Restoration and Development of Griddhakūṭa Vihāra (Vulture's Peak), Rajgir

During his stay at Rājagriha, Buddha frequented Griddhakūṭa and in due course a vihāra was erected there for Buddha and the Saṅgha.  As mentioned in Buddhist texts, king Bimbisāra constructed a road to the Griddhakūṭa hill for Buddha’s counsel. Chinese monk-scholar Faxian wrote that he saw the ‘hall’, where Buddha used to preach law, in a pitiful shape with only its foundations left (Beal 2005: 115). Writing two centuries later, Xuanzang described a ‘magnificent brick hall’ on the Griddhakūṭa peak (Beal 1969). In the 13^th century, Tibetan monk-scholar Dharmaswāmin saw ‘in ruins’ (Reorich 1959: 87-88) the temple where the Buddha preached. In spite of good or bad situations of the physical structure of the temple, the pilgrimage to Griddhakūṭa continued from the time of Buddha to when the pilgrimage ‘in the footsteps of the Buddha’ came to its ebb around the 13^th -14^th centuries. 
The religious value of the stūpas and chatiya-s are sustained only by their physical renewal from time to time. In the 3^rd millennium, the link between the sacred places and the community of followers of Buddhist teachings and traditions is getting stronger once again. Each year millions of devotees from all over the world come for a pilgrimage to the Griddhakūṭa. Seeing this development, it may be considered that now is the right time to undertake the restoration of the Griddhakūṭa vihāra.

Griddhakūṭa vihāra is ‘museumized’ and is treated as archaeological monument.

An aerial view of the remains of the sacred Griddhakūṭa vihāra (Vulture's peak).

Jeṭhian-Rājgir Dhamma Walk along the Buddha trail

We are glad that Nava Nalanda Mahavihara, Nalanda in collaboration with Light of Buddha Dhamma Foundation International (LBDFI), International Buddhist Confederation (IBC), Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee (BTMC), Mahabodhi Society of India and Sarvodaya Group has successfully completed the Jeṭhian-Rājgir Dhamma Walk along the Buddha trail. More than 1500 venerable monks, nuns and lay people walked the 13 km Buddha trail from Jeṭhian to Veḷuvana, Rājgir.  The Walk was led by the more than 600 venerable monks and nuns from 15 countries under the banner of International Tipitaka Chanting Council (ITCC).

The venue at the village Jeṭhian

Jeṭhian–Rājgir Heritage Walk, 13th December, 2014

Date: 13^th December, 2014

Time: 12.30 pm

Starting point: Supatiṭṭha Cetiya, Jeṭhian 

Ending point: Veḷuvana (Bamboo groove), Rājgir

  

•  The Walk will be lead by 700 venerable monks and nuns from different countries and traditions under the banner of INTERNATIONAL TIPITAKA CHANTING COUNCIL (ITCC)

•  An important highlight of the Event is plantation of 700 Bamboo saplings of different varieties by Mahāsaṇgha of ITCC at Veḷuvana (Bamboo groove), Rājgir, the ending point of the Walk.

Restoration of religious sanctity of Griddhakūṭa Vihāra (Vulture's Peak, Rājgir)

Sculpture of the Buddha recovered from Griddhakūṭa (Vulture's Peak) and currently kept at Nalanda Museum

In the year 1871 Broadley on the basis of the description of Chinese monk-scholar Venrerable Xuanzang (7^th CE) identified the Deoghāṭ hill (The Buddhistic Remains of Bihar, A. M. Broadley, p.38) south of Vipulā hill (Rājgir) as Griddhakūṭa (Vulture’s Peak).. Very few antiquities were discovered at the Griddhakūṭa and most prominent among those few was the 91cm, red sandstone image of the Buddha in preaching mudrā (posture)from Gupta period (5-6^th CE). This was the only large stone sculpture (See Fig-1) found at the site and most probably the same image that was mentioned by Venerable Xuanzang.

Considering the situation at that time the rich antiquities recovered from Griddhakūṭa were removed to Nalanda Museum (See Fig-2) for safety and display reasons. Griddhakūṭa and many such sacred sites became meaningless archaeological sites sans the images of the Buddha and Buddhist deities that originally belonged to these places. Griddhakūṭa is now a very popular pilgrimage destination for the followers of the teachings of the Buddha all over the world. Griddhakūṭa now receives more than 5 lacs pilgrims each year. It will be in interest of all the stakeholders to restore this ancient image with necessary security precautions and without compromising the archaeological significance of the Griddhakūṭa in order to revive the religious sanctity of the Place. This will facilitate restoration of the religious sanctity of Griddhakūṭa to next level and will send a very positive message all over the world and will facilitate the growth of the pilgrimage.

Fig:1- The antiquities from Griddhakūṭa (RAJGIR by M H Kuraishi, Revised by A. Ghosh, Published by The DG, ASI, New Delhi, PP- 33)

RĀJAGAHA (Rajgir)

Rajgir was a cradle for modern civilization. People migrated to this part of the world and fell in love with its calm serenity; it was the age of fermentation. Groups of travelers became settlers and those small settlements turned into larger communities and slowly graduated into kingdoms. The haphazard life of a nomad turned so much more predictable, a sense of community built up and so did the need for rules of conduct.
The stability of a day to day life brought the need to break free from the mundane and thrill seekers challenged the rules and in turn led to the conversion of rules into laws.
Among the many laws that kept the society together and productive, one was to support the art and culture and the spiritual practices.


