Persecution of Buddhists

Many adherents of Buddhism have experienced religious persecution because of their adherence to the Buddhist practice, including unwarranted arrests, imprisonment, beating, torture, and/or execution. The term also may be used in reference to the confiscation or destruction of property, temples, monasteries, centers of learning, meditation centers, historical sites, or the incitement of hatred towards Buddhists.^{[citation needed]}

In the 3rd century, the Sasanian Empire overran Bactria, overthrowing Kushan Empire. Although strong supporters of Zoroastrianism, the Sasanians tolerated Buddhism and allowed the construction of more vihāras. It was during their rule that Lokottaravādins erected the two Buddhas of Bamiyan.

During the second half of the third century, Kartir, the Zoroastrian mowbadān-mowbad of the Empire, dominated the state's official religious policy. He ordered the destruction of several Buddhist monasteries in Afghanistan, since the amalgam of Buddhism and Zoroastrianism manifested in the form of Buddha-Mazda appeared to him as heresy. Buddhism quickly recovered after his death.

Central Asian and Northwestern Indian Buddhism weakened following the Hephthalites invasion, who followed traditional religious practices as well as Manichaeism. Around 440, they conquered Sogdia then conquered Gandhara and pushed on into the Indo-Gangetic Plain. King Mihirakula, who ruled starting in 515, suppressed Buddhism, destroying monasteries as far as what is now Allahabad before his son reversed the policy.

Chinese scholars traveling through the region between the 5th and 8th centuries, such as Faxian, Xuanzang, Yijing, Hui-sheng, and Sung-Yun, began to speak of a decline of the Buddhist Sangha in the Northwestern parts of Indian subcontinent, especially in the wake of the Hun invasion from central Asia in the 6th century CE. Xuanzang wrote that numerous monasteries in north-western India had been reduced to ruins by the Huns.

The Hun ruler Mihirakula, who ruled from 515 CE in north-western region (modern Afghanistan, Pakistan and north India), suppressed Buddhism as well. He did this by destroying monasteries as far away as modern-day Prayagraj.

D N Jha claims, based on the Rajatarangini exclusively, that persecution of Buddhists took place in the time of King Gonandiya-Ashoka (different from King Ashoka of Mauryan Empire). Jha writes that according to a book Rajatarangini, dated to the 12th century, Jalauka was a Shaivite and was responsible for the destruction of many Buddhist monasteries. The story of Jalauka is essentially legendary and its to be noted that no independent corroboration of the Kashmir tradition has ever been discovered. Moreover, the Rajatarangini itself places Gonandiya-Ashoka in the second millennium BCE and Romila Thapar equates him with Kunala who also lived in the 3rd Century BCE, while the Rajatarangini is a 12th Century text.

King Pushyamitra Shunga allegedly persecuted Buddhists in North India, a claim that has been continuously refuted by many historians for several reasons, and on various grounds. A non-contemporary Buddhist text states that Pushyamitra cruelly persecuted Buddhists (The text belongs to centuries after Pushyamitra Shunga's period). While some scholars believe he did persecute Buddhists based on the Buddhist accounts most consider them biased because of him not patronising them. Many scholars have expressed skepticism about the Buddhist claims on the whole. Étienne Lamotte points out that the Buddhist legends are not consistent about the location of Pushyamitra's anti-Buddhist campaign and his death: "To judge from the documents, Pushyamitra must be acquitted through lack of proof." Agreeing with him, D. Devahuti states that Pushyamitra's sudden destruction after offering rewards for Buddhist heads is "manifestly false". R. C. Mitra states that "The tales of persecution by Pushyamitra as recorded in Divyavadana and by Taranatha bear marks of evident absurdity."