Posted: Jun 21, 2010 8:23 pm
"Clearly"? Do tell. Sorry, but the two were inextricably linked. It's not like those "rulers/knights of Europe" were all Buddhists. Guess which faith they belonged to.
I've had a bit of time to do some reading on the subject and I'm finding the "defence" idea does have support from many scholars in the area
Such as who? Name them and cite their works.