Nigali Sagar

The pillar was discovered in 1893 by a Nepalese officer on a hunting expedition.{{cite book|last=Falk|first=H|authorlink=Harry Falk (Indologist)|volume=1|series=Occasional Papers|title=The Discovery of Lumbini|pages=1–22|publisher=Lumbini International Research Institute|location=Lumbini, Nepal|year=1998|url=https://www.academia.edu/2097776}}{{cite journal|last1=Waddell|first1=LA|authorlink=Laurence Waddell|last2=Wylie|first2=H|last3=Konstam|first3=EM|title=The Discovery of the Birthplace of the Buddha|journal=The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland|volume=29|issue=3|pages=645–6|year=1897|jstor=25207894|doi=|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-royal-asiatic-society/article/6-the-discovery-of-the-birthplace-of-the-buddha/9F8F5451E777BBA0C318500B21FA802F}} The pillar and its inscriptions (there are several inscriptions on it, from Brahmi to Medieval) were researched in March 1895 by Alois Anton Führer. Führer published his discovery in the Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey Circle, North-West Province, for the year ending on June 30, 1895.

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| footer= Nigali Sagar pillar stump with exposed inscription, and separated top portion.{{cite book|last1=Führer|first1=AA|authorlink=Alois Anton Führer|title=Monograph on Buddha Sakyamuni's birth-place in the Nepalese tarai / |year=1897 |publisher=Allahabad : Govt. Press, N.W.P. and Oudh |url=https://archive.org/details/monographonbuddh00fuhr/page/n46}}

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The pillar was not erected in-situ, as no foundation has been discovered under it. It is thought that it was moved about 8 to 13 miles, from an uncertain location{{cite book |last1=Mukherji|first1=PC|last2=Smith|first2=VA|title=A report on a tour of exploration of the antiquities in the Tarai, Nepal the region of Kapilavastu; |year=1901 |publisher=Calcutta, Office of the superintendent of government printing, India |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_5iYXAAAAYAAJ/page/n9}} (possibly from Taulihawa or Gotihawa).

Besides his description of the pillar, Führer made a detailed description of the remains of a monumental "Konagamana stupa" near the Nigali Sagar pillar,{{cite book |last=Führer|first=AA|authorlink=Alois Anton Führer|title=Monograph on Buddha Sakyamuni's birth-place in the Nepalese tarai /|year=1897|publisher=Allahabad: Govt. Press, N.W.P. and Oudh|page=[https://archive.org/details/monographonbuddh00fuhr/page/22 22]|url=https://archive.org/details/monographonbuddh00fuhr}} which was later discovered to be an imaginative construct.{{cite book |last1=Thomas |first1=EJ|authorlink=Edward J. Thomas|title=The Life of Buddha as Legend and History|year=2000|publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-486-41132-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NE-fmHzumWkC&pg=PA18 |language=en}} Führer wrote that "On all sides around this interesting monument are ruined monasteries, fallen columns, and broken sculptures", when actually nothing can be found around the pillar.""On all sides around this interesting monument are ruined monasteries, fallen columns, and broken sculptures." This elaborate description was not supported by a single drawing, plan, or photograph. Every word of it is false." in {{cite book |last1=Rijal |first1=Babu Krishna |last2=Mukherji |first2=Poorno Chander |title=100 Years of Archaeological Research in Lumbini, Kapilavastu & Devadaha |year=1996 |publisher=S.K. International Publishing House |page=58 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6DluAAAAMAAJ |language=en}} In the following years, inspections of the site showed that there were no such archaeological remains, and that, in respect to Fuhrer's description "every word of it is false".{{cite book |last1=Mukherji |first1=P. C. |last2=Smith |first2=Vincent Arthur |title=A report on a tour of exploration of the antiquities in the Tarai, Nepal the region of Kapilavastu; |year=1901 |publisher=Calcutta, Office of the superintendent of government printing, India |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_5iYXAAAAYAAJ/page/n2 4] |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_5iYXAAAAYAAJ}} It was finally understood in 1901 that Führer had copied almost word-for-word this description from a report by Alexander Cunningham about the stupas in Sanchi.{{cite book |last1=Falk |first1=Harry |title=The discovery of Lumbinī |date=January 1998 |page=11 |url=https://www.academia.edu/2097776 |language=en}}

The fact that the inscription was discovered by Führer, who is also known to have forged Brahmi inscriptions on ancient stone artefacts, was suggested by some scholars to cast a doubt on the authenticity of this inscription.{{cite book|last1=Thomas|first1=EJ|authorlink=Edward J. Thomas|title=History of Buddhist Thought|year=2002|publisher=Courier Corporation|isbn=978-0-486-42104-9|page=155, note 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tWu9JHynQQ4C&pg=PA155}} However, historian Vincent Arthur Smith—who had exposed Führer's forgeries—never challenged the authenticity of the Lumbini pillar inscription and the Nigali Sagar inscription, only noting that the broken section of the Nigali Sagar had been moved at an unknown time from its original location, and did not have other ancient remains around it as Führer had claimed.{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Vincent A. |title=The Early History Of India Ed. 3rd |date=1914 |page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.94846/page/n187 169] |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.94846}}

