Buddhism in the medieval time (Siddha-Natha tradition)

We have to demolish several views to clear the perception or resolve the problem of disappearance of Buddhism in India.

The important questions to clear the mist are

1. What is Buddhism?
2. What is India we are referring to when we discuss the problem of disappearance of Buddhism?

What is Buddhism?

This question is not easy to deal with as the teachings of the Buddha proliferated in different parts of Indian subcontinent and progressively throughout the world. But we will confine our discussion to Indian subcontinent. Indian subcontinent has the roots of all the diverse forms of Buddhism we witness today. At the time of Ashoka and even after that Buddhism, though diversified, was not broken into what is today known as Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. Even the distinction between Hinayana and Mahayana is untenable as Mahayana by definition means an attempt to bring together all different schools of thoughts in Buddhism (Buddhism as a linguistic category is the creation of modern times). Whatever is scale and magnitude of proliferation of Buddhism, there are some axioms which do not change whatever is the professed form of Buddhism. They can enlisted below:

1. Sakyamuni Buddha is the founder
2. Sakyamuni was the historical figure
3. All the schools of Buddhism trace their origin to the Buddha

Now about axioms

1. There is no creator God
2. Every thing evolves depending on Causes and conditions
3. Nothing is permanent or sanatan in the world
4. There is no everlasting substance within or without
5. There is suffering in the world
6. There is a cause
7. End of suffering
8. Path leading to end of suffering
9. The Buddha discovered the path to the end of suffering
10. Mind is the beginning and end of all experiences
11. Mind can be transformed by training

Any school of Buddhism will accept these axioms, the difference is mainly due to cultural relativity and linguistic differences when different groups received the Dhamma. There is another cause of the diverse forms of Buddhism and that is on " methods of training." As we know that depending on the audience, the Buddha taught. To the farmers, he taught in a language they could understand.

Why I chose to talk about the medieval Buddhism is for this reason as that was the different context and many schools of thoughts other than Buddhism. Sarah is classic example who tried to simplify the scholastic teachings taught in the Buddhist Universities. His another name was Rahulbhadra, he was the head of Nalanda University. The movement of Buddhism he helped to initiate is called "Sahajyana". His period is during 8th century and the pedagogy he adopted was singing the couplets he and others composed called Doha. 

This movement gave birth to popular languages like Bengali and Hindi and through Tukaram it can be seen in Marathi. 

This period of medieval India ( 8th'2th century) is also the period of Siddha - Natha. Though in Indian subcontinent we get only scant remains of the works, biographies, and teachings of these Siddha - Natha, Nepalese and Tibetan language has a huge repository of it. Siddha - Nath tradition gave birth to movements of Kabir and Ravidas and these movements continue to exist today. 

This brings us to another question: What was India then?

Unlike China, India had ( and even today ) many scripts. Some of Dohas were written in various scripts, some of them formed the base of today's script. There was therefore diverse scripts to preserve the Dohas and those scripts gave rise  to Bengali, Odiya, and Devanagari script. Buddhists used various scripts. We need similar inquiry into the scripts  of South India. Some scholars traced them to Asokan script. Besides orthography, there was a diversity of pronounciation. Raja was written as laja even in the Asokan script. 

So there was so much issue with the forms of presentation, was there a difference in the "content"?

The teachings of the Buddhists in the medieval India is not different from the radical teachings of the Buddha and in complete accordance with the axioms mentioned above.  

We will look at Sarah and Dohas as model

The Sahaj that Sarah and Kabir talked about is the natural state of mind. When the mind stops wandering in the sensual sphere and kleshas are destroyed, the mind is Sahaj, the way it is before mental proliferation takes place. 

This can be realised by all by turning their gaze on themselves.

Sarah and other Siddha-Natha are critical of all the institutions and religions, including established Buddhism. 

Famously Sarah taught :

करुणा रहित जो शून्य ही लागा 
नाहि सो पांवे  उत्तम मार्गों।

अथवा करूणा केवल साधा
सो जन्मातरे मोक्ष ना पावा।

यदी तुम्ही पुनः जोडन सकै
ना भव ना निर्वाण रहै।

That the yoga (connection) of Sunya (emptiness) and Karuna (compassion) is the highest path to liberation.

Like the root guru Buddha, the Siddha - Natha teachers and traditions denounced the varna and caste and Brahminism.

This tradition has the leaders from all the caste background. The so called Dombi ( maybe from Dom caste), a woman from the lower caste was the teacher to many. Later on Kabir (Julaha) and Raidas ( Chamar) were the leading lights of the "Sahaj" movement.

Another interesting aspect of this movement was all inclusiveness and no division between sacred and profane. The Siddha - Nathas were not monks, most of them householders. They lived secular lives. 

Instead of relying on scriptures and institutions (and in any case monastic Buddhism and Buddhist institutions like Nalanda and Vikramshila were gone), the medieval Buddhists traced on direct training under the competent teacher and they evolved a language known as twilight language to instruct the students. If one studies the teachings of Siddha - Nathas and their successors like Kabir and Raidass, one can find many common similes, metaphors, and motifs.

Indian culture is called syncretic and often " Hinduism" and " Islam" are made to become the part of synthetic equation, but beyond this facade of syncretic reality, the most potent voices are neglected and buried in the academic presentations. 

On the ground and in popular languages and idioms, the Buddhist voices are heard and celebrated. This is evident in the ever growing love for Kabir and other medieval voices not only in India, but also in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The great Bodhisattva and the man who reawakened Buddhism in India, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, was so fond of Kabir and Ravidas.