History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c91.310.1

v7.c91.310.1

The causes that have been advanced from time to time by scholars for the total disappearance of Buddhism from India must now be dealt with. (1) Persecution is alleged by some scholars as at least one of the main causes. King Puṣyamitra of the Śuṅga dynasty is charged with having proclaimed that whoever would bring to him the head of a *śramaṇa* would receive one hundred *dīnāras*;¹⁶⁴⁴ Mihirakula, king of Kashmīr, is accused by Yuan Chwang (or more correctly, Hsuan Tsang according to some modern writers) with having overthrown Buddhist topes in Gandhāra, with destruction of monasteries and the slaughter of myriads of Buddhists (vide 'In the footsteps of Buddha' by René Grousset pp. 119-120 on Mihirakula, the Indian Attila), king Śaśānka is said by Yuan Chwang to have destroyed the Bo-tree (*Bodhidruma*), replaced the image of Buddha by one of Maheśvara and to have destroyed the religion of Buddha and dispersed the order (vide Beal's 'Buddhist Records of the Western World' Vol. II. pp. 118, 122 and Watters on 'Yuan Chwang's Travels' Vol. II, pp 115-116); king Sudhanvan is supposed to have issued at the instigation of Kumārila1644a a proclamation to take effect from the Himālayas to Cape Comorin (which is palpably absurd) that he would put to death any servant of his who did not kill the Buddhists. These instances are carefully examined by no less a scholar than Rhys Davids in the Journal of the Pali Texts Society for 1896 (pp 87-92).