48-682: The Vajrasana ( IAST : vajrāsana ; diamond throne ), or Enlightenment Throne of the Buddha , is an ancient stone slab located under the Bodhi tree , directly beside the Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya . The slab is thought to have been placed at Bodhgayā by Emperor Ashoka The Great of the Maurya Empire between 250-233 BCE, at the spot where the Buddha meditated. The vajrasana
96-433: A font, etc. It can be enabled in the input menu in the menu bar under System Preferences → International → Input Menu (or System Preferences → Language and Text → Input Sources) or can be viewed under Edit → Emoji & Symbols in many programs. Equivalent tools – such as gucharmap ( GNOME ) or kcharselect ( KDE ) – exist on most Linux desktop environments. Users of SCIM on Linux based platforms can also have
144-631: A great monastery was attached to the Bodhimanda called the Bodhimanda Vihara. Among those present at the foundation Kattika the Mahā Thūpa are mentioned thirty thousand monks from the Bodhimanda Vihara, led by Cittagutta. In the 7th century CE, Chinese traveler Xuanzang wrote of the tree in detail. Every time the tree was destroyed, a new tree was planted in the same place. In 1862 British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham wrote of
192-707: A modifier key to type letters with diacritical marks. For example, alt + a = ā. How this is set up varies by operating system. Linux/Unix and BSD desktop environments allow one to set up custom keyboard layouts and switch them by clicking a flag icon in the menu bar. macOS One can use the pre-installed US International keyboard, or install Toshiya Unebe's Easy Unicode keyboard layout. Microsoft Windows Windows also allows one to change keyboard layouts and set up additional custom keyboard mappings for IAST. This Pali keyboard installer made by Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator (MSKLC) supports IAST (works on Microsoft Windows up to at least version 10, can use Alt button on
240-435: Is actually glottal , not velar . Some letters are modified with diacritics : Long vowels are marked with an overline (often called a macron ). Vocalic (syllabic) consonants, retroflexes and ṣ ( / ʂ ~ ɕ ~ʃ/ ) have an underdot . One letter has an overdot: ṅ ( /ŋ/ ). One has an acute accent : ś ( /ʃ/ ). One letter has a line below: ḻ ( / ɭ / ) (Vedic). Unlike ASCII -only romanisations such as ITRANS or Harvard-Kyoto ,
288-684: Is based on a scheme that emerged during the 19th century from suggestions by Charles Trevelyan , William Jones , Monier Monier-Williams and other scholars, and formalised by the Transliteration Committee of the Geneva Oriental Congress , in September 1894. IAST makes it possible for the reader to read the Indic text unambiguously, exactly as if it were in the original Indic script. It is this faithfulness to
336-710: Is continuously growing to this day in the island's ancient capital, Anuradhapura . This Bodhi tree was originally named Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi . According to the Mahavamsa, the Sri Maha Bodhi in Sri Lanka was planted in 288 BCE, making it the oldest verified specimen of any angiosperm . In this year (the twelfth year of King Asoka 's reign) the right branch of the Bodhi tree was brought by Sanghamittā to Anurādhapura and placed by Devānāmpiyatissa his left foot in
384-482: Is holy to Navayana Buddhism as this is the place where Dr. B. R. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism along with 600,000 followers on 14 October 1956, Dhammachakra Pravartan Din . The sapling of the Sacred Bodhi tree from Anuradhapura Sri Lanka was planted on 15 May 2011, at Wisdom Park 14 Broadway Avenue, New Manila, Quezon City, Philippines by D. M. Jayaratne , Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, and Mariano S. Yupitun,
432-651: Is no longer living, but the term "bodhi tree" is also applied to existing sacred fig trees . The foremost example of an existing tree is the Mahabodhi Tree growing at the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya , which is often cited as a direct descendant of the original tree. This tree, planted around 250 BCE, is a frequent destination for pilgrims , being the most important of the four main Buddhist pilgrimage sites. Other holy bodhi trees with great significance in
