Shakespeare’s famous words:
"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."?
We have been discussing in the previous posts about how historians and enthusiasts are leaving no stone un-turned to find the background of this place called ‘Nalanda’ and its name hides a lot of clues. Although Shakespeare might disagree but when it comes to Nalanda if we change the name we might loose an important link to the past.
Here’s an etymology:
1- Na+Alam+Da
Na- No
Alam- Sufficient
Da- Giving or Giver
This is interpreted as a place where any offering is not sufficient
Limitless charity/ Charity without intermission / Insatiable in offering
2- Naram+Da
In Sanskrit La and Ra are not distinct, Nara means the special property that makes human being a different from other living things i.e. Wisdom.
And a “Place that offers wisdom is called Nara (La) mda”
3- Na+Alam+ Da
Alam also means useless, another interpretation is “The place that offers nothing useless”
4- Nalan-Da
Nalan- Lotus stalk
It is also believed that the place derived it name Nalanda because of lotuses which grew in the ponds spread in this area. Nalan means lotus and the “Place which provides lotus is Nalanda”. Also Lotus is seat of Goddess Saraswati, goddess of Wisdom and education and the “Place which offers wisdom and education is Nalanda”
The fourth interpretation of Lotus stalk is generally not accepted because the place Nalanda is very old (pre- Buddha) and the ponds where lotuses grew in great number are assumed to be made in the process of making bricks from the earth removed for building the monastic units.
5- Xuanzang says about south of the sangharama in the middle of amra van there is tank. The naga of this tank was called Nalanda. By the side of the tank is the sangharama therefore takes the name of the naga. But another account which he feels is true says Buddha in previous birth was king of this place. Moved by the pity of the living things, he delighted in continually relieving them, and the “charity without intermission” is in perpetuation of his benevolence.
6- Itsing and Hwui Lun also attribute the name of the sangharama to The Naga from the tank at the south of monastery.
7- Dharmasvamin, who was here in 1235AD, said Nalanda in Tibetan meant “lord of men” and he further adds it was built by a king and therefore the name originates from it.
Thursday, July 30, 2009
What’s in a name?
Monday, July 27, 2009
The Mystique of Nalanda
Centuries ago as the remainders the biggest university curled up under the earth, the stories surrounding it became more dramatic. The grandeur of Nalanda was so magnificent that it needed no accolades yet the believers kept weaving the facts with mystical ornamentation in the hope of convincing the non-believers.
As the mounds grew bigger so did the legends… facts and myths intricately interwoven to mystify the readers and to make sure that the stories stay alive on the tips of the tongues if not in the literatures.
When Buchanan first found the mounds of the Nalanda University he was told that they are the remnants from the palace of King Bhimika, father in law of Lord Krishna; it seemed as if that the locals changed the characters of the story based on the changing allegiance of the population just so that the sacredness of the place was maintained…
Now as we try to retrace the steps to the beginning it seems impossible to strip the beliefs out and consider just the cold facts. So at some spots we have let the faith slide in and we’ll let the readers decide, cause as Stuart Chase has said, ‘For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.’
As you read further you’ll encounter several opportunities to scrutinize the facts and test your belief system…
Just to fill colors to your imaginations, we’d ask you to begin by thinking of the best, most prestigious university of modern times and depending upon your interests and aspirations you might think of Oxford, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, the IITs or some other on similar lines and then what if we tell you that the grandeur of Nalanda was much more than any of these universities and it lasted for more than 700 years.
In the times when modes of communications were awfully slow, it claimed its fame to the best University and catered to scholars from the entire civilized world of the time.
Not just that after enjoying the luxury of the best teachers from the era and multitudes of students, it ceased to existed in the 13th century without leaving much traces behind to give us any insight into its existence and then 500 years later it resurrected from the rubble and now presents itself as the most mystical discoveries waiting to be resolved.
All that we have written in the above paragraph sounds like a big myth and though there are a number of those surrounding this place, the one written above is not one of them.
The fact that this place was buried under the pile of earth for almost 5 centuries and has absolutely no written history to describe its legacy; is prompting us to piece it together from the remains of the place and from the accounts of its students and travelers of the area. We are re-visiting each piece of evidence and questioning our own reasoning and deductions; and that has led to a number of theories which unless proved otherwise can belong to the category of a myth or fact based on your belief system.
As an example, up ahead you’ll come across half a dozen interpretation of just the name ‘NALANDA’ and all of them are valid deductions. With each individual fact as fascinating as that there is absolutely no room for any legends or any myth but like with any captivating mystery, in certain cases they were required to make the story complete and just add to the charm of the area.
Before we move on, a piece of visual aid to put things into perspective…
Above is a sketch based on the facts collected so far from various sources about the expanse of Nalanda, the university; and given below is an aerial picture of excavated area that you see in the above picture as a tiny little yellow rectangle.
And its physical scale is a very small part of its legacy.
Nalanda prospered from the patronages of several great kings and that tells us a lot about our culture, our belief in strong education and respect for knowledge and wisdom. It ran uninterruptedly for 700 years and as Xuanzang points out there weren’t any power tussles and issues over hierarchies that were ever disclosed.
Most of our knowledge about Nalanda that we’ll be discussing in up coming topics is based on travelogues and detail accounts left by Xuanzang, Itsing, Hwui Lun and Dharmasvamin. In forthcoming posts we explore the facts and myths that have been inter-twined in this beautiful and serene place…
As the mounds grew bigger so did the legends… facts and myths intricately interwoven to mystify the readers and to make sure that the stories stay alive on the tips of the tongues if not in the literatures.
When Buchanan first found the mounds of the Nalanda University he was told that they are the remnants from the palace of King Bhimika, father in law of Lord Krishna; it seemed as if that the locals changed the characters of the story based on the changing allegiance of the population just so that the sacredness of the place was maintained…
Now as we try to retrace the steps to the beginning it seems impossible to strip the beliefs out and consider just the cold facts. So at some spots we have let the faith slide in and we’ll let the readers decide, cause as Stuart Chase has said, ‘For those who believe, no proof is necessary. For those who don’t believe, no proof is possible.’
As you read further you’ll encounter several opportunities to scrutinize the facts and test your belief system…
Just to fill colors to your imaginations, we’d ask you to begin by thinking of the best, most prestigious university of modern times and depending upon your interests and aspirations you might think of Oxford, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, the IITs or some other on similar lines and then what if we tell you that the grandeur of Nalanda was much more than any of these universities and it lasted for more than 700 years.
In the times when modes of communications were awfully slow, it claimed its fame to the best University and catered to scholars from the entire civilized world of the time.
Not just that after enjoying the luxury of the best teachers from the era and multitudes of students, it ceased to existed in the 13th century without leaving much traces behind to give us any insight into its existence and then 500 years later it resurrected from the rubble and now presents itself as the most mystical discoveries waiting to be resolved.
All that we have written in the above paragraph sounds like a big myth and though there are a number of those surrounding this place, the one written above is not one of them.
The fact that this place was buried under the pile of earth for almost 5 centuries and has absolutely no written history to describe its legacy; is prompting us to piece it together from the remains of the place and from the accounts of its students and travelers of the area. We are re-visiting each piece of evidence and questioning our own reasoning and deductions; and that has led to a number of theories which unless proved otherwise can belong to the category of a myth or fact based on your belief system.
As an example, up ahead you’ll come across half a dozen interpretation of just the name ‘NALANDA’ and all of them are valid deductions. With each individual fact as fascinating as that there is absolutely no room for any legends or any myth but like with any captivating mystery, in certain cases they were required to make the story complete and just add to the charm of the area.
Before we move on, a piece of visual aid to put things into perspective…
Above is a sketch based on the facts collected so far from various sources about the expanse of Nalanda, the university; and given below is an aerial picture of excavated area that you see in the above picture as a tiny little yellow rectangle.
And its physical scale is a very small part of its legacy.
Nalanda prospered from the patronages of several great kings and that tells us a lot about our culture, our belief in strong education and respect for knowledge and wisdom. It ran uninterruptedly for 700 years and as Xuanzang points out there weren’t any power tussles and issues over hierarchies that were ever disclosed.
Most of our knowledge about Nalanda that we’ll be discussing in up coming topics is based on travelogues and detail accounts left by Xuanzang, Itsing, Hwui Lun and Dharmasvamin. In forthcoming posts we explore the facts and myths that have been inter-twined in this beautiful and serene place…
Monday, July 20, 2009
Ashokan Stupa to mark site of Mahasanghika
All the priests who were not admitted in the council organized by Mahakashyap got together in a neighboring village. They made another collection of the Sutras, including Vinaya, Abhidhrama, Pitaka and of miscellaneous pitaka and the Dharani pitaka, five pitaka in all.
This congregation was called Mahasanghika.
Xuanzang has given a description of the site where Ashoka built a stupa to mark the site of Mahasanghika. The site as mentioned by Xuanzang is 20Li west of site of 1st council. We take two buffers from site identified by Beglar and site suggested by Marshall. There are two villages which fall in the area of interest.
Both the village has rich archaeological remains, big stupa like mounds and the potshards suggesting the site to be a vibrant place at the time of Buddha.
Simraur-25º00' 59"N 85º 20' 85"E
Ratna kharjamma-25º01' 09" N 85º 19' 38" E
This congregation was called Mahasanghika.
Xuanzang has given a description of the site where Ashoka built a stupa to mark the site of Mahasanghika. The site as mentioned by Xuanzang is 20Li west of site of 1st council. We take two buffers from site identified by Beglar and site suggested by Marshall. There are two villages which fall in the area of interest.
Both the village has rich archaeological remains, big stupa like mounds and the potshards suggesting the site to be a vibrant place at the time of Buddha.
Simraur-25º00' 59"N 85º 20' 85"E
Ratna kharjamma-25º01' 09" N 85º 19' 38" E
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Recreating 7th century Nalanda with Xuanzang
Interpretation based on ‘Travel’
Interpretation based on ‘Life’
Interpretation of Conjecture Maps
Interpretation of Conjecture maps continued...
Xuanzang versus Hwui Lun, a comparison
Conclusions based on conjecture maps
Parallel analysis of ‘Travel’ and ‘Life’
'Life’ or ‘Travel’ which serves the correct description
Buddha’s image at spot 17
Monastery Row
Where’s the first Monastery built by Sakraditya
What is the sequence of Monastic rows
Interpretation based on ‘Life’
Interpretation of Conjecture Maps
Interpretation of Conjecture maps continued...
Xuanzang versus Hwui Lun, a comparison
Conclusions based on conjecture maps
Parallel analysis of ‘Travel’ and ‘Life’
'Life’ or ‘Travel’ which serves the correct description
Buddha’s image at spot 17
Monastery Row
Where’s the first Monastery built by Sakraditya
What is the sequence of Monastic rows
Monday, July 13, 2009
The background
Let us start exploring the region with the story of its rediscovery…
Believe it or not, all our rich culture of this area that we know today and all that is yet to be discovered were buried under a pile of mud and the natives had no clue about the treasure they were sitting on and in certain cases were even destroying it. Besides the physical damage, since there was an absence of any literature that would explain the origin of the heritage, there were stories built around the sculptures and they became part of the mythology and now centuries later it is tough distinguish between the real history and all the fiction that is entrenched into the local customs.
All our present knowledge about the Buddhist past comes from the Travelogues of Chinese pilgrims and Pali sources. And these sources weren’t exactly the ‘lonely planet’ guide books that take you to the tourist destinations with a list of things about how to get there and what to expect. These are centuries old scriptures that have been modified during their several revisions and that too in a language that wasn’t know at the time… That’s not all, once you follow the direction in the book to reach your ‘Tourist attraction’ site, it was at the best a mound of mud if at all that…
Our purpose of giving you all this information is just so that you understand that the process of rediscovery and restoration of Buddhist past in this area is painstakingly tedious and time consuming and was covered by various historians at different times in history.
For the purpose of better understanding, we chose to divide this work by orientalists and enthusiasts in four phases….
1st phase — Setting up of Asiatic Society
"India's most gorgeous antiquity....her greatest treasure is her ancient literary language (Sanskrit), the richness and structural features of which are absolutely unique." - G. Roerich.
William Jones after his arrival 1783 at Calcutta soon realized the extensiveness of the unexplored potential of this part of world. It was a major challenge to execute an exploration of this magnitude and after much deliberations he realized it can be achieved by “unifying the efforts of many”, and proceeded to set up a learned society in the lines of Britain’s royal society in India. Hence Asiatic society was established in Calcutta in 1784.
A lot of work was furnished in this area and the word Buddha was mentioned for the first time in a volume of Asiatic researches in 1789; it was Charles Wilkins who translated an inscription from a temple south of Town Gaya. The inscription read “The place of supreme being Buddha”; it didn’t draw any attention then. This was also the time when many of orientalists in India and abroad were attracted towards the richness of the Sanskrit language and literature. Many of the East India company staff and westerners actively learned Sanskrit the “Language of Gods” as said by William Jones to better understand the Indian culture, history and rich past. Charles Wilkins and William Jones the pioneers of the translations of ancient text and old Indian scriptures are credited with translation of Hitopadesa, Shakuntala and Gitagovinda.
William Jones laid the foundation of “Synchronology”, a study of comparing names and events recorded in ancient documents of one nation with that of ancient documents in other nations. He successfully established a link between “Sandrokottos” found mention in the accounts of Megasthenes and “Chandragupta” of a Sanskrit text “Mudra-rakshasa”.
Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador was sent to “Palimbothra”, in the court of king “Sandrokottos”, approximately in 302BC. Only clue about the “Palimbothra” was that it was situated at the conjunction of river Ganges and river “Erranoboas”. Many identification of Palimbothra were suggested but the “Patlipootra”, the modern Patna suggested by James Rennell was most suitable. Patna was indeed further east of confluence of river Sone and river Ganges.
It was just a chance that while translating one of the ancient Sanskrit texts William Jones found “Hiranyabahu” another name of the river sone. It was obvious “Erranoboas” was Greek rendering of “Hiranyabahu”. This important identification established a fixed point for drawing chronological history of Indian kings’ and their dynasties backwards and forwards.
The name Buddha again appeared in the chronology of Indian kings prepared by Jones on the basis of Rajavamsa a Sanskrit manuscript; and Jones placed him around 1027 BC.
At that time there wasn’t much awareness about his besides being a king and the information and knowledge about the Buddhist past was still in nascent stage well below the threshold to draw any attention for further research.
The Caves around Mumbai, Stone idols, topes and big structures that we now know are part of Buddhist heritage, were all assumed to be of African origin. Sacya, the law-giver, was believed to be of Ethiopian origin.
So as you see, there were a lot of discoveries of Buddhist origin in this time but there was no thread linking them together. The fabric of Buddhism that underlined it all was still unknown to the world and so no initiatives were taken to explore its roots or origin…
NEXT: 2nd Phase-- Discovery of Dhamma - Coining of “Buddhism”
Believe it or not, all our rich culture of this area that we know today and all that is yet to be discovered were buried under a pile of mud and the natives had no clue about the treasure they were sitting on and in certain cases were even destroying it. Besides the physical damage, since there was an absence of any literature that would explain the origin of the heritage, there were stories built around the sculptures and they became part of the mythology and now centuries later it is tough distinguish between the real history and all the fiction that is entrenched into the local customs.
