The History of Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya by K. T. S. Sarao

Author:K. T. S. Sarao
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811580673
Publisher: Springer Singapore

Thus, one is not surprised that a large number of the important Buddhist structures in the Mahābodhi Temple Complex are attributed to Sri Lankan patrons (Roerich 1959: xxviii). In fact, there may be some truth in the suggestion that originally the Mahābodhi Temple, in place of the smaller bodhighara, may have been built by the Sri Lankans (see Verardi 2011: 405).

By the time, the Mahābodhi Monastery was built by the Sri Lankans, Buddhism in India had become highly diversified and the Brāhmaṇical-Hindus had embraced the Buddha as the incarnation of Viṣṇu. However, in Sri Lanka the symbiotic union of robe and the throne had produced a fairly monolithic Pāli-based Buddhism that had by now become strongly rooted in Siṃhala nationalism. Establishment of an extraterritorial base right under the shadow of the Mahābodhi Tree by this brand of Sri Lankan Buddhists must be seen as the first attempt to undermine the multivalent character of the Mahābodhi Temple Complex. King Samudragupta must be also be held responsible, at least in part, for unwittingly sowing the seeds of future conflict surrounding the Mahābodhi Temple.

After the establishment of the Nālandā University, the Mahābodhi had begun to draw pilgrims, besides Sri Lanka, from as far away as China, Korea, and Central Asia (see Beal 1881). These pilgrims of Mahāyāna persuasion appear to have faced hurdles from time to time in performing unhindered puja at the premises of the Mahābodhi Temple Complex. At times the control of Sri Lankan monks over the Mahābodhi Temple and its ecclesiastical affairs appears to have been strong enough that none but they could carry out the worship of the Buddha or sleep in the courtyard of the temple. This is further made clear by inscriptions such as the Patna Museum Inscription of Prakhyātakīrti (c. 300 CE), a descendant of the royal family of Laṅkā,6 the Bodha-Gayā Inscription of Mahānāman (c. 588–9 CE),7 and the Udayatrī records from Siṅhala dated circa twelfth century8 (see Altekar 1959: xxiii). Thus, much before the arrival of the Turuṣka (Turkic) invaders in the region, the Mahābodhi Temple Complex became a casualty of the puritanical belligerence of Sri Lankan Theravādin monks who openly opposed practises that did not conform to Singhalese version of Buddhism. For instance, during the reign of the Pāla king Dharmapāla (ca. 770–810 CE),In a temple of Vajrāsana there was then a large silver-image of Heruka and many treatises on Tantra. Some of the Śrāvaka Sendhava-s of Siṅga island (Ceylon) and other places said that Māra composed these. So, they burnt these and smashed the image into pieces and used the pieces as ordinary money…. Later on, the king came to know all these and was about to punish the Siṅgala islanders. But the ācārya saved them at last (Chimpa and Chattopadhyaya 1970: 279).

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