Dagaba's Miracles: Stupa

Stupa, CHorten, tope, chaitya, Pagoda, Dagaba are some of the words used to refer to the thousands of free standing monuments which were built throughout Buddhist Asia in order to house sacred relics, mark holy places or commemorate events. The birthplace of this architectural novelty was India, where eight hemispherical structures were constructed to fulfil all three functions. They protected Buddha’s remains, while simultaneously marking and honoring the events of his life. These eight simple monuments were the harbingers of a timeless tradition; the prototypes for the stupa, a form which was to grow and flourish, in tandem with the spread of Buddhism.

When the disciple Ananda asked Shakyamuni Buddha how he wished to be commemorated after

Similarly, the moment at which Buddha overcame the hosts of Mara who came to Bodhgaya to test him, was celebrated by the stupa of ‘the conquest of Mara. His first teaching was commemorated by a shrine called the stupa of ‘many gates or doors’, which stood at Sarnath, the place where Buddha is said to have turned the first wheel of Dharma. A fourth stupa in Shravasti was a memorial to the miracles that he performed there, and his descent form the Heaven of Thirty-three (after teaching his mother in the Tushita realm) was commemorated at Sankasya by a fifth called the stupa of descent from the god realm. A stupa of reconciliation called to mind the Buddha’s reconciliation of quarrelling factions of the Sangha at the bamboo grove in Rajgir and the ‘stupa of complete victory’ commemorates his voluntary prolongation of his lifespan at Vaishali. Finally, his momentous death and passing beyond sorrow at Kushinagara was commemorated by the ‘stupa of Nirvana’.

Although it is likely that the ancient original cores remain under substantial additions, no existing stupa can be positively identified as one of these eight originals. Yet it was these buried remains that engendered a vital

Circumambulating a stupa is an act which can acquire demerit merit, which is well illustrated by the story, related by the Buddha, of Brahman called Viradutta. This Brahman lived unhappy life because his family would no longer support or feed him, but he could see that Buddhist monks received alms. He dearly wanted to become a Buddhist monk and asked Shariputra and Maudgalyana, the two principal disciples of the Buddha, to give him the supreme vow of ordination. When they looked into his mental continuum in search of a single seed of merit, they found none and sent him away concluding that his Brahman could not achieve the liberation of Athatship for another 100,000 lives. Viradutta wandered down to a nearby river, prayed that in his next life he would be born a disciple of the Buddha and resolved to throw himself