Buddha Connection…

Odisha is a land of architectural splendour with many beautiful temples belonging to various cults and a diverse population. It is said that both Shaiva and Vaishnav cult existed together. The Lingaraja temple of Bhubaneswar is believed to be built with the amalgamation of vaishnav and shaiva cults. Shiva here is worshipped as Harihara. It is estimated that nearly 4000-5000 temples existed alone in the Sisupalagarh region, that is the present day Odisha. Odisha is also land to two major religions that perhaps started and flourished here before spreading into different parts of the world. They are Buddhism and Jainism. Rishab Dev the first tirthankara who started Jainism was believed to be educated in a place near Bhubaneswar. The Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela (Khandagiri, Udayagiri) says that Mahavira visited Kalinga and from the Kumari-Parvata, he preached and promulgated Jainism. The State of Orissa is a sort of piligrimage to a Jain, as it is to a Hindu. Many of the Tirthankaras are associated with this state. Rasabhadeva, the first "Tirthankara, also known as Adinatha appears to have been worshipped in Kalinga. According to the Jain text, the Avasyaka Nirukti, Sreyansanatha etc., the 11th Tirthankara, was born at Simhapura, which was the capital of Kalinga. The translation of the Santi Parva of the Mahabharata by Dr. P.C. Ray - suggests that Aranatha the 8th Tirthankara received aims at Rajapura - a Metropolis of Kalinga. The Khandagiri and Udayagiri sculptures represent the preachings of Parsvanatha. He existed nearly 250 years before Mahavira i.e. around 850 B.C. The Kumbhakara Jataka, the Uttaradhyayan sutta and the Karakandu Charita talk of Karakandu, the king of Kalinga around 7th -6th B.C. who was a great devotee of Parsvanatha. The Avasyaka Nirukti suggests that Vardhamana Mahavira preached at Tosali in the eleventh year of his monkhood.

After the Kalinga war of 261 BC Buddhism took over with the popularity in Odisha. It is here Ashoka accepted Buddhism from a monk called Upagupta. It has long been taken for granted that Kapilavastu, the capital city of the Sakyas, and Lumbini, the actual birth place of Goutam Buddha, were situated in the Nepalese Tarai. The main basis of this belief is the inscribed pillar of Rummindei, recording the visit of the Mayuran emperor Asoka, the great to the place where Buddha was born. It is little known that the same fact in similar words and script existed in Orissa. Buddha was born in India and not in Nepal, needs to be accepted on the basis of a number of proofs, which are discussed in this blog:

• Buddha was never worshipped in Nepal before 6^th century AD where as he was worshipped 800 years ago in the land of Kalinga as per the several rock edicts and the tooth relic of Buddha near Bhubaneswar.
• Dr. Anton Furher had first discovered the Ashokan stone inscription in the Nepal Tarei region in 1896 and conjectured that Buddha was born there. It was found in Rummindei, in Tarei region which states that he was born in Lumbini. Some also say he was born in Kapilavastu near Lumbini as it was not certain from the inscriptions.
• Dr. Cunnigham in his “Ancient Geography of India” points out the place where from the Tarai inscription had been discovered is not at all related to the name Kapilavastu or even the name Kapila. And the noted historian Dr. Smith asserts that the place of the discovery of the Tarai inscription was never called Rummindei; it was a forged name given to it by archaeologist Dr. Fuhrer.
• According to Tripitaka, Lumbini was a small estate with its capital at Kapilvastu. Till recently, as can be seen from maps of 1817 AD there was a Lembai Pragana; and Kapileswara was a part of it. Besides,the inscription of Kapileswara village corroborates the statement of Tripitaka and the Kalinga war of Asoka.
• Out of 14 rock edicts of Ashoka – four major rock edicts are found in Odisha. Ratnagiri-Lalitagiri-Udaygiri monasteries suggest that there was once a great learning complex which existed before Nalanda and Taxila.
• In no Buddhist literature there is any description relating to history or geography of the so-called Kapilavastu or Lumbini of Nepal. Only because the Tarai inscription was discovered there, the place attained celebrity status throughout the world.
• Dr. Fuhrer discovered the Asokan stone inscription in the Nepal Tarai in 1896. The Kapileswara birth-plate, also evidently an Asokan stone inscription, was discovered 32 years later.
• Dr. Chakradhar Mahapatra argues that an Asoka-pillar existed at the then Kapilavastu and the present Kapileswar, which recorded the birth. It was destroyed in religious disturbances in Orissa. The Buddhists erected a second pillar in the then inaccessible Nepal Tarai, and engraved on it a duplicate of the original inscription. This is why, we are told, the date of the epigraph in “the Buddha era” and the name of engraver, Chundray, are not mentioned on Rumindei pillar. The duplicate plate makers were at least honest enough to remain silent on the date of the inscription and did not repeat the name,“Chundray”. It is also a fact that this pillar is devoid of the characteristic Asokan capital. It looks very much different from the standard Ashoka pillars.
• The Kapileswara plate, first brought to public notice by Mr. Harenchandra Chakaldar of the Calcutta University was procured about March 1928 by Mr. Birendranath Roy for his private museum at Puri from a farmer of the village of Kapileswara, situated nearly a mile to the south of the famous Lingaraj temple at Bhubaneswar. The farmer had found the inscribed stone slab set in the mud wall of his hut. This is all the information which Mr. Roy and others could gather from him.
• The lingam (phallus) of the Bhaskareswara temple of Bhubaneswara was proved to be a portion of an Asokan pillar by the eminent historian Mr. Rajendralal Mitra in 1880 and then supported by Dr. N.K.Sahu and Dr. K.C.Panigrahi, two eminent historians. The Linga formed out of a piece of the original Asoka pillar was named Bhaskareswara, another name of Buddha meaning the Sun God certainly it had connection with Buddha, because of the fact that Buddha is frequently designated as ‘Arkabandhu’ and ‘Adityabandhu’ meaning of friend of Sun God..

