Relics of Sariputra and Mahamoggallana - Contents of The Relics

Contents of The Relics

Sariputra's box contained a large flat casket of white steatite, more than six inches wide and three inches in height. The surface was polished and hard, and the box, which is believed to have been turned on a lathe, was an elaborate piece of workmanship. Surrounding the casket were some fragments of sandalwood believed to have been from the funeral pyre, while inside it, in addition to the relics, were various precious stones. The casket also contained a single bone relic of Sariputra, shorter than one inch in length.

Mahamoggallana's stone box enclosed another steatite casket, similar to that of Sariputra but slightly smaller and with a softer surface. Inside it were two bone relics of Mahamoggallana, smaller than those of Sariputra, the larger of them being less than half an inch long.

Each of the caskets had a single ink letter inscribed on the inner surface of the lid: "Sa" for Sariputra on the southern and "Ma" for Mahamoggallana on that to the north. Cunningham analysed the situation thus: "Sariputra and Mahamoggallana were the principal followers of the Buddha, and were usually styled his right and left hand disciples. Their ashes thus preserved after death the same positions to the right and left of Buddha which they had themselves occupied in life." This is explained by the fact that Gautama Buddha customarily sat facing east, and thus Sariputta and Mahamoggallana were aligned south and north respectively.

In the Satadhara stupa, one of a group which Cunningham noted was locally referred to as "Buddha Bhita" or "Buddha Monuments," he discovered two caskets of pale mottled steatite. These were inscribed, like those at Sanchi, "Sariputtasa" and "Maha Mogallanasa". This stupa showed signs of tampering by burglars, but the bone relics appeared to have been undisturbed. Cunningham, left a detailed account of everything his excavations brought to light in these and other stupas, and the authenticity of the relics was established among scholarly ranks.