136 CHAPTER SIXsuch as in Andhra and Orissa until the sixteenth century, and in the Nepal
Valley and eastern Bengal until the present. The Tibetan historian Taranatha
reports that Buddhist refugees also fled to Southeast Asia and Tibet. A few
monks remained in the ruins of the monasteries into the next century, but re-
peated raids by the Turks made their position untenable.
Miraculously, the great temple at Bodhgaya survived unscathed, as did holy
sites in more out-of-the-way places, such as Sanchi and Ajanta. Mostly,
though, Buddhist shrines were demolished. What the Turks did not destroy,
centuries of scavenging has in most cases leveled to the ground. Brick build-
ings were dismantled, the bricks used to build homes and line wells. Even
today, bricks from the ancient monasteries, stamped with Buddhist symbols,
can be found in village buildings near where the great Buddhist centers used
to be.
Scholars are divided in their opinions as to why Buddhism succumbed to
the Muslim invasion when it had survived previous ones, such as the Ku~al).a
annexation of the northwest and the Hun attacks on the Gupta empire. Part of
the answer lies in the nature of the invaders. The Turks, unlike the Ku~al).as,
were not open to conversion; unlike the Huns, they settled down to rule and
pursued a policy of religious suppression to boot. For them, the Buddhists were
idolators; the Muslim word for idol, but!budh, actually derives from "Buddha."
Thus, they viewed the destruction of Buddhism as a religious duty. Further-
more, their own beliefs glorified the warrior's life they led. A religion that
taught peace and denounced war obviously would have no appeal for them.
Other reasons for the demise of the Indian Sangha as an institution, how-
ever, relate more to the nature of Buddhism itself during this period. The de-
velopment of large estaolished monasteries and universities had deprived the
Sangha of the fluid, grassroots character that had enabled it to survive earlier
social upheavals. Perhaps if its earlier forms had been maintained, the Sangha
would have been less vulnerable to attack. This point is suggested by Hin-
duism's having survived the Muslim invasions, albeit in a truncated form. As
had happened to the Buddhist universities, Hindu philosophicalschools and
monastic orders were wiped out, but grassroots devotionalism survived. Indian
social structure during this time was essentially Hindu: a caste system revolv-
ing around the patronage of a local feudatory "king." Because the Muslims al-
lowed the local kings to hold power in their fiefdoms as long as they paid
tribute, this was one social structure that was in a position to survive. Bud-
dhism, however, focused on the monastic Sangha, and the monastic Sangha
had by then come to revolve around the universities. Without the presence of
educated monks, the devotionalism of the laity could easily become assimi-
lated into Hindu devotionalism, as the Buddha became regarded as an avatar
ofVi~J).U.
Still, there remains the question of why surviving Buddhist monks were
unable to persuade any of the local kings to sponsor a revival of the Sangha.
Several reasons for this have been proposed: The university monks may have
become so removed from the local population that they were regarded with