Buddh Gaya
This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS. |
Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.
Buddh Gaya
(Bodh Gaya). — Village in the head-quarters sub- division of (laya District, Bengal, situated in 24° 42' N. and 85° o' E., about 7 miles south of Gaya town, on the west bank of the Phalgu or Lilajan river. Population (1901), 502. The name signifies either the Gaya of Buddha or the Gaya of the bodhi ('enlightenment'). The place is sometimes, however, called Mahabodhi, or ' the great enlighten- ment,' a name which is also given to the bodhi-druma or sacred plpal- tree at Buddh Gaya.
It was under this tree that Sakyamuni, after many years of search after truth, conquered Mara and attained to Buddhahood, i. e. became freed from the circle of rebirths ; and worship consequently centred around the bodhi-\jee from the earliest period of Buddhism. King Asoka (third century B.C.) is said to have erected a temple near this holy tree, and one of the bas-reliefs of the Bharhut s/upa (second century B. c.) gives a representation of the tree and its surroundings as they then were. It shows a/J/a/-tree, with a vedi or stone platform in front, adorned with umbrellas and garlands, and surrounded by some building with arched windows resting on pillars ; while close to it stood a single pillar with a Persepolitan capital crowned with the figure of an elephant.
When the stone pavement of the present temple was dug up during its restoration, foundations of an older building were discovered beneath it, which, in the opinion of General Cunningham, represent the remains of the original temple built by Asoka. The ancient stone railing which now surrounds the temple certainly belongs for the greater part to about the same time as Asoka's reign ; and this railing and the bases of some columns which mark the place where Buddha used to take exercise form the only remains now extant of so early a period.
The railing is adorned with various sculptures, among which the larger reliefs generally represent events in Buddha's life or his former births. On one of these pillars, which has been removed from the temple pre- cincts to the math of the mahant of Buddh Gaya, there is a figure of the Sun-god standing on his chariot drawn by four horses. The holy tree stands west of the temple. The present one is certainly not of very great age, but it is evidently an offshoot of an older tree ; and General Cunningham even found portions of the trunk and roots of a plpal-ix&Q very deep down below the surface.
Under its shadow is the ancient Vajrdsana or adamantine throne of Buddha, which may belong to about the same time as the railing, though it contains a muti- lated inscription of later date. Its outer faces are covered with Brah- mani geese, alternating with the usual honeysuckle ornament, and its upper surface has a geometrical pattern carved upon it. Except for these earlier remains, all the Buddhist sculptures, which have been found in great numbers around the temple, belong to the latest phase of Buddhism in India (a. d. 800 to 1200), and afford a striking illustra- tion of what that religion had become before its final overthrow by the Muhammadans.
The present temple was restored in 1881 by the Bengal Government, and in its main features represents the structure as it must have existed as early as a.d. 635, when the Chinese pilgrim, Hiuen Tsiang, saw it. It consists of a main tower rising to the height of 180 feet in the form of a slender pyramid, which springs from a square platform on the four corners of which are similar towers of smaller size. The outside walls have niches for the reception of statues, and access to the temple is obtained through an eastern gate supported by pillars, which opens on to an anteroom in front of the sanctum. At the western wall of the sanctuary is a vedi or altar upon which is placed the principal image, a large mediaeval statue representing Buddha seated under the bodhi- tree with various other images on each side. The main figure has been gilded over, and the Hindu custodians of the shrine have marked its forehead with the sectarian mark of the Vaishnavas, in order to repre- sent it as the Buddha incarnation of Vishnu. The worship of this image by Hindus is comparatively recent, and apparently does not date farther back than the restoration of the temple in 1881.
The ground floor is about 20 feet below the modern surface level. Scarcely more than one quarter of the old site has been excavated ; but, as far as can be judged from the present state of the ruins, the entire area of the main enclosure of the temple has been laid open. It was filled with an enormous amount of smaller shrines, chaitvas, votive sfupas, and the like, the foundations of which are still extant. South of the temple is an old tank, called Buddhpokhar ; and north-west, at a place now called Amar Singh's Fort, remains of the ancient monastery of Buddh Gaya have been discovered. Very little of these remains can, however, be seen at present, and here as in other places further excavation on a systematic scale may yield valuable results.
Apart from the temple and its surroundings, the remains near Buddh Gaya are scanty. There are none to be found at the spot where, according to tradition, Buddha was sheltered by the serpent-Jcing Muchilinsa, and where Hiuen Tsiang saw a statue representing the scene ; but at Bakraur, where some of the pillars of the Buddh Gaya railing have been placed inside a small Hindu math, are the remains of a stupa which marked the site where Buddha once appeared in the shape of an elephant. The so-called Pragbodhi cave, where Buddha spent some time before he went down to Uruvilva, the present Buddh Gaya, is situated on the western slope of the ISIora hills, midway between Buddh Gaya and Gaya town ; and the brick foundations of ancient stupas may be observed from the cave on the hills.
Buddh Gaya is now a place of Hindu as well as of Buddhist worship ; and the Hindu pilgrims who offer pindas to their ancestors at the holy shrines of Gaya visit it on the fourth day of their pilgrimage and per- form the usual propitiatory ceremonies, the principal vedi being another pipal tree north of the temple. It cannot now be determined to what age this adoption by the Hindus of a Buddhist site goes back, but it is certainly several centuries old ; and it is not improbable that Hindu worship at the place began before the final overthrow of Buddhism, during the syncretistic period which preceded that event.
[L. S. S. O'Malley, District Gazetteer of Gaya (Calcutta, 1906); Sir A. Cunningham, J/rt/;c7/^<?^//i/ (1892) ; Dr. Rajendralala Mitra, Buddh 6^rtvJ (Calcutta, 1878).]
