Mahayana Buddhist Monastery, Bangalore

Address

Mahayana Buddhist Monastery, Nelamangala – Chikkaballapura, Rajaghatta, Bangalore Karnataka 561205

Diety

Mahayana Budhha

Introduction

Rajaghatta, a small picturesque village on the outskirts of Bangalore was a Buddhist settlement from 2nd century to 7th century CE. In 2001/2004, archeologists unearthed the remains of a Mahayana Buddhist Chaitya hall and Vihara (Monastery) in this village in Bangalore rural district. The structures were built with unfired clay bricks as well as granite pillars. Many hundreds of small clay stupas were also obtained from the site. These clay stupas contain clay disks with the inscription of buddha images and the dharani of dependent arising in Brāhmī Sanskrit script. These kind of small stupas with relics, Buddha images and dharanis are usually made by Mahayana practitioners as a meritorious activity. There were also two urns with bone remains in a corner of the main chaithya hall. These could have been the remains of some accomplished practitioners

Puranic Significance

A few hundred meters from that site, there are also two megalithic burial sites which belong to an earlier period.Unfortunately, the site was covered again with soil after shifting some of the relics to a museum (Archeology museum of Mysore University). Since the site was not converted into a heritage site by the Archeology Survey of India, it remains unprotected and hence had to be covered back. Thus, this rare archeological finding about the presence of Mahayana Buddhism in Bangalore and Karnataka again remains hidden, with the structures of the chaitya hall and the vihara underneath a farmland. This site may be permanently lost because, before too long, high-rise apartments may come up in this site, as it is just in the outskirts of the city.