NEPAL’S LUMBINI: WHERE

THE BUDDHA WAS BORN

B. K. Rana

The Himalayan Voice

Cambridge, Massachusetts
United States of America
February 14, 2010
http://thehimalayanvoice.blogspot.com/
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NEPAL’S LUMBINI: WHERE THE

BUDDHA WAS BORN

".... Hida Bhagavam Jateti Lumini Game"

Game (The Lord Buddha was born here in Lumbini
Village). The full text of the inscription in English reads: “Twenty years after the
coronation, Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi (Ashok) visited this place and worshiped
because here, Lord Buddha, sage of Sakyas was born”.1

- B. K. Rana2

General Background:
Lumbini, the present southwestern Nepalese Tarai, is one of
the holiest Buddhist pilgrimages on the earth. Lumbini
presents herself as a land of eternal peace and serenity.
In fact it is a fountain of love, compassion, nonviolence
and world peace also. The importance of this holiest
pilgrimage is profound because Buddha was born here some
2600 years ago.

The young pregnant princess Maya Devi was on her way from
Kapilvastu to Devadaha3, her father’s home, as the time had
come to deliver4 baby Siddhartha Gautama - the future
Buddha. The ‘Pradimoksha Van’ - Lumbini Garden - as so
enchanting it was, she virtually could not resist! She
thought to stroll around the garden and take a bath also in
‘Pushkarini’ pond down there since the destination was not
that far away. After the bath, she felt some pain in her
stomach. Lo, she went into labour before reaching Devadaha!
And a baby boy was born to become – the Enlightened One –
the Buddha, the prince of peace, love and compassion. It
was on the full moon day, Friday, Vaisakha of 623 B.C5 .

1 The Lumbini Ashok Inscription:

DEVANAPIYANA PIYADASINA LAJINA VISATI-VASABHISITENA
ATANA AGACHA MAHIYITE HIDA BUDHE JATE SAKYA MUNITI
SILA-VIGADABHI-CHA KALAPITA SILATHABHE CHA USAPAPITE
HIDA BHAGAVAM JATE TI LUMINI GAME UBALIKE KATE ATHABHAGIYA CHA
http://tinyurl.com/yf55jj9
2 Email:rana1616@gmail.com
3 Also called Ramagrama, 26 kilometers east of present Lumbini Garden.
4 Used to be custom to deliver baby in one’s father’s house.
5 This is Shri Lankan date of Buddha birth. There are some variations on the date.
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[Present Pushkarini Pond in Lumbini. Courtesy: Wikipedia]

As soon as the baby boy had entered the world, ‘he walked
seven steps northwards on lotus petals; raised right hand
forefinger and spoke, “Aggohamamsi Lokassa”6 . At least two
celestial figures began pouring water in his worship. In
joy lotuses were thrown down from the heaven also’. This is
what the Buddhist texts read and the Buddhists also believe
in.

6 Jatak Attha Katha - "I am the foremost of all the creatures of the world to cross the
riddle of the ocean of existence. I have come to the world to show the path of
Emancipation. This is my last birth and hereafter I will not be born again"
 5

Emperor Ashok, having caused a huge bloodshed and loss of

lives in the 12 year Kalinga War7, eventually embraced
Buddhism to spread Buddha’s message of nonviolence,
compassion and love towards all living beings on the land.
Hoping to find peace in mind, he paid a visit to this
holiest site in the 20th year of his coronation in 249 B.
C. He offered worship to the holy land and ordered people
to pay only 1/8th on produce tax from the people of Lumbini
Village. Such portion used to be a considerable relief to
the people of the land at that time.

To commemorate his visit, the emperor erected a stone

column engraving a short edict which even today reads: Hida
Budhe Jateti Luminigamme – ‘Budddha was born here in
Lumbini Village’ so it will be - Ubalike Kate Athabhagiya
cha – told people to pay tax only at the rate of 1/8 on
produce henceforward. The Ashokan visit to Lumbini revived
waning Buddhism prompting more construction works of
monasteries and the likes around the birth place from the
3rd century B.C. to 6th century A. D. – recent Lumbini
excavations reveal.

Although, not trained on archaeology or epigraphy but

having deep interest in the subject and visited Lumbini
scores of times and seen through eyes the inscription on
the Ashokan Pillar beside the present Maya Devi Temple and
other archaeological sites such as Devadaha, Niglihawa and
Gotihawa etc. here in this sort write-up, I intend to
discuss the profound importance of the Lumbini Ashokan
Inscription in determining where the Buddha – the Light of
Asia – was born.

