Freedom Struggle of Maha Bodhi Temple the Land of Enlightenment of Buddha

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Mahabodhi Temple the summum sanctum sanctorum of the Buddhists in the world is a singular example of its kind which is not under the control of the Buddhists completely. This is the oldest and first International Shrine and Pilgrimage Centre in the world. King Ashoka visited to this Shrine in around BCE 260. He had laid down the foundation of present Mahabodhi Temple at the adjacent to the Bodhi Tree and also had encircled the Bodhi Tree with the fencing of carving stones. By the end of 12th Century A.D. it had commenced the declining of Buddhism in India. Consequently, the Mahabodhi Temple was left into deserted condition and unnoticed. In course of time it converted into ruinous state further. In 1590 A.D., a wandering ascetic namely Gosain Ghamendi Gir who belonged to a Brahmanical Shaivite sect came there and made his abode in the vicinity of Mahabodhi Temple Complex. His successor called Mahant sieged easily Mahabodhi Complex and was made a part of his property mensrea. In 1874, during British rule in India, the Burmese king named Mindoon Min had sent a huge financial aid for the repairing of Mahabodhi Temple. The British Government had carried through the complete renovation of it. But it was the irony of fate of the shrine that it went again under the custody of Mahanta. It was Ven. Anagarika Dharmapala of Ceylon who had launched the campaign for the liberation of the Mahabodhi Temple. On account of his struggle, the transfer of management of the Mahabodhi could possible from the exclusive monopoly of the Mahant. For the complete freedom of the Mahabodhi Ven. Surai Sasai launched the campaign with new vigour but without success satisfactorily.

ASHWAVEE R WASUDEO GAJBHIYE (Email: gfw.ashwaveer@gmail .com) born on 3" January, 1975, in a village of barely 40 houses namely Bhosa in the Bhandara District of Maharashtra. His mother Fulan and father Wasudeo are the small farmers. He acquired B.Sc. (2000), B.A. additional In History (2001), M.A. in Ancient Indian History (2003), and another M.A. in Modern History (2005) from RTM Nagpur University, qualified UGC-NET in 2004. He has been also a research scholar of Ph.D. of two Universities namely RTM Nagpur and Gondwana University Gadchiroli. He is bilingual author; there are four books into his credits so far. Out of which two in English and rest are in Marathi. Of the English works one is (1)'The Constitutional Name of India' which is reviewed in the Journal of Parliamentary Information-JPI (Sept. 2016) the journal published by Lok Sabha Secretariat GOI, and other one is the biography of King Ashoka entitled (2) 'Dhammachakravarti King Ashoka', (3)Alumni of Takshashila: Chanakya and Chandragupta. He is a brilliant and challenging scholar. He has received BANRF (Babasaheb Ambedkar National Research Fellowship-2020) by Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Research and Training Institute Pune of Govt. of Maharashtra. There are 50 research articles which have been published in the dailies, books and in the journals. Presently he is working as a lecturer in History from 2015. He is also a founder and secretary of The Ashoka Archaeological and Environmental Preservation and Research Society.

It was the great irony of fate of the Maha Bodhi Temple that brahmanical hindu Mahanta had treacherously enslaved the Maha Bodhi Temple Complex during British Rule. The Mahanta of Buddha Gaya, after the mutiny of 1857, had prepared the documents and recorded the Maha Bodhi Temple Complex under the jurisdiction of him as a part of his property in the survey map of British India. Then the whole Maha Bodhi Temple Complex was completely in deserted and in ruinous state. It was the sympathy of the Britishers and financial aid of the pious Burmese Kings that the complete extensive repair and revival of the Maha Bodhi Temple had been carried through. However this readymade center of the perennial source of income fell in the hand of the Mahanta and he ruthlessly began to sucking the endowment obtained from the Buddhist countries in the world.

The descendants of Mahanta were being selfish and tyrants towards the Maha Bodhi, they desecrated the holiest of the holies Maha Bodhi committing sacrilegious deeds thereat. It was Ven. Bodhisattva Anagarika Dharmapala, the lion of the Ceylon who had challenged the malfeasance and misfeasance of the Mahantas committed intentionally towards the Maha Bodhi Temple Complex.

