several thousand students. And although a liberal ed-
ucation was possible—including the Vedas, medicine,
and art—every student was required to study Ma-
hayana literature as well. In later centuries, Nalanda
was supplemented, and then surpassed, by two other
Mahayana universities, Otantapuri and Vikramas ́la;
both were established by the Pala dynasty that ruled
in India’s Northeast from about 750 to 1150 C.E. Fur-
nished with ample lands by their Pala patrons, these
great monasteries were eventually depopulated, their
books destroyed, during the thirteenth-century Mus-
lim conquest of north India.
The end of Buddhism in India (seventh to thir-
teenth century C.E.)
The fact that Mahayanists came to have a significant
public presence does not mean that nikaya-Buddhism
was eclipsed. A census of monks, made by Xuanzang
in the seventh century, reveals that monks who were
primarily identified with the nikayasstill outnumbered
Mahayanists. Yet, of the original eighteen-plus nikayas,
only four remained vital, and almost half of all nikaya-
Buddhists belonged to the Sammitlya sect, whose
tenets were the object of considerable intra-Buddhist
polemic.When Xuanzang’s census is compared with an ac-
count given by FAXIAN(ca. 337–418) in the fifth cen-
tury, however, one notices that the Mahayana’s
institutional gains took place in a landscape within
which Buddhism as a whole had become less promi-
nent. The same economic developments that sup-
ported the Mahayana also instigated an effloresence of
sectarian Hinduism devoted to VISNUand S ́iva. Like
the Buddhists, these Hindus sought royal patronage.
But unlike the Buddhists, the Hindus were effective al-
lies for kings who needed to socialize indigenous and
tribal peoples. Brahmin legal codes, rooted in the
Vedas, legitimated a strictly stratified society, and gave
every person a fixed place within that society. Such
codes eventually gave rise to a “caste system.” Though
Buddhist texts take the existence of “caste” for granted,
they attempt neither to justify this social system, nor
to disseminate it. From the point of view of India’s
rulers, Buddhist monks were less effective ideologues
than Brahmins. In turn, as Brahmins held primary re-INDIA
Tibetans light butter lamps for world peace at Bodh Gaya, India, 1997. Bodh Gayais where the Buddha achieved enlightenment and
is Buddhism’s most sacred pilgrimage site. © Don Farber 2003. All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission.