d the text of the scriptures and that in his time there
were many Pandits and resident Bhikshus in the monasteries of
Vikramasila, Bodh-Gaya and Odontapuri.

There is thus every reason to suppose that in the twelfth century
Buddhism still nourished in Bihar, that its clergy numbered several
thousands and its learning was held in esteem. The blow which
destroyed its power was struck by a Mohammedan invasion in 1193. In
that year Ikhtiyar-ud-Din Muhammad,[275] a general of Kutb-ud-Din,
invaded Bihar with a band of only two hundred men and with amazing
audacity seized the capital, which, consisting chiefly of palaces and
monasteries, collapsed without a blow. The monks were massacred to a
man, and when the victors, who appear not to have understood what
manner of place they had captured, asked the meaning of the libraries
which they saw, no one was found capable of reading the books.[276]
It was in 1193 also that Benares was conquered by the Mohammedans. I
have found no record of the sack of the monastery at Sarnath but the
ruins are said to show traces of fire and other indications that it
was overwhelmed by some sudden disaster.

The Mohammedans had no special animus against Buddhism. They were
iconoclasts who saw merit in the destruction of images and the
slaughter of idolaters. But whereas Hinduism was spread over the
country, Buddhism was concentrated in the great monasteries and when
these were destroyed there remained nothing outside them capable of
withstanding either the violence of the Moslims or the assimilative
influence of the Brahmans. Hence Buddhism suffered far more from these
invasions than Hinduism but still vestiges of it lingered long[277]
and exist even now in Orissa. Taranatha says that the immediate result
of the Moslim conquest was the dispersal of the surviving teachers and
this may explain the sporadic occurrence of late Buddhist inscriptions
in other parts of India. He also tells us that a king named
Cangalaraja restored the ruined Buddhist temples of Bengal about 1450.
Elsewhere[278] he gives a not discouraging picture of Buddhism in the
Deccan, Gujarat and Rajputana after the Moslim conquest of Magadha but
adds that the study of magic became more and more prevalent. In the
life of Caitanya it is stated that when travelling in southern India
(about 1510 A.D.) he argued with Buddhists and confuted them,
apparently somewhere in Arcot.[279] Manuscripts preserved in Nepal
indicate that as late as