Other evidences from Buddha’s life:

Niravana Katha Jataka edited by Bhadanta Ananda Kausalyana it is mentioned that it took 60 days for Buddha to travel from Rajagriha to Kapilavastu to cover a distance of 60 yojanas i.e. 675 kms. at the daily average rate of 1 yojana which is 11 kms. Kapileswara (Kapilvastu of Orissa) is at a distance of 650 kms. from Rajagriha straight while the so called Kapilvastu region of Tarai area is only a distance of only 300 kms. from Rajagriha. In ‘Suttanipata’ Buddha himself has said that Toshala was a part of Lumbini region.

The same Hemavantagiri as mentioned by Buddha later on was known as Swarnakuta. Swarna and Hema both stand for gold. This hilly region also included the forest area of Chandaka which was named after Chhandaka, the Charioteer of Buddha. Khandagiri, Dhauligiri and Udyagiri hills belonged to this area. They were all in the Capital of Toshala and Kapilvastu was situated in the foot of the Hamavanta. The Dhauli rock edict of Ashoka was specifically addressed to the people and Administrators of Toshali, and not Kalinga an empire, which contained the state of Toshali and the region of Lumbini.

When Bimbisara, the Emperor of Magadha, saw Buddha, he was astonished looking at the most handsome ascetic and asked his whereabouts.

Buddha Replied,

“Ujum janapado raja hemavantassa passato” “Dhana viriyana sampanno tosalesu niketino”

Translated it reads -“there is O’ king, a country on the slop of the Hemagiri, rich in wealth and heroes, who dwell among the Tosalas i.e. straight from here the rich the prosperous Tosali which lies in the foot of Hemavanta, is my residence”.

In the Pages of History books:

Kapilavastu of Toshala, (later known as Toshali) which is presently Kapileswara of Bhubaneswar is situated to the south of Rajagriha and both of them stand almost on the same meridian. Rajgiri is on 85° 30’E and Bhubaneswara is on 85° 45’E but Kapilavastu of Nepal and Rajagriha, capital of Magadha by no means located in a straight line. If straight location is taken from the stand point of latitude, Rajagriha is situated on latitude 25° North while Kapilavastu of Tarai region is located on the latitude 27°30’N.

In the whole World as has been described earlier, two persons who for first time accepted Buddhism were the two merchants of Kalinga, Tapussa and Vallicka as can be seen from Lalitavistara – 24th canto. The two merchants came traveling from Kalinga referred to in Lalitavistara as Utkal and they had approached Buddha and offered him rice and honey cake. They had offered him “Arisha pitha” described as ‘madhupindakam’ in Rajayatana Katha. This was lump of sweet food made of rice powder, gur, ghee and other ingredients, still a popular delicacy in Orissa today.Buddha had given his teachings in Pali language. It is known that the then language of Kalinga was Pali. The stone inscription of Kharavela as can be seen in Udayagiri hill near Bhubaneswar is written in Pali. Oriya language is a branch of pali and oriya-lipi has similarities with pali script.

