Odisha, Tapasu and Bhallika နှင့် မေးခွန်းများ

kaiJuly 10, 201517min27810

ODISHAOdisha’s contribution to Buddhism written in golden letters

Wednesday, 14 May 2014 | BIMALENDU MOHANTY | in Bhubaneswar

Odisha State was known in the ancient time variously such as Kalinga, Odra, Odivisa, Utkala and Toshali. Odisha’s contribution to Buddhism, compared with other parts of our country, is next to none. Starting from a chance meeting of two merchants of Odisha, Tapasu and Bhallika who became the first lay disciples of the Buddha, Odisha became the cradle for the newly-emerging creed. Mentions of these two persons have been found in Vinayapitaka.

According to Anguttara-Nikaya, Buddha handed over tufts of his hair to the two merchants of Ukkala (Utkala) Tapasu and Bhallika, who deposited the hair-relic in a Chaitya (Kesha Stupa) built by them in their native town Asitanjana. From the Nikaya texts, it is also known that the Vassa and Bhanna peoples of Utkala, after hearing the discourse of Buddha delivered at Jetavana, accepted his teaching. From the writings of the Rock Edict-XIII of Asoka, it is known that Shramanas (Buddhist monks) were preaching Buddhism in Kalinga much before Emperor Asoka (c.272-36 B.C.) invaded Kalinga.

After the great Kalinga War in 261 BC, Mauryan Emperor Asoka observing the horrors of the war, out of profound remorse, gave up his ambition of military conquest (Digvijay) in favour of spiritual conquest (Dharmavijay). After this great war, Asoka embraced Buddhism being initiated by an Odia Buddhist monk Upagupta, and with great zeal started propagating Buddhism in every nook and corner of India and also in countries like Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Eastern Archipelago and the Far East. Within a span of fifteen years, it became a world religion.

It speaks well for Odisha that a religious creed being nurtured by it, rose to the stature of a world religion having passed through its very portals. Emperor Asoka had constructed a monastery known as Bhojakagiri Vihara, where his brother Tissa resided. Xuan-Zang (Hieun-Tsang), the famous Chinese traveler, who visited Odisha around 639 A.D., had seen nearly eleven stupas erected by Asoka. Odisha had well developed Buddhist cultural centres at Parimalagiri, Surabhigiri, Bhorasaila, Tamralipta and Chelitalo. Buddhist scholars of eminence like Nagarjuna, Aryadeva, Sarbagami, Dignaga and Dharmakirti stayed in these centres and wrote many books on Buddhist philosophy and ethics.

During the reign of Asoka and subsequently, the Hinayana sects, particularly the Theravadins, had their sway in Buddhism. Hinayana Buddhism continued to be in prominence till the 7th century AD. Prof N Dutta, an eminent scholar of Buddhism, has stressed that Mahayana Buddhism had originated from Kalinga in the 1st century AD. Taranath, the Tibetan historian, gives Odivisa (Odisha) the credit of being the earliest centre of Mahayana Buddhism. King Subhakaradeva-I of Odra presented an autographed Buddhist manuscript to Chinese Emperor Te-tsong. The manuscript and a letter were entrusted to the learned monk Prajna for a translation, who after wandering for eighteen years in various places including Nalanda settled in a monastery of Wu-ch’a (Odra) before going to China, which indicates the importance of Odishan monastic establishments.

Canonical Buddhism has had three distinct phases known as the ethical Hinayana, the philosophical Mahayana and the esoteric Tantrayana. Tantrayana had three offshoots, Vajrayana, Sahajayana and Kalachakrayana, which were propounded by Odishan Siddhas Indrabhuti, Laksmikara, his sister, and Manjusree, respectively. All these three esoteric Buddhist Yanas or vehicles were ardently practised by Buddhist adepts in Odisha. Esoteric Buddhism travelled to China from Odisha. Buddhism was a living religion among the people of Odisha till the 15th century AD.

