Kurkihar of Bihar: A Forgotten Place of Buddhist Heritage

Sumanapal Bhikkhu

Kurkihar in Bihar is a village situated south of the Rajgir hills.  It is situated at a longitude of 85 degree 15 minutes and a longitude of 24 degree 49 minutes. It is located on the northern side of the road which connects Nalanda to Buddhagaya. We can reach the place from the nearby town of Wazirganj situated some four kilometers south west. Kurkihar is located 28 kms away from Gaya in Bihar and is a Buddhist site that holds a major position in the artistic position of the ninth century. It waned thereafter though did not disappear completely. 

In the year 1847 Markham Kittoe observed the remains of a Buddhist shrine at Paranha which is situated about 4.83 kilometers south west of Kurkihar. But when nearly 15 years later Alexander Cunningham visited the place he found that it had disappeared. Later Alexander Broadley picked up the doorframe of the temple and it was added to his collection in Bihar Shariff. Later it was shifted to the Indian Museum of Kolkata. From the site Kittoe had found some images.  Among them mention may be made of the ninth century image of Avolokitesvara and the eleventh century image of Halahala Lokesvar. The second image is related to a the contemporary sculpture discovered in the HarsaKol which is a valley situated approximately 6.44 kilometers south- south west  from Wazirganj. The valley of HarsaKol stands on the northern slope of the Sobhnath hill.¹ A large number of votive chaityas and sculptural fragments have been found there. At the time of their discovery they were carried to the nearby village of Vishnupur Tandawa and now most of them are kept in the museums of Patna and Kolkata. Janice Leoshko in her recent study has shown that the material from HarsaKole and Vishnupur Tandawa is related to Bodhgaya through its iconography.²

Kurkihar was a very active site in the ninth century but during the tenth and the eleventh centuries it lost its attraction and it was followed by the construction of the temple of Punawan and a great activity started in the area of HarsaKole and Vishnupur Tandawa. Though the construction of stone images almost stopped in Kurkihar in that period it is interesting to note that a number of images of the be jeweled Buddha were constructed during the reign of Vigrahapala and a manuscript was drafted in the local monastery during Rampala’s reign.

Further Buddhist remains have been found in the Rajgir hills at Jethian Tapoban, and Rajgir and this is a major site on the road to Nalanda. Giyek situated at the eastern extremity of the hills is another site for Buddhist remains and furthers east the road running south of the hills relates directly the site of the region of LakhiSarai to Kurkihar.

The remains that are found in the village and region are mainly Buddhist and it appears that from the end of the eight century and in a large part of the ninth century the region was essentially Buddhist or the artistic production was primarily Buddhist. A large number of sculptures were found in the precincts of the main temple of Kurkihar. The compound of RaiHari Prasad’s kutchery lies west from it and the pit where a lot of bronze images were discovered in 1930 are still shown by the villagers. The remains are now kept in Patna Museum.

Now we will discuss the discovery of Kurkihar and subsequent events in detail. In 1811 -1812 Francis Buchanan Hamilton came to Bihar in an extensive tour but apparently he did not pass through Kurkihar. We do not find any mention of this village in his journal. However he visited a nearby village ‘Amaithi’ (Amethi) where images carved in the Kurkihar style can be still found.³ In hisjournal we find the mention of an image of the Buddha that was transported from Kurkiharto Ramshila of Gaya two or three years “before he came’. ⁴ This is an instance of transportation of image that took place until recent times.

A collection of drawings was made under the instruction of Buchanan and some of them reproduce images from Gaya or Bodhgaya which is directly influenced by the style of Kurkihar.⁵

In 1847 Mareham Kittoe visited Kurkihar ‘the site of an ancient city and of a Buddhist monastery or Vihara and hence the name which has been no doubt corrupted from Koorka Vihara; there are innumerable idols chiefly Buddha’s (sic), some of great size and very beautifully executed, and well worth removing to the museum and sending home. Among other things are a vast collection of miniature chaityas or Buddha temples, from 8 inches to several feet: these are noticed (sic) by Buchanan when speaking of Gaya; but they are more plentiful here than and Buddha Gaya than elsewhere. I have collected some but none are entire.”⁶ At First these were handed down to the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and later shifted to the Indian Museum.⁷ Kittoe returned to Kurkihar the following year and wrote on 22^nd March 1848: “I have been for the past week engaged in Poonah and Koorkihar, at the former place I excavated round the Buddha temple, took a correct drawing of the very elaborate north doorway and of several idols, a sketch of the entire building and a ground plan. […]  have been able to decide that Koorkihar must have been a place of Buddhist pilgrimage, and that there were rows after rows of Chaityas extending north and south for several hundred feet: added to these, there were isolated buildings and tanks in every direction for a mile or more around.”

