Ramagrama

Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (Retd.)

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Map of Nepal

Ram Bhar Stupa, Kushinagar as on 2.10.80 by Laxman Burdak

Ramagrama (Hindi:रामग्राम, Pali:Ramagama) was one of the Buddhist places visited by Xuan Zang in 636 AD. Ramagrama is a stupa located in Ramgram Municipality, in the Nawalparasi District of Nepal. This Buddhist pilgrimage site, which was constructed some 2500 years BCE, contains relics of Gautama Buddha. Alexander Cunningham has to his credit the identification of Deokali with the Ramagrama of Buddhist history.

Variants

• Ram Bhar Stupa (रामभार स्तूप) (AS, p.791)
• Ramabhara Stupa (रामभार स्तूप), दे. Ramapura रामपुर (1); Ramagrama रामग्राम (AS,p.791)
• Ramagrama (रामग्राम) (AS, p.787)
• Ramagama (रामगाम) (AS, p.787)

Location

Ramagrama is a located in the Nawalparasi District of Nepal. Ramagrama is situated between Kapilavastu and Kusanagara.

History

Mahavansa/Chapter 31 (The Enshrining of the Relics) says ...Who should bring the relics of Buddha to the Great Stupa in Anuradhapura, The brotherhood lay this charge upon the ascetic Sonuttara although he was but sixteen years old. `Whence shall I bring a relic?' he asked the brotherhood, and thereupon the brotherhood described the relics thus:

"Lying on his deathbed the Master of the world, that with his relics he might bring to pass salvation for the world, spoke thus to (Sakka) the king of the gods: 0 king of the gods, of the eight donas of my bodily relics one dona, adored (first) by the Koliyas in Ramagama, shall be borne thence into the kingdom of the nagas and when it will be adored even there by the nagas it (at the last) shall come to be enshrined in the Great Thupa on the island of Lanka...."

Visit by Fahian

James Legge writes: East from Buddha’s birthplace (Kapilavastu), and at a distance of five yojanas, there is a kingdom called Rama.¹ The king of this country, having obtained one portion of the relics of Buddha’s body,² returned with it and built over it a tope, named the Rama tope. By the side of it there was a pool, and in the pool a dragon, which constantly kept watch over (the tope), and presented offerings to it day and night. When king Asoka came forth into the world, he wished to destroy the eight topes (over the relics), and to build (instead of them) 84,000 topes.³ After he had thrown down the seven (others), he wished next to destroy this tope. But then the dragon showed itself, took the king into its palace;⁴ and when he had seen all the things provided for offerings, it said to him, “If you are able with your offerings to exceed these, you can destroy the tope, and take it all away. I will not contend with you.” The king, however, knew that such appliances for offerings were not to be had anywhere in the world, and thereupon returned (without carrying out his purpose).

(Afterwards), the ground all about became overgrown with vegetation, and there was nobody to sprinkle and sweep (about the tope); but a herd of elephants came regularly, which brought water with their trunks to water the ground, and various kinds of flowers and incense, which they presented at the tope. (Once) there came from one of the kingdoms a devotee⁵ to worship at the tope. When he encountered the elephants he was greatly alarmed, and screened himself among the trees; but when he saw them go through with the offerings in the most proper manner, the thought filled him with great sadness — that there should be no monastery here, (the inmates of which) might serve the tope, but the elephants have to do the watering and sweeping. Forthwith he gave up the great prohibitions (by which he was bound),⁶ and resumed the status of a Sramanera.⁷ With his own hands he cleared away the grass and trees, put the place in good order, and made it pure and clean. By the power of his exhortations, he prevailed on the king of the country to form a residence for monks; and when that was done, he became head of the monastery. At the present day there are monks residing in it. This event is of recent occurrence; but in all the succession from that time till now, there has always been a Sramanera head of the establishment.

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1 Rama or Ramagrama, between Kapilavastu and Kusanagara.

2 See the account of the eightfold division of the relics of Buddha’s body in the Sacred Books of the East, vol. xi, Buddhist Suttas, pp. 133-136.

3 The bones of the human body are supposed to consist of 84,000 atoms, and hence the legend of Asoka’s wish to build 84,000 topes, one over each atom of Sakyamuni’s skeleton.

4 Fa-hien, it appears to me, intended his readers to understand that the naga-guardian had a palace of his own, inside or underneath the pool or tank.

5 It stands out on the narrative as a whole that we have not here “some pilgrims,” but one devotee.

6 What the “great prohibitions” which the devotee now gave up were we cannot tell. Being what he was, a monk of more than ordinary ascetical habits, he may have undertaken peculiar and difficult vows.

