Sārnāth — First Turning of the Wheel

Sārnāth — First Turning of the Wheel

Tradition

Buddhist — One of the four principal Buddhist pilgrimage sites; location of Buddha's first teaching

Location

• Sarnath, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh (25.3780°N, 83.0251°E)
• 8 km northeast of Varanasi city, near confluence of Ganges and Varuna rivers

Timeline

| Year | Event | Source | |------|-------|--------| | c. 528 BCE | Buddha delivers first sermon to five disciples | Pali Canon; Buddhist tradition | | c. 250 BCE | Ashoka erects pillar marking first teaching site | Ashoka's pillar inscriptions | | 3rd c. BCE | Dharmarajika Stupa built with Buddha relics | ASI excavations | | c. 400-411 CE | Faxian visits; describes 4 towers, 2 viharas | Faxian, Fo-Kwo-Ki | | c. 640 CE | Xuanzang visits; describes 1500 priests, 200ft vihara, hundreds of stupas | Xuanzang, Si-Yu-Ki | | 7th-12th c. CE | Flourishes under Pala and Gahadavala rulers | Pala records; Kumaradevi inscription | | 1194 CE | Qutb ud-Din Aibak destroys Sarnath (1400 camel loads treasure) | Hasan Nizami; historical records | | 1794 CE | Jonathan Duncan rediscovers reliquary | Duncan, 1799 | | 1835-1836 CE | Cunningham's first systematic excavations | ASI records | | 1905 CE | Lion Capital of Ashoka discovered; later India's emblem | Archaeological excavations |

Foreign Traveler Quotes

"In the Deer Park near Varanasi, there were four large towers and two viharas with monks residing in them. The place is much visited by people of various countries who come to offer worship." — Faxian (Fa-Hien), Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, Fo-Kwo-Ki, c. 400-411 CE

"There are about 1500 priests here, who study the Little Vehicle according to the Sammatiya school. There are hundreds of small shrines and votive stupas. The vihara is about 61 metres (200 feet) in height, containing a large statue of the Buddha. Near a stupa is a pillar constructed by Ashoka, marking where the Buddha first set the Wheel of the Law in motion." — Xuanzang (Hiuen Tsang), Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, Si-Yu-Ki, c. 640 CE

"We visited the Dhamek Stupa, which I at first mistook for a Hindu temple. The ruins indicate this was once a place of great magnificence, with extensive monastic buildings." — William Hodges, British landscape painter, Travels in India, 1794

Sacred Narrative

Sārnāth — where Buddha delivered his first sermon (Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, "Turning the Wheel of Dharma") to his 5 ascetic companions in 528 BCE — is the 2nd of the 4 holy places. The Dhamek Stūpa (5th c. CE) marks the exact spot of the first sermon. The Lion Capital of Emperor Aśoka's pillar (3rd c. BCE) — India's national emblem — is from here. The Mulagandhakuti Vihara (1930s Sri Lankan Mahabodhi Society) houses Buddha's relics.

The site flourished from the Maurya period through the Gupta and Pala periods. Faxian (5th century) and Xuanzang (7th century) both visited at the height of Sarnath's glory, describing extensive monastic complexes with thousands of monks.

In 1194 CE, the Islamic conquest led by Qutb ud-Din Aibak destroyed the monastic complex. The site was later looted by British archaeologists in the 18th-19th centuries. Alexander Cunningham's excavations in 1835-36 identified the site based on Chinese pilgrim accounts. The Lion Capital of Ashoka was discovered in 1905 and later became India's national emblem.