BUDDHA & His Birthplace
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But R.R.Diwakar says that this temple must have been built later, as the building of temples was not yet in vogue during the time of Asoka. Many historians are of opinion that the scripts found in the Tarai inscription have no similarity with the script of other inscriptions of Asoka's time. If scholars take up the study of this Tarai inscription with all seriousness, it will be crystal clear that this inscription does not belong to the time of Asoka.
In
the month of March 1928 a stone inscription like that one found in the Tarai region
was also found in Kapileswara, a village then one mile away from Bhubaneswar,
the present capital of Orissa State. Now it has become a part of the city of Bhubaneswar.
The Kapileswara copy, first brought to public notice by Mr. Harenchandra Chakaldar
of the Calcutta University was procured about March 1928 by Mr. Birendranath Roy
for his museum at Puri from a farmer of the village of Kapileswara, situated nearly
a mile to the south of the famous Lingeraja temple at Bhubaneswara. The farmer
had found the inscribed stone slab set in the mud wall of his hut. This is all
the information which Mr. Roy and others could gather from him. The lingam (phallus)
of the Bhaskareswara temple of Bhubaneswara was proved to be a portion of an Asokan
pillar by the eminent historian Mr. Rajendralal Mitra in 1880. The Orissan specimens
of Asokan arts have no lustrous polish as exemplified by the elephant figure at
Dhauli, and that they exhibit the indigenous characteristics, being the products
of the local school of art, executed in local stone. Even the Kapileswara stone
inscription has got a number of spots, and it is not polished. Dr.K.Panigrahi,
who accepts the sculpture as an Asokan one on the supposition of its indigenous
nature of workmanship, assures us that the figure was detached from the original
column of Asoka by the 5th century A.D. when, according to him, it received on
its body the two short lines of Brahmi inscriptions, and that the chisel marks
on it indicate the attempts of breaking it into pieces by the fanatic Saivas,
who transformed the Buddhist column into a Siva lingam.
The Linga formed out of a piece of the original Asoka pillar is named Bhaskareswara, another name of Buddha meaning the Sun God certainly it had connection with Buddha, because of the fact that Buddha is frequently designated as 'Arkabandhu' and 'Adityabandhu' meaning of friend of Sun God.. As the lingam was converted from the broken pillar containing Buddha's whereabouts, the name Bhaskareswara was given to the lingam. Even the name Bhubaneswara is derived from one of the names of Lord Buddha. A group of people of Kalinga had accepted Buddhism, because the first two Buddhists, Tapusa and Bhallika were inhabitants of Kalinga, and Buddha had come to Kalinga twice after his enlightenment. But after the death of Buddha when the emperor of Kalinga Brahmadutta made Buddhism the religion of the state, Buddhism got spread in every part of Kalinga. Taking advantage of the death of Brahmadutta, the kings of Nanda dynasty of Magadha attacked Kalinga and occupied some parts, and partially destroyed the Buddhist monuments. Later Emperor Asoka invaded Kalinga in 261 B.C. and was converted to Buddhism, and after 29 years he died in 232 B.C. After his death the Buddhist monuments and other memorials built by Asoka.The Kapilavastu pillar and the sacred stupa, built before, were destroyed. In the 7th century A.D. Hiuen Tsiang could visit some of the holy places with all the stupas and pillars in Kalinga. As mentioned in the book of Dr. Mohapatra, when all the sculpture of Kapilavastu, the birth place of Buddha, were destroyed, some of the most devout Buddhists led by Beikshu SANKASA in 5th century AD thought over as to how to keep the memory of Buddha intact. In the issue of Times of India dated the 25th January 1976, another writer and after him Sri Srivastava also published in the "Illustrated Weekly" certain photographs taken from the excavation of Padaria as Kapilavastu.
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