Vaishali is also known as Vesali. Five years after the Enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, Lord Buddha came to Vaishali, the capital of one of the first republican states in the Ganga, Vaishali is bound by the hills of Nepal on the north and the river Gandak on the west....
Nalanda - In the 5th century CE a monastic university was established at Nalanda that was eventually to develop into the greatest ancient centre of Buddhist learning. Students from China and Korea, Sri Lanka and Indonesia and from all the regions of India came to Nalanda to study....
Bodh Gaya (The Mahabodhi Temple Complex) houses all the major pilgrimage spots. A flight of steps leads to the inner courtyard through a beautifully craved granite torana (gateway). A large circular stone with the Buddha's footprints is kept in a small shrine on the left. Seven spots within the complex precincts are especially sacred because it was at these spots that the Buddha spent a week each, meditating, after his Enlightenment....
Varanasi (also Benaras) is located in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and extends latitude 25°20' N and longitude 83°00' E. Sandwiched between the rivers Varuna and Ashi as they join the Ganges, Varanasi takes its name from its location. It is also called Kashi, the city of light, but the British, in an endeavor to simplify matters, had coined their own name for the place - Benaras.
Dharmekh Stupa is the most conspicuous structure at Sarnath. Colonel Cunningham bore a shaft from the top centre of the stupa and discovered a stone tablet on which an inscription is written with the word Dhamekha, and mentions that this is the spot where the Buddha delivered his first sermon.....
Kushinagar is also known as Kasia or Kusinara. The founder of Buddhism, Lord Buddha passed away at this place near the Hiranyavati River and was cremated at the Ramabhar stupa. It was once a celebrated center of the Malla kingdom. Many of its stupas and viharas date back to 230 BC-AD 413, when its prosperity was at the peak. The Mauryan emperor Ashoka added grandeur to this place by getting the magnificent statue of Buddha carved on a single piece of red sandstone....
Sravasti or Savatthi was the capital of the mighty Kosala kingdom during Buddha's time. It is situated in the Uttar Pradesh and ten miles distance from Balrampur. It was at Sravasti that the Buddha displayed his great miracle sitting on a thousand Pettaled lotus in front of an audience consisting of the king of Kosala. There the Buddha displayed the multiplied forms of himself a million times going up to the highest heavens, in order to confound the Tirthikas and to establish his supremacy. This was a unique feat performed by the Buddha and as the local of this unprecedented event Sravasti acquired foremost celebrity.