Harry Falk—a leading scholar of Ashoka's inscriptions—has stated that the authenticity of Ashoka's Lumbini inscription is "beyond dispute,"{{cite web | last=Falk | first=Harry | title=Aśokaʻs donations at Lumbinī | website=Academia.edu | date=2015-01-22 | url=https://www.academia.edu/10287850/A%C5%9Boka%CA%BBs_donations_at_Lumbin%C4%AB | access-date=2025-03-22}} and that "features of truly Aśokan script, some of them extinct at the middle of the second century BC" could not realistically have been forged by Führer who was "extremely clumsy", "ill-educated in Prakrit phonology and morphology", and "ignorant to the same degree of Brāhmī palaeography," therefore "disqualifying Führer as the author of a perfect fake."{{cite journal | last=Falk | first=Harry | title=The Ashes of the Buddha | journal=Bulletin of the Asia Institute | publisher=Bulletin of the Asia Institute, a Non-Profit Corporation | volume=27 | year=2013 | issn=08904464 | jstor=44758602 | pages=43–75 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/44758602 | access-date=2025-03-22}}

Charles Allen has argued that the Nigali Sagar pillar is an authentic inscription of Ashoka that was originally located in Taulihawa a few kilometres away, where a 19th century Hindu temple was built around possibly the base of the pillar, worshipped as a Shiva linga. "After the upper part of the pillar had been pulled down or broken off," proposes Allen, this inscribed section was moved to the present location Nigali Sagar, "perhaps so that the upper section could be used as a roller for crushing sugar cane".{{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=Charles |title=The Buddha and Dr. Führer: An Archaeological Scandal |date=2010 |publisher=Penguin Books India |isbn=978-0-14-341574-9 |page=230 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VAPq4yGXmIIC&pg=PA242 |language=en}}

File:Nigali Sagar Ashokan inscription Budhasa Konaakamanasa with rubbing.jpg") inscription in the Brahmi Script, at Nigali Sagar, 250 BCE]]

The inscription says that in this place the Kanakamuni Buddha, one of the Buddhas of the past, was born.Political Violence in Ancient India

by Upinder Singh [https://books.google.com/books?id=t6A4DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA46 p.46] The Asoka inscription engraved on the pillar in Brahmi script and Pali language attests the fact that Emperor Asoka enlarged the Kanakamuni Buddha's stupa, worshiped it and erected a stone pillar for Kanakamuni Buddha on the occasion of the twentieth year of his coronation.

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{{main|Minor Pillar Edicts}}

The inscription, made when Emperor Asoka visited the site in 249 BCE and erected the pillar, reads:

Because of this dedication by Ashoka, the Nigali Sagar pillar has the earliest known record ever of the word "stupa" (here the Pali word Thube).Amaravati: The Art of an early Buddhist Monument in context. [http://www.britishmuseum.org/pdf/207_Amaravati.pdf p.23]

There is also a second inscription, "Om mani padme hum" and "Sri Ripu Malla Chiram Jayatu 1234" made by King Ripu Malla in the year 1234 (Saka Era, corresponding to 1312 CE).

File:Fragments of Gotihawa and Nigali sagar.jpg and Nigali Sagar, possibly belonging to the same pillar.{{cite journal |last1=Irwin |first1=John |title='Aśokan' Pillars: A Reassessment of the Evidence-II: Structure |journal=The Burlington Magazine |date=1974 |volume=116 |issue=861 |page=721 |jstor=877843 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/877843 |issn=0007-6287}}]]

The Chinese pilgrims Fa-Hien (337 CE – c. 422 CE) and Xuanzang (602–664 CE) describe the Kanakamuni Stupa and the Asoka Pillar in their travel accounts. Xuanzang speaks of a lion capital atop the pillar, now lost.

A base of a Pillar of Ashoka has been discovered at Gotihawa, a few miles from Nigali Sagar, and it has been suggested that it is the original base of the Nigalar Sagar pillar fragments.

File:Koṇāgamana Buddha Ashoka (2).JPG|Birthplace of Koṇāgamana Buddha. Nigalihawa, Kapilvastu District, Nepal

File:Koṇāgamana Buddha Ashoka (3).JPG|Statue commemorating the birthplace of Koṇāgamana Buddha. Nigalihawa, Kapilvastu District, Nepal

File:Nigali Sagar pillar full length.jpg|Full length of the pillar

File:Araurakot Nigali Sagar Ashoka pillar.jpg|Another general view

File:Nigali Sagar pillar Ashoka inscription.jpg|Pillar stump and inscription of Ashoka

File:Nigali Sagar pillar 13th century inscription.jpg|13th century inscription by King Ripu Malla

File:Nigali Sagar pillar bird inscription.jpg|Inscription of a bird

File:Nigali Sagar Ashokan inscription.jpg|Inscription by Ashoka

File:Ashoka Inscriptions Nigali Sagar pillar inscription.jpg|Rubbing of the inscription

File:Nigali Sagar pillar inscriptions.jpg|Nigali Sagar pillar inscriptions

File:Ashoka Pillar Inscriptions.jpg|Ashoka pillar inscriptions

File:Nigali Sagar pillar plan.jpg|Nigali Sagar pillar plan

{{commons category|Ashoka Pillar, Nigali Sagar}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.google.com/maps/place/Araurakot+Asoka+Pillar/@27.5949826,83.0955204,275m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x0:0x0!2zMjfCsDM3JzEyLjAiTiA4M8KwMDYnMzYuMCJF!3b1!8m2!3d27.62!4d83.11!3m4!1s0x3996f06bfd6d8941:0xee1f384f0ba2d65a!8m2!3d27.5950362!4d83.0957311?hl=en Google location and photographs]

Category:Monuments and memorials in Nepal

Category:Archaeological sites in Nepal

Category:3rd-century BC establishments in Nepal

Category:Buildings and structures in Kapilvastu District

Category:Archaeological discoveries in Nepal