Giriyak Stupa
Giriyak Stupa, also known as Jarasandha-ka-baithak, is an ancient cylindrical stupa located in the Nalanda district of Bihar, India.
Location
Giriyak Stupa is located in the Rajgir Hills in Nalanda district of Bihar, India. It is situated on the western side of the Panchane River, opposite the village of Giriyak.Name
Giriyak Stupa is also known as Jarasandha-ka-baithak. Jarasandha was a legendary king of Magadha. He was the son of a king named Brihadratha.Description
As it appears today, the stupa is a cylindrical tower, the wall of which is lined with a brickwork veneer. It is in diameter and in height, resting on a high square foundation. When construction of the stupa was completed, there was a solid brick dome atop the cylinder, which in turn was capped with a stone umbrella canopy. Its height at that time — from the bottom of the foundation to the top of the canopy — is estimated to have been at least. The style of ornamentation is of the Gupta period, similar to that of the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya. The ruins of a Gupta-era brick Buddhist temple are located nearby. Other nearby structures are the Mauryan and Pala periods.History
The hill on which these structures are found very closely matches the account of the "Hill of the Isolated Rock" related in 400 CE by the Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian, as well as the description by Xuanzang of the hill of Indra-sila-guha. Faxian made no mention of the stupa, but Xuanzang did mention it. This led Alexander Cunningham to the conclusion that the stupa was probably constructed around 500 CE. According to an ancient legend, Buddhist monks built the stupa over the body of a dead goose. Cunningham found a broken sculpture with a carving of a goose on its pedestal, which supports his assertion that Giriyak Stupa is in fact the structure referred to in Xuanzang's account.Francis Buchanan-Hamilton visited the area in 1811, as part of a survey of the areas within the jurisdiction of the British East India Company. He reported the presence of a tunnel or entrance at the base of the stupa, which he believed to have been created by a treasure hunter. In 1870, Alexander Cunningham excavated a shaft from the top of the stupa all the way down to the stone foundation and then extended the earlier tunnel until it connected with the shaft. These excavations failed to reveal any information about the history of the structure.