Bodhgaya - Historical Background

Bodhgaya, the scene of the Buddha’s Supreme Enlightenment, is the most hallowed place on earth to Buddhists. During the Buddha’s time, this place by the banks of the river Neranjara was known as Uruvela. King Asoka was the first to build a temple at this sacred spot. A portrayal of the Asokan temple and other buildings at Bodhgaya has been found in a bas-relief on the Bharhut Stupa in Madhya Pradesh. Beginning with Asoka’s first visit in 259 BC, countless pilgrims have gravitated to this cradle of Buddhism without intermission for more than 1,500 years. The devastation of Buddhist viharas and shrines by Muslim hordes in the 13th century abruptly halted the flow of pilgrims to Bodhgaya. Dharmasvamin, a Tibetan pilgrim, visited Bodhgaya in 1234 AD. He found the place deserted and wrote:

“Only four monks were found staying (in the vihara). One said, ‘It is not good. All have fled in fear of the Turushka soldiery.’ They blocked up the door in front of the Mahabodhi image with bricks and plastered it. Near it they placed another image as a substitute.” When Buddhism declined in India, the Burmese came to the rescue of the decaying Mahabodhi Temple by undertaking repairs during the 14th and 15th centuries. Thereafter, Bodhgaya was forgotten by the Buddhists and the Great Temple fell into ruins. A wandering Hindu ascetic, Mahant Gosain Giri, taking advantage of the situation, established his Math at Bodhgaya and took control of the Temple and environments in 1590 AD. Thereafter, the holy Buddhist shrine passed into the hands of successive Mahants who used the place for sacrilegious practices. In 1861, Cunningham found the Mahant and his followers indulging in all sorts of non-Buddhist ceremonies at the main shrine. Sir Edwin Arnold, author of the Light of Asia visited the Mahabodhi Temple in 1885 and reported this observation in the Daily Telegraph in London:

“The Buddhist world had, indeed, well-nigh forgotten this hallowed and most interesting centre of their faith – the Mecca, the Jerusalem, of a million Oriental congregations when I sojourned in Buddhagaya a few years ago. I was so grieved to see Maharatta peasants performing ‘Sharaddh (or Shrada)’ in such a place, and thousands of precious ancient relics of carved stone inscribed with Sanskrit lying in piles around.”

Note: Shrada is a Hindu last rite, in which mantras and verses are chanted on behalf of the dead, in the belief that this will free the soul from its earthly existence, and allow it to be reborn in heaven.

Anagarika Dharmapala and the Maha Bodhi Society

The battle to regain control of the Mahabodhi Temple by Buddhists began in January 22, 1891 when Anagarika Dharmapala visited Bodhgaya. Visibly moved by the neglect and sacrilege of this most sacred shrine, he took the vow, “I will work on to make this sacred spot to be cared for by our own Bhikkhus.” As a first step, he founded the Maha Bodhi Society of Buddhagaya on May 31, 1891 to garner support for this noble objective. Next, he invited four Buddhist monks from Sri Lanka to come and stay at Bodhgaya, namely: Ven. Chandajoti, Ven. Sumangala, Ven. Pemmananda and Ven. Sudassana. They arrived at Bodhgaya in July 1891 and took up residence in the Burmese Rest House. As the Mahant had property rights to the land in Bodhgaya, he objected to their presence and in February 1893, two of the monks were severely beaten up by his men. Two years later in 1895, when Anagarika Dharmapala attempted to install a Buddha image presented to him by the people of Japan on the upper floor of the Temple, he was assaulted and prevented from doing so by the Mahant’s men. So the image was kept in the Burmese Rest House. Still the Mahant and some Hindu organizations were not satisfied and tried to get the image removed from the Rest House but the Government did not yield.

In 1906, the Mahant filed a suit seeking to eject the Buddhist monks from the Rest House. Thereafter a long legal battle ensued between the Mahant and the Buddhists which continued till 1949, when the State of Bihar enacted the Buddha Gaya Temple Management Act which effectively transferred control of the Temple land and other property to a Management Committee. Two things in the Bill were objectionable; one was that the nine-man Management Committee of the Temple would have a Hindu majority, and the other that Buddhist members should be of Indian nationality. In spite of protests by the Maha Bodhi Society, the Bill was passed with an amendment for provision of an Advisory Board in which the majority should be Buddhists and not necessarily all of Indian nationality. This means that Buddhists can only advise on the management of the Mahabodhi Temple but the control and final say belong to the Hindus!To the Maha Bodhi Society, there is no justification for the Mahabodhi Temple to be controlled by non-Buddhists just as if a Muslim mosque, a Christian church, a Sikh gurdwara or a Hindu temple were to be controlled by persons of different faiths. In his article entitled The Vow Still Remains in Sambodhi, 1996, the late Ven. Pannarama Mahathera, Bhikkhu-in-charge of Buddhagaya Maha Bodhi Society, revealed the irony that even the Advisory Board, which was supposed to be controlled by Buddhists, has only 11 Buddhist members but 14 non-Buddhist members! It is time that these non-Buddhist members were replaced by representatives from Buddhist organizations which are really concerned about the development of Bodhgaya, the place of Buddha’s Enlightenment. Thus, Dharmapala’s vow is not fulfilled and it still remains.