Public exposition from Feb 4-10: Buddha relics begin journey from Vadodara to Colombo, CM Patel flags off procession

A guard of honour was also offered to the relics by  a contingent of the Vadodara city police before being safely loaded on to a vehicle that headed for the Vadodara airport, from where the relics will be flown to Delhi, onward to Colombo.

These relics include a box with the ashes of Lord Buddha, a vessel with a silk cloth, a box like a stone with a lid. This box is decorated with silver and gold wires. On it, you can read the text ‘Dashbal Shari Nilay’ in Brahmi script and Sanskrit. Dashbal means the place of the remains of Lord Buddha. These sacred relics were found during excavations at a mound known as Devni Mori near Shamlaji. This area was identified in 1957 by Prof. S N Chaudhary of Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda.

The sacred eighth century relics of Lord Buddha will travel from the department at MSU for the first time since their discovery on January 14,1962. Previously the relics have been on public display in 2010 when the Gujarat government had hosted an International Buddhist Conference in Vadodara, in presence of the Dalai Lama.

The relics will be on public display at a Buddhist conference at the Gangaramaya Temple in Colombo.

Mayor Pinki Soni, MLAs Yogesh Patel, Keyur Rokadiya, Chaitanya Desai, MSU Chancellor Shubhangiraje Gaekwad, Vice-Chancellor BM Bhanage, as well as BJP leaders Jayaprakash Soni and Rasik Prajapati, Commissioner of Police Narasimha Komar, Municipal Commissioner Arun Mahesh Babu, District Collector Anil Dhameliya and other members of MSU were also present at the event on Tuesday.