Part 2 - Vārāṇasī-Sārnāth relation

The name Sārnāth is an abbreviation of the word Sāraṅgnāth, the lord of the deer. It may be implied both to the Śiva and the Buddha, both had close connections to Vārāṇasī-Sārnāthregion. Vārāṇasīis known for its affiliation to Śivaand the meaning of the name Sārnāthis also linked to Śiva. This Vārāṇasī–Sārnāth axis was actually joined by a number of smaller settlements, catering both the sites.^[1] Explorations along the palaeo channel of the Varuṇa have brought out some interesting facts regarding Vārāṇasī–Sārnāth relation. Six sites from pre NBPW times were found in these palaeo channels of the Varuṇā and its tributaries. The number rose to 45 in the NBPW times and 89 in the Kuṣāṇa times. These sites were small satellite settlements of Vārāṇasī with their earliest antiquity dated back to the BRW/BSW levels. Interestingly, the most celebrated cultural satellite site of Vārāṇasī was the celebrated Buddhist pilgrim site of Sārnāth was located on a palaeo channel of Varuṇā too. Narokhar Nala that flows by

Sārnāth was probably a remnant of the old palaeo channel of the Varuṇā.^[2] So Vārāṇasī–Sārnāth needs to be viewed as a composite region or Sārnāth constituted an integral part of the ancient city of Vārāṇasī.^[3] It was not the populous part of the city but formed the fringes–desolate, forested, with a teeming animal population and low human density. The other name Mṛgadava means a deer park is suggestive of the nature of the place. The Buddhist text Mahāvastu furnished a fanciful story of how this place was ruled by a deer king Rohaka and a thousand deer living in this forest under him. He had two sons Nyagrodha and Viśākhā, each in charge of five hundred deer. The king of Kāśī, Brahmadatta was fond of pleasure hunting and flesh of deer. His pleasure pursuits killed and wounded many deer. Then they decided every day one deer will go to the royal kitchen and this way they can avoid the king’s wrath. One it was aturn of a pregnant doe and she refused to sacrifice the lives of her twin babies for herself. Everyone agreed to her view but none wanted to go to the royal kitchen instead of her. Now that doe belonged to Viśākhā’s herd and no one in her team wanted to die in her place. Then she implored to Nyagrodha and in his team too no one volunteered death for her. Finding no other way, Nyagrodha himself went to the Kāśīking to keep the promise of sending each day a deer tothe king’s kitchen. Being asked by the king Brahmadatta he explained the whole reason for his coming. Seeing his magnanimity, altruism the king was so impressed that he granted immunity not only to Nyagrodha, but the whole of deer population and hence the place came to be known as Mṛgadava or Mṛgadaya or grace to the deer. So it was converted into a sanctuary. The same story was repeated in the Nigrodhamiga Jātaka.^[4] Here the leader of the 500 deer Nyagrodha or Nigrodha was Bodhisatva or a previous incarnation of the Buddha. So the Buddhist texts establish a Buddhist link to Sārnāth even before the actual spread of Buddhism by the Buddha himself. The Buddhist legend links Sārnāth and the Buddha and his sect. Sārnāth was central to early Buddhism and it was only natural that the Buddha chose this place for preaching his first sermon. The location of the deer park to the north of the archaeological remains of Sārnāth monastic complex only confirms the deer legend of the Buddhist sources.

