Rajgir

It was an accidental visit to Rajgir as we had some time left with us after the marriage of my relative.  I had not done any homework before visiting Rajgir. So I had to depend on the “Tongawala” where ever he takes us and eventually turned out to be free lance pleasure trip for us.

Rajgir was ancient and first capital of Magadh Empire. The date when it was capital is UNKNOWN but here the ceramics dating back to 1000 BC are found. This is the place where the Mauryan Empire ( 327 BC to 185 BC) took birth which was the first empire of united India, almost entire continent including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran. Mauryan Empire declined after 50 years of Ashoka and was followed by Shunga dynasty.

So the importance of Rajgir has a distinction among many other dynasty capital. It is also a famous pilgrimage for Buddhists.

The place is small, very beautifully maintained by state government , neat but is still not a modern city. It falls under Distt. Nalanda in Bihar state.

Nearest airport is Gaya (78 KM), nearest railway station is Gaya. Rajgir is connected by road to Patna – 110 km, Nalanda – 12 km, Gaya – 78 km, Pawapuri – 19 km, Bihar Sharif – 25 km. All these places are tourist places of Bihar. Taxies, state AC buses are available in plenty.

We reached Rajgir from Gaya by AC bus at 8 PM. We stayed very near to bus stand is a very good convenient, neat hotel Anand Lok.  They served dinner which I still remember as one of best taste I ever had in any trip. we were 5 and he provided us very big room of 30X30 feet size with AC for just Rs.2000.

We have just one full day to visit Rajgir and quickly settled one Tonga for all local site visit.

The first site which our Tongawala showed us as Ajatshatru Fort. Disappointingly except some surrounding walls no remains of fort are visible.

Next we got down from tonga at Brahmkund, a walking distance from road. But you have to walk about 50 steps.

Next we move to Jeevak ambvan (Mango grove).

It is said that Jeevak was contemporary of Ajatshatru. He is said to be a bigger medical expert than Aristotle. He had introduced Lord Buddha to Ajatshatru and also had treated Lord Buddha with his medicines. This incident is mentioned in Vinay Pitak scriptures.

 

Onwards we went in Tonga, talking to him about his life and politics in Bihar. We reached the bottom of hill of Shanti Stupa. This stupa is built by Japanese and as per the locals there who have seen the building of this stupa say all the building materials were taken up manually. I wonder how was this possible. The summer heat was at its peak as now time was 2 PM. We took the chair lift to reach the top. It takes 5 minutes to reach top.

There is similar Shanti Stupa in Vaishali as well as in Maharastra.

Below is Vishwa Shanti Stupa built in 1965.

From Shant Stupa you can see Vulture peak. It is called vulture peak as it looks like vulture from far. As per the security guard of Shanti Stupa (he was here since the building of Stupa in 1965). Lord Buddha frequently visited here and was also a retreat and training ground for Lord Buddha. Buddha came here to get peace and knowledge but he succeeded in Boghgaya and NOT at this place. After his attaining nirvana again he visited this place.

Epilogue

It was a great trip to Rajgir and world famous place specially to Buddhist countries. The place is neat and calm in off season. In season it seems there is rush of tourists as the tonga man told us. There are at least 15 spots to visit out of which I saw mostly which are of historical importance which took 6 hours. There is a big water sport here and better to spend 1 night and 2 days to thoroughly enjoy Rajgir.

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