The real Bodh Gaya and the Bodhi tree: The Bodhi tree died in 1872 and was replaced by a sapling by Alexander Cunningham. The present site of the Maha Bodhi temple in Bodh Gaya isn't the original one. The original place where the Bodhi tree once stood is to the east of present day Bodh Gaya north of the village of Bakraur. The present site simply doesn't fit into Huen Tsangs description. According to Huen Tsang the Bodhi tree was surrounded by several stupas. It was surrounded by a boundary wall approximately 400 feet from east to west and 200 feet from north to south. South west of the Bodhi tree was the Sujata stupa. So the Bodhi tree should be north east of the stupa. South of the Bodhi tree was the two little stupas where the girls boiled the kheer and Sujata gave the kheer to the Buddha. The two stupas are there lying neglected so that means the Bodhi tree should be north of them. Instead the ASI have marked the stupa which was the grass cutters stupa as the one where the girls boiled the kheer and gave it to the Buddha to eat. All this should be corrected. The remains of the original Ashokan vihara is north of Bakraur village. According to Huen Tsang this vihara was outside the eastern gate of the Bodhi tree boundary wall. here is the report I gave to the Archaeological survey of India.

(9) Bodh Gaya with the Bodhi tree. (Si-Yu-Ki pages 115 to 136) This will be a deadly shock and surprise to most historians. Like in the case of Pataliputra which I have described above, no one has attempted to cross check the finds of the British historians who identified all the places Huen Tsang visited. The mistake Indian historians did was to treat the findings and conclusions of Britisher’s as the bible or final word of ancient Indian history. A cursory glance at Huen Tsangs journal “Si-Yu-Ki Buddhist records of the Western World,” will alert the reader. First and foremost I would like to drive home a point. Buildings, trees and other structures may die, wither, and disappear, but stupas are immortal. They are mud mounds which live forever. They live on to tell their tale. It is as though dead men are talking. I base my searches of Buddhist spots mainly according to the position of stupas. We all know it was Huen Tsangs and Fa Heins writings that the great British orientalists treated as the bible for ancient Buddhist Indian history. A simple reading of Huen Tsangs account of Bodh Gaya and the Bodhi tree will arouse suspicion on the sites identified by Cunningham, Col Waddell and other orientalists. The buildings have disappeared and trees are long gone dead. The stupas are alive to tell their tale. I searched for the stupas and found the real area where the Bodhi Tree once was. The following are a few of the clues supplied to us by Huen Tsang that are a must to identify the spot where the Bodhi tree and the Mahabodhi temple were. These are missing in the present day Bodhi tree and the Mahabodhi temple but are found elsewhere.

(a) First and foremost we must remember that Huen Tsang had stated the Bodhi tree was surrounded by a boundary wall 500 paces round. I will quote the third paragraph of page 115 of his journal “Si-Yu-Ki.” He says “Going south west from Mount Pragbodhi about 14 or 15 Li we come to the Bodhi tree. It is surrounded by a brick wall of considerable height steep and strong. It is long from east to west and short from north to south. It is about 500 paces round. The principal gate opens east to the Narayani river. The southern gate adjoins a great flowery bank. The northern gate opens into the great Sanghdharma.” According to Huen Tsangs quote the boundary wall of the Bodhi tree will be 500 paces which is equal to twelve hundred and fifty feet in length and breadth (note the measurement isn’t in square feet). He further states it is longer from east to west and shorter from north to south. So twelve hundred and fifty feet in length and breadth will be huge. Take for example 400 ft long and 225 ft broad. That will be approximately 90,000 sq ft which is approximately three acres. The present day wall around the Bodhi tree is only a quarter the size of what Huen Tsang described and there is no great Sanghdharma outside the northern gate of the present boundary wall.

