Deba M Barua

Undivided Bengal was the last stronghold of Indian Buddhism. Southeastern Bengal is the only region where Buddhists, albeit as a minority, have maintained a living tradition. To date, Buddhism in Bengals remains less explored and unaccounted for in modern scholarship on Buddhism due to the generalization of Indian Buddhism’s demise in medieval India. This research addresses this omission by studying Buddhism in Bengals (1757-1988) from a perspective of minority religion. In addition, it contextualizes contemporary Buddhism in Bengal in the nexus of transnational connections with fellow majority Buddhists in Sri Lanka and Myanmar. To study Theravada Buddhism as a minority religion is rare, and to do so within transnational Buddhist networks is what uniquely characterizes this research.

This proposed monograph will examine the processes of the reconfiguration and geographical spread of Buddhism in wider Bengal. It will focus on a set of questions: how did Buddhists in Chittagong dispel the shadow of Hinduism, claim Buddhist identity, and get dispersed in wider Bengal? Addressing these questions, I will argue in this proposed book that Chittagong Buddhists have successfully employed their oral tradition based identity (i.e., Mog/Maga/Magadhi Buddhists) as the descendants of extinct Indian Buddhists in Magadha to emerge as a distinct (non-Hindu) religious community in modern Bengal. I will also illustrate how this revived identity has enabled Chittagong Buddhists to establish translocal connections.