Alexander Cunningham (1833-1885) and Buddhist Archaeology: A Study of

Archaeological Geography and Buddhist Landscape with Reference to Ancient

Bodhgaya.

Buddhism has been one of the popular faith since its inception. It has provided scholars with one of

the interesting topics for research since the eighteenth century. There have been several works on various

facets of this religion and it continues to be one of the upcoming discipline (as a separate entity) of study.

However, most of the works have been based primarily on literary data, which might be attributed to the

ample availability of literary sources and translations, which initiated the early study of Buddhism since

mid-eighteenth century. However, with the deciphering of Asokan inscriptions by James Prinsep and

simultaneous surveys of Alexander Cunningham, a new vista was opened as it provided us with a wealth of

archaeological and epigraphical data. The new discoveries changed the perceptions of the early history of

India.

The new archaeological discoveries of 1830’s and 1840’s were results of interests of certain persons

who took the initiatives. These results influenced the government of the time to initiate a few steps to bring

out the past of India. Between 1848-61, the Governor-General appointed a few Surveyors to conduct

surveys in various regions and report on the remnants of the past in those regions. These surveys provided

the groundwork for further researches as well as appointment of Cunningham as Archaeological Surveyor

in 1861. Moreover, these developments changed the way in which history was to be studied afterwards.

Objectives of the study:

Alexander Cunningham was the father on Indian Archaeology and his contribution to the history of India is

incomparable. There are very few among the early Indologists, whose contributions, both in respect of

quality and quantity can compare favourably with Cunningham whose works became indispensable for all

time. Though the data collected by him has been used on a regular basis by scholars, his contribution and

achievements have not yet received their due. Keeping these facts in mind, I have decided to study the

works of Cunningham to study the past. The pertinent questions here are:

Why does Cunningham decide to focus on archaeology vis-à-vis Buddhism?

What were the objectives for such a study? The objectives have to be analysed at

two levels- firstly, on a long-term basis, how does this study affect the

understanding of early history of India and secondly, on a short–term basis, what

were his objectives while carrying out his surveys and excavations?

Fifty-three (1833-1885) years of his work primarily in north India set a new trend

of study. He has discussed in detail the discovery of various sites, their remains

and their growth in the 24 volume reports of ASI. He has also published detailed

monographs on major sites such as Bodhgaya, Bharhut, Sanchi etc. In his work

Ancient Geography of India, the Buddhist period, Including the Campaigns

of Alexander and the Travels of Hwen-Thsang (1871), he discussed the notion

of “Historical Geography”. It meant collection of information such as

geographical features, ancient names, details, remains and ruins of the places

about the ancient places, for which he relied exclusively on literary data. He also

gives a brief sketch of the historical background of the places. The main concern

of the book was archaeological identification of ancient places mentioned in a

variety of textual sources but principally in the account of Hwen-Thsang. He

described the major features of the places, gave an idea of the territorial units or

kingdoms of which these places were a part, and listed the distances and

directions involved in his movement from one place to another. This account

became the textual baseline of his ground investigations.1

The results of his study vis-à-vis his data set a new trend and provided

archaeology in India with a new method and a way to look at the past.

Apart from setting a trend for further researches, he provided the methodology

and basic data. His study on major sites led to the growth of archaeology as well

as Buddhism as themes of research. The surveys and excavations helped him in

the identification of twelve major ancient Indian cities and that was his prime

concern. Thus, the contribution of Cunningham needs to be studied.

The themes of researches in Buddhist studies have broadened and various new

concerns/questions have been raised. Therefore, can we use the data of

Cunningham to study these issues? At the same time, a comparative study of

present perceptions of Buddhist archaeology and that of Cunningham in the

nineteenth century will be useful in comprehending the past of India.

The ancient sites survived for a very long time, for which they needed resources.

These resources were the result of continuing interaction between the sites and the

settlement areas around them, rather than just the strategic location on the routes

and royal patronage. Therefore, a contextual analysis of the sites visited by

Cunningham such as Bodhgaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Vaishali, Kosambi, Sravasti,

Sankissa, Mathura, Sarnath, and Taxila etc will form an important part of my

1 Dilip K. Chakrabarti calls it a case of text-aided archaeology, with the identification of places in historical terms being its only objective. (2001: p5)

research work. The rigorous study of epigraphical data as done by Upinder Singh

and Gregory Schopen has brought out new and interesting results that counter the

prevailing notion of growth of Sanchi in context of urban centres. The main

arguments of these two studies are the relative autonomy of the ancient religious

establishments from royal patronage and the endowments and donations recorded

at the sites (mostly private and less number of royal donations), the ‘Catchment

areas’ from where most of these came, and motives for such donations.

This study also counters the various notions within Buddhism and intends to

discuss the active role of laity in building up sites like Bodhgaya, Sanchi etc their

connections with the clergy and monastery and the pro-active role of clergy in

spreading the religion, their donations to the religious establishments etc. Thus,

the study intends to bring out the interaction between the laity and clergy vis-à-vis

the religion.

Lastly, a study of the site of Bodhgaya will be taken up vis-à-vis various issues

raised earlier in context of Buddhism. The reason for taking up the site of

Bodhgaya is its continuance over a long span of time. At the same time, this is

one of the most revered sites for the Buddhist pilgrims. Cunningham went to this

site and worked extensively at this site, including excavations and restoration of

the temple etc. He has also published an exclusive monograph on his works at this

site, where he informs about the remains – temple, sandstone and granite railings,

Bodhi-tree, Vajrasana, Asokan pillars, stupas and votive-stupas, railing stones,

Viharas, various sculptures and images, dedicatory inscriptions ranging from first

century BC to fourteenth century AD. We can only hope to understand the

symbolic meanings of these archaeological structures by viewing them in their

wider ritual context, i.e. the way they were made, used, and experienced by men.

This site also has a Neolithic village (A.K. Prasad, 1990), recently excavated by

the Bihar circle of ASI. The location of Bakraur, Sujata’s village, on the other

side of the Falgu river, the survival of the ancient village Uruvila on the river

bank on this side, the extensive mound (about 1 sq km) which is clearly visible at

Bodhgaya and on the top of which most of the later constructions are located - all

these make the site of Bodhgaya one of the most important archaeological

settlements of India. It is unfortunate that there is no plan of long-term

excavations at the site and vandalisation of the site has continued.

Review of Literature:

Buddhism and study of Ancient History has grown over last two centuries with inclusion of

archaeological and epigraphical sources. Most of the works have based themselves on the literary sources

and the archaeological data has been used within the same frameworks or models. Similarly, the studies on

Buddhism, its origin, growth, popularity and spread to various regions have also been explained within the

framework of urbanisation and trade. This socio-economic model has not been able to utilize the wealth of

archaeological data available and these have just been used to corroborate such models.2

Another stereotype has been the study of Buddhism as the religion of monks and nuns. It is in this

context that the monasteries have been studied as the secluded retreat of the monks to conduct their

meditations and religious learning. Later it was also studied as one of the institutions, which promoted and

facilitated trade. The role of Monasteries in promoting agriculture in far-flung areas and bringing about the

integration of such areas has also been discussed. Moreover, Buddhism and trade in Early Historical India

have been perceived as promoting each other by various links.

The historiographical survey begins with the development of Buddhist studies since seventeenth

century and how the issues and concerns of scholars have changed over a span of two centuries.

The early studies of Buddhism were based mainly upon the studies of manuscripts in at least

four languages- Pali, Tibetan, Sanskrit and Chinese. The earliest known European to come to the East to

study Pali was the Danish scholar R. K. Rask who reached Ceylon in 1821 where he studied not only Pali

but also Sinhalese and acquired a rich collection of palm-leaf manuscripts. In 1824, Benjamin Clough made

a study of Pali grammar and vocabulary; following this, in 1826 was the publication of Essai sur le Pali in

French by Eugene Burnouf and Christian Lassen.3In 1837, George Turner published an English translation

of the first thirty-eight chapters of the Pali text Mahavamsa, which was the first such attempt. In

1855,Vincent Fuusboll of Copenhagen prepared an edition and a Latin translation of Dhammapada, which

2 In case of the studies on Buddhism, most of the studies have used the same framework and all the important phenomenon of the religion have been linked to it. The evolution and spread of religion has been studied within the framework of agricultural growth, role of surplus production and trade in Urbanization, and royal patronage. The rise of Buddhism has been portrayed as a reaction to the growing Brahamanical ritualism at one level. Another argued reason has been a social contest for supremacy between Brahmans and Kshtriyas. Secondly, a religion or faith system needs mass support base to sustain itself. For this support, the major works have found the support base in the two lower Varnas, and of course Kshtriyas. Then the money for the support came from urban centres from the lower Varnas and here it is invariably related to growing urbanization. This urban support base has tempted scholars to consider it as an urban religion. The growth of Buddhist sacred sites has been also linked to the presence of urban centres in the vicinity or the location of sites on trade routes.3 According to Burnouf, the first to mention Pali was Simon de la Loubere who visited Siam in 1687-88 as envoy of king Louis14th. In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, William Chambers and J.Ph. Wesdin published a few notices in Pali. The later in his Systema brahmanicum (1791) quoted an Italian translation of the Kammavaca made from original Pali in 1776.

was subsequently rendered into German in 1860. Between 1869 and 1880, a good number of texts

belonging to the Sutta and Vinaya category were edited and translated by various scholars. In 1875,

R.C.Childers published the Pali-dictionary, which was an important advance, followed by publication of

Milndpanho by V.Trenckner in 1880. In 1881, T.W.Rhys Davids founded the Pali Text Society. In his own

words: ‘The sacred books of the early Buddhists have preserved to us the sole record of the only religious

movement in the world’s history which bears any close resemblance to Christianity, and it is not too much

to say that the publication of this unique literature will be no less important for the study of the history and

especially of religious history than the publication of the Vedas has always been .’ The PTS brought about a

qualitative change in the study of Pali and Buddhism by publishing critical editions of texts and their

commentaries as well as their dependable English translations and a good number of journals containing

scholarly articles on Buddhism and on Pali language and literature.

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, a modern critical study of Buddhism was introduced in

Asia by the Japanese scholar Tominage Chuki (1715-45) and Jiun Sonja (d.1803). Sonja studied Sanskrit

by himself in the pre-Meiji period, and having examined the fragmentary Sanskrit MSS of the Horiyuji and

other monasteries and having compared them with their Chinese versions, published the Sanskrit editions

of a number of Sutras. The early scholars had to depend on Tibetan and Chinese sources as no complete

canon of Sanskrit Buddhist works was found in India. At the dawn of Buddhalogical studies, there ensued a

controversy between the French scholar E. Burnouf and the Russian scholar V. Vasilev on the question

whether Buddhism could be better understood from the Indian or the Chinese or Tibetan sources.

According to the former, only Indian sources provided evidence on genuine Buddhism while the latter held

that Buddhism in the totality of its development could be understood from only from Tibetan and Chinese

sources. The study of Tibetan sources began with Francesco Orazio Della Penna, a Capuchin missionary

who lived in Lhasa from 1716 to 1732, who compiled a Tibetan dictionary and translated Tson-kha-pa’s

Lam-rim-chen-mo and Pratimoksa. The study of Chinese sources was inaugurated with the publication of

C.J. Neumann’s work (1833) on the Buddhist pilgrims who came to India, which was followed by A.

Remusat’s translation of Fa-hsien’s account (1836). Gabet and Huc’s publication of French translation of

Mongol version of Matanga’s Sutra came out in 1848 and St. Julian’s translation of Hiuen Tsang’s work

and that of the Chinese version of the Avadanas came out between 1853 and 1859. Texts from the Chinese

Buddhist canons were translated by S. Beal in a series of works done during the period between 1871 and

1878.

Apart from the textual studies which formed the substratum of all subsequent researches, the main

emphasis of the earlier writers of Buddhism was on clarifying various traditions, so different from one

another, in connection with the sources; on examining the distinction between the mythical and historical

elements contained in the legendary data in regard to the life and achievements of the Buddha; and on

distinguishing a primitive Buddhism from the doctrines supposed to have been grossly altered at a later

period. The growth of different Buddhist sects and their doctrines, the rise of Mahayana with its increasing

emphasis on the extreme form of philosophical idealism, and a corresponding mythological development to

this speculative approach were also brought to light. Attempts were also made to prove that early Buddhism

was by its nature opposed to Hinduism and that its followers formed a congregation, the object of which

was to realise a perfect life into which members were admitted only after the performance of certain vows

and rites and from which they could not return without becoming renegades.

The historical process through which the geographical expansion of Buddhism in and outside India was

possible was also understood to a considerable extent. In 1834, James Prinsep deciphered the Asokan

inscriptions, which had marked the beginnings of the studies in Indian paleography and epigraphy. The

Asokan inscriptions that were of great importance to the study of Buddhism were dealt with by Burnouf,

Kern, Cunningham, Senart, Buhler, and Hultzsch. The Annual Reports of Archaeological Survey of India,

which began to be published by Cunningham since 1871, and the Epigraphica India, which was started by

James Burgess in 1892, contained materials for Buddhist archaeology. In 1833, James Burgess published a

book under the title Buddhist Caves and Inscriptions. In 1910, H. Luders published a List of Brahmi

Inscriptions that documented the geographical distribution of the various sects of Buddhism. Similar works

were done by scholars like Sten Konow in his study on Kharosthi inscriptions and J.Ph.Vogel's study of

Nagajunikonda inscriptions. Such works contributed a great deal to the understanding of the sectarian

history of Buddhism as we come across in the later works of N. Dutt, M. Walleser, A. Bareau, E. Lamotte

and others. Studies in Buddhist archaeology were initiated by Sir Cunningham and his colleagues of the

archaeological survey of India and in Buddhist art and iconography by Ritter, Cunningham, Grunwedel,

Ferguson, Burgess and others.

In the case of Indological researches, certain ideals have always predominated over others not

because their historical validity is conclusively established but because they are popular and acceptable to

the modern mind. One such idea is that there was the malignant growth of Brahmanical ritualism and the

corrupt practices of the priestly class of the later Vedic age that created a social reaction out of which

evolved a new intellectual movement led by the sophists of that age known as the sramanas who rejected

the Vedas and the authority of the Brahmanas, ridiculed the complicated rituals and upheld the ideals of

personal purity, renunciation, asceticism and intuitional knowledge. The Buddha belonged to this new

movement of philosophy, and though apparently not the first, by far the most important and successful of

the Sramana schools was that founded by him.

This understanding of the rise of Buddhism has been widely accepted. To substantiate this view, its

supporters depended on the Upanishads in which they found sparks of a new intellectual revolution

sponsored by the Ksatriya kings and nobles who are supposed to have been disgusted with the Brahmanical

ritualism and sacrificial cults, and also on the post Asokan Buddhist and Jain texts which refer to the

wandering ascetics, the teachers and sophists engaged in conversational discussions on matters of ethics

and philosophy, and different schools of thought. But when the growth of this sramana culture in general

and Buddhism in particular is viewed in terms of a rationalistic philosophical movement arising out of the

irrationalism and commercialism of the existing Brahmanical tradition, the hypothesis cannot at once be

regarded as valid, so long as we do not make a thorough check-up of the real contents of the two traditions.

It should be pointed out that in most cases the vision of the historian is

circumscribed by the dominant outlook of his own age. The western scholars with the Christian

preoccupations wanted to see in the Vedic literature a transition from naturalistic Polytheism to a kind of

distinctive monotheism. So did their Indian counterparts who under the influence of Brahmanism and

various forms of neo Hinduism wanted to prove that Hinduism at all periods of its long history was

basically monotheistic, devotional and ethical. The vast ritualistic literature was considered to be a

tumourous overgrowth created by the Brahmana priestly class, solely for the purpose of exploiting people

in the name of religion, and it was against this priestly exploitation of the masses in the name of yajna that

the Upanishadic thinkers raised their voice that Krishna in the Bhagvad Gita formulated his devotional

religion and that the Buddha and Mahavira introduced new systems based on humanism and rationalistic

morality. All this sounds very well, but until today, nobody has been able to say what yajna was and what it

did really mean to its performers.

B.M. Barua had identified six distinct stages in the development of early

Buddhism as a religion, each of which was related to different phases in the evolution of the Sangha. He

did not deny the possibility that there was a lokottara or supra mundane conception of the Buddha from the

earliest period, which was meant for the layman. He has traced the Upanishadic sources of the Buddhist

ideas at great length and considered it as an anti-Brahamanic crusade.

Radhakrishnan's approach was categorical. He found no difference between the Upanishadic concept

of Brahman and the Buddhist concept of dharma, which he considered essentially an ethical value on the

empiric plane. According to him, "Buddhism helped to democratise the philosophy of the Upanishads,

which was till then confined to select few...It was Buddha's mission to accept the idealism of the

Upanishads at its best and make it available for the daily needs of mankind. Historical Buddhism meant the

spread of the Upanishadic doctrine among the people...such democratic upheavals are common features of

Hindu history." He held that the Buddha belonged to the group of Upanishadic teachers.

S.N. Dasgupta, on the other hand, though admitted in a general way

the influence of the Upanishads on Buddhism, subscribed to the general view of the historians that it was in

opposition to the Brahmanical sacrificial cults. According to him, the Upanishads prepared the ground for

intellectual freedom, which was cultivated with profit by the Buddha. For him, the original Buddhism was

based on sturdy universal rationalism and simple morality and it was only in the subsequent stages that the

mystic beliefs were added to the religion.

Vidhusekhar Bhattacharya tried to make an historical analysis of the earlier streams,

which influenced the teachings of the Buddha. He did not subscribe to the view that the Upanisadic

Brahmavidya was developed in the hands of the Ksatriya Princes who were opposed to Brahamanical

ritual. Nor he was ready to accept the view that the original purpose of Buddhism was to raise emphatic

protest against the contemporary bloody sacrifices. He held that the Buddhist polemics against the

sacrificial cult and priesthood were only of secondary importance. He pointed out that the Vedic yajnas had

their own logic and their special mechanism was meant for achieving definite external purposes, the social

importance of which could hardly be minimised. He was probably the first to point out that the Vedic

yajnas had an altogether different implication. The concept that god has no mastery of worldly objects and

is utterly incapable of bestowing them to the worshippers was probably borrowed by the Buddha from the

earlier ritualistic traditions. Vidhusekhar insisted on the role of the ascetics and free thinkers who

flourished before and during the age of the Buddha and also on the influence of the Upanishads and the

Sankhyas on the ideological formulations of the Buddha.

G.C.Pandey argues that at the very outset we have to realise that even the earliest available

collections within the Buddhist canon are of uncertain date and heterogeneous content. They contain within

themselves seeds of multi-form growth. From what we know about the Chinese Agamas, it appears safe to

draw a similar general conclusion about them. An historical approach to ancient Buddhism, therefore, most

certainly entails the stratification of the Nikayas and Agamas. An examination of the Bharhut and Sanchi

inscriptions shows that sometime before the second century BC, there was already a collection of Buddhist

texts, which were called Pitakas and was divided into five Nikayas, and that there were Suttas in which the

Dhamma was preached, that some of these agreed with those contained in our Triptika, and that Jatakas of

exactly the same kind as those contained in Triptika, already belonged to the stock of Buddhist literature. It

may therefore be asserted that the growth of Nikayas falls between the fifth and third century BC. He made

a stratification of Nikaya literature, as the stratification should appear as a sine qua non of future progress in

the direction of discovering ancient Buddhism. He made a distinction betweesn the earlier and later

portions of Vinaya and Nikayas in his own way on the basis of internal textual analysis, the general

ideological trends, interpolations, vocabulary and linguistic features, historical background and

geographical considerations.

Regarding the question of the historical origins of Buddhism, Pande holds that in the

6th century BC the age of migrations and settlements was over, and that the territorial element had attained

preponderance over the tribes in the organisation of the state. A trial of strength was taking place between

the monarchies and also between the monarchical and non-monarchical forms of the government. The

contest plainly showed the decline of republics, the rise of absolutism and growing success of the

Magadhan imperialism. The growth of towns and commerce and the organisation of trade and craft into

guilds made the social landscape of the age quite distinct from that of the preceding period. The origins of

Buddhism and Jainism must have been linked with these changes. In the atmosphere of the town life much

of the symbolism of the older Vedic religion, derived from the natural phenomena and pastoral and

agricultural functions, would become dim, the gods less convincing, and the ritual obscure and even

pointless. A sharp contrast had developed between its prevailing tenancy, which was formalistic, ritualistic,

and quite worldly, and the new departure of the Upanishads, which tended increasingly in an esoteric and

ascetic direction. Ritualism was worsted in its struggle with ascetic renunciation and creed of a life of

virtue and devotion. Both Buddhism and Jainism derived their main impulses from this new trend. Pande,

however, holds that Buddhism and Jainism can hardly be looked upon as reforming movements.

Undoubtedly these systems were to a certain extent influenced by their contemporaries social changes, but

the latter could not have been the cause of their origins. As regards the question of the social origins of

Buddhism, the views of the scholars differ from one another. Certain passages found in the Buddhist texts

pertaining to the social equality and social justice led some historians, social and religious reformers and

even political activists view the Buddha as a social revolutionary, a crusader against Brahmanical ritualism

and an emanicipator of the oppressed. Such an approach is found in the writings of the 19th century Indian

intelligentsia. The theory, that Buddhism as a religion heralded a Ksatriya revolt against the Brahmanical

theology, metaphysics and ritualism was zealously supported by modern thinkers.

The origin of Buddhism has also been linked with the emergence of the trading

communities and the consequent rise of urbanism in the time of the Buddha. Among the followers of the

Buddha, there were many business magnates, besides the royal converts, who liberally financed the

monastic organisation.

DD Kosambi held that the Vaisyas and Sudras had the task of

producing the surplus, which the priests and the warriors took away by natural right,

originally for the good of tribes, but soon for the good of the upper castes. The Vedic

ritual was formulated in pastoral age where large herds, collectively owned, were the

main form of property. The new society had gone over to agriculture, so that the

slaughter of more and more animals at a growing number of sacrifices meant a much

higher drain upon producer and production, telling upon trading class and the new

economic set up. Herein lies the economic reason of the Buddhist and Jain emphasis on

non-killing or ahimsa. Truth, justice, not encroaching upon the property of others, and

similar values show that a totally new concept of private individual property had arisen.

The doctrine of karma was a religious extension of elementary concept of the agricultural

economy. Buddhism did not fight to abolish all castes from society even though the

Sramana himself renounced caste. However, the Buddhist monastic order functioned

along the lines of a tribal Sabha council, the Buddhist precepts were for a class society

far beyond the tribe, caste or cult.

The views of Kosambi were basically accepted and modified to considerable

extent by latter Marxist scholars like R S Sharma, D P Chattopadhya who sought to

explain the origin of Buddhism in the light of the great social transformation, the rise of

class society and state power, that took place during the life-time of the Buddha. R S

Sharma held that the material life of Bihar was revolutionised around 700 BC by the use

of iron. The use of iron initiated plough agriculture with iron ploughshare, and

consequently created a new social set-up, a class society marked by the rise of state

power, in which cattle in the form of private wealth, to be increased by commercial

activities, gained much importance, and senseless destruction for the purpose of non-

vegetarian food and also for the purpose of Brahmanical sacrificial cults came to be

discouraged. The voice of protest was addressed by the trading class and was given

theoretical and moral support by the Buddha and his contemporaries. The most emphatic

protest against animal sacrifice is registered in the early Pali texts. The Brahmanical

attitude towards trade was not helpful. The traders were not encouraged and they were

assigned a lower place in society. The Buddha took up the cause of these emergent

classes, having something new to contribute during its rise to power, that is why traders

of the first rank became his associates, and Buddhism lent all moral support to the

financial and other interest of the trading class.

AL Basham argues that it was the region of Bihar and UP where

heterodoxy flourished most strongly, as arrival of Aryan civilization was recent at the

time. The people were little affected by Aryan class system, and the influence of

Brahman was by no means complete. Equal attention was given to the local gods as the

deities of Aryan pantheon. Cities had arisen, where a class of well to do merchants lived

in comparative opulence while free peasants enjoyed a higher standard of living. The

development of organized states and advance of material culture were accompanied by

the rapid spread of new religious ideas which were soon to become fundamental to all

Indian thought. Another possible reason, for him, seems to be rise of pessimism in all

strata of society due to breakup of old tribes, and their replacement by kingdoms where

ethnic ties and sense of security which they gave were lost or weakened, thus leading to a

deep seated psychological unease affecting all sections of people. Another suggested

cause of change in outlook is the revolt of the most intelligent people of the times against

sterile sacrificial cults of the Brahmins. Buddhism rejected the Vedas completely and set

its own distinctive rules of conduct for winning salvation. Finally, he argues that no

explanation is wholly satisfactory, and we must admit our virtual ignorance of the factors

which led to this great change in the direction of religious thought.

The main sources for Uma Chakravarty’s work are the Vinaya Pitaka the first

four Nikayas of the Sutta Pitaka, i.e., the Digha Nikaya, Majjhima Nikaya, Samyutta

Nikaya, and the Anguttara Nikaya; and the Sutta Nipata. She has also occasionally used

the Jatakas, the commentaries on the Pali canons; and the later chronicles, but this is done

with the utmost caution and each instance of their use is specifically pointed out. The

factor of internal unity is the major clue to the dating of the texts. She has also used the

earliest body of inscriptions available, although they belong to the period 200BC to 200

AD, to substantiate the conclusions on social stratification derived from the early Pali

literature. The regional spread of the texts takes account mainly of eastern UP, Bihar and

central India, while the inscriptions were found scattered over central and western India.

An intimate connection between ideas and societies which give

rise to major writings on Buddhism would be readily conceded, there is a lacuna in

historical writing, especially in the field of social history dealing with the major concerns

of the Buddha, the society in which he lived, and the connection between the two. She

has attempted to place early Buddhism against the background of the socio-economic and

political changes occurring in India in the sixth century BC. She has argued that

Buddhism originated and was nurtured in a period characterised by an expanding

economy, political consolidation and the emergence of new socio-economic categories.

All these features were not only reflected in early Buddhism but were crucial to the

shaping of its ethos.

The transition from the pastoralism of an earlier era to a surplus producing agrarian economy

generated the second phase of urbanisation in India and represented a process of considerable change. In

this process, the gana-sanghas, which had a productive system centering on the communal holding of land,

began to collapse one by one. The gana- sanghas gave way not merely to a process of political

consolidation but to the expanding economy and an agrarian system based on the private control of land.

The productive system of the gana-sanghas was organised around the clans and the labour performed by the

dasa - karmakaras. The social and economic system of the gana-sanghas was comparatively simple, so in

contrast to an economy based on the individual holding of land and organised around the gahapati who

played a crucial role in the expansion of the economy elsewhere. The emergence of the gahapati as a

significant social category was a special feature of this period and was as important as the collapse of the

gana-sanghas. The two developments must be seen together as they are inter-related and constitute two

aspect of the same phenomenon.

