Үндістанда буддизмнің біртіндеп төмендеуі және жоғалуы

Gradual process of replacement of Buddhism in India, ended around the 12th century

Buddhism, which originated in India, gradually dwindled and was replaced by approximately the 12th century. According to Lars Fogelin, this was "not a singular event, with a singular cause; it was a centuries long process." The decline of Buddhism in the Indian subcontinent coincides with the spread of Islam in that part of the world, especially due to the Islamic invasions that occurred in the late 12th century. Another factor was invasions of north India by various groups such as Indo Iranian Huns, Hephthalite Huns, Alchon Huns, Turco Mongols, Arabs, and Persians, and subsequent Islamic destruction of Buddhist temples, shrines, and institutions, such as the Taxila and Nalanda universities, and religious persecutions. A similar process occurred in northeast, where Islamization of Bengal and demolitions of Nalanda, Odantapuri, and Vikramashila by Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji, a general of the Delhi Sultanate, are thought to have severely weakened the practice of Buddhism in East India where it previously received strong patronage under the Pala Empire. The total Buddhist population in 2010 in the Indian subcontinent – excluding that of Sri Lanka, Bhutan (both Buddhist majority states), and Nepal – was about 10 million, of which about 7.2% lived in Bangladesh, 92.5% in India, and 0.2% in Pakistan.

Buddhism expanded in the Indian subcontinent in the centuries after the death of the Buddha, particularly after receiving the endorsement and royal support of the Maurya Empire under Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE. It spread even beyond the Indian subcontinent to Central Asia and China. The Buddha's period saw not only urbanisation, but also the beginnings of centralised states. The successful expansion of Buddhism depended on the growing economy of the time, together with an increase in the number of centralised political organisations capable of change. Buddhism spread across ancient India and state support by various regional regimes continued through the 1st millennium BCE. The consolidation of monastic organisations made Buddhism the centre of religious and intellectual life in India. The succeeding Kanva Dynasty had four Buddhist Kanva Kings.

During the Gupta dynasty (4th to 6th century), Mahayana Buddhism adopted more ritualistic practices, while Buddhist ideas were adopted into Vedic schools. The differences between Buddhism and Hinduism blurred, and Vaishnavism, Shaivism and other Hindu religions became increasingly popular, while Brahmins developed a new relationship with the state. As the system grew, Buddhist monasteries gradually lost control of land revenue. In parallel, the Gupta kings built Buddhist temples such as the one at Kushinagara, and monastic universities such as those at Nalanda, as evidenced by records left by three Chinese visitors to India.

Chinese scholars traveling through the region between the 5th and 8th centuries, such as Faxian, Xuanzang, Yijing, Hui sheng, and Sung Yun, began to speak of a decline of the Buddhist Sangha in the Northwestern parts of Indian subcontinent, especially in the wake of the Hun invasion from central Asia in the 6th century CE. Xuanzang wrote that numerous monasteries in north western India had been reduced to ruins by the Huns. The Hun ruler Mihirakula, who ruled from 515 CE in north western region (modern Afghanistan, Pakistan and north India), suppressed Buddhism as well. He did this by destroying monasteries as far away as modern day Prayagraj. Yashodharman and Gupta Empire rulers, in and after about 532 CE, reversed Mihirakula's campaign and ended the Mihirakula era. According to Peter Harvey, the religion recovered slowly from these invasions during the 7th century, with the "Buddhism of Punjab and Sindh remaining strong". The reign of the Pala Dynasty (8th to 12th century) saw Buddhism in North India recover due to royal support from the Palas who supported various Buddhist centers like Nalanda. By the eleventh century, Pala rule had weakened, however.

The regionalisation of India after the end of the Gupta Empire (320–650 CE) led to the loss of patronage and donations. The prevailing view of decline of Buddhism in India is summed by A. L. Basham's classic study which argues that the main cause was the rise of an ancient Hindu religion again, "Hinduism", which focused on the worship of deities like Shiva and Vishnu and became more popular among the common people while Buddhism, being focused on monastery life, had become disconnected from public life and its life rituals, which were all left to Hindu Brahmins.

The growth of new forms of Hinduism (and to a lesser extent Jainism) was a key element in the decline in Buddhism in India, particularly in terms of diminishing financial support to Buddhist monasteries from laity and royalty. According to Kanai Hazra, Buddhism declined in part because of the rise of the Brahmins and their influence in socio political process. According to Randall Collins, Richard Gombrich and other scholars, Buddhism's rise or decline is not linked to Brahmins or the caste system, since Buddhism was "not a reaction to the caste system", but aimed at the salvation of those who joined its monastic order. The disintegration of central power also led to regionalisation of religiosity, and religious rivalry. Rural and devotional movements arose within Hinduism, along with Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Bhakti and Tantra, that competed with each other, as well as with numerous sects of Buddhism and Jainism. This fragmentation of power into feudal kingdoms was detrimental for Buddhism, as royal support shifted towards other communities and Brahmins developed a strong relationship with Indian states. These factors all slowly led to the replacement of Buddhism in the South and West of India by Hinduism and Jainism. Fogelin states that

Buddhist sources also mention violence against Buddhists by Hindu Brahmins and kings. Hazra mentions that the eighth and ninth centuries saw "Brahminical hostilities towards Buddhism in South India"

