Buddhism, and to a lesser extent the other reforming religions such as Jainism, had attained great popularity among people from all walks of life, including monarchs.
But Hinduism continued to have its adherents. Nor was it static: important changes increased its popular appeal and it won the patronage of important rulers, including Gupta kings.
Some of the changes may represent elements adopted from the older traditional religions of India: the growing worship of the Goddess in various forms may have been one such element.
Other innovations brought Hinduism closer to Buddhism, with the result that Buddhism eventually died out in the land of its birth, though it continued to flourish in the lands to which it had been introduced, such as Sri Lanka, Central Asia, China and South-East Asia.
One shared element was personal devotion to religious ideals personified by the Buddha and by the Hindu gods, especially Vishnu and Shiva. Hindu temples began to be built. Meditation and self-controlling practices, such as yoga, were popular.
The notion of rebirth and the ultimate goal of liberation from the cycle of rebirth central to Buddhism also played an important part in Hindu beliefs but served among orthodox Hindus to reinforce and crystallize the developing rigidity of the caste system, in which status and role in life was a reflection of the state of merit and purity attained by an individual in previous births.