Stupas and Buddha's Disciples
Table of Contents
Varanasi, 27 March 1984
Baba visited Varanasi after visiting several other places.
But the toples dealt here are connected with Kashika culture, so they are mentioned here although chronologically, they should be mentioned later).
Today Haba visited Sarnath, the place where Buddha started propagating his mission. While leaving His residence Baba made the following comments:
In eastern demi-Magadhi “Cha” is used for the present tense, “la” for the past and “Ba” for the future. In western demi- Magadhi.
“Cha” is not used for the present but “la” and “Ba” are used for the past and present tenses respectively. The Bhojpuri language is about twelve hundred years old, and it is the language of the Canga-Rapti belt whose southern-most border is
At Sarnath, Baba said that Varanasi is a pre-Buddhist city and its cultural heritage goes back 7,000 years.
It was the winter capital of Lord Shiva.
After a thorough excavation pre-Buddhist relies may be found here Shankaracharya was a post-Buddhist philosopher who lived 1300 years ago. Vis’n’u was also a post-Buddhist deity.
Narmatha was derived Sarangadhara, which means Visnu.
Its Vedic name was from the word Risipattana Mrgadava. “R” in Pali is pronounced ‘I" or “U” or omitted. Risipattana became Ishipattana.
The structural style of the Stupas have a similar form from southeast Afghanistan to Maharastra.
‘Stupa’ in Sanskrit means to place something firmly.
Throughout the entire Gangetic plain building bricks are narrow and long, and in ancient times, such bricks were used throughout Kashirajya in:
- Kushinagar
- Nandangarh
- near Beitia in Bihar
- here also.
The Stupas were constructed after putting pyre ash in a stone pot. If a temple is constructed on pyre ash it is known as Caetya, and when a Matha is built over it, it is known as Samgraham in Sanskrit, Sangharama in Fall and Samgha in demi-Pali.
In ancient times Sarnath was an orchard surrounding a temple of Sarangadhara or Saranganath, that is, a Visnu temple.
In Magadhi Prakrit, it was called Sarnath.
Pattana means establishment. The capital of Magadh was frequently shifted due to floods.
It was moved from place to place, from “Pattana” to “Pattana”. Later it was known as Patna.
300 years after Buddha, 2 schools of Buddhist philosophy emerged. Sarnath was a sacred place for both of them.
The scriptural language of Mahayana was Sanskrit, while that of Hinayana was Pali.
At Sarnath, Lord Buddha initiated his 5 disciples:
- Kaondiya
- Bappa
- Bhaddiiya
- Mahanama
- Assaji
The first 2 initiates, Sariputta and Modgalayan came here from Magadha.
The process of initiation was officially known as Upasampada.
While examining a Digamvara Jain temple. Baba made the following observations:
Long before Buddha visited Varanasi, Vardhaman Mahavir had come here. His gospels had little impact on the people. But Buddhism grew into a mass faith.
In Kashi Rajya, neither the Digambara nor the Svetambara sects of Jainism could establish a following because Buddhism had a strong influence in the region.
The temple represents a blending of Buddhist ard Gauriiya architectural styles.
Shvetambara jainism, however, did not encourage a blending of architectural styles.
While Buddhism was a matter of faith for Digambara Jainas, neither Buddhism nor Puranicism encouraged nudism.
The concept of deities emerged in later Buddhism, and Hariti, Maʼricii and Shiitala’ became Buddhist deities.
The adjacent district of Ghazipur was a district of Agra province.
- Ballia was one of its divisions.
It was known as ‘Vallika’ in Sanskrit and ‘Ballia’ in Magadhi Prakrit.
- In modern Bhojpuri it is called Balia.
The present day Bettia was called Vattrak, meaning a forest of cane plants.