All our present knowledge about the Buddhist past comes from the Travelogues of Chinese pilgrims and Pali sources. And these sources weren’t exactly the ‘lonely planet’ guide books that take you to the tourist destinations with a list of things about how to get there and what to expect. These are centuries old scriptures that have been modified during their several revisions and that too in a language that wasn’t know at the time… That’s not all, once you follow the direction in the book to reach your ‘Tourist attraction’ site, it was at the best a mound of mud if at all that…
Our purpose of giving you all this information is just so that you understand that the process of rediscovery and restoration of Buddhist past in this area is painstakingly tedious and time consuming and was covered by various historians at different times in history.
For the purpose of better understanding, we chose to divide this work by orientalists and enthusiasts in four phases….
1st phase — Setting up of Asiatic Society
"India's most gorgeous antiquity....her greatest treasure is her ancient literary language (Sanskrit), the richness and structural features of which are absolutely unique." - G. Roerich.
William Jones after his arrival 1783 at Calcutta soon realized the extensiveness of the unexplored potential of this part of world. It was a major challenge to execute an exploration of this magnitude and after much deliberations he realized it can be achieved by “unifying the efforts of many”, and proceeded to set up a learned society in the lines of Britain’s royal society in India. Hence Asiatic society was established in Calcutta in 1784.
A lot of work was furnished in this area and the word Buddha was mentioned for the first time in a volume of Asiatic researches in 1789; it was Charles Wilkins who translated an inscription from a temple south of Town Gaya. The inscription read “The place of supreme being Buddha”; it didn’t draw any attention then. This was also the time when many of orientalists in India and abroad were attracted towards the richness of the Sanskrit language and literature. Many of the East India company staff and westerners actively learned Sanskrit the “Language of Gods” as said by William Jones to better understand the Indian culture, history and rich past. Charles Wilkins and William Jones the pioneers of the translations of ancient text and old Indian scriptures are credited with translation of Hitopadesa, Shakuntala and Gitagovinda.
William Jones laid the foundation of “Synchronology”, a study of comparing names and events recorded in ancient documents of one nation with that of ancient documents in other nations. He successfully established a link between “Sandrokottos” found mention in the accounts of Megasthenes and “Chandragupta” of a Sanskrit text “Mudra-rakshasa”.
Megasthenes, the Greek ambassador was sent to “Palimbothra”, in the court of king “Sandrokottos”, approximately in 302BC. Only clue about the “Palimbothra” was that it was situated at the conjunction of river Ganges and river “Erranoboas”. Many identification of Palimbothra were suggested but the “Patlipootra”, the modern Patna suggested by James Rennell was most suitable. Patna was indeed further east of confluence of river Sone and river Ganges.
It was just a chance that while translating one of the ancient Sanskrit texts William Jones found “Hiranyabahu” another name of the river sone. It was obvious “Erranoboas” was Greek rendering of “Hiranyabahu”. This important identification established a fixed point for drawing chronological history of Indian kings’ and their dynasties backwards and forwards.
The name Buddha again appeared in the chronology of Indian kings prepared by Jones on the basis of Rajavamsa a Sanskrit manuscript; and Jones placed him around 1027 BC.
At that time there wasn’t much awareness about his besides being a king and the information and knowledge about the Buddhist past was still in nascent stage well below the threshold to draw any attention for further research.
The Caves around Mumbai, Stone idols, topes and big structures that we now know are part of Buddhist heritage, were all assumed to be of African origin. Sacya, the law-giver, was believed to be of Ethiopian origin.
So as you see, there were a lot of discoveries of Buddhist origin in this time but there was no thread linking them together. The fabric of Buddhism that underlined it all was still unknown to the world and so no initiatives were taken to explore its roots or origin…
NEXT: 2nd Phase-- Discovery of Dhamma - Coining of “Buddhism”
Friday, July 10, 2009
2nd Phase-- Discovery of Dhamma - Coining of “Buddhism”
“The people say they remember it as entire as the temple of mahamuni now is, but that it was round and solid”, “ in digging for the bricks he is said to have found a stone chest containing bones and many small things… he has also removed pillar which has been erected at…..” Mr. Buchanan on an act of vandalism by Mr. Boddam, a local officer at Gaya
First information about the “Buddha” & “Buddhism” in English language appeared in 1797 by a surgeon botanist Hamilton Buchanan. He traveled to the Kingdom of Ava in 1797 as a part of an official team to visit the court of King of Ava. Based on his observation and father Vincentius Sangrmano’s manuscript Buchanan produced “The religion and literature of the Burma”. He was 1st to chose the term “Buddhism” a religion founded by “Godma” also called “Buddh” though no information about the places associated with life and events of Buddha was known at the time. In response to the papers on Buddhism by Buchanan a few papers came from Srilanka one such response was written by Captain Mahony in 1801. It was based on Sinhalese texts in Pali and gave a more detailed account of Buddha and his life.
As destiny or a chance of faith as you may choose to call it, Buchanan went to Gaya for a routine survey work in 1811. He was approached by a local Mahant from Bodh Gaya, who told him about the visits of two envoys from Ava (modern Burma) to Mahabodhi in recent past and that they were sent by the king of Ava. Mahant told him about the importance of the place for the religion of Ava. Buchanan was yet again approached local; a Buddhist convert at this time who offered to take him around to other places around Bodh Gaya and during their visit described the significance of those places as were told to him by the messenger of Ava.
For the next three months Buchanan visited many places in and around Rajgir and most notable among them was his visit to Bargaon. At Bargaon (Remains of ancient Nalanda University), he was told about its links to Kundalpur capital of king Bhimika from Mahabharata mythology. Buchanan wasn’t convinced with this story though he did notice that the structure was remarkably similar to the circular mounds he had seen at Bodh Gaya. He could now compile his observations from his trips to Ava and Nepal and compare those with what he heard and found at Bodh Gaya. It was with these correlations that Bodh Gaya was established as the heart land of the religion of Ava and Nepal. But unfortunately, this important information didn’t get the required priority. Though the basic stage was set its important characters were missing to take the story further, William Jones wasn’t here to materialize the importance of this information and James Princep was yet to enter the scene...
As many orientalists learned the ancient languages and took up the translation work, more relevant information started pouring in. The English translation of Mahavamsa (Pali account of Kings of Srilanka from 6century BC to 4th century AD) by George Tournour in 1837 provided deep insight into the religion and the events as per the Srilankan traditions. Brian Hodgson was a major contributor with translation of two sets of Kanjur, the Tibetan cannon. Also, Alexandar Csoma de koros helped further by compiling a Tibetan-English dictionary.
With progress being made in trying to understand the available literature, the field activities gained momentum too. There was a surge in the knowledge base and as their importance was recognized the collection of manuscripts, antiquities, coins etc… increased rapidly.
Many mounds were discovered and cursory digs of the remains were rampant, yet the significance of the place and its association with past was a riddle and the iconography was still beyond comprehension. Each new discovery further complicated the riddle.
Colin Mackenzie, the then surveyor general, thought it was best to document things as is, in their original setting because it was tough to draw inferences about the scheme of things without the knowledge about their significance. He did his best to prepare detailed drawings of as many structures as possible; and it was him who coined word “Tope” for stupas.
Many other discoveries were made about the existence of structures like Ajanta, Ellora, Bhilsa etc; many of them got documented and equal number of them were vandalized and are now lost to us.
Buchanan provided enough pieces of the puzzle to establish a link between religions of Southeast Asia and it was quite apparent that Buddha was of jambudvipa origin and Bodh Gaya was the heartland of the religion of Buddha. But all that information needed a few more evidences to conclusively assemble the picture for the entire story to unfold...
