​​​​​​Zen The Life & Times Of The Buddha

April and May are important months for Buddhists as this is when Buddha Poornima and Vesak or Buddha Day are celebrated. Here is a look at some of the most important sites in India where the Buddha lived 2,500-plus years ago as well as those that have come into prominence after his life.

- Bindu Gopal Rao

The Life Of The Buddha

Gautam Buddha was born in Lumbini, located near the Nepal-India border, in a royal family in 556 BCE. After a sheltered upbringing, Siddhartha (as he was then called) accidentally discovered illness and death, which convinced him to give up worldly pleasures. After the Buddha began meditating, the Buddha attained enlightenment when he was 29 under a Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya in Bihar. Said to be one of the holiest pilgrimage sites, Bodh Gaya is home to the Maha Bodhi Temple or Vishal Buddha Mandir that has a mammoth statue of the Buddha in deep meditation.

Emperor Ashoka built the first temple near the Bodhi tree in the third century BC. In fact, this is the place where Siddhartha—the restless, became the Buddha—the enlightened. Located about 100 km away from Bihar’s capital, Patna, Bodh Gaya has several monasteries built by foreign Buddhist centres and the Bodhi or peepal tree on a big platform is believed to be an off-shoot of the actual tree under which Buddha attained enlightenment. The Bodhi Sarovar here is believed to be the pond where the Buddha bathed before he began meditating. It is also said that the Durgeshwari Cave Temples located about 12 km away is the place where the Buddha meditated for a long time during this period. The Chaukramama or the Jewel Walk here is the place where the Buddha used to walk. The Barabar Caves, a collection of four caves, Karan Chaupar, Lomas Rishi, Sudama and Visva Zopri, are the oldest rock-cut caves in India dating to the third century BC, 24 km from Bodh Gaya and with inscriptions and elaborate sculptures.