The Mahabodhi Temple (महाबोधि मंदिर) (Literally:
"Great Awakening Temple") is a Buddhist temple
in Bodh Gaya, the location where Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, is said to have attained enlightenment. Bodh Gaya
(located in Gaya district) is located about 96 km (60 mi) from Patna, Bihar state, India. Next to the
temple, to its western side, is the holy Bodhi tree. In the Pali Canon,
the site is called Bodhimanda,[1] and the monastery there the Bodhimanda Vihara.
The tallest tower is 55 metres (180 ft) tall. The construction uses the
styles of Dravidian Architecture, as opposed to Nagara Temple styles.
Buddhist legends
concerning the site of the Mahabodhi Temple
The site of the Bodhi tree at Bodhigaya is,
according to the Buddhist commentarial scriptures, the same for all Buddhas. According to the Jatakas, it forms the navel of the earth,[3] and no other place can support
the weight of the Buddha's attainment
According to Buddhist mythology, if no Bodhi
tree grows at the site, the ground around the Bodhi tree is devoid of all
plants for a distance of one royal karīsa and nothing can travel in the air immediately
above it, not even Sakka
Buddhist mythology also states that when the
world is destroyed at the end of a kalpa, the Bodhimanda is the last spot to
disappear and is the first to appear when the world emerges into existence
again. The myth also claims that a lotus will bloom there, and if a Buddha is
born during that the new kalpa, the lotus flowers in accordance with the number
of Buddhas expected to arise. According to legend, in the case of Gautama Buddha, a Bodhi tree sprang up on the
day he was born.
History
Rise of Buddhism
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| Sacred Peepul Tree |
Traditional accounts say that, around 530 BC,
Siddhartha Gautama, a young Indian Prince who saw the suffering of the world
and wanted to end it, reached the sylvan banks of Falgu River, near the city of Gaya, India. There he sat in meditation under
a peepul tree (Ficus religiosa or Sacred Fig), which later became known as the
Bodhi tree. According to Buddhist scriptures, after three days and three
nights, Siddharta attained enlightenment and the
answers that he had sought. Mahabodhi Temple was built to mark that location.
The Buddha then spent the succeeding seven weeks
at seven different spots in the vicinity meditating and considering his
experience. Several specific places at the current Mahabodhi Temple relate to
the traditions surrounding these seven weeks:
§ The first week was spent under the Bodhi tree.
§ During the second week, the Buddha remained
standing and stared, uninterrupted, at the Bodhi tree. This spot is marked by
the Animeshlocha Stupa, that is, the unblinking stupa or
shrine, which is located on the north-east of the Mahabodhi Temple complex.
There stands a statue of Buddha with his eyes fixed towards the Bodhi tree.
§ The Buddha is said to have walked back and forth
between the location of the Animeshlocha Stupa and the Bodhi
tree. According to legend, lotus flowers sprung up along this route, it is now
called Ratnachakarma or
the jewel walk.
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| Maya Sarovar situated inside Mahabodhi Premise |
In approximately 250 BCE, about 200 years after
the Buddha attained Enlightenment, Buddhist Emperor Asoka visited
Bodh Gaya with the intention of establishing a monastery and shrine. As part of
the temple, he built the diamond throne (called the Vajrasana),
attempting to mark the exact spot of the Buddha's enlightenment. Asoka is
considered the founder of the Mahabodhi Temple. The present temple dates from
the 5th–6th century although in the words of one scholar it is
largely a
nineteenth-century British Archaeological Survey of India reconstruction based
on what is generally believed to be an approximately fifth-century structure.
Prior to that, there seems to have been a pyramidal structure perhaps built in
about the second century (Kuṣāṇa period). Knowledge of it comes only from a
small, circa fourth century terracotta plaque found at modern Patna. It is
significant that this version does not have the upper terrace with the small
temples in the four corners. These small temples, although not used as such
today, probably reflected certain esoteric traditions in Buddhism that were
emerging more and more into less esoteric contexts by the late fourth and early
fifth century. The pyramidal temple probably replaced an open pavilion that had
been constructed around the tree and the Asokan platform . Representations of
this early temple arc found at Sanci, on the toraṇas of Stūpa I, dating from
around 25 BC, and on a relief carving from the stupa railing at Bhāhrut from
the early Śuṇga period (c. 185-c. 73 BC).
It is one of the earliest Buddhist temples built
entirely in brick that is still standing in India, from the late Gupta period.
Decline
Buddhism declined when the dynasties patronizing
it declined, following White Hun and the
early Arab Islamic
invasions such as that of Muhammad bin Qasim.
A strong revival occurred under the Pala Empire in the northeast of the
subcontinent (where the temple is situated). Mahayana Buddhism flourished under the
Palas between the 8th and the 12th century. However, after the defeat of the
Palas by the Hindu Sena dynasty,
Buddhism's position again began to erode and became nearly extinct in
India. During the 12th century CE, Bodh Gaya and the nearby regions
were invaded by Muslim Turk armies. During this period, the
Mahabodhi Temple fell into disrepair and was largely abandoned. Over the
following centuries, the monastery's abbot or mahantbecame the area's primary landholder and claimed
ownership of the Mahabodhi Temple grounds.
Restoration
The temple as it
appeared immediately after its restoration
In the 1880s, the then-British government of
India began to restore Mahabodhi Temple under the direction of Sir Alexander Cunningham.