Thus far many consequential discoveries were made throughout India and an apparent connection was emerging but these were some of the main questions that were still at large:
1- What is the significance of the places with massive structures, caves and topes and who made them
2- Where was the fountain head of “Buddhism”
3- The inscription on the stone pillars & rock edicts
NEXT: 3rd Phase – Rediscovery of Buddha
First information about the “Buddha” & “Buddhism” in English language appeared in 1797 by a surgeon botanist Hamilton Buchanan. He traveled to the Kingdom of Ava in 1797 as a part of an official team to visit the court of King of Ava. Based on his observation and father Vincentius Sangrmano’s manuscript Buchanan produced “The religion and literature of the Burma”. He was 1st to chose the term “Buddhism” a religion founded by “Godma” also called “Buddh” though no information about the places associated with life and events of Buddha was known at the time. In response to the papers on Buddhism by Buchanan a few papers came from Srilanka one such response was written by Captain Mahony in 1801. It was based on Sinhalese texts in Pali and gave a more detailed account of Buddha and his life.
As destiny or a chance of faith as you may choose to call it, Buchanan went to Gaya for a routine survey work in 1811. He was approached by a local Mahant from Bodh Gaya, who told him about the visits of two envoys from Ava (modern Burma) to Mahabodhi in recent past and that they were sent by the king of Ava. Mahant told him about the importance of the place for the religion of Ava. Buchanan was yet again approached local; a Buddhist convert at this time who offered to take him around to other places around Bodh Gaya and during their visit described the significance of those places as were told to him by the messenger of Ava.
For the next three months Buchanan visited many places in and around Rajgir and most notable among them was his visit to Bargaon. At Bargaon (Remains of ancient Nalanda University), he was told about its links to Kundalpur capital of king Bhimika from Mahabharata mythology. Buchanan wasn’t convinced with this story though he did notice that the structure was remarkably similar to the circular mounds he had seen at Bodh Gaya. He could now compile his observations from his trips to Ava and Nepal and compare those with what he heard and found at Bodh Gaya. It was with these correlations that Bodh Gaya was established as the heart land of the religion of Ava and Nepal. But unfortunately, this important information didn’t get the required priority. Though the basic stage was set its important characters were missing to take the story further, William Jones wasn’t here to materialize the importance of this information and James Princep was yet to enter the scene...
As many orientalists learned the ancient languages and took up the translation work, more relevant information started pouring in. The English translation of Mahavamsa (Pali account of Kings of Srilanka from 6century BC to 4th century AD) by George Tournour in 1837 provided deep insight into the religion and the events as per the Srilankan traditions. Brian Hodgson was a major contributor with translation of two sets of Kanjur, the Tibetan cannon. Also, Alexandar Csoma de koros helped further by compiling a Tibetan-English dictionary.
With progress being made in trying to understand the available literature, the field activities gained momentum too. There was a surge in the knowledge base and as their importance was recognized the collection of manuscripts, antiquities, coins etc… increased rapidly.
Many mounds were discovered and cursory digs of the remains were rampant, yet the significance of the place and its association with past was a riddle and the iconography was still beyond comprehension. Each new discovery further complicated the riddle.
Colin Mackenzie, the then surveyor general, thought it was best to document things as is, in their original setting because it was tough to draw inferences about the scheme of things without the knowledge about their significance. He did his best to prepare detailed drawings of as many structures as possible; and it was him who coined word “Tope” for stupas.
Many other discoveries were made about the existence of structures like Ajanta, Ellora, Bhilsa etc; many of them got documented and equal number of them were vandalized and are now lost to us.
Buchanan provided enough pieces of the puzzle to establish a link between religions of Southeast Asia and it was quite apparent that Buddha was of jambudvipa origin and Bodh Gaya was the heartland of the religion of Buddha. But all that information needed a few more evidences to conclusively assemble the picture for the entire story to unfold...
Thus far many consequential discoveries were made throughout India and an apparent connection was emerging but these were some of the main questions that were still at large:
1- What is the significance of the places with massive structures, caves and topes and who made them
2- Where was the fountain head of “Buddhism”
3- The inscription on the stone pillars & rock edicts
NEXT: 3rd Phase – Rediscovery of Buddha
Thursday, July 9, 2009
3rd Phase – Rediscovery of Buddha
“But the fortunate discovery of the travels of the Chinese pilgrims……has thrown such a flood of light upon this hitherto dark period that we are now able to see our way clearly to the general arrangement of most of the scattered fragments of the ancient geography of India”--- Alexander Cunningham
Mid 19th century marked a major turn around for the rediscovery of Buddha, with the deciphering of Ashokan Brahmi script by James Princep in 1837 and the translation of the travelogues of Fahien (visited india-399-414 AD) and Xuanzang (visited during 629 to 645 AD).These two events truly complemented each other and provided the much needed push for resurrecting the Buddhist history of India.
As we hinted to it before, Princep was a perfect heir of Jones’ legacy. He became the secretary of Asiatic Society in 1836 and his first major step was to expand the scope of studies under the society.
The period of Asiatic society, between these two luminaries’ had a few important contributions made by likes of Colin Mackenzie but the lack of effective guidance during this period is generally marked by large scale cursory digs by enthusiasts. By 1816 most precious parts of Amravati and Sarnath was lost in act of vandalism, in looking for treasure and in quarrying of bricks. Pillars were displaced from its original location and large scale tampering of structures affected our understanding about the place. Before Mackenzie left the scene he contributed all his collection of 1600 manuscript to the Asiatic society. He also made the drawings of Amravati stupa; he is also credited with the impressions of the rock edicts of Dauli.
Up ahead are a series of discoveries and interpretations that could have led to major contributions but for lack of effective leadership at the Asiatic society all that was done was cataloguing of Mackenzie’s and others’ contributions.
Stirling reported about yet another stone pillar from Allahabad, a part of which was used for leveling the roads by the local contractor.
In 1819 remains of Bhilsa caught attention of infantry officers camping in the surroundings engaged in a small battle of supremacy with Marathas. Edward Fell, one of the officers sent a detailed report of the finds and later Bagnold sent a detail sketch of Bhilsa to the offices of Asiatic society.
In 1824 James Alexander accidently brought to light the existence of cave structures near jungles of Aurangabad, now known as Ajanta caves.
All these discoveries didn’t cut enough ice among the scholars of the then Asiatic society, but the curiosity about the origins of the religion, its link with the existing religions etc was stirred and many interpretations were made about the religion and its founder; curly hair and prominent lips led to the theory of African origin of Buddha and in 1821 john Davy even identified Buddha with Vishnu. Upham and Alexander Johnston quoting Pali texts claimed Ceylon as the centre of activities of Buddha.
It was with Princep’s leadership that the society got a new direction. He started collecting information from all corners of the subcontinent; texts, translations, impressions of the inscriptions, coins, events etc and his efforts were complemented by all enthusiasts and orientalists.
All the manuscripts and items of interest that were littered around in stores of Asiatic society were compiled and efforts were made to establish some sort of sequence to draw a meaningful link among them. His efforts were well augmented by those of Tournour from Ceylon, Hodgson from Nepal and De Koros on Tibetan literature.
A few things could easily be established like the Pali origin of Buddhism in the subcontinent and the differences and similarities in the way this religion was practiced in different countries of the sub continent. By 1836 the Indian origin of Buddha was established with his score of other names which finds mention in various other texts and also that it was basically a reform movement.
King Ashoka, one of the greatest leaders in the history of India found another reference by George Burney with the mention of a marble slab in Bodhgaya, the first reference being in the list of kings prepared by William Jones. That particular plaque was found to be erected in 13th century to mark a repair work done at the temple. The inscription was in early form of Burmese Pali about a king Athauka who erected the first temple at the site.
Ceylon Almanac in 1833 and history of Ceylon, a translation of a part of Mahavamsa in 1836 by Tournour was a milestone in many ways. It helped in establishing that king Ashoka was not a fictional character as assumed by many scholars. The chronicle provided a detail account of life of Buddha and Ashoka’s contribution in establishing Buddhism in Indian subcontinent & Sri Lanka.
It could be very difficult to comprehend at this time when the discovery is made and the complete picture is right in front of our eyes to analyze and criticize but at the time… despite the presence of plethora of information, the fitting of all the pieces of puzzle was still missing. It was tough to piece them together with no idea about how the picture should emerge.
