BUDDHISM IN AFGHANISTAN (Part III)

As for successors of the Mauryan Dynasty (first and second century BC), there were at least six of them who continued to rule mostly from Patliputra for another 50 years. Supposedly, Mauryan control in the provinces of Afghanistan, Gandhar, slipped in this phase. We can understand that, by this time, with practice of Dhamma (Dharma), the fighting spirit had taken a back seat.

Then came Gupta Empire which saw the rise of all three religions; Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Its expanse was again till Afghanistan in the West. Later, in the times of King Harshvardhana of (606 AD - 647 AD) Vardhana dynasty, Afghanistan was no longer a part of his empire.

Great Khan brothers
Great Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, a prominent Gandhian, and his brother Dr. Khan Saheb known to be great freedom fighters in Mahatama Gandhi era, used to say that "We are all Buddhists, converted to Islam under force." Both Abdul Gaffar Khan and his brother Dr. Khan Saheb, they became prominent leaders of India's Independence struggle. They were so kind and had become the favourites of volunteers in Gandhiji's sewagram.

There is one incident which respected Shri K. N. Rao Sir reminisces... When he was in Lucknow in Nazar Bagh, Khudai Khitmatgar was agitating; it is an incident of Pre-independence era; when Shri K. N. Rao Sir was a small child; they were watching and what they saw; these hugely built men of Khudai Khidmatgar were protesting, when police men came and started beating them. That was an actually absurd site to watch; puny police men beating men of such big stature and huge Khitmatgaars not lifting a finger. This was a generation before us. Frontier Gandhi and Dr. Khan were great Freedom fighters. Their Khudai Khidmatgar was the Pashtun non-violent resistance movement against British Raj in colonial India, where the Afghans had been duly trained to be nonviolent. This is the glimpse of the Buddhist, non-violent pathans; as they must be in the centuries gone by.

When it came to following Non-violence of Gandhiji, it was nothing new for people coming from North Province. The famous Khudai Khitmatgar followed the same ideology; they were great examples of Buddhist culture.

Badshah Khan, as Great Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan is popularly known as, writes in his Autobiography "My Life and Struggle" how their country progressed with Buddhism. He refers to the two great magnificent statues of Gautam Buddha in Bamian, probably the largest statues of Buddha in the world. Statues surrounded by caves where the monks, their disciples and spiritual aspirants lived. In this book, he also mentioned a Buddhist University at Ada near Jalalabad and another one at Taxila, where ruins of idols and images showed the artistic calibre of Pathans. He clearly mentions that spread of Buddhism was till China and far East.

Evidences of Buddhism
The pair of Bamiyan statues (standing 38 meters and 55 meters high), carved in the side of a cliff in Bamiyan valley (130 kms NW of Kabul) are carbon-dated to 544-595 AD and 591-644 AD, showing that till 7th century Buddhism was much prevalent in Afghanistan

There were numerous monasteries in Afghanistan; largest of them being the famous Buddhist monastery, called Nava Vihara (New Monastery) in Balkh; a Central Asia Buddhist learning center for centuries.

The archeological evidences of Buddhism have been found at various places:
- Buddhist cave complex Homay Qala in Ghazni
- Tapar Sardar monastery has a hill-top stupa surrounded by a row of smaller stupas and an 18 meter reclining Buddha. (as per excavation by an Italian Archeological Mission)
- Mes Aynak, an important Buddhist site near Kabul; The excavation showed an establishment with 10,000 artifacts 400 statues of Buddha, a stupa and a monastic complex.
- Excavation at several other sites, like Shewaki which is in East of Kabul, give us ampleevidence of Buddhism spread in Afghanistan, China, Korea, Sri Lanka and Central Asia.

Another site is Takht-e-Rustam in Samangan, where a monastery with five chambers and a stupa has been found; stupa is of 3-4th century. Afghan government started its renovation work in Jan 2021 and a big hall was to be built in the premises for the tourists. But, now that the Taliban has conquered strategic cities of Afghanistan, we can not say what will be the future of these artifacts and stupas!!

Decline of Buddhism
Like all other systems, Buddhism also had its negative side. "In its negative aspect, Buddhism denied the efficacy of Vedic rites and practices for the purpose of salvation, and challenged the superiority assumed by the Brahmanas." [Pg 198, The Ancient Indian History by R. C. Mazumdar]

This antagonised the other prominent sections of society. When we talk about Buddhism, we have to talk about Kumaril Bhatt and Adi Shankaracharya; who revived Hinduism.

Kumaril Bhatt was born in prayag-kshetra when Buddhism was at its prime. Buddhist teachers critised Vedas, upnayan and yagya. Bhatt was of the view that one had no right to criticise a philosophy till you know it well. He wanted to understand the Buddhist philosophy but Buddhist teachers would not adopt a Brahmin pupil in their vihara, so he had to pose as a non-Brahmin, to understand the tenets of Buddhism.

When the Buddhists would abuse vedas and criticize the vedic rituals, he would shed tears. On asking why he was crying, he would try to get through saying that their deep criticism of vedas was very good and had brought tears to his eyes. But, when this happened several times, the teachers got to know his real identity. They decided that he had no right to live.

They took him to the seventh floor of the building and caused him to fall from there. While falling,, he uttered a shloka saying "If Veda is pramana (authority) I should not suffer from this fall." When he fell, he did not suffer any great harm. Only one of his eyes was hurt by a stone.

Kumaril Bhatt got furious. He thought: "What great faith I had in the Veda and this has happened to me." At that time, there was a voice heard and it said : This is the result of your hypothetical statement 'if the Veda is pramaan (authority)!' The 'if' indicates some doubt." [Pg 83, Adi Sankara His Life and Times By HH Jagadguru Sri Candrashekharendra Sarasvati Sri Sankaracharya of Kanchi Kamkoti Pitha]

Hence forth, Bhatt propagated that karma (ritual) is the main path whereas Buddhism said there is no Karma, there is no God.

Kumaril Bhatt had already defeated Buddhists in many intellectual debates (shastrarths) and had made the task of Shankaracharya so easy. All that Shankaracharya had to do was to complete the residual work. Moorkhanandji (respected saint) has written it once in a manuscript in which he had established it on the basis of some ancient palyra manuscripts he had read.

The available manuscripts of Shankar Maths show clear astronomical dates, it is easy to accept that Shankaracharya belonged to 2nd century BC when neither Christ nor Mohammad were heard of and Buddhism, with a history of three hundred years, was a religion with which both Kumaril Bhatt and Shankaracharya had to do a battle. [Dips into Divinity, Astrology & History by Shri K. N. Rao]

Shankaracharya met great philosopher Kumaril Bhatt when he had already placed himself on a slow burning fire as he wished to do penance for the sins committed against his Guru, from whom he learnt Buddhism, just to refute it later. As per vedas, this is a sin and the great scholar had to repent.

Adi Shankara, had the massive task of reviving Hinduism. He established Sanatan Dharma to its previous glory. He followed Advaita Vedanta and established four mathas in all four directions. Adi Shankara wrote Bhashyas on the ten major Upanishads, the Brahma Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. He is known as the revivalist of Hinduism, as also a severe critic of Buddhism.

Shankaracharya did not agree to the postulates of Buddhism. Society needed correct spiritual guidance. Shankaracharya gave us the correct interpretation of Upanishads. He openly criticised and questioned Buddhism.