posted September 23, 2004 09:49 PM            

IN EBONY MAGAZINE, USA, BUDDHA IS CLAIMED BY
NEGROES AS HIS HAIRS ARE CURLY, LIPS ARE THICK,
NOSE IS FLAT AND HE MIGRATED FROM AFRICA TO STUDY HINDUISM IN INDIA. LIKE SAI BABA HAVING BLACK FRIZZELED HAIR, NOSE IS FLAT AND LIPS ARE THICK.

ANANDAN ARUMUGAM

'Lord Buddha was not born in Orissa'
Friday September 24 2004 00:00 IST

BHUBANESWAR: Lord Buddha was neither born in Orissa nor had he ever visited Sri Lanka as claimed by a section of scholars. Internationally acclaimed archaeologist and a senior advisor to the Sri Lankan Foreign affairs Ministry Professor Sudarshan Seneviratne revealed this.

Sudarshan was on a three-day trip to the State sponsored by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.

Addressing mediapersons on Thursday on the ancient links that flourished between Sri Lanka and Kalinga empire at a seminar organised by Utkal University
of Culture, he suggested that an institute of heritage management should be set up to offer specialised services for conservation and promotion of heritage tourism in the State.

Dwelling on his decade long research on Orissa's potent past links with his country he favoured further studies on the links between the two countries.

During his visit to Sishupalgarh Sudarshan expressed concern over the poor state of the ancient heritage site and said “It is one of the three most important archaeological sites in Asia after Anuradhapuram in Sri Lanka and Nagarjunkonda in Andhra Pradesh and should be maintained.''

posted September 24, 2004 03:03 AM         

Bhubaneswar, Nov.13, 03

Like us in orissamatters.com, truth seekers elsewhere also find that both Lord Buddha and Sri Jaydev are Oriyas by birth. Eminent scholars of West Bengal Prof. Satyakam Sengupta and Ashis Kumar Chakroverty, have made this point clear on the basis of their respective research results.

Pointing out that Lord Buddha’s teachings were in Pali, Prof. Sengupta said that this was the language only of Orissa, not of Nepal. Because Buddha was an Oriya by birth, he taught in Pali, he underlined. He further observed that Buddha is traditionally worshipped, only in Orissa, as Lord Jagannath, but he is not worshipped even as a major deity in Nepal. Chakrovarty added, the ever increasing discovery of edicts and Stupas of Buddhistic origin in and around Bhubaneswar and in the golden triangle of Orissa bears the matchless evidence of Buddha being born in the land now known as Orissa. No where in India and specifically in Nepal such enormous proof of Buddhist connection with the land is located. Had Buddha not been born in Orissa, it would never have been the abode of such vast Buddhist sites, he said.

Both the noted scholars systematically razed down also the propaganda that Jaydev belonged to Bengal. The words used by Sri Jaydev are phonetically nearer to Oriya language than to Bengali, they said. Themewise also his songs reflect the philosophy then in vogue in Orissa alone, they observed. In strong disapproval of those who have been trying to link Jaydev’s birthplace to a place called Kenduli on the embankment of river Ajay in West Bengal, Prof. Sengupta cited historical documents to show that there was no such village on such an embankment at the time of the poet. The spiritual philosophy that found expression in the songs of Sri Jaydev had no existence in Bengal. The propaganda that Jaydev was a court poet of King Laxmansen is absolutely ridiculous as the poet preceded this particular king by at least a century. The love cult of Radha and Krishna sic passim in Jaydev’s work entered into Bengal only after Sri Chaitanya and his Bengali companions came in contact with Gita Govinda in Orissa, they said. In Bengal’s religious heritage, Radha-Krishna worship is a later phenomenon traceable only in the post Chaitanya phase whereas this love-cult was so well settled in Orissa that it would not be an exaggeration to say that it had shaped major part of the Orissan temple architecture. The first ever commentary on Gita Govind not only took shape in Orissa, most of its imitations also enriched the literature of this part of the globe. Nowhere in India so vast number of manuscripts of this popular work has been found. All literary evidence lead to the truth that Sri Jaydev was an Oriya by birth, they emphasized.

Both Prof.Sengupta and Chakroverty have enriched the ongoing research on both these great sons of Orissa, while expressing their views in a seminar. It was organised to dwell on the controversy over birthplaces of these two epoch makers. The seminar was hosted by Eastern Zonal Cultural Center, Kolkata and the Utkal University of Culture, Bhubaneswar on November 11 and 12.

posted September 24, 2004 03:31 AM         

History says the Buddha was born at Lumbini in Nepal, but noted archaeologist Chandrabhanu Patel says Lumbini is now identified on the outskirts of the modern Bhubaneswar, the capital city of Orissa.

Patel, who also heads the Orissa Museum, bases his claim on the findings of a research team led by him that examined rocks, inscriptions and other material found during excavations. Incidentally, Orissa has a host of ancient Buddhist sites, including Ratnagiri, Udaygiri, Lalitgiri, Kuruma, Brahmavana, Langudi and Ganiapali.

Excavators have found large domes, monasteries, sculptures and other objects of archaeological importance at these sites. The team's finding is based on research carried out at these venues.

Emperor Asoka's conquest of Kalinga, the then Orissa, in 261 BC marked a turning point for Buddhism. The emperor, who later converted to Buddhism, is said to have sent his children to propagate Buddhism in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.