480-466: Is said that in the ancient Buddhist texts in order that people might make their offerings in the name of the Buddha when he was away on pilgrimage, the Buddha sanctioned the planting of a seed from the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya in front of the gateway of Jetavana Monastery near Sravasti . For this purpose Moggallana took a fruit from the tree as it dropped from its stalk before it reached the ground. It
528-400: Is the bodhimanda ( bodhimaṇḍa ; seat or platform of enlightenment ) of Gautama Buddha. Being the site where Gautama Buddha achieved liberation , Tibetan texts also use the term vajrasana to refer to Bodh Gaya itself. The empty throne was a focus of devotion in early Buddhism , treated as a cetiya or symbolic relic. It was not intended to be occupied, but operated as a symbol of
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#1732771981797576-579: The Bodhi tree circa 260 BCE. The throne was initially found hidden behind a bigger throne of the Kushan period, and an even bigger one, probably from the Pala period. It is thought that the Vajrasana was initially located at the bottom of the original Bodhi tree . The slab is made of polished sandstone, and dated to the time of Ashoka. This is the oldest known piece of architecture at Bodh Gaya. According to
624-479: The Devanampriyas (Kings) used to set out on so-called pleasure-tours. On these (tours) hunting and other such pleasures were (enjoyed). When king Devanampriya Priyadarsin had been anointed ten years, he went out to Sambodhi . Therefore tours of morality (were undertaken) here. On these (tours) the following takes place, (viz.) visiting Sramanas and Brahmanas and making gifts (to them), visiting
672-763: The ISO 15919 standard for transliterating Indic scripts emerged in 2001 from the standards and library worlds. For the most part, ISO 15919 follows the IAST scheme, departing from it only in minor ways (e.g., ṃ/ṁ and ṛ/r̥)—see comparison below. The Indian National Library at Kolkata romanization , intended for the romanisation of all Indic scripts , is an extension of IAST. The IAST letters are listed with their Devanagari equivalents and phonetic values in IPA , valid for Sanskrit , Hindi and other modern languages that use Devanagari script, but some phonological changes have occurred: * H
720-534: The Mahabodhi Tree or Bo Tree , is a large sacred fig tree ( Ficus religiosa ) located in Bodh Gaya , Bihar , India . Siddhartha Gautama, the spiritual teacher who became known as the Buddha , is said to have attained enlightenment or buddhahood circa 500 BCE under this tree. In religious iconography , the Bodhi Tree is recognizable by its heart-shaped leaves, which are usually prominently displayed. The original tree under which Siddhartha Gautama sat
768-520: The Bodhi tree on the grounds of the Trấn Quốc pagoda . In 2012, Brahmanda Pratap Barua, Ripon, Dhaka, Bangladesh, took a sapling of Bodhi tree from Buddha Gaya, Maha Bodhi to Thousand Oaks, California , where he presented it to his benefactor, Anagarika Glenn Hughes, who had funded much Buddhist work and teaches Buddhism in the US. He and his students received the sapling with a great thanks, later they planted
816-890: The Busshinji temple, the head temple of Sōtō in Latin America, in São Paulo , and another in the Soto Temple Daissenji, in Florianópolis . Following is a list of the various Mahabodhi trees under which all of the Buddhas known to Theravada Buddhism attained buddhahood . On 8 December, Bodhi Day celebrates Buddha's enlightenment underneath the Bodhi Tree. Those who follow the Dharma greet each other by saying, "Budu saranai!" which translates to "may
864-456: The Mahāmeghavana. The Buddha, on his death bed, had resolved five things, one being that the branch which should be taken to Ceylon should detach itself. From Gayā, the branch was taken to Pātaliputta , thence to Tāmalittī , where it was placed in a ship and taken to Jambukola, across the sea; finally it arrived at Anuradhapura , staying on the way at Tivakka . Those who assisted the king at
912-670: The Sri Maha Bodhi to plant two saplings in Chennai , one was planted near the Buddha temple at the Theosophical Society another at the riverside of Adyar Estuary. The third was planted near a meditation center in Sri Lanka. To Trấn Quốc, Hanoi, Vietnam In 1959, to mark the visit of the first President of India, Shri Rajendra Prasad, a cutting of the original tree in Bodh Gaya was gifted and presently it stands as