When Muslim invaders Vaktiyar Khilji attacked Nalanda, Vikramasila and adjacent areas and killed thousands of Buddhist Bhikshus, the greatest Mahayana centre of Odisha, Jagadalavihar, gave shelter to hundreds of Buddhist Bhikshus. In 1202 AD, Chancellor of Vikramasilavihara Sribhadra also took shelter in Odisha. The Muslim invaders did not dare to enter Odisha till the 16th century AD.

The great art historian Charles Fabrie had stated that Odisha had an unfathomable treasure trove of Buddhist art and architecture. Presently, it is dotted with nearly four thousand monuments and architectural sites.

The period from the 1st century AD to the 7th century AD can be regarded as the Golden Era of Buddhism. The Mahayana form of Buddhism was flourishing during this period. Mahayana in detail has been described in the Prajnaparamita literature. After a great deal of research, finality has been reached that Astasahasrika, the first volume of Prajnaparamita was written in Odisha. Therefore, Odisha was the birthplace of the Mahayana Buddhism. This fact has been written by Tibetan historian Lama Taranath in his book Pagsam-Zon-Tsang.

From the 1st century AD, Chinese people were greatly attracted by the Mahayana Buddhism and hundreds of them came as pilgrims to the Buddhist centres of India, including those in Odisha. The three prominent Chinese travellers who have been immortal because of that travelogue are Fahiyan, Hieun-Tsang and It-Tsing. Emperor Harshavardhan, who was a Mahayana Buddhist, had conquered Odisha but did not do any harm to Hinayana Buddhist.

From the early 8th century AD, the Tantrayana form of Buddhism developed in Odisha. Here, Saraha propounded Buddhakapalatantra. Kambalapada and Padmavajra jointly propounded Hevajratantra. Luipa, the famous Buddhist monk, propounded Samputatilaka. In the middle of the 8th century, King Indrabhuti of Sambala (Sambalpur) simplified all these forms into Vajrayana and his sister Laxmikara founded Sahajayana.

King Indrabhuti’s adopted son was Padmasambhava. He is regarded as the second Buddha. He had married Princes Mandaraba of Jahore (Keonjhar). Guru Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) with the help of his wife had taken great penance and attained Siddhi in Sahajayana. It has been mentioned in a number of Buddhist scriptures of Nepal that Gautama Buddha had said that after a few centuries of his Parinirvana, Padmasambhava would take birth at Uddiyana (Odisha) and he would attain great height of sainthood. Guru Padmasambhava at the invitation of Shantirakshita (his brother-in-law) went to Tibet and established Lamaism there. Lamaism has spread in different parts of the Himalayan territory such as Sikkim, Leh, Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh. He along with Shantirakshita had also established Sam-ye monastery in Tibet.

Starting from Hinayana Buddhism, Odisha was the birthplace of Mahayana Buddhism, Tantrayana Buddhism, Vajrayana Buddhism and Sahajayana Buddhism and has many Siddhas who had written Buddhist philosophy, literature, logic and ethics and illuminated the world. The contribution of Guru Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche) has excelled everybody. Therefore, Odisha’s contribution to Buddhism is unparallel and is written in golden letters in history.

(Dr Mohanty is a former vice-chancellor of the Utkal University of Culture and vice-president of the Mahabodhi Society of India Mobile-9238300265

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhubaneswar/odishas-contribution-to-buddhism-written-in-golden-letters.html

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Buddhism in Odisha (Orissa):

Buddhism in Odisha

Buddhism was known in Odisha (Orissa), right from the time of its inception, though the Lord Buddha never visited Odisha (Orissa) during his lifetime. Buddhist Chronicles refer to Buddha’s Kesa Asthi (Hair relic) brought to Odra (Odisha (Orissa)) by two rich traders — Tapassu and Bhallika. In the subsequent period, the nail and tooth relics of Buddha too entered into Odra.