Apart from Kolkata sculptures collected by Markham Kittoe are also preserved at the Queen’s College of Varanasi, built under his direction in the years 1848-1852.⁸ In 1905 they were partly shifted to Sarnath, and partly to Lucknow.⁹

During the years 1861-1862 the village of Kurkihar and its surroundings were visited by Alexander Cunningham. In the report for 1872-1873 makes brief mention of the villages in the area (besides Kurkihar and Punawa , he names Jethian located in the Rajgir hills) with reference to Cunninghsm’s previous publication, however, these names do not appear on the map at the end of his report, which suggests that he may not have visited the region himself. Though the name of Kurkihar remained unnoticed by Cunningham in his report for 1871-1872, the surveyor located it on his map of Magadha. During the years 1879 to 1880 he visited the place again and mentioned the mound locally known as Sugatghar or Buddha’s house where ‘numerous Buddhist statues and other remains [which] were dug up by Major Kittoe and myself [Cunningham] and at a later date by Mr. Broadley […] But numbers of figures still remain to attest the former importance of the Buddhist establishment of Kukkuta –pada- giri. I have a record in my note book of 37 figures, now collected together at and near the temple of Bagheswari. I found also ten inscriptions of about A.D. 800 to A.D. 1000, of which on was set up by two Sakya mendicants from Kanchi (Kanchi-vasika) or Conjeveram.” The images mentioned by Cunningham are still found in the walling of the local temple.

Alexander Meyrick Broadley visited the place but did not dedicate the same amount of care and attention which he did for Nalanda. Broadley remembers that ‘a very fine circular chaitya found […] at Kurkihar […] contains more than forty figures of Buddha, all carved with wonderful sharpness and delicacy.” The doorway of the temple at Punawan was removed by him. In an earlier period Markham Kittoe noted the doorway and today it stands in the courtyard of the Indian Museum.

Thomas Fraser visited the place during his tour of south Bihar in 1865 and took photograph of the group of images standing in front of the temple.

Marc Aurel Stein visited the place in his ‘archeological tour in south Bihar’ to locate the places visited by the famous Chinese traveller Xuanzang in the seventh century.¹⁰ He reached Amethi on 17^thOctober and when he was coming down from the hills he noticed there the‘small modern shrine by the roadside [which] contains three old images, covered with red –lead, one among them apparently representing Avolokitesvara.

The next village Stein visited was Kurkihar which according to him was a place of considerable importance […] judging from the extent of its ruined mounds and the remarkable amount of old sculpture, carved building stones and ancient bricks, which have been and are still being extracted from them.”

He understood that the remains scattered all through the village were important and he published the seated Avolokitesvara in the Potala which had then been recently discovered by villagers and is now kept in the Indian Museum.

According to K.P. Jayaswal attention was dramatically drawn to this place following the accidental discovery of a group of about 240 images in a mound situated west of the local temple within the compound of RaiHari Prasad’s kutchery. Most of them were cast in bronze.They were acquired for Patna Museum, but ‘there were a few images of solid silver [which]’ did not reach the authorities and the museum.

After being informed about the bronze images in the village, S. K. Saraswati and K.C. Sarkar visited the village ‘during the Christmas week of 1931. They noted that some of the antiquities mentioned by Stein and the votive chaityas could no longer be seen on the south west mound.¹¹ Some images of Buddha or Bodhisattva were also seen observed by them scattered through the village. Shortly after the discovery of the place in 1930 the first steal showing the Buddha were sold by Nasli Heeramaneck and till recently stelae from his collection were offered for sale.

Susan Huntington was the first scholar who considered the site from an art historical point of view. She observed,” to the present, this important site has not been excavated despite its promise for bearing extensive material from the Pala period. The high quality of the sculptures which have been found there, both in stone and in metal, suggest that excavation would indeed be fruitful and significant.”¹²

In the early sixties a large number of stelae from this area were auctioned in Hamburg by Hauswedell and from there they found their way to the American and Indian collection. The plundering continues even today and not long ago one of the Avolokitesvara from Pretshila found its way to New York art market.  

