PILGRIM NATION: THE STORY OF
ENLIGHTENMENT
Devdutt Pattanaik, Mumbai
Mirror | Jul 24, 2016
Siddhartha, a Nepalese prince of the Sakya clan, was determined
to discover the cause of suffering. He fasted as a way of gaining
wisdom under the peepal tree at the site. When awareness dawned, he
became the Buddha.
Have you heard of Bodhiraksita? He is the first
'documented' pilgrim in Indian history. According to local
inscriptions, he travelled from Sri Lanka in the 1st century BCE,
to Bodhgaya, in Bihar, located a 100 kilometres from modern Patna,
to see the famous bodhi or pipal tree under which Buddha got his
enlightenment. Of course, during his visit, he would not have seen
the 180 feet tall pyramidal Mahabodhi temple, full of images of
Buddha, Bodhisattvas, fierce gods and goddesses such as Yamantaka
and Vajravarahi who are part of later Mahayana and Tantrik
Buddhism. This brick structure was built only five hundred years
after his visit, in Gupta times.
Today when we visit Bodhgaya as part of the Buddhist tourist trail
and encounter people from China and Japan and Korea and Thailand,
and Europe, and America, we assume this pilgrim spot was always
there, since 2,500 years ago, when Siddhartha Gautama of the Sakya
clan attained enlightenment here. But that is not so. In fact in
the early 19th century, no one in India had any idea about
Buddhism. Buddha, at best, was an avatar of Vishnu mentioned in
some Puranas. The Mahabodhi temple and the lands around had been
since 16th century under the control of a Hindu
mahant.
It was British historians and archaeologists who played a key role
in the re-discovery of Buddhism. Sir Edwin Arnold wrote the Light
of Asia that told the story of Buddha's enlightenment. Sir
Alexander Cunningham played a key role in identifying the Buddhist
nature of the dilapidated structures in Bodhgaya. And Anagarika
Dharmapala of Sri Lanka played a key role in restoring the site to
his glory. He initiated a legal process to enable Buddhists to
reclaim the site in the late 19th century. He died in 1933 and it
is only in 1949 that the Government of India, acknowledged it as a
Buddhist shrine. Over the years, there are claims and counter
claims in matters of its administration, with some Hindus claiming
it is also a Hindu shrine, though increasingly the management is
being given to Buddhists, not just those from India, but from all
over the world. Now Bodhgaya is a UNESCO World heritage
site.
Two thousand five hundred years ago, when Siddhartha, a Nepalese
prince of the Sakya clan, from Kapilavastu, came to this region he
described it thus, "There I saw a beautiful stretch of countryside,
a beautiful grove, a clear flowing river, a lovely ford and a
village nearby for support. And I thought to myself, 'Indeed, this
is a good place for a young man set on striving.'" Nearby was the
village of Uruvela on the banks of the Neranjara (Phalgu) river.
Later this village was reamed as Sambodhi, Mahabodhi, and finally,
by the 18th century, as Bodhgaya.
The prince was determined to discover the cause of suffering. He
had lived a sheltered life, and only after marriage had he
encountered death, disease and old age. Traumatised, he had left
his wife and newborn son, and spent years wandering in the forests,
meeting sages and hermits, as a seeker. He came to be known as the
ascetic Gotama. They told him that fasting was a way of gaining
wisdom. So the prince stopped eating and drinking until he was too
weak to even walk. That is when a lady called Sujata gave him some
milk and honey, revived his health. A few days later, after deep
meditation under the peepal tree, awareness dawned. He suddenly
'woke up' in realisation. He had become the
Buddha.
Based on local legend, and the architecture of the Mahabodhi
temple, we are told that after enlightenment, Buddha sat under the
tree for a week. Then stood before the tree staring unblinkingly at
it for a week. Then he paced up and down, eighteen times, along a
path where lotus flowers bloomed. Then sat under nearby trees,
meeting local sages, priests and merchants, who fed him, and heard
what he had to say. In the seventh week he sat near a pond and was
protected by the hood of Vasuki, king of serpents, during a
thunderstorm. Today there are shrines to mark all these
places.
Ashoka visited this site in the 3rd century BCE and established the
Vajrasana, or the diamond seat. One of Ashoka's wives became so
jealous of the king's fondness for the Buddhist religion that she
had the holy tree poisoned or cut. Luckily, Ashoka's daughter,
Sanghamitra, had taken a sapling of this tree to Sri Lanka and so
sent a sapling back to be replanted here. Today, there are
sandstone railings around this tree dated to 100 BCE with images of
the sun-god Surya, and wealth-goddess Lakshmi, even images of
centaurs and flying horses, suggesting Greek influence, and granite
railings dated to 300 CE with images of eagles and lotus flowers.
The temple was built around 1500 years ago, periodically restored
by local kings, including the Burmese king in the 19th century and
finally the British archeological society. Today the upper portion
of the temple is gold plated thanks to generous donation by the
king of Thailand. For centuries Bodhgaya was visited by monks and
royalty from Sri Lanka, Tibet, Kazhakistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, and
China, where Buddhism spread, and their records speak of how the
temple housed an image of Buddha that was carved in the very
likeness of Buddha. (The image currently enshrined is dated to 10th
century and was placed at this site by Alexander Cunningham, the
British archeologist who played a key role restoring the site; he
found the image in the ruins). Sri Lankan kings build a monastery
here to house pilgrims in the 4th century. But in the 13th century,
the shrine was desecrated by Muslim marauders, and despite attempts
of Pala kings of Bengal to revive it, it eventually was forgotten.
But as the Buddha said, not everything lasts forever. And now the
memory of this ancient way of life has been given a new life,
restored to much of its former glory.