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the medieval buddhist experience ⁄ 91
famous saints lived, and whole new directions were taken in sculpture and architecture.
By the sixth century, though, the region’s Buddhist population was
in serious decline. Vatapi and Aihole both have single Buddhist sites, developed
toward the end of the sixth or beginning of the seventh century and apparently
abandoned shortly thereafter. The sites occupied later appear to be solely those
of Jaggayyapeta (until the seventh century), Guntupalli (until the beginning of
the eighth century), Gummadidurru (eighth century), and perhaps Amaravati. 60
It was not until the religious activity of the late tenth to early eleventh century—
for example, the queen Akkadevi’s Buddhist praxis in 1021 c.e. and the rebuilding
of monasteries by Vira-Balañja guildsmen in 1095–1096 c.e.—that Buddhists
appear to make a modest return to the Krsna River valley. 61
Buddhist monastic activity appears to survive primarily in the east (Magadha,
Utkala, BaNgala, Kamarupa, and Samatata), in the west (Lata, Saurastra,
Sindh, and KoNkana), in the north (Ka$mira, Odiyana, Jalandara, and parts of
Madhyade$a), and at the southern end of the subcontinent (Nagapattinam).
Although Buddhist activity continued elsewhere, that does not mean it was
unaffected by the southern developments. Since the Deccan continued to produce
the wealthiest and most powerful of the dynasties during the early medieval
period, the influence of their religious selections had a pervasive potency
born of prestige. Throughout much of India, Buddhism no longer held the
pride of place previously accorded, and the monks felt themselves under pressure
to conform to the dominant paradigm—the Varna$rama Dharma, the affirmation
of caste and the stages of life.
medieval women’s buddhism—
hidden from view or missing in action?
Conformity and reconfiguration are something religious traditions are continually
required to negotiate. Buddhist institutions could not capitulate to certain
aspects of the Varna$rama model, but other facets were seen as definitively
negotiable, particularly if it brought them closer to sources of support and
social legitimacy. The decline of women’s participation was part of this process,
and from the seventh century forward we see an erosion of women’s involvement,
most particularly in the virtually total eclipse of the office of the
nun (bhiksuni) in North India. More broadly, though, the early medieval period
saw the dramatic deterioration of support for and involvement of women
in Buddhist activities at any and every level, whether in the monastery, in the
lay community, or in the newly evolving siddha systems.