[SunkenCiv]

One of the lower-budget (Readers Digest) archaeology videos around here has a segment on the (successful) search for a former huge-ass city mentioned in Chinese annals and dating from somewhere in that prime period of 500 BC to 500 AD (and maybe a while thereafter), and gone without a trace. The archaeologist doing the modest dig found a motherlode of bones, identifiable Sri Lankan artifacts, and of course, loads of Buddhist stuff. Buddhism wasn’t all that popular in India, so it spread it out to keep from gettin’ killed. And none of them were vegetarians either (not even the Buddha, although he eventually stopped eating altogether, until he died for some reason), until sometime in the Middle Ages.

[bigheadfred]

Thanks for the link disguised as a pic of a nekked girl. Most interesting. Follow the yellow brick road.

[Cronos]

A bit off:
1. Buddhism WAS popular in India and spread over the entire country during the rule of Ashoka the great who ruled over nearly all of what is now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan and eastern Iran. But this decayed under later kings as Buddhism relied initially on state patronage
2. Yes and no about the non-veg --> Buddhists were encouraged not to eat it and the Buddha stayed away from it (but didn't say to do the same), and died of eating spoiled meat.