Lumbini - the birth place of Prince Siddhartha

Siri SAMAN WIJETUNGE

Asoka, the great Mauryan Emperor, (273 B.C. - 232 B.C.) who sought solace in Buddha Dhamma, after witnessing the horrors of Kalinga War, visited Lumbini in 250 B.C., and worshipped in person the sacred spot where the Buddha was born. The chronicle states:

Arriving at Lumbini, Upagupta, the spiritual guide of Emperor Asoka, extended his right hand, and said to Asoka, "Here, O Great King, the Thathagatha was born'. Asoka, with overwhelming joy and deep-devotion, prostrated before the Holy Tree, under which the Lord was born. He also caused to be built a stone wall around the holy tree and erected a pillar to commemorate his visit.

Lumbini is near Siddhartha Nagar (Bhairawa) in the area now known as Rummindei in Nepal just 10 km from the Indo-Nepalese border touching the district Basti in Uttara Pradesh.

This Buddhist site is the birth place of Prince Siddhartha in the B.C. 6th century. It has been identified with the pillar inscription which was erected by the emperor Asoka who visited the site of Rummindei. He visited there in 250 B.C. and worshipped in person the sacred spot where the prince Siddhartha was born. The chronicles states:

Arriving at Lumbini Upagupta the spiritual guide of emperor Asoka extended his right hand and said to Asoka "here O great king, the Thathagatha was born". Emperor Asoka with overwhelming joy and deep devotion prostrated before the sacred tree under which the prince Siddhartha was born. He also erected a pillar to commemorate his visit to Rummindei.

About (1000) thousand years after the birth of Buddha, Fa-hian the first Chinese Buddhist pilgrim visited Lumbini in A.D. 406 and saw the first sacred tree under which prince Siddhartha was born. Fa-hian also saw the bathing tank of the Sakyas where the mother of Siddhartha, Mahamaya had taken a bath. The other Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Hiuen Tsang who visited Lumbini in A.D. 637 gives a very fair account of what he saw the sacred site.

The emperor Asoka was the third King of the Kingdom of Mayuras in Maghada and his inscriptions can be broadly divided into two categories - those engraved on rocks and those incised on pillars of stone.

The rock inscription fall into three groups - Minor Rock Edicts, Rock Edict and Cave inscriptions. The Pillar Inscriptions may be classified under three sub-divisions-Minor Pillar Edicts, Pillar Inscriptions and Pillar Edicts.

There are two Pillar Inscriptions of Asoka discovered in the Nepalese Tarai to the North of the Basti District of Uttar Pradesh.

The first of these stands here the temple of Rummindei in the vicinity of the village of Parariya which is about 3 km from the head quarters of the Bhaghavan Pur Tashil in Nepal and about 8 km from Dulla in the Basti District. The other inscribed Pillar stands on the bank of a large tank called Nigali Sagr near the village of Nigaliva about 21 km to the North-West of Rummindei. The first was a sacred place owing to the fact that the Prince Siddhartha was born there.

The meaning of Rummindei Inscription is as follows:

"Twenty years after his coronation, King Priyadarsi, Beloved of the gods visited this spot in person and offered worship at this place, because the Buddha, The Sage of the Sakya was born here. He caused to build a stone wall around this place and also erected this stone pillar to commemorate his visit. Because the Buddha was born here, He made the village of Lumbini free from land revenue and subject to pay only one-eighth of the produce as tax instead of the usual rate".

This is evidence to show that Lumbini continued to attract pilgrims up to A.D. 12 century.

Thereafter it was completely engulfed by jungle and lay buried until the 19th century.

This sacred Buddhist site was discovered by Dr. Alois Anton F here, a German Archaeologist in 1985.

The writer is a former Archaeological Assistant Director of the Department of Archaeology.