The social milieu of the 6th century BC was also reflected in the social origins of the early

Buddhists. The early Buddhists drew most of its support from the higher varnas, although it also drew some

support from occupational categories that had a low status in the Buddhist system of stratification. The

significant conclusion that emerges from the analysis of the background of the early Buddhists was the

absence of gahapatis from the Sangha and their prominent representation among the lay supporters of

Buddhism. She also argued that Buddhist recognition of the gahapati's high status is also a recognition of

the significant economic function as being basic to any society, despite Buddhism's advocacy of

renunciation as a means to salvation. The gahapatis's support was vital for the sustenance of the sanghas.

Thus, she tried to examine the principles on which the Buddhist system of social stratification was based

and changing position of the gahapatis. In addition, she also analysed the role of power and the

conceptualisation of the ideal socio-political system as envisaged in Buddhism.

V P Verma has worked comprehensively on the origins of Buddhism. He held that the

Buddha’s movement was primarily ethical and religious though it had its social, political and economic

consequences. According to him, it is true that the Buddha obtained some deep and profound illumination

in state of mystic absorption. But the philosophical formulation of the Buddhist teachings can only be

studied with reference to the various currents and crosscurrents of India's religious history from about 10th

century BC onwards.

Verma holds that the stress on the situational background of a big religious movement does not imply

that we should neglect the determining influence of the world-moving personality of the Buddha on the

genesis of early Buddhism. But the study of the situational background helps us to appreciate the forces

amidst which a great religious personality flourishes and with reference to which his teachings are oriented.

Hence, along with the study of the philosophy and ethics of early Buddhism, the historical evolution of

ancient Indian religion should also be shown true. According to Verma, it is essential to apply the historical

method to the study of the growth of moral, philosophical and religious concepts and propositions from the

Vedic periods onwards; Second, textual study of the early Buddhist scriptures for the determination of the

successive layers of the contents of the books; and third, application of the historical method to early

Buddhism for analyzing the entire social, political and economic background of the movement and for

discovering the forces which helped to determine the crystallisation and growth of Buddhism as a religious

association and movement.

Buddhism has been represented as a revolt against the tradition of the Vedas,

the Brahmanas and the Upanishads. For Verma it is a mistake to represent early Buddhism as a

philosophical tradition carrying forward the streams of Upanishadic thought. Buddha was an ethical teacher

who stressed dhyana, samadhi and nirvana but he also challenged some of the essential propositions of

Brahmanism. Although early Buddhism was critical in its attitude to contemporary Brahmanism, it had

solid positive teachings of its own. The ethical and pietistic element was dominant in its teachings. He

refused to accept Buddhism as another branch of the Upanishadic thought.

Narender Wagle followed a new methodology to analyse the social structure

of the Buddha's time from the works of a relatively late period. He analysed the terms of address used by

different members of the society and thus outlined social groupings and rankings. Based on certain terms of

habitation, he tried to explain the patterns of settlement and economic life of the period.

Richard Gombrich has worked extensively on Buddhism where he has used a variety of sources,

including ethnographical data from contemporary Buddhism of Sri Lanka. He has dealt with various issues

of early Buddhism at great length, such as origin of the faith, contribution of the Buddha, social aspects and

socio-religious background etc. The period of Buddha saw urbanisation, beginnings of states, first use of

money and beginnings of organised trade. All these could arise when there was agricultural surplus. The

contentious issue is what produced this surplus. He counters the Iron-theory of Kosambi on account of lack

of archaeological evidence. Moreover, there are just a few references to iron tools in the texts of the period,

though they cannot be very precisely dated and give no clue to the prevalence or quality of iron. RS Sharma

also supported Kosambi’s theory by arguing that there is evidence for use of iron in Bihar and Eastern UP

from c.700B.C. But so far no ploughshare has been found, and iron tools for agriculture are not in good

numbers, for which Sharma cites ecological reasons, like the acid, humid, warm alluvial soil of the region

was highly corrosive. Gombrich holds that it may indeed be that we find few iron tools of the period

because they have all rusted away, but this does make iron a friable foundation on which to build a whole

theory of cultural change.

A Ghosh has also argued against this theory as he says that urbanisation can occur even without

any iron. Jungles can be cleared by burning, though Sharma objects that one still has to dig out the stumps,

which are not impossible with copper-bronze tools. Sharma’s argument of wet paddy cultivation as

agricultural base of the new economic surplus has been supported by a few Buddhist texts. However, his

theory of beginning of transplantation in Buddha’s day seems to be a guess. Gombrich writes that we

gather from Sharma himself, though he never spells out this conclusion, that the main reason for the

production of surplus was probably not a technical discovery but simply the spread of population into a

region with better ecological conditions for agriculture {p52}. Towns and cities arise primarily as

settlements of people whose main livelihood is not derived directly from agriculture. They are political and

commercial centres. There can be no trade without an economic surplus, but though trade seems to be a

necessary condition for the creation of town, it is not a sufficient one. On the other hand, it is easily

forgotten that commerce itself depends on organization: on an infrastructure of communications and a

certain level of legality and security, both products of stable political conditions. The picture presented in

literary sources of cities in Buddha’s time is quite different from the one presented by archaeological

sources (meager evidences, earliest cities are Kausambi and Ujjain of 600 BCE).

There is some evidence that the Buddha’s message appealed especially to town dwellers and

the new social classes. BG Gokhale has analysed the social composition of the early Sangha, basing

himself on two canonical collections of religious poems, the Thera- and Theri-gatha, which are ascribed to

monks and nuns respectively .It is the commentary on these texts which makes the ascriptions of

authorship; in most cases it goes on to supply such biographical details as where the author was from and to

which varna he or she belonged. The commentary which we have dates only from the fifth century CE, but

we know that it rests on a far older tradition, so may be its information is authentic. We thus have plausible

information on a sample of over 300 monks and nuns. Half of them were from wealthy or powerful houses.

The Brahmin recruits were not the traditional priests but rather upper class urbanites (large towns-200, 172

from 4 major cities of this time / Religious data: Brahmin-134, Ksatriya-75, Vaisya-98, Sudra-11,

Outcastes-10). If these figures have any foundations, they show that Buddhism, though it admitted anyone

to sangha, was not primarily a religion of downtrodden.

Gombrich counters the notion which considers Buddhism and Hinduism as entities precisely

on a par with the monotheistic religions and consequently to regard Buddhist and Hindu as total and

mutually exclusive identities. Another notion he counters is that of seeing the Buddha as a social reformer.

