Thread by @MumukshuSavitri

This LIE that Brahmanas burnt down Nalanda will be put to rest once & for all with this 🧵of undeniable evidence

The book that is being cited to support this horrific lie is Taranatha’s “History of Buddhism in India”. First this book is not considered a histiography because it cites many supernatural miracles to glorify Buddhism. However even if we ignore all that, Taranatha himself provides the unexpected clues that leftists deliberatrly leave out to distort history.

The first clue is that Taranatha describes the history of Sri Nalendra (Nalanda) in elaborate detail as a monastery where “more than a 1000 Brahmans & an EQUAL number of Tirthikas took up ordination”
This CLEARLY proves that in Taranatha’s context Tirthikas & Hindu Brahmanas were NOT the same otherwise why would he mention them as SEPARATE categories in the same sentence?

In another reference Taranatha clearly refers to Buddhists converting BOTH Brahmanas & Tirthikas to Buddhism in Gujarat. Why would he say this if they were one & the same? Yet another reference refers to Buddhists separately defeating a Nirgrantha, a Brahmana & a Tirthika in a debate.

Clearly Brahmana & Tirthika were separate categories.

Now that Taranatha’s own passages have established that Brahmanas & Tirthikas were NOT the same, let’s see what the real role of Brahmanas was as described by Taranatha himself.

In chapter 20, Taranatha describes the famous episode of the king’s minister holding an inaugral feast at a temple in Nalanda, where Buddhist Sramanas bullied two Tirthika beggars & unleashed dogs on them. This angered them so much that they practiced austerities to gain Siddhis & take revenge

After 12 years the Tirthika attained Siddhis, & performed a fire worship whose ashes produced fire which burnt down Nalanda & its libraries. But the most CRUCIAL part that Leftists like DN Jha cleverly leave out of Taranatha’s account is at the end of the story where Taranatha says that the Nalanda “temples damaged by the fire were reconstructed by King Buddhapaksa, the BRAHMANA Śanku, the BRAHMANA Brihaspati & many householders.”

In the next chapter, Tarantha further describes how this same Brahmana Śanku knew esoteric magic about Nagas & was a devout Hindu who built a Vaisnavite Garuda Stambha for protection against snakebites. Thus there is no question that Śanku clearly was a Hindu Brahmana.

This is conclusive proof that Brahmanas were not involved in the burning of Nalanda & its libraries, but they actively reconstructed & rebuilt the structures at Nalanda after the fire. This decisively busts leftist lies about Brahminical fanatics persecuting Buddhists.

The fact that Brahmanas constantly helped Buddhists is further corroborated by Tibetan Buddhist monk Dharmasvamin (1235 AD) who visited Nalanda & Bihar a few decades after Khalji had destroyed Nalanda & other Buddhist Viharas of Magadha. He describes Hindus giving alms to Buddhist monks & a Brahmana named Jayadeva saving the last Buddhist abbot of Nalanda, Rahul’s Sri Bhadra from a Muslim attack

Ramasimha the Hindu Raja of Tirhut even asked Dharmasvamin to become his chaplain. And even when he refused, the Hindu king respectfully showered him with valuable presents. This was the true face of Hindus, who despite debate & conflict lived harmoniously with Buddhists

A final LIE that Leftists use to buttress their claims about is their contention that Brahmana Senapati Pushyamitra Shunga persecuted Buddhists with Tirthikas. But this is a complete LIE created by Leftist distorians NN Ghosh. The actual passage by Taranatha in fact says the OPPOSITE. He says that it was during Pushyamitra’s time, that the first Tirthikas made inroads in India.
This is a crucial clue.

Taranatha then says the Tirthikas commenced WAR AGAINST Brahmana Pushyamitra Shunga. This clearly shows Tirthikas & Brahmanas CANNOT be the same! The Tirthikas then burnt a number of temples beginning from Jalandhara & as far as Magadha, where they also killed many Buddhist Bhikshus.

This is the final nail in the LIE which conclusively proves that Tirthikas were NOT Hindu Brahmanas.

Finally Tibetan Buddhist scholar Dharmasvāmin who visited Bihar in 1235 CE - just three decades after Bakhtiyar Khalji's destruction of Nalanda NEVER mentions anything about Brahmanas burning down anything at Nalanda at all.

Dharamsvāmin however refers constantly to how Turushkas (Muslims) destroyed Nalanda leading to it being abandoned. In fact he narrowly escaped with his life in another attack by the Muslim army at Nalanda, where he had to flee with his teacher Rahula Sri Bhadra.

Tarānātha’s claim of Tirthikas setting fire to Nalanda is first mentioned by 4 centuries later in 16th c. & Sumpa Khan-Po just repeats Tarantha in 18th c. But even this incident happened AFTER Muslim attacks & destruction of Nalanda & other universities in Magadha. Tarānātha himself provides the evidence by telling us how the Muslims decimated Nalanda under king Dharmachandra's rule. (Chapter 19)

After Dharmachandra's death, his maternal uncle's son Buddhapakșa of Vāranasi fought back against the Muslims & tried to reconstruct the broken structures. BEFORE the fire burnt Nalanda Tarānātha clearly describes:

“The Persian king destroyed Magadha by the Turușka army, RUINED many temples & HEAVILY DAMAGED Sri Nalendra (Nalanda)”

It was AFTER Muslim destruction had already happened during Buddhapaksa's rule that the fire incident occurred. (Chapter 20)

As mentioned earlier Tarānātha also clearly states that it was 2 BRAHMINS under Buddhapaksha who rebuilt all the burnt portions of Nalanda after that incident.

Thus it is very clear that this blatant LIE to blame Hindu Brahmanas for burning down Nalanda was constructed by Hinduphobic Leftist distorians from NN Ghosh to DN Jha, from Romila Thapar & now eyeshadow bandit Ruchika Sharma to demonize Hindus. Since Nalanda is the most famous example of Islamic iconoclasm & intolerant destruction, the objective was to create an alternate history to whitewash Islamic invader Khilji’s crimes & by falsely implicating Brahmanas drive a further wedge to Divide Hindus & Buddhists.

These charlatans must be held accountable for the heinous crime of trying to misappropriate & falsify India’s history.

References:

Tāranātha's History of Buddhism in India.  India, Motilal Banarsidass, 1990.

Roerich, George. "Biography of Dharmasvamin." (1959).

Mishra, Ram Kumar. “Pushyamitra Sunga & the Buddhists.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 73 (2012)

The first tweet should read *history - not historiography