The
Maha Bodhi Society is a
South Asian
Buddhist society founded by the
Sri Lankan Buddhist leader
Anagarika Dharmapala. The organization's self-stated initial efforts were for the purpose of resuscitation Buddhism in India and of restoring the ancient Buddhist shrines at
Bodh Gaya,
Sarnath and
Kushinara.
Origins
In 1891 while on
pilgramage to the recently restored
Mahabodhi Temple at
Bodh Gaya, the location where
Siddhartha Gautama - the Buddha - attained
enlightenment, Anagarika Dharmapala had experienced a shock to find the temple in the hands of a
Saivite priest, the Buddha image transformed into a
Hindu icon and Buddhists barred from worship as a result of which he began an agitation movement.
[ Sean O'Reilly, James O'Reilly, Pilgrimage: Adventures of the Spirit, Travelers' Tales, 2000,ISBN 1885211562 pg 81-82] The Buddhist renaissance inaugurated by Anagarika Dharmapala through his Mahabodhi Movement has also been described as "conservative" for it held the Muslim Rule in India responsible for the decay of
Buddhism in India, in the then current mood of Hindu-Buddhist brotherhood.
The Mahabodhi society at
Colombo was founded in 1891 but it offices were soon moved to
Calcutta the following year in 1892. One of its primary aims being the restoration of the
Mahabodhi Temple at
Bodh Gaya, the chief of the four ancient Holy sites to Buddhist control.
[ Arnold Wright, Twentieth Century Impressions of Ceylon: its history, people, commerce, industries, and resources, "Angarika Dharmapala", Asian Educational]
Services, 1999, ISBN 812061335X pg.119[ C. J. Bleeker, G.]
Widengren, Historia Religionum, Volume 2 Religions of the Present: Handbook for the History of Religions, Brill Academic Publishers, 1971, ISBN 9004025987 pg. 453 To accomplish this Dharmapala initiated a lawsuit against the
Brahmin priests who had held control of the site for centuries.
After a protracted struggle this was successful with the partial restoration of the site to the management of the Maha Bodhi Society in 1949.
The Mahabodhi Temple
After the defeat of the Palas by the Hindu Sena dynasty, Buddhism's position again began to erode and was soon followed by the conquest of Magadha by General
Ikhtiar Uddin Muhammad Bin Bakhtiyar Khilji. During this period, the Mahabodhi Temple fell into disrepair and was largely abandoned. During the 16th century, a
Hindu monastery was established near Bodh Gaya. Over the following centuries, the monastery's abbot or
mahant became the area's primary landholder and claimed ownership of the Mahabodhi Temple grounds.
The temple as it appeared in the 1780s
In the 1880s, the-then British government of India began to restore Mahabodhi Temple under the direction of Sir
Alexander Cunningham. A short time later, in 1891,
Anagarika Dharmapala started a campaign to return control of the temple to Buddhists, over the objections of the mahant. The campaign was partially successful in 1949, when control passed from the Hindu mahant to the state government of Bihar, which established a temple management committee. The committee has nine members, a majority of whom, including the chairman, must by law be Hindus. Mahabodhi's first head monk under the management committee was
Anagarika Munindra, a
Bengali man who had been an active member of the Maha Bodhi Society.
Sarnath
In 1931 the Mulaghandakuti Vihara was erected at Sarnath.
Kushinara
The site of
the Buddha's parinibbana (physical death) at
Kushinagar has once again become a major attraction for
Burmese Buddhists, as it was for many centuries previously.
Maha Bodhi Society branches have been established in several countries, most significantly in India and Sri Lanka. A
United States branch was founded by Dr.
Paul Carus.
The Maha Bodhi Society has a robust tradition of publications, spanning from
Pali translations into modern Indian vernacular languages (such as
Hindi) to scholarly texts and new editions of Pali works typeset in
Devanagari to appeal to a Hindi-educated Indian audience. They have also published books and pamphlets in local/regional languages and dialects, sometimes in partnership with other presses.
As of , the Maha Bodhi Society of India's general secretary is Dombagoda Rewatha Thero. On
September 27, , B. K. Modi was elected president; he was previously vice-president. Modi was, until recently, an office-holder in the
Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
There is also a Maha Bodhi Society of
Bangalore, founded by Acharya Buddharakkhita in 1956, which is not a part of or tied to the Maha Bodhi Society of India or Sri Lanka.
Leadership
At a meeting in September 2008, the Maha Bodhi Society passed a rule that only persons born into Buddhist families will be eligible to serve as president or as one of the Indian vice-presidents of the Society. The outgoing president,
B. K. Modi, was a
Hindu; he assumed the position of patron. At the same meeting, the
14th Dalai Lama was given the new title of chief patron.
See also