Buddhism's distinctiveness also diminished with the rise of Hindu sects. Though Mahayana writers were quite critical of Hinduism, the devotional cults of Mahayana Buddhism and Hinduism likely seemed quite similar to laity, and the developing Tantrism of both religions were also similar. Also, "the increasingly esoteric nature" of both Hindu and Buddhist tantrism made it "incomprehensible to India's masses", for whom Hindu devotionalism and the worldly power oriented Nath Siddhas became a far better alternative. Buddhist ideas, and even the Buddha himself, were absorbed and adapted into orthodox Hindu thought, while the differences between the two systems of thought were emphasized. Elements which medieval Hinduism adopted during this time included vegetarianism, a critique of animal sacrifices, a strong tradition of monasticism (founded by figures such as Shankara) and the adoption of the Buddha as an avatar of Vishnu. On the other end of the spectrum, Buddhism slowly became more and more "Brahmanized", initially beginning with the adoption of Sanskrit as a means to defend their interests in royal courts. According to Bronkhorst, this move to the Sanskrit cultural world also brought with it numerous Brahmanical norms which now were adopted by the Sanskrit Buddhist culture (one example is the idea present in some Buddhist texts that the Buddha was a Brahmin who knew the Vedas). Bronkhorst notes that with time, even the caste system eventually became widely accepted for "all practical purposes" by Indian Buddhists (this survives among the Newar Buddhists of Nepal). Bronkhorst notes that eventually, a tendency developed in India to see Buddhism's past as having been dependent on Brahmanism and secondary to it. This idea, according to Bronkhorst, "may have acted like a Trojan horse, weakening this religion from within". The political realities of the period also led some Buddhists to change their doctrines and practices. For example, some later texts such as the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra and the Sarvadurgatipariśodhana Tantra begin to speak of the importance of protecting Buddhist teachings and that killing is allowed if necessary for this reason. Later Buddhist literature also begins to see kings as bodhisattvas and their actions as being in line with the dharma (Buddhist kings like Devapala and Jayavarman VII also claimed this). Bronkhorst also thinks that the increase in the use of apotropaic rituals (including for the protection of the state and king) and spells (mantras) by 7th century Indian Buddhism is also a response to Brahmanical and Shaiva influence. These included fire sacrifices, which were performed under the rule of Buddhist king Dharmapala (r. c. 775–812). Alexis Sanderson has shown that Tantric Buddhism is filled with imperial imagery reflecting the realities of medieval India, and that in some ways work to sanctify that world. Perhaps because of these changes, Buddhism remained indebted to the crept in Brahmanical thought and practice now that it had adopted much of its world view. Bronkhorst argues that these somewhat drastic changes "took them far from the ideas and practices they had adhered to during the early centuries of their religion, and dangerously close to their much detested rivals." These changes which brought Buddhism closer to Hinduism, eventually made it much easier for it to be absorbed into Hinduism and lose its separate identity for them.

In 1891, the Sri Lankan (Sinhalese) pioneering Buddhist activist Don David Hewavitarane later to known as Anagarika Dharmapala visited India. His campaign, in cooperation with American Theosophists such as Henry Steel Olcott and Madame Blavatsky, led to the revival of Buddhist pilgrimage sites along with the formation of the Maha Bodhi Society and Maha Bodhi Journal. His efforts increased awareness and raised funds to recover Buddhist holy sites in British India, such as the Bodh Gaya in India and those in Burma. In the 1950s, B. R. Ambedkar pioneered the Dalit Buddhist movement in India for the Dalits (formerly referred to as "untouchables"). Dr. Ambedkar, on 14 October 1956 in Nagpur converted to Buddhism along with his 365,000 followers. Many other such mass conversion ceremonies followed. Many converted employ the term "Navayana" (also known as "Ambedkarite Buddhism" or "Neo Buddhism") to designate the Dalit Buddhist movement, which started with Ambedkar's conversion. Now Marathi Buddhists are the largest Buddhist community in India. In 1959, Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, escaped from Tibet to India along with numerous Tibetan refugees, and set up the government of Tibet in Exile in Dharamshala, India, which is often referred to as "Little Lhasa", after the Tibetan capital city. Tibetan exiles numbering several thousand have since settled in the town. Most of these exiles live in Upper Dharamsala, or McLeod Ganj, where they established monasteries, temples, and schools. The town has become one of the centres of Buddhism in the world. In India, the most influential representative of Vipassana movement is the Vipassana Research Institute founded by S. N. Goenka (1924–2013) who promoted Buddhist Vipassanā Meditation in a modern and non sectarian manner. This form of Buddhist meditation is mainly practiced by elite and middle class Indians, and the Vipassana movement has also spread to many other countries in Europe, America and Asia. In November 2008, the construction of the Global Vipassana Pagoda was completed on the outskirts of Mumbai. Ten day Vipassanā meditation courses are regularly conducted free of charge at the Dhamma Pattana Meditation Centre that is part of the Global Vipassana Pagoda complex. The Buddhist population in the modern era nation of India grew at a decadal rate of 22.5% between 1901 and 1981, due to birth rates and conversions, or about the same rate as Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism, but faster than Christianity (16.8%), and slower than Islam (30.7%). According to a 2010 Pew estimate, the total Buddhist population had increased to about 10 million in the nations created from British India. Of these, about 7.2% lived in Bangladesh, 92.5% in India and 0.2% in Pakistan.