“The iconoclastic fury of Islam must have [had] a terrible effect on the shrines of the Gaya region, and particularly on Buddhism, with the result that a time came when, there being no Buddhists to look after their own shrines and worship at Bodh Gaya, the Brahmins had to do their work even by going [outside] their jurisdiction.”
Dr. Abdul Qudoos Ansari: Archaeological Remains, p.26, 119. Quoted from Elst, Koenraad (2002). Ayodhya: The case against the temple.
It is partly, no doubt, because of the furor islamicus that post-Gupta remains are surprisingly few in Bihar.
J. C. Harle p. 199. Harle, J. C. The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent. London, 1986. in Ibn Warraq, Why I am not a muslim, 1995. p 224
As if this is not enough, there is a deliberate and organised design to convert Kargil's Buddhists to Islam. In the last four years, about 50 girls and married women with children were allured and converted from village Wakha alone. If this continues unchecked, we fear that Buddhists will be wiped out from Kargil in the next two decades or so. Anyone objecting to such allurement and conversions is harassed... Therefore, to protect the religious and cultural identity of the Ladakhi people, an anti-conversion law must be enacted for Kargil as is presently in force in states like Arunachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
Tundup Tsering and Tsewang Nurboo of the Ladakh Buddhist Association, quoted in: Koenraad Elst: Bharatiya Janata Party vis-à-vis Hindu resurgence, also quoted in K. Elst (2002). Who is a Hindu?: Hindu revivalist views of Animism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and other offshoots of Hinduism.
The monasteries had been the nerve centres of Buddhism and with their collapse, communal life was unhinged and abruptly terminated. Their very concentration had made the monasteries easier targets of attack than the Hindu temples and sacred places, which must have provoked equal fur of the Moslems.
R.C. Mitra, in Hazra, K. L. (1998). The rise and decline of Buddhism in India. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers.