भारतीय इतिहास के ६ स्वर्णिम पृष्ठ (वीर सावरकर - विदेशी आक्रान्ताओं पर विजय गाथा)

Buddhists, than under the Vedic people, who accepted the principle of
ahimsa with its limitations. The Buddhist, once again I would like to
repeat, aggravated and not mitigated ‘untouchability’. They should
examine the validity of this statement in the light of the undisputed
evidence cited here and then alone, should they choose whatever is
beneficial to them.
346. They should remember that for the above reason, the untouchables
like the Chandals and others preferred the Vedic regimes, a more
congenial, to the unrelenting and uncompromising Buddhist ones, and
those thouands of them who in the past had voluntarily (or helplessly and
under pressure) embraced Buddhism, now renounced it and declared their
allegiance to the Vedic religion. Thus, even before the Muslims set foot in
Sindh, followers of the Buddha had begun to diminish in numbers by
millions throughout all ranks of society, right from the highest to the
lowest, and because of its inherent weakness, Buddhism had declined to
such an extent that the Chinese Buddhist travellers, who had seen its sad
plight with their own eyes, had been moved to write that the holy and once
prosperous places like Buddha Gaya, Mrigadava, Shravasti, Kushinagar,
and the birthplace of Lord Buddha, Kapilvastu, which had been sanctified
by the actual residence of the Lord and which had been the place of
pilgrimage for the world-wide Buddhist followers, had been sadly rendered
desolate and were overgrown with wild and thick forests.
347. Nevertheless, this moribund Buddhism was not altogether wiped out
of India, before the advent of the Muslims. The Buddhists were more
numerous in the north-western frontier states like Sindh and Kamboj, and
even in Bengal in the east, than in the rest of India. It is said that the
modern state of Bihar derives its name from the fact that there once existed
far too many Buddhist viharas, stoopas and other ‘Buddhaparasthas’. Since
the Vedic states were prosperous everywhere, this Buddhist sect had no
guts to carry on its traitorous activities or to enforce its religious rites and
faith on non-Buddhists, whether it had their will to do so or not. And so
long as they followed their religious faith harmlessly, they, their
organisations, their institutions, and their viharas were never interfered with
in any way by the Vedic kings. That they enjoyed complete religious
freedom is admitted by the Chinese travellers open-heartedly.
348. What then made these millions of Buddhists, living in the various
states of India before the Muslim onrush, dwindle into non-existence