The Buddhism of southern India resembled that of Ceylon in character though not in history.  It was introduced under the auspices of Asoka, who mentions in his inscriptions the Colas, Pandyas and Keralaputras.[117] Hsuan Chuang says that in the Malakuta country, somewhere near Madura or Tanjore, there was a stupa erected by Asoka’s orders and also a monastery founded by Mahinda.  It is possible that this apostle and others laboured less in Ceylon and more in south India than is generally supposed.  The pre-eminence and continuity of Sinhalese Buddhism are due to the conservative temper of the natives who were relatively little moved by the winds of religion which blew strong on the mainland, bearing with them now Jainism, now the worship of Vishnu or Siva.

In the Tamil country Buddhism of an Asokan type appears to have been prevalent about the time of our era.  The poem Manimegalei, which by general consent was composed in an early century A.D., is Buddhist but shows no leanings to Mahayanism.  It speaks of Sivaism and many other systems[118] as flourishing, but contains no hint that Buddhism was persecuted.  But persecution or at least very unfavourable conditions set in.  Since at the time of Hsuan Chuang’s visit Buddhism was in an advanced stage of decadence, it seems probable that the triumph of Sivaism began in the third or fourth century and that Buddhism offered slight resistance, Jainism being the only serious competitor for the first place.  But for a long while, perhaps even until the sixteenth century, monasteries were kept up in special centres, and one of these is of peculiar importance, namely Kancipuram or Conjeveram.[119] Hsuan Chuang found there 100 monasteries with more than 10,000 brethren, all Sthaviras, and mentions that it was the birthplace of Dharmapala.[120] We have some further information from the Talaing chronicles[121] which suggests the interesting hypothesis that the Buddhism of Burma was introduced or refreshed by missionaries from southern India.  They give a list of teachers who flourished in that country, including Kaccayana and the philosopher Anuruddha.[122] Of Dharmapala they say that he lived at the monastery of Bhadratittha near Kancipura and wrote fourteen commentaries in Pali.[123] One was on the Visuddhi-magga of Buddhaghosa and it is probable that he lived shortly after that great writer and like him studied in Ceylon.

I shall recur to this question of south Indian Buddhism in treating of Burma, but the data now available are very meagre.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 10:  E.g. Burma in the reign of Anawrata and later in the time of Chapata about 1200, and Siam in the time of Suryavamsa Rama, 1361.  On the other hand in 1752 the Sinhalese succession was validated by obtaining monks from Burma.]

[Footnote 11:  Geiger, Literatur und Sprache der Singhalesen, p. 91.]

[Footnote 12:  Compare the history of Khotan.  The first Indian colonists seem to have introduced a Prakrit dialect.  Buddhism and Sanskrit came afterwards.]