Why and how Buddhism disappeared. This is my take. 

This is for Buddhists across the world who are wondering how and why Buddhism was wiped out of India. I realize Buddhism is alive and kicking in India. This post mustn't be construed as anti Muslim or anti Hindu or anti Brahmin as I have written it in a historical context. This is to clear the misunderstanding of our history created by historians in the metros and that Buddhists harbor against the Hindu community. I usually see claims by Buddhists that it was the Hindus that destroyed Buddhism and caused it to disappear. They cite the example of Shashank and some Brahmins who waged war with Buddhists. My research tells me that these were Anti Buddhist skirmishes which didn't have the power to wipe out an entire religion that had a mass following. Buddhist king's were stronger where some of them virtually ruled most of india. Shashank was a Bhardwaj and an early Pala king. Later Pala king's like Gopala and other's were strong Buddhist proponents. So the question of Shashank being instrumental in wiping out Buddhism doesn't arise. Yes, Shashank did attack Buddhists and broke idols but that doesn't mean he was able to wipe out the entire religion. These were just skirmishes. Neither did India convert to Hinduism. I have visited and videographed over 200 villages covering a distance of 700 kilometres in my SUV from Bahraich to losghani near my town. All the villages in eastern UP and Bihasr are mostly populated by Bhumihar Brahmins (my cast) and have the ancient Buddhist temples and pray to the Buddha and his disciples as local village dieties with localized names according to his deeds. . None of these villages have regular Hindu temples except for shivalayas. I mean no Ram and Krishna temple. This means there was no conversion to Hinduism. IT is total religious confusion. Ram and Krishna prayer was brought to these villages approximately 500 years ago by Brahmins who migrated during the same period. This tallies with Akbar's rule. Akbar was a king who allied with Rajput kings by marrying a Rajput princess. And Ram and Krishna were Rajput warlords elevated to the status of gods. It seems Akbar did that to destroy Buddhism and by making Rajput warlords as god's, he successfully neutralized Rajput Warlords in north India attained their allegiance. The villages I visited still don't have Ram and Krishna temples and only have new hanuman temple s made on Government property by usurping the roadside. This is proof that the Hinduism of today is literally a new religion which is why it still hasn't settled down with proper temples for Ram and Krishna. Their cheap statues have simply intruded Shiva temples and only occupy a corner. But the Buddhist temples are there in the form of the village diety or Kul Devta. The unique thing is Brahmin priests (as the world knows them) aren't allowed to enter these temples and prayers are conducted by villagers themselves. This means the villages ancestors didn't allow these Brahmins to enter. This is proof of the villages living religiously confused with two opposing religions. All these villages are staunch Hindus and diehard RSS supporter's. This is the irony. Anyway, how did a few Brahmins infiltrate these villages when jihad was in full force. Buddhists were on the run. How did these Brahmins have the guts under Muslim onslaught to penetrate villages belonging to the mighty mauryas and Palas. That too, these few Brahmins penetrated these villages on a pan indian basis. There was a massive religious upheaval and couldn't be carried out without government support. And the government across north India was Muslim. This means the Brahmins allied with the Muslims to wipe out Buddhism. The Brahmins got their support. The proof lies in the villages I visited. All these villages have settled on top of Buddhist stupas. They are all staunch Hindus with no Muslims living in them. But there is a Pir Baba's mazaar. Who was the Pir Baba. Was he there to make sure the Brahmins didn't face resistance. Was he the Mughals tax collector??? Because the Brahmin colonies are close to the Mazar. This is clear proof of a Brahmin Muslim joint effort to push Rajputized Hinduism and destroy buddhistic Hinduism. Another proof of this joint effort is Muslim's are settled on the main Buddhist stupas like the spot where the Buddha was born, the Mahaparinirvana stupa, the stupa that marks the spot where the Buddha was cremated and many more important ones. By settling on the stupas the Muslims made sure Buddhist pilgrims didn't come and pray to the stupas. Muslim's burnt up all the Buddhist texts to the extent that a single word wasn't salvaged. At the same time Brahmins were sleekly busy preaching Ramayan and Mahabharat in the villages. How did the entire Buddhist texts disappear while Hindu texts were left untouched. That too in a pan indian basis when jihad was rampant. Were the Hindu texts rewritten during Akbar's rule. The venerable Tulsidas rewrote the Ramayana during Akbar's rule. Why was it necessary to rewrite Balmiki Ramayana? Was it modified according to Muslim prescription, or according to the prescription of Akbars Hindu wife or the Brahmin coterie in his court. Did the Muslims prescribe monkey worship to degenerate an entire people into praying to monkeys? I don't believe that a people with universities of high studies like Nalanda, taxila, Vikramshila and hundreds more would prescribe monkey worship. Why aren't there any ancient hanuman temples. They are all new ones on Government property. This is clearly proof of coordinated effort between Muslims and a particular sect of Brahmins. These Brahmins went silent on the Buddhist story. This resulted in the villagers losing the history and story of the diety they prayed to. The person in-charge of the Buddhist temples called bhakta, which simply means believer, started behaving foolishly like calling in ghosts and other idiotic stuff, because of a lack of texts. Parallel to the Buddhist bhakta (Huen Tsang calls Buddhists "the believers" which when translated to Hindi is bhakta) the Brahmins opened their religious texts and slickly recited the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The villagers had to chose between the crazy scriptureless senseless Buddhist bhakta and the slickly preaching Brahmins story. Five hundred year's of hammering the Ramayana and Mahabharata caused villagers to slowly become Ram and Krishna bhakts. But they held on to the Buddhist temples and the dieties names though they don't know who he was and why he was important. In each of these villages villagers first pay homage to the village diety during marriages and happy moments. After paying homage to the diety they pray to other Hindu Gods. This is full proof there was no conversion to Hinduism. People say that Adi Guru Shankaracharya converted the country to Hinduism. The historians don't realize in Adi Guru Shankaracharyas time there was no television and radio to carry his word across India. Those days travelling was dicey. So how did the Shankaracharyas word travel across the thousands of villages. It's impossible to convert an entire country from one religion to another. Islam in all'it's blood curdling jihadic fury and gaury track record failed to convert the country to Islam. That too in a position as rulers of the entire country for 700 year's. Then how could a single Shankaracharya, through a single debate, with no television or radio convert an entire country to Hinduism by rejecting the most practical religion. IMPOSSIBLE. To top it all Huen Tsang has given proof that Adi Guru Shankaracharya definitely was Buddhist. So what happened. The Buddhist religion and religious texts came back to India from foreign countries. The texts came back with totally disfigured and mispronounced Indian words. These Buddhist countries were looking for Buddhism through the eyes of their own culture. The result was foreign Buddhists failed to recognize Indian Buddhism. And because of the mispronounced Indian words India and Indians failed to identify with the Buddhist story. To an extent Akbar and the Muslims were successful. But not fully. Imagine what will happen when the villagers realise who their village diety is. And imagine what will happen when they get back the history of the diety. There will be a major upheaval and the RSS will be forced to realign itself so that Buddhism is accepted. So all that talk that Shashank and some Brahmins wiped out Buddhism is hogwash. Buddhism is alive and kicking. Only Buddhists cannot see it because (a) Most of them are meat eaters when the Buddha strictly forbade hurting and killing any living being. So these meat eating Buddhists failed to realize why a majority of Indian villages were strictly vegetarian (b) The Buddhist countries are idol worshipers when the Buddha forbade idol worship So foreign Buddhists failed to recognize Indian Buddhism in the idol-less and picture less village diety temples across the length and breath of India. And the world failed to analyze Hindu customs which cater to the Buddhist line of thought.