Discovery of Ashokan Inscriptions8 :

Dr. Anton A. Fuhrer discovered Lumbini Ashokan Pillar on

December 1, 1896. He saw the pillar ‘standing nine feet
above the ground’. And which he later excavated and found
the Ashokan inscription ‘10 feet below the surface and 6
feet above the base’9.

7 At least 150,000 were made POW [prisoners of war] and 100,000 were killed and that many
times that number perished from famine, pestilence and other calamities afterwards.
[Smith, 1914, pp. 138 ]
8 ‘The Real Birth Place Of Buddha Yesterday’s Kapilavastu, Today’s Kapileswar’, Orissa
Historical Research Journal - 2004 http://tinyurl.com/ya7ejdh
9 The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland
http://tinyurl.com/ylren2d
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[The Ashokan Pillar in Lumbini 249 BC]

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The inscription definitively reads Buddha being born in

Lumbini of present Nepal. However, there are some
researchers out there who doubt it and opine Lumbini ‘a
Fuhrer-forged name’ of the village. Whatever be the case,
the Ashokan inscription on the pillar standing in the
Lumbini Garden can not be debated for its originality.

DEVANAPIYANA PIYADASINA
PIYADASINA LAJINA VISATI-
VISATI-VASABHISITENA
ATANA AGACHA MAHIYITE HIDA BUDHE JATE SAKYA MUNITI
SILA-
SILA-VIGADABHI-
VIGADABHI-CHA KALAPITA SILATHABHE CHA USAPAPITE
HIDA BHAGAVAM JATE TI LUMINI GAME UBALIKE KATE ATHABHAGIYA CHA

The text of the inscription in English reads: “Twenty years after the
coronation, Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi (Ashok) visited this place and
worshiped because here, Lord Buddha, the sage of Sakyas was born ….”.
http://tinyurl.com/yf55jj9
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A similar type of Ashokan inscription was also discovered

in Kapileswara, Orissa in 1928. Naturally, this new Ashokan
inscription could cause a kind of sensation among
archaeologists around the world. Thus a controversy on the
Buddha birth place began. The Kapilesawara inscription gave
birth to a new controversy on the Buddha birth place which
has not yet ceased since a century almost.

Few researchers, particularly from Orissa, India have been

found holding ‘nationalistic view’ regarding the Buddha
birth place which may seem natural in their part but such
view appears more partisan than of any academic credence.
The Kapileswara inscription is the sole object brought
forward in this case; which eminent epigraphists and
anthropologists have not received and shared seriously
rather termed it - ‘not genuine’ or ‘spurious copy of the
record’.

The Orissan scholars argue that Buddha was born in

Kapileswara village near the present Bhuvaneshawra in
Orissa; not in Lumbini of Nepal. Those who hold this view
basically have the following while making their points:

a) Kapileswara Ashokan Inscription discovered in 192810,

b) ‘Lembai Pragana’ seen in the maps of 1817 and,
c) Kapileswara in Bhubaneswar, Orissa.

i) Raising a question of authenticity on the present

Lumbini Ashokan inscription, Prof. Nabin K. Sahu, a
historian from Orissa published a book in 1959 and wrote
‘Buddha was born in Orissa’11. Then another book came out to
the public eye which reads: ‘the real birth place of Buddha
is Kapileswara; not Lumbini of Nepal’. This is apparently a
book for fun-reading than any academic excellence12. The
writer also goes deep into cultural level and finds the
Buddha marrying his maternal uncle’s daughter- Yashodhara.

