Kushinagar: Where the Buddha Breathed his last

Located in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Kushinagar is one of the world's most sacred sites of Buddhism. Kushinagar’s claim to fame lies in being the place where Buddha breathed his last, the event known in the Buddhist tradition as paranibbana (Mahaparinirvana) which is considered to have taken place in 483 BC. 

Kushinagar has an antiquity of centuries. Buddha himself declared Kushinagar as one of the four most sacred places. However, unlike Sravasti, Champa, Rajagraha, Saketa, Kausambi and Varanasi, Kusinagar was not an important city during Buddha’s time. This can be ascertained form Buddha’s disciple Ananda’s regret that his master chose to die in so small town as Kusinagar.

Kusinagar was visited by the Buddha several times before his death. 

Buddha’s Mahaparinirvana came at the age of eighty. After spending the last rainy season of life near the city of Vaishali, he and his followers reached the town of Pava where he took a meal at the house of his lay disciple, Cunda. Soon after he was attacked by blood dysentery but he continued his journey till he reached the outskirts of Kushinagar town where he laid himself down under a sal tree and that night he attained Mahaparinirvana (Final Blowing- out). His last words were: “All composite things decay. Strive diligently!”  

After paying homage to the remains of the Buddha, his sorrowing followers cremated his body. His relics were distributed among various claimants including the Magadhan ruler Ajatashatru.

Ananda was with the Buddha at the time of latter's death.     

Places to see in Kushinagar

                                        Mahaparinirvana Temple / Wikimedia Commons  

Mahaparinirvana Temple

The Mahaparinirvana Temple is home to a 6.10 meter long fifth century AD statue of the reclining Buddha. The idol is made of the sandstone of Chunar, about 25 miles south-west of Varanasi. 

Nirvana Stupa

Discovered by Carlyl in 1876, the huge brickwork Nirvana Stupa stands behind the Mahaparinirvana Temple at a height of 2.74 meters. A copper vessel bearing an inscription in Brahmi script states that Buddha's relics had been placed here.

Ramabhar Stupa

1.5 km away from Mahaparinirvana Temple, the Ramabhar Stupa marks the spot where the Buddha was cremated. Rising to a height of 15 meters, the Stupa is referred to as 'Mukut-Bandhan Chaitya' in ancient Buddhist texts. 

Other places of attractions in and around Kushinagar are Japanese Temple, Chinese Temple, Kushawati Temple and Kushinagar Museum.

How to Reach Kushinagar

Air: Nearest major airport to Kushinagar is at Varanasi which is connected by flights from major cities in India. Varanasi is 260 km away from Kushinagar. Other airports close to Kushinagar are at Gorakhpur and Lucknow which are 53 km and 252 km away respectively from Kushinagar. 

Rail: Kushinagar does not have a Railway Station. The nearest railheads are at Deoria and Gorakhpur which are 35 km and 53 km away from Kushinagar. Gorakhpur railway station is well connected by rail with all the major railway stations in India. 

Road: Situated on National Highway No. 28, Kushinagar is well connected with important places in Uttar Pradesh by frequent bus services. 

 

Chini ka Rauza

                                    Chini-ka-Rauza /Image Source

Located in Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Chini-ka-Rauza is the mausoleum Afzal Khan Aalmi who was the diwan-I kull of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan. During Shah Jahan’s times vizir (Prime Minister) of the Mughal empire was called diwan-I kull. A learned man, Afzal Khan Aalmi was the elder brother of Amanat Khan who is known for designing the calligraphy of world renowned monument Taj Mahal.  

Both of the brothers came to India from Shiraz in Iran. 

Afzal Khan Aalmi died in 1639 in Lahore from where he was brought to Agra where he built a rauza (tomb) for himself and buried in Chini-ka-Rauza. The monument is so named because of the coloured glazed tiles (Chini) that adorn the tomb.

Bibi ka Maqbara of Aurangabad

 

Image source

Located in Aurangabad, Bibi-ka-Maqbara is the mausoleum of 6th Mughal emperor Aurangzeb’s wife Dilras Banu Begum who was posthumously called Rabia-ud-Daurani. The monument was commissioned by Aurangzeb in 1660. 

