Satdhara - Buddhist Ruins

[Guest guest]

[A wonderful blog by one of our group members P.N. Subramanian who is

a retired banker. First benefit I reaped from the group profile -

Kishore patnaik]

 

http://paliakara.blogspot.com/2008/10/satdhara-buddhist-ruins.html

 

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Satdhara - Buddhist Ruins

It is natural for friends and relatives visiting us expecting them to

be taken around to places of interest. We have been religiously

fulfilling this obligation to ensure that they also reciprocate , when

we return the visit. This is a two way traffic. To give credence to

their expectations, I have been visiting Sanchi, a world heritage

Buddhist site, around 42 km's North of Bhopal, quite often. Whether I

enjoy such visits is any body's guess. A Bhopal visit seems to be

incomplete unless they go to Sanchi, to escape being ridiculed when

they are back home.

 

My brother-in-law and his family was once on a visit to Bhopal. They

wanted me to plan out visits to several places i.e., Ujjain, Dhar,

Mandu, Onkareshwar, Maheshwar and of course Sanchi as well. I nearly

fainted but it was a great relief when they requested me to arrange

for a hired vehicle, large enough to carry all of us. I was spared of

penning a requiem for my poor Maruti.

 

 

Within the next two days, we were on the wheels. As a first itinerary,

we were on our journey to Sanchi. Many years ago I had heard that few

more Stupas were discovered by the ASI (Archaeological Survey of

India) somewhere near the present site. This information was lingering

over my head. Before we could reach Salamatpur, short of about 12 km's

from Sanchi, there appeared a hoarding on the left side of the road -

" Satdhara - Buddhist remains - 5 km's " . This was a new board with

directions to the new site. Well I thought, this could be some thing

of interest to me and worth exploring.

 

 

Since we were traveling in a hired vehicle (Sumo), I thought I could

afford to ask the driver to take us that way. The driver obliged and

took the narrow road towards Satdhara. Soon we discovered that the

road was strewn with boulders, but we moved on, notwithstanding the

fact that the journey seemed taking us to hell. The jerks were

becoming unbearable and the distance was covered in about 1 hour!. By

the time we reached the spot, tiredness was writ large on every one's

face.

 

A view of the river " Bes "

 

When we got down and looked around, we were dumb struck. There was a

river flowing very very deep at the left, mountain ranges and greenery

all around, the pristine beauty captivated all of us. Amidst thick

forest cover, we could get the glimpses of the great Stupa in the

wildest form one could imagine with all sorts of wild growth over it.

We went closer and found restoration work being carried out. We could

also see a second Stupa which was smaller in size. The area being

large, we were contended with what we saw. Nobody, in our group,

seemed interested in surveying the area any further. The spot, up

above the river bank, was scenic and seemed to me as one of the most

beautiful places for picnicking. The river is known as " Bes " and at

some distance seven rivulets join the main stream and that is the

reason for the place being known as Satdhara (Seven Streams).

 

 

Approach to the main StupaOn our way back from the main Stupa, I

thought of talking to the officials at the site office. My interaction

with them revealed that the Satdhara Hinayana Buddhist complex, is

spread over in an area of 28 hectares, with a Main Stupa, twenty-nine

stupas and two monasteries. The Main Stupa

 

 

was constructed in the third century BC, during the Ashokan period,

with large-sized bricks. It was then covered with stone layers some

four hundred years later. Fragments of northen black polished

earthenware possibly from 500-200 BC and Buddhist rock paintings from

the 4th and 7th centuries AD have also been found. However, not much

is known about the relics stored inside the Stupas.

 

 

While returning, after a drive of about 2 km's, we cross a canal. On

the right there stood an imposing relic of the Nawabi days. The place

is known as Kachnaria Kothi. It was supposed to have been used by the

Prince of Wales (George Vth) during his hunting expedition in the

princely state of Bhopal during 1911/12. It is said that during his

expedition not a single tiger could be located but the English News

Papers carried reports of the prince killing 3 of them! Plans are

afoot to renovate and develop it to promote tourism. We could not,

however, visit the Kothi as it was locked. We then continued our

journey to Sanchi as per the programme.

 

 

Posted by P.N. Subramanian at 9:58 PM