Burial ‘ad sanctos’ and the physical presence of the Buddha in early Indian Buddhism

Abstract This paper is an attempt to look at Indian Buddhism ‘on the ground’ and is an exercise in what might be called ‘the archeology of religions’. It focuses on one distinct aspect of Buddhist sacred sites in India: the fact that stūpas housing the physical remains of the Buddha or marking a spot where the Buddha was thought formerly to have been present are frequently surrounded by large numbers of smaller secondary stūpas. It attempts to show that these secondary stūpas have mortuary associations and suggests the resulting pattern parallels what is known in the Medieval West as burial ad sanctos. It then attempts—through known archeological parallels, inscriptions, and literary sources—to give meaning to this pattern and suggests that, in spite of doctrinal statements to the contrary, the historical Buddha remained a living presence in the midst of Indian Buddhist communities.