With its four minarets flanking a central onion-domed tomb, the monument is built on a high square platform, which is approached by a flight of steps from the three sides. 

Bearing a striking resemblance to the world acclaimed Taj Mahal at Agra, Bibi Ka Maqbara is also known as the “Taj of the Deccan”. 

Khudiram Bose Death Anniversary

Today is the death anniversary of Khudiram Bose [1889-1908], a revolutionary born in the Midnapore district of West Bengal. 

One of India’s earliest revolutionaries to die on the gallows on August 11, 1908, Khudiram Bose was a member of the revolutionary society Anushilan Samiti. He along with Prufulla Chaki threw a bomb at the carriage of Kingsford, an English Judge at Muzaffarpur in Bihar. He was arrested in the Muzaffarpur Conspiracy case and sentenced to death at the young age of 18.

Deva Raya I's Love's Labour's Lost

In 1406 one of the many battles between the Vijayanagar kingdom and the Bahmani sultanate took place. If the medieval Persian historian Ferishta is to believed, the casus belli of the fight was a fascination of Vijayanagar ruler Deva Raya I for a goldsmith’s beautiful daughter living in Mudgal in the Raichur Doab , the region between the Tungabhadra and Krishna rivers. Thanks to its being a fertile land, Raichur Doab was a bone of contention between the rulers of the Vijayanagar and the Bahmanis as none of them wanted to forsake their claim on the region. 

Since the girl in question was averse to the idea of marrying Deva Raya I, this infuriated the latter who laid waste some villages in the neighbourhood of Mudgal. This antagonized the Bahmani Sultan Firuz Shah who considered the aggression as an encroachment on the Bahmani territory. In retaliation, he attacked Vijayanagar. Though the war initially went well for Vijayanagar, in the end Deva Raya I was forced to make peace with the Bahmani Sultan who forced the Viajaynagar ruler to give out the hands of his daughter in marriage to him. Besides, Deva Raya I had to surrender the strategic fort of Bankapur as her dowry. 

Firuz Shah Bahmani secured his son Hasan Khan the goldsmith’s daughter whose beauty was responsible for the battle. Apart from pearls, 50 elephants, 2000 boys and girls skilled in song and dance, he extracted a heavy cash indemnity from Deva Raya I.

The marriage of Firuz Shah Bahmani with the daughter of Deva Raya I was celebrated with great pomp and show. 

Tarikh-i-Alfi

The Tarikh-i-Alfi (History of a Thousand Years) is a historical work chronicling the first thousand years of Islamic world history. Commissioned by Mughal emperor Akbar, the chronicle was written by a board of compilers headed by a Shia theologian Mulla Ahmad of Thatta. Mulla Ahmad had written a large part of the text. 

Due to the animosity between Shias and Sunnis, Mulla Ahmad was murdered in 1588 in the street of Lahore by a Sunni nobleman, Mirza Fawlad, who lured him out of his house on the pretext that the emperor had asked for his presence in the court. 

Mirza Fawlad was condemned to death causing resentment among the Sunnis who exhumed Mulla Ahmad's body and burnt it. After the death of Mulla Ahmad, Asaf Khan Jafar Beg completed the rest of the work around 1592.  

Badauni was selected by Akbar to revise the manuscript and compare it with other histories.

 

 

Pagal Panthi Uprising

Pagal Panthi was a socio-religious sect whose members were mainly drawn from the Garo and Hajong tribes living in the Mymensingh and Sherpur districts of Bangladesh. The sect started as a resistance against local zamindars and with the passage of time established itself as bulwark against the British colonial rule. 

Pagal Panthi was founded by Karim Shah, a darvesh or mendicant. After his death in 1813 the reins of the movement passed on to his son Tipu Shah or Tipu Pagal who in 1825 led a band of armed followers in plundering the houses of the zamindars of Sherpur. He organized peasant rebellions.

After Tipu Shah's death in 1852, though the movement lingered on, it began to lose momentum and was finally put down by the British.