Certainly in consenting to preach and then in establishing an order of monks to do likewise, he showed his

great compassion and concern for mankind. Moreover, he was supremely kind and understanding towards

everyone. However, his concern was to reform individuals and help them to leave society forever, not to

reform the world. Life in the world he regarded as suffering, and the problem to which he offered a solution

was the otherwise inevitable rebirth in the world. Though it could well be argued that the Buddha made life

in the world more worth living that surely was an unintended consequence of his teaching. To present him

as a sort of socialist is a serious anachronism. He never preached against social inequality, only declared its

irrelevance to salvation. He tried neither to abolish the caste system nor to do away with slavery. But there

was no caste or other form of social ranking within the order itself.

RA Ray has also countered the two-tiered model of Buddhism where the religion is seen

as divided between the monastic and lay folk. He has tried to bring in three-tiered model for a balanced

understanding of Indian Buddhism where there is constant interaction between the three types of forest -

renunciant, settled monastic renunciant and the layperson. He has tried to bring out the interdependence of

the three and look at their respective needs of wealth for the settled monastics, basic essentials for the forest

renunciant and spiritual guidance for the layperson. The forest renunciant invokes more respect due to their

power, unpredictability, charisma, and meditational attributes, and there is a kind of sanctity and aura

around them. They give teachings as well as meditational instructions. The laity’s access to the unbounded

charisma of the saints is symbolised by the importance of blessings given by them and by the veneration of

objects that embody their charisma. The spread of Buddhist stupa-worship has been linked to the

enshrinement of remains of monks and their veneration by lay folk. The inter-relation and interaction

between laity and monks comes out very clearly in this study.

A number of scholars have taken up the study of inscriptions at various Buddhist sites to

look into issues such as extent of royal patronage into construction of sites, locational analysis, and

development and continuance of religious establishments over a long span of time.

Upinder Singh in her paper on Sanchi inscriptions has tried to point out the shortcomings of the

early studies. She argues that less rigorous analysis of Sanchi inscriptions have led to impressionistic

conclusions instead of accurate. Sanchi has large collection of inscriptions, more than 800, which cover

around twelve centuries. The majority of them belong to a period between Second century BC to First

century AD. The Pali texts, including Triptika, were written in the same period. Thus, there is some degree

of overlap between the earliest sacred texts of the Buddhists and Sanchi inscriptions. Therefore the analysis

of the available data will help locate correspondences and divergences between the literary and

epigraphical evidences, keeping in mind the problems of dating the textual tradition precisely and also the

differences in the nature of the two sources juxtaposed – one canonical and prescriptive, the other a record

of the faith and monetary endowments of hundreds of individuals who financed the building of the Sanchi

monuments. The reason for taking up Sanchi is it being one of the sites located on a trade route and was an

important political cum administrative centre. In this period it was capital of Sunga dynasty, who are

supposed to be anti-Buddhist and ardent supporters of Brahmanism. How is it possible for a Buddhist

centre to come up on such a large scale without the support of local ruling dynasty? Another fact to be

noted is continuance of the site despite the decline of Vidisa - the urban centre near by, which supposedly

led to the coming up of the site. The questions raised in the paper are about the extent and importance of

royal patronage in construction and continuance of the site in the context of political patronage and

religious establishments in ancient India. The number of private endowments is very high in comparison to

royal ones and out of 846 inscriptions of the main period, only two are imprecatory and rest are votive in

nature. Keeping these facts in mind, she argues for the relative autonomy of the many ancient religious

establishments from royal patronage. The value of several arguments made on the basis of religious

predilections of kings in the ancient past becomes somewhat dubious. Thus, apart from its inception (role

of king Asoka), the growth of Sanchi Buddhist complex had little to do with kings and courts.

Gregory Schopen in his study on Sanchi inscriptions has

looked at issues such as the funding for the construction of the site, patterns of the

patronage at the site and something about the donors. Another issue of importance has

been to determine the “catchment area”, or the geographical area served by the monastic

complex at Sanchi, and to establish links between Sanchi and other sites. Sanchi also

provides enough evidence that the monks and nuns themselves acted as donors and

financed the construction and decoration of stupas, which is in contravention to the

position in Buddhist texts.

He attempts at ‘onomastic change’ to determine something about local

history and the degree of penetration of Buddhism in various parts of early India. He tries

a name analysis at Sanchi stupa 2, where only limited number of men had distinctly

Buddhist names and even a smaller number of women had such names. The number of

distinctly Buddhist names --- only about one-fifth of the total --- at Sanchi stupa 2 is

comparatively small and may indicate that the Buddhist presence in Central India at the

time of these records was neither very old nor extensively rooted, although it must have

already been a presence for at least a generation. Such a study may also show that a

significant number of individuals may have made donations to Buddhist establishments

without, however, ever being “Buddhist” to the degree that they had been given or took

Buddhist names; Buddhism, in other words, may never have been a significant

component of these individuals’ self-identity. It can also provide us with some indication

of a local Central Indian conception of the Buddha, as opposed to the textual conceptions

provided and presented by canonical literature.

He has also attempted to determine how the donors might have understood the

value of their owns records immediately. A placement analysis of inscriptions is done to

determine the intended readership of these records and a large number of these were

never intended even to be seen, leave alone to b e read. Then why so many donative

inscriptions were written and placed at the site? The explanation given by Schopen for

the above is that the people wanted to be placed near a powerful religious objects as it

must have placed the person there as well, regardless of whether that person was

otherwise occupied, absent, or dead. This is precisely the purpose behind the early

donative inscriptions at Sanchi when seen from the point of the view of the donor. They

did not intended to leave a record so it did not much matter whether it could be seen, or

read, or understood. They wanted only, it seems, to leave their presence in close

proximity to another more powerful presence, and in this, again it seems, they succeeded

– they have all been dead for almost two thousand years, and yet are still encountered at

modern Sanchi surrounding that other presence that we can only vaguely sense.

Therefore, the review of literature brings out various trends within which Buddhism has

been studied. There is a socio-economic model, which looks at the growth of the faith in

terms of economic development in early historic India. There are others who have looked

from philosophical perspective. Most of these are based on literary texts, where as the

studies of epigraphical data points to an entirely different picture. The contrast outcomes

of such studies necessitate a detailed study. This is where archaeology can help as it

brings out what really existed on the ground. The interaction between the people and the

religious establishments is reflected in the remains at the ground. Thus, A study of

archaeological sources has been taken up here.

Beginnings of Archaeology, and Cunningham:

Colin Mackenzie made a beginning of the study of antiquities in South India through his collection of

inscriptions and manuscripts. However, it was not published. By the early 1830’s, James Prinsep became

the general secretary of Asiatic Society and played a major role in the initiation of field research. His

contribution to the history of India was immense as he deciphered two most important historical scripts of

India- Brahmi and Kharosthi. Before him, Charles Wilkins had deciphered the ninth century eastern Indian

inscriptions in the late eighteenth century based on his knowledge of medieval manuscripts of the region,

and then it became a case of proceeding ‘known from the unknown’. Thus, with the progress in the field of

epigraphy and numismatics studies, a proper understanding of the chronology of historical sites developed.

