Kusinagar

Kushinagar ( Hindustani: or ; Pali: ; Sanskrit: ) is a town in the Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is an important and popular Buddhist pilgrimage site, where Buddhists believe Gautama Buddha attained ''parinirvana''.

Etymology

According to Buddhist tradition ''Kushavati'' was named prior to the king Kush. The naming of Kushwati is believed to be due to abundance of Kush grass found in this region.

Demographics

According to the 2011 Census of India, Kushinagar had 3462 households and a total population of 22,214, of which 11,502 were males and 10,712 were females. The population within the age group of 0 to 6 years was 2,897. The total number of literate people in Kushinagar was 15,150, which constituted 68.2% of the population with male literacy of 73.3% and female literacy of 62.7%. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes population was 1,117 (5.03%) and 531 (2.39%) respectively.

History

The present Kushinagar is identified with Kusavati (in the pre-Buddha period) and Kushinara (in the post-Buddha period). It was the capital of one of the two Malla republics. The two Malla republics comprised one of the sixteen mahajanpads (oligarchic republics) of India in the 6th century BCE. Since then, it remained an integral part of the erstwhile empires of Maurya, Shunga, Kushana, Gupta, Harsha, and Pala dynasties.

During the medieval period, Kushinagar was under the suzerainty of Kalachuri kings. The city was largely abandoned after the Islamic invasions of the 12th century, although the region was ruled over by a Rajput king named Madan Singh in the 15th century.

The earliest mention of the ruins at Kushinagar in modern literature was in 1837, by D. Liston. Liston noted that it was "an object of worship" and pilgrimage site, but misunderstood the ruins to be the remnants of the fortress of a powerful divinity by the name of Mata Koonr.

Modern Kushinagar came back into prominence when Alexander Cunningham performed archaeological excavations at Matha Kuar shrine and Ramabhar stupa in 1861-1862. Cunningham was the first archaeologist to identify the ruins as being the site of the ''parinirvana'' of the Buddha. Archibald Carlleyle exposed the Mahaparinirvana stupa and also discovered a meters long reclining Buddha statue in 1876. In 1901, a Burmese monk named Sayadaw U Chandramani applied to the English Governor of India, seeking his permission to allow pilgrims to worship the reclining Buddha image in Kushinagar. Excavations continued in the early twentieth century under J. Ph. Vogel. He conducted archaeological campaigns in 1904–1905, 1905-1906 and 1906–1907, uncovering a wealth of Buddhist materials.

After independence, Kushinagar remained a part of the district of Deoria. On 13 May 1994, it came into being as a new district of Uttar Pradesh.

Location of Gautama Buddha's death and parinirvana

In 1896, Laurence Waddell suggested that the site of the death and parinirvana of Gautama Buddha was in the region of Rampurva. However, according to the '' Mahāparinibbāṇa Sutta'', the Buddha made his journey to Kushinagar, where he walked into a grove of sala trees and laid himself to rest. There, he died and was cremated on the seventh day after his death. The accumulated body of archaeological evidence and the historical record both support the assertion that the Buddha died and was cremated in Kushinagar.

Archaeological evidence from the 3rd century BCE suggests that Kushinagar was an ancient pilgrimage site. For example, Ashoka built a stupa and placed a pillar to mark Buddha's attained ''parinirvana'' in Kushinagar. The Hindu rulers of the Gupta Empire (fourth to seventh century) enlarged the stupa and constructed a temple containing a reclining Buddha statue. This site was abandoned by Buddhist monks around 1200 CE, who fled to escape the invading Muslim army, after which the site decayed during the Islamic rule in India that followed. British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham rediscovered Kushinagar in the late 19th century, and his colleague Archibald Carlleyle unearthed the 1,500-year-old reclining Buddha statue. The site has since then become an important pilgrimage site for Buddhists.

Geography

Kushinagar is a nagar palika, located 53 km east of Gorakhpur on National Highway 27. The city is served by Kushinagar International Airport, while the main railway terminus is located in Gorakhpur.

Tourism

;Parinirvana Temple

The statue of the reclining Buddha is inside the Parinirvana Temple. The statue is 6.10 metres long and is made of a single block of red sandstone. It represents the Buddha in the position he was in when he died and attained ''parinirvana'' — reclining on his right side with his head to the north, feet to the south, and face towards the west. It is situated on a large brick platform with stone posts at the corners.

