Bodh Gaya is a spot the place Lord Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment.
Patna:
A geospatial evaluation utilising satellite tv for pc photos and floor surveys has discovered proof of the presence of “large architectural wealth” buried within the Mahabodhi temple complicated and its environment in Bihar’s Bodh Gaya, officers mentioned at the moment.
The research has been carried out by the Bihar Heritage Growth Society (BHDS), a wing of the Artwork, Tradition and Youth Division, in collaboration with the Cardiff College of the UK.
The Mahabodhi temple complicated, a UNESCO World Heritage web site, is without doubt one of the 4 holy areas associated to the lifetime of Lord Gautam Buddha.
Bodh Gaya is a spot the place Lord Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment.
“The research has unearthed proof of the presence of archaeological treasure beneath the soil of the UNESCO World Heritage web site and its surrounding areas. It is an enormous architectural wealth that wants additional excavation,” the Artwork, Tradition and Youth Division’s Further Chief Secretary Harjot Kaur Bamhrah instructed Press Belief of India.
The UK-based varsity and the BHDS are cooperating within the challenge, ‘Archaeology on the footsteps of the Chinese language traveller Xuanzang’.
Bengaluru-based Nationwide Institute of Superior Research school member MB Rajni, one of many challenge members, studied satellite tv for pc photos of the Mahabodhi temple and its environment and tried to correlate the findings with the outline of ‘Xuanzang’, she mentioned.
The current Mahabodhi temple complicated at Bodh Gaya contains the 50-metre-high grand temple, the Vajrasana, the sacred Bodhi tree and different six sacred websites of Buddha’s enlightenment, surrounded by quite a few historical stupas, nicely maintained and guarded by interior, center and outer round boundaries.
“The BHDS in affiliation with Cardiff College has been engaged on the multidisciplinary challenge on the archaeological path of the journey of Seventh-century Chinese language translator monk, Xuanzang, in Bihar. The satellite tv for pc photos from the final a number of years present an alignment of buildings to the north of the temple, buried underground,” mentioned Bamhrah.
Considerably, the pictures present the shift of the river Niranjana from east to west.
“Allow us to keep in mind that the Mahabodhi temple is west of the river, and the Sujata Stupa and a number of other different archaeological stays are positioned east of the river. The monuments and different archaeological stays within the east of the river are actually regarded to be impartial of the Mahabodhi temple.
“However the newest discovering exhibits that each the temple and the Sujata stupa together with different archaeological stays stood on the identical river financial institution up to now,” she mentioned.
Bamhrah mentioned that is actually “very vital”.
“Thus, there’s a robust chance that the monuments and different archaeological stays, now east of the river, have been part of the Mahabodhi complicated,” the official mentioned.
The BHDS plans to start out “analysis to delimit the boundaries of the Mahabodhi complicated within the mild of those findings”, she mentioned.
“Recent ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey, adopted by excavations, will probably be undertaken to unravel the buried archaeological options proven by satellite tv for pc photos,” she mentioned.
Elaborating on the findings, BHDS Government Director Bijoy Kumar Choudhary instructed PTI, “Our recent research has revealed a number of findings that embody to the north of the temple premises, a sq. monastery complicated enclosed by a wall with a surrounding moat and an prolonged settlement to its north”.
Hiuen Tsang, also referred to as Xuanzang, was a Chinese language Buddhist, monk scholar, traveller and translator.
He travelled from China to India to acquire Buddhist scriptures throughout the reign of King Harsha Vardhan. He’s finest identified for his journey to India from 629 to 645 CE and his efforts to carry over 657 Indian texts into China. His writings had a big impression on the event of Buddhism in China.
Xuanzang’s travelogue of India helped Alexander Cunningham in 1860s and 1870s to establish well-known websites similar to Nalanda and Vaishali.
“The sq. wall of the monastery complicated is of particular curiosity because it had been excavated by Cunningham within the nineteenth century, however no additional excavations have been carried out. Nonetheless, this space has nice potential for systematic excavation.
“Upon analysing satellite tv for pc imagery, we recognized two concentric squares…an outer sq. enclosing 4.9 acres and an interior one enclosing 2.5 acres. Between the outer and interior squares, there’s a hole of about 15 metres and within the south and 20 meters within the east and the west. The southern boundary of the outer sq. is roughly 300 ft from the wall of the Mahabodhi temple complicated,” says the report of Rajni.
“Though traces of the monastery are not seen on the bottom, satellite tv for pc imagery revealed that the squares overlap considerably with Samanvay Ashram,” Rajni instructed information company PTI.
Particularly, the nicely that Cunningham noticed on the Centre of the monastery’s pillared courtroom could be one of many two wells positioned throughout the Ashram to the south of the statue of Dwarkoji Sunderani, she mentioned.
“The Ashram’s southern boundary, marked by a compound wall on a raised ridge, aligns with the southern boundary of the outer sq., thus suggesting the buried remnants of an earlier wall,” Rajni added.
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