Buddhism in India

The Defeat of Buddhism in India 157

called Malakuta, and Ceylon, which could be easily visited by sea

from there.

From Kanchipuram he went either north or northwest for 400

miles, going through ‘a forest wild, in which are a succession of

deserted towns, or rather little villages [where] brigands, in concert

together, wound and capture travellers’ (II: 253). He came to a

country he called ‘Kong-kin-na-pu-lo’, rendered as Konkanapura.

The identity of this has puzzled scholars;^2 but one possibility is

Kolhapur in what is now southern Maharashtra. As the traveller

describes it, the people were ‘black complexioned, their manners

fierce and uncultivated’ but, once again, esteeming learning, virtue

and talent. He found both Buddhists and non-Buddhists in great

numbers, including about a hundred sangharamas with some

10,000 bhikkhus.

From there he went northwest, again troubled by wild forests,

savage beasts and robber bands, nearly 500 miles to a kingdom in

Maharashtra. Its capital was described as located on the west side

of a great river. Though this is usually identified with Nasik on the

Godavari, the only river that fits with the next stage of the journey,

west across the Narmada river to Bharuch, is the Tapi. This puts

the kingdom in Khandesh in the far northern part of today’s

Maharashtra. At that time, it was the center of an empire, which

was ruled by Pulakesin, a conqueror himself and the only ruler in

all of India to defeat Harsha. Here Hsuan Tsang gives one of his

more colourful descriptions:

Hsuan Tsang found 100 monasteries and ‘somewhat less than
10,000 bhikkus and about 70 ‘Deva temples’ in Kosala.
From there, travelling south, Hsuan Tsang found Buddhism con-
tending for dominance in the Dravidian areas with both Jainism
and the rising force of Shaivism. In Andhra, whose capital was
Vengi, Buddhists and non-Buddhists appeared nearly equal in
number. He describes the soil as rich and fertile and notes that ‘The
temperature is hot, and the manners of the people fierce and impul-
sive’ (II: 217). Going further south, about 200 miles ‘through the
desert forest’ he comes to a country called Dhanakataka, today’s
Vijayawada. Near its capital was an old Buddhist center, which has
been identified from the stupa and great ruins found near Amravati.
This region was also hot, with much desert area and thin popula-
tion. There were a large number of ‘mostly deserted and ruined’
monasteries; about 20 where about 1000 bhikkus remained. A
‘hundred Deva temples’ with numerous people of different beliefs
frequenting them dominated, showing the advance of both Shaivism
and Jainism.
Further travel 200 miles southwest brought him to the Tamil
region. Culya or Chola, the first country that he visited, did not
impress him:

The climate is hot; the manners of the people dissolute and cruel. The

disposition of the men is naturally fierce; they are attached to hereti-

cal teaching. The sangharamas are ruined and dirty as well as the

priests. There are some tens of Deva temples and many [ Jain] ascetics

(II: 227).

However unhappy Hsuan Tsang was with the existing situation, he
did see a stupa built by Asoka and said that Tathagata had in
ancient times dwelt there himself.
Going further south about 300 to 325 miles through a ‘wild forest
district’ to ‘Dravida’, whose capital is identified as Kanchipuram, a
fertile, rich and hot country with hundreds of monasteries with
10,000 bhikkhus, competing with 80 Deva temples and numerous
Jains. He writes, ‘Tathagata in olden days, when living in the
world, frequented this country much; he preached the law here and
converted men, and therefore Asoka-raja built stupas over all the
sacred spots where these traces exist’ (II: 229). He may not have
actually visited regions further south, though he describes a country

156 Buddhism in India

(^2) A Golconda identification is given by Beal (II: 254n), who records others arguing
for sites as wildly distant from each other as Mysore or Vanavasi in the southern tip
of Uttar Kanara district of Karnataka. The Schwartzbergs identify it with a site near
Badami/Vatapi. Bharat Patankar has proposed Kolhapur. The distances and directions
from Kanchipuram to ‘Konkanapura’ fit for either Badami/Vatapi or Kolhapur, and
a generally north direction from either one could lead to either Nasik or a site in
Khandesh. The Nasik identification for ‘Maharashtra’ would allow the next stage
of the journey (to Bharuch) to fit if it is assumed (as the Schwartbergs do) that
Hsuan Tsang visited the Ajanta caves and then proceded roughly west and across the
Narmada; in this case the direction for this leg of the travel fits but not the distance!
The Kolhapur needs to be investigated further, if only because the Brahmanic scholars
up to now who have provided evidence consider Nasik as a holy city and would not
like the color definition given for Kolhapur. It is indisputable, however, that the
masses of Maharashtrians are basically dark-skinned Dravidians.