We could gather that the origin of the various religion have a common source but the complete sequence of events based on the Buddhist texts from Ceylon, Ava, Nepal, Tibet, Purana and from other Hindu texts and from Megenthases accounts was not coming together.
Many curiosities remained a big question mark like, who erected the massive pillars, what is inscribed on them, where are those other five places that the envoy from Ava couldn’t locate.
These five places according to the envoy from Ava were lumbini, where Buddha was born; kapilvasthu, where he spent his early life; Sravasti, where he spent maximum rain retreats; vaisali, where he gave his last sermon and kushingar, place of his death.
23rd May 1837, was the day that opened the door to the possibilities of answers to the questions above and myriad others. It was the day when Princep wrote to Cunningham that he successfully decoded the mystical script that we today know as Ashokan Brahmi.
This journey began sometime back as Princep collected impression of all possible inscriptions from pillars and rocks of Dauli, Girnar, Delhi, Sanchi, Saran, Allahabad, Ellora, Lauriya Nandangarh, Sarnath and Bakhra. First thing he noticed was that they were all written in same script which he referred to as “Pseudo-Greek”. He started with the idea that the short inscriptions from Bhilsa could be recording of donations like he knew from a few earlier examples of inscriptions in Gupta Brahmi and Sanskrit elsewhere. He deduced from his analysis that it was the work of the “Beloved of the gods” Devanamapriya Piyadasi.
Another Ceylonese chronicle ‘Dipavamsa’ contributed to the inferences so far and attributed the epithet ‘Beloved of Gods’ to Ashoka, the king from Maurya Dynasty. That piece of information helped put the picture together linked with the geographical location as before that it was assumed that Devanamapriya piyadasi was some Sri Lankan King.
During the same era, a lot of relevant information came from the travelogues of Chinese pilgrims Fahien and Xuanzang. Both the pilgrims had visited the sites of Buddhist significance in 5th and 7th century respectively and had left a very detailed description of the area they traveled. Translations of their travelogues from Chinese into western languages equipped the explorers with the information they required to identify the places associated with life of Buddha.
The combination of these two discoveries was magical. It was like the perfect winds to sail the boat in the right direction. Decipherment of Ashokan brahmi helped in identification of Lumbini and Kapilvasthu amidst the dense terai forest. The Ashokan pillar inscription established Rumanidie as site of Lumbini, the birth place of Buddha. As per the Niligiva pillar inscription it was known that the stupa was associated with Kanakmuni Buddha as mentioned by Xuanzang who took his measure to Kapilvasthu from Kanakmuni stupa.
The stage was set for a new phase of exploration & excavation and preservation.
The life history of Buddha and its references to the geographical locations led to the identification of sites such as the relic stupas, birth place and place of Parinirvan of Buddha, site of 1st sermon. A new generation of inspired explorers like Kittoe, Cunningham, Smith, Stein, Foucher, Masson, Waddell and others, took expedition to unknown places and made a remarkable contribution to world history.
The travelogues also laid the foundation of archeological survey of India and Archeological survey department in many other countries of central Asia.
NEXT: 4th Phase ---Systematic excavation and restoring the past
Mid 19th century marked a major turn around for the rediscovery of Buddha, with the deciphering of Ashokan Brahmi script by James Princep in 1837 and the translation of the travelogues of Fahien (visited india-399-414 AD) and Xuanzang (visited during 629 to 645 AD).These two events truly complemented each other and provided the much needed push for resurrecting the Buddhist history of India. As we hinted to it before, Princep was a perfect heir of Jones’ legacy. He became the secretary of Asiatic Society in 1836 and his first major step was to expand the scope of studies under the society.
The period of Asiatic society, between these two luminaries’ had a few important contributions made by likes of Colin Mackenzie but the lack of effective guidance during this period is generally marked by large scale cursory digs by enthusiasts. By 1816 most precious parts of Amravati and Sarnath was lost in act of vandalism, in looking for treasure and in quarrying of bricks. Pillars were displaced from its original location and large scale tampering of structures affected our understanding about the place. Before Mackenzie left the scene he contributed all his collection of 1600 manuscript to the Asiatic society. He also made the drawings of Amravati stupa; he is also credited with the impressions of the rock edicts of Dauli.
Up ahead are a series of discoveries and interpretations that could have led to major contributions but for lack of effective leadership at the Asiatic society all that was done was cataloguing of Mackenzie’s and others’ contributions.
Stirling reported about yet another stone pillar from Allahabad, a part of which was used for leveling the roads by the local contractor.
In 1819 remains of Bhilsa caught attention of infantry officers camping in the surroundings engaged in a small battle of supremacy with Marathas. Edward Fell, one of the officers sent a detailed report of the finds and later Bagnold sent a detail sketch of Bhilsa to the offices of Asiatic society.
In 1824 James Alexander accidently brought to light the existence of cave structures near jungles of Aurangabad, now known as Ajanta caves.
All these discoveries didn’t cut enough ice among the scholars of the then Asiatic society, but the curiosity about the origins of the religion, its link with the existing religions etc was stirred and many interpretations were made about the religion and its founder; curly hair and prominent lips led to the theory of African origin of Buddha and in 1821 john Davy even identified Buddha with Vishnu. Upham and Alexander Johnston quoting Pali texts claimed Ceylon as the centre of activities of Buddha.
It was with Princep’s leadership that the society got a new direction. He started collecting information from all corners of the subcontinent; texts, translations, impressions of the inscriptions, coins, events etc and his efforts were complemented by all enthusiasts and orientalists.
All the manuscripts and items of interest that were littered around in stores of Asiatic society were compiled and efforts were made to establish some sort of sequence to draw a meaningful link among them. His efforts were well augmented by those of Tournour from Ceylon, Hodgson from Nepal and De Koros on Tibetan literature.
A few things could easily be established like the Pali origin of Buddhism in the subcontinent and the differences and similarities in the way this religion was practiced in different countries of the sub continent. By 1836 the Indian origin of Buddha was established with his score of other names which finds mention in various other texts and also that it was basically a reform movement.
King Ashoka, one of the greatest leaders in the history of India found another reference by George Burney with the mention of a marble slab in Bodhgaya, the first reference being in the list of kings prepared by William Jones. That particular plaque was found to be erected in 13th century to mark a repair work done at the temple. The inscription was in early form of Burmese Pali about a king Athauka who erected the first temple at the site.
Ceylon Almanac in 1833 and history of Ceylon, a translation of a part of Mahavamsa in 1836 by Tournour was a milestone in many ways. It helped in establishing that king Ashoka was not a fictional character as assumed by many scholars. The chronicle provided a detail account of life of Buddha and Ashoka’s contribution in establishing Buddhism in Indian subcontinent & Sri Lanka.
It could be very difficult to comprehend at this time when the discovery is made and the complete picture is right in front of our eyes to analyze and criticize but at the time… despite the presence of plethora of information, the fitting of all the pieces of puzzle was still missing. It was tough to piece them together with no idea about how the picture should emerge.
We could gather that the origin of the various religion have a common source but the complete sequence of events based on the Buddhist texts from Ceylon, Ava, Nepal, Tibet, Purana and from other Hindu texts and from Megenthases accounts was not coming together.
Many curiosities remained a big question mark like, who erected the massive pillars, what is inscribed on them, where are those other five places that the envoy from Ava couldn’t locate.
These five places according to the envoy from Ava were lumbini, where Buddha was born; kapilvasthu, where he spent his early life; Sravasti, where he spent maximum rain retreats; vaisali, where he gave his last sermon and kushingar, place of his death.
23rd May 1837, was the day that opened the door to the possibilities of answers to the questions above and myriad others. It was the day when Princep wrote to Cunningham that he successfully decoded the mystical script that we today know as Ashokan Brahmi.
