New Delhi: Scholars are now clamouring for Bhuila, a tiny village 30 km away from Basti in Western UP, to be recognised as the actual birthplace of Gautama Buddha.
According to Buddhist literature, Buddha was born in Lumbini in the kingdom of Kapilavastu, a location which Nepal claims to be within its own territory but which scholars claim is totally false.
Bhuila (PIN Code 272161) is an obscure and dusty hamlet in the district Basti of U.P 128 Km away from the current day Kapilavastu district in Nepal. It was extensively surveyed by archaeologists in the 19th century but completely ignored by the ASI afterwards.
Historical Sources
Soon after Buddha's demise, memorials known as Stupas/Viharas were erected at prominent locations related to his life. When Ashoka took over as the emperor he renovated those memorials and affixed inscriptions to each one.
Chinese travellers Fahien (400 AD) and Huen Tsang (600 AD) visited this village and saw the ruins of King Shuddhodana's palaces and the Stupas/Viharas erected by Emperor Ashoka.
Both of these travellers have mentioned the location of Kapilavastu to be at 500 “li” (approximately 90 miles) south-east of Shravasti.
Huen Tsang's travelogue "Si Yu Ki" translated by Samuel Beal and published in 1884, gives a wealth of geographical details and distances and descriptions of architecture that enabledarchaeologists to fine tune their excavations.
Survey by Sir Alexander Cunningham and ASI
Based on these travellers’ accounts, Sir Alexander Cunningham, the founder of the Archaeological Survey of India, extensively surveyed this village in 1874-75 AD and concluded that this village called ‘Bhuila’ was the Kapilavastu of ancient times.
In the report of ACL Carlleyle, the First Assistant of the ASI, titled “Report of Tours In TheCentral Doab and Gorakhpur in 1874-75” he had extensively travelled in the Basti area and surveyed and recorded the evidence of the ancient city of Lumbini.
This was conclusively confirmed by Alexander Cunningham, the Director General of the ASI later on.
In his own words he says “Shortly after Mr. Carlleyle's discovery I visited Bhuila myself, and examined many of the localities mentioned in this Report. I saw the Sur-kuia or "Arrow well," the Hathi-gadhe or “Elephant Pit," the Lumbini garden where Prince Siddhartha was born and the site of Koli, the birth-place of Maya Devi, the Prince's mother. I also paid a visit to Koron-dih, the supposed site of Rama-grama and to other places in the neighbourhood. The result of my examination was the most perfect conviction of the accuracy of Mr. Carlleyle's identification of Bhuila Tal with the site of Kapila-vastu, the famous birth-place of Sakya Muni.
I am also satisfied that the sites of the birth-places of thetwo previous Buddhas, Kraku-chanda and Kanaka, have been correctly identified.”
Today this location is known as Sirkohiya (PIN Code 272163) near Bhuila. In the local dialect of Basti, Sirkohiya is the corruption of Sarkupa meaning ‘arrow well’. Shar means ‘arrow’ and kohiya or kupa means ‘well’ or ‘fountain’.
Alleged Archaeological fraud of Anton Führer
Scholars allege that today what is shown as Kapilavastu and Lumbini in the maps of Nepal is a gigantic archaeological fraud committed by Alois Anton Führer in the year 1896 AD.
He was instigated by the Nepalese governor, General Khadga Shamsher, who was eager to have Buddha’s birthplace discovered on lands owned by him so that he could get political points with the government.
Führer allegedly discovered Ashoka’s pillar, an inscription on which, together with other evidence, confirmed Lumbini as the birthplace of the Buddha.
But later on, Führer was sacked by the then Govt of India for his professional misconduct in disgrace. When confronted with damning evidences against him, Fuhrer supposedly admitted that every statement he made in his so called discovery was false.
Sir Cunningham's professional excellence on the other hand is unquestionable and he is credited with discoveries of other Buddhist sites like Vaishali, Shravasti, Kaushambi, Nalanda, Taxila, Sarnath, Kushinagar to name a few.
It is therefore indeed surprising as to why the ASI has allowed this matter to lie silent instead of raising the alarm to this historical misappropriation.