Puspagiri University: seat of Buddhist learning in ancient Kalinga

Puspagiri University was a prominent Buddhist seat of learning that flourished until the 11th century in India.  Today, its ruins lie atop the Langudi hills, low hills about 90 km from the Mahanadi delta, in the districts of Jajpur and Cuttack in Orissa. The actual university campus, spread across three hilltops, contained several stupas, monasteries, temples, and sculptures in the architectural style of the Gupta period. The Kelua river, a tributary of the Brahmani river of Orissa flows to the north east of Langudi hills, and must have provided a picturesque background for the university. The entire university is distributed across three campuses on top of the three adjoining hills, Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri and Udayagiri.

 

Puspagiri ranks along with Nalanda, Vikramshila and Takshila universities as one of the primary institutions of higher learning in ancient India. The three universities were mentioned in the travelogues of the famous Chinese traveler Xuanzang (Huien Tsang), who visited it in 639 CE, as  Puspagiri Mahavihara, as well as in medieval Tibetan texts. Xuan Zang counted more than 100 Buddhist monasteries in the area then known as Udra (U`cha in Chinese). One of the most important among them was Pu-sie-p’o-k’i-li (Pushagiri), whose stone top “exhibited supernatural lights and other miracles”. The mountain-top monastery is believed to be the site of one of the most famous Buddhist universities of ancient India. The ruins of some of these ancient monasteries are now under excavation by the Archeological Survey of India. These include three contiguous hill-top sites: Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri and Udayagiri. The excavated monasteries, with Buddhist images scattered all around, and the site museum at Ratnagiri, evoke vivid memories of a bygone era and should be of great interest to anyone interested in Buddhist art and religion.

Excavation work carried out  at Lalitgiri-Ratnagiri-Udayagiri hills  have brought to surface the ruins of a wonderful brick monastery with beautiful carvings, a temple with bow shaped arches, 4 monasteries and a huge stupa. The Buddhist treasures unearthed from here also include a large number of gold & silver articles, a stone container, earthern pot and traces of Kushana dynasty and Brahmi script. A massive image of the Buddha is a unique find, the image has pursed lips, long ears and wide forehead. 

Iconographic analysis indicates that Lalitgiri had already been established during the Sunga period of the 2nd century BC, making it one of the oldest Buddhist establishments in the world.   The architectural remnants found in Lalitgiri remind  one of the Gandhar & Mathura craftsmenship. Set in the valley of two rivers, Birupa and Chitrotpala, the monastery was “discovered” by a local British official in 1905. A seven year excavation of the site by the Archeological Survey of India beginning in 1985 yielded number if stone inscriptions, seals, sealings, and pot-shreds, which established the site as having flourished between 2nd-3rd to 14-15th century AD. Lalitgiri is especially interesting because here, one could observe the evolution of Buddhism from the Theravada sect with its austere and plain worship of a stupa to the growth of Mahayana and Vajrayana (tantric) sects with their elaborate pantheon of Bodhisattvas and other deities. Many fine examples of these deities can be found in a small sculpture shed built near the main stupa at Lalitgiri. These include images of Tara, Aparajita, Prajnaparamita, and Maitreya, as well as are images of Buddha Muchalinda, Buddha in Bhumisparsa (touching the earth) and Dhyani (meditation) poses, and a bas relief depicting Buddha’s descent from heaven. Scattered near the ruins of the monastery are several stray images, including a magnificent reclining Buddha in his final resting place lying underneath a huge Banyan tree. The main stupa at Lalitgiri is 15 meter in diameter, and is constructed in Sanchi style. It is visible from afar. The ruins of four monasteries have been discovered in the nearby area.

Ratnagiri was established no later than the reign of the Gupta king Narasimha Baladitya in the first half of the sixth century CE, and flourished until the twelfth century CE. Images of Buddhist deities found here show the gradual transformation of the site from the Mahayana to the Vajrayan sect, especially the Kalachakra tantra variety. Numerous references to the site in Tibetan literature suggest that Ratnagiri was an important center in the development of the Kalachakratantra in the 10th century CE, an assertion supported by the discovery of a number of votive  stupas, plaques, and other artifacts featuring Kalachakra imagery. As per Taranatha’s History of Buddhism, Ratnagiri housed 3 copies each of the scriptural work of Mahayana and Hinayana (Theravada) Buddhism. Five hundred monks were resident here. Teachers and scholars from all over India and many foreign scholars came here to study Buddhist philosophy and religion. Later, as Buddhism declined in other parts of India, Ratnagiri became one of the last shelters of Buddhism in the country.

The finest relic of Buddhist art at Ratnagiri is a magnificent doorjamb adorning Monastery 1, one of the two monasteries here. It is richly decorated and intricately carved. Ratnagiri comprises two magnificent monasteries, also rebuilt more than once. One of them was double-storyed and had an extensive courtyard with two-sides of it having a number of cells for habitation of monks. Besides, it has archaeological remains of six temples, thousands of small stupas, 1386 seals, myriad sculptural relics and architectural pieces of daily use. The largest stupa was 47 feet (14 m) square and 17 feet (5.2 m) high surrounded by four minor stupas. There are hundreds of miniature votive stupas decorated with lotus, petal and beaded tassels.

The main stupa of Ratnagiri dates to the 9th century AD and was  built on the site of an earlier, Gupta-era stupa. Seals were found bearing the legend "Sri Ratnagiri Mahavihariya Aryabikshu Sanghasya," which helped identify it. Prominent, well-persevered standing statues of the bodhisattvas Vajrapani and Padmapani can be found in niches in a portico. Monastery No. 2 features a central paved courtyard flanked by a pillared veranda around which are eighteen cells, a central shrine featuring an image of Shakyamuni in varada mudra flanked by Brahma and Sakra, and elaborately ornamented entrance porticos.

A museum now located on the site displays numerous Mahayana sculptures consisting of colossal Buddha figures, huge Boddhisattva statues, statues of  Tara, Avalokiteshvara, Aparajita and Hariti have also been found, all in prototypical of Gupta style. Almost all of these exhibits have an inscription on them.

If Lalitgiri is the oldest Buddhist site in the area, Udayagiri is the most picturesque. Located at the base of verdant rolling hills forming a semi circle, this site exemplifies the blissful and tranquil natural surroundings selected for the construction of Buddhist monasteries in ancient India. This site, a Mahayana-Vajrayana site whose name has been ascertained from terracotta sealings as Madhavapur Mahavihar Arya Viksu Snagha, was a vibrant center of Buddhist learning and worship between 8th to 13th centuries AD.

At the monastery excavated adjacent to the main stupa, one can see many virtually intact meditation cells linked by secrete passages. The inner sanctum of the monastery houses a Buddha image in Bhumisparsa pose. The site is believed to contain another 3 or 4 monasteries yet to be excavated. A massive rock-cut well adjacent to the monastery served as a source of water for the monasteries.

There are other Buddhist attractions around Langudi hills, the site of Puspagiri. Kaima hill in its immediate vicinity contains a unique rock-cut elephant surrounded by four monolithic khondalite pillars, and dates back to the Mauryan period in the 3rd century, B.C. Deuli, a hill situated in the confluence of the Brahmani and Kimiria rivers, has preserved five rock-cut Buddhist chambers inside caves. Some more Buddhist sites have also been discovered at Bajragiri, Sarapur and Paikrapur. The Langudi sites are perhaps the largest historic Buddhist complex in India. It is also claimed that Langudi was site of the legendary Pushpagiri sanctuary that Xuan Zang wrote about. If these claims are finally established, it will be one of the most remarkable findings of a Buddhist culture.