This journey began sometime back as Princep collected impression of all possible inscriptions from pillars and rocks of Dauli, Girnar, Delhi, Sanchi, Saran, Allahabad, Ellora, Lauriya Nandangarh, Sarnath and Bakhra. First thing he noticed was that they were all written in same script which he referred to as “Pseudo-Greek”. He started with the idea that the short inscriptions from Bhilsa could be recording of donations like he knew from a few earlier examples of inscriptions in Gupta Brahmi and Sanskrit elsewhere. He deduced from his analysis that it was the work of the “Beloved of the gods” Devanamapriya Piyadasi.
Another Ceylonese chronicle ‘Dipavamsa’ contributed to the inferences so far and attributed the epithet ‘Beloved of Gods’ to Ashoka, the king from Maurya Dynasty. That piece of information helped put the picture together linked with the geographical location as before that it was assumed that Devanamapriya piyadasi was some Sri Lankan King.
During the same era, a lot of relevant information came from the travelogues of Chinese pilgrims Fahien and Xuanzang. Both the pilgrims had visited the sites of Buddhist significance in 5th and 7th century respectively and had left a very detailed description of the area they traveled. Translations of their travelogues from Chinese into western languages equipped the explorers with the information they required to identify the places associated with life of Buddha.
The combination of these two discoveries was magical. It was like the perfect winds to sail the boat in the right direction. Decipherment of Ashokan brahmi helped in identification of Lumbini and Kapilvasthu amidst the dense terai forest. The Ashokan pillar inscription established Rumanidie as site of Lumbini, the birth place of Buddha. As per the Niligiva pillar inscription it was known that the stupa was associated with Kanakmuni Buddha as mentioned by Xuanzang who took his measure to Kapilvasthu from Kanakmuni stupa.
The stage was set for a new phase of exploration & excavation and preservation.
The life history of Buddha and its references to the geographical locations led to the identification of sites such as the relic stupas, birth place and place of Parinirvan of Buddha, site of 1st sermon. A new generation of inspired explorers like Kittoe, Cunningham, Smith, Stein, Foucher, Masson, Waddell and others, took expedition to unknown places and made a remarkable contribution to world history.
The travelogues also laid the foundation of archeological survey of India and Archeological survey department in many other countries of central Asia.
NEXT: 4th Phase ---Systematic excavation and restoring the past
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
4th Phase ---Systematic excavation and restoring the past
“To dig and discover, to classify, reproduce and describe, to copy and decipher, and to cherish and conserve.” Lord Curzon to John Marshall, 1901
In early 1850’s, Cunningham was single handedly trying to interest the Government of India for a much needed Archaeological department. With efforts of Lord Canning, the then viceroy of India and Cunningham’s persistence, in 1861, Cunningham was made the archaeological surveyor to the government of India.
The task was,“ An accurate description of such remains as most deserve notice, with history of them so far as it may be traceable….investigating and placing on record, for the instruction of future generations, any particulars that might be rescued from oblivion, and throwing light upon the early history of England’s great dependency’.
During his first stint which lasted for few years he successfully identified Bargaon as the site of Ancient Nalanda Mahavihara and Kasia as Kushinagar the site of Parinirvan of Buddha.
Cunningham in 1871 successfully got archaeological survey of India revived but now he was in his late 50’, and was depending a lot on assistants.
A successful era of exploration was aptly followed by restoration and a plan for conservation.
A new era of systematic excavation, restoration and conservation was ushered in by John Marshall in 1902. During his stay the chronology of many historical sites was established with precision. Most of these sites that were excavated unscientifically and many more which were vandalized were all restored by Marshall. Taj Mahal’s restoration to its present appearance is attributed to him. It was during his leadership that Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa was announced to the world. Restoration of sanchi and its chronology with precision was established. Dating of the sites using the potsherds was introduced for the first time by Marshall. His important contribution was systematic excavation and restoration of sarnath and the discovery of Famous Lion capital which later chosen as symbol of independent India in 1947.
You must now be wondering, so we are following the Footsteps of Xuanzang but who is he and why did he leave such a legacy behind that we seek for reference and cherish, 1500 years later.
Well, your questions would be answered in the next post where we’ll revisit a brief history of his life…
In early 1850’s, Cunningham was single handedly trying to interest the Government of India for a much needed Archaeological department. With efforts of Lord Canning, the then viceroy of India and Cunningham’s persistence, in 1861, Cunningham was made the archaeological surveyor to the government of India. The task was,“ An accurate description of such remains as most deserve notice, with history of them so far as it may be traceable….investigating and placing on record, for the instruction of future generations, any particulars that might be rescued from oblivion, and throwing light upon the early history of England’s great dependency’.
During his first stint which lasted for few years he successfully identified Bargaon as the site of Ancient Nalanda Mahavihara and Kasia as Kushinagar the site of Parinirvan of Buddha.
Cunningham in 1871 successfully got archaeological survey of India revived but now he was in his late 50’, and was depending a lot on assistants.
A successful era of exploration was aptly followed by restoration and a plan for conservation.
A new era of systematic excavation, restoration and conservation was ushered in by John Marshall in 1902. During his stay the chronology of many historical sites was established with precision. Most of these sites that were excavated unscientifically and many more which were vandalized were all restored by Marshall. Taj Mahal’s restoration to its present appearance is attributed to him. It was during his leadership that Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa was announced to the world. Restoration of sanchi and its chronology with precision was established. Dating of the sites using the potsherds was introduced for the first time by Marshall. His important contribution was systematic excavation and restoration of sarnath and the discovery of Famous Lion capital which later chosen as symbol of independent India in 1947.
You must now be wondering, so we are following the Footsteps of Xuanzang but who is he and why did he leave such a legacy behind that we seek for reference and cherish, 1500 years later.
Well, your questions would be answered in the next post where we’ll revisit a brief history of his life…
Monday, July 6, 2009
A brief life history of Xuanzang…
Xuanzang was born in 602 in a family of scholars in Henan province as the youngest of four children. His family was a conservative Confucianist and his father, a Confucian scholar, was instrumental in teaching Xuanzang the Confucian ethics and politics. Following in the familial ties Xuanzang became well versed in Confucian classics at an early age. But his quest for learning and his elder brothers’ example prompted him to explore Buddhism and soon his prodigious intelligence and religious conviction became so strong that he expressed interest to take Buddhist orders at the age of thirteen, the abbot Zheng Shanguo made an exception in his case because of his vast knowledge of the subject. Xuanzang was fully ordained as a monk in 622, at the age of twenty.Xuanzang though trained in Confucian practices at younger age but with his deeper understandings of Buddhist philosophies was convinced that Buddha’s teachings would help everybody live a more meaningful life. As Xuanzang explored the Buddhist texts he encountered several discrepancies that he attributed to the interpretation flaws which prompted him to undertake the momentous journey to India and it became his mission in life was to understand the teachings of Buddha in their entirety.
In 629, Xuanzang sneaked out of Tang territory as a fugitive and traveled to India against the decree of his King. He traveled through the famous silk route, braved through mountains and deserts and had several miraculous escapes from thieves and murderers. Besides the physical threats, there were other more complex hurdles including those of marriage proposals to queens, high positions in royal courts and wrath of important kings insisting him to stop pursuing his journey. But in the end his determination prevailed and all those adversaries recognized his commitment. They even helped him and paved the way forward for a smoother sail.
He spent many years learning from the best of teachers and learning from various schools to get an overall and in depth knowledge of them all. Xuanzang spent a lot of time in Nalanda studying Sanskrit, Pali, Grammar and Logic to be able to understand the sutras well and also their deeper meanings. Once he had sufficient handle on the teachings of Buddha, their different interpretations and understanding of conflicting schools of thoughts, he decided to return to his homeland with deepest desire to share that knowledge with everyone.