The law to patronize the spiritual practices wasn’t a new concept in the area but its diligent execution by the kings gave it a new dimension. By taking care of the basic necessities of survival of the devout, they were given ample opportunities to meditate and develop new thinking; culture and religion flourished and gave birth to new schools of thoughts.
Rajgir was the capital of most powerful kingdom, the Magadha and the political might gave enough encouragement and protection to the people to follow their own practices, and the opportunity for growth attracted more teachers and preachers and religious leaders to the area. At one time there existed 60 different schools of thoughts. It was remarkable even to this day the various thinking patterns coexisted; there were differences in their opinion but no apparent dispute. These schools are generally designated as Ditthi. The sixty-two wrong views (Micchaditthi) referred to by the Buddha in the Brahmajala sutta represent the teachings of such schools.

It is to the credit of the prosperity and sovereignty of the empire that 6 prominent teachers of the time lived and had disciples in and around Rajgir. The multiple streams of followers that existed here facilitated the start of new tradition and that is, when two strangers met on streets, besides the usual exchange of greetings they would also enquire about the school of thought that they follow. Halls were erected for the discussion among different school of thoughts so that logical debates may bring out clearer thoughts and encourage people to think various perspectives.

Besides all the other religious leaders who called Rajgir home, Buddha has a very prominent place in its history. There were many structures built to honor his presence in this area and some of them still live on. In this chapter we’ll explore life of Buddha and his Sangha and Sutras that he delivered while staying in this region; will try to follow his footsteps at Rajgir, try to relate the major events and the discourse he delivered and how he connected important lessons of life to moral stories.

Rajgir was a very prominent place since the beginning of times and its popularity saw some major rise and crests but the Buddha and Rajgir have a link that time cannot defy. The importance of the Buddha’s story at Rajagriha is revealed by the fact that when Xuanzang was on his way to India in the 7th century from China via the silk route, he found a reference of a place named ‘Baktra’ which was nicknamed as ‘mini Rajgir’ because of the presence of umpteen number of relics at the place. This place is now part of the present day Afghanistan.
Let’s try to put together yet another set of puzzle pieces and explore the possibilities and find out the roots to Rajgir’s importance to the Buddhist world. We will try to build a chronology of events of the Buddha at Rajgir besides discussing the sutras that he delivered and also discover three jewels of Magadha, Buddha’s three disciples Sariputra, Moggallana and Mahakashyapa.

Next Post: The Early Beginnings

Rajgir and around…

We find mention of Mountain city, Palace city and new city of Rajgir in Xuanzang travelogues. Cunningham has identified the tentative area for the three.



In the coming few posts we'll visit some of the sites individually....

Venuwan

Venuwan at the time of Lord Buddha was a large bamboo grove where Sangha of 1000+ Bhikkhus spent rainy season. Xuanzang and Fahien have given a detail description of monuments in and around Venuwan and a few of them as mentioned by Fahien and Xuanzang are yet to be identified. Ascertaining the area of old Venuwan is a must for identification of the monuments. Most of these monuments are in range of 4 to 5 Li from Venuwan as they existed during Xuanzang and Fahien days. The present campus of Venuwan is very small compared to the entire area of the old Venuwan (upto 2 to 3 Li) as was seen by these visitors.
In the travelogues we find mention about a Karanda Venuwan, Venuwan Vihara & the Karanda Lake. Trying to explore the possibilities of locations of some of these sites,

1. Southern boundary of Karanda Venuwan is 1 Li from the north gate- the southern end of present venuwan has not changed much and probably we can assume it to be same as it was during the Buddha and Xuanzang time.

2. Kalanda Lake is 200 paces from Venuwan Vihara, remains of a monastic unit are around 200paces from the existing lake. But it is not clear if lake is a part of Venuwan and if it is then how far north the Venuwan extended. Because as per the Fahien the Ajaatsatru relic stupa was 300 paces west of west gate of new fort and 13th century Tibetan pilgrim Dharmasvamin has mentioned that Ajaatsatru relic stupa was in the campus of Venuwan. This means that the Venuwan extended far north upto the western side of the Ajaatsatru new fort.

3. The eastern extent are not of much concern, but as Xuanzang had mentioned the Ajaatsatru relic stupa is east of Venuwan and if it is true then as per the Dharmasvamin 13th century Tibetan pilgrim, he mentioned that the stupa was part of Venuwan and in that case the eastern end of Venuwan was probably extended up to the foot of Vipula Hill, which suggests that the present eastern boundary is 100mts short of the edge that must be present during the Buddha and Xuanzang era.

4. Western end of the Venuwan is most important because it is in this direction that Saptanni house cave is mentioned by Xuanzang. There is a vast expanse of land towards the western side and besides that Xuanzang says that the Saptanni stone house was amidst a dense bamboo grove. With that information we can assume that the entire area was a bamboo forest and a clear cut demarcation of boundaries cannot be ascertained.

Xuanzang and Venuwan


Fahien and Venuwan




The coordinates for Venuwan- 25º00' 60"(Lat) 85º 25' 08"(Long)