A Pilgrimage Special: Enlightened in Bodhgaya

Just before we entered Bodhgaya, the place of Buddhas enlightenment, our leader and fellow pilgrim had cautioned us: Beware of charlatans when you visit the Mahabodhi Temple. Seemingly holy men would approached you and take you to certain part of the premises to pray and pay too for this and that! It seemed that the last time our leader visited the historical temple, she saw a holy man taking out the donation box at night to count the daily takings. Well, how holy could that holy man be, she wondered and that made us wondered too. Mahabodhi Temple visibly ,is a Buddhist temple. Little Buddha statues adorned a 52 m high pyramidal tower and this Unesco heritage site,was excavated by Cunningham in 1872. The archaeologist suggested that there were three periods in its construction, beginning from the third century BC when King Asoka constructed the Bodhi Shrine. There is a colossal gilded image of Buddha from the 10th century AD in the main shrine and at one time, the statue was wasting away in the Mahant's compound. A mahant is a headman and in Hindi, it means the manager of a well-established temple. That the precious statue could be wasting away called for an explanation...

Mahabodhi Temple...