10 On August 24, 1928 a news broke out from a local newspaper the ‘Daily Asha’ that an
Ashokan inscription was discovered in Kapileswara of Orissa. Scholars began discussing
its originality. Some supported the view that the new find was the real whereas a bunch
of others stood against. It was reported by a local journalist in Oriya Language. And
then another article appeared in ‘Prabashi’ in support of the inscription in July 1928.
Casting doubt over the new find, another article came out in the same magazine in October
1928. In 1929 the view was discredited again and it is going on and on.
11“It is quite amazing to note that an inscription has been discovered from Kapileswar
which contains the same subject matter as found in the Tarai Pillar inscription. The
scripts of it belong to the time of Ashok and a script writer named “Chundraya” had
written them. He had signed his name in Kharostri script. From his inscription it is
found that Buddha Dev was born in Orrisa”- [Buddhism in Orissa - 1959, pp 1-2].
12 “The Shakyas and Kolios were much interested in producing scented rice to eat.
Suddhodan was the father of Goutam Buddha. Literally one who likes pure rice is known as
Suddhodana. Sinhayuna was the grand father of Goutam Buddha, who had five sons. The names
of his sons were given in a manner that every name is related to rice only. i)
Suddhodana,ii)Amitodana iii)Dhautodana,iv) Suklodan, v) Sukhodana”. All five have the
same last name ending at ‘dhan’ - meaning - rice [‘dhan’- in Nepali also]’ because ‘they
loved growing different types of flavoured rice”.- Chakradhar Mahapatra - The Real Birth
Place of Buddha – 1977.
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He says, ‘this culture is living in Orissa even today’13.

Such culture is also living even today among Nepal’s Magar
people who live thickly near the hills of Lumbini14. There
are some other cultural issues the writer brings forward
with which I may prefer not going along in this short
write-up. The Buddha-era culture is living with the Magars
of Nepal but a question pops out: Can such a culture last
more than 2600 years in some particular community of
people?

ii) The ‘Lembai Pragana’ seen in Orissan maps of 1817 has

been brought forward in support of the Orissa Buddha birth
place claim. The Orissa scholars seem to have found Nepal’s
Ashokan ‘Lumbini’ as the corrupt form of ‘Lembai’ of
Orissan Kapilesawara or vice versa. These two toponyms look
similar but phonetically they are not. They do not have
same philological value also. [Please see - Lumbini Lexical
Analysis - below]

iii) The Orissa scholars do not accept present Nepal’s

Kapilvastu as the place where the Buddha grew up and where
from King Shuddodhan ruled. Their belief strengthens even
more when western scholars, like Alexander Cunnigham [1814
– 1893], believe such historic spot near Bhulia in Basti
district of North West Indian province. They brush aside
Max Muller who disagrees with Cunnigham terming the
latter’s view ‘clearly wrong’15. Max Muller holds the view
that present Nepal’s Kapilvastu is the kingdom that Buddha
renounced.

Some scholars have misquoted Cunningham as saying the

Lumbini inscription “not at all related to the name
Kapilavastu nor the word Kapil also”16. It is a perplexing
remark made against the English scholar because he was
already dead in 1893 before the discovery of Lumbini
inscription. The Lumbini was discovered in 1896. Of course
there can be an agreement that Sir Cunnigham does not seem
to have a clear view on whether the Buddha was born in
present Nepal’s Kapilvastu or Lumbini as he writes the
Buddha was born in Kapila (Kapilvastu); proceeds forward in
another page and again writes the lord was born in Lumbini.
But his description offers a clear picture of present
Kapilvastu where the Buddha spent his childhood and youth
age as well.

13 John C. Huntington offers a side-note to the book “The Real Birth Place of Buddha -
1977” as “of little scholarly value, if the writer has a fairly thorough knowledge of the
archaeology of the pilgrimage route, it is fun to read” [Showing the Seeds of the Lotus:
A Journey to the Great Pilgrimage Site of Buddhism Part V’ – Orientations - September,
1986] http://tinyurl.com/yloex8d
14 This culture is living in Nepal’s Magar and Gurung Society also.
15 Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Vol – CLXIV – July- December 1898, pp 787
16 PRESENT KAPILESWARA OF ODISHA IS THE THEN KAPILA VASTU OF KALINGA
http://tinyurl.com/yk5a5sw
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While discussing the territory of Sravasti, Cunnigham

discusses some of the western regions of present Nepal
also. He quotes Hwen Tsang’s travelogue that Sravasti was
in between Karnali River in the west and the mountain
Dhaulagiri and Faizabad in the east. The Karnali River, one
of the major rivers in western Nepal, flows south till
today towards River Ganga in Utter Pradesh, India. The Mt.
Dhaulagiri is one of the eight-thousanders in western
Nepal. From Sravasti both Fa-Hian and Hwen Tsang proceeded
towards Kapilvastu in the south east direction [both
measure 13 yojanas or 91 miles and 500 li or 83 miles
respectively]17. Although the description is hazier, it can
point the right location of present Kapilvastu.

