Buddhism in Agrarian Society of Rural Bengal: Perspectives of Belief Systems with a Focus on Ritual and Deities

Abstract

Buddhism was the State Religion of Bengal at least for more than four hundred years between mid of 8th century and 12th century during the Pala reign in Bengal. In the 2011 Indian census, the percentage of Buddhists in West Bengal was 0.31% while in Bangladesh less than 1% of the total population is now a follower of Buddhism. Most of the Buddhists were converted to Islam during the Sultanate rule in Bengal while Hinduism silently took over many of their shrines and deities. This paper is an attempt to revisit the cultural landscape of early Buddhism in Bengal along with a focus on the elements of Buddhist culture in folk life applying cultural geographical methodologies and examining the presence of Buddhist rituals and deities in agrarian society in sublime form. A literature review was followed by extensive fieldwork during festivities of the shrines of Hindu deities having a connection with early Buddhism of Bengal. Along with participant observation during ritualistic practices, interviews, and focus group discussion methods have been applied involving stakeholders to obtain qualitative data for analysis. The results reveal the various manifestations of the interplay between the process of universalization and parochialization in the dynamism of the evolving belief system of an apparently Non-Buddhist folk society of the present day, the root of the culture of which was exclusively Buddhist.