960-625: The State Reorganisation Act of 1935 adopted the Bo tree symbol in the state emblem, following a recommendation to that effect being forwarded to the Royal Society. Bodhi Puja, meaning "the veneration of Bodhi-tree" is the ritual to worship the Bodhi tree and the deity residing on it (Pali: rukkhadevata; Sanskrit; vrikshadevata). It is done by giving various offerings such as food, water, milk, lamps, incense, etc. and chanting
1008-533: The Vajrasana (Right side view). [REDACTED] Elevation plan of the original Vajrasana (Front view). Various gold objects and a talisman with the impression of the bust of the Kushan ruler Huvishka were found buried under the Vajrasana. IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration ( IAST ) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It
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#17327719817971056-522: The Vajrasana is a thick slab of polished grey sandstone , 7 feet 10-inches long by 4 feet 7-inches broad, and 6-inches thick. The whole top surface was carved with geometrical patterns, circular in the middle, with a double border of squares. The sculpted decorations on the Diamond Throne clearly echo the decorations found on the Pillars of Ashoka. The Diamond Throne has a decorative band made on
1104-408: The aged and supporting (them) with gold, visiting the people of the country, instructing (them) in morality, and questioning (them) about morality, as suitable for this (occasion). This second period (of the reign) of king Devanampriya Priyadarsin becomes a pleasure in a higher degree. The throne slab dating from the time of Ashoka, was built when Ashoka established the first Bodh Gaya temple around
1152-730: The area of Sanskrit studies make use of free OpenType fonts such as FreeSerif or Gentium , both of which have complete support for the full repertoire of conjoined diacritics in the IAST character set. Released under the GNU FreeFont or SIL Open Font License , respectively, such fonts may be freely shared and do not require the person reading or editing a document to purchase proprietary software to make use of its associated fonts. Bodhi tree 24°41′45.29″N 84°59′29.29″E / 24.6959139°N 84.9914694°E / 24.6959139; 84.9914694 The Bodhi Tree ("tree of awakening" or "tree of enlightenment" ), also called
1200-577: The ceremony of the planting of the Tree were the nobles of Kājaragāma and of Candanagāma and of Tivakka. The Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi is also known to be the most sacred Bodhi tree. This came upon the Buddhists who performed rites and rituals near the Bodhi tree. The Bodhi tree was known to cause rain and heal the ill. When an individual became ill, one of his or her relatives would visit the Bodhi tree to water it seven times for seven days and to vow on behalf of
1248-536: The consumer edition since XP. This is limited to characters in the Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP). Characters are searchable by Unicode character name, and the table can be limited to a particular code block. More advanced third-party tools of the same type are also available (a notable freeware example is BabelMap ). macOS provides a "character palette" with much the same functionality, along with searching by related characters, glyph tables in
1296-528: The diacritics used for IAST allow capitalisation of proper names. The capital variants of letters never occurring word-initially ( Ṇ Ṅ Ñ Ṝ Ḹ ) are useful only when writing in all-caps and in Pāṇini contexts for which the convention is to typeset the IT sounds as capital letters. For the most part, IAST is a subset of ISO 15919 that merges the retroflex (underdotted) liquids with the vocalic ones ( ringed below ) and
1344-682: The foot of the throne are of a later date, probably Kushan or Gupta . The Vajrasana was built by Ashoka in order to mark the place where the Buddha reached enlightenment. Ashoka is thought to have visited Bodh Gaya around 260 BCE, about 10 years into his reign, as explained by his Rock Edict number VIII . He describes his visit to Bodh Gaya , known in ancient times as Sambodhi ("complete enlightenement") or Uruvela ("Original ancient name of Bodh gaya as mentioned in Pali Canon's Paṭhamauruvelasutta of Anguttara Nikaya and Bodhi Sutta of Khuddaka Nikaya and many other Pali Suttas(Sutras)"): In times past
