Brahmanism beaten and battered by the Muslim invaders could look to the rulers for support
and sustenance and get it. Buddhism beaten and battered by the Muslim invaders had no
such hope. It was an uncared for orphan and it withered in the cold blast of the native rulers
and was consumed in the fire lit up by the conquerors.(BHIMRAO AMBEDKAR) 1
Scholarship on Buddhist and Muslim interactions has long featured a particular story about
Islam's central role in Indian Buddhism's decline. This narrative can be summarized in a …

The standard scholarly and popular narrative posits that Islam incited the decline of Indian
Buddhism or at least hastened its demise. This storyline is historically dubious but it has
proven intractable. In part, biases about Islam undergird this causal decline narrative. Also at
play are assumptions about the life cycle of religious traditions and the presumed need to
explain the disappearance (or near disappearance) of Buddhism from India roughly around
the time when Islamic rulers gained a strong foothold on the subcontinent. This paper details …