THE WORLD CIVILIZATIONS AND INDIA , PART-25

ARBIND KUMAR BLOG

LORD BUDDHA had propagated a religion which did not believe in magic , sorcery , astrology and necromancy as such . But FA-HIEN has presented a picture of BUDDHISM which was charismatic in nature in many senses . He saw in INDIA how people used to worship foot prints of LORD BUDDHA . They worshiped his scalp , his teeth , his reliquary etc . Where LORD BUDDHA had saved his hair or cut his nails , BUDDHA STUPAS were eracted there . In CHINESE language TAKSHXILA meant saving of head . It is also said that TAKSHXILA was called so , because LORD BUDDHA had given himself/his body to feed a hungry lion . LORD BUDDHA spent , at least , three months in the heaven to teach his mother about religion who had died quite earlier . And when he came back from there , he landed over in KAPISHA . That’s why KAPISHA had become a place of pilgrim . There is a place near AYODHYA where LORD BUDDHA had brushed his teeth with teeth-cleaning twig and dug the twig in the soil , it is said that that twig became ten feet high tree within a moment . Similarly , he taught five hundred blind people about religion in VARANASI , who got their eye-sight immediately . All these things has entered into BUDDHISM by then when FA-HIEN had visited INDIA . And he had described all of them . But in no where he saw any tussle or animity as such between BUDDHISM and HINDUISM that time in INDIA .

ARBIND KUMAR BLOG

He has further written , ‘ People are happy and prosperous . There are neither registration of land nor anyone is prohibited to till the land . For whatever they are getting as a produce from the land , they use to give rent to the King . Whoever wants to vacate the land can vacate it any time and Whoever wants to remain there has no objection from the King . No physical punishment exists . The accused is only fined according to the quantum of crime . If the accused committs the same crime twice , then his right hand is amputated . In the entire country nobody kills anybody , nobody drinks wine , nobody eats onions and garlics . But Chandalas are kept outside the village because they are fallen people .’

When he came to PATALIPUTRA , he saw all types of charitable institutions including a hospital . Even in Europe there didn’t exist a hospital that time as it existed in MAGADHA . As per a historian on the subject about five hundred years later a hospital was established in EUROPE as such. FA-HIEN observed , ‘ hither come all poor or helpless patients suffering from every sort of infirmity . They receive help of all kinds gratuitously , and a doctor attends to them ; food and medicine being given according to their wants . Thus , they are made quite comfortable , and when they are well they may go away .’*

ARBIND KUMAR BLOG

HIUEN-TSANG ( 629-645 AD ) , was a BUDDHIST CHINESE traveler who reached INDIA during the period of HARSHVARDHANA , the founder of the VARDHANA DYNASTY . He collected more than 657 INDIAN Text books and brought them to CHINA . He translated many of them in the CHINESE language ; so that people of CHINA could be benefited out of those books . He had made vivid descriptions of the city of PATALIPUTRA . He came here in 637 AD after his return from NEPAL . That time MAGADHA was ruled by the king HARSHVARDHANA of KANAUJ . To HIUEN-TSANG , PATALIPUTRA originally called KUSUMAPURA , was a city interestingly founded by a prince called PUTRAKA , who created it ‘ with a stroke of his magic staff and made it in honour of his wife PATALI .’ In KATHASARITASAGARA also one can find such story about the city of PATALIPUTRA . But according to the VAYA PURANA and the SUTPAPITAKA , it was founded by the SISUNAGA king UDAYA , the then Ruler of MAGADHA at the end of fifth century BC . But when HIUEN-TSANG reached there, he found the city having a deserted look . It perhaps might be due to the HUN invasion of the city in the past that benevolent people of PATALIPUTRA had left the city leaving it deserted as such . Before invasion , the city had more than 100 of Temples and Monasteries . But during his visit there remained only two or three intact . Other historical records state that in 530 AD , a severe earthquake had hit PATALIPUTRA which had destroyed the city considerably . Some of the historians , on the other hand , are of the opinion that the ANTI-BUDDHIST king SASANKA of BENGAL might have destroyed the city of PATALIPUTRA , that’s why when HIUEN-TSANG visited the city he saw a deserted look in the city as such .

NOTE : THE SOURCES OF THE BLOG ARE TEXT BOOKS AND OTHER WRITTEN MATERIALS ON THE SUBJECT .

TO BE CONTINUED ………………..

*QUOTED BY RAM CHANDRA PRASAD IN HIS BOOK ‘ BIHAR ‘ , NATIONAL BOOK TRUST ( 1983) , P. 54

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