Why did Buddhism fade out in India?

There are probably a ton of reasons, cultural, sociological, economic, etc. None of which I am very familiar with, so my answer will only be looking at one factor that was involved -- albeit, a big factor.

In short, a major reason Buddhism faded out of India was due to Shankaracharya (spelling), one of the, if not the greatest Hindu philosopher of all time.

(It is important to keep in mind that Buddhism and Hinduism are very similar religions in many respects. Philosophically they both believe in what is called Enlightenment in Buddhism, or God Realization in Hinduism. I'm not going to go into the details of these philosophies. But suffice it to say that for millenia Indians have concerned themselves with the question of how to get out of the cycle or rebirth, how to gain ultimate spiritual understanding. Both religions attempted to explain this, and it is in this area that they largely competed with one another.)

Very generally, prior to Shankara, Buddhism brought a tremendous amount of philosophical and rational discourse to the subject of religion, so it became a form of religion that the elite classes could relate to. It never really captured the minds and hearts of the ordinary people -- at least as far as I understand it -- who remained Hindu. But among the intellectual/spiritual elite, Buddhism prevailed. In other words, Buddhism in India was never really a religion for the masses -- again, I am not 100% sure of this, but I believe this is accurate -- and was rather reserved for the elite and monastic lifestyles cut off from the rest of the society to a degree.

Now, the early Upanishadic and other texts of Hinduism contained the foundation for solid philosophical rationalism of those texts, but no one had interpreted them in this way. So the Buddhists really had a monopoly on the philosophical discourse of the day. (It is important to realize that Eastern religion and philosophy, unlike in the West, largely went hand and hand. To this day Hinduism and Buddhism can be studied purely at the philosophical/rational level without any appeal to doctrine or religious dogma/theology.)

Shankara changed this. He provided a rational foundation for understanding the basic Hindu axioms as laid out in the early texts, and he directly confronted Buddhist philosophers of his day, as well as philosophers from other schools. His mind was so brilliant that he usually destroyed his opposition. As a result, Hinduism gained acceptance among the intellectual elite, who naturally gravitated back toward their native religion now that it was shown to be equally as capable at the rational level as Buddhism.

So in short, Buddhism in India was largely a religion reserved the intellectual elite, and prospered in India through a monastic tradition. It never really gained a foothold among the ordinary masses. Once Shankara showed up, Hinduism was made popular once again among the elite religious classes, and thus it eventually replaced Buddhism in the only area Buddhism had gained large acceptance.

Again, I am sure there is far more to the story than just this. But that is what I can offer. Hope it helps.

I think it faded out because there were not many Buddhist saints to tell others the facts of Buddhism.... People do not change religions in India /// Religion is what they get from their ancestors and then pass on to the coming generation... I have never heard in India that the children has different religion than the parents.... I think that can be another reason... Indians are not willing to adapt to a new religion...

The Indian sub-continent is the home of several major religions the most important being Buddhism. The Buddha himself was born and lived all his life in the Ganges valley, probably in the 4th century BC. After generous patronage given by King Asoka Buddhism spread to all the regions of India , Pakistan and Eastern Afghanistan. From then until about the 7th to 8th century AD it remained the most influential religion in India, inspiring great works of art, literature and philosophy and profoundly influencing the character of the Indian people. During this period thousands of Indian monks travelled all over Asia spreading Indian culture while thousands of people came to India to study in its great monastic universities. From the 7th century AD it began its long period of decline dying out almost completely by the 13th century. Various reasons have been given for this tragic decline - internal corruption, Tantrayanist readiness to borrow too much from Hinduism until the two become almost indistinguishable, the congregation of monks into huge wealthy monasteries isolated from the lay community, etc. Certainly by the Muslim invasion in 1199 it was already on the verge of disappearing.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries several attempts were made by groups of liberal Hindus and social reformers to revive Buddhism but without success. In 1956 the great jurist, social reformer and leader of the untouchable community Dr Ambedkar converted to Buddhism, an event that has since led several millions to follow his example.

Hindus didn't copy Buddhist ideas, Buddhism came out of Hinduism. Gautama Buddha was a Hindu prince.

I have not been to India but I can tell you that Buddhists are not ones to shove their ideals down your throat as soon as they meet you.

Being Karmic instead of Dogmatic makes us stand out less to tourists, but we are all over the world and growing in numbers.

On a different note, Buddhism does not deny other religions as possibilities so you may see hindu buddhists, christian buddhists, jewish buddhists and pagan buddhists. I have met all 4. Like other religions, there are too many denominations within Buddhism to discuss.

Buddhism evolved from hindu, not the other way around. I have no idea why it faded from india though, probably Ghandi's fault or something.

Buddhism was very close to the Hinduism that was already in India and was therefore absorbed.

it faded out because hu=induism copied sum of there ideas and created a whole new way