Pushpagiri Mahavihara Temple

Pusphagiri Mahavihara, one of the earliest Buddhist mahavihara spread across Cuttack and Jajpur district, Odisha (ancient Kalinga) in 3rd century AD, flourished until the 11th century in India. Today, its ruins lie atop the Langudi hills, low hills about 90 km from the Mahanadi delta, in the Jajpur and Cuttack district in Odisha. The actual mahavihara campus, spread across three hilltops, contained several stupas, monasteries, temples, and sculptures in the architectural style of the Gupta period.
The entire mahavihara is distributed across three campuses on top of the three adjoining hills, Lalitgiri, Ratnagiri, and Udayagiri.

However Debala Mitra, the director general of Archaeological Survey has a different opinion. During 1975-1983, she (ASI) explored and excavated several Buddhist sites, wrote a two-volume book on Ratnagiri and another book titled Buddhist Monuments of India. In the latter book, she compared Ratnagiri with Nalanda and said the following: “… recent excavations of the top of the hillock brought to light imposing remains of one of the most important Buddhist establishments, reclaimed as Ratnagiri-mahavihara (and not Pushpagiri-vihara as presumed by some) on the basis of a number of sealings bearing the legend Sri-Ratnagiri-mahavihariy-aryabikshu-sanghasya.

With its nucleus dating at least from about the fifth century A.D., the establishment witnessed a phenomenal growth in religion, art and architecture till the twelfth century A.D. It played a significant role in disseminating Buddhist culture and religion forming itself, like Nalanda, an important religious and philosophical academy, to which flocked the entrants and scholars to take lessons from the intellectual stalwarts of Buddhism.”

She backs up her claims with a multitude of evidence including references to Tibetan literature such as Taranatha in his History of Buddhism in India (completed in A.D. 1608) says that a vihara, called Ratnagiri, was built on the crest of a mountain in the kingdom of Odivisa (Orissa) in the reign of Buddhapaksha (identified with the Gupta Emperor Narasinghagupta Baladitya of the Gupta dynasty by N. Dutt).

In this vihara were kept three sets of Mahayana and Hinayana sastra. There were eight great groups of dharma and 500 monks. According to the Pag Sam Jon Zang (completed in A.D. 1747), Acharya Bitoba went through magic to Sambhala where he obtained the Kalachakra-tantra, brought it to Ratnagiri and explained the doctrine to Abodhutipa, Bodhisri, and Naropa.

All such intriguing details are elaborated in her book on Ratnagiri where Mitra says that monastery 1 in Ratnagiri is probably the finest such structure unearthed in India. According to her, despite the normal monastic plan, this monastery is a singular structural monument “not only for its impressive size and symmetrical planning but for the rich but balanced surface-treatment of the front porch and the façade of the shrine”. “Indeed, the monastery is the finest structural one so far unearthed in India,” she states in her book.

Puphagiri ranks as one of the primary institutions of higher learning in ancient India, along with Nalanda, Vikramshila andTakshila universities. The famous Chinese traveller Huien Tsang visited Puphagiri in 639 CE, mentioning it as Puphagiri Mahavihara. Puphagiri also was recorded in medieval Tibetan texts. However, unlike Takshila and Nalanda, the ruins of Puphagiri were not discovered until 1995.