RELIGIOUS ROOTS OF BUDDHA'S BIRTHPLACE

OLDEST BUDDHIST SHRINE
HOLDS CLUES TO BUDDHA'S BIRTH

http://edition.cnn.com - There are about 500 million Buddhists worldwide, but it's unclear exactly when in history this religion began. The Buddha’s life story spread first through oral tradition, and little physical evidence about Buddhism's early years has been found. Now, scientists for the first time have uncovered archaeological evidence of when the Buddha's monumentally influential life occurred. Excavations in Nepal date a Buddhist shrine, located at what is said to be the Buddha’s birthplace, to the sixth century B.C.
The research, published in the journal Antiquity, describes the remains of a timber structure about the same size and shape as a temple built at the same site in the third century B.C. Archaeologists also found reason to think that a tree grew at the center of this ancient structure, lending support to the traditional story that the Buddha's mother held onto a tree branch while giving birth to him.

“This is one of those rare occasions when belief, tradition, archaeology and science actually come together,” lead study author Robin Coningham, professor at Durham University in the United Kingdom, said at a press briefing Monday. “We know the entirety of the shrine sequence started in the sixth century B.C., and this sheds light on a very long debate,” Coningham said. Beneath remains of the Ashokan temple, archaeologists found a series of postholes from where timber posts had rotted out. The central, open portion of the most ancient temple appears to have housed a tree, based on the discovery of large fragments of mineralized tree roots. This part of the temple also had never been covered by a roof.
To establish the dates of the earliest Buddhist shrine at Lumbini, Coningham and colleagues analyzed charcoal found within postholes, as well as sand. Different techniques used on each of these materials pointed to the same conclusion of the sixth century B.C., but the postholes indicated a range of about 800 to 545 B.C.

Archaeologists in Nepal say they have found traces of a temple timber structure linked to Buddha's nativity going back to the sixth century B.C. The remnants - unearthed at the Maya Devi Temple in Lumbini, Nepal, which has traditionally been venerated as the spiritual leader's birthplace - were analyzed with carbon-dating tests, and scientists has dated the time frame for the construction in the sixth century B.C. Lord Buddha was an incarnation of the Supreme and his birth was predicted in the Srimad-Bhagavatam several hundred years before the time He made his apparition. Buddha lived in India at a time when Hinduism was the most spread religion; and although following the Vedas, many people had deviated from the primary goal of Vedic philosophy. They liked to perform ceremonies and rituals for material enjoyment, which included animal sacrifices. Under the disguise of doing Vedic rituals, people indulged in eating the animal flesh. When there was a large unnecessary killing of animals, and as a result people were increasingly degraded, Lord Buddha came. He taught four noble truths: that suffering exists, there is a cause for suffering, suffering can be eradicated, and there is a means to end all suffering. But these topics were not new. These four basic truths had previously been discussed in the Sankhya philosophy before Buddha's appearance, and later been further elaborated upon in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. Even more, these philosophical seeds of the Samkhya and Yoga had already existed in the Upanishads, millennia before the birth of Lord Buddha. (Editor's note).

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

The Vedas encode instructions according to the eligibility or qualification of various living beings, especially human beings. But in the course of time, ignorant men took the tamasika orders to be the only instruction of the Vedas and engaged in the extensive killing of animals, sometimes even sacrificing human beings during worship of the demigods. At that time, the Supreme Lord descended in the form of Buddha and outwardly rejected the teachings of the Vedas for the welfare of human beings incapable of comprehending the true teachings of the Vedas. ... As Lord Buddha was the Supreme Lord Himself, many people resolved to follow ahimsa-dharma-the path of non-violence, due to His influence. As a result of non-violence, the hearts of human beings became pious and their qualifications gradually increased, so Lord Siva appeared as Sankaracarya. He re-established the supreme authenticity and decorum of the Vedas, and founded the philosophy of ‘brahmakarana-vada’ (Brahman as ultimate cause).

Śrīla Bhakti Ballabh Tirtha Mahārāja :
“Dasavatara - The Ten Manifestations of God”
Chapter 9: “Sri Buddha-Avatara”
Sree Chaitanya Gaudiya Math - www.sreecgmath.org

 

Published by dasavatara das - “Vedic Views on World News”
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/