Ven. Anagarika Dharmapala launched in to the struggle for the liberation of the Maha Bodhi from the sacrilegious hands of the Mahanta in 1891. For the purpose he also founded the Maha Bodhi Society of India and Ceylon so that the issue could propagate across the world in order to obtain sympathy and support from international level. Ven. Dharmapala had fought the struggle for the liberation of the Maha Bodhi Temple for fourty three years from 1891 to 1933 till his last breath. The issue of the Maha Bodhi Temple Complex at Buddha Gaya had made a part of statutory dispute and was moved to court in 1895. (Calcutta High Court, Jaipal Gir and ors. Vs. H. Dharmapala on 22 August 1895) Thereafter, when, fifty eight years lapsed to the Great Demise of Ven. Dharmapala, Ven. Surai Sasai, a monk of Japanese origin, launched into the struggle for the liberation of the Maha Bodhi temple in 1992, with the help of Ambedkarite Buddhist mass in India particularly from Maharashtra. In His struggle He was assisted by Ven. Bhante Anand, Ven. Bhante Pradnyashil, Ven. Bhante Dhnyaneshwar and many others. It was in 2012, the issue of Maha Bodhi has been moved to the Supreme Court of India by Ven. Bhadanta Arya Nagarjuna Surai Sasai (In the Supreme Court of India (Original Civil Writ Jurisdiction) I.A. No. of 2018, Writ Petition (C) No. 380 of 2012).

The Maha Bodhi Temple Case at Buddha Gaya is, probably, the singular longest durable and oldest sub judice case in the whole history of judiciary in the world. It is also the singular longest durable and oldest struggle of freedom which had been launched for the liberation of the Maha Bodhi Temple. Certainly! Beyond all doubts, it is the singular summum sanctum sanctorum the most ancient international religious pilgrimage sites of all, which is still not in the hands and control of the Buddhist exclusively.

The book "Freedom Struggle of the Maha Bodhi Temple: The Land of Enlightenment of Buddha" by Ashwaveer W. Gajbhiye starts with the dedication to the Bodhisattva Ven. Anagarika Dharmapala, the greatest Buddhist revivalist of the last decade of the 19th century and first three decades of the 20th century who engaged himself in a life-long battle for the restoration of the Maha Bodhi temple to the Buddhist hand andthen to Alexander Cunningham the British Archaeologist along with his compans who restored to structural figure of the Mahabodhi Temple in 1881-83 from its ruinous condition. If Cunningham had not brought this temple in the present shape it might have suffered to more ruinous stage and counted in the category of Ruins and Remains like other great structures such as Kesaria Maha Stupa.

The book deals with the importance of Mahabodhi Temple as the most important and the oldest pilgrimage site for the Buddhist world as being the holiest site of Siddhartha Gautama's attaining Supreme Enlightenment and his becoming "the Buddha". In this sense, the place can be regarded as the place of birth or becoming of the Buddha and also the origin of Buddhism, where all basic tenets of Buddhism were formulated. The place received patronage of the ever greatest Buddhist Emperor Asoka, who is credited to have built the first structure at the holiest spot of Sambodhi in the area of Uruvela. Uruvela means the Sacred and prestigious sandy region (Urutibaluka Ucchati, Vela timariyada-The Mahavamsa). The structure of the Mahabodhi Temple as it stands today was most probably built by the later Gupta rulers Kumaragupta and others, who were Buddhist and they are credited as the builders of Great Nalanda Vihara also in the 5th-6th Century A.D. Unfortunately the Builder's name of the Mahabodhi Temple is not clearly known or mentioned anywhere. We can make just assumptions. The author's aim is mainly to focus on the struggle issue of the Mahabodhi temple, so he slightly but satisfactorily enough touches others points very brilliantly. For example Buddha's concern to Buddhagaya and Emperor Priyadarshi Ashoka's concern to that holiest sitein the 3rd century BCE along with his contribution to bringing out this place into the most sanctified shrine and the first religious pilgrimage site in India conferring upon it royal patronage for the first time. The author also very brilliantly dealt the initial part of the book with the glorious history of this shrine along with the first extensive repairing of the Maha Boddhi Temple by the genuine pious Burmese which happened in the 11th or 12th century A.D. At the end of the 1" part of the book author explained the history of declining of Buddhism in India and its consequences on the care taking of the Maha Bodhi Temple. It is quite clear that the Maha Bodhi Temple had been left into deserted and destitute condition in the last quarter of the 12th century A.D. and especially in the 13th century A.D. owing to extinct out of Buddhism from India during the long span of these centuries. Resultantly, it was enslaved by a Brahmanical Hindu Mahanta during the reigns ofMughal rulers and sieged during the British rule preparing forged documents for the purpose.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages