The Piprahwa Gems: A History Spanning Two Millennia

T he relics unearthed at Piprahwa near the India-Nepal border in 1898 by Englishman William Caxton Peppé are beyond doubt one of the most important discoveries of Buddhism. Piprahwa is widely believed to be the site of ancient Kapilavastu, the seat of the historical Buddha’s family clan in northern India.

As the legendary gem relics buried with the bones of the Historical Buddha for more than two millennia come to auction at Sotheby’s, we take a look at their discovery.

Life and death of Shakyamuni Buddha (6th-5th century BCE)
Mauryan Empire, Ashokan era (c. 304-232 BCE)
Kushan Empire (c. 2nd century BCE-3rd century CE)
1890s
1897
1898
Early 1900s
1971-76

Shakyamuni Buddha dies at Kushinagar and his body is cremated. A dispute regarding the distribution of his corporeal relics ensues and a Brahmin named Drona divides them into eight parts to each of the eight competing claimants, including Shakyamuni Buddha’s own clan, the Shakyas of Kapilavatsu, where Siddartha Gautama is believed to have spent 29 years of his life before reaching enlightenment.

Ten stupas are built, including one at Piprahwa in modern-day Uttar Pradesh in Northern India by the Shakya clan to house the portion of the relics of “The Blessed One” that they received.

Image: View of the Piprahwa stupa site, present-day Uttar Pradesh, Northern India. Photo courtesy of Icon Films
Mauryan Emperor Ashoka (c. 304-232 BCE) vigorously promotes Buddhism across his vast empire and commissions the earliest extant Buddhist imagery and monuments to commemorate the Buddha’s life. Notable artefacts include an inscribed pillar erected at the Lumbini Garden to identify the birthplace of the Buddha in 249 BCE.

The Piprahwa stupa — in which the Shakya clan’s share of relics is interred — is commissioned to be rebuilt with fired bricks and gem relics consecrated alongside the corporeal relics of the Buddha.
With its strategic geographical position on the Silk Road, the Gandharan civilisation reaches its peak in the 3rd century CE and produces some of the earliest figurative Buddhist imagery. Known for its truly impressive artistic vigour and distinctive style that is a synthesis of East and West, the visual vocabulary of this period exudes both Hellenistic and Indic influences.
Ashokan monuments from over two millennia ago are discovered as archaeologists map out the sacred geography of Buddhist India. The breakthrough excavation of the Lumbini pillar in 1896 in particular fuels a series of seminal archaeological discoveries pertaining to the sacred remains of the Buddha as well as the veneration of such relics.

Image: Ashokan commemorative pillar with an inscription in Brahmi script naming the location as the birthplace of the Historical Buddha, Lumbini, during excavation, 1896
Inspired by the excavation at Lumbini 19 kilometres northward, English estate manager and trained engineer William Caxton Peppé — in what is to become widely considered as the site of ancient Kapilavatsu — begins excavating the largest of several ancient mounds near the village of Piprahwa on the Birdpur estate in Northern India.

Image: William Claxton Peppé (1852-1936). By G.W. Laurie & Co., Lucknow, c. 1890s. Photo courtesy of the Peppé family
After digging through 18 feet of solid brickwork, Peppé discovers a large stone slab cover over a huge coffer in which five small vessels are preserved, one of which is inscribed on the cover to reveal the presence of the remains of Shakyamuni Buddha in late Mauryan Brahmi script in the local Prakit, Maghadi.

Alongside the corporeal relics of the Buddha are 1,800 spectacular gem relics. All congruous with reliquary forms known from other important Mauryan Buddhist sites, the five reliquary urns and kaleidoscopic group of offerings suggest that the stupa was rebuilt during the Ashokan era with contact gem relics commissioned to be consecrated alongside the corporeal remains.

The Ven. P. C. Jinavaravansa, second cousin of the Siamese monarch King Rama V, visits Peppé in Birdpur and lobby to have the relics shared with King Rama V, the sole remaining Buddhist sovereign in the world.
A share of the relics is gifted by the Government of India at an elaborate ceremony in Bangkok to King Rama V, who has the relics subdivided and enshrined at two of the most important Buddhist sites in Asia — the Wat Saket in Bangkok and the Shwedagon pagoda in Yangon, and across Sri Lanka.

The five reliquary urns, stone coffer, and bulk of the remaining relics are sent to the Indian Museum in Kolkata (then Imperial Museum of Calcutta) and Peppé is permitted to keep the “duplicate items”, comprising approximately one-fifth of the discovery.

Image: King Rama V of Siam (1853-1910). Photo courtesy of Icon Films
The Archaeological Survey of India undertakes excavations at the Piprahwa stupa and monastic complex, and discovers two further steatite reliquaries below the level of the coffer containing only bone relics. Each of the two reliquaries is found within a brick enclosure, further substantiating that the Piprahwa relics were revered and reinterred by arguably the most important patron of Buddhism, Emperor Ashoka. It can therefore be surmised that the Piprahwa relics are what Buddhist worshippers believe to most embody the actual person of Shakyamuni Buddha — the Shakya clan’s original share of Shakyamuni Buddha’s relics in Kapilavatsu.

Image: Sandstone coffer in situ at the bottom of the Piprahwa stupa recovered by William Peppé in January 1898. Photo courtesy of the Peppé family