Banaras grew as an important industrial centre, famous for its muslin and silk fabrics, perfumes, ivory works, and sculpture. Buddha is believed to have founded Buddhism here around 528 BC when he gave his first sermon, "The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Dharma," at nearby Sarnath. The city's religious importance continued to grow in the eighth century when Adi Shankara established the worship of Shiva as an official sect of Banaras. Despite the Muslim rule, Banaras remained the centre of activity for Hindu intellectuals and theologians during the Middle Ages, which further contributed...