A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c20.s1.1

c20.s1.1

The early history of Buddhism in South India has been incidentally sketched in the opening chapters of this book. Its decline in Andhradeśa, where it had flourished in the early centuries A.D., was noticed by Yuan Chwang, and this decline proceeded further after his time. The renascent Hinduism of the period began the worship of the Buddha at Amarāvati as an incarnation of Vishnu and seems likewise to have converted many other Buddhist centres into Hindu shrines. In the Tamil country, Buddhism declined rapidly as a result of the activities of the Hindu saints and reformers which we have noticed in this chapter, but it lingered on feebly in different parts of the country. Under the Cholas there were Buddhist settlements in Negapatam on the east coast and at Śrīmūlavāsam in the west; and Buddhism was considered sufficiently important for some scenes from Buddha's life to be represented in decorative panels in a balustrade of the great temple of Tanjore. The ancient Velgam Vehera on the banks of the Periyakulam tank near Trincomalee in Ceylon was remodelled and considerably extended, and renamed Rājarāja Perumbaḷḷi early in the eleventh century; a large life-size limestone image of the Buddha and an inscribed bronze lampstand are among the finds in the vihāra—clear proof of the active interest of the great Chola monarch in the spiritual well-being of his subjects in Ceylon. An important work of Tamil grammar, the Virasōliyam composed in Virarājēndra's time, had a Buddhist scholar for its author. One section of Kāñchipuram bore the name of Buddhakāñchī to a relatively late date, and a Buddhist monk from one of the monasteries there sang the praises of a Hindu ruler of eastern Java in the fourteenth century.