It was interesting to see in our national newspapers that Buddhist priests were visiting their holy sites. They were themselves amazed to see such Buddhist-era statues in museums from Peshawar to Taxila to Lahore.

Very few realise that Lahore was one of several important Buddhist centres in the land of Pakistan, and that the Buddhist faith had remained longer than Islam has reigned in our city.

The rise of Buddhism was approximately the time the Macedonian invader Alexander came to the sub-continent. He came across Brahmins with the exclusive power of priesthood. What shocked him was that the local population could not reach the Almighty unless they came through these priests, and even that at a cost.

It was in this period that teachings of Siddharta Gautama, known as the Buddha – the awakened – was spreading. Born in 480 BC, he had walked through the sub-continent, probably stopping in Lahore for a few weeks. That place has been identified as Mohallah Maullian inside Lohari Gate.

What the Buddha saw was that the main route to the Almighty was through sacrifice and priestly blessings. This the Buddha was against for he believed that the Almighty lived within every human heart and soul. The Buddhist preaching was that everyone should get rid of this ‘artificial path’ and rely on one’s own instinct. His main teaching was that peace lay solely within oneself, and to understand this meditation was the path.

With the coming of Chandragupta Maurya as the ruler of the land in 295-350 BC, almost every Punjabi had converted to Buddhism, and by the time his grandson Ashoka (268-231 BC) came to power, the entire land had got rid of the power of Hindu priests. Now people meditated and reached peace within themselves, instead of paying Brahmin priests to reach the Almighty.

We learn from the writings of the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang in 630 AD that Lahore was a peaceful city with gardens and entirely Buddhist. Buddhism at its best was under Ashoka, and all along the GT Road, from Kabul to Bengal, there were Buddhist rest houses with free meals. He writes: “In the city of Loh (Lahore’s original name) people abhor violence. “From Taxila to Bengal the teaching of Buddha reign supreme”.

This way of thinking peacefully had become a way of life, and in a small manner remains part of our psyche. Then come the Turkish nomads and Kanishka, we see violent ways being used to overcome populations. The Hindu priests were beginning to inform the rulers that the people of the Punjab have a “no god, no theology and no priest” religion. They further informed the rulers that the people sit and meditate and that no person can be their ruler.

Given this simplistic way of being ‘at peace with themselves’, the priests made the rulers believe that their power held no meaning for them. It was conceived as a challenge to the powers that be. Come the Huns and the reign of Mihirugula, the last of the Alchon Huns (502- 530 Ad), whose capital was at Sagala (Sialkot), he started following Shaivite Hinduism, which depends solely on the advice of Buddhist priests, an unprecedented massacre of all Buddhist took place. Their temples were knocked down and anyone following this faith of “looking within themselves” was to be butchered.

According to one manuscript, the Alchon Hun declared that “any religion without a god, with no theology, no priests to guide humans, no promise of a future, and with no guideline of how to tackle the future” was to be eliminated. To add to the plight of the Buddhists, the ancient Aryan religion with nature gods seemed better to the rulers. The Brahmins fully exploited this situation and advocated the complete elimination of all Buddhists.

So it was that Buddhism was eliminated in one of the worst massacres in human history till then. The age of nature’s deities with fire playing a central role and Vedic hymns being followed emerged, forcing people to pay for their beliefs. That faith has grown in power in modern India, while Islam entrenched itself in the East and the West of the sub-continent.

In the history of the Punjab, with Lahore being its centre, various religions have been followed. Each has its own logic, and faith in one form or another is the driving force. Buddhism was one ‘faith’ if one can call it that, where humans found answers to their problems within themselves.

But then one must explore which literary contribution took place in this time period. That should be a good barometer to judge such a system. The Kautiliya Arthasastra, the Kalpastura and the Katha Vatthu are three works that live even today for their outstanding contribution to human civilisations. Major portions of the ‘Mahabharata’ were written in the Buddhist time period. In that sense the Punjab can be said to be the birthplace of Hinduism.

In a way, as Mushtaq Soofi explained in his column in ‘Dawn’ recently, our habits in daily life are the outcome of the priestly dictates of Hinduism that replaced the peaceful way of the Buddha.

It makes sense to understand our past where Buddhism, priestly Hinduism and the Islam have been the faiths in our land for almost the same time period. The role of priests seems to emerge time and again. Buddha is known as the wise one, for he saw through the priestly role.

Portions of Hinduism do not recognise priests, and Islam surely does not recognise priests. But then they seem to emerge. The Sikh faith of the Punjab never did recognise priests, but they have emerged strongly. Muslim priests also hold sway.

An example is the way in which the Lal Khoo inside Mochi Gate, where Guru Arjan was imprisoned before his execution, is today a ‘Muslim shrine’ to collect money. No one has the guts to stop the man. Such is the power of priests. Surely today Buddhism stands no chance in Lahore, even though eight centuries ago it held sway. Within Islam the Sufi way of thinking is nearer the rational message that all religions started off with. What happened to every religion is for the reader to image.

Published in Dawn, July 16th, 2023