KAPILVASTU UNDER ARCHAEOLOGICAL QUESTION AND OBSESSED NATIONALISM

[“In short, the location of Kapilavastu is still an unproven archaeological question. Gupta seals, while useful for understanding the fifth century CE are not very solid evidence of the 5 - 4th century BCE. The Ashokan column at Lumbini is far better evidence of what was believed shortly after the Buddha's death but is still not attested evidence.” - John C. Huntington. Two stupas marking King Suddhodhan and his queen's grave near Tilaurakot. Photo courtesy:  Satinanda E V]

By B. K. Rana

The Kapilvastu Forum on  April 7, 2010, posting something ‘beyond sense’ has brought the Buddha holy sites into another controversy adamantly arguing without taking into account the evidence on the excavated holy sites in Nepal. Foremost of all, it does not recognize Lumbini, the birth place of the Buddha, being in Nepal and seems supporting a scholar who has also produced a relatively large volume of ‘A Social History of India’, in which he writes the Buddha was born in Pedaria in northern part of Gorakhpur district, Uttar Pradesh, India !  There are lots of such deceptive writings flourishing out there in  which the Indian scholars differ from each other - from one province to another province - claiming that the Buddha was born 'in their hometown' or some certain place in their respective states or provinces. This is what is called a total distortion and deception of history today.

The Forum even comes forward  and offers us a piece of  ‘advice’ to study ‘the philosophy of history and historiography’ ! Why would we ? We should thank them for this kind of good ‘advice’ or counsel.  In short to such an advice, what may be appropriate to  put here is that we unfortunately do not have spare time to  study that  type of  "philosophy of history and historiography" which speculates or refers only to distortion, falsification or deception of the  history itself and ignores the standing solid evidence on the ground.

It is very sad to note here that the South Asian history has remained victimized by some fundamentalists, who hold ultra nationalistic view on every issue. These people are also found claiming  that the present California derivates from Kapilaranya (Kapil+aranya) or may be they would even add Kapilvastu (Kapil+vastu).  This is what actually is called ‘beyond sense’ the Forum  people have boastfully put into phraseology in their post.  The Buddha is a historical personage we can understand it, yes we really do. But when we talk of his exact birth location  today it can’t be ‘beyond (any) sense’ because there was also no such a place on the earth which was called ‘Indian Kingdom’ in the Buddha’s time.  There were  sixteen Janapadas which also were not collectively called any ‘Indian Kingdom’ either - if not Nepal. But surely there was a place called ‘Lumminigame’ in  Kapilvastu’ - where the Budddha was born.

Now going back to Kapilvastu again, the Forum has  enlightened  us with the Piprahawa reliquary casket inscription: “(Sukiti bhatinam sabhaginikam saputdalnam iyam salilnidhane bhagawate bhudhas sakiyanam )”. Many thanks again to them but what virtually we do not understand here again is that why would the Forum  have avoided or ignored the some other inscription reading : “ Om Devaputra Vihare Kapilvastu Bhikshu Mahasanghasa. Om Devaputra Vihare Kapilvastu Bhikku Sanghas” in the first place ? The readers can now easily analyze and differentiate here what these inscriptions mean.  It simply means   that the  Vihara in Piprahawa was a member of Kapilvastu Vihara Mahasangh and which  most probably might have  been built by Kushan King Kaniska later.

Dr. Fuhrer, whom a group of scholar blames as a forger and who is also further blamed to have sold the Buddha relics, which he claimed he had found 15 miles away from Piprahawa’ to the Burmese monk U Ma certainly leaves the  Piprahawa Peppe  finds into a jungle of doubts. As concerns the Peppe Piprahawa excavation, the eye witnesses: Dr. Fuher himself, Victor. A Smith and  Purna C. Mukherjee, held the finds down there “no other monuments than the stupas”. It is here worth quoting Dr. N. R. Banerji, then Director, National Museum, New Delhi as saying, “The capital Kapilvastu is most probably represented by the ruins at Tilaurakot in Nepal Terai’.

Imagine that we disregarded the mentioning of Kapilvastu in Buddhist literatures as: the extensive ruins of Tilaurakot (the King Suddodhan's  royal palace which was walled around as narrated by Hwen Tsang i. e. 1600 feet east-west and 1200 feet north-south); being on the bank of present Ban Ganga ( Ganga > Bhagirathi river), near the mountains, (Nepal's Mt. Dhawalagriri can be seen in a fair weather from Tilaurakot), the Asita Stupa etc. and taken Krishna Murari Shribastava’s  Piprahawa finds into consideration such as:  the Buddha ‘bones and ashes’ in the reliquaries etc ; the relics may only be attested when they are scientifically tested and  proven.

Finally, we  here below repost few lines from an email posted by another scholar, who seems to be attesting Krishna M. Shribastava’s Piprahawa excavation and other stuff. This scholar has placed one Kapilvastu in Nepal and another Kapilvastu in India in his two different articles published in Orientations.

“In short, the location of Kapilavastu is still an unproven archaeological question Gupta seals, while useful for understanding the fifth century CE are not very solid evidence of the 5 - 4th century BCE. The Ashokan column at Lumbini is far better evidence of what was believed shortly after the Buddha's death but is still not attested evidence.”