________________ THB MBMORABLB LETTER ON THE DISCOVERY OF THE BUDDHA RELICS AT VAISALI By DR. ZAKIR HUSSAIN I paid a one-day visit to Vaishali on the 2nd April, 1958 to attend the Fourteenth Appal Vaishali Mahotsava. I visited the surroundings aseociated with the memories of Lord Buddba and Lord Mahavira. I was very much impressed with the excellent work done at Vaisbali by Dr. A. S. Altekar, formerly Patoa University Professor of Ancient Indian History ard Culture and at present Director, K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, Patna. As a result of his research work among the Records2 left by Yuan Chwang, be bas been able to locate the exact spot where the sacred relics of Lord Buddba had been kept in a casket in a stupa wbich must be as old as 200 B. C.-200 B. C. The stupa, built entirely in earth rammed with kankar, was later enlarged and renovated four times. Arcbacological evidence appears conclusively to prove that the first stupa was built early in the fifth century B. C. and the second one about 250 years later. In 637 A. D. when Yuan Chwang visited Vaishali, he was shown a stupa as built over the relics of the Buddha, and the stupa recently discovered occupies exactly the same positica.Yuan Chwarg had heard the tradition that the stupa of the Lichch bavis bad been once opened by Asoka, who removed nine-tenths of its precious content for distribution over the whole empire, and that it was again opened by a later king, who, terrified by a terrific noise, desisted from the attempt. It is interesting to note that the earliest stupa as well as the second one shows clear traces of having been opened. In the earliest stupa, 21 feet below the lowest concrete layer, was 1. Extract from F. D. 0. letter No. CB 85, dated the 9th April, 1958 from Dr. Zakir Hussain, Governor of Bihar, addressed to the President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad. Dr. Zakir Hussain was Governor of Bibar from the 6th July, 1957 to the 11th May, 1962. [Ed.] Buddhist Records of the Western World (English translation of the Travel of Yuan Chwang, the celebrated Chinese Buddhist pilgrim of the seventh century A. D.). [Ed.] ?