Moving back to the Kapileswara inscription in discussion,

Prof. Dines Chandra Sircar, a distinguished epigraphist of
India, degrades it as ‘a recent forgery’ and ‘spurious
nature of record’. He has discussed it at length in his
book and even ridiculed Prof. Vincent A. Smith [1843 –
1920] for publishing a ‘retouched facsimile of the record’
in his history books prescribed for school and university
level students of India.

Prof. Sircar adds further up, “The same facsimile became

widely known in Eastern India with its reproduction in Hari
Parsad Sastri’s ‘History of India’ (in Bengali) meant for
school children and later in some text books of the kind.
There can hardly be any doubt that the people responsible
for the Kapilesawra inscription copied it from the same
facsimile not much earlier than 1928”18

On the Kapileswara Ashokan inscription, U. C. Mohanty has

quoted Prof. Nirmal Kumar Bose, a renowned anthropologist
of India as saying, “In order to clarify this issue I asked
Maharana to explain this deviation at the end. Maharana
narrated that while he was carving the inscription, at the
last line there was some shortage of space. When Maharana
pointed this difficulty to Biren Babu he suggested to him
to cover the empty space with some chisel marks so that the
line could not be completed.”

Mohanty further quotes Prof. Bose as saying “when this

discovery was announced Government made some local

17 Hwen Tsang assigns kingdom of Sravasti a circuit of 4000 li, or 667 miles which is
about double the actual size of territory lying between the Ghagra river and the foot of
the mountains; but as he assigns the same dimensions to the territory of Nepal, it is
probable that in his time the two western districts of Malbhum and Khachhi , in the
hills to the north, may at that time belonged to Sravasti. The territory of Sravasti
would thus have comprised all the country lying between Himalaya mountains and the
Ghagra river , from Karnali river in the west to the mountain of Dhaolagiri and Faizabad
in the east. [Cunnigham, 1871 - pp. 413/414]
18 Dines C. Sircar - Indian Epigraphy – 1965 reprint 1996 - pp
437/438 http://tinyurl.com/kvv4rs
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enquiries through the Collector of Puri. But Biren Roy was

shrewed enough to bribe a Brahmin of Kapileswar with a ten
rupee note and this Brahmin deposed before the Revenue
Officer that the inscription had been discovered from a
broken wall of his house while it was being reconstructed19.”

Lumbini Lexical Analysis:

The Lumbini Ashokan Pillar standing by the ‘Maya Devi

Temple’ in Lumbini Garden speaks the fact. The writing on
the pillar,- ‘hida bhagabvam jateti Lummnigame’ –
exclusively provides a proof that the Buddha was born in
present Nepal’s Lumbini some 2600 years ago. It is
therefore worthwhile discussing the lexical importance of
– ‘Lummini+game’ i.e. ‘Lumbini’ also.

Fa-Hian transcribes ‘Lumbini’ as ‘Lun-min or Lun-ming’ with

two distinctive nasal variations whereas Hwen Tsang
‘sinotizes’ it as ‘La-fa-ni’. These two Fa-Hian and Hwen
Tsang variations are due to their reception of a different
family lexis. Such difference normally occurs among the
speakers of different language families. Here the Indo-
European ‘Lumbini’ has either become ‘Lun-min’ or ‘Lun-
ming’ or ‘La-fa-ni’ in Sino-Tibetan, which is very
understandable. This is natural and there should be no
specific meanings attached to them. But some scholars find
Hwen Tsang’s ‘La-fa-ni’ corresponding with ‘La-va-ni’ of
Sanskrit, which means ‘a beautiful woman’. Phonetically,
‘La-fa-ni’ and ‘La-va-ni’ bear same voiceless and voiced
i.e pharyngeal fricative features. ‘La-fa-ni’ more in the
sense is a ‘folk-etymological toponymy’ of ‘Lumbini’ which
could have been something like ‘Lam-ba-ni’ referring to
later Chinese Buddhist lexicography20. This lexicography
looks somewhat funnier. The lexes ‘Lafani’ and ‘Lavani’
here seem to be referring to Buddha’s grand mother who
might have been a beautiful woman.