A stone pillar inscription of Emperor Asoka discovered at Kapileswar in 1928 and now in Ashutosh Museum at Kolkata points to the Buddha's birthplace being in Orissa, Patel said. Scholars who read and deciphered the inscription found that it carries six lines in Prakrit language and Asokan Brahami script which say that in the 20th year of his coronation, Asoka worshipped at Kapileswar as ‘Lord Buddha was born here’.

A village near Kapileswar (near Bhubaneswar) is still known as Lembei today and it could well be Buddha’s birthplace. The ancient name of this village was Lumbini, Patel claims.

The inscription further says that Asoka exempted Lumbini village from all taxes in 240 BC because the Buddha was born there.

Legend has it that the Buddha entered his mother's womb as a white elephant. At Dhauli, seven km from Kapileswar, Ashoka carved out the statue of an elephant along with his edict.

Patel said researchers also found four sculptures of Ashoka in Kapileswar temple premises representing four stages of his transformation from a king to a sage.

posted September 24, 2004 03:37 AM         

Bhubaneswar, (IANS) Was Lord Buddha born in Orissa? Not Lumbini in Nepal, as has always been believed?

A vociferous school of thought that is firmly of the view that the founder of Buddhism was born in Orissa spoke up at a two-day seminar on Jayadev and Buddha.

The scholars gave several reasons to back their claims.

Presenting circumstantial evidence, Satyakam Sengupta of Kalkata's Rabindra Bharati University said Buddha's teachings were in Pali and not in Prakrit or Sanskrit languages.

And Pali was prevalent in Orissa then while it was never used in Nepal, he said.

Also, about 3,000 edicts, including those of Asoka and the remains of stupas, are being found in Orissa, which has to its credit ancient Buddhists sites like Ratnagiri and Udaygiri.

In contrast, there are hardly any sites in Nepal to indicate that Buddhism was widespread there, Sengupta said.

Kalinga, as Orissa was known in that period, formed an important geographical link between northern and southern India and maintained close trade and cultural ties with Myanmar, Sri Lanka and other Indian Ocean islands.

The turning point in Buddhist history came with Emperor Asoka's conquest of Kalinga in 261 BC. The emperor, who later converted to Buddhism, is said to have sent his children to Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, to propagate Buddhism.

A stone pillar inscription of Asoka discovered at Orissa's Kapileswar village located just outside Bhubanesewar in 1928, and now in Kolkata's Ashutosh Museum, points to the Buddha's birthplace as Orissa, said Chandrabhanu Patel of the Orissa State Museum.

Patel headed a team of 15 researchers last year to decipher the inscription and first claimed Orissa as Buddha's birthplace.

"Our scholars who read and deciphered the inscription found that it carries six lines in Prakrit and the Asokan Brahami script.

"They say that in the 20th year of his coronation, Asoka worshipped at Kapileswar because (he thought) Lord Buddha was born there," Patel told IANS.

While historians say Buddha was born at Lumbini in Nepal, a village near Kapileswar named Lembei could well be his birthplace, Patel said. The ancient name of this village was Lumbini, he added.

The inscription says that Asoka exempted Lumbini village from all taxes in 240 BC because Buddha was born there, Patel claimed.

A broken portion of the Asoka pillar -- nine feet high and 12 feet wide -- was found in the Bhaskareswar temple, four km from Kapileswar.

Broken bells and replicas of Asoka's famous four-lion emblem recovered from these areas are also currently at the state museum, he said.

Legend has it that the Buddha entered his mother's womb as a white elephant. At Dhauli, seven km from Kapileswar, Asoka carved out the statue of an elephant along with his edict.

Patel said researchers also found four sculptures of Asoka in the premises of the Kapileswar temple representing four stages of his transformation from a king to a sage.

Patel discounted the ancient inscriptions in Nepal identifying the kingdom as Buddha's birthplace. He said Asoka had not installed those inscriptions.

Patel claimed Buddha's relics in gilded stone caskets were found during an excavation at Lalitgiri in Orissa's Jajpur district in 1985.

Archaeologists had said the stone casket contained the ashes of the Buddha, who was cremated at the age of 80.

This is not the first time Orissa has made such a claim.

Historian Manmathanath Das, considered an expert on Buddhism, had earlier said: "I have studied Buddhism in depth. Although all literature available on Buddha points to Nepal as his birthplace, there is not much archaeological evidence to corroborate this."

Historian Sachidananda Mishra has said Lumbini in Nepal was declared the Buddha's birthplace on the basis of a stone inscription in the Terai region there. But similar stone inscriptions were discovered in Orissa in 1928.

posted September 24, 2004 04:00 AM         

"These fossilised specimen will be tested in the Institute of Physical Laboratory, where we will be doing collaborative work, so the dateline will be determined and comparative study of potteries recovered with that of potteries recovered form other parts of the country will be conducted. Because many materials are there, literary and other evidence are there about the bath of Buddha and Kapileshwar, but solid archaeological materials like pottery with correct dateline was not available to us till date. There is an excavation, now there are archaeological material, so identification of this bath place of Buddha is getting more prominent now," said Dr. C.B. Patel, the Superintendent of Orissa State Museum.

The team has also discovered the fossilised dung of an animal from the tank that adds to the claim of the ancient character of the site. Ruins of an ancient temple and a road linking Kapileshwar with Puri were also discovered.

Buddhism is one of the four most popular religions in the world. The religion is gaining popularity especially in the West, where followers include the likes of popular Hollywood actors like Richard Gere and Steve Seagal.

Though there are about 350 million practising Buddhists across the world, Buddhists account for less than 0.7 percent of India's total population of over one billion. (ANI)