No archaeological evidence of violence between Buddhism and Hinduism in the past

Time of India

03-06-2025

India has been the progenitor of several faiths and religions. From time to time, several philosophers were born who contributed to the various schools of thought prevalent in this nation. These philosophies were also spread among the public which were gradually adopted into the ecosystem of social thought. Prominent among these philosophers were Gautam Buddha, Mahavir, Swami Charvak etc. It is also important to note here that the eternal ideology of India also gave equal opportunity to all religions to flourish. There was ideological difference of new religions from the age-old Vedic tradition, but it never gave rise to enmity and violence. Among these above sects, one sect which spread not only in India but the whole world like others was Buddhism
Around 2600 years ago, Siddhartha Gautam, a Kshatriya, adopted the path of non-violence with an aim of eradicating the wrongdoings in the society. This led to the emergence of Buddhism.
The philosophy of Buddhism primarily focused on the eradication of elaborate rituals and posed a contradiction against the virtues in the Vedic Hindu tradition, but this never gave rise to enmity between Hindus and Buddhists. Modern day history books and texts speak about the presence of enmity and violence between these groups which seems to be untrue on archeological grounds. Many historians have also written, based on ancient texts, that Hindu kings demolished Buddhist stupas. But the question is, is there any archeological evidence for this?
The Shunga dynasty is considered to be the biggest enemy of the Buddhists and ruled around 2200 years ago.The Shunga king who ruled the large territory of India was a follower of the Vedic tradition, but did the Shungas break the Buddhist stupa? The answer is no, because the world famous Sanchi Stupa, which was built in the Maurya period, is safe till now only because stone casing was done on the entire stupa in the Shunga period. The vedika and pradaksinapath of stone were also built during the Sunga period. Not only this, the Torana gate was also built in Sanchiduring the time of the Satavahana kings, who were also followers of the Vedic tradition. These Torana gates are 4 in number and include panels of the life of Buddha and several anecdotes related to Buddhism. If these followers of the Vedic Hindu tradition were against Buddhism or there was any mutual enmity in the society, the protection of stupas and additional architectural features would not have been possible.
Moreover, Buddhist stupas and Hindu temples have been built together in Sanchi. The main stupa is near Temple No. 17 which is one of the earliest examples of Hindu Temple and during the Gupta period, 4 statues of Buddha was built on the 4 Torana gates at Sanchi. This archeological evidence is a proof of the fact that the eternal tradition did not have any violent differences between the Hindu and Buddhist sects.
In Ujjain, which is one of the oldest cities in India, a huge stupa was built around 2300 years ago by the Mauryan dynasty. Ujjain is also a big centre of Shaivism. Surprisingly, the 2300-year-old stupa is still completely preserved. Thus, if the story of breaking the stupas by Hindus in the history books is correct, then how is the huge stupa of Ujjain, which is known as Vaishya Tekri, safe? Although, due to decline in Buddhist population in the region, the rituals associated with the stupa discontinued over time and it became a mound with no maintenance. However, evidence of destruction is still not present in this monument.
The biggest centre of Buddhism is Bodh Gaya, where construction work was done by Ashoka. The 'anti-Buddhist' Shungas took steps of renovation at this site. The vedikas built during the Gupta period is available for display at the Site Museum. In the later period a grand temple was built during the Gupta Dynasty who were followers of the Vedic tradition. As far as the history of Shashank, ruler of Gaud, is concerned about breaking the Bodhi tree, there are no material evidence for this event and is a fantasy. No archeological evidence is there for this incident.
In addition to the above-mentioned descriptions, there are many archeological evidences that prove unfounded fanciful things like Hindu-Buddhist violence, destruction of each other's holy sites. Hinduism and Buddhism are two parts of the eternal tradition, there is definitely an ideological difference between them but there was no place for violence and there is no place for violence.
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Views expressed above are the author's own.