19 EXTRACT FROM ‘TWO ANECDOTES NARRATED BY TWO ARCHAEOLOGISTS’, (Orissa Historical

Research Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 16-20, 1976) – Courtesy: Terrence Phelps
http://tinyurl.com/yj37xpe
20Fayun’s Fanyi-mingyi-ji [Collection of the Meaning of Translated Names] - ‘Linweini,or
Luimini or, Lanpini mean ‘ place of redemption’ or ‘ circle of light of happiness’- [Max
Deeg, 2003]
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[Present Lumbini Garden: The ‘Pradimoksha Van’]

Some scholars believe ‘Anjan, the king of Devadaha21 made a

beautiful garden and named it ‘Lumbini’ after his Queen
Lumbini. The queen was Buddha’s grandmother from his
mother’s side’. Not much information is available on the
Queen Mother Lavani, however, she could give a famous name
to the garden where the Buddha was born22. Etymologically,
‘Lumbini’ or Lumbinidevi, Rummindei, Rupandevi and
Rupandehi all bear the same distinctive feature.

What has also been claimed is that Lumbini is other form of

‘Lhum + beni’23 with an aspirated ‘l’ of which ‘Lhum’ means
‘a vast land’ and ‘beni’ means ‘confluence of two rivers’.
Lumbini is on a vast land or ‘Tarai’ of western Nepal. And

21 Which is also called Ramgram in Nawalparasi district some 26 kilometers east of

Lumbini.
22 Some writers have treated Lumbini Garden as Maya Devi Garden which is not true. The
garden existed before Buddha was born.
23 This nomenclature in Magar language, a Tibeto-Burman language, spoken around the
present Lumbini, may offer partisan meaning but it is not less reasonable than the
Chinese Buddhist lexicography discussed in this article. [Courtesy : M. S. Thapa Magar,
Kathmandu, Nepal.]
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also, there seem to have been some sizable waters around

Lumbini in those days. Such as some springs at Lumbini and
the Telar River24 flowing south east of it. They should have
made a confluence near Lumbini.
Lumbini Fuhrer Forged Name ?

In some cases, Lumbini and Anton Fuhrer stand complementary

to each other. Fuhrer discovered the Ashokan pillar and
read the engraved letter ‘hid bhagavam jateti Luminigame’.
And knew the place was called Lumbini. He discovered the
right spot where Buddha was born. But some scholars both
inside and outside Orissa cast doubt over the landmark
Fuhrer discovery. Some have named it ‘Fuhrer archaeological
scandal’ also. The present site is not what Fa-Hian or Hwen
Tsang have described in their travel stories or written in
other Buddhist scriptures – they add. They even say that
Fuhrer confessed his forgery in written also.

Here if we agreed Fuhrer being fraud in naming ‘Lumbini’ of

the spot where the pillar was standing; does it mean the
present Lumbini should have had some other different name ?
Is there any name documented for the place other than
‘Lumbini’ ? If so what was it ? Prof. Smith has written
‘Padaria’ was a neighbouring village of Lumbini. This
suggests that he has recognized present Lumbini as the real
birth place of the Buddha. But this does not suggest at all
he meant the Buddha was born in ‘Padaria’. Also this does
not mean Prof. Smith has ‘challenged Fuhrer’s statement’ on
the naming of Lumbini village25. There is no mentioning, in
the Lumbini Ashokan inscription, of ‘Padaria’ whatsoever.
Lumbini was already there before Fuhrer discovered it. The
name for the village was engraved on the pillar “Hid
Bhagavam Jateti Lummini Game”. The Orissan as well as other
scholars’ interpretation of what has been written in Prof.
Smith’s work is totally misleading – I would rather write
here.

The controversy over present Nepalese Lumbini has not

ceased since a century almost. Scholars, writers,
journalists from around the world are writing mainly from
two different angles: Whether Buddha was born in Lumbini of
Nepal or somewhere in India. Some people also argue Buddha
was born neither in Nepal’s Lumbini nor in any part of
India. A bunch of western scholars hold this view point.
What is even startling is that few other scholars have
started writing Buddha was born in Iran!26 The Lumbini

24 The Telar River [the Oil River]

25 “Famous historian V.A. Smith challenges the statement of Dr. Fuhrer when he said that
Buddha was born near the village Padaria in Nepal. That is a wild region from where the
Pillar was discovered which was proclaimed by Dr. Fuhrer to be rumindei”. http://utkal-
history.blogspot.com/
26Now comes the earth-moving discovery by the Indian researcher. He claims that Buddhism
arose, not in North India, but in what is now Iran, that part of Iran which was formerly
 14

Ashokan Pillar Inscription has not received a universal

recognition yet.

