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Apart from a handful of minibuses and the big autorickshaws that could accommodate a dozen passengers (and long distance trains, of course), public transport is scarce between Varanasi and Saranath. But the wary traveller doesn’t need a route map on the road to Saranath. Houses, shops, gates, billboards…everything features a familiar leitmotif - Ashoka Chakra, the wheel with 24 spokes.

Path to enlightenment

Don Sebastian
2007-03-08 19:42:35

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Apart from a handful of minibuses and the big autorickshaws that could accommodate a dozen passengers (and long distance trains, of course), public transport is scarce between Varanasi and Saranath. But the wary traveller doesn't need a route map on the road to Saranath. Houses, shops, gates, billboards...everything features a familiar leitmotif - Ashoka Chakra, the wheel with 24 spokes.

Ashoka Chakra, the motif on the Indian tricolour, and Ashoka Stupa, the national emblem, come from the excavated monastery complex of Saranath. The stupas (columns) and sculptures patronized by Ashoka, the Mauryan emperor-turned-Buddhist monk, are the prized possessions in the archeological museum. Here you can see the fourth lion, hidden behind its three companions stamped on all coins and national insignia.

Centuries before the formation of the Indian republic and decades before the Mauryan empire, an enlightened monk, later known as the Buddha, walked into the woods of Saranath. Here he preached his wisdom to five ascetics who had earlier parted ways with him. The sages became the first Buddhists. Saranath was the launching pad for the first order of the monks, the Sangha. Today, it's an unavoidable stop on the monks' route.

Saranath is still a monastery centre. Buddhist and Jain monasteries and dharmasalas lead the way to the main temples and the archeological site and museum. Curio shops and eateries wait for the pilgrim-tourist. Predictably, local self-made guides stalk the independent traveller. They compete with their well-to-do counterparts attached to tour operators, in spreading misinformation on Buddhist course and discourse.

The first stop is an imposing Buddhist shrine - the modern Mulagandhakuti inaugurated in 1931. Anagarika Dharmapala, a Sri Lankan national who founded the Mahabodhi Society, bought the land where the Buddha is believed to have preached to the five ascetics, with Rs 2000, donated by Raja Bhinga of Benaras in ...