The decline of the Bodh Gaya Math and the afterlife of zamindari

Abstract

The decline of the Bodh Gaya Math is arguably the most significant event in Bodh Gaya's recent history and is often overlooked by contemporary scholars who celebrate the global Buddhist resurgence at the site. A Shaivaite monastic institution with an extensive landed estate in the south Bihar region, the Bodh Gaya Math, rose to prominence during the Mughal and British colonial periods. Through its privileged land holdings and claim to be the principle guardian of the Mahabodhi Temple and Bodhi tree, the Bodh Gaya Math had long maintained a monopoly of power and influence over the site of Buddha's enlightenment and the surrounding agricultural area. To understand these changing social configurations of power and the possible futures, this paper provides an institutional history of the Shaivaite monastery and discusses the impact of the zamindari abolition bills, land-gift movement and land struggles that took place in the wake of India's independence. Through an analysis of changing local and regional power structures, the paper shows how the afterlife of zamindari has given rise to new claims of social, political and religious authority that significantly undermined the Math's former suzerainty. In that, it studies religious power and authority within the frame of agrarian social relations.

Keywords:

• Bodh Gaya Math
• zamindari
• religious power
• agrarian relations
• land struggle

Notes

1. Geary, “Destination Enlightenment.”

2. Jaffrelot, The Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics; Ludden, Contesting the Nation; Hansen, The Saffron Wave; and Rajagopal, Politics After Television.

3. Research on this topic was conducted in Bodh Gaya and Bihar between 2005 and 2007. I am grateful to the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for supporting this research.

4. The Magadha kingdom roughly corresponds to the modern districts of Patna, Jehanabad, Nalanda, Aurangabad, Nawadah and Gaya in southern Bihar, and parts of Bengal in the east. From the early medieval period between roughly 600–1200 ACE, several Buddhist monasteries and centres of education such as Nalanda flourished as a result of subsisting on generous grants of revenue-free land.

5. Dazey, “Tradition and Modernization in the Organization of the Dasanami Sannyasins”; and Doyle, “Bodh Gaya: Journeys to the Diamond Throne and the Feet of Gayasur.”

6. According to Bernard Cohn, the term Gosain was applied loosely to ‘Shivaite devotees, some of whom were priests, others wandering mendicants, others served as mercenaries in the army of princes and chiefs in the eighteenth century, still others lived in maths (“monasteries”) in principal cities and combined religious and commercial activities, still others were settled in rural areas where they had extensive land holdings to support their maths.’ “The Role of the Gosains in the Economy of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Upper India,” 175.

7. Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars; and Dazey, “Tradition and Modernization in the Organization of the Dasanami Sannyasins.”

8. Cohn, “The Role of the Gosains in the Economy of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century Upper India.”

9. Ibid., 180–1.

10. Ibid.

11. Dirks, The Hollow Crown.

12. Although Lal Giri was the first to receive these revenue free villages and royal land grants, the Giri sect at Bodh Gaya traces its history back to Gosain Ghamandi Giri (1590–1615) – a shavaite renunciate who used the ruins of the Mahabodhi Temple as a hermitage in the late sixteenth century. The dates following each name refer to their residing periods as the mahant of Bodh Gaya, not their life span.

13. Yang, Bazaar India; and Prakash, Bonded Histories.

14. Prakash, Bonded Histories.

15. Singh Bahadur, A Brief History of Bodh Gayá Math, District Gayá, 3.

16. Ibid., 2.

17. The Kamias were the predominant agricultural labouring class in south Bihar that was characterized by long-term ties and intensive loyalty to the malik or zamindar. Traditionally, this kamia-malik relationship was based on a caste-based ritual hierarchy of social difference but also came to resemble a patron–client relationship through the institution of kamiauti. This refers to a social transaction based on an advance of grain, money and/or a plot of land that would have been given to the kamia by the landlord at a specific time of need – usually at a time of marriage for the labourer's son or daughter. In receipt of this transaction, the kamia was then required to undertake gruelling work in order to maintain a survival subsistence until the advance was eventually paid back. The reality of this coercive relationship was that the labourer became an object of possession and was perpetually indebted to his landlord. See Herbert, A Cultural Journey; Kunnath, “Smouldering Dalit Fires in Bihar, India”; and Prakash, Bonded Histories.

