The recently-excavated hilltop Buddhist monastery in Bihar’s Lakhisarai district, in eastern India, has caught the attention of the Buddhist scholars and archeologists across the world.
A recently-concluded two-day conference on “shared Buddhist Heritage”, as part of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, has received appreciation by one and all. The screening of the seven-minute video clip of this excavated hilltop site of the Buddhist monastery at the conference has caught the attention of the participating world Buddhist scholars and monks.
Lakhisarai district town barely 125 km east of Patna, the capital of Bihar, is situated at the confluence of three important rivers – Ganga, Haruhar and Kiul – and three ancient cultural zones – Anga, Magadh and Mithila. Lalpahari is a small hillock on the western bank of river kiul in the present day Lakhisarai district.
The main architect of this Buddhist site is a Bihari archeologist Prof Anil Kumar, who is currently head of the department of ancient Indian History, culture and archaeology at Vishwa Bharati University, Shantiniketan in West Bengal.
Prof Kumar was also invited to participate in the recently-concluded Global Buddhist Conference in New Delhi.
Talking to The Statesman, Kumar said: “The uniqueness of this discovery is that it is the first hilltop monastic site excavated in Eastern India.”
He further said, “The architectural features like well-preserved inter-connected cells, remnants of wooden door frames and finally the evidence of application of red, green, yellow, white and black colours on lime plastered floor makes the architecture of the monastery, the first of its kind on the map of Eastern Indian Buddhist establishments”.
Two burnt clay sealings recovered from the site record the names “Sriman Dhamma Vihara” and “Aarya bhikshu Sanghasya”. This may be translated as (this is the seal) of the council of monks of the monastery. The language of the record is Sanskrit of about 8th/9th century CE”, he pointed out.
This discovery is of paramount significance in the understanding of the history of monastic Buddha in early Medieval Magadh and historically identified as Krmila region in Lakhisarai district. It clearly proves that the monastery atop the hill called Lalpahari in Jayanagar village was a” Vihara” of monastic evidence, Prof Kumar told The Statesman.
Way back in the 19th century, the antiquarian remains of Lakhisarai region had drawn the attention of British administrators like Buchanan, Cunningham, Beglar and Waddell. They conducted a preliminary survey of the area and identified stupas and temples in this region.
Early this year, a US scholar, Jinan Kim of Harvard University, while doing her project on ancient colours, visited this site to do research on a coloured platform on the floor which was found here during excavation.
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar had inaugurated the excavation work at this site in November 2017. The excavation was jointly conducted by the Bihar government and the Vishwa Bharati University, Shantiniketan. A newly-built huge museum building has come up near this state protected site. It is yet to be functional.