In the same period, the Buddhist stupas in the north-west part of India and Afghanistan were discovered

along with Indo-Greek coins and sculptures by European generals- Lieutenant Alexander Burnes and

Charles Masson. The Sikh regiment also excavated the site of Manikyala stupa in Punjab. The military men

in active duty in these areas generally amused themselves by getting ancient sites dug up and acquiring the

so-called Grecian remains.4 Certain settlement sites in north India were studied and reports on antiquities

began to increase, as was the case of Kukrihar, dug up by Markham Kittoe or megalithic sites of Deccan by

Captain Meadows Taylor who also published the results of his excavations with sections.

Cunningham, a Military engineer, came to India in June 1833 and started surveying and excavating

sites in 1834 out of his interest in Indian antiquities Between 1834-36, he conducted his first excavations at

Sarnath. He published his first study in 1843 on the identification of Samkassam near Farrukhabad in UP,

where he used the account of Fa-Hsien to determine the bearing of the site in relation to Mathura. This was

followed by studying various historical-geographical issues in Kashmir and the northwest in 1848. The

investigation of the “Bhilsa topes”, his first substantive field-investigation, was reported in 1852 and 1854.

His first major architectural study was in the context of Kashmir in 1848. Between 1854-1861, he did not

publish anything as he was on duty at Burma (1856-1858). He was a well-grounded scholar in

numismatics, epigraphcal, architectural and historical-geographical studies. Before 1861, whatever he did

was on his own initiative, but he was appointed Archaeological Surveyor by Lord Canning to work for

Indian Archaeology. Lord Canning laid out the objectives for the proposal by Cunningham:

“What is aimed at is an accurate description, illustrated by plans, measurements,

drawings or photographs, and by copies of inscriptions, of such remains as most deserve

notice, with the history of them so far as it may be traceable, and a record of the

traditions that are preserved regarding them”

There was a hiatus between 1866-1870 as he was posted as Director of Delhi and London Bank in

London. He took over as Director-General of ASI in 1871 and worked until September 30 th 1885. In

retirement in London from October 1885 to his death on November 30th 1893, he published many of his

works including the one on Bodhgaya.

4 Chakrabarti, DK., 1999, pp 7.

Objectives of Cunningham for taking up Buddhist Archaeology:

The objectives have to be seen at two levels – why does he decide to work on Indian archaeology and how

does he go about it. He has listed various reasons for taking up Indian archaeology from his interest to

opportunity. He begins by writing:

“I have selected the Buddhist period or Ancient Geography of India, as the subject of the present

enquiry, as I believe that the peculiarly favorable opportunities of local investigation which I enjoyed

during a long career in India, will enable me to determine with absolute certainty the sites of many of the

most important places in India”. (Preface, Ancient geography in India, 1871)

The basic argument was that the Hindu texts were silent about Buddhism and thus the

publication of Buddhist antiquities would be as important for the reconstruction of the

political and religious history of India as the printing of the Vedas and Puranas. In 1848,

while putting his first proposal for archaeological survey with the government’s help, he

writes:

“The discovery and publication of all the existing remains of architecture and

sculpture, with coins and inscriptions, would throw more light on the ancient history of

India, both public and domestic, than the printing of all the rubbish contained in 18

Puranas.”

He does not discount the study of literary sources such as Puranas, but all his outbursts were because

archaeology was not getting its due share in scheme of things. Moreover, as he got his chance of going to

the field in search of the historical remains of India, he was honest enough to acknowledge the role of

textual scholarship in the understanding of the sites of ancient India. The architectural remains on the

ground also attracted the contemporary scholars including Cunningham. He writes:

“It is a duty which the government owe to this country. The remains of architecture and sculpture are

daily deteriorating, and inscriptions are broken and defaced; the sooner, therefore, the steps are taken for

their preservation, the more numerous and consequently the more valuable these remains will be.”

He also writes with the broader issue of British supremacy while proposing this survey in 1848:

“An undertaking of vast importance to the Indian government politically, and to the British public

religiously. To the first body it would show that India had generally been divided into numerous petty

chieftains, which had invariably been the case upon every successful invasion; while, whenever she had

been under one ruler, she had always repelled foreign conquest with determined resolution. To the other

body it would show that Brahmanism, instead of being an unchanged and unchangeable religion which had

subsisted for ages, was of comparatively modern origin, and had been constantly receiving additions and

alterations; facts which prove that the establishment of the Christian religion in India must ultimately

succeed”.

After a study of his objectives, it is imperative to study the way in which Cunningham

went on with his mission. He prepared a framework to work out his field-researches. He

divides the geography of early India into distinct sections (based on) each broadly named

after the prevailing religious and political character of the period, which it embraces as

the Brahamanical, the Buddhist and the Muhammdans.

The Brahamanical period traces the gradual extension of the Aryan race over the Northern India, from

their first occupation of the Punjab to the rise of Buddhism, and comprise whole of the pre-historic, or

earliest sections of history, during which time the religion of the Vedas was the prevailing belief of the

country.

The Buddhist period traces the rise, extension, and decline of the Buddhist faith from the era of Buddha,

to the conquest of Mahmud of Ghazni, during the greater part of which time Buddhism was the dominant

religion of the country.

The Muhammdan period or the Modern Geography of India would embrace the rise and extension of

the Muhammdan power from the time of Mahmud Ghazni to the battle of Plassey, or about 750 years,

during which the Musalmans were the paramount sovereigns of India.

The sources for this study were the campaigns of Alexander in the 4 th century BC,

the accounts of Ptolemy and the travels of the Chinese pilgrim Hwen-Thsang in 7th

century AD. The Chinese pilgrim Fa-hian was a Buddhist priest, who traveled through

India from the banks of the Upper Indus to the mouth of the Ganges, between the years

399 and 413 A.D. Unfortunately his journal is very concise, and is chiefly taken up with

the description of the sacred spots and objects of his religion, but as he usually gives the

bearings and distances of the chief places in his route, his short notices are very valuable.

The travels of the second Chinese pilgrim, Sung-Yun, belong to the year 502 A.D., but as

they were confined to the Kabul valley and north-west Punjab, they are of much less

importance, more especially as his journal is particularly meagre in geographical notices.

The third Chinese pilgrim, Hwen Thsang, was also a Buddhist priest, who spent

nearly fifteen years of his life in India in studying the famous books of his religion, and in

visiting all the holy places of Buddhism. Alexander Cunningham used M. Stanislas

Julien’s translation, who with unwearied resolution devoted his great abilities for no less

than twenty years to the acquirement of the Sanskrit and Chinese languages for this

special purpose (Max Muller’s “Buddhism and Buddhist pilgrim”, p.30).

There were others also who conducted surveys in eighteenth century India.