And, not a single research paper or book has come out

without any partisan line in this subject. Some scholars
are found solely sticking to ‘manufactured myths’ while
discussing the Buddha birth place. Myths are manufactured
in leisure and mostly are unreliable. From the part of
Nepalese scholars, they have even now begun discussing’ a
’marker stone’27 that they hope ‘would determine the exact
location !’

How could such a stone be definitive evidence that the

Buddha was born exact in that chamber there ? What on earth
would researchers and scholars from around the world simply
accept such publicity in media and ‘put the debate to rest’
as the prime minister had hoped for?28 This view contradicts
with that in scriptures or travelogues of different famous
travelers that the Buddha was born under a tree either
Ashok or Sal - we don’t know for sure. But of-course, we
can believe the Buddha was born in present day Nepal’s
Lumbini.

Nepal, not in India:

The Buddha was born in present Nepal, not in India - clear

and simple. Some Indian writers in the past willfully or
otherwise supplied wrong information in history books about
the Buddha birth place and put them into school, college
syllabuses. Then each generation students began receiving
wrong information. Inculcated with wrong information, the
new generation students later grew up and began
disseminating ‘false information’ without going deep into
the facts. What they were taught they wrote it. The facts
on the ground did not match – controversy began.
In short, the Orissan claim that the Ashokan Inscription
was copied and duplicate pillar was erected in Lumbini of
Nepal bears no substance at all. The simple question to
this claim is, who would have copied the old Asokan
inscription hundreds of years later and hid in Nepal’s
Tarai to protect from those violent Sankarachayras

a part of India (so called India within Iran). See "Zoroaster and Gotama in a Non-
Jonesean Framework" http://tinyurl.com/y9ub4aw
27The Marker Stone in Lumbini. Believed to be the stone indicating the exact spot where
the Buddha was born. Not all scholars buy this statement.
http://tinyurl.com/yhlwxsz
28 An international team of archeologists has reported discovering the chamber where
Buddha was born more than 2,500 years ago, 16 feet beneath an ancient temple in
southwestern Nepal. The archeologists said they had found relics under the Mayadevi
temple in Lumbini, 200 miles southwest of the Himalayan kingdom's capital Kathmandu.
Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said the discovery put to rest an
international debate on whether Buddha, whose followers now number nearly 350 million
worldwide, was born in Nepal or India. http://tinyurl.com/yky7ne3
 15

hundreds of miles away ? Why not they dug a hole and hid
under ground somewhere in Orissa as in Kathmandu’s
Budhanilkantha29 ?

Besides Hwen Tsang and Fa-hian’s travelogues, the internal

evidence of the Pali canon is clear enough: the Buddha was
born in Lumbini, near Kapilavastu, which used to be one of
the Bihar-area tribal Gana polities like their neighbors;
the Malla, where he died, or the powerful Vrijji etc. All
of them were in present Bihar or Nepalese Tarai, not in
Orissa.

Majjhima Desha, Jambu Dwipa:

There can hardly be any different opinions that the

importance of media in the Google age is extraordinarily
great and challenging. Therefore, media people are always
expected to publish or transmit correct information to the
public. But as of the Buddha birth place conspiracy theory,
some of those media persons have been found misquoting
scholars of international name and standing.

Such a misquoted scholar has become Prof. Hermann Kulke, a

renowned indologist now awarded with ‘Padma Shri’ for his
outstanding contribution towards Indian History and
Culture. The award is the fourth highest of civilian awards
given by the Indian Government generally to recognize
someone’s distinguished contribution in various spheres of
activity including Arts, Education, Industry, Literature,
Science, Sports, Medicine, Social Service and public life.

Prof. Kulke needed to issue a public statement following a

leading daily newspaper from New Delhi, India and some
other news outlets30 misquoted him ‘backing the Orissan
claim’. Refuting what it had appeared in the media, Prof.
Kulke posted a statement on December 21, 200431.

Another less heard but interesting claim so far made by

another Orissan scholar is that Buddha himself had said he
was born in the “Majjhima Desha of Jambu Dwipa”. He argues
the ‘Majjhima Desh’ of Jambu Dwip can not be Nepal. Here
the writer himself appears to be forgetting that Orrisa
too, doesn’t happen to be in central India or ‘Majjhima
Desh of Jambu Dwip’. Orissa is on the east edge by the Bay
of Bengal in the Indian subcontinent. It is not at the
center of India.

