Mahabodhi Movement in 1890s held the Muslim Rule in India responsible for the decay of Buddhism in India.[9][14][15] Anagarika Dharmapala did not hesitate to lay the chief blame for the decline of Buddhism in India at the door of Muslim fanaticism.[16]

Anupam

Dharma is fluid being conditioned by time and space. In Buddha’s time, it must have been preferable to emphasize non-violence and a critical outlook free from notions of God-hood/scriptures. In Guru Gobind Singh’s time, the opposite was true – and indeed he affirms in the Dasam Granth, that dying in combat is the only way to gain moksha. But both Buddha and Guru Gobind Singh represents offshoots of the same dharmic traditon.

Buddhism itself evolved in three steps. In the first step, the following of Buddha’s teachings was literal. Much like Thiruvalluvar, morality was emphasized and yama/niyama type rules were formulated. This stage is the Sthiravada stage. In the next stage, devotion to the Buddhas is brought in to achieve one-pointedness of mind and to make preparations to transcend it. This stage is the so-called Mahayana. In the third stage, that spread only in Tibet, mysticism makes a grand entry – with worship of deities through mantra, yantra and tantra is established.

For those, who know the more advanced aspects of Hinduism, this 3rd stage of Buddhism would be seen to be identical with it. A simple way to find out if you know this so-called advanced HInduism is to ask yourself : Do you understand the connection between chapter one of the Gita and different parts of your own body. If you do understand this process of anga nyaasa, then by all means you can read the Tibetan books and confirm for yourself my claim above that Vajrayana – the 3rd stage – is actually non-different from advanced Hinduism. The difference being that the Hindu seers traditionally – for whatever reason – keep this silent; whereas the Tibetans – forced to move out of the monastries by the Chinese – are forced by survival constraints to reveal all in public. So for the mystics, Buddhism simply re-merged into the so-called Hinduism. In this sense, Buddhism never really declined in India.

Indeed, a stronger claim can be made here. Most readers would find it useful to read the “buddhist” works of Tilopa and Milarepa and practize the Tibetan techniques of Mahamudra and Dream Yoga in order to understand some of the more esoteric passages in our “hindu” upanishads of chandogya and brihadaranyaka.