Indian Buddhism in China and Tibet Part 2
Article by Arjanyai
In the rest of India, however, Hinduism, by this time, had gained ground against Buddhism. There were many causes of the decline of Buddhism. Under the rule of some Hindu kings, Buddhists were persecuted. Some other Hindu rulers supported Buddhist institutions, but as centres of learning and culture. Since the time of King Asoka, the Sangha had become materially prosperous both through royal patronage and through the support of wealthy people. Life in the monasteries was comfortable and easy, and increasingly attracted large numbers of new members who joined the Sangha as a means of gaining a living and some of whom brought with them their old ways of thought and preached their own false theories. As these corrupt persons could not be entirely expelled from the Order, it led to the division of Buddhism, the weakness of the Sangha, and the undesirable developments of the Doctrine.
Moreover, in later days, when the Buddhist universities were prosperous, monks crowded into these centres of learning and isolated themselves from the common people. They became used to lax and easy life and gave up the original ideals of renunciation and sacrifice. When the Mahayana became stronger, the monks were devoted more and more to philosophical speculations and religious celebrations. Hindu ideas and practices crept in. The number of Bodhisattvas, gods and goddesses increased together with various modes of worship and a new literature to explain them. Superstitious beliefs, devotionalism and the use of magical charms and rituals were encouraged while there was a decline in the importance of ethic. This unhealthy development which was called Tantrism took shape in the twelfth Buddhist century and became stronger in later centuries.
Before very long it made Buddhism nearly indistinguishable from Hinduism. In the meantime, Sankara (B.E. 1331-1881 or 788 - 838 C.E.), a great Hindu philosopher, made use of the Madhyamika and Yogacara ideas of Nagarjuna and Asanga to form his own philosophy, and borrowed f! rom the Buddhists the idea of establishing Hindu monasteries (Matฺh or Matฺha) as centres of education, propagation and social programmes as the Buddhists had done. They were at first located near famous shrines to serve also as rest-places for pilgrims. Thus while Buddhism degenerated into a Hinduized form, lost its good name and became weaker and weaker, Hinduism absorbed from it good elements and sprang again to freshness as a reformed religion. Some Buddhist monasteries were even turned into Hindu institutions.
THE RISE AND FALL OF SRIVIJAYA AND CHAMPAThe form of Buddhism which flourished under the Pala kings was also the degenerate Tantric Buddhism. It was studied at the universities of Nalanda, Odantapura and Vikramasila. From there it spread to Tibet, Sumatra, Java and other countries.
The Indians started to migrate into Java and other islands of Indonesia early in the seventh Buddhist century. By the tenth century, a great empire called Srivijaya had risen to power with its centre in Sumatra. The Chinese monk-pilgrim I-Tsing, on his way to India, visited this area in B.E. 1214 (671 C.E.), and recorded that Hinayana Buddhism flourished there. But from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries, the Srivijaya empire was ruled by the Sailendra kings who were great patrons of Mahayana. During this period the great stupa of Borobudur, the largest Buddhist shrine in the world, was erected in central Java.
The Sailendra kings spread their influence to the Malay peninsula, southern India and Ceylon, and established colonies in Borneo, Celebes, the Moluccas and the Philippines. They maintained diplomatic elations with the Pala kings and close connections with the great University of Nalanda. And through these relations, the Tantric form of Buddhism came to Indonesia and flourished before it gradually disappeared in the Hindu form as in India. At the end of the eighteenth century, the Srivijaya kingdom declined and was replaced in B.E. 1837 (1294 C.E.) by the Hindu Javanese kingdom of Madjapa! hit. The new kingdom, however, prospered for only one century before it broke up into divisions. The wars among them made Indonesia easy prey for the Arabs who finally brought the empire to an end in the middle of the 21st century and in turn converted the islands to Islam.
Also around the seventh Buddhist century, other Indians migrated to the eastern coast of Indochina where is now modern South Vietnam. There a kingdom known as Champa (simply called Cham) was established and flourished until it was overrun by the Annamites in the 21st century. In Champa Buddhism followed the line of development similar to that in Indonesia. Under the Annamites, the Chinese form of Mahayana, along with Islam, replaced the old form professed by the Chams.
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