Scholars believe that Biraja (modern Jajpur) was a sacred land of Buddha Padmaprabha and the cradle of Mahayana, supported by fact that Jajpur and its neighbourhood are seen to be rich in Mahayanic antiquities. In the 7th century, the visit of Hiuen Tsang to Odisha (Orissa) vividly accounts the flourishing state of Buddhism in Odra.

Between the 8th-10th century, Buddhism was the state religion under the Bhaumakaras and this period also saw evolution of tantric form of Mahayana Buddhism. The influence and impact of Buddhism continued in Odisha (Orissa) until 15th century. The innumerable stupas, viharas (monasteries) and images found across Odisha (Orissa) testify to its long heritage.

Buddhist tourism in Odisha (Orissa) has observed the opening up of some new vistas by recent findings from excavations. Despite the fact that many Buddhist monuments already exist in Odisha (Orissa), these newly identified sites with Buddhist remains have also added to the charm of Odisha (Orissa). With Lalitagiri, Ratnagiri and Udaygiri hills located 90 kms from Bhubaneshwar and 60 kms North East of Cuttack, Odisha (Orissa) attracts many Buddhist tourists each year.

The Ratnagiri Hill is known to have the most extensive ruins and is famous for housing the monastery of ‘Pushpagiri’ reported by Chinese traveler Hiuen T’ Sang. Most of the sculptures found here date back to 8th and 9th centuries. The Laitaghiri hills in Odisha (Orissa) also serve to be a historical site of importance. An ancient stupa containing relics preserved in caskets of stone is one of the recent and spectacular discoveries.

The Shanti Stupa at the Dhauli Hill, on the bank of the River Daya, is also one of the much famed Buddhist sites at Odisha (Orissa). It was here that emperor Ashoka underwent a psyche change and abandoned war for the rest of his life, in the 3rd century BC. So, the Nippon-Buddha Sangha established a peace pagoda or Shanti Stupa at Dhauli. A monastery named Saddharma Vihar Lalitagiri was also constructed here, thus, making it the earliest Buddhist complex of 1st century AD.

Apart from these, Buddhist monuments are scattered throughout the state still awaiting further excavation and study. Cuttack, Sambalpur, Balasore, Ganjam and Phulbani are some, to name a few.

http://www.orissatourism.org/buddhism-in-orissa.html

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Buddhist tourism gets new push in India

IANS, 25 December 2012

Odisha, India — The Buddhist tourism circuit in India is getting a new fillip with the luxury tourist shuttle, the Mahaparinirvana Express, expanding its run to touch Buddhist sites in Odisha from Jan 20 besides those in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

The move is to meet the growing demand by pilgrims, especially from countries like Sri Lanka in South Asia as well East and Southeast Asia, to visit more places associated with the Buddha – Bhubaneswar, Lalitagiri, Khandagiri and Udayagiri.

‘The train that begins from Safdarjung in the capital now goes to Bodh Gaya, Rajgir, Nalanda, Varanasi, Sarnath, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Lumbini and Sravasti in a seven-night, eight-day odyssey,’ Harshvardhan Singh Rawat, an official at the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), told IANS.

The train, which was introduced in 2007, has tariffs ranging from Rs.7,500 to Rs.34,000.

Speaking on the margins of the Confederation of India Industry Roundtable on Indian Tourism, the IRCTC official said the government was reconsidering resuming the Chennai Buddhist shuttle that stopped in March this year.

‘We will soon put the train from Chennai back on track to cater to the surge of Buddhist pilgrims from Sri Lanka. We are working out the cost of the 21-day, 20-night trip that covers many more places than the Delhi train,’ the official said.

The Mahaparinirvana Express, on an average, clocks 60 percent occupancy with the bulk of tourists from China, Thailand, Taiwan and other countries in the region. The official said tourists from at least 30 countries opt for train tourism in the Buddhist circuits.

The corporation has tied up with luxury hotels at Bodh Gaya, Kushinagar, Gorakhpur and Lumbini (Nepal) to host the tourists overnight. Now the spotlight is on Odisha, where Buddhist sites had been in the shadow of the popular Puri-Konark Hindu pilgrimage tourism.

