It is not clear, what time and place is being referred to
in this question. When The Buddhist religion began to develop and spread, Hinduism was
already a widely practiced religion in Indian subcontinent and in some other surrounding
regions. As a matter of fact promotion of Buddhist principles and practices by Gautama
Buddha was more like an effort to popularise the a way of life more in line with the
principles of Hindu philosophy, by presenting it in form of simple rules of conduct.
Thus In India, Buddhism was more of a sect within Hinduism, rather than an religion
opposed to Hinduism.
Buddhism also spread to places and
people who were not Hindu's because of the efforts of the Buddhist monks following the
example of Gautama Buddha to spread the practices prescribed by him for the good of
people. This effort was greatly assisted by the support of some powerful people. The
most notable among these is the King Ashoka. When Buddhism was thus spreading to people
from religions other than Hinduism, the Hindu religion itself did not spread because
there were no efforts made to spread it.
As a matter of
fact Hinduism is not really a religion. It is a way of life, which also incorporates
some religious practices. There is no way available to convert a Non-Hindu to Hinduism.
Also there have never been any organised efforts to convert non-Hindus to Hinduism. All
the religious movements among Hindu's have been for reforming the religion. Such
movement in addition to Buddhist movement includes other movements like Sikkhism, Brahmo
Samaj, Arya Samaj, and Radha Soami Panth. Thus though Hindus got divided in many
different sects, there was never a significant increase in number of Hindus by
conversion from other religion.
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