Naturally it comes to mind that why the Buddha chose Sārnāth as the place to deliver his first sermon. It was already a stronghold of hermitage tradition and from this derived its name Ṛṣīpattana or the settlement of the sages. Vārāṇasī and Sārnāth seem to be inseparable parts of the total settlement of Vārāṇasī. The forested tract of Sārnāth, free from the noise and pollution of the city yet not too far from the amenities of city life was a favourite choice of hermits. The same Mahāvastu speaks of a great wood one and a half yojana from Banaras (evidently Sārnāth) where lived 500 sages or Pratyekabuddhas. When they knew that the Buddha has been conceived sacrificed their lives. They threw themselves up in the air while chanting their own verse and fell on the earth. Hence from their falling the place was named Ṛṣīpattana.^[5] These stories and anecdotes help to find out the ancient character of the place. With an already existing tradition of hermitage and far from the disturbances of Vārāṇasī the Buddha naturally halted at Sārnāth. There he could peacefully pursue his meditation yet had a fairly large and rich population of Vārāṇasī close at hand to spread his message. During the Buddha’s time Vārāṇasī ranked very high among the cities and therefore having the people of Vārāṇasī as receptors of Buddhist ideas had been helpful for infant Buddhism and perhaps that’s why the Buddha chose Sārnāth to roll the wheel of Buddhism. That is how Sārnāth witnessed the great historical event of the Dharmacakrapravartana.

The first occupational layer of Vārāṇasī was held to be 800 BCE though even earlier archaeological levels were found in the locality. In the later portions of the Atharva Veda only Kāśī and not even Vārāṇasī was mentioned. But Sārnāth was neither mentioned in such early texts nor are reported any other archaeological evidences other than the monastic ruins. So there is no corresponding information about Sārnāth of the period to which the earliest occupational level of Vārāṇasī belonged. As gradually Vārāṇasī took a turn towards urbanisation and appeared in different literary texts as an important urban and commercial centre, Sārnāth was still absent. So we have almost no idea of the earliest period of Sārnāth. Only a few NBPW sherds scattered around the area of Sārnāth points to the presence of some rural communities much before the Mauryan times.^[6] Even pre-NBPW pottery pieces were recovered from the surrounding localities. Vārāṇasī was a famous place of Brāhmṇical learning and associated rituals were practised on a regular basis and normally. This has been attested by the discovery of small items of socio-religious importance. Terracotta figurines bearing some symbols, decorated terracotta discs, pottery discs from pre-NBPW (1100- 700 BCE), Vedic, Brāhmaṇical level have been found in the neighbouring sites. Vidula Jayaswal in her work on Āktha, a small and satellite settlement of Vārāṇasī near Sārnāth has identified these small pottery discs as Kapāla which were recovered in large numbers from Āktha and other small sites of the region including Ānai.^[7] These kapālas were meant for offering oblations to the dead. Presence of these Kapālas in large number at Anai from the BSW, the earliest stage of occupation at Anai suggested that in the pre-Buddhist time the site had some Brāhmaṇical affiliations. It might have been true about many sites of the region.^[8]

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Vidula Jayaswal, Ancient Varanasi: An Archaeological Perspective (Excavations at Aktha), Aryan Books International, New Delhi, 2009, p.3.

[2]:

Vibhat Tripathi, Prabhakar Upadhyay, Excavations of Anai, A rural settlement of ancient Varanasi, Sharada publishing House, Delhi, 2013, pp.3-5.

[3]:

Bhagwati Sharan Singh, Varanasi, 1988 New Delhi, p.23

[4]:

E. B. Cowell ed. and translated by Robert Chalmers, The Jātaka or Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births, Vol. I, Delhi, Motilal Banarasidass Pvt. Ltd.,1990, The Nigrodhamiga Jātaka, pp.36-42.

[5]:

Translated from the Buddhist Sanskrit by J.J. Jones, The Mahāvastu, Vol.I, Luzac and Company Ltd, London, 1949, pp.301-11.

[6]:

Meera Sharma, Ancient Varanasi Versus Sarnath: A Study in Interrelationship in Rakesh Tewari ed., Prāgdhārā, no.8, 1997- 98, Lucknow, 1998, p.188.

[7]:

Vidula Jayaswal, Ancient Varanasi, An Archaeological perspective, Excavation at Aktha, New Delhi, Aryan Books International, 2009, pp.26-30.

[8]:

Vibhat Tripathi, Prabhakar Upadhyay, Excavations of Anai, A Rural Settlement of ancient Varanasi, Delhi, Sharada publishing House, 2013, p.168.