WI: Dharmic / Indianized Arabia

What if the various Dharmic religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism) were eventually adopted by the ancient Arabian peoples in a similar manner to how Southeast Asia would became Indianized, initially taking root in southeast Arabia (where the region was for a period of time under the control of the alternate Mauryan Empire)?
 
If you count Zoroastrianism as a Dharmic religion then this is actually pretty easy with the right POD.
 
If you count Zoroastrianism as a Dharmic religion then this is actually pretty easy with the right POD.

Zoroastrianism is not a dharmic religion. The dharmic religions have in common the ideas of samsara (life, death, and rebirth cycle), karma (the concept of why there is that cycle), dharma (the cosmic principle behind the cycle), moksha (the release from that cycle) and forms of yoga (the ways by which one can achieve moksha).

Zoroastrianism has none of this. Zoroastrianism is much closer to Western monotheism in its principles with a creator god, a second power behind evil, prophets of the god, etc.


I think the easiest way to accomplish the POD is if there was a more successful proselytizing as a result of Asoka sending out Buddhist missionaries. Conceivably, the maritime regions of the Arabian penninsula (Oman and Yemen) could convert as a result of trade with India, and eventually that would spread up towards the Hedjaz. That would butterfly away Mohammed and Islam and possibly lead to the Arabs adopting some kind of dharmic religion, perhaps by syncretizing Buddhism with native beliefs like how the Tibetans did.
 
I think the easiest way to accomplish the POD is if there was a more successful proselytizing as a result of Asoka sending out Buddhist missionaries. Conceivably, the maritime regions of the Arabian penninsula (Oman and Yemen) could convert as a result of trade with India, and eventually that would spread up towards the Hedjaz. That would butterfly away Mohammed and Islam and possibly lead to the Arabs adopting some kind of dharmic religion, perhaps by syncretizing Buddhism with native beliefs like how the Tibetans did.

Even though it is unlikely, what are the chances of Arabs later embracing some form of Hinduism sometime after converting to Buddhism (a syncretizing Greco-Arabian form?) or some other dharmic religion?

Because I seem to recall that prior to the OTL islamic invasion, Buddhism was said to be in decline in Central Asia / Afghanistan with it being stated that there were actually more Hindus then Buddhists.
 
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