Modern accounts of Nepal leave the impression that even corrupt Buddhism is in a bad way, yet the number of religious establishments is considerable.  Celibacy is not observed by their inmates, who are called banras (bandyas).  On entering the order the novice takes the ancient vows but after four days he returns to his tutor, confesses that they are too hard for him and is absolved from his obligations.  The classes known as Bhikshus and Gubharjus officiate as priests, the latter being the higher order.  The principal ceremony is the offering of melted butter.  The more learned Gubharjus receive the title of Vajracarya[294] and have the sole right of officiating at marriages and funerals.

There is little learning.  The oldest scriptures in use are the so-called nine Dharmas.[295] Hodgson describes these works as much venerated and Rajendralal Mitra has analysed them, but Sylvain Levi heard little of them in 1898, though he mentions the recitation of the Prajna-paramita.  The Svayambhu Purana is an account of the manifestation of the Adi-Buddha written in the style of those portions of the Brahmanic Puranas which treat of the glories of some sacred place.  In its present form it can hardly be earlier than the sixteenth century A.D.  The Nepala-mahatmya is a similar work which, though of Brahmanic origin, puts Buddha, Vishnu and Siva on the same footing and identifies the first with Krishna.  The Vagvati-mahatmya[296] on the other hand is strictly Sivaite and ignores Buddha’s claims to worship.  The Vamsavali, or Chronicle of Nepal, written in the Gurkha language (Parbatiya) is also largely occupied with an account of sacred sites and buildings and exists in two versions, one Buddhist, the other Brahmanical.

But let us return to the decadence of Buddhism in India.  It is plain that persecution was not its main cause nor even very important among the accessory causes.  The available records contain clearer statements about the persecution of Jainism than of Buddhism but no doubt the latter came in for some rough handling, though not enough to annihilate a vigorous sect.  Great numbers of monasteries in the north were demolished by the Huns and a similar catastrophe brought about the collapse of the Church in Bihar.  But this last incident cannot be called religious persecution, for Muhammad did not even know what he was destroying.  Buddhism did not arouse more animosity than other Indian religions:  the significant feature is that when its temples and monasteries were demolished it did not live on in the hearts of the people, as did Hinduism with all its faults.