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from Nepal With the long drawn dispute over the location of
Buddhas birthplace end in favour of Nepal...? The area around
Tilaurakot (Nepal) crowded with unexcavated or partly excavated
Buddhist sites. About 65 archaeological sites have been identified
and the authorities want to develop at least seven. The remains of the
Eastern Gateway of Kapilavastu (At Tilaurakot) through which
Gautama Buddha is believed to have walked out at night.
A century-old dispute over the location of Kapilavastu, where
Prince Siddartha (late Gauthama, the Buddha) grew up, is about to
end in favour of Tilaurakot in Nepal, and not Piprahawa, India.
Tilaurakot is situated on the Banganga which is thought to have been
called Bhagirathi by the Sakyans, said Prof. Tulsi Ram Baidya,
Chairman of the Nepal History Association. There is no river near
Piprahawa.
Tilaurakots claim to Kapilavastu is based primarily on four areas
of irrefutable evidence. The place is a derivative not of the name of
Kapila, the sage, but an oil producing shrub in Nepalese called
Kapila, which is used for medicinal and cooking purposes from time
immemorial by the Nepalese, Tilaurakot too means tell or oil and
kot fields of sesame (dil). Firstly according to Buddhist literature,
Kapilavastu was situated on a river which was called Bhagirathi. It
was a common term used to identify all rivers in the area as
Bangirathis blessed rivers) that finally unite with the holy Ganges or
Ganga. Secondly, a capital city would have fortified as there were
royal feuds among them then as now between the kingdoms or the
people of the country. Prof. Baidya, reiterated, We can still see remnants of a moat and walls at the site of Tilaurakot site. The walls are
10 feet wide. Unless it was a capital city, it could not have had walls.
The area of Kapilavastu is around 1,700 feet by 1,300 ft. It was to
huge for a monastic complex.
Thirdly, Japanese and Nepalese archaeologists later found painted
grey ware in a third century trench dug by Debala Mitra, the archaeologist. In the Indian subcontinent painted grey ware was in existence
as far back as the eleventh century BC, suggestive of the fact this site
was inhabited even earlier than that.
Fourthly, a huge collection of coins had been excavated at
Tilaurakot, which too is direct evidence that there was a palace at site
with a royal treasury, and not a monastic complex.
As regards Piprahawa, the Nepalese archaeologists and others contend, it could have been an area under Sakyan rulers and the site of a
monastery.
The Buddha speaking about Himself declared, I am a Khattiya,
warrior-noble stock. I was reborn into a Khattiya family. I am a
Gotama by clan. My lifespan is of short length, is brief and soon over,
one who lives long now completes the century or a little more...A
king, Suddhodana by name, was my father. A queen, Maha Maya by
name, was the mother that bore me. The royal capital was the city of
Kapilavastu. (Digha Nikaya 14. Condensed translation by late Ven.
Bhikkhu Nanamolis The Life of the Buddha). On the Maha
Parinirvana of the Buddha (passing away) at Kusinara, several kings
and rulers of principalities claimed relics to be enshrined in their
countries. The Sakyans of Kapilavastu to stake their claims saying,
The Blessed One was the greatest of our blood, we too are worthy
of a share of the Blessed Ones bones. We too will build a monument
and hold a ceremony (Ibid page 331). In these times the present
Piprahawa too was in the kingdom of Kapilavastu, and the presently
excavated site could be the place of the monastery and monument
Sakyans built.
Presently Tilanrakot is a mass of excavated and unexcavated sites,
coming under Nepal. Birendra K. Yadav, the Project Manager of
Lumbini Development Trust says: We want to develop at least
seven sites. The first of course is Tilaurakot, the site of Kapilavastu
and the others are Gotihawa, Kudan, Niglihawa, Arourakot,
Sagarahawa and Sisania.
The search for Kapilavastu emerged when James Princeps deciphered the Brahmi and Kharosnti scripts in the 18th century and
learned of a plethora of rock and pillar edicts based on Buddhist
scriptural writings. Prof. Lassen studied Buddhist literature and wrote