Buddhism and Jainism in Bihar: Origins, Sites and Councils (BPSC Notes)

Buddhism and Jainism in Bihar is one of the safest topics in the BPSC prelims: almost every paper has a question on where the Buddha attained enlightenment, where Mahavira was born or died, or which council met at Rajgir, Vaishali or Pataliputra. Both religions were born in the sixth century BCE in the Magadha-Vaishali region, both grew under the patronage of its rulers, and both left Bihar its best-known monuments. These notes put the facts BPSC tests in one place, with the background that helps you remember them.

Key facts for BPSC

Why both religions rose in Bihar

The sixth century BCE was the age of the sixteen mahajanapadas, and Magadha, Vajji and Anga, the three in Bihar, were among the strongest. Iron tools had opened the forests of the middle Ganga plain, rice yields rose, towns such as Rajgir, Vaishali, Champa and later Pataliputra grew, and trade created a class of setthis (merchants) and gahapatis (householders) with wealth but low ritual status. The Vedic sacrifices of the period were expensive, required cattle that farmers now needed for ploughing, and were controlled by Brahmin priests. A new kind of teacher offered a path that needed no sacrifice and no priest: ethical conduct, self-discipline and release from rebirth. Buddhism and Jainism were the two most successful of many such movements, which Buddhist texts count as 62 sects.

Two political facts helped. Magadha’s rulers, from Bimbisara onwards, were ready to patronise the new faiths, and the republican sanghas such as the Lichchhavis of Vaishali provided both the model for the Buddhist monastic order and Mahavira’s own family background.

Buddhism in Bihar

The Buddha’s life in Magadha

After leaving home the Buddha came to Rajgir, where king Bimbisara met him, and studied with teachers before settling at Uruvela on the Niranjana river, the modern Bodh Gaya. He attained enlightenment there at the age of 35 under a pipal tree, the Bodhi tree. He spent many rainy seasons at Rajgir, in the Venuvana bamboo grove gifted by Bimbisara and on the Gridhrakuta (Vulture Peak) hill, and at Vaishali, where the courtesan Amrapali gave her mango grove to the sangha. At Vaishali he admitted women to the order (his foster-mother Mahaprajapati Gautami was the first nun) and announced his coming death. He died at Kushinagar in the Malla republic.

The Buddhist councils

Three of the four councils met in Bihar, which is why the state is sometimes called the cradle of Buddhism. Ashoka, who ruled from Pataliputra, made Buddhism a world religion by sending missions to Sri Lanka (his son Mahendra and daughter Sanghamitra), Syria, Egypt and Greece.

Buddhist sites in Bihar

• Bodh Gaya: Mahabodhi Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2002; the present temple dates from the Gupta period and was restored in the nineteenth century.
• Rajgir: Gridhrakuta hill, Venuvana, the Saptaparni cave of the first council, the cyclopean walls and the Vishwa Shanti Stupa (1969).
• Vaishali: Ashokan lion pillar at Kolhua, the relic stupa of the Lichchhavis, and the site of the second council.
• Nalanda: the mahavihara founded under Kumaragupta I, visited by Xuanzang and I-tsing, destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khalji’s raid around 1200; a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2016.
• Vikramshila (Bhagalpur): founded by the Pala king Dharmapala; Atisa Dipankara taught here before going to Tibet.
• Kesaria (East Champaran): one of the largest stupas in the world, traditionally the place where the Buddha gave his begging bowl to the Lichchhavis.
• Lauriya Nandangarh and Rampurva (West Champaran): Ashokan pillars; the Rampurva bull capital stands in Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Jainism in Bihar

Mahavira’s life

Mahavira was born at Kundagrama (Kundalpur) near Vaishali into the Jnatrika clan, a member of the Vajji confederacy. His mother Trishala was the sister of the Lichchhavi chief Chetaka, which linked him to the ruling houses of Vaishali and, through Chetaka’s daughters, to Bimbisara of Magadha. He left home at 30, practised austerities for twelve years and attained kevala jnana (omniscience) at 42. For thirty years he preached in Magadha, Anga, Videha and Kosala, and he died at Pawapuri in Nalanda district at the age of 72. Parshvanatha, the 23rd Tirthankara who lived about 250 years before him, had taught four vows; Mahavira added the fifth, brahmacharya. Jain tradition holds that twenty of the 24 Tirthankaras attained liberation at Sammed Shikhar (Parasnath hill), which was part of Bihar until 2000.

The Jain councils and the great split

A famine in Magadha around 300 BCE sent Bhadrabahu and his followers south to Karnataka, where Chandragupta Maurya is said to have died as a Jain ascetic at Shravanabelagola. The monks who stayed behind met at Pataliputra under Sthulabhadra and compiled the twelve Angas. When Bhadrabahu’s group returned, they rejected the compilation and the relaxation of discipline, and the community divided into Digambaras (sky-clad, who followed Bhadrabahu) and Svetambaras (white-clad). The second council at Valabhi in Gujarat (fifth or sixth century CE, under Devardhi Kshamashramana) finally wrote the canon down.

Jain sites in Bihar

• Pawapuri: the Jal Mandir in the middle of a lotus tank marks the place of Mahavira’s cremation.
• Kundalpur and Vaishali: Mahavira’s birthplace; the Bihar government celebrates Vaishali Mahotsav on Mahavir Jayanti.
• Rajgir: Jain temples on the five hills; Mahavira spent fourteen rainy seasons here.
• Champapuri (Bhagalpur): associated with Vasupujya, the 12th Tirthankara.
• Patna: the Kamaldah Jain temple and the tradition of the first council.

What the two religions shared, and where they differed

Both rejected the authority of the Vedas, animal sacrifice and the claims of birth-based status; both accepted karma and rebirth and sought release from them; both built monastic orders and welcomed women and shudras; and both used the people’s languages, Pali and Prakrit, rather than Sanskrit. They differed in degree. Jainism carried ahimsa to its limit, forbade agriculture to monks because it harmed living things in the soil, and demanded severe austerity, including the Digambara practice of nudity. Buddhism preached a Middle Path between luxury and self-torture, which made it easier to spread among traders and across Asia. Jainism never travelled far beyond India but also never disappeared from it, while Buddhism almost vanished from the land of its birth after the twelfth century.

Quick revision: likely BPSC questions

• Where did the Buddha attain enlightenment? Bodh Gaya (Uruvela), on the Niranjana.
• Where was the first Buddhist council held, and under which king? Rajgir, Ajatashatru.
• Where was the second council held? Vaishali, under Kalasoka.
• Where was Mahavira born, and where did he die? Kundagrama near Vaishali; Pawapuri.
• Who presided over the first Jain council at Pataliputra? Sthulabhadra.
• Which Bihar site became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016? Nalanda mahavihara.
• Who gifted Venuvana to the Buddha? Bimbisara.

Practise this topic

• 72nd BPSC Practice Test 6: Sangam Age, Magadha, Buddhism and Jainism (25 MCQs)
• 72nd BPSC Practice Test 3: Buddhism, Mauryan Empire and Post-Mauryan India
• 16 Mahajanapadas: Magadha, Vajji and Anga
• Major Dynasties of Ancient Bihar

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