Jainism and buddhism were numerically larger centuries before, got eroded in the course of time. So if you are talking about past say, 1000 years back, yes, there were also in good numbers... And, india was indeed a good,civilized and prosperous during the times of Yuan Tsang, the chinese traveler who visited some 1500 years back, if i am correct. In his travelogue, he had mentioned that people were happy,contented, and no beggers were around...
