Chapter 1 Turkish Encounters with Monuments and the Decline of Buddhism in North India

In: Transforming Empire: The Ottomans from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean
Author:
Richard Eaton
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Type:
Chapter
Pages:
3–21
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004704374_002

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Abstract

A longstanding problem in Indian historiography – indeed, world history – is why and how Buddhism disappeared from India, the land of its birth. The most popular theory focuses on Turkish invasions of north India at the turn of the thirteenth century and their alleged violent iconoclasm respecting Buddhist monastic institutions. Examining archaeological, architectural, and contemporary written evidence, this paper explores this vexing problem. The analysis is structured within a broader typology respecting the relationship between architecture and power, and in particular what happens when power confronts monuments of earlier dispensations, defeated rulers, oppressed minorities, and the like.

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Series:  The Ottoman Empire and its Heritage, Volume: 80
Cover Transforming Empire: The Ottomans from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean
E-Book ISBN:
9789004704374
Publisher:
Brill
Print Publication Date:
17 Sep 2024
Front Matter
Part 1 Peoples
Part 2 Places
Part 3 Practices
Back Matter

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  • Wink, André. al-Hind: The Making of the Indo-Islamic World. Leiden: Brill, 1997.

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