Phase 3: Post Buddhist revival
It is difficult to answer why Buddhism declined in India – due to Muslim invasions, due to developing Hindu orthodoxy, or religious attacks from non-Buddhists, or some other reasons. Many people believe that the religious thought of Adi Shankara, an 8th century Brahmin from Kerala, who travelled on foot to all parts of India, countering Buddhism and Jainism and establishing the sanctity of Vedas, led to downfall of Buddhism in India (http://www.astrojyoti.com/adishankaracharya.htm).
Shankara denounced caste and meaningless ritual as foolish, and in his own charismatic manner exhorted the true devotee to meditate on gods love and to apprehend truth. His treatises on the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, and Vedanta Sutras are testaments to a keen and intuitive mind that did not want to admit dogma but advocated reason. His greatest lesson was that reason and abstract philosophising alone would not lead to moksha (liberation). It was only through selflessness and love governed by viveka (discrimination) that a devotee would realise his inner self.
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It has been said that Pusyamitra Shunga who assassinated the last Mauryan Emperor started a new dynasty around 185 BC. The new dynasty was called the Shunga dynasty. Pusyamitra Shunga did not like Buddhism and removed Buddhists out of his empire to the Indian borders – Kashmir, Afghanistan etc.(http://unvarnished-veritas.posterous.com/rise-and-decline-of-buddhism-in-india). However, by then Hinduism had already incorporated many ideas of Buddhism. Buddha had become one of the Hindu incarnations and his idols were placed in Hindu and Buddha temples. No wonder, Vivekananda called Buddhism the "fulfillment of Hinduism" and that "The Vedanta philosophy is the foundation of Buddhism and everything else in India" http://unvarnished-veritas.posterous.com/rise-and-decline-of-buddhism-in-india.
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