Sarnath (also known as Deer Park,Maps of India, "History: The Mesmeric Deer Park of Sarnath", 16 September 2013Subham Mangsingka, "Deer Park", Times of India, 11 January 2017 Sarangnath, Isipatana Deer Park, Rishipattana, Migadaya, or Mrigadava)Gabe Hiemstra, "Buddha Chronicle 24: Kassapa Buddhavaṃsa". Wisdom Library, 14 September 2019. is a town northeast of Varanasi, in Uttar Pradesh, India. It was here that the Buddha gave his first sermon after attaining enlightenment at Bodh Gaya. The Lion Capital of Ashoka, raised on a column in Sarnath in 250 BCE by the first Buddhist emperor Ashoka, commemorates this event. It is also the State Emblem of India.
Sarnath is one of the eight most important pilgrimage sites for Buddhists, and has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, being added to the list in 2026.
Sarnath is where Gautama Buddha's sangha first convened, when he gave the first teaching to his original five disciples Kaundinya, Assaji, Bhaddiya, Vappa and Mahanama, known as The First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma. As the Lalitavistara sutra states, the Gautama Buddha chose "Deer Park by the Hill of the Fallen Sages, outside of Varanasi" for his first teaching after he attained enlightenmentSamye Translations, "Sarnath: The First Turning of the Dharma Wheel", Nekhor: Circling the Sacred The teaching is entitled Dhammacakkappavattana sutra. This teaching occurred circa 528 BCE when the Buddha was approximately 35 years of age.
The hagiographic Buddhavamsa says that a previous Buddha called Kassapa Buddha was born in Sarnath. There, like his successor Gautama, he joined a sangha of men and women in order to give his first teaching.
Several sources state that the name Sarnath is derived from Saranganath, which translates to 'Lord of the Deer'. According to one history, during the local king's hunting trip, a male deer (buck) offered to sacrifice himself to save the life of a female deer (doe) that the king was aiming to kill. Impressed, the king then declared his park would thereafter be a deer sanctuary.Khenpo Sonam Tsering,The Great Pilgrimage Sites in India, 2021Varanasi on Line, "Sarnath"
According to Sutra 16 of the Mahaparinibbana sutra within the Digha Nikaya, the Buddha named Sarnath as one of four Buddhist pilgrimage sites that devout followers should visit and look upon with samvega or feelings of reverence. The other three sites named by the Buddha are Lumbini, his birthplace; Bodh Gaya, where he achieved enlightenment; and, Kushinagar, where he attained parinirvana.
Sarnath is located northeast of Varanasi near the confluence of the Ganges and the Varuna rivers.
Etymology The name Sarnath derives from the Sanskrit word (or Sārangnāth in Pali), which translates into English as 'Lord of the Deer.' This name refers to an ancient Buddhist legend, in which Siddhartha Bodhisattva had previously incarnated as a deer. He offered his life in exchange for the life of a doe that a king was planning to kill. The king was so moved by the deer's offering of self-sacrifice that he created a deer sanctuary. The term for deer park is in Sanskrit, or Miga-dāya in Pali.
Isipatana is another name used to refer to Sarnath in Pali, the language of the Pali Canon. This name corresponds to in Sanskrit. The terms isi (Pali) and (Sanskrit) refer to an accomplished and enlightened person. Isipatana and therefore translate to "the place where holy men descended", or "the hill of the fallen sages".
History 5th century BCE – 6th century CE Buddhism flourished in Sarnath during the second urbanisation, , from the time of the Mahajanapadas through the Nanda Empire and Maurya Empire periods, in part because of patronage from kings and wealthy merchants based in Varanasi. By the 3rd century CE, Sarnath had become an important centre for the Sammatiya, one of the early Buddhist schools, as well as for art and architecture.
The presence of Heruka and Tara images in Sarnath indicate that the later school of Vajrayana was also practised there. Hindu images of Shiva and Brahma were present, while a Jain temple was located very close to the Dhamek Stupa.
By the time of the Gupta Empire (4th to 6th centuries), Buddhism had expanded beyond India via the Silk Road. Faxian was a Buddhist monk from Jin China (Zhōngguó, 中国) who travelled extensively throughout northern India from 400 to 411 CE. In his description of Sarnath, he mentioned seeing four large towers and two viharas with monks residing in them.
6th – 8th centuries CE Buddhism continued to grow during the Later Gupta period. When Xuanzang visited Sarnath around 640 CE, he reported seeing hundreds of small shrines and votive stupas, and a vihara some in height containing a large statue of the Buddha. Xuanzang also wrote that "There are about 1500 priests here, who study the Little Vehicle according to the Sammatiya school". Xuanzang mentions a pillar constructed by Ashoka near a stupa that marked the location where the Buddha set the Wheel of the Law in motion.
8th – 12th centuries CE During the Pala (8th–11th centuries) period, the rulers built new mahaviharas such as Odantapuri, Somapura, Jagaddala, and Vikramashila and patronised existing viharas such as Nalanda and Sarnath. Buddhist pilgrims and monks from all over Asia travelled to Sarnath to meditate and study. The Palas were the last major Buddhist dynasty to rule in the Indian subcontinent. They were eventually replaced by the Gahadavala dynasty, whose capital was located at Varanasi.
Although the Gahadavala kings were Hindu, they were supportive of Buddhism. Inscriptions unearthed at Sarnath in the early 20th century indicate that some of the monasteries there enjoyed royal patronage from the Gahadavala rulers. For example, in the mid-12th-century inscription of Queen Kumaradevi (consort of King Govindachandra and member of the Pithipati dynasty of Bodh Gaya), she takes credit for the construction or restoration of a living quarters for monks.
