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Q80 (IAS/2010) History & Culture › Medieval India › Medieval religious movements Answer Verified

Why did Buddhism start declining in India in the early medieval times? 1. Buddha was by that time considered as one of the incarnations of Vishnu and thus became a part of Vaishnavism 2. The invading tribes from Central Asia till the time of last Gupta king adopted Hinduism and persecuted Buddhists. 3. The Kings of Gupta dynasty were strongly opposed to Buddhism Which of the Statements given above is/are correct?

Result
Your answer: —  Â·  Correct: A
Explanation

Statement 1 is the only defensible choice: over early medieval centuries Buddhist ideas were increasingly assimilated into the evolving bhakti-Hindu framework and the Buddha came to be revered as an avatar of Vishnu in that process, facilitating absorption of Buddhist elements into Vaishnavism [1]. Buddhism’s decline was multifactorial — internal sectarian fragmentation and loss of doctrinal coherence weakened it [2], and it also suffered from declining royal patronage as ruling elites (notably after Harsha and under the Guptas) favoured Vedic/Brahmanical institutions, rather than from systematic state-sponsored annihilation by Gupta kings [3]. The process was complex and cannot be reduced to simple invasion‑led persecution as stated in (2) or to blanket Gupta hostility in (3) [4].

Sources

  1. [1] THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART I, History CLASS XII (NCERT 2025 ed.) > Chapter 4: Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings > 10.2 The growth of Puranic Hinduism > p. 104
  2. [2] History , class XI (Tamilnadu state board 2024 ed.) > Chapter 3: Rise of Territorial Kingdoms and New Religious Sects > Decline of Buddhism in India > p. 43
  3. [3] History , class XI (Tamilnadu state board 2024 ed.) > Chapter 3: Rise of Territorial Kingdoms and New Religious Sects > Decline of Buddhism in India > p. 44
  4. [4] https://www.du.ac.in/du/uploads/departments/BuddhistStudies/Study%20Material/Susmita/The%20Decline%20of%20Buddhism%20in%20India.pdf
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