A short time later, in 1891, the Sri Lankan Buddhist leader Anagarika Dharmapala started
a campaign to return control of the temple to Buddhists, over the objections of
the mahant. The campaign was partially successful in 1949, when control passed from
the Hindu mahant to the state government of Bihar, which established a temple
management committee. The committee has nine members, a majority of whom,
including the chairman, must by law be Hindus.[10] Mahabodhi's first head monk
under the management committee was Anagarika Munindra,
a Bengali man who had been an active member
of the Maha Bodhi Society.
]Architectural style
Mahabodhi Temple is constructed of brick and
is one of the oldest brick structures to have survived in eastern India. It is
considered to be a fine example of Indian brickwork, and was highly influential in the
development of later architectural traditions. According UNESCO, "the
present temple is one of the earliest and most imposing structures built
entirely in brick from Gupta period".
Mahabodhi Temple's central tower rises 55 metres
(180 ft), and were heavily renovated in the 19th century. The central
tower is surrounded by four smaller towers, constructed in the same style.
The Mahabodhi Temple is surrounded on all four
sides by stone railings, about two metres high. The railings reveal two
distinct types, both in style as well as the materials used. The older ones,
made of sandstone, date to about 150 BCE, and the others,
constructed from unpolished coarse granite, are believed to be of the Gupta
period (300–600 CE). The older railings have scenes such as Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, being bathed by
elephants; and Surya, the Hindu sun god, riding a chariot
drawn by four horses. The newer railings have figures of stupas (reliquary
shrines) and garudas (eagles). Images of lotus flowers
also appear commonly.
]Current status and management
Mahabodhi Temple is claimed as property of state
government of Bihar, part of India. Under the terms of the Bodh Gaya Temple Act
of 1949, the state government makes itself responsible for the protection,
management, and monitoring of temple and its properties. The Act also has
provisions for a Temple Management Committee, and an advisory board.
The Bodh Gaya Temple Management Committee is the
executive body for management of the Mahabodhi Temple and certain adjoining
areas. The TMC functions under the supervision, direction, and control of the
state government of Bihar. By law, the Committee must consist of four Buddhist
and four Hindu representatives, including the head of Sankaracharya Math
monastery as an ex-officio Hindu member. The Committee is chaired by the
Gaya district magistrate, but if the Gaya district magistrate is not Hindu, the
Act requires the government to appoint a Hindu chairman. The Committee
serves for a term of three years The Advisory Board consists of the governor of
Bihar and twenty to twenty-five other members, half of them from foreign
Buddhist countries.
In June 2002, the Mahabodhi Temple became a UNESCO World Heritage Site,
specifically nominated for the international World heritage program. All finds of
religious artifacts in the area are legally protected under the Treasure Trove
Act of 1878. The temple's head monk, as of September as of 2004, was Bhikkhu
Bodhipala. Bodhipala resigned in 2007 after he was charged with the allegation
of cutting the branches of Holy Bodhi Tree on regular basis and sale them to
foreigners for hefty sum of money. A criminal case is pending in the court of
Law against Bodhi Pala. If charge is proved Bodhi Pala will have to serve
rigorous imprisonment for at least 10 years.Although it was certified by the
scientists appointed by the government that live branches of the Holy Bodhi
Tree were cut without any approval from concerned authorities during the period
when Bodhpala was Monk-in-charge. Kalicharan
Singh Yadav served as secretary until 2007. As of 2008,
district magistrate Jitendra
Srivastava was the Committee's chairman According to the Temple
Management Committee's website, the current chief priest is Bhikkhu
Chalinda. Presently Bandana Preyasi District Magistrate , Gaya is Chairman of
TMC.
Following the expiration of the Committee's term
in September 2007, the government of Bihar delayed the appointment of a new
Committee. The district magistrate has served as administrator for the temple
pending the appointment of a new Committee. Eventually, on May 16, 2008 the
government announced the appointment of a new Temple Management Committee.
Controversies and
disputes
In August 2005, individuals associated with the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) were stopped by police while attempting to enter
the Mahabodhi Temple to make an offering of blessed water to a pedestal or
broken pillar within the temple complex BJP officials claimed that a pedestal
within the temple may be part of a Shivalinga,
and that Hindus should be permitted access to the temple to make offerings to
the pedestal. Buddhist monks associated with the temple claim
that this represents an attempt by Hindu nationalist elements to assert control
over the temple, and to establish the primacy of Hinduism by advancing the
claim that the Buddha was an incarnation of the god Vishnu. They
also claim that the structure which some Hindus have identified as a lingam is
actually the broken base of a statue of the Buddha.
In 2006, it was alleged that a branch of the
bodhi tree had been removed and sold to wealthy buyers in Thailand with the
cooperation of senior members of the temple's management committee Former
temple secretary Kalicharan Yadav has denied this claim, contending that the
branch was removed much earlier as part of a needed pruning effort recommended
by botanists working with the temple Government officials denied the claim that
the tree had been recently cut or harmed, providing pictures of the tree from
previous years and organizing an outing led by the Bihar home secretary to
examine the alleged damage to the tree.
Bhante Pragyadeep, treasurer of the Buddhist
Monks Association of India, has called for investigations into the temple's
finances and the use of money donated to the temple.
VIDEO OF KALCHAKARA FESTIVAL
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