It is widely asserted that the structure referred to in the Kumaradevi inscription is the Dharmachakra Jina Vihar, but the evidence for this is inconclusive. Whatever the case, it is likely to be among the last structures to be built at Sarnath prior to its destruction in 1194. The inscription, excavated at Sarnath in March 1908, is currently maintained at the Sarnath Archeological Museum.
Late 12th century: the destruction of Sarnath Along with Sarnath, the most important Buddhist mahaviharas in India were Vikramashila, Odantapuri, and Nalanda, all located in present-day Bihar. All four of these centres of learning continued to thrive throughout the 12th century, probably because of the protection, support and tolerance demonstrated by the Pala and Gahadavala rulers. The Kumaradevi inscription mentions that King Govindachandra protected Varanasi from invasions by the Ghaznavids, which the inscription refers to as "Turushkas". By this time, and apart from North India, Buddhism had been declining throughout the Indian subcontinent.
Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent in the late 12th century brought massive plunder and destruction to northern India. Most notable among these were the Indian campaigns of Muhammad of Ghor, the Ghurid dynasty ruler from Ghazni, located in present-day Afghanistan. Qutb ud-Din Aibak — the commander of Muhammad of Ghor's army – led his men from Ghazni to Varanasi and Sarnath in 1194 CE. Quote: "In the winter of A.D. 1194-1195 Shihabuddin once more marched into Hindustan and invaded the Doab. Rai Jai Chand moved forward to meet him and came face to face with Qutbuddin Aibek, who was leading the vanguard of the invading army.... Shihabuddin captured the treasure fort of Asni and then proceeded to Banares, where he converted about a thousand idol-temples into houses for the Musalmans". Quote: "In 1194, Muizzuddin returned to India. He crossed the Jamuna with 50,000 cavalry and moved towards Kanauj. A hotly contested battle between Muizzuddin and Jaichandra was fought at Chandawar near Kanauj. We are told that Jaichandra had almost carried the day when he was killed by an arrow, and his army was totally defeated. Muizzuddin now moved on to Banaras which was ravaged, a large number of temples there being destroyed". Jayachandra (c. 1170–1194 CE) was the reigning Gahadavala dynasty king at that time and was killed during the Battle of Chandawar. Quote: "Jaichandra was defeated and killed by Muhammad Ghauri at Chanwar (40 kilometers east of Agra) in 1193". Varanasi and Sarnath were plundered.
Qutb ud-Din Aibak reportedly carted away some 1400 camel loads of treasure. According to the 13th-century Persian historian Hasan Nizami, "Nearly 1000 temples were destroyed and mosques were raised on their foundations; the Rais (rajas) and chiefs of Hind came forward to proffer their allegiance [to the Ghurids]".
While Qutb ud-Din Aibek destroyed Sarnath, it was the troops of Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji—another of Muhammad of Ghor's slave generals—that continued to attack, pillage and burn Buddhist sites, perhaps with the acquiescence of local Brahmins (see below). Khalji's forces destroyed Vikramashila in 1193, Odantapuri in 1197, and Nalanda in 1200. Surviving Buddhists fled to Nepal, Sikkim, Tibet, and South India. By the end of the 12th century, Buddhist monastic centers and their vast libraries of suttas, meditation instructions and scriptural commentaries had nearly disappeared from the India subcontinent.
However, according to some scholars, fresh re-assessments of evidence from archaeology in addition to historical records have disputed this view of Muslim invasions as the major cause of the decline of Buddhism in India or the destruction of such Buddhist sites as Sarnath – arguing, instead, "that Brahmanical hostility toward Buddhists resulted in the destruction of Sarnath and other sites". According to archaeologist Giovanni Verardi: "Contrary to what is usually believed, the great monasteries of Gangetic India, from Sarnath to Vikramaśīla, from Odantapurī to Nālandā, were not destroyed by the Muslims, but appropriated and transformed by the Brahmans with only the occasional intervention of the Muslim forces". According to Verardi, "orthodox" Brahmins – who had been gaining in power and influence during the Gahadavala and Sena dynasties, the rival Hindu-revivalist dynasties of northern/eastern India — "accepted Muslim rule in exchange for the extirpation of Buddhism and the repression of the social sectors in revolt." Archaeologist Federica Barba writes that the Gahadavalas built large Hindu temples in traditionally Buddhist sites such as Sarnath, while also converting Buddhist shrines into Brahmanical ones: evidence indicates that Buddhists were expelled from Sarnath, and it was in the process of being converted into a large Shiva temple compound before Muslim invaders arrived.
18th century: rediscovery and looting Few Buddhists remained in Northern India and the Gangetic Plains after their persecution and expulsion at the end of the 12th century by the Ghurids and Brahminical forces. However, Buddhists from Tibet, Burma, and Southeast Asia continued to make pilgrimages to South Asia from the 13th to the 17th centuries, but their most common destination was Bodh Gaya and not Sarnath. Sarnath continued to be a place of pilgrimage for Jains, however. A 17th-century Jain manuscript written in 1612 CE (the Tirthakalpa, by Jinaprabha Suri) describes a Jain temple in Varanasi as being located close to "a famous Bodhisattva sanctuary" at a place called dharmeksā. This Sanskrit word translates to "pondering of the law", and clearly refers to the Dhamek Stupa."