Buddhists and others, wasRe: RAJARAM EPISODE

[P. Anand]

------------- Original Message --------------
Stephen Hodge <s.hodge at PADMACHOLING.FREESERVE.CO.UK> wrote:

>P. Anand wrote:

>>   The quotes talked about the facts (destruction of Buddhists
>>  monasteries and libraries) that could be shown to be wrong

>I am not sure if I have understood correctly what you are saying here
>but are you saying that Buddhist monasteries and temples were not
>destroyed by bands of marauding raiders (who happened to be Muslims) ?
>That Nalanda and other major monasteries with there libraries were
>destroyed by such people is well documented from Tibetan sources -- by
>an eye-witness account in the case of Chak Lotsawa.


  First of all thanks for the information. However,
 I would like to make a few points.

 - I agree that one should avoid using religious categories
 in such discussions as far as possible. In this case
 it was necessary becuase of the post I was responding to. Also,
 I do not know what religion-neutral term can be used in
 general when discussing the invaders who were muslims.

 - In this specific case, the fact that the invaders
 had a different religion was definitely important.
 The invaders who were muslims rarely if ever destroyed
 mosques. As far as I know, there is no record of long-term
 systematic destruction of churches in Europe when
 European countries/kingdoms were at war for many
 centuries. Similarly, there is no such record of
 destruction when Indian (Hindu/Buddhist/Jain)
 kingdoms were at war among themeselves. Let me add
 that there will always be stray cases.

 - At least in India, Portuguese also destroyed many
 places of worship. I would think that they would
 not have destroyed if these places were roman catholic
 churches. My point being that one can not ignore the
 fact that invaders had different religion. In my
 view, in such cases, religious motivation should
 not be discounted without consideration.

 - I should also say that all this is important
 only as far as we want to know historical truth.
 This should not have any significant modern
 ramifications.


 Regards,

 :- Pankaj




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