Deciphering the Decline: Assessing the Medieval Buddhist Landscape in Eastern India

This paper challenges the prevailing notion of an abrupt termination of Indian Buddhism in the thirteenth century CE. It does so by examining material culture from archaeological contexts of identified Buddhist monasteries in the Magadha region. The paper primarily relies on the data collected during a systematic village-to-village survey conducted during 2021-22. In addition, a variety of textual and epigraphic sources have also been used to reconstruct the social and political context of the region during the long period between the eleventh and seventeenth century CE. The study of changes in both continuity and discontinuity in the Buddhist landscape of Magadha after the alleged decline offers a unique insight into the medieval history of Indian Buddhism in the region.  Through this micro-regional approach, the study provides a nuanced perspective on the history of diverse religious traditions in eastern India, contesting the ‘decline’ paradigms surrounding Medieval Buddhism in India.