Gaya, Feb. 17: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena today visited the World Heritage Mahabodhi Mahavihara and offered prayers before the statue of Lord Buddha in the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine.
He offered a foot-long wooden statue of Buddha in meditation posture to the Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee (BTMC).
The Lankan President wrote in the visitors' register: "It is great honour and privilege to pay homage to the most sacred Bodhgaya where the Lord Buddha attained enlightenment. I respectfully remember Ven. Anagarika Dharampala who dedicated his life to protect the places in India venerated by all Buddhists. I thank the Bodhgaya Temple Management Committee for their valuable services."
Through the lines marked in the visitors' register, the President underlined the contribution of Anagarik Dharmpala, the revivalist and writer from Sri Lanka who had visited Mahabodhi Mahavihara in 1891. The Mahavihara was then under the control of the Bodhgaya math and the Buddhist devotees were allowed entry only after permission of the mahant of the math. After the visit, he launched the struggle to free the Mahavihara from these problems. On returning to Sri Lanka, he founded the Mahabodhi Society of India (MSI). Several Buddhist sites in India have been renovated on the initiative of the MSI, which has emerged as a very prominent organisation for the Buddhists. Therefore, when the relics of Buddha's two main disciples, Sariputta and Maha Moggallana, were found during the excavation of the stupa at Sanchi, they were first taken to London and handed over to the MSI.
It was a spiritual tour on which the President was accompanied by wife Jayanthi Sirisena, ministers P. Ranawaka (power and energy) and D.M. Swaminandan (religious affairs) apart from the high commissioner of Sri Lanka in India Sudharsan Senawiratne.
Mahavihara chief monk Bhikkhu Chalinda led the President to offer prayers before the statue of Lord Buddha in the sanctum sanctorum, while Mahabodhi Society of India (MSI) general secretary P. Siwalee Thero led him to offer prayers under the sacred Bodhi tree. The President also visited Muchlind pond and the meditation park.
Magadh division commissioner R.K. Khandelwal and the Gaya district magistrate-cum-BTMC chairman Sanjay Kumar Agarwal presented a replica of Mahavihara to the President and a statue of Buddha to his wife Jayanthi Sirisena. Bhikkhu Chalinda presented a khada to the President.
After the Mahavihara, the President also visited the Bodhgaya branch of the MSI, where he offered prayers before the statue in Jayashree Mahavihara. He also offered obeisance before the statue of Anagarika Dharampala and met representatives of different organisations such as hotel association, Bodhgaya nagar panchayat who offered a memento to the President. Emerging from the MSI, he met a group of devotees from Sri Lanka on a visit to Bodhgaya.
After visiting Mahavihara and the MSI Bodhgaya branch, the President flew to Tirupati from the airport. Elaborate security arrangements had been made for the President's visit. The Mahavihara was closed for devotees and the tourists for nearly two-and-a-half hours from 1.30pm.