During their visit of the region the scholars followed the path of the Chinese pilgrims who had visited India before the advent of the Palas. They proposed to identify the various archeological sites with places actually mentioned by the pilgrims.

For Markham Kittoe “Kurkihar was a derivative of ‘Koorka Vihara’ i.e. the monastery of Koorka. Alexander Cunningham was told that ‘the true name’ of the village was Kurak Vihar, a contracted form of Kukkuta –pada Vihara. Thus the name of the village was related by him to the Kukkutapadagiri or Cock’s Foot Mountain’ visited by Fahien (408-410) and Xuangzang (Hiuan- Tsang) during their Indian Journeys. The place has another name which is ‘the mountain of the venerable master’ or “Gurupadagiri’or “Gurupadaparvata’.¹³ The name was derived from Mahakasyapa who took shelter in the heart of the hill. Apart from that Cunningham identified the ‘Murali‘hills situated ‘3 miles to the north-north-east of the town of Kurkihar’ where he recovered remains on the middle peak as being the hill where Mahakasyapa lies buried.

During the Gupta and post Gupta period the place became a centre of pilgrimage¹³ and this place is nodal to the transmission of the monastic robe of the Buddha to Maitreya Buddha by one of Buddha’s closest disciples Mahakasyapa. We still find mention of this event in the Tibetan sources.

The site of Kukkutapadaparvata has a definite relationship to the direct transmission of Buddhahood from the historical Buddha to Maitreya, the future Buddha. During the fifth century Asanga, the philosopher ‘took up his abode in the cave of the mountain’ where he propitiated Maitreya for a period of twelve years.

The transmission of the dharma got recognition in outside India: in Bamyan, this event had a primary importance. In Kasagidera of Japan, a large eighth century image of Maitreya used to stand that illustrated the moment when Mahakasyapa gave the garment inherited from Sakyamuni to Maitreya. This is also illustrated by some rare stone sculptures from the post Gupta period found in various parts of Bihar.

The history of the retreat has slight variations but the major features do not alter. The monk goes inside a mountain and there he creates a cleft which closes behind him with the help of his khakkhara and he stands or sits at the top of the mountain between its three peaks. He holds or wears the garment of the Buddha which is made of gold thread or may be a more common robe. He is the physical attestation of the transmission of the Buddhist thought and faith to the right person.

The mountain holds an important position in Buddhism and we need to study it more closely. The Chinese sources named the mountains of Bihar after their shapes, for instance, the Cock’s foot or the Vulture’s foot. Again the name “Gurupadagiri was assigned to the hills indicating their role in hiding a holy man. Though the name is not relevant to the shape of the mountain it introduces a new concept, that of footprints. During the time of the Chinese pilgrims Buddha’s footprints and the marks left by other monks on the ground were commonly worshipped in Bihar. So it is natural to find a site evoking the presence of the master. 

Since Kurkihar is surrounded by hills it is almost impossible to identify Kukkutapadaparvata with certainty. At least three sites- Kurkihar (Murali hill) (A. Cunningham), Shobhnath hill (L.A. Wadell, M.A. Stein, A.W. Keith), Gurpa hill ( R.D. Banerji, TH BLOCH) –were proposed as the possible site where Mahakasyapa lay buried waiting for the coming of the future Buddha. It is certain that the place is situated between Rajgir and Bodhgaya and this location would suit both ‘Murali’ hill near Kurkihar and the Sobhnath hill. However there is the possibility that the pilgrims were directed by local informants to different sites, and they were convinced that they had reached the mountain where was hidden. We can only say with certainty that the place was situated somewhere east of Bodhgaya and south of the Rajgir hills.

Many of the images of Kurkihar are inscribed and from one of these inscriptions we come to know that a devotee from Kerala was responsible for the construction of a temple to the Buddha or sugatagandhakuti. Another monk Avolokitasimha from Kerala donated an image of which only the pedestal survived. Another temple to Sarojapani ‘holding a lotus in the hand’ i.e. Avolokitesvara was built by a monk whose master originated from Andhra.

In Kurkihar there are two images of the Buddha transmitting the Dharma to Maitreya and this reflects a trend that spread throughout the Buddhist world from the seventh to the eighth century. Irrespective of the position of the mountain in the depths of which Mahakasyapa lies buried to receive the future Buddha Kurkihar was certainly located near the hill supposed to be the mountain. The transmission of the Buddha’s garment i.e. the Dharma to Maitreya shows the everlastingness of it. Even if we take the site to be located near Kukkutapadagiri, this location was not playing any important role from the late ninth century onwards there was no iconographic source no iconographic data to point in the direction; mainstream Buddhism was practiced at Kurkihar and it according to it the enlightenment of the Buddha was more important but at the same time it left enough room for Avolokitesvara and Tara.