7 The Sramanera, or in Chinese Shamei. See chap. xvi, note 19.

Visit by Xuanzang in 636 AD

Alexander Cunningham writes that From Kapilavastu both pilgrims proceeded to Lan-mo, which has been identified with the Ramagrama of the Buddhist chronicles of India. Fa-Hian makes the distance 5 yojanas, or 35 miles, to the east, and

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[p.421]: Hwen Thsang gives 200 li, or 33.33 miles, in the same direction. But in spite of their agreement I believe that the distance is in excess of the truth. Their subsequent march to the bank of the Anoma river is said to be 3 yojanas or 21 miles by Fa-Hian, and 100 li or 16.66 miles by Hwen Thsang, thus making the total distance from Kapila to the Anoma river 8 yojanas, or 56 miles, according to the former, and 300 li, or 50 miles, according to the latter. But in the Indian Buddhist scriptures, this distance is said to be only 6 yojanas, or 42 miles, which I believe to be correct, as the Auyni river of the present day, which is most probably the Anoma river of the Buddhist books, is just 40 miles distant from Nagar in an easterly direction. The identification of the Anoma will be discussed presently.

According to the pilgrims' statements, the position of Ramagrama must be looked for at about two-thirds of the distance between Nagar and the Anoma river, that is at 4 yojanas, or 28 miles. In this position I find the village of Deokali, with a mound of ruins, which was used as a station for the trigonometrical survey. In the ' Mahawanso ' it is stated that the stupa of Ramagama, which stood on the bank of the Ganges, was destroyed by the action of the current. Mr. Laidlay has already pointed out that this river could not be the Ganges; but might be either the Ghagra, or some other large river in the north. But I am inclined to believe that the Ganges is a simple fabrication of the Ceylonese chronicler. All the Buddhist scriptures agree in stating that the relics of Buddha were divided

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[p.422]: into eight portions, of which one fell to the lot of the Kosalas of Ramagrama, over which they erected a stupa. Some years later seven portions of the relics were collected together by Ajatasatru, king of Magadha, and enshrined in a single stupa at Rajagriha ; but the eighth portion still remained at Ramagrama. According to the Ceylonese chronicler, the stupa of Ramagrama was washed away by the Ganges, and the relic casket, having been carried down the river to the ocean, was discovered by the Nagas, or water gods, and presented to their king, who built a stupa for its reception. During the reign of Dutthagamini of Ceylon, B.C. 161 to 137, the casket was miraculously obtained from the Naga king by the holy monk Sonuttaro, and enshrined in the Mahathupo, or " great stupa," in the land of Lanka.

Now this story is completely at variance with the statements of the Chinese pilgrims, both of whom visited Ramagrama many centuries after Dutthagamini, when they found the relic stupa intact, but no river. Fa-Hian, in the beginning of the fifth century, saw a tank beside the stupa, in which a dragon (Naga) lived, who continually watched the tower. In the middle of the seventh century, Hwen Thsang saw the same stupa and the same tank of clear water inhabited by dragons (Nagas), who daily transformed themselves into men, and paid their devotions to the stupa. Both pilgrims mention the attempt of Asoka to remove these relics to his own capital, which was abandoned on the expostulation of the Naga king. " If by thy oblations," said the Naga, " thou canst excel this, thou mayest

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[p.423]: destroy the tower, and I shall not prevent thee." Now according to the Ceylonese chronicler, this is the very same argument that was used by the Naga king to dissuade the priest Sonuttaro from removing the relics to Ceylon. I infer, therefore, that the original "tank" of Ramagrama was adroitly changed into a river by the Ceylonese author, so that the relics which were in charge of the Nagas of the tank, might be conveyed to the ocean-palace of the Naga king, from whence they could as readily be transferred to Ceylon as to any other place. The river was thus a necessity in the Ceylonese legend, to convey the relics away from Ramagrama to the ocean. But the authority of a legend can have no weight against the united testimony of the two independent pilgrims, who many centuries later found the stupa still standing, but saw no river. I therefore dismiss the Ganges as a fabrication of the Ceylonese chroniclers, and accept in its stead the Naga tank of the Chinese pilgrims. Having thus got rid of the river, I can see no objection to the identification of Deokali with the Ramagrama of Buddhist history. The town was quite deserted at the time of Fa-Hian's visit, in the fifth century, who found only a small religious establishment ; this was still kept up in the middle of the seventh century, but it must have been very near its dissolution, as there was only a single sramanera, or monk, to conduct the affairs of the monastery.

रामग्राम

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर ने लेख किया है ... रामग्राम अथवा 'रामगाम' (AS, p.787): महात्मा बुद्ध से सम्बन्धित एक ऐतिहासिक स्थान है। बौद्ध साहित्य के अनुसार बुद्ध के परिनिर्वाण के पश्चात् अनेक शरीर की भस्म के एक भाग के ऊपर एक महास्तूप 'रामगाम' या 'रामपुर' ('बुद्धचरित', 28, 66) नामक स्थान पर बनवाया गया था। 'बुद्धचरित' के उल्लेख से ज्ञात होता है कि रामपुर में स्थित आठवां मूल स्तूप उस समय विश्वस्त नागों द्वारा [p.788]: रक्षित था। इसीलिए अशोक ने उस स्तूप की धातुएं अन्य सात स्तूपों की भांति ग्रहण नहीं की थीं।

रामग्राम कोलिय क्षत्रियों का प्रमुख नगर था। यह कपिलवस्तु से पूर्व की ओर स्थित था। कुणाल जातक के भूमिका-भाग से सूचित होता है कि 'रोहिणी' या राप्ती नदी कपिलवस्तु और रामग्राम जनपदों के बीच की सीमा रेखा बनाती थी। इस नदी पर एक ही बांध द्वारा दानों जनपदों को सिंचाई के लिए जल प्राप्त होता था। रामग्राम की ठीक-ठीक स्थिति का सूचक कोई स्थान शायद इस समय नहीं है, किंतु यह निश्चित है कि कपिलवस्तु (नेपाल की तराई, ज़िला बस्ती की उत्तरी सीमा के निकट) के पूर्व की और यह स्थान रहा होगा।

चीनी यात्री युवानच्वांग, जिसने भारत का पर्यटन 630-645 ई. में किया था, अपने यात्रा क्रम में रामगाम कभी आया था। (दे. रामपुर-1)

रामपुर

विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर ने लेख किया है ...रामपुर (AS, p.791) उत्तर प्रदेश राज्य का एक ज़िला है। रामपुर नगर उपर्युक्त ज़िले का प्रशासनिक केंद्र है तथा कोसी के बाएँ किनारे पर स्थित है। यह प्रसिद्ध ऐतिहासिक स्थान भी है, जिसका महात्मा बुद्ध से निकट सम्बन्ध रहा है।

भगवान बुद्ध के परिनिर्वाण के पश्चात् उनके अस्थि अवशेषों के आठ भागों में से एक पर एक स्तूप बनाया गया था, जिसे 'रामभार स्तूप' कहा जाता था। संभवतः इसी स्तूप के खंडहर इस स्थान पर मिले हैं। किंवदंती है कि इसी स्तूप से नागाओं ने बुद्ध का दांत चुरा लिया था, जो लंका में 'कांडी के मंदिर' में सुरक्षित है।

कुछ विद्वान् रामपुर को 'रामगाम' मानते हैं। रामपुर का उल्लेख 'बुद्धचरित'[28, 66] में है, जहाँ रामपुर के स्तूप का विश्वस्त नागों द्वारा रक्षित होना कहा गया है। कहा जाता है कि इसी कारण अशोक ने बुद्ध के शरीर की धातु अन्य सात स्तूपों की भांति, इस स्तूप से प्राप्त नहीं की थी।

रामपुर परिचय

'नवाबों की नगरी' कहे जाने वाले रामपुर में उत्तरी रेलवे का स्टेशन है। रामपुर का चाकू उद्योग काफ़ी प्रसिद्ध है। चीनी, वस्त्र तथा चीनी मिट्टी के बरतन के उद्योग भी नगर में हैं। शिक्षा के अंतर्गत यहाँ अरबी भाषा का एक महाविद्यालय है। 'रामपुर क़िला', 'रामपुर राजा पुस्तकालय' और 'कोठी ख़ास बाग़' रामपुर के प्रमुख पर्यटन स्थलों में गिने जाते हैं। रामपुर का कुल क्षेत्रफल 2,367 वर्ग किलोमीटर है।

लगभग 200 वर्ष पुरानी, रुहेलखंड की एक रियासत का नाम भी रामपुर था, जो उत्तर प्रदेश में विलीन हो गयी थी। इसके संस्थापक रुहेले थे।

प्रसिद्ध चीनी यात्री युवानच्वांग ने रामपुर के क्षेत्र का नाम 'गोविषाण' लिखा है।

रामपुर की स्थापना नवाब फ़ैजुल्लाह ख़ान ने की थी। उन्होंने 1774-1794 ई. तक यहाँ शासन किया।

संदर्भ: भारतकोश-रामपुर