The 2,560{+t}{+h}birth anniversary celebrations of Gautham Buddha were kicked off, two days ahead of the Jayanti, in an impressive manner at the sprawling, 279-acre campus of Buddhavanam Project here on Thursday in the presence of three ministers of the Telangana Government and other VIPs.
The celebrations put together by the Buddhavanam Project authorities together with the Department of Tourism and the Telangana State Tourism Development Corporation (TSTDC). Ministers Ajmeera Chandulal (Tourism), T. Harish Rao (Irrigation) and G. Jagadheeswar Reddy (Energy) and TSTDC Managing Director Christina Z. Chongthu paid glorious tributes to Buddha at the foot of the 27-foot tall Awukana Buddha statue erected by Sri Lanka.
At a gathering in a conference hall in the almost-completed Maha Stupa (a replica of the one at Amaravathi), the celebrations began a while later with four Buddhist monks chanting verses written by Acharya Nagarjuna in the ‘Pragya Paramita Shastra’, as Mr. Chandulal and Special Officer Mallepalli Laxmaiah, among others, sat in rapt silence.
The Tourism Minister said that after initial discussions with Mr. Laxmaiah, they were putting up proposals for completing works in Buddhavanam, seeking Rs. 25 crore from the government. The proposals would be firmed up and sent to Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, after which he would take up the matter with Mr. Rao, he said.
Presiding over the meeting, Mr. Laxmaiah said that while two sections in the complex were almost ready, three more would be ready for inauguration, out of the total of eight, in about six months. He also pointed out that the Chief Minister was keen on leaving no stone unturned in the endeavour to develop Buddhavanam as an integrated complex that would draw tourists and devotees.
Historian and Curator of the Tribal Museum in Hyderabad, D. Satyanarayana traced the origins of Buddhism in India over 2,500 years ago as Gautham Buddha was alive. He made specific mention of how Pavuri, a Brahmin embraced Buddhism in the Telangana region and referred to how there were several Buddhist sites across what is now the youngest State were unearthed, only proving that Buddhism was patronised.
Other Buddhist inscriptions laid down in Prakrit and Sanscrit languages in Dhulikatta, Nelakondapalli, Phanigiri and Nagarjunakonda revealed that most of the donations made to the Buddhists during the reign of Satavahanas, Ikshvakus and Vishnukundis were done by women and common folk, he said.