Then Huen Tsang describes the distance of the Bodhi tree from Mount Pragbodhi which is the Dungeshwari hills of today. He says it is 14 to 15 Li’s distant which is roughly equivalent to 4 kilometers. The catch lies here. From which point of the Dungeshwari hills does Huen Tsang take the measurement of 15 Li’s to the Bodhi tree. If one takes the measuring point of the south western tip of the Dungeswari hills then the 15 Li ends up safely on the spot where the Bodhi Tree is today. It seems Cunningham, Waddell, and the other British explorers did this mistake. I don’t believe the Chinese traveler had the time and energy to walk five kilometers to the south western tip to take the measurement from there to the Bodhi tree. I strongly believe that he took measurements from the point he climbed onto the Dungeshwari hill and the point he climbed down the hill. That will be the point below the Dungeshwari cave. Fifteen Li’s south east from the ground below the Dungeshwari hill is the area around Bakraur village which is a sort of an Island between two rivers. A particular spot near this village and near the eastern river matches the sketch made by Fa Hein of the Buddha sitting under the Bodhi tree right on the banks of the Niranjana with the Dungeshwari hills to the left of his left shoulder. This sketch gives us a pretty accurate visual picture of the proximity of the south western tip of the Dungeshwari hills with Fa Heins and Huen Tsangs Bodhi tree. The problem of measuring from a particular point of a long range of hills also foxes historical explorers searching for the spots Huen Tsang visited northwest of the Rajgir hills which is thirty three kilometers long travelling slightly south west from Giriak to Titua. This is why till date historians never found the villages and relic stupas of Sarbhada, Sariputra, Mogliyana,  who were the Buddha’s most important disciples. Neither were they able to find the real Nalanda Sanghdharma which they wrongly identified with the Odantupra sanghdharma. I was also foxed for five months and was searching for these places. But like the Dungeshwari hills when I put the measurement at a point marked Natsar in satellite pictures which was where Huen Tsang most probably climbed the Indrasaila Guha mountain and descended it. From that point I was able to locate Sarbhada’s, Sariputra’s, and Mogliyana’s villages and stupas as well as the original and actual Nalanda Sanghdharma. I used the same principle in my search for the spot where the Bodhi tree once was. I measured 15 Li’s or 4 kilometers from the point below the Dungeshwari cave. If one chooses the site in Bakraur, then all the places described by Huen Tsang fall into place and can be traced.

 (f) I will start with the most important stupa that is pivotal in identifying Huen Tsangs Bodhi tree and King Ashokas Mahabodhi vihara. That is the Sujata stupa marking the place where Sujatas house was. She was the girl who boiled milk and fed the Buddha kheer or rice milk. I will quote the second paragraph of page 127 of his journal “Si-Yu-Ki.” Huen Tsang writes, “At the south west of the Bodhi Tree, outside the walls, there is a stupa, this is where the old house of the two shepherd girls stood who offered the rice milk to the Buddha. By the side of it is another stupa where the girls boiled the rice; by the side of this stupa Tathagat received the rice.” The Sujata stupa marking the spot of Sujatas house was excavated in the years 1973-74 and 2001 and 2004 in the area that is now called Bakraur. This stupa is two kilometers to the east of the present day Bodhi tree and is across the river. You can read about the Sujata stupa in Wikipedia. A plaque dated 8-9 CE reads “Devpala Rajasya Sujata Griha.” As soon as this stupa was excavated historians should have been alerted to the authenticity of the Bodhi Tree and mahabodhi vihara in the present day Bodh Gaya as these places don’t have any such stupa around them or anywhere near them. Huen Tsang clearly states this stupa was outside the south west corner of the Bodhi tree wall. So the stupa was to the south west of the Bodhi tree. Naturally that would mean the Bodhi tree was to the north east of the Sujata stupa. This is the area in Bakraur on the banks of the river with the Dungeswari hills just across the river. Orientalists and Indian historians previously marked the Sujata stupa as the Ganda Hasti stupa or the stupa of the scented elephant that Huen Tsang said was across the Narayani river east of the Bodhi tree. So now since the Ganda hasti stupa has been identified as the Sujata stupa, the ganda hasti stupa should be searched for on the Dungeshwari hill side of the river south of the hills. Unfortunately till date no one has attempted this. Today there is no Sujata stupa anywhere around the present day Bodhi tree or Mahabodhi vihara. The Sujata stupa is across the river to the east of the Bodhi tree. This doesn’t match Huen Tsangs description at all because the Bodhi tree should be to the north east of Sujata’s stupa.

(f) There are more stupas that help pinpoint the site where the Bodhi tree once stood. Huen Tsang further states in the second paragraph of page 127 of his journal Si-Yu-Ki which I have quoted above. He says, “by the side of it (Sujata Stupa) is another stupa where the girls boiled rice; by the side of this stupa Tathagat received the rice.” In Bakraur, approximately 100 meters to the east of Sujatas stupa which marks the place where her house was, there are two small neglected stupas. One is bigger than the other and the big one has a small temple at the western side of the stupa. The remains of the plinth of a boundary wall surround’s both the stupas. According to me the smaller stupa is the spot where the two girls boiled milk and next to it is the bigger stupa where the girls offered the Buddha kheer. The river is 100 feet to the east of this stupa. Unfortunately these stupas are neglected and one hundred feet to the south of these is the base of a big stupa which has been wrongly called the Sujata temple and wrongly identified as where the girls boiled rice and Sujata offered kheer. This should be corrected. The angle of the two neglected stupas clearly states that the Bodhi tree should be within a hundred fifty meters to their north with the river within a hundred feet to the east. There are no such stupas south of the present day Bodhi tree.