The Odisha loop comprising Ratnagiri-Dhaulagiri-Udayagiri-Khandagiri and Langudi dates back to early 6th century BC. The sites are dotted with stupas, chaityas and Ashokan edicts. It is also a seat of the study of Vajrayana Buddhism.

Amiya Pattnaik, vice-chancellor of Utkal University of Culture in Bhubaneswar, who was in the capital to promote the Buddhist circuit, said the state was home to 100 Buddhist sites of which 20 were ‘very important’.

‘Ratnagiri can be compared with Nalanda and can even compete with Bodh Gaya,’ he said.

Ancient Buddhist documents indicate that ‘Buddha Kesha’ (hair relics) were brought to the state by two rich traders, Tapassu and Ballika. Later, the Buddha’s teeth were also believed to have been brought to the state.

S.K. Yadav, managing director of Wanderlust Travel, meanwhile said the ‘hardcover Buddhist tourism circuit should be redefined and diversified’.

‘Why not give the tourists Ladakh in the package? Not just Buddhist shrines, but tour operators must package the entire destination with out-of-the-box activity like yak safaris. Tour operators need to think about promoting new Buddhist destinations,’ Yadav said at th CII roundtable.

Sreenivas Rao, managing director of Rao Travels, said of the nearly 400 million Buddhists around the world, around 200,000 (2007 figure)-500,000 people come to India and this should be increased.

‘We should look for at least two million. Even if they spend $1,000 per head, it would contribute to over $2 billion to the economy,’ he noted.

Ravi Luthra, director of Landmark Tours and Travels Pvt Ltd, said that a lot more needs to be done in providing facilities, identifying potential and ensuring law and order.

‘Lot of tourist-generating countries that are Buddhist have to be ready to develop infrastructure. Tourist associations like IATO – Indian Association of Tourist Operators – are playing a positive role in promoting Buddhist tourism with special seminars,’ he said.

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=42,11255,0,0,1,0#.VZ-P2fmLXLw

10 comments

  • kai

    July 10, 2015 at 4:24 pm

    ဘာရယ်မဟုတ်ပါဘူး..။
    အိနိ္ဒယသားတွေက.. ဗမာတွေရွှေတိဂုံသမိုင်းကိုခိုးချယူထားတယ်.. ပြောချင်လို့..။
    ဒါပေမယ့်… အဲဒီဒေသနဲ့.. ဘုရားပွင့်တဲ့နေရာ ဗုဒ္ဓဂါယာနဲ့တော်တော်တော့ နီးသားလို့တွေးနေမိ…။
    လွန်ခဲ့တဲ့အနှစ်၂၆၀ဝက.. လူတွေအဲလော်ကတော့ သွားနိုင်.. ကုန်သွယ်နေကြမလားလည်း.. တွေးနေမိ..။ :k:

  • မြစပဲရိုး

    July 10, 2015 at 9:51 pm

    ဟုတ်မှာပါ။ မြန်မာပြည်ထဲ ကိုယ်ပိုင် မူလ လူမျိုး ရယ်လို့ မရှိဘဲ။ ဟိုဘက် ဒီဘက် က ရွှေ့လာကြတာ လို့ ကြားဖူး သလားလို့။ 😀

  • ဇီဇီခင်ဇော်

    July 13, 2015 at 9:31 am

    အင်္ဂလိပ် လို ရေးထားတာတွေကို မဖတ်ချင်တာ။
    :mrgreenn:

    ဖွဘုတ်မှာ မြန်မာလူမျိုး ရာဇဝင် ကို ရေးထားတဲ့အောက်မှာ မြန်မာဆိုတာ ဘာသွေးမှမရောဘူး ဆိုပြီး ဆဲနေကြတာမြင်ပြီး ရီချင်တာနဲ့ ပြောချင်တော့ဘူးးး
    :mrgreenn:

