Bodh Gaya | Buddhist Pilgrimage, Sacred Se, Mahabodhi Temple | Branni

Contents:

• GAYA
• WHAT IS GAYA? | THE CY OF HISTORIL SIGNIFINCE
• HISTORY OF GAYA – CY OF HISTORIL SIGNIFINCE
• HISTORY GAYA
• KG SURO AND THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF GAYA
• THE CONTROVERSY OVER THE ANCIENT KOREAN STATE OF GAYA: A FRH LOOK AT THE KOREA–JAPAN HISTORY WAR
• GAYA NFERACY
• GAYA: THE HISTORY OF CO-EXISTENCE ANCIENT EAST ASIA
• BODH GAYA
• BODH GAYA: THE SE OF THE BUDDHA’S ENLIGHTENMENT
• WHY BODH GAYA IS CONSIRED THE NAVEL OF THE EARTH

GAYA

The pensula was domated by Gaya's more powerful neighbourg kgdoms of Goguryeo (Koguryo), Baekje (Paekche), and Silla, but Gaya, often the fotten enty this perd, was neverthels rich iron ore and their craftsmen beme highly skilled at fashng iron objects such as armour and weapons. There are few tails available on the workg of the Gaya stat or daily life, but we n image a siar mol to the ntemporary Three Kgdoms where a royal fay domated a hierarchil aristocracy which, turn, erned the provc domated by a farmg peasantry. Throughout their history, the Gaya stat were nstantly harassed by their neighbours the Silla and Baekje kgdoms and nsequently never had the opportuny to form a more centralised state which polil stabily might have permted.

WHAT IS GAYA? | THE CY OF HISTORIL SIGNIFINCE

Then when the Silla kgdom expand the 6th century CE, Gaya's alliance wh Baekje did no good at all and Bon-Gaya was nquered and stroyed (532 CE), as was Daegaya (562 CE) and the other important Gaya towns. The issue is loured by natnalistic bias so that some historians claim that Gaya was a Japane lony while others propose that horse rirs om the Eurasian steppe me to Japan via Gaya and troduced the burial tumul to that culture.

HISTORY OF GAYA – CY OF HISTORIL SIGNIFINCE

Evince is lackg eher way, although most scholars agree that the Gaya was the more advanced culture and recent fds of iron horse armour, notably om a 5th century CE tomb, suggt that the Gaya did master the e of that animal. Gaya artists produced grey stoneware clay pottery the form of stemmed cups, horn-shaped cups, tall jars wh pierced stems, and spouted vsels the form of ducks, sho, warrrs, boats, and even ho.

Another succsful export was the gayagm (kayagum), a zher wh 12 silk strgs thought to have been vented by Kg Gasil the 6th century CE, which would be taken up by micians Japan and which remas a potent symbol of Korean culture even today. Var mos of transportatn jo Gaya wh different ma towns of Bihar njunctn wh the relaxatn of India Gaya is sacred now no longer simplt for Hd however addnally for Buddhists, bee the regn has many Buddhist pilgrim statns.

The place of ancient Gaya received om the acunt the Ramayana of the god Rama g here to the banks of Phalgu River (lled the Niranjana), acpanied by his wife and younger brother, to offer pd-daan for their father Dasharatha, for the moksha of his soul. Durg this perd, Gaya saw the rise and fall of many dynasti the Magadha regn, where occupied an important place cultural history over some 2, 400 years between the 6th century BCE and the 18th century CE. As attted by Francis Buchanan-Haton the early neteenth century, the cy was divid to two areas: a sacred area the southern part of the cy, lled Gaya; and the larger secular area, which may have been known by the Mlim muny as Allahabad.

HISTORY GAYA

Durg the Brish le, the mercial and admistrative area of the secular zone was formally named Saheb Ganj by Brish policy reformer Thomas Law, who was a district officer Gaya the late neteenth century. Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, the founr of the All India Kisan Sabha peasant movement 1936, tablished an ashram at Neyamatpur, Gaya, which later beme the center of the eedom stggle Bihar.

