Religion: Buddhist Bones

Sariputta and Moggallana were the most honored disciples of the Buddha. Sariputta, dubbed by his master the disciple of “great intelligence,” could expound doctrine, the story goes, with the same depth of meaning as the Buddha himself. Moggallana was the disciple of “potency,” and Buddhists believe that he could become invisible, control ferocious beasts and transport his body through the air.

After Sariputta and Moggallana died (about 480 B.C.), their bones were preserved inside two stupas (large stone monuments) at Sanchi in central India, which became a center of Buddhist pilgrimages. Later generations of Buddhists neglected them, but in 1851 a British military engineer found the bones and sent them to London. They were bought by the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the caskets containing the bones remained on view there for almost a half century.

After World War I, Buddhists began petitioning the British to return the bones of their two saints. Finally, in 1947, London sent them back. The relics were taken on a tour through India, Burma and Indo-China. Devout Buddhists claimed that hundreds of miracles were worked among those who saw them.

Last week the bones were ceremoniously carried back to Sanchi. Prime Minister Nehru opened the celebration, and officials of eight Asiatic countries were on hand, among them Burma’s pious Premier U Nu. Before a reverent crowd of 100,000, the bones, encased in glass, were carried up to a new stupa, built on a hilltop near the old ruins. Then, while saffron-robed monks chanted Buddhist litanies, the remains of the honored disciples Sariputta and Moggallana were laid to rest.