;Parinirvana Stupa
The Parinirvana Stupa (Nirvana Chaitya) is located just behind the Parinirvana Temple. It was excavated by Carlleyle in the year 1876. During excavations, a copper plate was found, which contained the text of the ''Nidana Sutra'' and the statement that plate had been deposited in the Nirvana Chaitya by one Haribala, who also installed the reclining Buddha statue in the temple.

;Ramabhar Stupa
Ramabhar Stupa (also called Mukutbandhan Chaitya) is the cremation place of Buddha. This site is 1.5 km east of the Parinirvana Temple on the Kushinagar-Deoria road.

;Matha Kuar Shrine
This shrine contains a large statue of Buddha, carved out of one block of stone, which represents the Buddha seated under the Bodhi Tree in a pose known as ''bhumi sparsh mudra'' (Earth-touching attitude). The inscription at the base of statue dates to the 10th or 11th century CE.

;Other major places
*Mata Bhagawati Devi Mandir: This is a Hindu temple situated at Buddha Ghat.
*Indo-Japan-Sri Lanka Temple: This is an interesting example of modern Buddhist architecture.
*Wat Thai Temple: This is a huge complex built in a typical Thai-Buddhist architectural fashion.
*Ruins and brick structures: These are located around the Parinirvana Temple and Stupa. These are the remains of various monasteries and votive stupas constructed in the ancient period.
*Several museums, meditation parks and other temples based on architecture of various Asian countries.

The Government of Uttar Pradesh has proposed the Kushinagar- Sarnath Buddha Expressway to connect these two Buddhist pilgrimage towns. The expressway will be around 200 km long and will greatly reduce the travel time between the towns.

Government and politics

Kushinagar comes under Kushinagar Lok Sabha constituency for Indian general elections. The Member of Parliament from this constituency is Vijay Kumar Dubey of Bharatiya Janata Party who was elected in the 2019 Indian general election.

As of 2019, the Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from Kushinagar Assembly constituency is Rajnikant Mani Tripathi of Bharatiya Janata Party.

Notable people

*Dharikshan Mishr, Bhojpuri poet
*Sachchidananda Vatsyayan 'Agyeya', noted Hindi writer
* Vijay Kumar Dubey, politician and Member of Parliament for Kushi Nagar
* Ram Nagina Mishra, former Member of Parliament
* Baleshwar Yadav, former Lok Sabha MP
* Rajesh Pandey, member of 16th Lok Sabha, also served as a Member of Legislative Council in Uttar Pradesh
*Manya Singh, Indian model and beauty pageant title holder
* R. P. N. Singh, former member of parliament from Indian National Congress, also served as Minister of State for Road and Transport, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas in the cabinet of former Prime minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh

Gallery

Image:Burmese Temple in Kushinagar.jpg, Mahasukhamdada Chin Thargyi Pagoda (Burmese Temple)
Image:Watthaikusinara.jpg, Wat Thai Temple
Image:Buddha Relic Distribution Site 02.jpg, Buddha relic distribution site
Image:Kusinara3.jpg, Buddha's body was kept at this location for one week, after he attained Parinirvana.
Image:Mahaparinirvana.jpg, Gautama Buddha's statue in Parinirvana, at the Mahaparinirvana Temple
Image:Kushinara1.jpg, Ramabhar Stupa was built over a portion of the Buddha's ashes on the spot where he was cremated by the ancient Malla people.
Image:066 Relief on Base of Statue, Kusinara (9236797375).jpg, Relief on the base of a Buddhist statue
Image:Buddha Relic Distribution Site 04.jpg, Stone plaque pointing towards Buddha relic distribution site

See also

* Varanasi

References

Further reading

*A Literary History of Deoria & Kushinagar by M.A. Lari Azad (USM 1998 Ghaziabad)
*Patil, D R (1981). Kusīnagara, New Delhi : Archaeological Survey of India.

External links

Official Photo Gallery of Kushinagar


* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20160619032706/http://www.asisarnathcircle.org/docs/Kushinagar%20%20English.pdf Kushinagar, Archaeological Survey of India, Sarnath Circle

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Cities and towns in Kushinagar district
Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India
Ancient Indian cities
Archaeological monuments in Uttar Pradesh
Buddhist sites in Uttar Pradesh