Published in The Indo Asian Culture, vol. 1 no. 3, January 1953, pp. 294-300
Bodhgaya and Sarnath, the former situated about 6 miles to the south of the city of Gaya in central Bihar and the latter about 6 miles to the north of Banaras in east Uttar Pradesh, witnessed two of the most outstanding events in the life of Buddha, viz. the enlightenment and the first Sermon. For centuries the faithful embellished these two places with temples, monasteries and sculptures, the remains of which enable us to visualize their ancient glory.
Bodhgaya
After six years of intense austerities which had emaciated his body but not led to the achievement of his spiritual quest, Buddha (or Gautama Siddhartha as he was then called) arrived at a village called Uruvela, on the bank of the river Nairanjana, which must have been situated near Bodhgaya, took the food offered to him by a milkmaid named Sujata and sat down under a large banyan tree to meditate. It is said that at this time Mara, the Evil, came to tempt him away from the right path but, unable to seduce him, went away defeated. While admonishing Mara, Siddhartha touched the earth with his right hand in order to call her to bear witness to the penances he had performed to earn Enlightenment. In later Buddhist symbolism this earth touching attitude came to be associated with Bodhgaya and the event of Enlightenment. Ultimately the supreme truth came to Siddhartha in course of meditations here and he became Buddha or the Enlightened One.
The chief objects of the story, viz., the Bodhi tree and the seat under it on which Buddha had sat in meditation, formed the nucleus round which the sanctity of Bodhgaya grew. A vajrasana or 'diamond seat', of polished sandstone of Mauryan workmanship, resting on the pillars, seems to be the earliest relic extant at Bodhgaya, and it is not unlikely that the great Buddhist emperor Asoka, who came for pilgrimage to Bodhgaya in the tenth year of his reign, erected this under the Bodhi tree to commemorate the Master's Enlightenment. Asoka might have, after his usual practice, also erected at the spot a pillar surmounted by an animal, for in a representation of the Bodhi shrine, dated the second century B.C., from Bharhut (Madhya Pradesh), a pillar with an elephant-capital is depicted close to the representation of the diamond-throne under the Bodhi tree. Asoka had also a graft from the tree sent to Ceylon, where it was planted with great ceremony at Anuradhapura. The present tree at Bodhgaya is no doubt a remote successor of the original tree that existed in Buddha's days.
One or two centuries after Asoka a sandstone railing was erected round the Bodhi tree and the structures that had sprung up nearby. The design of the railing follows the usual pattern; it consists of square or octagonal uprights, their front and back faces carved with figures, representations of stories, or lotus-medallions, and three lenticular mortises pierced at their sides to receive the cross-bars, joining the uprights and themselves containing medallions with lotuses or other objects at the centre. The uprights are surmounted by coping stones carved with continuous bands of lotuses on the outer faces and animal-figures on the inner.
The low relief carvings on the uprights show a variety of subjects, ranging from the usual lotuses to animals, life-stories of Buddha (Buddha himself, in conformity with the contemporary practice, being never represented in person), scenes from the Jatakas and the representation of the zodiac. The last group includes a remarkable figure of the sun-god on a chariot drawn by four horses, which may be regarded as the earliest representation of the God.
Of the short inscriptions on the railing, one speaks of a donation in the reign of King Indragnimitra of the first century B.C.
The surrounding railing required renovation after a few centuries, either because some of its members had disappeared in course of time or because of an enlargement of the enclosed shrine necessitated an addition. The renovation was done in the late Gupta period (about sixth century), the stone used this time being granite but the features remaining practically the same.
The granite enlargement of the railing probably synchronized with the construction of the noble temple at Bodhgaya, which, in its present form, is "a restoration (1880-81 A.D.) of the Burmese renovations and restorations." The temple consists of a square cella, standing on a high platform, over which rises a tapering straight-edged spire (sikhara), abruptly ending in a truncated fashion, but surmounted by a pointed final (kalasha). The surface of the spire contains rows of blind niches, to contain images of the Buddhist pantheon.
Fa Hien, the Chinese pilgrim who visited India in the first half of the fifth century, does not, in his description of Bodhgaya, mention any lofty temple which can correspond to the present temple. But Hiuen Tsang, who followed him two centuries later, gives an elaborate description of the temple, "160 or 170 feet high". Its foundation wall is 20 or more paces in its face. The building is of blue tiles (bricks) covered with chunam; all the niches in the different storeys hold gold figures. This, and the subsequent description not quoted here, can as well apply to the present temple, so that it is likely that the temple assumed its existing shape between the times of Fa Hien and Hiuen Tsang.
In subsequent centuries the temple must have fallen into disrepair, necessitating extensive restoration by the Burmese as attested to by inscriptions, during early medieval days. Finally a thorough overhauling of the monument was carried out in 1880-81 A.D. by Sir Alexander Cunningham as a result of which the temple was given a fresh lease of life.
The courtyard round the temple contains a large number of votive stupas, erected by pious devotees to enshrine relics or sacred texts or to commemorate particular events.