1392-587: The founder of Universal Wisdom Foundation Inc. A sapling of the Sacred Bodhi tree from Anuradhapura Sri Lanka was planted in April 2008 at Kurilpa Point, the site of the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), by the artist Lee Mingwei , as the centerpiece to his 'Bhodi Tree Project' which is described as an ambitious living artwork. There are two descendants in Brazil . One in
1440-505: The front is slightly different, and consists in stylized lotuses with multiple calyx , alternating with " flame palmettes " of a slightly simpler design than on the side. A rather similar design can also be seen in the lost frieze of the Allahabad pillar of Ashoka. The vajrasana has carvings on all sides, suggesting that the original temple built by Ashoka (bodhigriha) was open on all sides, an hammiya structure. The small statues at
1488-819: The history of Buddhism are the Anandabodhi Tree at Jetavana in Sravasti in North India and the Sri Maha Bodhi Tree in Anuradhapura , Sri Lanka . Both are also believed to have been propagated from the original Bodhi Tree. The Forest Research Institute of India assists in the upkeep of the tree since 2007. Cloning has been considered in 2008. Its sacred leaves can also be bought by pilgrims as mementos. Religious offerings, which would draw insects, were shifted to some distance from
Vajrasana, Bodh Gaya - Misplaced Pages Continue
1536-592: The inscribed Bharhut relief related to the Vajrasana, the original Mahabodhi Temple of Asoka was an open pavilion supported on pillars. In the middle is seen the Vajrasana decorated in front with four flat pilasters. Behind the Throne appears the trunk of the Bodhi Tree, which rises up high above the building, and on each side of the Tree there is a combined symbol of the Triratna and the Dharmachakra , standing on
1584-441: The missing Buddha. Ancient images show devotees kneeling in prayer before it, as they still do. The Vajrasana, together with the remnants of the ancient temple built by Ashoka, was excavated by archaeologist Alexander Cunningham (1814-1893), who published his discovery and related research of the Mahabodhi Temple in his 1892 book Mahâbodhi, or the great Buddhist temple under the Bodhi tree at Buddha-Gaya . As it survives now,
1632-749: The opportunity to install and use the sa-itrans-iast input handler which provides complete support for the ISO 15919 standard for the romanization of Indic languages as part of the m17n library. Or user can use some Unicode characters in Latin-1 Supplement, Latin Extended-A, Latin Extended Additional and Combining Diarcritical Marks block to write IAST. Only certain fonts support all the Latin Unicode characters essential for
1680-512: The original scripts that accounts for its continuing popularity amongst scholars. Scholars commonly use IAST in publications that cite textual material in Sanskrit, Pāḷi and other classical Indian languages. IAST is also used for major e-text repositories such as SARIT, Muktabodha, GRETIL, and sanskritdocuments.org. The IAST scheme represents more than a century of scholarly usage in books and journals on classical Indian studies. By contrast,
1728-583: The peace of the Buddha be yours." It is also generally seen as a religious holiday, much like Christmas in the Christian west, in which special meals are served, especially cookies shaped like hearts (referencing the heart-shaped leaves of the Bodhi) and a meal of kheer , the Buddha's first meal ending his six-year asceticism . The Bo tree is the main part of the Bihar State emblem . During British rule,
1776-440: The present Pipal is standing on a terrace at least 30 feet above the level of the surrounding country. It was in full vigour in 1811, when seen by Dr. Buchanan (Hamilton) , who describes it as in all probability not exceeding 100 years of age. However, the tree decayed further and in 1876 the remaining tree was destroyed in a storm. Cunningham says the young scion of the parent tree was already in existence to take its place. It
1824-471: The right side of the keyboard instead of Ctrl+Alt combination). Many systems provide a way to select Unicode characters visually. ISO/IEC 14755 refers to this as a screen-selection entry method . Microsoft Windows has provided a Unicode version of the Character Map program (find it by hitting ⊞ Win + R then type charmap then hit ↵ Enter ) since version NT 4.0 – appearing in
