Sankisa, Farrukhabad: Ashoka's Elephant Capital and the Buddha's Descent Legend
Sankisa, a small village in Uttar Pradesh's Farrukhabad district, is one of the eight great pilgrimage sites of Buddhism. VoxyTalksy filmed a tour of the site in 2019, and this first part focuses on its oldest remains and one of its modern temples.
What the video shows
The video was uploaded on November 8, 2019 and is mostly a visual tour set to music, with very little narration. Its chapters take viewers to the Buddhist stupa mound topped by the Vishari Devi temple, then to the Cambodian Buddhist temple, where the camera lingers on the building's architecture and the artwork inside. The video description says the tour also includes the Ashokan pillar at the site. The second part of the series, uploaded separately, covers the Sri Lankan and Myanmar temples.
Why Sankisa matters to Buddhists
According to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha spent a rainy season in the Tavatimsa heaven teaching the Abhidhamma to his mother, and then descended to earth at Sankisa. Legend says the god Indra created three ladders for the descent: one of gold, one of silver and one of jewels. The event is remembered on the day of the Mahapavarana festival at the end of the rains retreat.
Some three centuries after the Buddha's passing, Emperor Ashoka visited Sankisa and erected a pillar, of which the elephant capital survives today. He is also credited with building a stupa and a temple to mark the descent. The Chinese pilgrims Faxian and Xuanzang both visited Sankisa and described the remains of three brick-and-stone ladders that had nearly sunk into the earth. The British archaeologist Alexander Cunningham explored the site in 1842.
Faiths side by side
The mound at Sankisa is crowned by a temple of Vishari Devi, worshipped by local Hindus, while monasteries and temples built by Buddhist communities from Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and other countries stand around the site.
Planning a visit
- Sankisa is in Farrukhabad district, roughly 250 km by road from Kanpur, a drive of about four and a half hours.
- Farrukhabad and Fatehgarh are the nearest towns with hotels; facilities at Sankisa itself are basic.
- October to March is the most comfortable season to visit.
- The Ashokan elephant capital and the excavated mound are protected heritage; do not climb on the remains, and dress modestly in the temples and monasteries.
