Sravasti - Historical Background

King Asoka visited Sravasti in 249 BC as part of his pilgrimage to the holy Buddhist shrines and erected two pillars, each 70 feet high, on both sides of the eastern gate of Jetavana, as well as some stupas to enshrine the relics of the Buddha. During the time of the Kusana kings, Kaniska and Huviska, in the 1st-2nd century AD, new shrines were installed to enshrine Buddha images which were becoming popular at the time. When Fa Hsien visited Sravasti in 407 AD, Buddhism had declined in the city but Jetavana was still occupied by monks. He saw the two Asokan pillars still standing but the stupas of Angulimala and Sudatta were in ruins. By the time Hsüan Tsang came to Sravasti in 637 AD, the main city was in ruins and there were several hundreds of sangharamas, mostly in ruin with very few religious followers. Jetavana was decayed and deserted. He also saw both columns erected by Asoka, the ruins of stupas, sangharamas and the well from which the Buddha used to draw water for his use.

After Hsüan Tsang’s visit, Jetavana was again occupied, as evi­denced by the recovery of seals and images of Mahayanist pan-theons such as Lokanatha, Avalokitesvara and others belonging to the 8th  and 9th  century AD. The last patrons of Jetavana were King Govindachandra and his devout Buddhist wife Kumaradevi of Kanauj and Benares (1130 AD). Records of their gift of six villages to the Sangha of Jetavana monastery were found in a copper char­ter discovered during excavation of the ruins. With the downfall of Buddhism in India in the 13th  century AD, the Jetavana shrines became deserted and fell into oblivion.

In 1863, Cunningham identified a vast collection of twin ruins called Sahet-Mahet with the ancient city of Sravasti. He excavated the ruins at Sahet covering 13 hectares, identified with Jetavana and exposed the remains of several stupas, temples and monaster­ies, including the site of the famous Gandha-kuti or Perfumed Chamber as well as the Kosambi kuti, both used by the Buddha. Most of the ruins exposed in Jetavana were from the Kusana per-iod (1st -2nd century AD). The ruins at Mahet are very extensive, spreading over 162 hectares. Only a few ruins have been identi­fied while most parts of it are still unexplored. In recent times, the first monastery to be built in Sravasti was the Burmese Vihara, at the initiative of Ven. Chandramani of Kushinagar. This was fol­lowed by the Chinese Buddhist Temple founded by the Ven. Ren Chen. In 1969, the Maha Bodhi Society of India became directly involved with Sravasti with the arrival of Ven. Sangharatana of Sarnath, who initiated the construction of the Nava Jetavana Vihara just outside the old Jetavana. In 1982, the Thais too, estab­lished a vihara in Sravasti.