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After Vikramshila
With the end of Vikramshila, also ended the sovereignty of the Senas, who were subjugated by the Turks. Lavamasena’s and his other successors in the direct family line including Buddhasena, Haritasena, Pratitasena and others had to obey them and did not have much of actual royal power. After the death of Pratitasena, their line came to an end.
However, we come across instances when even with their limited power, efforts were being made to maintain the earlier traditions. From the account left by Dharmasvamin, we learn about the period of Buddhasena, when Pandita Rahulasribhadra, though aged more than 90, was still residing at Nalanda, along with about 70 other monks. Dharmasvamin stayed with him for one year and studied the sastras at Nalanda, which though ransacked, is stated as still having some live-able apartments, in which hiding from the Turks, these few monks then tried to continue the studies. However, on one fateful day, the Turk army, then stationed at Odantapuri and numbering about 300, reached and looked for them. While all others escaped, Dharmaswamin hid in the nearby temple of Gyannatha along with the elder monk and noticed their activities from hiding.
Taranath has mentioned that after about 100 years of Pratitasena’s death, Cingalaraja became very powerful in Bhamgala and brought under control all the Hindus and Turuskas up to Dilli.
He established there a centre for the doctrine under Pandit Sariputra. After his death, 160 years had passed when Taranath was documenting the Buddhist history of India. After him, no other king of Magadha was known to have promoted Buddhism and later even when King Mukundadeva of Odivisa occupied most of the territory of the Madhya-desa, no centre for the doctrine was established. In Odivisa, he established the temple for the insiders and also a number of smaller centres for the doctrine. 38 years had then passed since his death. However, Buddhism, thereafter, vanished totally from its original homeland. India had changed, only to be revived centuries later !
To be continued...