Sarnath

In 528 BC Siddhartha Gautama, having attained enlightenment at Bodhgaya, preached his first sermon (now called Dharma Chakra Pravartan, or Set in Motion the Wheel of Law) in what is today Sarnath's Deer Park. Here he revealed his Eightfold Path leading to the end of sorrow and the attainment of enlightenment. Three hundred years later, in the 3rd century BC, the Mauryan emperor Ashoka arrived. A zealous convert to Buddhism, he built in Sarnath several stupas (large, mound-shaped reliquary shrines) and a pillar with a lion capital that was adopted by independent India as its national emblem. The wheel motif under the lions' feet represents the dharma chakra, the wheel (chakra) of Buddhist teaching (dharma), which began in Sarnath. The chakra is replicated at the center of the national flag. Sarnath reached its zenith by the 4th century AD, under the Gupta dynasty, and was occupied into the 9th century, when Buddhist influence in India began to wane. By the 12th century, Sarnath had more or less fallen to Muslim invaders and begun a long decay. In 1836 Sir Alexander Cunningham started extensive excavations here, uncovering first a stone slab with an inscription of the Buddhist creed, then numerous other relics. It was then that the Western world realized the Buddha had been an actual person, not a mythical figure. Most of the sites are in a well-manicured park behind a gate (admission is Rs. 100). Any taxi or auto-rickshaw will take you to Sarnath from Varanasi; India Tourism also arranges a three-hour trip (giving you two hours to explore) from Cantonment area hotels or its office for Rs. 300.