In the year 645, Xuanzang returned to Chang’an with Taizong’s permission and brought with him about 657 volumes of Buddhist Sutras. Xuanzang’s perseverance and dedication to his religious calling helped him win the heart of the same king whose orders he had defied 16 years ago and he obtained royal patronage and protection for Buddhism which he knew was important if the religion has to make its way to the common man.Xuanzang rigorously translated Sutras to Chinese pondering over each phrase to make sure that their deeper meanings are not lost in the translation. And he convinced Taizong to write the preface for his translations of holy teachings.
His travelogue, ‘journey to the west’ was written to please Taizong and help obtain support for his translation work and is a thorough account of all the monasteries and the type of education they provide so that anyone who would like to pursue this route in future would know what to expect and it might actually encourage more people to travel in pursuit of knowledge.
In 664, Xuanzang knew it was time for him to make another spiritual journey and he retired from the translation work and spent all his time in meditation and prayers. His body was buried by the river as he had wished and later king Gaozang built a temple to mark the spot and it still stands after 1300 years.
It is impossible for a lay person to understand what motivated Xuanzang to accomplish such stupendous task but probably it would suffice to say that he recognized his true calling and walked towards his destiny leaving behind any obstacles and distractions he encountered on his way. This might be the very reason that the stories from his life are considered sacred and made him immortal, almost an incarnation of Buddha himself.
It is the above mentioned travelogue that is used as a reference for the rediscovery of the ‘Land of Buddha’. There is a memorial built in Nalanda to honor this great scholar who traveled extensively in pursuit of ultimate wisdom and en route transformed everybody who crossed his path and connected them together with a thread of humanity. And it is because of this quality of his, that besides being considered an enlightened being and a great scholar, he is also considered a diplomat…
Note: The pictures that you see in this post were taken at the Xuanzang Memorial in Nalanda.
Friday, July 3, 2009
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Rajgir, Nalanda and vicinity...
It took several sources, several dedicated people and numerous years to rediscover Rajgir and though its link with the glory of its past has been established, it is important to understand the process that brought us here, through which we realize the potential of this place as it stand today.
As we previously discussed, the initial clues and knowledge that encouraged an exploration in this area came from travelogues of Chinese visitors and Pali sources.
Elaborating further on that the first insight into this area’s history was provided by the detailed account of Fahien, who visited Magadha in 406 AD. He started his journey in 399 from China, traveled the famous silk route and after his stay here, he traveled to southern Indian and then to Sri Lanka on his way back to China in 414 via the sea route.
Considering the travel time it took for people to move around in those days, his trip to Rajgriha is considered very brief but he extensively traveled in this part of Magadha and visited most of the important sites of the time and not just that he left a detailed description of Rajgir and its vicinity stating the importance of the sites he visited and that has helped the archeologists in their initial search for clues and references.
Another important visitor of the area who has left a detail account of Rajgir and its vicinity is Xuanzang who was here in 637 AD and spent close to two years in Nalanda as a scholar of the famous university. He not only described the sites and their attributes in his travelogue but also mentioned the socio-economic condition of the area at the time which helped a lot in relating the heritage of the area to great kings and their dynasties.
Third pilgrim who visited this region and has left detail description of Nalanda University is It-sing who stayed here for ten years from 675 to 685 AD. Fourth pilgrim to make visit and leave an account was corean monk Hwui Lun whose period of visit is not clear.
An eyewitness account of the decline of Nalanda Sangharama is provided by Dharmasvamin. His description answered some questions about the disappearance of an international university that was in service for more that 700 hundred years and at the same time acted as a fuel to flare up our curiosity. He was in Nalanda for two years from 1235 to 1237 AD and states that it was the period of great turmoil with deteriorating economic situation. He also narrates his narrow escape while crossing Ganges when he refused to give away his belongings to a fellow traveler.
Pali sources from neighboring countries like Srilanka, Burma and others provided valuable information that helped piecing the puzzle together by giving us a detail description about places and there significance. Though they didn’t provide the exact locations as the previously mentioned travelogues did, yet they reinforced the fact that the different streams of religions practiced in the south-east Asian counties actually have a common origin and Magadha was at the land of their Lord.
Translation of sutras from Pali texts helped established the location of places like Nala and Nalanda, the two different places in close vicinity which were believed to be the different names of one a same place. Nalanda they maintain was associated with Pavarika mango grove where Buddha gave important sermons. Nala/ Nalak/ Nalika were associated with Sariputra. Nalanda as per the Pali tradition was also associated with Nirgranthas (The jains).
Other sources that contributed our knowledge bases are the Mahayanist texts, mainly the Tibetan sources. Lama Taranatha in his book “History of Buddhism in India” written in 17th century has given a detail description of origin of Nalanda Mahavihara though his account is based on the biographies and nothing much is known about the primary sources.
Rajgir and Nalanda were also associated with Lord Mahavira and many of his important disciples are from this place. We find mention about many places from this vicinity in the Jaina literatures.
We also find mention about Nalanda and Rajgir in Brhaminical accounts like Kautaliya’s, “Arthasastra”.
Now that we have documented the sources, in our next post we’ll find out how these texts helped orientalists rediscover Rajgir, Nalanda and the vicinity…
NEXT: 'Nalanda and Rajgir' continued....
SPECIAL NOTE: We have received some very interesting queries that we plan to address in the coming posts. So, if you are waiting for an answer, it is to let you know that its coming soon and if you are wondering if you should ask a question/clarification, sure go ahead, add it to the comments and you’ll hear from us soon…
As we previously discussed, the initial clues and knowledge that encouraged an exploration in this area came from travelogues of Chinese visitors and Pali sources.
Elaborating further on that the first insight into this area’s history was provided by the detailed account of Fahien, who visited Magadha in 406 AD. He started his journey in 399 from China, traveled the famous silk route and after his stay here, he traveled to southern Indian and then to Sri Lanka on his way back to China in 414 via the sea route.
Considering the travel time it took for people to move around in those days, his trip to Rajgriha is considered very brief but he extensively traveled in this part of Magadha and visited most of the important sites of the time and not just that he left a detailed description of Rajgir and its vicinity stating the importance of the sites he visited and that has helped the archeologists in their initial search for clues and references.
Another important visitor of the area who has left a detail account of Rajgir and its vicinity is Xuanzang who was here in 637 AD and spent close to two years in Nalanda as a scholar of the famous university. He not only described the sites and their attributes in his travelogue but also mentioned the socio-economic condition of the area at the time which helped a lot in relating the heritage of the area to great kings and their dynasties.
Third pilgrim who visited this region and has left detail description of Nalanda University is It-sing who stayed here for ten years from 675 to 685 AD. Fourth pilgrim to make visit and leave an account was corean monk Hwui Lun whose period of visit is not clear.
An eyewitness account of the decline of Nalanda Sangharama is provided by Dharmasvamin. His description answered some questions about the disappearance of an international university that was in service for more that 700 hundred years and at the same time acted as a fuel to flare up our curiosity. He was in Nalanda for two years from 1235 to 1237 AD and states that it was the period of great turmoil with deteriorating economic situation. He also narrates his narrow escape while crossing Ganges when he refused to give away his belongings to a fellow traveler.
Pali sources from neighboring countries like Srilanka, Burma and others provided valuable information that helped piecing the puzzle together by giving us a detail description about places and there significance. Though they didn’t provide the exact locations as the previously mentioned travelogues did, yet they reinforced the fact that the different streams of religions practiced in the south-east Asian counties actually have a common origin and Magadha was at the land of their Lord.
Translation of sutras from Pali texts helped established the location of places like Nala and Nalanda, the two different places in close vicinity which were believed to be the different names of one a same place. Nalanda they maintain was associated with Pavarika mango grove where Buddha gave important sermons. Nala/ Nalak/ Nalika were associated with Sariputra. Nalanda as per the Pali tradition was also associated with Nirgranthas (The jains).
