BUDDHISM AND BIHAR

Although Siddharth- who later became the Buddha was born in Nepal, he propagated his faith for the first time at Varanasi and passed away at Kushinagar, all lying beyond the frontiers of Bihar. He had attained the Supreme Enlightenment at Bodh-Gaya and made Anga-Magadha centers of his activities. He went through Anga, accompanied by a large congregation of his disciples and came to Champa, its capital. He stayed on the banks of the Gaggar, a tank dug by queen Gaggar of Champa. Here, while the Buddha was staying with his monks and devotees, Sari putt addressed them on Dharma. The Master himself addressed the monks in the country of the Anga named Assapur. Sari putt spoke on charity in the presence of the Buddha, to which the Master consented. He also dwelt among the Anga in their country called Apana, which was a market town in the kingdom. While staying in Magadh, Buddha delivered the Paravana discourses in the Pasanaka Chaitya. There were adherents in Magadh who had entire faith in the Buddha, the law and the order. They fulfilled the moral precepts. The Exalted Buddha saw the Magadhan adherents whither they were bound and what their destiny was. Bimbisar, the king of Magadh, was till the day of his death given to praise of the Exalted Buddha, who attained supreme insight in Magadh. The Mahaparinibbansutta of the Digghanikaya records the Buddha's happy reminiscences of many sites in Magadh visited by him.

Thus Magadh or, more particularly, the modern districts of Gaya, Nawada, Aurangabad, Nalanda and Patna, may with justice be described as the Holy Land of Buddhism.

These districts contain a fairly large number of places associated with the life and teachings of the great founder of Buddhism. It was at Gaya that Gautam Buddha spent long years of penance and meditation before he finally attained Kaivalya. It was to Bodh Gaya that he turned at an early stage in his search for Truth. The tree under which he attained enlightenment thus became most sacred to Buddhists, and worship has consequently centered round it from the earliest period of Buddhism.

In the third century B.C. Emperor Ashok built a monastery and a temple near it, which is said to have cost him 1,00,000 pieces of gold. Samudragupt allowed a Vihar to be built for Ceylonese pilgrims at Bodh Gaya. It was three stories in height and included six halls and was adorned with three towers and surrounded by a strong high wall. The statue of the Buddha, cast in gold and silver, was studded with gems and the Stupas, enshrining relics of the Master himself, were worthy of the central edifice. About A.D. 600, however, Sashank, the King of Bengal, who was a fanatical worshipper of Shiv and enemy of Buddhism, dug up and burnt the Bodhi Tree. Purnavarman, King of Magadh, replanted the tree and surrounded it with a wall. When Huien Tsiang visited Bodh Gaya in the first half of the seventh century, it was a young, vigorous tree, the temple near it quite intact and its precincts crowded with hundreds of Stupas and Chaityas.

In the ninth century A.D. Buddhism received another great impetus when owing to the patronage of the Pal Kings, Bihar became the last refuge of Buddhism in northern India up to the time of the Mohammedans conquest. Under the rule of these Buddhist kings, the steam of Chinese pilgrims again set in, and the Bodhi Tree at Bodh-Gaya was visited by a number of Chinese pilgrims, the memorials of whose visits are of considerable historical importance. The Buddhist religion then fell on evil days in the twelfth century, by the end of which the whole country was desolated by the Mohammedans invasion. Pilgrims from far and near, however, continued to visit the shrine, and there are records testifying to their presence in the early years of the fourteenth century. Except for their intermittent visits, the temple stood deserted during the six centuries following the Mohammedans conquest.

Today, according to the 1991 Census report, there are 3,518 Buddhists in Bihar- the land where the Buddha preached his gospel of self-reliance, compassion and universal friendship. It has almost entirely disappeared from the land of its birth, but the people of Bihar still revere the Buddha today just as deeply as they honor Krishna, Ram, Shankar, Ramanuja, Kabir and Guru Nanak. They honour him as an incarnation of Vishnu and are glad and grateful that such a great soul should have been born in India and elevated its international status.