During the 1st millennium CE in South Asia, developing Hindu sects drew converts from Buddhism. In part, this process was facilitated by the incorporation of Buddhist material symbols and architectural designs into Hindu temples. At the start of the 1st millennium CE, Buddhists focused their ritual devotions on stupas, stylized representations of the Buddha’s burial mound. By the end of the 1st millennium CE, the Buddhist sangha increasingly focused their devotions on Buddha images. In contrast, over the course of the 1st millennium Hindus transformed many of their material symbols and temple designs to forms that resembled earlier Buddhist forms favored by the Buddhist laity. This material transformation of Hindu ritual practice facilitated the conversion of lay Buddhists, and ultimately to the collapse of Monastic Buddhism in India in the early-to-mid 2nd millennium CE.
 
Lars Fogelin is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. Fogelin studies the archaeology of Buddhism in South Asia. From 1999 through 2006 he directed the Northeast Andhra Monastic Survey, investigating archaeological remains in the landscape surrounding a 2000-year-old Buddhist monastery on the east coast of India. Current research focuses on the origin of Mahayana Buddhism, the development of Buddha images in the 1st millennium CE, and the collapse of Indian Buddhism in the early-to-mid 2nd millennium CE. Fogelin also engages in broader research on the archaeology of religion and the application of the philosophy of science to archaeology.