| Temples & Legends Of Bihar |
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| Temples & Legends Of India |
MAHABODHI |
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| The authorities
have come to the considered opinion that, from the evidence of the inscriptions at the
Mahabodhi Vihara, the date of the temple could be put down at about the 6th or 7th century
A. D. It is one of the paradoxes that such an important place, particularly for the Buddhists, came to be neglected and got almost buried under heaps of debris. It is said that almost half of the temple was filled with earth and rubbish. It is also peculiar that a sect of Saivite Giris came to occupy the Vihara. Fa-Hian had based most of his accounts on the accepted Buddhist mythology. It can, however, be deduced that Bodh Gaya was famous near about 400 A.D., when Fa-Hian toured India. Hieun-Tsang's description of Bodh Gaya is fuller. He definitely mentions that, to the cast of the Bodhi tree, there was a Vihara about 160 or 170 feet in height. He has dwelt on some of the figures that could still be seen in the Mahabodhi Vihara. He has also described some of the Chaityas, railings, tanks, stupas and other relics. Hieun-Tsang (637 A.D.) has also mentioned that he saw the Mahabodhi Sangharama built by a king of Ceylon. This Sangharama is still there.Without going into a scholastic discussion, it could safely be said that the Mahabodhi Vihara appears to have come into existence sometime after Fa-Hian's visit and before the visit of Hieun-Tsang in the first half of the 7th century A.D. |
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