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LUMBINI is the place where the newly born prince Siddhartha
(simply known as buddha) took his first seven steps
and uttered an epoch-making message to the suffering
humanity, this happened exactly is a beautiful sal grove,
which is now a focal point of Lumbini Garden area. Maya
Devi, the queen of Sakya King Suddhodana od Kapilvastu,
while passing through the Lumbini Garden. On the day
of 'Vaishakha Poornima' (the full moon-day of may 623BC),
took a bath in the Pushkami (the sacred pond) and soon
after she took support of a tree branch, then birth
to the Crown Prince Siddhartha, who become Buddha. The
Lumbini Garden covers an area of 1X3 sq. miles and encompasses
three zones each covering one square mile connected
with walkways and a canal. The area has a sub-tropical
monsoon climate with a warm wet season.
Buddhist
literature describes Lumbini as a pradimoksha-vana blessed
with blooming sal trees and masses of beautiful flowers,
and as a place where bees of five colours hum The sweet
warbling of various birds and other natural scenery
in Lumbini was -ompared to the Chittalata (mind-captivating)
grove of Indra's paradise in heaven ( Ven. Kausalyayana,
66:1985).
Lumbini
apart from being a pleasure garden for the youths of
the two republics also nurtured contemplative and aesthetic
values. Even the Buddha at the time of his Mahaparinirvana
eloquently recommended from his deathbed at Kushinagara
that all faithful followers and devotees of his order
visit it (Pandey, 3:1995).
Maya
the queen of that god-like king, bore in her womb the
glory of her race and being in her purity free from
weariness, sorrow and illusion set her mind on the sin-
forest called Lumbini. In her longing for the lovely
forest as suited to trance she -quested the king to
go and stay in the grove that was gay like the garden
of Caitraratha with trees of every kind (Asvaghosa,
2: 1972).
Many
verses of the Suttanipata contain descriptions of Lumbini.
The Pali Tripitakas id Attakathas mention Lumbini forest
within the Sakya janapada, while the Nalaka sutta mentions
it as Lumbini gama (village). Lumbini village was still
in existence hen Emperor Asoka visited Lumbini in his
pilgrimage tour in the P century BC, as mentioned in
his commemorative pillar at Lumbini (Lummini game).
The Papancha- and the Jataka stories give the location
of Lumbini as being near the Devadaha gama (Upadhyaya,
145,298-300: 2018 BS).
The
pleasant wood hallowed by the birth of the Lord Buddha
and known as Lumbini Vana, according to the Jataka Atthakatha
Nidan, lies between Kapilavastu and -vadaha. It was
a pleasure grove common to both the Sakyas and Koliyas,
and aparently a place of entertainment for the people
from both the states. There was common access to the
grove of Lumbini for both the states, as mentioned in
several Whist texts, such as the Digha Nikaya, Attha-kathas
and Samyukta Nikaya -adhan, 15:1997).
The
establishment of Lumbini Garden took place in the following
manner:
Suprabuddha,
endowed according to the narration of the Vinaya vatthu,
with intelligence and born to the king of Devadaha and
his Queen Sudha, came to have as his queen a king's
daughter known as Lumbini, 'good woman of the city'.
A rich householder had a pleasure grove that was a place
for recreation near Devadaha, the capital city of the
Koliyas. It was a place perfectly blessed with the finest
water, flowers and fruits, and the warbling of various
birds, a place which one might wish for oneself The
king and his group of queens sometimes went there to
amuse themselves.
Queen
Lumbini, liking that pleasant garden and wanting to
own it, requested the king to grant it to her. However,
the king told her that this would not be appropriate,
since it belonged to the householder. Because of the
queen's longing for the garden, he assured her that
he would make one even better than it in another place.
A
different garden was thus created in a place with perfect
abundance of water, where there were varieties of fruits
and many lotus flowers growing on land and in marshes-more
even than were in the garden grove of the householder
and meadows around it. This place was home to various
kinds of bird including peacocks, parrots and mynas,
whose captivating and beautiful warbling could be heard
all around, and various kinds of animals, such as elephants
and deer, that roamed around peacefully. The king, made
this place into a wonderful paradise, a divine garden,
with mansions, pleasure groves and ponds. Having been
created for the queen,it was named Lumbini (Gyatso,
20-21:1986).
Lumbini
Devi is also spelled as Rupa Devi ('beautiful woman')
or Rummindei (the queen of King Anjana of Devadaha)
(Mishra, 36:1996).
Later
Rummindei was pronounced as Lummindei, and still later,
as Lumbini. The name Rummin is practically identical
with Lumbini or Lummini, the form written in the inscription
in the Magadhi language, in which medial or initial
'r' of Sanskrit is always replaced by 7'(Mukherji, 6:1969).
Fa-hsien
gives the name of the garden as Lum-min, and the king's
park as Lummin or Lumbini, while Yuan Chwang called
it La-Fa-Ni Grove (Watters, 15:1973).
Alexander
Cunningham, who discovered many Buddhist sites in the
Indian sub-continent, interpreted La-Fa-Ni of Yuan Chwang
accounts to correspond to Lavani in Sanskrit, which
means 'a beautiful woman' (Cunningham, 14:1975).
Five
kilometres west of Lumbini, in fact, lies a village
called Lavani. According to Fo-Kwe-Ki, Lumbini had at
one time also been called Paradimoksha, and it is interesting
that a village close to Lumbini is named Padariya, a
name derived from older word (Mishra, 36:1996). |
