Synopsis Buddhism evolved in India. There were periods in India's past when Buddhism was dominant in India. Today less then 1% of India's population is Buddhist. Buddhism has more followers in countries east of India. Buddhism was established in about 500 BC with a prince called Siddhartha Gautama. Siddhartha adopted the path of searching enlightenment and at some point he came to a conclusion that this was neither the way towards enlightenement nor spoiled life he had as a prince was the right path towards enlightenment. According to him the right path was somewhere in the middle and he called it the middle path.