Tathālokā Therī
July 14, 2024
Image from NDTV.com article
I had heard long ago when I first came to Bodhgaya that the ancient monastery (the outlines of which are now 'seen' by the GPR ground penetrating radar reported in the article here) was buried under the high mound to the north, over which everyone enters the temple complex.
Some scholars considered this to be the monastery originally built by Maghada queen Kurangi who, together with other leading women of the royal family, Sirima and Nagadevi, in the 2nd to 1st centuries BCE, offered and established 5 still-important elements of the Bodhgaya shrine post-Ashoka including the railings and pillars (the originals now mostly in museums, with copies present at the site), the Ratana Cankrama “jeweled walkway” (present on site), and other elements, including notably, the first monastery.
Queens Kurangi, Sirima and Nagadevi’s two or three generations of donations well-establishing the Bodhgaya shrine in the generations of Maghada rulers following Indian emperor Ashoka's devotions at the Maha Bodhi were inscribed in stone on the original pillars and railings.
Some scholars suggest that after her initial donations as Maghada queen, the passing of her husband the Maghada king, and succession of her son to the Maghada throne, that then-queen mother Kurangi herself entered the monastery she had devoutly offered at the Mahabodhi to devote the remainder of her life to meditation there, at the site of the Buddha's great awakening, with her daughter-in-law and the next generations of queens continuing their devout donations and support there, further developing the shrine.
The monastery was surely further developed over subsequent generations, as were other Mahabodhi shrine elements. It is not clear to me if the famed "Sinhala monastery" at Bodhgaya, later established for monastic pilgrims from Sri Lanka, was at the same location or in another area nearby at the Sri Maha Bodhi site.
Anyone interested can simply do a search of the words "Kurangi Sirima Nagadevi" to learn more about the fascinating history of this ancient World Heritage site.
Addendum:
I mention this especially because pilgrim guides at Bodhgaya always mention great and widely-famed Indian emperor Ashoka (Priyadarsi Samrat Asoka) as the founder and developer of the Bodhgaya shrine, but rarely mention these Maghada queens, whose names appear in the early post-Ashokan inscriptions, as developing the shrine.
It is likely the developments established by their faithful donations which are then depicted at other great early Buddhist stupas and shrine sites, on which the development of the appearance of the Bodhgaya shrine can be seen over the centuries.
While emperor Asoka's devotion to the Mahabodhi tree and his protection of it from elephants by building a protective wall or fence around, and his other great works for Buddhism are well known and greatly celebrated, I feel we should not 'dumb down' the early centuries of the developments of Buddhism in India by attributing more to great emperor Ashoka than these important inscriptions tell.
May we honor those worthy of honor for what they have truly done.
My tribute in gratitude to ancient Maghada queens Kurangi, Sirima and Nagadevi, who played such an important role in history the Bodhgaya shrine becoming as important, beautiful, and renowned, as it is.
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