The site had relationship with other Buddhist sites like Mainamati located in the district of Comilla, southeast Bangladesh. For example, at Kurkihar a bronze image depicting a Pancakara was found and this certainly came from the region of Mainamati. There were numerous inscriptions attested to the existence of monks from South India at Kurkihar, the monastery also influenced Sirpur in Madhya Pradesh.    

We may assume that the monastery was established in the seventh century. It was a period in which the importance of the transmission of the Dharma through Mahakasyapa is widely attested through the Buddhist world and in Magadha in particular. We can surmise that the monastery was located on the road leading from Buddhagaya to Nalanda, and likewise on the road running south of the Rajgir hills and linking Gaya to east Bihar. The abundance of cultural remains which is found in the village Kurkihar and around it testifies to the fact that the monastery was set up near a town which afforded substantial donations. In all probability the town Wazirganj can be considered to mark the location of this original town.  

End Notes:

1.      A. Stein., 1901, p.86 describes Harsa as being a low ridge located north of the Sobhnath hill (which he does not mention), the harsa Kol being thus the space between the ridge and the hill;  see also the detailed description of the valley and its remains as given by BEGLAR 1878/1966, p. 104 and his pl. II. For a recent discussion of the site and the various attemts at identifying it, see Leoshko, 2003, pp. 77-79.

2.      The best known images of this area are the three sculptures showing the Buddha flanked by Maitreya and Avolokitesvera today preserved in Patna (often published, by see HUNTINGTON 1984, gigs 120-122 and pp. 106-7 concerning the link to the Bodhgaya stylistic idiom of the tenth c.). Besides these images, part of the pedestal, and a fragment of the nimbus and the throne back (today preserved in the Patna museum, see HUNTINGTONarchive n 1888) which must have stood behind the central image of the Budha were found, see A. STEIN 1901, fig. IV and KEITh 1910, fig.3 for the composition (also observed by LEPSHKO 2000, p. 32). As mentionedbelow, images partaking of the ‘esoteric’ Buddhism were also produced at the site.

3.      Buchanan, 1925, p. 120.

4.      Idem, p. 28.

5.      CBP, 1989c.

6.      Kittoe, 1847a, p. 80.

7.      Kittoe, 1847c, p. 602-603.

8.      Saini, 1914, p. 12.

9.      Idem, pp. 12 and 314.CBP1989d, p. 143. The images which remained at Sarnath were evidently not found in Bihar, but most probably at Varanasi and in the area (SAHNI 1914, pp. 314-328) while the material sent to Lucknow included the images collected in Bihar.

10.  Asher, 1970, p. 107. BAKSHI, 1987, p. 84.

11.  Saraswati Sarkar, 1936,  p. 4.

12.  ‘Gurpaparvata’ (or ‘Gurvaparvata’) is mentioned by Taranatha (Chattopadhyay, Alaka., 1980, pp. 27 and 156); ;Gurpaparvata’ is quoted by Sumpa (Das, 1908, p. XX).

13.  ‘Buddhist pilgrims of that and other countries come year by year (to this mountain) to pay religious worship to Kasyapa.’ (FA-XIAN, after BEAL 1869, p. 133; James Legge, 1886, p. 93; Alexander Cunninghum, 1882, p. 5). This is not mentioned by Xuanzang who also does not evoke the Arhats who appear and disappear magically in the mountain when pilgrims come in order ‘to discourse with [them]’ (Beal, 1869, p. 133). On the contrary, his description of Mahakasyapa’s miraculous acts is made with much more fantasy and detail than in the earlier testimony by Faxian. These testimonies are also quoted by Brock, 1988, pp. 224-6. Another Chinese pilgrim to have visited the place was Mo-ti-seng-ho (Matisim ha) (Lahiri, 1986, p. 29). Another version relates Mahakasyapa to the Vulture’s Peak or Grdhakuta (waters, 1905, p. 145). A detailed analysis of Faxian’s and Xuanzang’s versions has been recently made by Deeg (2005, pp. 465-71; 1999). The recent observations made by D. klimburg-salter on the topic (2005, p. 545.)