    ကရင်ပြည်နယ်မှာ ကယားလူမျိုး မရှိသင့်ဘူး တာထက် ဆိုးနေကြပြီ။

    ပလို့ဂျိ။ (ခွက်ဒစ် ဆက်ဆက်)
    :mrgreenn:

    • kai

      July 14, 2015 at 9:13 am

      Tapasu and Bhallika သပ္ပစုနဲ့ဘလိကဆိုတဲ့ကုန်သည်၂ယောက်က ဂေါတမဗုဒ္ဓဆီက ဆံတော်ယူလာပြီး ဘုရားကျောင်းထဲဌာပနာလှူတန်းတယ်တဲ့..။
      ဩရိစ္စပြည်နယ်ကို.. ဥက္ကလာဆိုပြီး ရှေးကခေါ်တယ်လို့မှတ်တမ်းရှိတာကလည်း စိတ်ဝင်စားစရာ..

      အကျဉ်းချုပ်ပြောရရင်တော့.. ရွှေတိဂုံ မူလသမိုင်းဇတ်လမ်းအတိုင်းကွက်တိလောက်ဖြစ်နေတာပါပဲ..။
      ရွှေတိဂုံသမိုင်းကတော့ အသောကမင်းလက်ထက်က သားတော်သီဟိုဌ်သွားဇတ်လမ်း.. ရေထဲဆင်းကြိုတဲ့ဇတ်လမ်းလေးပါ ရောသမမွှေထားတယ်ထင်မိ..။
      ဩရိစ္စပြည်နယ်ဆိုတာက ဘုရားပွင့်ပြီး တရားလှည့်ဟောနေတဲ့အိနိ္ဒယက ဒေသနေရာတွေနဲ့တော့ .. မိုင် ၂-၃ရာကျော်လောက်ဝေးတယ်..။ ပင်လယ်မခြား ကုန်းလမ်းကုန်သွယ်တာလည်း လွယ်တယ်..။

      လက်ရှိနှစ်မှာလည်း ရှေးဟောင်းပစ္စည်းတွေကိုလည်း.. ကာဗွန်သက်တန်းစစ်ထားလောက်တယ်..။
      ဗမာတွေ ဗုဒ္ဓဂယာလည်လည်သွားရင်း.. ဝင်ကြည့်လေ့လာကြစေလို…

      မှတ်ချက်။ ။ ရွေတိဂုံသမိုင်းယုံသူများ မမြင်စေရ..။ :k:

      • ဇီဇီခင်ဇော်

        July 14, 2015 at 9:17 am

        တဂျီးနှယ်။
        ဥက္ကလာ ဆိုမှတော့ အနော်တို့ ရန်ကုန်မယ် တောင် ဥက္ကလာ၊ မြောက် ဥက္ကလာ ရှိတာကို အဝေးဂျီး စဉ်းစားနေတယ်။
        ခိခိ။

        :k:

        • kai

          July 14, 2015 at 9:30 am

          အင်း.. ဟုတ်တော့နေတာပဲ..
          အဲဒီဥက္ကလာတွေက.. ဘိုနေဝင်းလက်ထက် တည်ထားတဲ့မြို့သစ်တွေလေ..။ ကြည့်ရတာ.. တိုင်မ်းမရှင်းများရှိသလားမသိ..။

          နောက်တာပါ…တကယ်ပြောချင်တာက..
          ရွှေတိဂုံသမိုင်းအတိအကျက.. ၁၅ရာစု ဓမ္မစေတီမင်းလက်ထက်မှာပဲ ပေါ်တယ်…။
          ဘာပဲပြောပြော.. နှစ်၅၀ဝ ဝန်းကျင်သက်တန်းရှိတာက သေချာ..

