Once upon a stupa | 'The Light and the Lotus: Relics of the Awakened One'
The Light and the Lotus exhibition in Delhi showcases the relics of the Buddha from UP's Piprahwa Stupa
Close to the Buddha’s birthplace, Lumbini, and his childhood home, Kapilvastu, lies Piprahwa village in Uttar Pradesh. After the Sakyamuni’s cremation, fights broke out among several kingdoms over his remains until a Brahmin disciple, Drona, divided them fairly. The Sakyas buried their share of the relics in a stupa built in Piprahwa, around 480 BCE.
Close to the Buddha’s birthplace, Lumbini, and his childhood home, Kapilvastu, lies Piprahwa village in Uttar Pradesh. After the Sakyamuni’s cremation, fights broke out among several kingdoms over his remains until a Brahmin disciple, Drona, divided them fairly. The Sakyas buried their share of the relics in a stupa built in Piprahwa, around 480 BCE.
In 1897, a British estate manager, William Claxton Peppe, had the stupa excavated and found a stone coffer in which five urns had been placed. These contained fragments of the Buddha’s bones—a sensational discovery—with precious offerings made of gold and carved gemstones. Most of this was kept in the Indian Museum, Kolkata, while Pepp kept about one-sixth of the treasure. It was this part of the Piprahwa relics—349 gems kept by the Pepp family—that was going to be auctioned at Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, in 2025, when the Indian ministry of culture intervened. The Godrej group financed their return.
These repatriated gems are the raison d’etre of the exhibition, The Light and the Lotus: Relics of the Awakened One, forming a disproportionately tiny but central part of it within a recreated stupa structure. They are accompanied by the urns and other Piprahwa gems from the Indian Museum. One has to strain to see the tiny bone fragments of the Buddha (lent by the National Museum, Delhi), and the thrill is indescribable! At its heart, the exhibition, suffused by an air of reverence, celebrates the coming together of the original stupa’s contents.
Large audio-visual presentations on Piprahwa lucidly explain how the stupa developed over three stages (Sakya, Ashokan, Kushana), the story of its excavation and after, and the inscriptions that prove that this was indeed the site of the Buddha’s relics. A rich supporting display of historical Buddhist artefacts includes beautiful 2nd-century Gandhara sculptures; ancient reliefs depicting the Buddha’s life and passing; 12th-century painted folios; modern thangkas and paintings; and Buddhist iconography from other countries. Appositely, in a 2nd-century Kushana relief, Drona is still dividing the corporeal relics of the Buddha among the kingdoms.
—On view at Rai Pithora Cultural Complex, Delhi; 9 am-9 pm; Mondays closed. Entry free
