Saturday, January 28, 2017

Why was Hinduism more successful in India than Jainism or Buddhism?

Several factors contributed to the persistence of Hinduism, even while Jainism and Buddhism stagnated or declined. Some of these factors are intrinsic to these religions' more practical differences. Buddhism was a highly centralized Dharmic practice, enacted mainly in monasteries, and was therefore less scalable in India, where it had no ancient Buddhist monasterial basis. Moreover, Buddhism and Jainism relied on administrative orders of monks or otherwise enlightened figures. In contrast, Hinduism is very decentralized and scalable, basing its practice in the home, its "administrators" being any family. Hindu priests and monks were intermingled with families, often living among them in the jungle mathas and ashrams.
Buddhism also bore the brunt of several religiously motivated attacks. The most significant attack was performed by people who called their faith the "Religion of Peace." Along with the Mamluk Dynasty, they invaded and destroyed an important Asian university called Nalanda, along with its library full of Buddhist volumes, and killed many important Mahaviharas. Jainism faced similar persecution during numerous Muslim conquests.

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