Hindu tolerance

The Joys of the Hindu's Tolerance and Brotherly Love for his Neighbors!

Oct. 24, 2005

Hinduism, or Sanatana Dharma, teaches that all those who abandon Hinduism become Shudras or even worse, Mlecchas. Even Brahmins, Kshatriyas, etc., become Shudras by abandoning Hinduism for any other religion.

Indeed, Maharashtra was founded by Hindus who were antagonized by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka Priyadarshin's conversion to Buddhism, and they left the Gangetic Basin in a large exodus and resettled south of the Vindhyas, founding Maharashtra or "The Great Nation."

Throughout history, Hinduism has persecuted the Jains and Buddhists and Christians.

One of the most fierce persecutions in India was that unleased by Pusyamitra Sangha, a Brahmin who rose to be Commander-in-Chief of the Mauryan Imperial Army, who harbored a secret hatred for Buddhism, the State Religion, and who murdered the Mauryan Emperor Brihadratha brutally while he was viewing a military parade, and who then usurped the throne.

See this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pusyamitra_Sunga

I quote from this page:

«Pusyamitra Sunga was a Hindu monarch, deeply established in the tradition of orthodox Brahminism. He allegedly became very active in persecuting the Buddhist faith, which the Mauryan empire had been promoting since Ashoka around 250 BCE. He seems to have destroyed Buddhist monasteries and exterminated monks, offering to pay 100 gold coins for the head of each one (Indian Historical Quarterly Vol. XXII, p.81 ff cited in Hars.407, also Divyavadana, p.429-434). He is said to have destroyed 84,000 buddhist stupas which had been built by the Mauryan king Ashoka (R. Thaper). A large number of Buddhist monasteries (viharas) were converted to Hindu temples, in such places as Nalanda, Bodhgaya, Sarnath or Mathura.

«It is noteworthy, that this usurpation and bloody persecution of the Buddhists forced them to appeal to the Buddhist Greek kingdom of Bactria, which invaded and annexed what is today Uttar Pradesh.

«The new Sunga ruler was attacked around 180 BCE by the Greek rulers of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, as they invaded large parts of northwestern and northern India as far as Pataliputra, with the effect of confining the Sungas to the eastern parts of India.»

The Greco-Bactrians established in India the Indo-Greek Kingdom, which was to last until the end of the 1st century BCE, and under which Buddhism was able to flourish. One of the Indo-Greek kings, the "Savior King" Menander, has been remembered as a great benefactor of the Buddhist faith.

Another page which gives the same witness is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunga 

You must also know that in Nepal, until the establishment of a democratic polity as a result of the popular revolution (Jan Andolan, 1989) during the time of King Birendra, Buddhism, which is nearly equal in population size to Hinduism, if not exceeding it, was suppressed, and Buddhists were forcibly registered as Hindus in the censuses!

Regards,

Lúcío Joaõ Mascarenhas

"Grant, O Mary, Help of Christians, that gathered beneath your heavenly mantle, we may be strong and victorious over the enemies of our souls, in life and in death, so that we may be all gathered around you in your heavenly home. Amen! Our Lady of Victories, vanquish the proud and haughty heathens and deliver us from their ambushes! Amen"