1872-402: The sapling in the ground in a nearby park. In 1989, the government of India presented Nihon-ji with a sapling from the Bodhi Tree as a gesture of world peace. This Bodhi Tree was planted at Deekshabhoomi from three branches of the Bodhi Tree at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka. Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan brought these branches from Sri Lanka as a memorial of Buddha's enlightenment. This site
1920-400: The short close-mid vowels with the long ones. The following seven exceptions are from the ISO standard accommodating an extended repertoire of symbols to allow transliteration of Devanāgarī and other Indic scripts , as used for languages other than Sanskrit. The most convenient method of inputting romanized Sanskrit is by setting up an alternative keyboard layout . This allows one to hold
1968-653: The sick for a speedy recovery. In 1913, Anagarika Dharmapala took a sapling of the Sri Maha Bodhi to Hawaii , where he presented it to his benefactor, Mary E. Foster , who had funded much Buddhist missionary work. She planted it in the grounds of her house in Honolulu , by the Nuʻuanu stream. On her death, she left her house and its grounds to the people of Honolulu, and it became the Foster Botanical Garden . In 1950, Jinarajadasa took three saplings of
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2016-530: The sides of carvings of honeysuckles and geese , which can also be found on several of the pillar capitals of Ashoka , such as the Rampurva capitals , and also pigeons on the back relief, nowadays hidden from view. The geese ( hamsa ) in particular are a very recurrent symbol on the pillars of Ashoka, and may refer to the devotees flocking to the faith. The same throne is also illustrated in later reliefs from Bharhut , dated to circa 100 BCE. The long frieze at
2064-525: The site as the first entry in the first volume of the Archaeological Survey of India : The celebrated Bodhi tree still exists, but is very much decayed; one large stem, with three branches to the westward, is still green, but the other branches are barkless and rotten. The green branch perhaps belongs to some younger tree, as there are numerous stems of apparently different trees clustered together. The tree must have been renewed frequently, as
2112-476: The top of a short pillar. On each side of the Vajrasana room there is a side room of the same style. The top of the Throne is ornamented with flowers, but there is no figure of Buddha. The relief bears the inscription: "Bhagavato Sakamunino Bodho" ("The Bodhi (Tree) of the divine Shakyamuni ", or "The illumination of the Blessed Sakyamuni"), thereby confirming the meaning of the relief. Discovery of
2160-487: The transliteration of Indic scripts according to the IAST and ISO 15919 standards. For example, the Arial , Tahoma and Times New Roman font packages that come with Microsoft Office 2007 and later versions also support precomposed Unicode characters like ī . Many other text fonts commonly used for book production may be lacking in support for one or more characters from this block. Accordingly, many academics working in
2208-402: The tree. The Bodhi tree at the Mahabodhi Temple is called the Sri Maha Bodhi. Gautama Buddha attained enlightenment ( bodhi ) while meditating underneath a Ficus religiosa . According to Buddhist texts , the Buddha meditated without moving from his seat for seven weeks (49 days) under this tree. A shrine called Animisalocana cetiya, was later erected on the spot where he sat. The spot
2256-490: Was planted in a golden jar by Anathapindika with great pomp and ceremony. A sapling immediately sprouted forth, fifty cubits high, and in order to consecrate it, the Buddha spent one night under it, rapt in meditation. This tree, because it was planted under the direction of Ananda , came to be known as the Ananda Bodhi. King Asoka's daughter, Sanghamitta , brought a piece of the tree with her to Sri Lanka where it
2304-496: Was used as a shrine even in the lifetime of the Buddha. Emperor Ashoka the Great was most diligent in paying homage to the Bodhi tree, and held a festival every year in its honour in the month of Kattika . His queen, Tissarakkhā , was jealous of the Tree, and three years after she became queen (i.e., in the nineteenth year of Asoka's reign), she cursed the tree to be killed by means of mandu thorns. The tree, however, grew again, and
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