Sariputras home, village and relic stupa. Huen Tsang travels 20 li or 5.5 kilometers south east from Hathiyama which has King Bimbisaras stupa to Kodihara. He mispronounces it as 'Kia-lo-pi-na-kia' which Samuel Beal translates as Kalapinaka. below is the report I gave to the Archaeological Survey Of India pertaining to this village and the stupas described by Huen Tsang. Below is the Youtube video of the village and stupas.
(42)Kodihara village/Kia-lo-pi-na-kia (Si-Yu-Ki page177 to 179) From
the Hathiyama stupa or the stupa made by king Bimbisara, Huen Tsang traveled
twenty Li’s or five and a half kilometers south east to the village of
Kodhihara. I will quote the second paragraph of page 177 of his journal
Si-Yu-Ki. He says, “South east from the spot where Bimbisara met Buddha, at a
distance of about 20 li, we come to the town of Kalapinaka (Kia-lo-pi-na-kia).
In this town is a stupa that was built by Ashoka Raja. This is the place where
Sariputra, the venerable one, was born. The well of the place still exists. By
the side of the place is a stupa. This is where the venerable one obtained
nirvana; the relics of his body are therefore enshrined therein.” Huen Tsang
calls the village Kiu-lo-pi-na-kia and
Samuel Beal calls it Kalapinaka. Huen Tsangs Kiu’lo-pi-na-kia sounds similar to
the village called Kodihara. The peculiarity of this name is it is written
Kodihara but pronounced Kolihara so matches Huen Tsangs mis-pronounced Kiu-lo-pi-na-kia.
I visited the village and realized it was populated by Bumihar Brahmins. I
found the two stupas. The Ashokan stupa was just outside the village next to a
mango grove and was half destroyed. Half the stupas mud had been excavated by
an excavator for earth filling on the village road. Huen Tsang had described an
ancient well near the stupa. The well is there but the walls have been
plastered in an attempt to make it look new. Today the well is defunct. I
videographed the well. West of the village on a hillock is enshrined the relics
of Sariputra in a mammoth sized stupa. It looks magnificent and is very high.
It has mud plastered around the hillock and rocks the size of a palm covering
the hillock to make it into a perfect circle. According to Huen Tsang when
Sariputra heard of the forecast of the
Buddhas death he asked the latter for permission to die first. He was
granted permission so he died in the seclusion of this hillock. From this stupa
you can see the stupa that has enshrined in it the relics of Sariputra’s
favorite disciple. These stupas are important as they belong to important
Buddhist personalities. They also strengthen Huen Tsangs claim that the area
beteen Keur and Panhar village is the actual Nalanda sanghdharma. The video of
the village and stupas can be viewed in my youtube channel “Buddha Exhumed.”
The link to the youtube video of the stupas:
No comments:
Post a Comment