Nirvana in Buddha's land

Bihar is a land of contrasts with a great deal to attract the intrepid and dauntless traveller with a passion for history and archaeology. SRIMATI KRISHNAKUMAR uncovers the State's past to find that it was once the centre of politically active and powerful kingdoms.

VISITORS to Bihar are always warned of the many unknown and unseen horrors that supposedly lurk in this back of the woods. Conversations about unsafe night travel, rifle-toting hirelings, expertly expectorated streams of paan juice and knife-wielding ruffians who waylay one in dark, deserted corners are de rigueur in drawing rooms in more salubrious environs. However, this land of maddening contrasts has a great deal to attract the intrepid and dauntless traveller with a passion for history and archaeology who is willing to bury clichid prejudices about poverty and backwardness.

The region now known as the State of Bihar was a major centre of political activity in the ancient times. It was the seat of an early and powerful kingdom Magadha, which was one of the 16 Mahajanapadas, in the Sixth Century B.C. The Mauryas at Magadha established the first historically recorded all-India empire in 321 B.C. with the capital at Pataliputra (modern Patna). This was the seat, successively, of powerful dynasties like the Nandas, Mauryas, Sungas and Guptas. Few Indian cities can boast of a continuous history of 2,500 years like Patna.

The wily Chanakya, who helped Chandragupta found the Mauryan dynasty, composed the earliest Indian treatise on government and administration in 321 B.C.. Bihar was home to the earliest republics in India, the Vajji and Lichchavi clans. It was where Buddhism and Jainism, the most peaceful and non-violent of religions originated and also among the early centres of education where the universities of Nalanda and Vikramashila attracted scholars and intellectuals from all over the world. And this was hundreds of years before Oxford and Cambridge.

A number of tourist sites can be covered in short, one or two day excursions from Patna. Vaishali is 60 km from Patna. It has one of the Vishwa Shanti Stupas for world peace built by Buddhists from Japan in different cities of the world in memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Vaishali also has a small museum with mainly Buddhist exhibits found in excavations nearby. There is also an Asokan Pillar with a lion capital made of polished sandstone. It stands amidst the ruins of a small brick stupa and a vihara (monastery). The lion capital is remarkably well preserved, the upper half of the stupa is covered with graffiti that belongs to the early 1800s and is the handiwork of itinerant petty officers of British regiments.

A round trip to Rajgir, Rajagriha or Girivraja about 100 km from Patna would take about 10 hours. Rajgir was the capital of Magadha and has been associated, from the earliest times, with mighty empires. Rajagriha is mentioned in the Mahabhrata as the capital city of King Jarasandha then the most powerful ruler. His repeated attacks on Mathura to decimate the Yadavas resulted in their departure to distant Dwaraka. The Mahabharata and the Bhagavata Purana say that since Yudhishthira could not perform the Rajasuya sacrifice and proclaim himself the king of kings without defeating the mighty Jarasandha, Krishna and Bhima went to Rajagriha where, acting on Krishna's advice, Bhima killed Jarasandha in a duel that would not stand scrutiny.

The verifiable history of Rajgir however begins with Bimbisara in the Sixth Century B.C. He was not only a powerful ruler, but also a contemporary and ardent follower of the Buddha. Buddhist and Jain accounts mention that Buddha and Mahavira visited Rajgir and Nalanda many times. Rajgir is dotted with several archaeologically and historically significant sites that one can easily miss if not on the lookout for signboards of the Archaeological Society of India. Just off the main road is Bimbisara's jail (Fifth Century B.C), a 220-ft. square enclosed by a stone wall several feet thick. This has been identified as the prison where Bimbisara's son, Ajatashatru, imprisoned his father and starved him to death. Apparently, Ajashatru was remorseful afterwards and Buddhist sources say that he begged for forgiveness for his greed-induced patricide.

The citadel wall built around the ancient city by Ajatashatru with large, rough-hewn boulders is quite well preserved. It is over 10-15 feet thick and rises higher than 10 feet at vulnerable places where better fortification was needed. Ajatashatru's subjects must have felt secure. Chinese pilgrims Fa-Hien and Hiuen Tsang who visited India in the Fifth and Seventh Century A.D. speak of the glories of this city built by Bimbisara and Ajatashatru. However, soon after, Ajatashatru founded the new capital city of Pataliputra and Rajgir quietly faded into insignificance.

The chief tourist attraction, however, seems to be the aerial ropeway, an electrically operated cable lift built with Japanese collaboration, that takes one to the Vishwa Shanti Stupa on Ratnagiri hill. The covered single seats groan their way ponderously over three kilometres. of rugged mountainsides and deep gorges. The squeaks and jerks that accompany their laboured progress up and down the cable way do not inspire a great deal of confidence. The lift operators, however, assured us that the mechanism is checked daily for glitches and that there has not been a single accident. But the heebie-jeebies persist.

Gaya, which was a part of the Magadhan empire, is 92 km southwest of Patna. It is one of the most important places of pilgrimage for the Hindus, second only to Varanasi. Most Hindus visit Gaya to offer pitru sraddha or pindas and pray for the salvation of their ancestors' souls. In fact, local priests or pandas who offer many package deals at sky-high prices promptly besiege every tourist. Those who want to perform the pindas must be ready for this harassment coupled with some not-so-subtle hints about the havoc a malevolent ancestor, who has not been properly appeased, can cause.

Nearby, on the banks of the Phalgu around which the ancient town of Gaya was built, is the Vishnupada temple. It is said to have been built over a footprint of Vishnu on solid rock. It is about 100 ft high and octagonal, surrounded by a pyramidal roof. The Holkar princess, Ahilya Bai, renovated it in A.D 1787.

Gaya is important, not only for Hindus, but is, perhaps, the holiest place for Buddhist. It was here under the sacred bodhi or peepal tree that Prince Gautama attained enlightenment and became the Buddha.

It is said that Emperor Asoka visited the place 250 years after this and built a temple beside the bodhi tree and erected a vajrasana or diamond throne as a symbol of stability and indestructibility on the spot where Buddha sat and meditated. The present temple was built over the remains of Asoka's temple and the throne continues to occupy the same place. Inside the temple is a colossal image of Buddha, seated facing east with his back to the bodhi tree exactly as he might have done millennia ago.

The old stone entrance was sculpted in the Second Century A.D. with intricately carved gargoyles. Asokan railings encircle three sides of the temple, but the beautifully sculpted railings that we see today belong today belong to the later Sunga period when they were probably made as replacements for those erected in Asoka's time.

The famed bodhi tree, which is considered to be the embodiment of all wisdom and enlightenment, stands to the west of the temple. We were told that the present tree is the fifth sapling. Apparently Emperor Asoka cut it down in the early years of his rule when he was a non-believer. He replanted it later, but it was cut down again by his wife in a fit of jealous rage at the reverence the Emperor had for it. Asoka replanted it yet again. It is said that the present tree was planted in 1880 when the old one withered away.

I visited Bihar after it had received a lot of rain. We passed miles of lush green fields and rippling streams and rivers, notably the Ganga that flowed full to the brim. A Chennaiite's heart can fill with envious fury at the sight of so much water. In the fields, vegetables grow in riotous profusion. Apparently, in this land watered by the Ganga, one only needs to scatter seeds. Nature does the rest.

Yet, one also sees village after village with people who are obviously poor and hungry. They look like they belong in Munshi Premchand's stories of pre-independent, rural, poverty-stricken India. I could not quite understand the riddle of Bihar — of poverty and backwardness in India's most fertile region, of feudalism and servility in a land that was once the seat of India's most politically active, powerful kingdoms.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Previous : Life during wartime