Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/109

 CHAP. III. BODH-GAYA. 77 immediately in front of the celebrated Bodhi - tree (Ficus religiosaj- under whose shade Buddha is said to have attained complete enlightenment in the thirty-fifth year of his age, dr. B.C. 525. Its history is told in such detail by Hiuen Tsiang 2 that there seems little doubt as to the main facts of the case. According to this authority, Ajoka built a small yjMra here, but long afterwards this was replaced by a temple 160 ft. high and 60 ft. (20 paces) wide, which are the exact dimen- sions of the present building, according to Cunningham, 3 and we are further told that it was erected by a Brahman, who was warned by Mahe^wara (Siva), in a vision, to execute this work. 4 In this temple there was a cella corresponding with the dimensions of that found there, in which the Brahman placed a statue of Buddha, seated cross-legged, with one hand pointing to the earth. 6 The date of the erection of this temple is still obscure : General Cunningham laboured, on rather doubtful data, to prove that it was erected in the reign of the Kushan king, Huvishka, in the century B.C., and, from a coin found in a later image, he concluded that additions and restorations were made in the 4th century. 6 There are sculptures and inscriptions that must belong between the 2nd and 7th centuries, and they are numerous between the 9th and end of the I2th; but none of them help us in definitely fixing the date of the temple. From the style and what remains of the older sculptures, we can only assume that it may belong to somewhere about the 6th' century, though considerably altered in later times by successive restorations. From an Arakanese inscription on the spot, first translated by Colonel H. Burney, we further learn that the 1 Buchanan Hamilton was told by the priests on the spot, in 1811, that it was planted there 2225 years ago, or B.C. 414, and that the temple was built 126 years afterwards, or in 289 B.C. : not a bad guess for A^oka's age in a locality where Buddhism has been so long forgotten. Montgomery Martin's ' Eastern India,' vol. i. p. 76. 2 ' Hiouen Thsang,' torn. ii. pp. 464- 468 ; or Beal, 'Buddhist Records,' vol. ii. pp. 118-121. 3 'Archaeological Reports,' vol. i. p. 5; and ' Mahabodhi,' p. 18. 4 Wassiliev, in his work on the Doctrine, History, etc., of Buddhism, pp. 41-42, gives a somewhat different account, stating that it was erected by Punya, one of three brothers converted by Uttara, one of whom built a temple in the Deer Park at Benares, and the other a temple in the Venuvana garden at Rajagriha. Gen. Cunningham refers to a story related by Taranath of two brothers, one of whom built the Nalanda temple, and, from the resemblance in style, he infers that the MahSbodi temple belongs to the same date, if not to one of the brothers. 5 That is in the attitude known as the ' Bhumisparja mudrji. ', in which .Sakya- mum sat wKen Ee attained supreme knowledge. 8 'Mahabodhi,' pp. 17-25. This was a coin of Pa^upati, Raja of Nepal, whose name possibly the Pampreksha of the chronologies is well-known to numis- matists from his coins ; but nothing is certain about his date, except that most probably he lived subsequently to the 7th century. 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. xiii. p. 412; Wright's, 'History of Nepal,' p. 113; Sylvain Levi, ' Le Nepal,' tome ii. pp. 108-111; 'Journal Royal Asiatic Society,' 1908, p. 68 1.