The Nanda dynasty ntrolled Gaya for a brief perd sometime between 343 and 321 BC and was then followed by the Mrya Empire head by Ashoka; the chief proponent of Buddhism durg those tim. \r\n\r\nDurg the Hdu revivalism age, the Guptas led for two centuri between 4th and 5th century AD, and then Gaya was passed to the Pala Empire, whose lear Gopala built the Bodh Gaya temple. It is remarkable that, among var theori that were put forward the lonial perd, the theory of Japan’s lonial outpost the Gaya regn (Mimana Japane) beme the most endurg and fluential historil narrative of Japan’s cultural and polil hegemony.

The Che text Sanguozhi, which provis an thentic picture of polil velopments on the Korean pensula, refers to Byeonhan regn (on which Gaya stat emerged) as an important source of iron for Wa (Japan). Japan’s imperialist historgraphy gave crence to the mytho-historil rerds of the Nihon Shoki (also known as Nihongi) that the southern Korean state of Gaya (Mimana/Imna) served as the lonial outpost of Yamato Japan ancient tim.

KG SURO AND THE FOTTEN HISTORY OF GAYA

In orr to provi a nuanced unrstandg of the specific ntroversy surroundg Gaya, is sential to provi an overview of the tradns of historil wrg Korea and Craft of History Wrg Korea and JapanKorea was troduced to Confucianism the fourth century, leadg to the procs of Sicizatn, and is remarkable that although the fluence of Che civilizatn, and more specifilly Confucian culture, permeated every area of tellectual enavor, found bt exprsn the field of history. Japane Rerds on GayaIf we place the Japane rerds on the ancient Korean state of Gaya wh the ntext of the nature of Japane historgraphy, we realize that Gaya-related entri the Kojiki and Nihon shoki were tend to strs the pre-emence of Yamato royalty vis-à-vis not only Gaya but also two other southern stat on the Korean pensula lked wh Yamato through close cultural and polil ti.

The thors of the Nihon shoki relied on the Baekje sourc for rmatn on the ancient Korean stat, and is th hardly surprisg that Silla, the bter enemy of Baekje, appears as a tribute-bearg vassal of Yamato and the state of Gaya that Silla had absorbed the sixth century, is picted as a Japane lony om the fourth century onward.

THE CONTROVERSY OVER THE ANCIENT KOREAN STATE OF GAYA: A FRH LOOK AT THE KOREA–JAPAN HISTORY WAR

Apparently, the portrayal of Japan’s suzeraty over the southern Korean stat is the back-st projectn of the power of Yamato admistratn the late seventh fact that the urt of Yamato did not le over the regns of wtern Honshu and Kyhu the fourth century and that the unifitn of the Japane archipelago was a lengthy procs that was pleted the late fifth or early sixth century mak Nihon shoki’s entri on Gaya highly spect.

” Two years subsequent to this event, Japane envoys reached Taksun, and they were then directed by the ler of Taksun to the urt of Kg Sogo who gave them a genero gift of silk, bow and arrows, and Kun argued that sce the petty stat of Gaya were arily weak and failed to velop to a centralized state on the Che mol, an outsi power uld have exercised some gree of ary ntrol over this regn. I am, therefore, tempted to accept the njecture of Han Yong-u that Yamato Japan tablished a tra office the Gaya regn and s iron tra was managed by the limed number of Wa people who rid on both the Japane archipelago Japan and the southern part of the Korean pensula.

In the mid-1870s when the Gwanggaeto stele was disvered Manchuria, s reference to “the occupatn of Silla, Baekje and Gaya by the vadg Wa forc and their ultimate expulsn om the Korean pensula by Kg Gwanggaeto” was wily ed as a piece of solid evince to support the entri the Nihon shoki. Acrdgly, s reference to the Japane nqut of the southern Korean stat lacks is obv that orr to asss the power and posn of Gaya East Asia, we need to be cril analysis of early texts and an awarens of recent archaeologil Formatn of Gaya and Its Broad Cultural FrontierA close look at the procs of state formatn of the state of Gaya, and at s broad cultural ontier extendg to South Cha and India, lends further crence to the belief that was not lonized by an outsi power durg s formative phase.

