Buddha’s bowl or not? Archaeological Survey of India can’t decide
21 Sep 2014 4:01 AM GMT
Bhiksha Patra, a 400-kg greenish-grey bowl of granite from the 6th century BC was found in Afghanistan
The bhiksha patra, a 400-kg greenish-grey bowl of granite from the 6th century BC - was examined after an MP raised the issue. The team, consisting of an epigraphist and an archaeologist, have given contradictory reports. (Photo: buddhistartnews.
New Delhi: Is it or is it not the Buddha’s begging bowl? The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is in a tizzy. Four months after the ASI sent a two-member team to Afghanistan to ascertain the authenticity of the “bhiksha patra” of Lord Buddha on display in a Kabul museum, the ASI seems to have hit a wall with the two members giving contradictory reports. The ASI has now written to the ministry of external affairs and the Indian embassy in Kabul for their views on the future course of action.
The bhiksha patra, a 400-kg greenish-grey bowl of granite from the 6th century BC - was examined after an MP raised the issue. The team, consisting of an epigraphist and an archaeologist, have given contradictory reports. “This is a huge bowl, approximately 400 kg, the Persianinscription on the huge bowl cannot be ascertained. Circumstantial evidence says that the bowl was not from the time of Buddha in India. In the records of Kabul, there was no mention of India either (sic),” one of the team members who examined the bowl said.
Matters are made more difficult by the fact that there is no universally accepted date among scholars for the birth and death of the historical Gautama Buddha.
However, the other member is sure that the begging bowl is from Buddha’s time, as according to him the inscription on the bowl has not been translated properly. “There was a swastika sign in the sixth line, which means that it belonged to the same era and is proof that it belonged to Buddha in India. I am sure that the other person has not translated the sixth line on the bowl. These are the reasons for the confusion (sic).”
A senior official in the culture ministry said, “The report of both the members who went to Afghanistan is different. We could not come to any conclusion and have asked the Afghanistan government to help so that a proper decision on bringing the bowl back to India can be taken.”
The bowl bears a Persian inscription in Thulth style of Islamic calligraphy, dateable to the 15th or 16th century AD, and there was no other writing in Pali or Sanskrit inscribed on it. In his report, one member underlined that there was no indication of Persian inscription overwritten on the artefact, suggesting that the belief that it belonged to the Buddha could be a case of mistaken identity. He suggested that the bowl might have been made around the 15-16th century AD in Kandahar for use in a madrasa.
The other member has suggested that it was the same bowl that Buddha left for his devotees in Vaishali, who worshipped it before Kanishka of the Kushanas took it to his capital Purushpura (now Peshawar) in the 2nd century AD.
( Source : dc )
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