Other sources that contributed our knowledge bases are the Mahayanist texts, mainly the Tibetan sources. Lama Taranatha in his book “History of Buddhism in India” written in 17th century has given a detail description of origin of Nalanda Mahavihara though his account is based on the biographies and nothing much is known about the primary sources.
Rajgir and Nalanda were also associated with Lord Mahavira and many of his important disciples are from this place. We find mention about many places from this vicinity in the Jaina literatures.
We also find mention about Nalanda and Rajgir in Brhaminical accounts like Kautaliya’s, “Arthasastra”.
Now that we have documented the sources, in our next post we’ll find out how these texts helped orientalists rediscover Rajgir, Nalanda and the vicinity…
NEXT: 'Nalanda and Rajgir' continued....
SPECIAL NOTE: We have received some very interesting queries that we plan to address in the coming posts. So, if you are waiting for an answer, it is to let you know that its coming soon and if you are wondering if you should ask a question/clarification, sure go ahead, add it to the comments and you’ll hear from us soon…
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
'Nalanda and Rajgir' continued....
Rajgir and Nalanda were among few places which received attention from almost all notable orientalists and enthusiasts of 19th and early 20th century. And rightfully so, the enriched past of the area was in rubbles and there was no account of it anywhere. A number of legends and folklores existed in the area but there was no way to decipher between the truth and the myths.
Buchanan was the first to draw attention to the area with the publication of his interesting finds of the valley and places around Rajgir in 1811.
In 1845, East India Company appointed Kittoe to tread in the footsteps of Fahien. It was a good start though all of his identifications were found incorrect by later explorers and he set a big example of ‘how not to do things’. It was mid-summer and he leaned a lot on his assistants for taking legs, without following through and verifying their work. But to his credit, he chose to start his exploration from this part of Magadha.
A major break through came for the area in 1861 when Alexander Cunningham equipped with the copy of travelogues of Fahien, Xuanzang and reports of Buchanan started his tour to Bodh Gaya and Rajgir. He successfully established the Remains of Bargaon as Site of Ancient Nalanda Mahavihara.
The work that started then was carried further by many explorers. With lots of information and all of it being open to interpretations, its difficult to pin down specific sites and establish a well accepted standard. Work done by some was either confirmed or negated by others following their steps.
For example, the likes of James Ferguson, James Burgess and Auriel stein negated the identification of sone bhandar, site identified by Kittoe and Cunningham as Saptaparni. It was a Mauryan cave in their opinion, too later a period to be saptaparni.
A Cave Site on the north side of Vaibhara hill, identified by Beglar in 1872 is generally accepted as the site of Saptaparni. This site is also not out of contention, John Marshall was of opinion that the site as described by Xuanzang is a “Stone house” and not “Stone cave”, he suggested another site further west at the foot of same hill as more appropriate site for such a council.
Burgess and Ferguson were also of same idea and a question mark on Beglar identification still continues.
{The above example might overwhelm you with the amount of information and contradictions at the same time but we plan to revisit this topic with latest tools of the technology and elaborate more on the details}
Many more explorers like George Grierson, Vincent smith, Dr. Austine Waddell, Sylvain Levy and others made their contribution towards the search but nothing conclusive could be achieved.
In the table below, we have summarized some sites as identified by these explorers and mentioned their status. This would give you a glimpse into the difficulty this situation presented despite the hard work put in by these men and with good intentions…
The identification of sites is summarized below, (click on the image to see larger view)
* Significance of places shall be dealt separately in subsequent chapters
No matter what approach you choose to look at this piece of information, you cannot deny the complexity of it.
Whether you are a traveler, an explorer, a mathematician, a scientist, a spiritualist or just a passer by or anything else you may choose to identify yourself with, you would have to acknowledge that despite the knowledge that is already available, it is a tough task to compile and recreate history. And on top of that the information that is yet to be discovered is damaged and tampered with by the ignorance of the masses. So educating the masses about their heritage and involving the community in its preservation is a way of restoring the past that has been explored and all that is yet to come…
Understanding of the history is an ongoing process that must be continually elaborated and revised as our knowledge in the subject expands. We know the glorious days that this place has witnessed and over the course of time we have come to associate our self with the history and take pride in the importance of this area but that’s just the beginning.
We have a long way to go….
The compilation of all the previous findings and analyzing & corroborating them using the existing maps and latest technology like GIS, etc is an effort to further the work done by previous enthusiast and archeologists…
The interest rekindled has to keep going, the discovered needs to be documented using new technology, conserved and most important of it all, is that the community needs to be involved in the conservation of its heritage and benefit from it in the process.
Let’s together usher a new era of community participation in heritage management…
Buchanan was the first to draw attention to the area with the publication of his interesting finds of the valley and places around Rajgir in 1811.
In 1845, East India Company appointed Kittoe to tread in the footsteps of Fahien. It was a good start though all of his identifications were found incorrect by later explorers and he set a big example of ‘how not to do things’. It was mid-summer and he leaned a lot on his assistants for taking legs, without following through and verifying their work. But to his credit, he chose to start his exploration from this part of Magadha.
A major break through came for the area in 1861 when Alexander Cunningham equipped with the copy of travelogues of Fahien, Xuanzang and reports of Buchanan started his tour to Bodh Gaya and Rajgir. He successfully established the Remains of Bargaon as Site of Ancient Nalanda Mahavihara.
The work that started then was carried further by many explorers. With lots of information and all of it being open to interpretations, its difficult to pin down specific sites and establish a well accepted standard. Work done by some was either confirmed or negated by others following their steps.
For example, the likes of James Ferguson, James Burgess and Auriel stein negated the identification of sone bhandar, site identified by Kittoe and Cunningham as Saptaparni. It was a Mauryan cave in their opinion, too later a period to be saptaparni.
A Cave Site on the north side of Vaibhara hill, identified by Beglar in 1872 is generally accepted as the site of Saptaparni. This site is also not out of contention, John Marshall was of opinion that the site as described by Xuanzang is a “Stone house” and not “Stone cave”, he suggested another site further west at the foot of same hill as more appropriate site for such a council.
Burgess and Ferguson were also of same idea and a question mark on Beglar identification still continues.
{The above example might overwhelm you with the amount of information and contradictions at the same time but we plan to revisit this topic with latest tools of the technology and elaborate more on the details}
Many more explorers like George Grierson, Vincent smith, Dr. Austine Waddell, Sylvain Levy and others made their contribution towards the search but nothing conclusive could be achieved.
In the table below, we have summarized some sites as identified by these explorers and mentioned their status. This would give you a glimpse into the difficulty this situation presented despite the hard work put in by these men and with good intentions…
The identification of sites is summarized below, (click on the image to see larger view)
* Significance of places shall be dealt separately in subsequent chaptersNo matter what approach you choose to look at this piece of information, you cannot deny the complexity of it.
Whether you are a traveler, an explorer, a mathematician, a scientist, a spiritualist or just a passer by or anything else you may choose to identify yourself with, you would have to acknowledge that despite the knowledge that is already available, it is a tough task to compile and recreate history. And on top of that the information that is yet to be discovered is damaged and tampered with by the ignorance of the masses. So educating the masses about their heritage and involving the community in its preservation is a way of restoring the past that has been explored and all that is yet to come…
Understanding of the history is an ongoing process that must be continually elaborated and revised as our knowledge in the subject expands. We know the glorious days that this place has witnessed and over the course of time we have come to associate our self with the history and take pride in the importance of this area but that’s just the beginning.
We have a long way to go….
The compilation of all the previous findings and analyzing & corroborating them using the existing maps and latest technology like GIS, etc is an effort to further the work done by previous enthusiast and archeologists…
The interest rekindled has to keep going, the discovered needs to be documented using new technology, conserved and most important of it all, is that the community needs to be involved in the conservation of its heritage and benefit from it in the process.
Let’s together usher a new era of community participation in heritage management…
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