Names for one place
The place now called Bodh Gaya has had several names. Buddhist texts describe the locality at the time of the Buddha as Uruvela, a settlement and wooded area on the bank of the Neranjara river (the modern Phalgu, known in this stretch locally as the Niranjana River). The name Bodh Gaya, “the Gaya of awakening”, came into wide use much later, apparently to distinguish it from the nearby city of Gaya, which is a major pilgrimage place for Hindus. Other names, such as Sambodhi and Vajrasana, appear in early inscriptions and travel accounts.
Dates in this history vary between sources, and many early dates are traditional. Treat the sequence below as an outline, not a precise chronology.
The time of the Buddha
According to the Pali texts and other traditions, Siddhartha Gautama left his home, studied with teachers and practised severe austerities in the Uruvela region for some years. After deciding that extremes were not the way, he accepted food, traditionally rice milk offered by a woman named Sujata, and sat beneath a pipal tree on the riverbank. There, tradition says, he attained awakening, around the age of thirty-five. Scholars place the Buddha’s life roughly in the fifth century BCE, although the exact dates are debated.
The region lay in the kingdom of Magadha, whose early capital was at Rajgir. Magadha later became the political core of the Mauryan empire, and this helps explain how the place stayed prominent.
Early veneration
Texts say that the tree and the spot where the Buddha sat were honoured soon after his death. The first physical evidence is later. Carved stone railings and an early shrine are usually dated to the last centuries BCE, and tradition credits Emperor Ashoka with a visit in the third century BCE and with marking the site. A set of carved stone slabs and pillars from the region survives and is displayed at the site and in museums.
The classical period
Between roughly the first and sixth centuries CE, the site became a major monastic centre. Monasteries and donations are recorded in inscriptions, including gifts from kings and visitors from other countries. The brick temple standing today is usually dated to the fifth to seventh centuries.
Written accounts from the Chinese pilgrim monks, such as Faxian and Xuanzang, describe pilgrims, monasteries, stupas and a sacred tree in detail. Because their accounts reflect what the writers saw and were told, historians treat them as valuable but not flawless sources.
Medieval decline and survival
From roughly the eighth to twelfth centuries, Bodh Gaya received patronage under later dynasties in eastern India, including the Pala rulers, who supported Buddhist institutions in the region. Monasteries such as Vikramshila Mahavihara and the great Nalanda Mahavihara flourished in the same area. After the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the picture changes. Many Buddhist monasteries in northern India declined, were abandoned or were damaged, and historians continue to debate the causes, which likely included both political upheaval and long-term shifts in support.
The site did not disappear. Inscriptions record repairs and visits from Sri Lankan and Burmese Buddhists in the following centuries. By the sixteenth century a Hindu monastic institution had been established nearby and had taken control of the site and its lands.
Rediscovery and excavation
From the late eighteenth century, European travellers and officials began to report on Bodh Gaya. Francis Buchanan visited in 1811 and described it. In 1861 and afterwards, Alexander Cunningham of the Archaeological Survey surveyed the site, followed by major restoration work in the early 1880s. Excavations uncovered railings, stupas and fragments of sculpture. This was part of a wider period of archaeological rediscovery across the Buddhist sites of northern India.
A living centre again
From the late nineteenth century, Buddhists from Sri Lanka, Burma, Japan and elsewhere helped revive pilgrimage to the site. After independence, Buddhist communities from many countries built monasteries and temples around the Mahabodhi. In 2002 the temple complex joined the UNESCO World Heritage List. Today Bodh Gaya is a town where traditions from Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana countries share space.
Anyone planning a visit should check current official information; a place with this long a history is also a place with very large festival crowds.