Buddhism and Jainism in Bihar: Sites and Councils

Both the great reform religions of ancient India took shape in the land that is now Bihar, and the state holds the place of the Buddha's enlightenment, the place of Mahavira's nirvana and the sites of the first three Buddhist councils. The topic is asked as a set of place and event pairs, and this note arranges it in that form.

Bodh Gaya and the life of the Buddha

Gautama left Kapilavastu, studied under Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, practised severe austerity at Uruvela and then gave it up, and at last attained enlightenment under a peepal tree on the bank of the Niranjana, the Phalgu of today, at Bodh Gaya. Ashoka raised the first shrine at the spot and set the stone seat called the Vajrasana beside the tree; the brick temple standing there now belongs to the Gupta centuries, and the Mahabodhi Temple Complex was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2002. A sapling of the Bodhi tree was carried to Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka by Sanghamitra. The Buddha preached often at Rajgir, where Bimbisara gave him the bamboo grove, and at Vaishali, where the order of nuns was founded when Mahaprajapati Gotami was ordained, and where he delivered his last sermon.

The Buddhist councils

Three of the four councils met in Bihar, and their details are the most asked part of the topic.

The three collections settled at these meetings are the Tripitaka, a word meaning three baskets, written in Pali: the Sutta Pitaka of sermons, the Vinaya Pitaka of monastic rule and the Abhidhamma Pitaka of philosophy.

Monasteries and monuments

Nalanda Mahavihara was founded by Kumaragupta I in the fifth century and grew into the most famous centre of learning in Asia; Xuanzang and Itsing studied there, its library was known as the Dharmaganja, and it was destroyed about 1193. The archaeological site was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016. The Palas founded two more universities, Odantapuri under Gopala and Vikramashila in Bhagalpur under Dharmapala. Ashoka left pillars at Lauriya Nandangarh, Lauriya Areraj and Rampurva in Champaran and at Kolhua in Vaishali, where the capital is a single lion. The Kesaria stupa in East Champaran is among the tallest Buddhist stupas, and the Barabar caves near Gaya, including the Lomas Rishi and Sudama caves, are the oldest rock cut caves in India and were made for the Ajivika sect in the Mauryan age.

Jainism in Bihar

Mahavira, the twenty fourth tirthankara, was born at Kundagrama near Vaishali to Siddhartha of the Jnatrika clan and Trishala, a sister of the Lichchhavi chief Chetaka. He left home at thirty, practised austerity for twelve years, attained kaivalya at Jrimbhikagrama on the bank of the Rijupalika under a sal tree, and taught for thirty years in Ardhamagadhi Prakrit with eleven chief disciples called ganadharas, of whom Indrabhuti Gautama was the first. He attained nirvana at Pavapuri, where the Jal Mandir now stands in a tank, at the age of seventy two, traditionally in 527 BCE. The first Jain council met at Pataliputra under Chandragupta Maurya, with Sthulabhadra presiding, and the division into Digambara and Svetambara followed. Rajgir, with its five hills, and Kundalpur in Nalanda are the other Jain centres of the state.