Posted on 05/24/2004 2:26:44 PM PDT by blam
Buddha's new birthplace discovered
Kapileshwar (Orissa) May 24, 2004 9:37:15 AM IST
A team of archeological experts from Orissa say their recent findings at the Kapileshwar village may help establish the small hamlet as the birthplace of Lord Buddha, instead of Lumbini, in Nepal. Officials at the Orissa State Museum, which conducted the excavation, said that the new findings, which included artefacts dating back to 6th century BC, supported the claims of Kapileshwar being Lord Buddha's birthplace. Buddhism was founded in India, when Lord Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, attained supreme enlightenment under the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya in 6th century B.C. The Orissa museum team undertook surface exploration near Mahabhoi tank where Buddha is believed to have meditated. Pottery and other artefacts belonging to the pre-Harappan era were also discovered from the site. All the artefacts have been sent to the Institute of Physics for further verification and research.
"These fossilised specimen will be tested in the Institute of Physical Laboratory, where we will be doing collaborative work, so the dateline will be determined and comparative study of potteries recovered with that of potteries recovered form other parts of the country will be conducted. Because many materials are there, literary and other evidence are there about the bath of Buddha and Kapileshwar, but solid archaeological materials like pottery with correct dateline was not available to us till date. There is an excavation, now there are archaeological material, so identification of this bath place of Buddha is getting more prominent now," said Dr. C.B. Patel, the Superintendent of Orissa State Museum.
The team has also discovered the fossilised dung of an animal from the tank that adds to the claim of the ancient character of the site. Ruins of an ancient temple and a road linking Kapileshwar with Puri were also discovered.
Buddhism is one of the four most popular religions in the world. The religion is gaining popularity especially in the West, where followers include the likes of popular Hollywood actors like Richard Gere and Steve Seagal.
Though there are about 350 million practising Buddhists across the world, Buddhists account for less than 0.7 percent of India's total population of over one billion. (ANI)
GGG Ping.
How many of them will Kerry be accepting donations from???
And it's subsidiary,
Suni Microsystems.
A Prince Siddhartha bump.
You might be interested to know that Buddha's birth, activities, mother's name and birthplace are mentioned in the Bhagavat Purana, which was first set into writing around 3000BC, not long after the war recounted in the Mahabharat.
In another Purana (called the Bavishya Purana, about future events - Jesus and Mohammed are both mentioned, as well as Queen Victoria. That Purana is also from around the same time period, maybe a couple hundred years later.
Any religion whose followers DON'T slam planes into buildings or blow up buses is fine with me.
Sanskrit isn't even that old. You'll find the Purana is more recent.
ßuddha !
According the Puranas themselves they are that old. It is only British Indologists who claim they are of recent origin, and they followed the Muslim invaders assesment of India, which is very biased. More recent scholarship is discovering a much more ancient time scale for not only Sanskrit but the entire Vedic culture.
There are descriptions in various Vedic texts of astronomical features that are incredibly ancient, described as viewed. One such stellar or planetary alignment has been found to be 26,000 years ago.
I will grant that it is pre-Roman, but whether it is even as old as Sumerians would take an amount of guesswork. Hope the Pakis leave something for future archeologists to dig up along the Indus. I suspect we don't know 1% of what could be known of those times, not even which aeon things belong to.
Last year (?) on FR there was an article about the discovery of ruins of a city under a bay on the eastern side of India, and the estimated age was 9500 years ago. Blam probably remembers it. There were (IIRC) shards, outlines of walls, whole houses and buildings (the lines where walls had been) timbers, and so on.
Yes. If they can find who lived there it would be fantastic, and possibly surprising.
I'll cast my vote for the 3,000BC date.
Here it is (see post #18 for possible writing), I'll post links to a couple more too.
Look for this to become the newest Muslim holy site.
"a city under a bay on the eastern side of India, and the estimated age was 9500 years ago. Blam probably remembers it"
Some of us are getting pretty old, but come on!
Those were the good 'ol days.
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