29 Kathmandu’s Budhanilakantha is said to have been hid under ground to protect it from
Muslim invader Samsuddin Elias in 13th century. http://tinyurl.com/yzvxl59

30German researcher claims Buddha born in Orissa?

http://tinyurl.com/ydq3equ
31 KULKE REJECTS ORRISA BUDDHA BIRTHPLACE CLAIM [AND POSTS A STATEMENT BELOW TO HIS
COLLEAGUES THROUGH AN EMAIL MESSAGE.] http://tinyurl.com/ydhsm7d
 16

The writer quotes, “Edward J. Thomas32 had clearly said that

the Jatakas and Lalita Vistara described the words of
Buddha himself in this connection” of his birth in the
Middle Province of India.33
Here the “Pali Majjhima-desa is a *small* area in Malla
country near Lumbini”34 - not in Orissa. It is called
‘Madhyadesha or modern Madesh”. Nepal’s Tarai is also known
as ‘Madhesh’ which may look identical to Madhya Pradesh of
India, but not any particular place in Orissa.

On the growing list, the Orissan scholars have also dragged

down a noted Oxford historian Prof. Vincent A. Smith to the
Lumbini - Fuhrer controversy. They claim Prof. Smith did
not accept Dr. Fuhrer’s naming of ‘Lumbini’ to the spot
where the Ashokan pillar was standing.

This is also a wrong interpretation of what the historian

has written. Posting the top-part-broken, half-excavated
photo of the pillar in his book Prof. Smith writes, “The
Rummindei ruins lie 4 miles inside the Nepalese border, and
a little to the west of the Tilar river”35. I am at a loss
to understand why the Orissan scholars have required
dragging this scholar to this controversy?

The other interesting point brought in this conspiracy

theory is that ‘no Buddhism was adopted in Nepal until the
6th Century A. D. So the Lumbini Ashokan inscription bears
no truth.’ This is also another bewildering remark the
Orissan scholars have made so far in this connection – I
would write.

What can be said here is that King Ashok had visited Nepal
(Kathmandu valley) sometime after his pilgrimage to Lumbini
and constructed four stupas in four different corners of
the valley. He gave his daughter Charumati to Devpal –
prince of Nepal. Charumati lived in Chabahil near Pashupati
Temple. After the death of her husband Devapal, Charumati
built a town and named it - ‘Devpatan’ - in memory of the
dead husband. Later she became a nun herself and spread
Buddhism in the valley.

32
Edward J. Thomas - The life of Buddha: As Legend and History, First Indian edition -
1993 - http://tinyurl.com/ye2mrfk
33 PRESENT KAPILESWARA OF ODISHA IS THE THEN KAPILAVASTU OF KALINGA - http://utkal-
history.blogspot.com/
34 Michael Witzel, comment on the article via email.
35 ”in approximately E.Long. 85.11 N. lat. 25.58. Padaria is a neighbouring village. The

Nigliva pillar, which apparently has been moved from its original position now, stands
about 13 miles to the north-west from Rummindei. For facsimile of Rummindei inscription
see Asoka, the Buddhist Emperor of India, plate ii” [Smith – 1914 - pp 169]
 17

Conclusion:

So, where was Buddha born? The straight answer to this

question is absolutely ‘yes, in present Nepal’s Lumbini’.
The Lumbini Ashokan inscription is the evidence. Alongside
the Lumbini garden; are Bodha Gaya in Bihar, Kushinagar,
[Kshauvati in Jatak Katha, the Capital City of Malla] in
Utter Pradesh and Sarnath, also in Utter Pradesh. These are
the other Buddhist holiest places in the Indian
Subcontinent closely related to life and death of the
Buddha. Bodh Gaya and Kushinagar are near Nepal border
whereas Saranath [also called Isipatana in Pali Canon, is
near Vanaras] in Utter Pradesh. Being in the proximity of
Lumbini, these holiest sites also offer themselves as
another proof that Buddha was born here in Nepal’s Lumbini.
If the Buddha were born in Orissa or somewhere else, these
kinds of holy sites would have also certainly been near
Orissa or somewhere else by some different names.