(b) Huen Tsang further says there are stupas in every corner of the boundary wall. I will quote the first paragraph in page 127 of his journal “Si_Yu-Ki.” He says, “Within the walls of the Bodhi tree at each of the four angles is a great stupa.” This statement made by Huen Tsang  is to be taken seriously as stupas don’t die easily. I can vouch that for Ashokan stupas as I now regard myself an authority on that type of stupa. The Bodhi tree is long gone dead but stupas are immortal. In the village of Bakraur one hundred and fifty meters north of the two neglected stupas are boundary walls on land bought by foreigners. I couldn’t explore this area properly as most of the land here has been bought up by foreign monasteries who are fighting law suits with locals so the gates are closed. This has to be looked into. The present day Bodhi tree does not have these stupas around it so we can safely say the site simply doesn’t match Huen Tsangs description. The walled area north to the two neglected stupas should be thoroughly explored. The stupas with the remains of the Bodhi tree boundary wall will be found there. I am sure about that. The stupas tell me that.

(c)Huen Tsang then states the main entrance in the boundary wall is in the eastern gate facing the Niranjana river. This is in the third paragraph of page 115 of his journal “Si-Yu-Ki,” which I have previously quoted. In the present case the main entrance is from the north of the Bodhi tree.

(d) Huen Tsang goes on to state King Ashoka’s Vihara was to the eastern gate of the boundary wall. It was 160 ft high and fifty feet in length and breath. In the Bodh Gaya of today the Bodhi tree is outside the south western wall of the Mahabodhi temple. And the Bodhi tree isn’t the original one. Dr Buchanon Hamilton saw it in its prime in 1811, it had decayed by 1876 when Alexander Cunningham saw it. It finally died in 1881 causing Cunningham to plant a sapling on the same spot. So the Bodhi tree isn’t the original one. In my explorations I have realized the Bodhi tree is long gone dead. Wherever the Bodhi tree was it should be surrounded by the remains of a twelve hundred and fifty feet boundary wall with stupas within all its four corners and the Mahabodhi vihara to the east of the tree. I found the ruins of a vihara without a roof or a steeple to the north of the two neglected stupas I had mentioned above and which I believe are the stupas where Sujata boiled the milk and offered the Buddha kheer. South west to that ruined vihara is the Sujata stupa that marks the spot where Sujata’s house was. Fifty meters to the east of that vihara is the river with the south western tip of the Dungeshwari hill on the other side. And Huen Tsangs description of Ashokas vihara makes the ruined vihara I saw a strong contender for the Ashokan vihara Huen Tsang described. It is around fifty feet in length and breadth and has an inner chamber fifty feet long and three feet broad along the southern wall. There are two niches like chambers on both sides of the fifty foot long eastern wall. I will quote the third paragraph of page 118 of Si-Yu-Ki. “To the east of the Bodhi tree there is a vihara 160-170 feet high. Its lower foundation wall is twenty or more paces in its face. The building is of blue tiles covered with chunam.” As stated earlier the ruined vihara I saw where I suspected the Bodhi tree once stood was fifty feet in length and breadth which is twenty paces in length and breadth just as Huen Tsang described. In the first paragraph in line four of page 119 of Si-Yu-Ki, Huen Tsang continues, “Its somber chambers and mysterious halls have doors in each of the three stories. To the right and left of the outside gates are niches like chambers. In the left is a figure of Avalokiteshwara and in the right a figure of Maitriya Bodhisatva.” This is just as I had described the eastern wall of the ruined vihara. It had two small temple like chambers which Huen Tsang calls niches on each corner of the wall. The vihara didn’t have a steeple or a roof which I expected as normal. Historians have failed to discuss the total annihilation of Buddhism from this land. This religion was totally wiped out to the extent that the people living in Pataliputra didn’t know it was Pataliputra. So was the case of Bodh Gaya till the British historians told them. Historians haven’t taken into account the massive brainwashing that occurred causing a strong religion such as Buddhism to be totally forgotten. During that brain washing all major Buddhist sites were wiped out clean. I mean forgotten. So it was natural that the ruined vihara was roofless or steepleless. It was attacked and destroyed by people like Shashank. We know about Shashank because Huen Tsang wrote about him. What about the multitude of others who must have behaved like him. Historians haven’t looked at the present day Mahabodhi vihara in Bodh Gaya from this angle. If it was the actual Buddhist site how did this monument survive that brainwashing? That too with its 160 foot high steeple intact. This proves it was a Hindu structure which wasn’t attacked by vandals. The fact that the ruined vihara I saw near the Dungeshwari hills was steepleless proves it was a Buddhist monument that had been physically assaulted. And the final clue to the ruined vihara being Ashokas vihara is the three feet broad and fifty feet long chamber along the southern wall I saw and video graphed in the ruins. According to the story Huen Tsang narrates King Shashank after destroying the Bodhi tree wanted the figure of the Buddha to be removed from the Ashokan vihara and replaced by one of Mahesvara-Deva. The officer felt guilty as he was a Buddhist so he ordered a wall to be made covering the figure of the Buddha and a picture of Maheswara-Deva made on it. I will quote the last paragraph of page 121 of Si-Yu-Ki. “On this he called to his presence a man with a believing heart to help him, and sent him to build up across the chamber and before the figure of Buddha a wall of brick. The man from a feeling of shame from the darkness, placed a burning lamp; and on the interposing wall he drew a figure of Mahesvara-Deva.” This paragraph clearly states why the three by fifty feet chamber existed behind the southern wall of the ruined vihara. The chamber housed the Buddhas statue hiding it from Hindu vandals. I personally think this is a strong contender for the real Buddhist Ashokan vihara.

