VAJRAYANA AND LATER INDIAN BUDDHISM 139good terms with all the powers that be, in case they ever need to ask or nego-
tiate with a particular power for help. As is frequently the case in matters of
etiquette, they consider it poor form to be too inquisitive about the personal
preferences that may lie behind another person's good behavior, or too ex-
plicit about their own.
Nepalese Hindus and Buddhists are both conscious of the Buddhists as a
separate group, with their own distinct identity, but this identity is primarily a
matter of caste. Buddhists observe the obligatory rights of homage traditional
to their caste, but in terms of optional acts of homage they are free to offer re-
spect to any deity they please. As we shall see in the following chapters (Sec-
tions 7.5.1, 8.7), a fluid sense of religious identity is common throughout
Buddhist countries, but the Nepalese pattern of determining religious identity
by birth is Hindu in origin. Buddhists assume their caste identity not only in
their dealings with Hindus but also among themselves. Only members of the
vajracarya and sakya-bhik~u castes, for instance, are allowed to live in temple
compounds. Vajracaryas form the elite, as ritual specialists and scholars,
whereas the sakya-bhik~us hold a more limited ritual role, many of the men
earning their livelihood working in precious metals. Young boys from both
castes are ordained for a period of four days, after which they renounce their
vows and return to lay life. Vajracaryas then undergo secret Tantric initiation
as well. Vajracaryas can give Tantric initiations to members of other Buddhist
castes, but the new initiates from those castes do not then become Vajracaryas
themselves. Thus, not only is one's identity as a Buddhist a function of caste,
but so is one's role within the religion. Nepalese Buddhists justifY this devel-
opment by saying that it was necessary for their survival in the context of a
Hindu society, but there is no denying that the price of survival has been a
radical departure frorrithe earlier Buddhist attitude toward caste.
6.4.2 The Buddhist Revival
Since the latter part of the nineteenth century, when the British consolidated
their hold over India and instituted a policy of religious tolerance, there have
been several attempts at fostering a rebirth of Buddhism in its original home.
In the 1890s, a group of Sri Lankans led by Anagarika Dharmapala (see Sec-
tion 7 .4.1) started the Maha Bodhi Society with the express purpose of rein-
troducing Buddhism to India. Although the society was able to establish
centers in cities and at ancient Buddhist sites, and to petition the British Raj
to give Buddhists control over the great temple at Bodhgaya, it has had little
success in winning converts.
The European "discovery" ofBuddhism in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries helped revive interest in the religion among India's educated classes
as they were trying to recover their national heritage as part of their move to-
ward independence. Again, this trend won no converts to the religion, al-
though it did influence the Bengali author Rabindranath Tagore and others in
their interpretation of Hinduism. It also established Buddhism as a part of the
curriculum in Indian universities. Indian researchers have since contributed
much original work to the field ofBuddhist studies.