The Monasteries at Sarnath Where History Comes Alive

The main heritage site at Sarnath houses the monasteries and the famous Dhamek Stupa and the Ashoka Pillar which was originally surmounted by the Lion Capital of Ashoka, the national emblem of our country India.

Centuries ago, Sarnath was a prominent center of learning and there were Buddhisht monasteries where buddhist monks spent their lives researching and documenting the teachings of Lord Buddha.Lying here are the excavated remains of the monasteries where centuries ago scholars from the Sammatiya and Vajrayana school of buddhism lived and studied and taught.The site was attacked by turkish muslims at the end of the 12th century and plundered and destroyed.

A little further is the four small fragments of the original column of Emperor Ashoka which was surmounted by the Lion Capital which miraculously remained unbroken after the fall and was rightly chosen as the national emblem of India. The column was destroyed during the plunderings attacks of Qutb-ud-din in 1194. The lion capital is now kept in the musuem at Sarnath. The original column was built around 3rd century BC and was made of chunar sanstone that bear the typical shiny Mauryan polish. The lion capital of Ashoka lies preserved in the nearby Sarnath archaelogical museum.The place is adored by the kids and teenagers as they get a chance to witness the icons that lie embedded on the pages of their history books.