          အလယ်မှာ မြေကြီးထုပုံထားပြီး.. အကာက အုပ်စီထားတာလို့.. မျက်မြင်တွေ့ဖူးသူတွေကဆိုတယ်…။
          သက်တန်း၅၀ဝကျော်မှာ.. မြေကြီးထုထည်ပုံထား.. အုပ်စီကာထားတဲ့ ရွေတိဂုံဟာ ပျက်ဆီးနိုင်ချေနဲ့.. ငလျှင်ဘာညာ…အန္တရယ်များလွန်းလှတယ်..
          ဖြစ်နိုင်ရင်.. စေတီထုထဲ…ကွန်ခရစ်တွေ.. စတီးသံဘောင်တွေထိုးထည့်… အားကူ.. စနစ်တကျထိမ်းသိမ်းပြင်ဆင်သင့်တယ်လို့.. ပြောချင်တာပါ…။
          အပြင်ကနေ ရွှေအထပ်ထပ်ကပ်လို့.. အလှလုပ်နေရင်… လက်ရှိလူတွေသမိုင်းတာဝန်မကျေ.. မထိမတို့ကြနဲ့. .မဖျက်ဆီင်္းပါနဲ့အော်ပြီး.. ဖျက်ဆီးနေတာနဲ့သဘောတူနေမှာပေါ့…

          ဒေီအလုပ်က…ဒေါ်လာ မီလီယံများစွာကုန်နိုင်ပါတယ်..။

          ဒီအတွက် ရွှေတိဂုံကယ်တင်ကြအော်နေသူများကတော့ ထုတ်ပေးနိုင်မှာမဟုတ်..။
          ရွှေတိဂုံဝန်းကျင်နယ်မြေကို.. စနစ်တကျမြို့အင်္ဂ ါညီဖြစ်အောင် ဒီဗဲလုပ်လုပ်မဲ..ပရော့ဂျက်အကြီးကြီးတခုခု ခေါ်သင့်တယ်..။
          သူတို့ဆီက.. ရှယ်ကြ..တောင်းကြပေါ့…။

          အဲဒါပြောချင်…။

        • ဇီဇီခင်ဇော်

          July 14, 2015 at 9:33 am

          ဆန်းဆန်းတင့် အစ်ရှူးကြီးဗျ။

          ဟိုနေ့က ကျောက်စိမ်းစေတီ သတင်းဖတ်ပြီး တဂျီးသတိရသေးတယ်။
          အဟေးဟေးဟေးးးး

          :mrgreenn:

        • @QUIL@

          July 14, 2015 at 12:31 pm

          အလယ်က ဂလိုဏ်ခေါင်းဆို…
          အူးနေဝင်းလက်ထက်က ကွန်ကရစ် သိပ် သဆို….
          ဖတ်ဖူးတာပြောပါတယ်…
          😛

        • kai

          July 14, 2015 at 9:37 am

          ကျောက်စိမ်းစေတီမှာ.. လျှို့ဝျက်ဘစ်ဇနက်တွေ.. လက်သိပ်ထိုးတာတွေ အများကြီးပါလောက်တယ်..။
          အဲဒီကျောက်စိမ်းတွေ ဘယ်လိုရ..ဘယ်ကထုတ်…။
          ဘယ်လိုခွင့်ပြုချက်ယူ…။

          အဲဒီနယ်ကမြေကြီးဈေး.. အတက်အကျ ဂရပ်..။
          စီးပွားရေး..ရင်းနှီးမြုတ်နှံမှုတွေ.. မီဒီယာတွေ မီးခိုးကြွက်လျှောက်လိုက်သင့်တယ်..။

          ကျုပ်သာအစိုးရအကြံပေးရမယ်ဆိုရင်တော့.. အဲလိုကိစ္စမျိုးသမားတွေကို.. အမြတ်ခွန် မြက်မြက်ကလေးကောက်ပေးပါလို့..။
          ရတဲ့ငွေနဲ့.. ကလေးကျောင်း ၁၀ဝ ကို.. နိုင်ငံခြားဆရာ ၁၀ဝ တနှစ်စာပေးခန့်ထူထောင်ခိုင်းမယ်..။
          ကွိ..။

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