Buddhism in India

The Defeat of Buddhism in India 159

regions are here stored in great quantities.’ Here, in contrast to

Bharukaccha, the mercantile riches of Gujarat were quite visible.

There were about a hundred monasteries with about 6000 priests,

mostly Theravada Buddhists, competing with ‘several hundred

Deva temples with very many sectaries of different sorts.’ Hsuan

Tsang describes the king, a Kshatriya, as having recently pro-

claimed himself a Buddhist, and as giving away great valuables in

a yearly assembly (II: 266–68). This was the region of the great

monastery-university complex at Valabhi (Dutt 1988: 224–32).

From here he again went northeast but it is noted that the distances

and itinerary do not fit, and here Beal himself speculates that the

traveller had perhaps lost his original documents and was recon-

structing from memory (II: 269n).

Hsuan Tsang’s travels then took him north 360 miles to

Gurjjara, an area extending into Rajasthan and Malwa, which had

only one monastery; then southeast 560 miles to Ujjain, where the

monasteries were mostly in ruins and Shaivism was triumphant,

then after a north-northeast circle, back to Gujjara and north

nearly 400 miles where after going ‘through wild deserts and

dangrous defiles [and] crossing the great river Sin-tu, we come to

the kingdom of Sin-tu (Sind)’ which is one of the few described as

having a Shudra king (II: 272).

All the Gujarat–Rajasthan regions had none or very few

Buddhists. But Sindh, described as a land producing an abundance

of wheat and millet, suitable for the breeding of oxen, sheep,

camels and other animals, and with men whose disposition is ‘hard

and impulsive; but honest and upright’, was a Buddhist country.

The people ‘study without aiming to excel; they have faith in the

law of the Buddha. There are several hundred [monasteries], occu-

pied by about 10,000 priests.’ These were Theravada Buddhists

and this Mahayana traveller sees them as ‘indolent and given to

indulgence and debauchery.’ As with numerous places throughout

India, the Buddha was said to have frequently visited the country

and Asoka had thus established ‘several tens of stupas in places

where the sacred traces of his presence are found.’ The traveller

also describes a large, strange group of families settled by the side

of the river, who were Theravada Buddhists cattle herders:

By the side of the river Sindh, along the flat marshy lowlands for some

thousand li, there are several hundreds of thousands (a very great

The climate is hot; the disposition of the people is honest and simple;

they are tall of stature, and of a stern, vindictive character. To their

benefactors they are grateful; to their enemies relentless.... If a general

loses a battle, they do not inflict punishment, but present him with

women’s clothes, and so he is driven to seek death for himself. The

country provides for a band of champions to the number of several

hundred. Each time they are about to engage in conflict they intoxi-

cate themselves with wine, and then one man with lance in hand will

meet ten thousand and challenge them in fight.... The king, in conse-

quence of his possessing these men and elephants, treats his neigh-

bours with contempt. He is of the Kshatriya caste, and his name is

Pulakesi....His plans and undertakings are widespread, and his bene-

ficent actions are felt over a great distance...At the present time

Siladitya Maharaj (Harsha) has conquered the nations from east to

west, and carried his arms to remote districts, but the people of this

country alone have not submitted to him... (II: 256–57).

Here also the traveller found a mixed religious situation, about 100
monasteries with 5000 or so bhikkus, and about 100 ‘Deva tem-
ples’. The affiliations of these are not mentioned. He also describes
what can only be the Ajanta caves, which were built under the
preceeding dynasty.
From here Hsuan Tsang went to Gujarat, travelling about 200
miles west and crossing the Narmada to Bharukaccha (Bharuch).
This once famous seaport, center of the prosperous trade with
Rome and other lands outside India, had become an insignificant
small kingdom with approximately an equal number of monaster-
ies and ‘Deva temples’. The traveller was not impressed with the
people, who seem to have fallen under a collective depression on
account of their loss of economic status: ‘Their ways are cold and
indifferent; the disposition of the people crooked and perverse’
(II: 259). From there he went northeast to Malava (Malwa), whose
people are ‘remarkable for their great learning’ and where a hundred
monasteries with 2000 bhikkus seem to be outnumbered by the
‘very numerous heretics’, mostly Shaivites. The Gujarat itinerary
appears to be confused; he went southwest to a bay and then north-
west to come to Atali, then northwest again to Kaccha, then north
200 miles to Valabhi.
Valabhi was a larger area, where ‘the population is very dense;
the establishments rich. There are some hundred houses or so, who
possess a hundred lakhs. The rare and valuable products of distant

158 Buddhism in India