Varanasi

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.

Narma’tha was derived Sarangadhara, which means Vis’nu.

Its Vaedic name was from the word Risipattana Mrgada’va. “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, Nan- dangarh, near Beitia in Bihar, and 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 Prakrta, 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.

As already mentioned three centuries after Buddha two different schools of Buddhist philosophy emerged, and 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 five disciples: Kaondiya, Bappa’, Bhaddiiya, Mahanama and Assa’ji. The first two 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 Maha- vir had come here. While his gospels had little impact on the people, Buddhism grew into a mass faith.

In Kashi Rajya, Leither 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 Budism was a matter of faith for Digambara Jainas, neither Buddhism nor Pauranism encouraged nudism. The concept of deities emerged in later Buddhism, and Hariti, Maʼricii and Shiitala’ became Buddhist deities.

a district of Agra The adjacent district of Ghazipur was province and Ballia was one of its divisions. It was known as Vallika in Sanskrit and Ballia in Ma’gadhi Pra’krta, while in modern Bhojpuri it is called Balia. The present day Bettia was called Vattrak, meaning a forest of cane plants.

Varanasi, 28th March 1984

Today Baba visited Sarnath but this time visited a place where excavations were being done. Excavations had been started here in 1904 when Sarnath was part of Ag’ra province. Baba made the following comments :

This place is older than Rajgir.

The bricks are old, but they have been cemented together only recently.

Relics found here are 2,300 years old slightly pre-dating the time of Ashoka.

The wells in the district have no niches in their walls, which enabled people to climb down inside the well to reconstruct it if it collapsed or became dry.

The system of stepped niches came to India during the pathan period, but was already in vogue in Persia.

It was not adopted in India because the wells were constructed in hard soil-black cotton soil-so that they did not collapse. Since no niches are found in these wells, it can be concluded that people have ‘been here for 2500 years.

Baba also made the observation that bridges over rivers should, whenever possible, be built on black soil.

If a bridge is Constructed on soft soil, the bridge may remain standing, but the river will cut its way through the soft soil, soon creating the need for another bridge.

This mistake has been committed in the construction of Mokama bridge in Bihar where one side of the bridge is built on soft soil.

While examining the pedestal type (layer after layer) struc- tures made here, Baba said:

Layers after layers manifested the several plexuses-fire plexus, jagaddal padmas (pineal plexus), etc.

Great men ог teachers or Buddha would sit over it and would speak before the audience. The lowermost represented the solid plexus or the fire plexus.

Pineal plexus was symbolised as jagaddal, Parama Shiva was called Naera’tma Devii. Lamas of Tibet would utter “Om Manipadme hum”.

In the Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh, a place is named Jagaddalpur.

A big “Bihar” was called Jagaddal Bihar. Adjusting with the pedestal symbolising the plexus was placed a pot. Usually these pots were too big to be moved by people. The pot was known as Dharma ghata.

In those days, there was no clear differentiation between the Hiinayana and the Mahayana.

They differed from each either in matter of their goal. Mah’yaniis accepted the existence of A’ima’, while Hinayanis did not accept any such entity.

Later, in Hiinayana, several deities got acceptance, and recognition, such as Panca’, etc.

In India, Buddhism had its influence in the northern, northwestern and eastern parts. including Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal, but it had little influence over the southern and western portions of the country.

100 years after Buddha’s death, the first Buddhist convention was held at Pataliputra.

The first divisions in Buddhism emerged there.

The second Buddhist convention was held another century later at Purusapur or Peshavara, where the existing differences became still more prominent.

By the time the third convention was held another century later, again at Pataliputra, the schism between Hinayana and Maha’yana was complete.

It was agreed that separate schools of Buddhism should be recognised.

This happened 300 years after Buddha’s death.

Hinayaniis were influential in Chittagong alone, while in the rest of India, Mahayana was dominant.

Later, Mahayaniis either embraced Purancism or were converted to Islam.

But Hinayanis remained firm in their faith.

Even today, they can be found in Chittagong, using the title Barua, which is derived from the Sanskrit word “Bat’uka”, meaning great.

Shiva is also known as Bat’ukana’tha.

Batuka-Bhaerava is a popular name and in Assam and Bengal, Hindus still use the title Bar’ua.