Question

The Buddha attained enlightenment at:
1. Bodh Gaya
2. Magadha
3. Sarnath
4. Varanasi

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 1 : Bodh Gaya

• Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment in Bodh Gaya. It is located in Bihar.
• The day Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment is celebrated as Buddha Purnima. 
• The exact date of is based on the Asian lunisolar calendars and is primarily celebrated in Baisakh month. 

• The Buddha had instructed his followers to cremate his body as the body of a universal monarch would be cremated and then to distribute the relics among various groups of his lay followers, who were to enshrine them in hemispherical reliquaries called stupas.

• His body lay in a coffin for seven days before being placed on a funeral pyre and was set ablaze by the Buddha’s chief disciple, Mahakashyapa, who had been absent at the time of the Buddha’s death.
• After the Buddha’s cremation, his relics were entrusted to a group of lay disciples, but armed men arrived from seven other regions and demanded the relics. In order to avert bloodshed, a monk divided the relics into eight portions.
• According to tradition, 10 sets of relics were enshrined, 8 from portions of the Buddha’s remains, 1 from the pyre’s ashes, and 1 from the bucket used to divide the remains.
• The stupa (“stupa” is Sanskrit for heap) is an important form of Buddhist architecture, though it predates Buddhism. The custom of rearing stupas was pre-Buddhist. 
• A stupa is a dirt burial mound faced with stone. In Buddhism, the earliest stupas contained portions of the Buddha’s ashes, and as a result, the stupa began to be associated with the body of the Buddha.