6
Vajrayana and Later
Indian Buddhism
6.1 SYNCRETISM AND SURVIVAL
T
hroughout its history in India, Buddhism interacted with the other reli-
gions in its environment, both influencing and being influenced by
them. We have already seen this process at work in the development of
Abhidharma philosophy and in the rise of the bodhisattva cults. Such changes
always raise the question as to how much any one religion can absorb from
others without being absorbed by them. Even when a religion does success-
fully maintain its identity, there is the question of how much it becomes al-
tered by the process of defining and defending itself in relation to its rivals.
These questions became especially acute for Buddhism in India during the
latter half of the first millennium C. E. as Hinduism grew stronger in all levels
of society.
The contest between Buddhism and Hinduism was conducted on two
fronts: doctrine and practice. Because these two fronts were for a period al-
most totally separate, those who specialized in defending Buddhism against
doctrinal attacks became so focused on their immediate task that they lost
touch with the original therapeutic thrust of the teaching. For them, Bud-
dhism was a philosophical position to be defended in debate against Hindu
and Jain philosophers, so they reformulated many of the teachings to conform
with the new criteria of logic and epistemology that formed the ground rules
for the debate. Divorced from their therapeutic context, the major points of
the doctrine became little more than abstract concepts. Even the Prasangika117