| Awaken Bharata |
 |
| Books By David Frawley |
| THE IMPORTANCE OF KSHATRIYA DHARMA | |
| Buddhism did not put an end to the
warrior class in these countries, but they even flourished through
it, using martial arts developed from Buddhism and creating orders
of militant monks. However the
Buddhists in Central Asia and in India were less able to resist the
onslaught of martial Islam, because they did not survive it. There is almost no trace left of
Central Asian Buddhism and the parts of India that became Muslim,
like Pakistan and Bangladesh, had a strong Buddhist influence, which
is similarly all but eradicated.
In fact the Persian word for idol, in idol-smashing, is Bud or Buddha, showing that the Buddhists were the main idolaters that the Muslim armies attacked. The Hindus, though they were often defeated, never gave up fighting, so there may be something to this contention in the Indian context that Buddhism weakened the Kshatriya Dharma in India. Perhaps as Buddhism spread outside of India it had to be more flexible in its social principles. Yet such an influence of a passive Buddhism was certainly not the crucial factor. In any case Hindus continued in their concern for the spiritual life but gradually lost their concern for maintaining a Dharmic social order. The concern from Brahma or spiritual knowledge remained but the regard for Kshatra or Dharmic social order declined, which left the spiritual people of India under attack as well, with the massacre of Brahmins and sometimes Sadhus occurring by Islamic forces. |
|
|
|
