Chapter 6 Religions of South Asia 207A later renowned bhakti poet from Bengal, the saint Chaitanya (1486–
1533), was a devotee of Krishna. His followers sang hymns and danced in a
state of religious ecstasy celebrating the cowherd women (the gopis) who aban-
doned their husbands to cavort with Krishna. Their love was so passionate that
marriage could not contain it, and the adulterous love between Krishna and
Radha became a model for human love for the divine. Radha says: “In the kad-
amba grove, what man is that standing?... My mind is agitated, it cannot be
still, streams flow from my eyes.... I cannot stay in the house; My soul rests
not, it flutters to and fro in hope of seeing him” (Beames 1873).
This intensely romantic love for a god that began in Hindu kingdoms of the
south swept India during the centuries that Muslim conquerors were entering
in the north. A new version of the Ramayana was written by Tulsidas, elevat-
ing Rama as another beloved god, and both Sita and Radha suffered in separa-
tion from their beloveds when they were not swooning in their presence. And
all this was shaping the religious imagination to a new way of connecting with
divinities that continues to this day.
Pilgrimage to Buddhist India
In the late eighteenth century, Buddhism was known in Nepal, Tibet, China,
Burma, Thailand, Ceylon, and Japan—but not India. Traveling in Burma in the
1790s, Francis Buchanan was told by devout Buddhists that the Buddha had
been an Indian from Bihar. Later Buchanan worked in Bihar, where there was a
town called Bodh Gaya, which means “Buddha went.” There were several old
temples in poor condition served by Brahmans. People in the vicinity worshipped
many Hindu gods—and also images of Buddha, said to be an incarnation of
Vishnu. Every now and then strange-looking foreigners would arrive, often
accompanied by servants, to reverently tour the ruins. One such pilgrim said
these ruins had been built by “Dharma Ashoka, King of Pandaripuk.” No one
had any idea who Ashoka was, or what place Pandaripuk had been (Keay 1988).
In 1819, a British captain came upon a circular stepped pyramid in a place
called Sanchi surrounded by a colonnade of pillars; there were sculptures
everywhere, many of them defaced (see Sanchi Stupa on p. 203). Among the
Hindu and Jain gods, the captain was astonished to see Buddha images. But
what were they doing on the plains of Central India?
More evidence came to light in the 1830s, when two travel journals of
ancient Chinese pilgrims were translated into English and read with astonish-
ment in India. Between 399 and 414 C.E. the Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian
had traveled to India to find authentic Buddhist texts to take back to China.
This was the height of the Gupta period when Buddhism was thriving. All of
North India was at peace, and Faxian was able to travel from one vast Buddhist
monastery to another, some of them housing thousands of monks. He wrote:
The kings are firm believers in the Law. When they make their offerings to
a community of monks, they take off their royal caps and along with their
relatives and ministers, supply them with food with their own hands. That