BUDDHIST SITES IN INDIA

From Siddharth to Sakyamuni and finally to the Buddha or the Enlightened one – an incredible transformation of a prince to an enlightened teacher, who walked the earth more than 2500 years ago.
Upon Seeing sorrow, misery, pain and death, in the prime of his youth, prince Siddharth decided to discover their causes and means of overcoming their occurrences.

Thus renouncing worldly pleasure and leaving home and family behind, he travelled from place to place until finally attaining enlightenment by fixed meditation under the Bodhi tree.
He then preached the truth he discovered, and exhorted his disciples to follow the Eight Fold Rath for the cessation of the endless cycle of birth and re-birth.
We endeavor to lay open before the reader, the life and teachings of Buddha and influence of Buddhism all across India and beyond its frontiers.

Several major sights and school of Buddhist learning have been highlighted for the ardent Buddhists academic interest.

BUDDHIST SCULPTURAL ART IN ODISHA

From the study of the Buddhist sculptures of Odisha it is evident , that the Mahayana doctrine gradually transformed itself into Vajrayana about middle of the 9th century A.D. and the overwhelming number of Vajrayana images would point out that Vajrayana found a most fertile soil in ancient Odisha. King Indrabhuti and his sister Lakshminkara of Uddiyana, identified with Odisha, were great exponents of Vajrayana, also called Tantric-Buddhism.
The introduction of Tantric form of worship in the Mahayana Buddhism ushered in a new stage in the development of the history of Buddhism in Odisha, which attained its pinnacle of glory during the Bhauma-Kara regime.
Apart from Buddha figures the other important feature of Buddhist plastic art in Odisha is the representation of Boddhisattava Avalokitesvara in his different varieties such as Padmapani, Lokesvara, Vajrapani etc.. We also find sculptures of Tara, Manjusri, Amoghasiddhi etc. in this period. A Lokesvara image found at Bhubaneswar , Amoghasiddhi from G. Udaygiri of Phulbani district, Biddha in Bhuni-sparsa-mudra from Khadipada and Avalokitesvara Padmapani in standing pose from Khadipada are dispalyed in the Odisha State Museum at Bhubaneswar. Most of these Buddhist sculptures are very big in dimensions. The museum at Lalitagiri preserves colossal Boddhi-sattva figures inside it. Many more such figures are located at nearby Udaygiri and Ratnagiri.

VAJRAYANA SCULPTURES

From epigraphical sources it is known that Buddhism was popular until the end of the Somavamsi rule in Odisha. From these sources it is also known that Ratnagiri Mahavihara was a great centre of Buddhism. As if to support this we have a large number of Vajrayana sculptures at Ratnagiri. These are different forms of Avalokitesvara, Majusri, Heruka, Jambhala, Kurukulla, Mahakala, vajrasattva, Aparcjana, Vajrapani, Tara, Aparajita, Marichi, Arya Sarasvati, Vajra Tara, etc. Other important Buddhist sculptures deserving mention are the Tara sculpture of Solampur, the three Vajrasattva figures along with a Buddha image from Haripur,

Prajnaparamita from Banesvaranasi, Tara image at Banapur, a Maitreya image at Matara near Kendupatna, Avalokitesvara, Padmapani and Yamantaka images at Kuruma, Marichi and Vajravarahi at Ayodhya, Buddha from khiching and Buddha figures of Ganiapalli. It is also interesting to note here that the back slab of a Buddha image at Solampur contains the story of Buddha, from his life of nirvana. The excavation at Ratnagiri revealed the fact that Buddhist art in Odisha developed from about 5th century A.D. In fact Buddhist sculptural art was one of the main constituents of medieval Odisha sculptural art.