Searching for the Buddha's maternal home

Ankit Adhikari (The Kathmandu Post); edited by Wisdom Quarterly (whirledapart.com)

Nepal's Department of Archaeology (DoA) and Lumbini Development Trust (LDT) are trying to ascertain whether Lumbini-based town of Devdaha (map) was the maternal home of the historical Buddha Gautama.

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• Buddhism in Nepal
  

Although there are a number of folklores and old travelogues pontificating that Devdaha was the place where Buddha himself and his father King Sudhdhodhan got married, no inscriptions or coins have ever been found in the area to establish this claim.

Maya Devi's conception dream of a white elephant entering her side

The matter has been shrouded in mystery since the 5th century after an archaeologist named Fasyan first mentioned in his travelogue that the maternal kingdom of Buddha and Sudhdhodan was the Kwaliyar state (now called Devdaha).

According to Prakash Darnal, chief of National Archives under the DoA, archaeologists and travellers including Fasyan (5th century), Wehn Sang (7th century), and Hoey (1962) have mentioned this in their writings.

As cross-cousin marriage was popular then [among royals, kshatriya-caste nobles, worried about keeping their bloodlines pure just like European nobility], some archaeologists have hinted that the Buddha’s mother Mayadevi and his cousin/wife Yasodhara came from the same family in Kwaliyar.

According to ancient scriptures, Kwaliyar was a neighboring state of Kapilavastu between Lumbini’s Rohini river in the east and Narayani river in the west -- an area that matches the location of present-day Devdaha.

In their efforts to find the remains of the palace of the Buddha’s in-laws and maternal relatives, DoA and LDT initiated an excavation on March 14, 2010.

However, as the excavation started late and just ahead of the monsoon season, the process was halted on April 14. It was postponed for the next year. The winter season is considered the best time to carry out excavations. It resumed on October 13, 2011.

The "unverified ruins" of old bricks and foundations can be found in four locations in Devdaha: Kanyamai, Bairimai, Bhawanipur, and Khayar Danda. They are all worshipped as religious shrines by Buddhists nowadays.

According to Himal Upreti, an archaeologist with the Lumbini Trust who is involved in the ongoing excavation, all four locations have an equal chance of turning out to be the palace of the Buddha’s maternal uncles.

Out of the four locations, excavations are being carried out only in Kanyamai. The DoA and LDT will excavate the three other sites after completing Kanyamai excavations this year.

"We have unveiled some horizontally erected wall structures and old bricks so far," said Upreti, adding that the evidence gathered so far is not enough to establish that Kanyamai was where the Kwaliyar palace was located.

Darnal, who is also involved in the excavation from DoA’s side, said the exact palace of the Buddha’s maternal uncles can be found with evidence only after the successful excavation of all four locations.

Where was the Buddha really born?

The assertion that the Buddha was born in Nepal is a bluff, a denial of history perpetrated by archeological deception and modern Indian-Nepalese acceptance.

The Nepalese Bluff

Text by Dr. Ranajit Pal

Buddhism literally throbs with the history and geography of India. The relics from Sanchi, Ajanta, Bharhut, Amaravati, Gandhara, Mathura, and Thotlakonda link India with early Buddhism. The Indian tradition of tolerance and moderation goes beyond the 6th century B.C.E. And traces of primitive Buddhism are found in the Harappan era. Buddhist history is an [odd] mix of facts and fiction that baffles the discerning reader.

The Buddha grew up in ancient Kapilavastu, India, near modern Bamiyan, Afghanistan.

There were [24] buddhas before Gautama (Pali, Gotama). This implies that Buddhism was as old as Zoroastrianism. A detailed study reveals close links between early Buddhism with Hinduism, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism, which arose in the Bamiyan-Baluchistan-Gandharan area. The crucial fact that the Silk Road passed through the Buddhist heartland seems to have escaped the notice of historians.

Nepal is a beautiful country, but a Gautama from Nepal is a [terrible] fraud. Nothing in the art, archaeology, history, or literature of early Nepal has the faintest hint of Buddhism. R. Thapar affirms that Gautama was from Nepal, but this has no archaeological basis.

Christmas Humphreys laments over the stark ground reality, "The Lumbini gardens, where Gotama was born, lie in the difficult Nepal Terai, and Kusinara, where the Buddha passed away, has little to show."

Until 50 years ago, "India" included Pakistan. In ancient times Afghanistan was Buddhist Gandhara. Iran was Indo-Iran, the frontier.

The renowned Belgian scholar Edward Conze also flatly dismisses the fanciful text-based accounts:

"To the modern historian, Buddhism is a phenomenon which must exasperate him at every point and we can only say in extenuation that this religion was not founded for the benefit of the historians. Not only is there an almost complete absence of hard facts about its history in India; not only is the date, authorship and geographical provenance of the overwhelming majority of the documents almost entirely unknown...."

The way out of the chaos is shown by the British scholar T. Phelps, who has exposed the dreadful forgeries of archeologist Führer, who moved pillars and faked inscriptions and relics to falsely locate Lumbini in Nepal.

Gautama was a prince, but after he was abandoned in the wilderness of the Terai by the rogue Führer, his history went to pieces.

A strong rebuttal of the Nepalese [deception] about early Buddhism comes from the discovery of ancient Buddhist sites at Thotlakonda, Bavikonda, and Pavurlakonda near Vishakhapattanam. The name Thotlakonda resembles the name [the Buddha used for himself] Tathagata [the "Wayfarer"] of Gautama, and Pavurlakonda is a clear echo of Baveru or Babil. More>>

From the center expanding out by trade routes, Buddhism traveled throughout north, west, east, and south Asia with its message of the possibility of liberation from suffering. It reached the West watered down via Christianity through the travels of St. Issa from Jerusalem to India and back.

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A Buddhist Pilgrimage to India

Mahindarama.com

Map of the four principal pilgrimage sites, namely the place of the Buddha's: birth, final nirvana, first sermon, and enlightenment.

Birthplace: Lumbini, Nepal. (Disputed: see ranajitpal.com for actual location)

Hometown: Kapilavastu, Nepalese foothills (Also disputed: ranajitpal.com)

Enligtenment: Under the actual Bodhi tree (descendant), Bodhgaya, India

First sermon: Sarnath, Benares, India (Isipatana Deer Park)

Final instructions and final nirvana: Kushinagar, India

Cremation stupa: Rambhar Jhil, Kushinagar, India

The last words the Buddha uttered were, "Behold, O disciples, I exhort you: Hurtling toward destruction are all conditioned things. Strive on with diligence!"

The vessel containing the remains of the Buddha was taken by Dona, who was instrumental in dividing the cremation relics. These relics were divided into eight portions and distributed equally to the:

1. Mallas of Kusinara
2. Ajatasattu King of Magadha
3. Licchavis of Vesali
4. Sakyans of Kapilavattu
5. Bulies of Attakapa
6. Koliyas of Ramagrama
7. Mallas of Pava, and to a resident of
8. Vethadipa.

Other important Buddhist sites
Rajgir (Rajagaha) - Veluvana Ramaya (the Bamboo Grove) - Vulture's Peak - Sravasthi (Savatthi) the ancient capital of the Kingdom of Kosala - Jetavana Monastery (Jeta's Grove) - Pubbarama Monastery Vaishali (Vesali) where the last sutra was preached - the Mango Grove Kaushambi (Kosambi) - Nalanda the Great Buddhist University - Sanchi established by King Asoka