Devnimori Buddha relics to travel from Vadodara to Sri Lanka

India is set to undertake the exhibition of the sacred Devinimori relics of Lord Buddha in Sri Lanka. 

The Holy Relics, presently enshrined at the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, will travel to Colombo for a public exposition from February 4 to 10.

Buddha’s relics will leave the department for the first time since their discovery on January 14, 1963.

Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat, Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi, monks, senior officials, and professors from the MSU’s department will accompany the relics.

As per reports, the only time the relics were kept on public display were in 2010, when the Gujarat government hosted an International Buddhist Conference in the city. The Dalai Lama, who was the chief guest at the conference, had turned emotional on seeing the relics.

The relics will be placed on public display at the Gangaramaya Temple in Colombo, one of Sri Lanka’s revered Buddhist institutions.

The Devnimori Relics originate from the Devnimori archaeological site near Shamlaji in Gujarat’s Aravalli district. 

Explorations conducted in 1957 by archaeologist Prof S N Chowdhry uncovered Buddhist remains and sacred relics, offering evidence of the presence and influence of Buddhism in western India during the early centuries of the Common Era.

Inscribed in Brahmi Script and Sanskrit language, it reads “dashabala sharira nilay”, meaning the abode of the Buddha’s bodily relic.