भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

Buddhists, than under the Vedic people, who accepted the principle of ahimsa with its limitations. The Buddhist, once again I would like to repeat, aggravated and not mitigated ‘untouchability’. They should examine the validity of this statement in the light of the undisputed evidence cited here and then alone, should they choose whatever is beneficial to them. 346. They should remember that for the above reason, the untouchables like the Chandals and others preferred the Vedic regimes, a more congenial, to the unrelenting and uncompromising Buddhist ones, and those thouands of them who in the past had voluntarily (or helplessly and under pressure) embraced Buddhism, now renounced it and declared their allegiance to the Vedic religion. Thus, even before the Muslims set foot in Sindh, followers of the Buddha had begun to diminish in numbers by millions throughout all ranks of society, right from the highest to the lowest, and because of its inherent weakness, Buddhism had declined to such an extent that the Chinese Buddhist travellers, who had seen its sad plight with their own eyes, had been moved to write that the holy and once prosperous places like Buddha Gaya, Mrigadava, Shravasti, Kushinagar, and the birthplace of Lord Buddha, Kapilvastu, which had been sanctified by the actual residence of the Lord and which had been the place of pilgrimage for the world-wide Buddhist followers, had been sadly rendered desolate and were overgrown with wild and thick forests. 347. Nevertheless, this moribund Buddhism was not altogether wiped out of India, before the advent of the Muslims. The Buddhists were more numerous in the north-western frontier states like Sindh and Kamboj, and even in Bengal in the east, than in the rest of India. It is said that the modern state of Bihar derives its name from the fact that there once existed far too many Buddhist viharas, stoopas and other ‘Buddhaparasthas’. Since the Vedic states were prosperous everywhere, this Buddhist sect had no guts to carry on its traitorous activities or to enforce its religious rites and faith on non-Buddhists, whether it had their will to do so or not. And so long as they followed their religious faith harmlessly, they, their organisations, their institutions, and their viharas were never interfered with in any way by the Vedic kings. That they enjoyed complete religious freedom is admitted by the Chinese travellers open-heartedly. 348. What then made these millions of Buddhists, living in the various states of India before the Muslim onrush, dwindle into non-existence