The news spread that the Tathagata was going to have His Parinirvana (demise) in the estates of the Mallas on the fullmoon day of month of Vaisakha which also happened to be Mesha Sankranti, the first day of the solar month of Aries. The bereaved Mallas who belonged to the Vasistha clan came to Him with their families and worshipped Him. They cremated Him after his ‘Maha Parinirvana’ (great demise) with the respect of a ‘Rajachakravarti’ as given in Maha Parinirvana Sutam . Mallas denied to give his ashes and bones to any body and they came to His birth place, Kapilvastu. The Mallas had entered Kalinga with Buddha’s ashes and bone. Emperor Brahmadutta had received them and worshipped the tooth of Buddha keeping it inside a golden casket and renamed his capital as “Dantapuri”. He also built a stupa with the statue of Buddha, also known as “Konakamana” in that city of Charitra port, then in the middle of Kalinga as that was the route by which Buddha had travelled with his wife and children. A stupa was built in His birthplace by Brahmadutta, Emperor of Kalinga and the ashes and bones were kept there.Besides, it is doubtless that the present Konarka area as the Konakamana region. The remnants of the temple of Mayadevi in the premises of the present ruins of the Konark temple clearly establish that Konark was a Buddhist shrine. The image of Buddha recovered from this area is worshipped as Dharmaraja at Puri Jagannath temple. Mayadevi is not the name of any Hindu Goddess. The Mayadevi temple bears ample evidence of the fact that the site of Konark temple was a Buddhist shrine.

This worship at the birthplace of Buddha was taken up by Asoka after twelve years of Kalinga war. After two years of his conversion to Buddhism, he had been to Uruvela, the place of enlightenment of Buddha. Then again he came back to Pataliputra and got himself busy in preparing the installing the rock edicts in different parts of India. Nearly five years passed like that. When Ashoka was doing all the work for the propagation of Buddhism, is it not something unusual for him not to visit Buddha’s birth place for paying his homage, when the so called birth place Kapilavastu of Nepal was so near to his capital, Pataliputra?

Why was there delay on the part of Asoka to go to the birthplace of Buddha? This doubt can be removed only by the assumption that Asoka very much hesitated to enter the war ravaged Kalinga immediately after accepting Buddhism. He had to wait for along period of 12 years to come to the birth place of Buddha, because by that time, the situation in war ravaged Kalinga had changed for the better because of his love for peace, efficient and gist administration, and his affectionate messages to the people. Asoka never had a battle with Nepal. If Buddha was born in Nepal, after embracing Buddhism, Ashok would have visited Nepal more than once in 12 years.

Lord Buddha is also depicted as ninth incarnation of Jagannatha cult. Undoubtedly the existence and extinct of Buddhism is intimately associated with Odisha. The famous Chinese traveller Hieun-Tsang also stated that in order to commemorate the day of enlightenment of Gautam Buddha, the Buddhists take his remains in chariot to celebrate the Car Festival. This view is also accepted by great historian R.L.Mitra. According to him the Car Festival of Lord Jagannatha and other ceremonies have been derived from the Buddhist cult after the Nirvana of Lord Buddha at Kusinagara. A person named Therakhema brought his tooth-relic to Kalinga, which is evident from the Buddhist literature.

It was worshipped by the then emperor of Kalinga at Dantapuri i.e. present Puri. Installing the relic in the chariot the annual Car Festival was being organised. It is believed by many scholars that the Navakalevara or the new embodiment of Lord Jagannatha is also connected with Buddhism. At this time the Danta or Brahma Dhatu i.e the original Buddhist relic were shifted into the new wooden deity. In the past Puri was known as Dantapuri as Therakshema brought the tooth relic of Lord Buddha. It was a big port and the traders from South-East Asia brought large amount of wealth through commercial transaction. From 6th century A.D. to 8th century A.D. there was a great revolution of Tantric Buddhism in Orissa. Part of the Vajrayanic Buddhism is linked with the Jagannatha cult. It is seen that most of the Vajrayanic Tantra of Buddhism like Rudra Yamala Tantra, Brahma Yamala mantra and Kalika Purana were prevalent from 10th century A.D. in the worship of Lord Jagannath. During the time of Navakalevara ceremony of Lord Jagannatha, the soul i.e. the tooth relic is transferred to new wooden image amidst esoteric practices. At last Lord Buddha was assimilated in the form of ninth incarnation of Lord Jagannatha and lost his separate existence.

To me it seems there have been more evidences of the Kalinga Buddha than Furher claim of Nepal. A lot needs to be researched and discovered and may be Buddha’s Kalinga connection is just a conjecture. But someday I feel Kapileswara will find it’s lost glory and be known as the Real Birth Place of Buddha. Till then we bow down to Arkabandhu Mahabahu Sri Jagannatha.

Sources:
http://orissa.gov.in/e-magazine/orissareview/2013
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gautama_Buddha
http://www.kalingabuddha.com/