(f) Huen Tsang goes on to say to the south of the Sanghdharma is the Muchalinda lake which is 700 paces round. That will be around 1750 ft in length and breath. There was another lake to the south of this. I will quote the second paragraph of page 127 of Huen Tsangs journal “Si-Yu-Ki.” He says, “Outside the south gate of the Bodhi tree is a great tank about 700 paces round, the water of which is clear and pure as a mirror.” In todays Bodh Gaya the south of the Bodhi tree is a lake which is hardly five hundred feet in length and breath. This also doesn’t match Huen Tsangs description. 

(g) Huen Tsang says to the south of the Bodhi tree boundary wall King Ashoka made a 100 foot high stupa to mark the spot where the grass cutter gave grass to the Buddha to sit on. I will quote the last paragraph of page 123 of Si-Yu-Ki. “Not far to the south of the Bodhi tree is a stupa about a hundred feet high, which was built by Ashoka Raja.” Huen Tsang goes on to narrate why the stupa was built. It was built to commemorate the event of the grass cutter giving the Buddha grass to sit on. Once again there is no such stupa south of the present day Bodhi tree or the Mahabodhi vihara. This is a serious anomaly that goes against the present day Mahabodhi vihara. As I stated earlier stupas do not die. The base of such a stupa will never die. It should be somewhere nearby. It isn’t anywhere around the present day Mahabodhi vihara. There is the foundation of such a stupa to the south of the ruined vihara I just described. The foundation is just one hundred feet to the west of the river with the Dungeshwari hill on the other side.

 (h) Proximity of the Bodhi tree to the Niranjana river and the south eastern tip of Dungeshwari hills is shown in Fa Heins sketch of the Buddha sitting under the tree. This also doesn’t match the distance of the present day Bodhi tree and the Dungeshwari hills.

In my exploring in different places I have realized that buildings may die but stupas have an eternal life. Buddhist Stupas will always help mankind identify the correct places because they are simple mud mounds which nature or man doesn’t bother to destroy. The above mentioned stupas can all be found on the eastern side of the Falgu river and to the west  of the other river bordering the south western tip of the Dungeshwari hill. The area between the two rivers is called Bakraur. This areas proximity to the Dungeshwari hills matches that of Fa Heins sketch. The spot I suspect where the Bodhi tree once stood is north east to the Sujata stupa that marks the spot which was Sujatas house. The ruined vihara I saw was to the east of where the Bodhi tree once stood. East of Sujatas stupa is a small stupa that I suspect is the stupa where Sujata boiled milk. Next to it is a slightly bigger stupa with a temple next to it where Sujata offered the Buddha milk. South of the spot where I suspect the Bodhi tree once stood is a stupa with a strong base on which the ASI has wrongly identified with the stupa where Sujata offered the Buddha Kheer. The present day Sujata temple stands on that stupas base. The strong base of the stupa itself implies that it was the hundred foot high Ashokan stupa to mark the spot where the grass cutter gave the Buddha grass to sit on. These are a few of the clues that strongly identify Bakraur as the true Bodh Gaya and not the present day one with the Bodhi tree and Mahabodhi temple. The Bodhi tree is long gone dead. Excavations will unearth the boundary wall and the Muchlinda lake. All this has to be corrected. You can view my findings and my explorations on Bakraur in my youtube Channel “Buddha Exhumed: Discovery of original Bodh Gaya.”

Heres the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWIFb84yvU0&t=19s