Odisha the real birthplace of Second Buddha Guru Padmasambhava

Odisha the real birthplace of Second Buddha Guru Padmasambhava
September 23, 2010 4:04:43 PM

Bimalendu Mohanty

On January 12, 2010, the Dalai Lama inaugurated a Mahavihara at Chandragiri in Gajapati district of Odisha naming it after Guru Padmasambhava. A statue of Padmasambhava has been installed at the Mahavihara. Guru Padmasambhava is also known as the Second Buddha throughout the world. While everyone knows about the birthplace of Buddha as Lumbini garden of Kapilavastu and he was the son of king Sudhodana, it is unfortunate that many don't know that the Second Buddha was born in Sambhal (presently Sambalpur) in Uddiyana, presently Odisha.

I was a student of History and had the opportunity of learning Odisha history under the tutelage of well-known Buddhist scholar Prof Nabin Kumar Sahu. In his book Buddhism in Orissa, it has been clearly mentioned that Padmasambhava was the adopted son of Indrabhuti, the king of Sambhal. Haraprasad Shastri, Dr B Bhattacharya, Dr Karunakar Kar and Dr Maurice Winternitz, who are well-known for their scholastic attainments, have identified that Uddiyana is no other place than Odisha.

Dr Thomas Eugene Donaldson holds an assertive view with regard to the identity of Oddiyana with Odisha. What he advocates in his own language is; "Although scholars have been divided on the proper identification and location of Uddiyana, it seems probable that it was situated in Odisha that Uddiyana is a variant of the words Oda, Odra, Udra, Odivisa and Oddiyana all of which refer to Odisha." In Encyclopedia of Religion, it has been clearly mentioned that according to Tibetan traditions Padmasambhava is known as a native of Uddiyana and the discovered son of king Indravodhi (Indrabhuti). It is said that the king discovered the boy resembling the Buddha seated at the centre of a lotus blossom on Lake Dhanakosa.

In his book Buddhism & Lamaism of Tibet, L Austin Waddell has mentioned that the founder of Lamaism, saint Padmasambhava, 'the lotus born one' is called by Tibetans Guru Rin-po-ch'e or the precious Guru. Padmasambhava is also called Ugyan or Urgyan as he was a native of Udyana or Urgyan. In Buddhist Tantric literature Chandramarichi Tantra-ratnavali Samvalaka, it has been mentioned as capital of Indrabhuti. Its location is given as a place on the bank Mahanadi and Uddiyana has been described as the original centre of the development of Tantricism.

It is said that Indrabhuti at the beginning was a blind man and he had to undergo various troubles and sufferings in his early life. He was the least happy man because his territory was devastated by the visitations of famine and pestilences, and to add to his grief, his only son died a premature death.

In the midst of these misfortunes the king and his distressed subjects cried unto the Buddhas with many offerings, as a result of which Padmasambhava, who is regarded as the incarnation of Sakya Muni, miraculously appeared in that land and was brought up by Indrabhuti, who got back his eyes at the sight of him. Padmasambhava who can be said as son of Indrabhuti grew up to be a great religious reformer.

Nepali's Tantric traditions contain a prophecy in which Lord Buddha assures Sari Putra that he would be in a distant future time a Buddha under the name of Padmaprabha and that his place of Enlightenment will be Viraja. Padmasambhava and Tara along with other deities, are invoked in a fairly large inscription of 25 lines incised on the back of a standing Bodhisattva of Udayagiri near Viraja, which states that a Tathagatodhisthita dhatugarbha Stupa (a Stupa with a relic inside and dwelt in by the Tathagata or Buddha) was set up on that very spot. The Stupa is believed to have contained the relics of Padmasambhava.

Dr RL Mitra in his work The Sansk Buddhist Literature of Nepal states about the prophecy of Lord Buddha. Dr Surendra Kumar Maharana in his book Tantric Buddhism mentions that Padmasambhava was a great religious reformer who preached Tantrayana and organised the order of Lamas in Tibet. It is said that Indrabhuti and his distressed subjects took refuge in Buddha with offerings and Padmasambhava miraculously appeared as an eight-year-old boy on the petals of a lotus in the sacred lake of that country and the boy was no other than the great Sakyamuni in disguise. Indrabhuti, to everybody's astonishment got back his eyesight and brought the boy and accepted him as his son.

Dr Alaka Chattopadhyaya and Lama Chimpa in their book Taranatha's History of Buddhism in India have clearly stated that Indrabhuti is the famous king of Uddiyana. Dr KC Panigrahi in his book History of Orissa has conclusively stated that Uddiyana is no other place than modern Odisha. It is, according to Buddhist tradition, one of the great Pithas of Tantric Buddhism. He has stated that although scholars like Prof M Levi and Dr PC Bagchi located Uddiyana in the Swat Valley, the valley does not contain Buddhist relics, whereas in Odisha hundreds of Buddhist monuments and typical Buddhist-Tantric images are to be found in a wide tract from Ayodhya in Balasore district to Banapur in Khurda district. These Buddhist Tantrik remains of Odisha justify its identification with Uddiyana and lessen the importance of its identification with that of Swat Valley, purely on the literary evidences.

Sarat Chandra Das in his book Rise and Progress of Buddhist in Tibet writes that Santaraksita the great Indian Pandit who was in Tibet in the middle of 7th century AD to give a strong footing to Buddhism requested the king of Tibet to invite Padmasambhava.

Accordingly, the king sent messengers to India to invite the illustrious sage. By his gift of fore knowledge, knowing what was required of him, Padmasambhava had already started for Tibet. He obliged all the evil and wicked genii and demons to bind themselves under solemn oaths not to work evil nor stand in the way of the pious. Sitting on a cross made of two Dorje (Vajra), placed on a clear space, he purified a spot on which he built the great Vihara of Ssan-yag Migyur-Lhun-gyi-dubpai-tsugla-khan or the shrine of the unchanging, self-grown working.

The king together with twenty six of his saintly subjects, by sitting in three kinds of yoga posures, became possessed of wonderful learning and obtained saintly power, perfection, and, finally, emancipation.

-- Dr Mohanty is a former Vice-Chancellor of the Utkal University of Culture


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