1895.] 
H. P. Qastii — Buddhism in Bengal. 
55 
Buddhism in Bengal since the Muhammadan Conquest.—By 
Hara Prasada pASTRI, M. A. 
[Read January 1895.] 
Whatever might have been the fate of Buddhism in other parts 
of India, in the Provinces of Eastern India, it had to suffer serious 
persecution, nay, it may be said, that Buddhism was expelled from 
Eastern India by fire and sword. In making excavations at Ku^inagara 
ashes were discovered after a certain depth, plainly indicating that fire 
was one of the agencies employed in the expulsion of Buddhism. 1 At 
Sarnath in Benares, the excavations laid open cook-rooms containing 
half-boiled rice rotting there for centuries. 2 The catastrophe was so 
sudden that the poor Bhiksus could not even complete their meals. 
Sir A. Cunningham quotes two passages, one from Tibetan and another 
from Muhammadan sources, to shew that at the last Buddhist capital of 
Bihar, Bakhtiyar Khilji put a large number of shaven Brahmans, i. e ., 
Buddhist Bhiksus assembled at a monastery, to the sword. 3 
All these facts plainly shew that fire and sword were employed 
in the destruction of Buddhism in Eastern India. But who employed 
them P In the case of Odantapuri, the last capital of Bihar, it was 
certainly the Muhammadans, and presumably in other cases also, they 
were the destroyers. The Hindu mode of persecuting Buddhists, was 
quite different. It was persecution and annoyance, and not destruction, 
(^aijka cut down the Bo tree. 4 * Udayana held a disputation with the 
life of his Buddhist antagonist at stake. 6 Gagge 9 opadhyaya wrote 
his great work on Logic with the express object of 
i.e.j for dispelling the darkness created by powerful heretics; and 
Udayana wrote a work entitled Bauddha-dhikkdra , or, ‘ Fie on the 
Buddhists! ’ Another Hindu revivalist prohibited the sounding of 
1 Rep. Arch. Sur., Ind., Vol. XVIII, pp. 62-63. 
2 The same, Vol. I, pp. from 126 to 130. 
3 The same, Vol. XI, p. 185. 
4 The same, Vol. Ill, pp. 80-81. 
6 Gaure Brahman, p. 102-105. 
