| Mahabodhi
Temple (current form 7th century onward, possibly 1000 years older) |
Bodhgaya, India |
Click on an image to enlarge
The Mahabodhi temple at Bodhgaya is located on the spot where the Buddha attained enlightenment. The temple's principle relic is a distant descendant of the Bo tree under which the Buddha sat when his enlightenment took place. The site, having been sacred to Buddhists since the earliest days of the faith, is of unknown antiquity. Elements of the temple date from the 3rd century BC, but the present form of the temple is a reconstruction of a later form that would have been familiar to Hiuen Xsiang, the 7th centunry Chinese Buddhist pilgrim whose story is the basis of "The Monkey King" drama of literary reknown.
The temple is one of the few early monumental brick structures to have survived in eastern India. Its enormous central tower (55 m tall) is a 19th century renovation faithful to the earlier towers that existed on the site. The tower comprises numermous horizontal bands of mouldings and arch motifs that extend upward to an amalaka topped by umbrella-shaped forms, recalling the umbrella motifs found at Buddhist stupas dating back to the time of Asoka and earlier. Around the central tower are four smaller towers added at the end of 19th century that mimic the form of the central tower.
West of the main temple is a smaller area housing the Boddhi tree relic. Here, on what may have been the first sanctuary on the site, can be found a stone seat from the 3rd century BC. Scattered around the site are plaster copies of stone posts dating from the Shunga period. The originals are stored in the nearby archaelogical museum and may have been used in the earliest stages of the temple to protect the Bodhi tree.
The Mahabodi temple is a site sacred to all Buddhists, particularly those of the Theravada branch mainly found in south and southeast Asia. In these areas, the form of the temple has been much copied in such places as Nepal, Thailand, and Burma, which each have their own representations of the Mahabodhi.
Also, compare this temple to these other 'Bodhgaya-style' temples:
Bibliography:
All images copyright 2003 Rodrigo Wolff Apolloni
Michell, George. Monuments
of India Volume 1: Buddhist, Jain, Hindu
New York : Penguin
Books, 2000.
Tadgell, Christopher The
History of Architecture in India.
Singapore: Phaidon
Press, Limited., 1990
Vineeta, Mishra. Early Architecture
of Bihar, from Earliest Times to the Gupta Period
New Delhi: Ramanand
Vidya Bhawan, 1992