This story is from September 17, 2017

Notes from hinterpradesh: Lost history of Sankisa and Farrukhabad

Notes from hinterpradesh: Lost history of Sankisa and Farrukhabad
Last week, I was on a tour to Farrukhabad and I decided to take the opportunity to stay for a night in the historic and religiously important city of Sankisa. It was very pleasant to travel on the Lucknow-Agra ex pressway, with its smooth and wide stretch of road, vistas of mountain clouds making various patterns on the blue sky, emerald green fields where rice was being transplanted and views extending up to horizons on both sides.
Once we left the high way, the roads were the usual district roads--nar row and winding through occasional mofussil towns like Kayamganj and Mohammadabad, each almost indistinguishable from the other to the casual ac quaintance of a passer-by .

Farrukhabad district's head district's head quarters is actu ally at Fatehgarh, primarily important as a military station. In his tory, apart from the events of 1857, a major mention of the town is as a place of temporary exile of the last Sikh king, the son of the legendary Raja Ranjit Singh--Raja Dilip Singh--before he was taken to Britain. Though I had read about the unfortunate prince's life in a couple of books, most recently in 'Kohinoor', I had not yet seen the recently released film 'Black Prince' that was made on his life. There is supposed to be even a riverfront on the Ganga in Fatehgarh and something called a 'Panchal Ghat', a remembrance of the days of Draupadi and Mahabharata. However, by then it was raining heavily and I proceeded to Sankisa.
Sankisa has a unique standing as the place where Buddha, after having delivered his sermon to his mother in heaven, descended back on earth. It must have been a place of remarkable historic and religious significance and one can easily imagine that in the heydays of Buddhism in India, there must have been monasteries all around the place. Today, however, that history is hidden from view as unlike in other places of Buddhist interest such as Kushinagar, Gaya, Kapilvastu and Sarnath, no excavation has been possible due to an ongoing dispute between Buddhists and Hindus, who consider the site as dedicated to a mythological deity of their own. As a result, a site of considerable archaeological importance lies unexplored and unexcavated.
At the bottom of the mound, there lies a remarkable archaeological specimen--a capital of one of Ashoka's great pillars, carved in the shape of an elephant whose trunk has been lost over 2,500 years. The precious specimen was locked and barricaded but visible through iron railings. However, for such a splendid piece of antiquity, there was not a single information board by the Archaeological Survey of India, which is supposed to protect and pre serve it.Perhaps a better understanding and appreciation of our heritage can act as a source of protection of these sites.

Just like in other places of Buddhist interest, Buddhist monks of various sects and nationalities have set up their temples and monasteries. Some of them, such as Burmese or Sri Lankan, lie in Farrukhabad. A few others, like those of Cambodia, lie across the nearby Kali River, in Mainpuri.
As the sun was going down and the heavy clouds were acquiring interesting hues of orange and pink, I managed to visit the impressive looking Burmese temple that belonged to the Thervada sect.
There were barely a few monks but quite remarkably, there were a number of large but friendly German Shepherd dogs on the campus. One senior monk, all dressed in a deep maroon robe, kindly agreed to show me around and we briefly conversed. The temple and the adjoining monastery were of comparative recent vintage. The temple, up a flight of stairs, was impressive in terms of its rich interior decoration and the gilded statue of Buddha. However, I was fascinated more with the terrific views that the temple, with its impressive height, afforded over the vast country landscape for miles around.
By then it was evening and monsoon clouds were making nebulous patterns all over, birds of innumerable varieties were flying overhead and not only everything in the countryside but also the air appeared fresh and clean after having being washed by afternoon showers.
It was interesting to talk to the monk, who was not from Burma but Tripura and spoke fluent English.
He informed me that this temple and monastery owed their origin to the ones in Kush inagar and that his 'guru' lived in Kushi nagar and that he himself kept shuttling between Sankisa, Kushinagar and Yangon. I wondered what drove this man to his life of meditation, devotion and solitude and what his world view was. It would have been a very interesting conversation with an individual who was quite obviously very different from me in his upbringing, background, value systems, experiences and philosophy of life. It was only later that I realized that neither of us had bothered to find out even each other's name! I would probably never meet this nameless reclusive monk from that distant Buddhist monastery of Sankisa again.But who can say for sure? One never knows where the path of one's own life would take one next: where, when and how?
The writer is a Lucknow enthusiast and an IAS officer. He likes to read, is a sports enthusiast, and a keen nature lover.
(Partha Sarthi Sen Sharma)
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