The Archaeological vestiges of Buddhism in Tripura

Saevus, 2021

Nestled among the hills of remote Tripura bordering Bangladesh in india's north-east lies a rare heritage site. The mystical land of Unakoti and its enormous bas-relief carvings have been the subject of many a myth and legend for centuries.

History of Bangladesh,vol.II, 2018

Bengal, covering the Ganga delta and the trans-Meghna zones up to the south-easternmost parts of Bangladesh, (for details see the chapter on Historical Geography) was ideally suited to linkages with Southeast Asia from remote times. The extensive Bengal coast, from Suhma to Harikela sub-regions, covered the entire delta-the largest delta in the world. The fluvial network paves the way for riverine communications between the coast and the interior. There is little doubt that the Bengal/Ganga delta provides the landlocked Ganga plains with the crucial outlet to the Bay of Bengal. The Bay of Bengal network is inextricably interlocked with the mainland and maritime Southeast Asia. On the other hand, the close proximity of Harikela with Arakan offers the overland corridor to mainland Southeast Asia. In no other zones of the subcontinent this combination of the overland and maritime networks with Southeast Asia is offered by geography. This unique natural endowment made Bengal one of the most significant areas for sustained interactions with Southeast Asia (see the section on trade in the chapter on Economic Life). There is a growing body of literature on the history of the cultural interactions between these two areas with a particular thrust on the role of Buddhism as the pivotal feature of this network. Bengal, along with Bihar, is noted for the flourishing condition of Buddhism and this area marked one of the last bastions of Buddhism from the 10th century CE onwards, when in the greater parts of the subcontinent Buddhism had started to fade out gradually. The 600-1300 CE phase will particularly figure in our present discussion. As during this period outstanding Buddhist monasteries emerged and flourished at Nalanda, Vikramaxila, Somapura and Mainamati, it is only natural that Bengal's Buddhist network with Southeast Asia is often studied from the point of these premier Buddhist centres in Bihar, northern and southeastern Bengal (Magadha, Abga, Pundra and Samatata regions). Recent decades have also brought to light the importance of the trans-Meghna tracts (Samatata and Harikela) in this Buddhist network. This historiographical shift will be addressed in our present effort. One should clearly underline here that our survey of the Buddhist network between

On October 15, 1949, the state of Tripura, which had previously been a princely state, became a "C" category state and became part of the Indian Territory. The beginning of the 1950s marked the beginning of this state's transition to having a majority population composed of tribal people. The migration of non-tribal people over the border from Bangladesh, which was once a part of East Pakistan, caused a shift in the demographic makeup of the state after the partition of India. There are 19 different tribes in Tripura, in addition to a non-tribal community. It has Tripuri,

Journal of Ganganatha Jha Campus, 2023

The religious tradition that reveres Śiva as the supreme God is called Śaivism. It is one of the major religious traditions of Hindus. It has marked its presence in India and abroad with various distinct features pertaining to different time and places. Tripurā, one of the seven sisters of North Eastern states, presents Śaivism with very unique features. In Tripurā there are many scattered evidences of the presence of śaivism at different places in different times. One of the prime centers of Śaivite activities in Tripura is Unakoṭī, a small place near Kailashahar the head quarter of the Unakoṭī district. It is one of the important archaeological sites of India with huge engraved rock arts. Here the rock arts are very much unique in their style with the touch of tribal art features, which seems absent in other rock-cut art sites of India viz. Mahabalipuram, Ellora etc. Reliefs on the surface of living rock and on detached stone slab are two verities of works to be found in Unakoṭī. This place has a well-earned reputation of a Śaiva pilgrimage, may be due to the busy activities of śaivites in remote past and thereby generating a deep faith in the mind of people which result in religious activities in that region. A text, glorifying the holiness of the place Unakoṭī, titled ūnakoṭitīrthamāhātmya was composed at some point of time; though unfortunately it has survived now only as citations of few lines in Rājmālā. Thus taking both epigraphic and literary sources into account this paper will examine the nature of Śaivism in Tripurā, especially which prevailed in Unakoṭī.

Vincent Tournier, Vincent Eltschinger, and Marta Sernesi (eds.). 2020. Archaeologies of the Written: Indian, Tibetan, and Buddhist Studies in Honour of Cristina Scherrer-Schaub. Naples: Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale” (Series Minor, LXXXIX).

Excavations of the Adhālaka Great Shrine (MIA adhālaka-mahācetiya) at Kanaganahalli, between 1993 and 1999, have uncovered a wealth of sculptural and epigraphic remains that undeniably make it one of the most significant discoveries for the history of Buddhism in India in the last decades. Since the publication in 2013 of the excavation report in the Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, the bibliography focusing on the site has steadily kept growing. With the edition of the Kanaganahalli inscriptions whose documentation was available to him, Oskar von Hinüber has laid the ground for a systematic study of their contents. The present remarks aim at addressing a point touched briefly upon by the editor, namely the monastic order or orders (nikāya) to which the Buddhist monks and nuns active at the site belonged. This issue is of crucial importance, not only as a means to reconstruct Kanaganahalli’s place in the institutional landscape of early Buddhism, but also because this information may shed light on the scriptural traditions that were in circulation at the site. This paper presents an edition and detailed analysis of the two inscribed objects containing explicit mentions of monastic orders, as well as related material from the site and from the Krishna river basin. This investigation establishes that monastic members of the Kaurukulla nikāya (closely related to the Saṁmitīyas), as well as members of—or lay donors devoted to—the Mahāvinaseliya nikāya, were both present at and around the Adhālaka Great Shrine. These two lineages stemmed from opposite parts of the Sātavāhana domain, namely Lāṭa in present-day Gujarat and the region of Dhānyakaṭaka (mod. Amaravati) in Āndhra. Members of the Kaurukulla nikāya, in particular, seem to have played a prominent role in the renovation of the site in the 2nd century CE. This said, as is also suggested by the scrutiny of coeval record from Amaravati, the quest for a univocal “school affiliation” of monuments may conceal much of the complex religious, political, and economic dynamics at work in each individual context.

Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 2018