Bihar researcher writes to PM, seeks return of Buddha’s bowl from Kabul museum

The bowl, titled ‘Alms Bowl of Lord Buddha’ is learnt to be on display at the Kabul Museum in Afghanistan. Singh claimed Lord Buddha had given his bowl to the people of Vaishali

Amid the turmoil in Afghanistan where the Taliban have formed the government, archaeologists and researchers of Bihar have expressed concern for the safety of a bowl reportedly belonging Lord Buddha at Kabul Museum.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (File photo)

In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi dated September 3, researcher Ranjit Kumar, who is also an associate of late MP from Vaishali, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, said the lawmaker had demanded for the bowl to be brought back till his death September 2020.

The bowl, titled ‘Alms Bowl of Lord Buddha’ is learnt to be on display at the Kabul Museum in Afghanistan. Singh claimed Lord Buddha had given his bowl to the people of Vaishali.

“It was Raghuvansh Babu’s last wish. Almost a year has elapsed since he expressed it his last letter to the chief minister. He especially mentioned my name to be consulted in this connection. We are preparing for his first death anniversary on September 13. But the bowl is still in Kabul,” Kumar said.

In 2010, in response to Singh’s request to the ministry of external affairs, then minister SM Krishna had said that the bowl was earlier at Kandahar and was restored to Kabul Museum during the time of President Najibullah. “The then minister also said that as the bowl carries inscriptions in Persian, a team of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) would be sent there. A team was sent there in 2014, but nothing came out of it,” he said.

PK Mishra, former regional director of the ASI and a part of the team that visited Kabul in 2014, said, “The inscriptions have a few lines in Brahmi script which proves it to be from the time of Lord Buddha. It’s a big bowl and must have been made during his lifetime for alms.”