Kushinagar Explained

Kushinagar
Settlement Type:Town
Pushpin Map:India Uttar Pradesh#India
Pushpin Label Position:left
Pushpin Relief:1
Coordinates:26.741°N 83.888°W
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Name: India
Subdivision Type1:State
Subdivision Name1:Uttar Pradesh
Subdivision Type2:District
Subdivision Name2:Kushinagar
Government Type:Nagar Palika
Leader Title1:D.M.
Leader Name1:Umesh Mishra[1]
Leader Title2:A.D.M
Leader Name2:Shri Devi Dayal Verma (PCS)
Leader Title3:MP
Leader Name3:Vijay Kumar Dubey (BJP)
Unit Pref:Metric
Population Total:22214
Population As Of:2011
Population Density Km2:auto
Demographics Type1:Language
Demographics1 Title1:Official
Demographics1 Info1:Hindi[2]
Demographics1 Title2:Additional official
Demographics1 Info2:Urdu
Demographics1 Title3:Regional
Demographics1 Info3:Bhojpuri
Timezone1:IST
Utc Offset1:+5:30
Postal Code:274403
Registration Plate:UP-57

Kushinagar (Pali: ; Sanskrit:) is a town in the Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh, India. Located 53km (33miles) east of Gorakhpur on National Highway 27, Kushinagar is an important and popular Buddhist pilgrimage site, where Buddhists believe Gautama Buddha attained parinirvana.

Etymology

According to Alexander Cunningham, Kushinagara was named for the abundance of the kusha grass found in this region.[3] [4]

History

Iron Age

The present Kushinagar is identified with Kusavati (in the pre-Buddha period) and Kushinara (in the post-Buddha period). It was the capital of one of the two Malla republics. The two Malla republics comprised one of the sixteen mahajanpads (oligarchic republics) of India in the 6th century BCE. Since then, it remained an integral part of the erstwhile empires of Maurya, Shunga, Kushana, Gupta, Harsha, and Pala dynasties.

Location of Gautama Buddha's death and parinirvana

When the Buddha reached his eightieth year, he felt that his time in this world was approaching an end. At that time, according to the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta (Sutta 16 of the Dīgha Nikāya), he and some of his disciples undertook a months-long journey that would take them from Rājagṛha, through Pāṭaliputta, Vesāli, Bhoganagara, and Pāvā, to their final destination at Kushinagar.[5] It was at Pāvā that Cunda, a resident of Pāvā, invited the group to a meal that featured a food called sukaramaddava. This would prove to be the Buddha's last meal, as he was afflicted by a painful illness resembling dysentery soon after consuming the meal.[6] After the meal, the Buddha crossed the Kakkuttha River (now called the Khanua River) and completed his journey to Kushinagar.[7]

According to the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta, the Buddha attained parinirvana shortly after his arrival in Kushinagar. Seven days after his parinirvana, the remains of the Buddha were cremated at that location. Originally his ashes were to go only to the Sakya clan, to which the Buddha belonged. However, six other clans and a king demanded the ashes of the Buddha. In order to resolve this dispute, a Brahmin named Drona divided the ashes of the Buddha into eight portions. These portions were distributed as follows: to Ajātasattu, king of Magadha; to the Licchavis of Vesāli; to the Sakyas of Kapilavastu; to the Bulis of Allakappa; to the Koliyas of Rāmagāma; to the brahmin of Veṭhadīpa; to the Mallas of Pāvā; and to the Malls of Kushinagar.[8] In addition to these eight portions, two other important relics were distributed at that time: Drona (the brahmin who distributed the relics) received the vessel in which the body had been cremated, and the Moriyas of Pipphalivana received the remaining ashes of the funeral pyre.[8] [9] According to Buddhaghosa, Each of these ten portions was placed in a reliquary (such as the Kanishka casket or the Bimaran casket) and buried in a tumulus.[9] These tumuli have been expanded or reconstructed over many centuries to form large stupas. Of these, the only one which remains intact is the Ramagrama stupa in Ramgram, Nepal.

5th century CE – 18th century CE

During the medieval period, Kushinagar was under the suzerainty of Kalachuri kings. The city was largely abandoned after the Islamic invasions of the 12th century, although the region was ruled over by a Rajput king named Madan Singh in the 15th century.

19th century

The earliest mention of the ruins at Kushinagar in modern literature was in 1837, by D. Liston. Liston noted that it was "an object of worship" and pilgrimage site, but misunderstood the ruins to be the remnants of the fortress of a powerful divinity by the name of Mata Koonr.[10]

Kushinagar came back into prominence when Alexander Cunningham performed archaeological excavations at Matha Kuar shrine and Ramabhar stupa in 1861-1862. Cunningham was the first archaeologist to identify the ruins as being the site of the parinirvana of the Buddha.[3] Archibald Carlleyle exposed the Mahaparinirvana stupa and also discovered a 6.1m (20feet) meters long reclining Buddha statue in 1876. In 1901, a Burmese monk named Sayadaw U Chandramani applied to the English Governor of India, seeking his permission to allow pilgrims to worship the reclining Buddha image in Kushinagar. Excavations continued in the early twentieth century under J. Ph. Vogel.[11] He conducted archaeological campaigns in 1904–1905, 1905-1906 and 1906–1907, uncovering a wealth of Buddhist materials.

In 1896, Laurence Waddell suggested that the site of the death and parinirvana of Gautama Buddha was in the region of Rampurva.[12] However, according to the Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta, the Buddha made his journey to Kushinagar, where he walked into a grove of sala trees and laid himself to rest. There, he died and was cremated on the seventh day after his death. The accumulated body of archaeological evidence and the historical record both support the assertion that the Buddha died and was cremated in Kushinagar.[13] [14] [15] [16]

Archaeological evidence from the 3rd century BCE suggests that Kushinagar was an ancient pilgrimage site. For example, Ashoka built a stupa and placed a pillar to mark Buddha's attained parinirvana in Kushinagar.[17] The Hindu rulers of the Gupta Empire (fourth to seventh century) enlarged the stupa and constructed a temple containing a reclining Buddha statue.[18] [19] This site was abandoned by Buddhist monks around 1200 CE, who fled to escape the invading Muslim army, after which the site decayed during the Islamic rule in India that followed.[20] [21] British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham rediscovered Kushinagar in the late 19th century, and his colleague Archibald Carlleyle unearthed the 1,500-year-old reclining Buddha statue.[19] [22] [23] The site has since then become an important pilgrimage site for Buddhists.[24] [25]

20th century

After independence, Kushinagar remained a part of the district of Deoria. On 13 May 1994, it came into being as a new district of Uttar Pradesh.[26]

Modern Kushinagar

Demographics

According to the 2011 Census of India, Kushinagar had 3462 households and a total population of 22,214, of which 11,502 were males and 10,712 were females. The population within the age group of 0 to 6 years was 2,897. The total number of literate people in Kushinagar was 15,150, which constituted 68.2% of the population with male literacy of 73.3% and female literacy of 62.7%. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes population was 1,117 (5.03%) and 531 (2.39%) respectively.[27]

Government and politics

Kushinagar comes under Kushinagar Lok Sabha constituency for Indian general elections. The Member of Parliament from this constituency is Vijay Kumar Dubey of Bharatiya Janata Party who was elected in the 2019 Indian general election. As of 2019, the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Kushinagar Assembly constituency is Rajnikant Mani Tripathi of Bharatiya Janata Party.

Transportation

Kushinagar is well connected by air, rail, and road. Within the town, public transport is provided by taxis, auto rickshaws, and cycle rickshaws. The city is served by Kushinagar International Airport and Gorakhpur Junction railway station.

The Government of Uttar Pradesh has proposed the Kushinagar-Sarnath Buddha Expressway to connect these two Buddhist pilgrimage towns. The expressway will be around 200 km long and will greatly reduce the travel time between the towns.

As a Buddhist pilgrimage site

Parinirvana TempleThe statue of the reclining Buddha is inside the Parinirvana Temple. The statue is 6.10 metres long and is made of a single block of red sandstone. It represents the Buddha in the position he was in when he died and attained parinirvana — reclining on his right side with his head to the north, feet to the south, and face towards the west. It is situated on a large brick platform with stone posts at the corners.[28] [29]
Parinirvana StupaThe Parinirvana Stupa (Nirvana Chaitya) is located just behind the Parinirvana Temple. It was excavated by Carlleyle in the year 1876. During excavations, a copper plate was found, which contained the text of the Nidana Sutra and the statement that plate had been deposited in the Nirvana Chaitya by one Haribala, who also installed the reclining Buddha statue in the temple.[28]
Ramabhar StupaRamabhar Stupa (also called Mukutbandhan Chaitya) is the cremation place of Buddha. The site contains a giant stupa unearted during an archaeological dig in 1910. Apart from the giant stupa the complex contains several votif stupa and remains of Buddhist vihars. This site is 1.5 km east of the Parinirvana Temple on the Kushinagar-Deoria road.[28] [29]
Matha Kuar ShrineThis shrine contains a 3 m tall seated statue of Buddha. It is a monolithic statue carved out of blue stone of Gaya. It represents the Buddha seated under the Bodhi Tree in a pose known as bhumi sparsh mudra (Earth-touching attitude). The inscription at the base of statue dates to the 10th or 11th century CE. The statue was found during an archaeological dig in 1876. It was restored and enshrined in a temple-like structure in 1927. The shrine lies on the western end of the complex and in front of it is an excavated ruins in the shape of a Buddhist vihar, complete with a central courtyard surrounded by cells. The cells served as living rooms for the Buddhist students. [28] [29]
Other major places

International relations

Kushinagar has one official sister city:

Notable people

Further reading

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Umesh Mishra (IAS) - District Kushinagar, Government of Uttar Pradesh - India . kushinagar.nic.in . 30 November 2022.
  2. Web site: 52nd Report of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities in India. nclm.nic.in. Ministry of Minority Affairs. 10 February 2019 . 49. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20170525141614/http://nclm.nic.in/shared/linkimages/NCLM52ndReport.pdf. 25 May 2017.
  3. Book: Cunningham, Alexander. Alexander Cunningham. Four reports made during the years 1862-63-64-65. 1. 76–85. Archaeological Survey of India. Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India. 1871.
  4. Web site: History. Kushinagar District . 20 November 2017.
  5. Web site: Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta (DN 16), translated from the Pali by Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu. Dīgha Nikāya of the Pali Canon. dhammatalks.org. 2022. 9 October 2022.
  6. Web site: The Buddha's Last Meal. Life of the Buddha. Buddha Dharma Education Association. Tullera, NSW, Australia. 2008. 9 October 2022.
  7. D.ii.126 ff.; Ud.viii.5; the road from Pāvā to Kushinagar is mentioned several times in the mss. Vin.ii.284; D.ii.162.
  8. Davids. T.W.R.. Thomas William Rhys Davids. Asoka and the Buddha-Relics. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 397–410. 1901. 10.1017/S0035869X00028653. 25208320. 163441004.
  9. Fleet. JF. John Faithfull Fleet. XXIV:The Tradition about the Corporeal Relics of Buddha. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland. 655–671. 1906. 10.1017/S0035869X00034857.
  10. Liston. D. Notice of a Colossal Alto-Relievo, known by the name of Mata Koonr, situated near Kussia Tannah, in Pergunnah Sidowa, Eastern Division of Gorakhpur District. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 6. 477–9. 1837.
  11. Vogel J Ph. . 1950 . Some Buddhist Monasteries in Ancient India . Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society . 1 . 27–32 .
  12. "A Tibetan Guide-book to the Lost Sites of the Buddha's Birth and Death", L. A. Waddell. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1896, p. 279.
  13. Book: United Nations. Promotion of Buddhist Tourism Circuits in Selected Asian Countries. 2003. United Nations Publications. 978-92-1-120386-8. 23–24.
  14. Book: Kevin Trainor . Buddhism: The Illustrated Guide . 2004. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-517398-7 . 41 .
  15. Book: Elizabeth Lyons. Heather Peters. Chʻeng-mei Chang. Buddhism: History and Diversity of a Great Tradition. 1985. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology. 978-0-934718-76-9. 17.
  16. Book: Fred S. Kleiner . Gardner's Art through the Ages: Non-Western Perspectives . 2009. Cengage . 978-0-495-57367-8 . 13, 31 .
  17. Book: Akira Hirakawa . Paul Groner . A History of Indian Buddhism: From Śākyamuni to Early Mahāyāna . 1993. Motilal Banarsidass . 978-81-208-0955-0 . 101 .
  18. Gina Barns. An Introduction to Buddhist Archaeology. World Archaeology. 27. 2. 1995. 166–168. 10.1080/00438243.1995.9980301.
  19. Robert Stoddard. 2010 . Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art . The Geography of Buddhist Pilgrimage in Asia . Yale University Press . 178. 3–4.
  20. Book: Richard H. Robinson. Sandra Ann Wawrytko . Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu . The Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction. 1996. Thomson . 978-0-534-20718-2 . 50 .
  21. Book: Mark Juergensmeyer. Wade Clark Roof. Encyclopedia of Global Religion. 2011. SAGE Publications. 978-1-4522-6656-5. 148.
  22. Asher. Frederick. From place to sight: locations of the Buddha´s life. Artibus Asiae. 2009. 69. 2. 244.
  23. Book: Himanshu Prabha Ray. The Return of the Buddha: Ancient Symbols for a New Nation. 2014. Routledge. 978-1-317-56006-7. 74–75, 86.
  24. Book: Lars Fogelin. An Archaeological History of Indian Buddhism. 2015. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-994822-2. 23–24.
  25. Book: Lars Fogelin. Archaeology of Early Buddhism. 2006. AltaMira Press. 978-0-7591-1444-9. 42–43.
  26. Web site: Kushinagar History. kushinagar.nic.in. 18 July 2015.
  27. Web site: Census of India: Kushinagar . www.censusindia.gov.in . 29 December 2019.
  28. Web site: Places in Kushinagar. kushinager.nic.in. 17 July 2015.
  29. News: Datta . Rangan . A trip to Kushinagar, where Buddha attained ‘mahaparinirvan’ . 27 May 2024 . My Kolkata . The Telegraph . 9 February 2024.
  30. Web site: उपेक्षित है मल्लों की कुल देवी का स्थान. 2021-09-10. Dainik Jagran. hi.
  31. Web site: India-Nepal agree to establish sister-city relations between Lumbini and Kushinagar; check details of MoUs signed today .