18. Prakash, Bonded Histories, 117–8.

19. Annapurna is traditionally viewed as the Hindu Goddess of food and nourishment and is considered the sustainer of prosperity. Based on the Sanskrit meaning, the word ‘Anna’ means food and grains and ‘Purna’ means full or complete. It is believed that by worshipping this goddess one will never be without food in their lifetime.

20. Singh Bahadur, A Brief History of Bodh Gayá Math, 1.

21. Ibid., 3.

22. Ibid.

23. Interview with Amarnth Gupta, Bodh Gaya, January 2007.

24. Ibid.

25. Trevithick, “British Archaeologists, Hindu Abbots, and Burmese Buddhists: The Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya, 1811–1877”; Trevithick, The Revival of Buddhist Pilgrimage at Bodh Gaya (1811–1949); and Doyle, “Bodh Gaya: Journeys to the Diamond Throne and the Feet of Gayasur.”

26. In 1874, for example, the Burmese king Mindon Min sent a mission to Bodh Gaya, during which his envoys made an offering of precious jewels, gold, and silver worth over 100,000 rupees to the mahant, all of which was meant for the purpose of worshipping the Bodhi Tree. Doyle, “Bodh Gaya: Journeys to the Diamond Throne and the Feet of Gayasur,” 127.

27. Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars.

28. According to Doyle, these groups consisted of ‘older princely families; powerful low-caste Mahratta, Jat, Bhumihar, and Rajput rulers; and Bengali nouveau-riche merchants and government servants – all of whom where invested in demonstrating their power, wealth, and/or social status by visiting and performing elaborate sraddha rituals at the largest possible number of holy sites’ Doyle, ‘Bodh Gaya: Journeys to the Diamond Throne and the Feet of Gayasur,’ 145. A similar case is that of the pandas of Ayodhya and the growing patronage relations during the expansion of the pilgrimage network in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. See van der Veer, God's on Earth.

29. The Certificate provided to the mahant read: ‘By command of His Excellency the Victory and Governor-General this certificate is presented in the name of Her Most Gracious Majesty Victoria, Empress of India, to Mahanth Hem Narayan Gir […] in recognition of his liberality during the scarcity and the invaluable assistance he has given to the authorities when called upon (Richard Temple).’ Roy Choudhury, Bihar District Gazetteers: Gaya, 118. For more on the Delhi Imperial Assemblage that was attended by over 84,000 people see Cohn, “Representing Authority in Victorian India.”

30. Prakash, Bonded Histories.

31. Chandra, Mukherjee, and Mukherjee, India After Independence 1947–2000.

32. The Social Justice and Legal Support Cell – AVARD, Green Acres or Red? Bhoomi Andolan in Bodh Gaya, 8.

33. In 1961, the Bihar Land Reforms (fixation of ceiling areas and acquisition of surplus land) Act legally enforced that an agriculturalist could own no more than 20 acres of canal-irrigated land or 60 acres of hilly, sandy and surplus homestead land. Although the Bihar Government had ordered an inquiry into the Bodh Gaya monastery at this time, according to Arun Sinha, the state eventually gave up after covering 108 villages in the Gaya district where the monastery had ‘allegedly’ owned land. Beyond this point there were no further official inquiries that I am aware of until the late seventies when the K.P. Saxena Commission report was initiated. The Commission report, as I understand, was never formally published. Sinha, Against the Few.

34. Kelkar and Gala, “The Bodhgaya Land Struggle,” 92.

35. Ibid.

36. Ramagundam, Pausing Poverty, 82.

37. Ibid.

38. Ibid., 94.

39. Magadh University is one of the largest universities in Bihar and the main campus headquarters is located 2.5 kilometers from the Mahabodhi temple near the Gaya-Dobhi National Highway. It is comprised of 24 post graduate departments, 44 constituent and 85 affiliated colleges based in Gaya, Jehanabad, Patna, Nalanda, Nawada and Aurangabad districts. The university came into existence in 1961 but was formally inaugurated on 20 August 1964 by the then president of India, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan.

