At the present day the Buddha is recognized by the Brahmans as an incarnation of Vishnu,[332] though the recognition is often qualified by the statement that Vishnu assumed this form in order to mislead the wicked who threatened to become too powerful if they knew the true method of attaining superhuman powers.  But he is rarely worshipped in propria persona.[333] As a rule Buddhist images and emblems are ascribed to Vishnu or Siva, according to sectarian preferences, but in spite of fusion some lingering sense of original animosity prevents Gotama from receiving even such respect as is accorded to incarnations like Parasu-rama.  At Bodh-Gaya I have been told that Hindu pilgrims are taken by their guides to venerate the Bodhi-tree but not the images of Buddha.

Yet in reviewing the disappearance of Buddhism from India we must remember that it was absorbed not expelled.  The result of the mixture is justly called Hinduism, yet both in usages and beliefs it has taken over much that is Buddhist and without Buddhism it would never have assumed its present shape.  To Buddhist influence are due for instance the rejection by most sects of animal sacrifices:  the doctrine of the sanctity of animal life:  monastic institutions and the ecclesiastical discipline found in the Dravidian regions.  We may trace the same influence with more or less certainty in the philosophy of Sankara and outside the purely religious sphere in the development of Indian logic.  These and similar points are dealt with in more detail in other parts of this work and I need not dwell on them here.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 264:  Written before the war.]

[Footnote 265:  Even at Kanauj, the scene of Harsha’s pious festivities, there were 100 Buddhist monasteries but 200 Deva temples.]

[Footnote 266:  Rice, Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions, p. 203.]

[Footnote 267:  See the note by Buehler in Journ.  Pali Text Soc. 1896, p. 108.]

[Footnote 268:  Rajatarangini, III. 12.]

[Footnote 269:  See for the supposed persecution of Buddhism in India, J.P.T.S. 1896, pp. 87-92 and 107-111 and J.R.A.S. 1898, pp. 208-9.]

[Footnote 270:  As contained in the Sankara-dig-vijaya ascribed to Madhava and the Sankara-vijaya ascribed to Anandagiri.]

[Footnote 271:  Taranatha in his twenty-eighth and following chapters gives an account, unfortunately very confused, of the condition of Buddhism under the Pala dynasty.  See also B.K.  Sarkar, Folklore Element in Hindu Culture, chap.  XII, in which there are many interesting statements but not sufficient references.]

[Footnote 272:  See Vidyabhusana’s Mediaeval School of Indian Logic, p. 150, for an account of this monastery which was perhaps at the modern Parthaghata.  I have found no account of what happened to Nalanda in this period but it seems to have disappeared as a seat of learning.]