Buchanan Hamilton’s survey of the country was much more minute, but it was limited to

the lower provinces of the Ganges in Northern India and to the district of Mysore in

Southern India. Jacquemont’s travels were much less restricted; but as that sagacious,

Frenchman’s observations were chiefly confined to Geology and Botany and other

scientific subjects, his journeys in India have added little to our knowledge of Geography.

Then he discusses about his own travels and what all he has done in last 4 years

when he was employed as archaeological surveyor between 1861-1865 by the Govt. of

India to examine and report upon the antiquities of the country. He visited whole of

Northern India, Bombay (caves of Elephanta and Kanheri) in Western India and nothing

in Southern India. For first thirty years, early History and Geography of India formed the

chief study of his leisure hours. He goes on to record his findings of major ancient Indian

cities --- Aornos, Taxila, Sangala, Srughna, Ahichhatra, Bairat, Sankissa, Sravasti,

Kosambi, Padmavati, Vaisali and Nalanda.

Sources:

The sources for the above study comprise 24 volumes of reports of field surveys between

1861-1885 by Alexander Cunningham and his assistants. Cunningham has also published

various other books, articles and monographs based on his excavations and survey works

at various sites. Numerous papers of Cunningham published in the Journals of the Asiatic

Society of Bengal and Royal Asiatic Society will be used for the study.

The sites visited by Cunningham have been subsequently worked upon by various

archaeologists in the 20th century and reports have been published in Memoirs of

Archaeological Survey of India (1900-1930), Ancient India (1950-1962) and Indian

Archaeological Review (1953-1995).

There have been a number of works on Bodhgaya and the prominent scholars

have been Alexander Cunningham (1861-92), R.L. Mitra and J. Beglar (1871), J.

Fergusson (1876), T. Block (1908-09), B.M. Barua (1931-34), J. Marshall (1922), L.

Bachofer (1929), A. Coomaraswamy (1935), P. Stern (1954) and Chandra (1971). All

these scholars have primarily worked based on architectural and archaeological remains.6

It will be interesting here to examine the different approaches of these scholars in dealing 6 Cunningham, Bloch etc. were involved in the excavation of the site, White Mitra, Beglar etc. wre

involved in the restoration of the temple and other structures. Here it is necessary to point out the incomplete excavation of Bodhgaya.

with various issues concerned with the study. An examination of available research

studies by various scholars on related issues will provide us with new perspectives.

CHAPTERISATIONS:

Chapter One will discuss the contribution of Cunningham through his surveys. It will also

try to analyse the method adopted by Cunningham in conducting surveys and his goals

and the result of them.

In chapter two, the archaeological geography and sites excavated by Cunningham will be

discussed. It will also discuss details of the sites, remnants and results of his works.

Cunningham attempted to collect geographical data from the texts, which were followed

by his surveys at the sites. It helped him in placing the sites in their wider context and he

further conducted his researches based on these details. He has reported all the remains,

ruins and location of the sites vis-à-vis major markers.

Chapter Three will discuss subsequent archeological works at major sites visited by

Cunningham such as Sanchi, Sravasti, Bharhut, Sarnath, Vaisali and Bodhgaya to name a

few.

Chapter Four, will discuss the archaeological geography, resource base and settlement

pattern of Bodhgaya. The site has a long history, beginning from Neolithic to present. A

survey of the site will help in bringing out smaller sites. A record of smaller sites is

necessary as there is no complete description of the site available. Moreover, these are

destroyed on mass scale due to population growth and agricultural intensification.

Therefore the site will be studied vis-à-vis its location, then historical linkages to

different areas, problems of ancient political geography5, and the major routes passing

through the area. The study of settlement hierarchy around the place will also be taken up

as it provides the nature of the site and its occupation. The interaction between site and

people comes out through a study of settlement hierarchy, locational factors, routes,

landuse, economic occupations, for which an analysis of locations of settlements and

scatter of artifacts is must.

In chapter Five, the notion of sacred geography vis-à-vis Buddhism will be discussed.

The purpose of raising this issue of sacred geography is to examine the nature of the

5 Political geography means applicability of the ancient political boundaries and territorial names validated by the study of the actual archaeological evidence of settlements in the area .

remains at the site and to see if that brings out the involvement of the lay people in the

growth of the site as well as with the religion. The analysis will also help in setting these

sites within their wider archaeological context. The growth of the sites vis-à-vis

monuments and structures must have led to the development of a sacred complex.6 The

analysis of the sacred landscape helps in situating the sacred/ritual site within their broad

socio-political setting. The entire landscape has to be examined in order to bring out a

clear picture. It has to look at in its totality and focus on the total area rather than the

existing monuments. Therefore, it is necessary to look at other substantial, albeit

fragmentary, remains and structures. We shall also try to examine the issue of visual

experience, and in particular inter-visibility within a site, as an important consideration in

examining ritual monuments within the landscapes. We can only hope to understand the

symbolic meanings of the archaeological structures by viewing them within their wider

ritual context, i.e. i.e. the way they were made, used and experienced by man. There have

been attempts to explore the nature of the relics deposited in stupas and the rituals that

surround them. The works have helped to dispel the idea that the veneration of relics was

the exclusive concern of the Buddhist laity. Trainer (1996: 18-35) has discussed the way

in which a monument can, through the force of ritualisation mould, the way in which

people move around and ‘read’ its various parts. This brings in archaeology, which

‘offers a perspective on what people actually did, as opposed to what they were supposed

to do. Julia Shaw recommends that there is a need to reconsider these monuments from a

phenomenological angle, applying what can be gleaned from texts and inscriptions to

what can be found on the ground at specific places. The enquiry she envisages goes

beyond scriptural texts and archaeological remains per se and attempts to make a

‘somatic’ assessment of the ways in which people in the past respond to and interacted

with their surrounding. Thus, the focus of the enquiry here will be to recover the ritual

dynamics at the site and the landscape in which they were set in. The issue of pilgrimage

and votive remains indicating the religious nature of site, in an archaeological context,

will bring out the continuing interaction between the laity and the monastic

6The sacred complex helped to propagate the power of the Buddhist religion (dharma) across the landscape, and it also indicated a preoccupation with the protection of Buddhist relics and the control of the monuments in which they were deposited. On an intra-site level, the importance of vision, surveillance and availability of services (Pooja, medical treatment etc.), may have been manifested in spatial terms within sacred complex.

establishments, which contributed to the continuance of this religion for more that

twenty-five hundred years.

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Abbreviations

ARASI – Annual Report of the Archeological Survey of India.

HR – History of Religions.

IAR _ Indian Archeological Review.

IESHR – Indian Economic and Social History Review.

IJBS- Indian Journal of Buddhist Studies.

IJBPP- Indian Journal of Bihar Puravid Parishad.

JAOS – Journal of American Oriental Society.

WA - World Archeology.