The Buddha came to this world, obtained enlightenment,

preached his ‘dharma’ and died in those four different holy
places. Except for those four different places, he does not
seem to have visited some other places in his life. So
there should be no question at all whether the Buddha was
born in Orissa or had ever visited it. It is therefore
relevant to put here the widely acclaimed native Orrisa
historian Prof. Karuna Sagar Behera’s view in this
connection.

Prof. Behera said, "The Buddha was neither born in Orissa

nor visited the place during his lifetime." 36, But he added
that Orrisa contributed immensely to the growth and
development of Buddhism in the Indian sub-continent.
Keeping in view, the paramount historical and religious
importance, of these four holiest Buddhist pilgrimages,
concerned governments should always endeavour to preserve
them and develop for tourism and education also. These
governments should also keep close eyes on school curricula
exclusively on matters relating to the birth place of the
Buddha so that coming generations would receive correct
information and no chances would be left wide open for any
kind of antagonism between the peoples of these two
neighbouring countries.

Additionally at the end, there were no boundaries that we

have today in between Nepal and India when the Buddha was

36
New debate on birthplace of Buddha
by Rabindra Nath Choudhury, The Asian Age India, Sept 14, 2005
Bhubaneswar, India -- There seems to be no end to the controversy over the birthplace of
Lord Buddha. The latest claim that the apostle of peace was born in Orissa has been
challenged by historian Karuna Sagar Behera. He said, "The Buddha was neither born in
Orissa nor visited the place during his lifetime." Mr Behera said the claims made in this
regard could go against the interests of the state.
http://tinyurl.com/yl3jlyv
 18

born. We do not know for sure whether these two country-

names ever existed then. Here is a quote from George
Curzon, former Viceroy of India but earlier a geographer
who trekked through the Pamirs and wrote a book about it:
"The idea of a demarcated frontier is itself an essentially
modern conception which finds little or no place in the
ancient world."37

And, Prof. Michael Witzel38 of Harvard University says,

“Between 1816 and 1864, the Buddha was born, at Lumbini
(Rummindei), in British India. Before and after that date:
in Nepal”.

[ The Budddha birth place: Lumbini, Nepal. http://tinyurl.com/yg47rl7 -

Buddha Dharma Education Association & BuddhaNet]

37 Frits Staal, Chiangmai, Thai Land, [Email post by Michael Witzel: Sun Aug 2, 2009
2:35 am] Currently University of California, Berkley, California, USA.
38 Michael Witzel, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. [Email post: Sat Aug 1, 2009 10:54 pm]
 19

[The Eternal Peace Flame in Lumbini]

 20

[The World Heritage Site Lumbini]

*************

References:

Buhler, G.- [1897] - The Discovery of Buddha's Birthplace-

The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain
and Ireland.

Cunnigham, Alexander - [1871] – The Ancient Geography of

India - Trubner and Co. 60 Paternoster Row, London

Deeg, Max - [2003] – The Places Where Siddhartha Trod:

Lumbini and Kapilvastu – Lumbini International Research
Institute, Lumbini, Nepal.
 21

Huntington, John C. - [1986] – Orientations - September,

1986 - Showing the Seeds of the Lotus: A Journey to the
Great Pilgrimage Site of Buddhism Part V.

Mohanty, U. C - [1976]- EXTRACT FROM ‘TWO ANECDOTES

NARRATED BY TWO ARCHAEOLOGISTS’, (Orissa Historical
Research Journal, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 16-20, 1976) –
Courtesy Ternece Phelps.

Muller, F. Max - [1898] - Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine,

Vol – CLXIV – July- December 1898,

Sahu, Nabin Kumar – [1959] - Buddhism in Orrisa - 1959,

Sircar, Dinesh Chandra - [1965] - Indian Epigraphy –

Reprint 1996, Motilal Banarasi Das New Delhi, India.
Sircar, Dinesh Chandra - [1965] – Select Inscriptions;
Bearing on Indian History and Civilization Volume - 1, From
the Sixth Century B. C. to Sixth Century A.D.; Second
Revised Edition, University of Calcutta, India.

Smith, Vincent Arther -[1914] - The Early History of

India, From 600 B. C. to Muhammadan Conquest – Oxford at
the Clarendon Press.

Thomas, Edward J. - [ 1993] - The life of Buddha: As Legend

and History, First Indian edition, New Delhi. India.