Thursday 15 August 2019



Discovery of Magadh share of the Buddha relics in Rajgir. "Chakra" village on a stupa. Chakra: In page 160 third para of his book "Si-Yu-Ki" Huen Tsang writes, “To the east of the Karandavenuvana is a stupa which was built by Ajatshatru Raja. After the nirvana of Tathagat the kings divided the relics. The king Ajatshatru returned with his share, and on a feeling of extreme reverence built (a stupa) and offered religious offerings to it.” The reader will be surprised why I chose the village of Chakra as the stupa of Ajatshatrus share of the Buddhas relics. Taranath, a Tibetan Buddhist scholar with a sanskrit name, tells the story of Ashoka confiscating some of his ancestor’s share of Buddha relics. When he opened the stupa he saw a wheel turning and emanating fire. He had to divert the waters of a nearby stream to douse the fire. The wheel stopped moving and Ashoka managed to take out most of the relics. When the stream of water was diverted to its original course, the fire once again lit up turning the wheel again. Ashoka then got it covered again. Because of this wheel this stupa was called Chakra. Chakra in Hindi means a rotating wheel. The stupa in the video is ancient no doubt and time has eroded it. Thanks to Huen Tsang I found it. The area around it was the ancient Rajgir. So this is one of the eight original relic stupas that received the Buddhas relics.

Heres the link to the youtube video of Chakra village on Chakra stupa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyQZ7LiOK6Q

No comments:

Post a Comment