GAYA NFERACY

The exvatns Bokcheon dong and Daeong dong also suggt that Gaya menced g iron technology only after the third century, and that this change was a rult of acculturatn or peer-poly teractn wh Goguryeo. and the provi evince of sophistitn of art and crafts as a rult of teractn wh more advanced powers on the Korean early fifth-century Gwanggaeto scriptn of Goguryeo refers to Gaya a que nscendg tone as a “subject” of long standg. but Gaya’s termatn to move out om unr the umbrella of Goguryeo fluence and to assert an pennt inty was beg creasgly manift, and s growg polil nfince soon led to s dispatch of an embassy to Southern Qi (479–502).

Japane sourc dite that the sixth century immigrants om Gaya ntributed immensely to the dissematn of advanced agricultural technology on the Japane archipelago, and the early sixth century tablished several large tat, known as ōta miyake (great rice paddy tat).

GAYA: THE HISTORY OF CO-EXISTENCE ANCIENT EAST ASIA

Use of advanced iron technology the clearg of thick vegetatn and nstctn of roads uld well have facilated an tegrative procs among tribal settlements (cludg Gaya) of the Byeonhan regn which, acrdg to the Che rerd Sanguozhi, were sttered and not yet subject to effective polil ntrol. Due primarily to the enomic and technologil chang, Gaya’s old orr, characterized by var sttered settlements, evolved to a new social and polil orr by the middle of the fifth century. The official patronage of Buddhism was exprsed through the nstctn of Wangha (Queen Temple) 452, apparently memoratn of the prcs of the Indian state of Ayodhya who is believed to have reached the shore of Gaya and been accepted by the foundg ler, Kim Suro, as his queen.

The qutn, nohels, aris whether the prcs of Ayodhya really reached Gaya and married the Gaya the early centuri CE, Indians started sailg to Southeast Asian islands such as Suvrnadvipa and Yavadvipa (Java), leadg to the so-lled Indianizatn of Southeast Asia. Jnatadh arma kathang Sutra, a text wrten Prakr which forms part of the sacred texts of Jaism, and also known by the name Nayadhammakahao, refers to India’s tra lkag wh the state of Kalik (apparently the Sanskr renrg of Karak, the origal name of Gaya) which is scribed as suated further north of Suvarnadvipa the prent-day Indonia.

BODH GAYA

While the urt of Southern Qi, the envoys om Gaya mt have wnsed the fluence of Mareya or Weolgwang dongja, and givg the prce this name may jtifiably be terpreted as a reflectn of the fluence of the cult of Mareya.

Although Gaya nducted brisk teractn wh var ancient stat on equal terms and ma efforts to equip self wh such ias and stutns of ntental provenance, Buddhism and Confucianism, was absorbed by Silla before attaed stutnal matury as an early state.

BODH GAYA: THE SE OF THE BUDDHA’S ENLIGHTENMENT

Numero forc and factors led to var distortns about Gaya’s stat, and the reference of Nihon shoki, particular, to the existence of a Japane lonial outpost on Gaya terrory is not borne out by any material evince.

For an sightful analysis of Goguryeo–Kaya relatns sce the late fourth century, see Yi Yong-sik, “Gaya jeg-kwa Goguryeo-i gyorya, ” a paper read at the Goguryeo Conference held at Korea Universy May 2005.

WHY BODH GAYA IS CONSIRED THE NAVEL OF THE EARTH

Lord Vishnu killed Gayasur, the holy mon by g the prsure of his foot over cint transformed Gayasur to the seri of rocky hills that make up the landspe of the Gaya is a legend that lord Vishnu promise to mon Gayasur that this cy will be popular by the name of Great Demon Gaya sur. Acrdg to great Epic Ramayana The lord Rama along wife Sa vised Gaya and performed shraddha (pnddan) at Gaya durg the fortnight perd jt Before Durga Pooja known as Panda (prit of Vishnu Temple) have a evince that Mrya, Gupta kg, Kumaril Bhatt, Ram Krishna Paramhansa, Chattaian Maha Pharavu and Lord Shankara Charaya also vised Gaya to performed Vishnu Pad temple is one of the most attractive and sred of the all the vaisnava and tradnal Vishnu temple.