40. Interview with Professor Tulku, Bodh Gaya, November 2006.

41. Ibid. Similarly, Amarnath Gupta vividly described the collection of elephants, horses, camels and foreign cars that provided a symbolic and visual affirmation of the mahant's continuing power and affluence. This was especially the case during prominent Hindu religious festivals such as Dussera, when the mahant would mount one of his elephants on a saddle made of silver and gold, followed by a procession of monks and musicians through the town. Interview with Amarnth Gupta, Bodh Gaya, January 2007.

42. Chatterjee, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World.

43. Kelkar and Gala, “The Bodhgaya Land Struggle,” 82.

44. Although Jayaprakash Narayan (1902–1979) was born in Bihar, his political career was shaped by his post-graduate studies in the United States where he developed a keen interest in political science, especially the tenets of Marxism, and the importance of class struggle while studying at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under sociologist Edward A. Ross. Although he never had the chance to complete his PhD, when he returned to India in 1929 he became an active member of the Indian National Congress and the Freedom Movement alongside Jawaharlal Nehru and M.K. Gandhi.

45. Krishnammal and Sankaralingam Jagannathan were active members of the Gandhian Sarvodaya Movement in south India. Together, they also played a significant role in the Bhoodan andolan, but due to the lack of productivity in the land that was gifted, Jagannathan started the Association of Sarva Seva Farmers (ASSEFA) in 1968 of which he was Chairman until 1993. This non-governmental development organization aimed to empower the rural people, focusing on land reform issues. In 1981, the couple also founded LAFTI, Land for the Tillers’ Freedom – which aimed to resolve disputes between landlords and the landless poor, and to obtain loans to enable the landless to buy land at reasonable prices and then to help them work cooperatively, so that the loans could be repaid. Both Krishnammal and Jagannathan were awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 2008.

46. Interview with Pradeep, Bodh Gaya, January 2006.

47. Sinha, Against the Few, 102.

48. Sinha, Against the Few; and Kelkar and Gala, “The Bodhgaya Land Struggle.”

49. Kelkar and Gala, “The Bodhgaya Land Struggle,” 93.

50. Interview with C.A Priydarshi, Patna, November 2006.

51. Sinha, Against the Few.

52. Ibid., 107.

53. Ibid.

54. Ibid., 109.

55. Kelkar and Gala, “The Bodhgaya Land Struggle,” 92.

56. Ibid.

57. Ibid.

58. Notwithstanding popular portrayal of the Maoists in the media, these groups do not come under one umbrella organization and there are currently many fractions among the groups. In terms of influence in the Gaya District, there are primarily three Maoist groups that have a continuing presence. These are the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation Group, the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Unity.

59. Perhaps the most glaring example of the growing power of the Naxalite movement in Bihar was the spectacular attack on the state prison by the CPI (Maoist) in the nearby town of Jehanabad in November 2005 that led to the release of over 200 inmates from the jail, mostly of their own party, including the area commander Ajay Kanu.

60. One of the strongest supporters and benefactors of the Mandal commission is Lalu Prasad Yadav. Born in a peasant household of a traditional farm-herder caste, he became politically active as a student leader during the JP Movement and joined the Janata Party after the Emergency was over. Like other backward castes in Bihar, following independence, the Yadavs have steadily increased their social and economic power through the acquisition of land and their growing participation in democratic politics. Through his strategic appropriation of votes from both the Yadav and Muslim communities in Bihar, Lalu remained at the helm of state power for fifteen years beginning in 1990, first as the Chief Minister of the Janata Dal Party and later as the leader of his own party the Rashtriya Janata Dal. Yadav, The Laloo Phenomenon; Thakur, The Making of Laloo Yadav; and Kumar, Community Warriors.

61. Interview with Ajay Kumar, Bodh Gaya, March 2007.

62. Kumar, Community Warriors, 39.

63. Interview with Vijay Manji, Bodh Gaya, March 2007.

64. Interview with Pradeep, Bodh Gaya, January 2006.