo-political and religious situation of the region will form not only the basis of the continuity of Buddhism in Orissa, but also look into various kinds of influence in the form of ritual, economic conditions, religious rivalry or amalgamation of beliefs, ideas if any in monument building including the development of stupa architecture through the period.