Identification of the Site of the first Buddhist Council

The identification of the first site of the Buddhist Council always posed a challenge to the early surveyors of Rajgir.  Even today the identification cannot be said to be fully settled and is still open to interpretation. According to the uniform testimony of all the Buddhist canonical records the First Great Council, which was convened by Kasyapa soon after the demise of Buddha to fix the principal tenets of the Church, took place near Rajagrha in a cave in the Vebhara Hill, which bore the Pali name of Suttapanua or Sattapanni. The Mahavastu, which gives the Sanskrit name of the cave as Saptaparna, furnishes the additional detail that the cave was situated on the north of the hill, which is called there Vaihara.

In his first visit during 1861-62, Cunningham mentioned about the Son Bhandar cave and tried to identify it with the Pippala cave. He also indicated where the Sattapani cave was to be found. Cunningham mentions “In the inscriptions of the Jain temples on Mount Baibhar the name is sometimes written Baibhara, and sometimes Vyavhara. It is beyond all doubt the Webharo Mountain of the Pali Annals, in which was situated the far-famed Sattapani Cave in front of which was held the first Buddhist Synod in 543 B.C. The Baibhar Hill lies to the west of the Hot Springs, and the Vipula Hill to the east. In Baibhar there still exists a large cave called Son Bhandar, or the “Treasury of Gold”. The situation corresponds exactly with that of the Pi-po-lo cave of the two Chinese pilgrims, in which Buddha used to meditate after his noon-day meal. The famous Sattapani Cave must be looked for in northern face of the south-west end of the mountain, at above one mile from the Son-bhandar cave.”

To be continued..