History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c91.2

v7.c91.2

Literary works and society act and re-act on each other. The state of Indian society a few centuries before and after Christ, riven as it was by the growing strength and onslaught of Buddhism, Jainism and other dissenting sects and disturbed by invasions of the Greeks, Śakas, Pahlavas, Hūṇas and other foreign tribes, gave much food for thought to those who were devoted to the Vedic religion and induced them to write works setting forth new ideologies and practices and effecting a re-statement of the ancient Vedic and Smṛti religion. When these works attained a position of authority and eminence, the endeavour of the followers of the Veda was to follow them as far as possible and to adapt their practices and religious rites to the requirements of the Purāṇas. We have to see how the Purāṇas set about their task of re-orientation. We must note that current Hindu religious practices, judging from the *saṅkalpa* made at the beginning of every rite, are meant to confer upon the performer the rewards declared by Śruti (Veda), Smṛti and Purāṇas (Śruti-smṛti-purāṇokta-phalaprāptyartham). The task was two-fold, viz. (1) to undermine the power and prestige of Buddhism and Jainism and the influence of the numerous philosophical¹⁴⁴⁷ schools that had sprung up and (2) to wean away large sections of the masses from the attractive features of Buddhism and to convince them that they could secure in the re-orientated Hindu faith the same benefits, social and spiritual, as Buddhism promised and that the religious principles of the followers of Veda coincided with many of the teachings of Buddhism and were borrowed by Buddhism from Vedic practices. Ultimately Buddhism vanished from the land of its origin. The main causes of this disappearance of Buddhism from Bhārata will be stated at the end of this section, but this much may be said here at once that the Purāṇas played a substantial role in bringing about the decline and disappearance of Buddhism by emphasizing and assimilating some of the principles and doctrines of Buddha¹⁴⁴⁸ such as ahimsā, by accepting Buddha himself as an avatāra of Viṣṇu, by adopting vegetarianism as a high form of austerity, by making use of monasteries and asceticism as stated in such smṛtis as those of Manu and Yāj.