Page:Discovery Of Living Buddhism In Bengal.djvu/9

[4] Since writing the above many proofs have been obtained to show that Buddhism lingered in Eastern India.

There is a palm leaf MS. in the Mahárájá's Library at Khatmandu being No. 85. This was copied by two Gauḍadeçfyopásakas, or lay Buddhists belonging to Bengal in the year 1818 after the Nirvána of Buddha. And there are many Buddhist Tántrik works in that Library written in the Bengali or in the Maithilí hand. Professor Bendall speaks of a copy of the Çiksásaumccaya in the Cambridge Library written in a Bengali hand of the 14th century.

A Maithili MS. of the commentary of the Prajnápáramitá portion of the Bodhicaryyávatára is to be found in the Asiatic Society's collections. This is in a character four to five hundred years old.

A Bengali Bráhmana converted to Buddhism and persecuted at home went to Ceylon where Parákramaváhu made him the Supervisor of the Bauddha religious establishments, Buddhágamacakravarlí. Pandit Silaskandha of Ceylon says that this Parákramaváhu belonged to the thirteenth century, nearly fifty years after the Muhammadan conquest. The Commentator says that this Bráhman was born in Vfravati in the Várendra Country in Bengal. This shows that in that part of Bengal, Buddhism was a living religion in the 13th century, to such an extent that it could attract even learned Bráhmanas, for this Bráhmana, Rámacandra Kavibhárati, was a poet, a grammarian, and a rhetorician.

These facts show that long after the Muhammadan conquest in spite of the rivalry of Bráhmanas and the wholesale massacre by Musalmans, Buddhists still continued to exist in Bengal, Magadha, and Mithilá.

The Vajrásan at Gayá continued to be visited by pilgrims from various parts of the world. A Nepalese from Lalitapattan made a pilgrimage to Gayá and lived there for three years, about 1585. On his return home he erected a vihára and named it Mahábodhi Vihár. Its style differs from that of all other Viháras in Nepál and is said to have been copied from one near Gayá.