To the north of the temple is a large monastery with a number of small rooms round a square courtyard. It appears to have been built by a Ceylonese king to accommodate pilgrims from his kingdom visiting Bodhgaya. A few Chinese inscriptions were also found here.
Sarnath
To take up the thread of Buddha's life after his enlightenment at Bodhgaya. From that place he travelled westward till he reached the deer park at Rishipatana, the ancient name of Sarnath. Here he met his five old monk comrades and preached to them his first sermon and thus set in motion the wheel of law (dharma-chakra-pravartana). As the earth-touching attitude is enlightenment, a wheel flanked by two deer (to represent the deer park) became in due course symbolic of the first sermon and was adopted as the badge of all medieval teaching establishments like Nalanda and Somapura.
At Sarnath too, the earliest monument belongs to the reign of Ashoka, whosetuponeof is pillars here and inscribed on it an edict warning Buddhist monks and nuns of dire consequences if they attempted to create a schism in the Buddhist church. This pillar, now broken into several pieces was surmounted by the lion capital, now adopted as the crest of the Indian republic. The capital consists of four exquisitely carved lions, set back to back, and standing on a square abacus containing reliefs of an elephant, a bull, a horse and a lion, separated from each other by a wheel. The abacus rests on a high base with the shape of an inverted lotus. The magnificent sculpture is a unique specimen of plastic art, both in conception and in execution.
Ashoka also built at Sarnath a large circular stupa, known as the Dharamarajika stupa, which was largely destroyed by brick-hunters in the eighteenth century. Modern clearance in the stupa showed that, while built by Ashoka, it continued to be used repaired and enlarged till the twelfth century.
Slightly to the north of the Dharamarajika stupa is the Main Shrine which has a square cella at the centre, with its superstructure entirely missing. Like the Dharamarajika stupa, it had an early nucleus but was subsequently altered and enlarged.
With the pillar of Ashoka and the Dharamarajika stupa and the Main Shrine as the focus, a large number of shrines, small stupas and monasteries sprang up at Sarnath. These buildings, now exposed after excavation in a ruined state, continued to grow and flourish till 1193 A.D. when Qutbu'd Din Aibak sacked Banaras, including probably Sarnath. After this event, Sarnath turned into a desolate wilderness.
Of the extant buildings, an outstanding specimen is a cylindrical tower called Dhamek stupa, situated at the south-eastern corner of the excavated area. It is 143 feet in height (including the foundation) and has a base 93 feet in diameter. The lower part has a thick stone veneer over a brick core and bears delicately carved floral and geometrical designs.
Of the monasteries, mention may be made of one lying at the northern extremity of the excavated area, which is clearly the largest of its type at Sarnath. Its compound wall, as excavated, is upwards of 160 feet in length from east to west and it was entered into from the east through successive gateways. A long subterranean passage connected it with a small shrine in the extreme west. According to an inscription found here in the course of excavation, the monastery was an endowment of Kumaradevi, the Buddhist queen of Govindachandra, the king of Kanauj (1114-1154 A.D.)
About half a mile to the south of the ruins of Sarnath is a lofty brick structure locally known as the Chaukhandi stupa. The upper part of the stupa has disappeared, but it seems to have rested on a basement consisting of three square terrace, each about twelve feet in height. The core of the stupa consisted of hollow-cells or box chambers, filled with debris, a common device of attaining height. The stupa is supposed to commemorate the spot where Buddha met the five monks to whom he preached the first sermon.
Right from the days of Ashoka down to the date of its desertion, Sarnath was an important centre of plastic art. The local Museum, built in 1910, houses a wealth of stone sculpture which illustrates the development of north Indian art through centuries. The proudest possession of the museum is no doubt the lion-capital of Ashoka, mentioned above, but there are precious specimens of the subsequent periods as well. Mark, for example, the colossal Bodhisattva statue, bearing an inscription of the third year of the Kushana king Kanishka (second century A.D.) and carved in a style which then flourished at Mathura.
It was during the rule of the Guptas (fourth to six centuries) that art rose to a height in north India that it had never attained before. The Buddha and Bodhisattva images recovered from this period at Sarnath are characterized by spiritual inspiration combined with a rare aesthetic feeling. The calm and contemplative facial expression of the statues reflects the inner tranquility of the subject, while an idealized conception of beauty is noticed in their physical features. The Gupta sculptures from Sarnath, of which a large number have been recovered by excavation, rank amongst the noblest products of Indian art.
In the post-Gupta period (seventh and the following centuries) it was left to a few other centres of Buddhism, which, compared with Sarnath, were of recent origin but took the leading part in the propagation of Buddhism abroad and in the development of Buddhist doctrines and the pantheon. But Sarnath continued to be a chief centre, as is evidenced not only by the shrines and monasteries that sprang up during this period, but by the sculptures (now preserved in the museum) which fully followed the artistic conventions and iconographic particulars that were evolved at other North Indian centres, the chief of which was Nalanda, from which the message of Buddhism was carried far and wide beyond the limits of India.
Published in The Indo Asian Culture, vol. 1 no. 3, January 1953, pp. 294-300