Site of the Buddha’s return from Tusita Heaven

Sankasya (also Sankisa, Sankassa) is one of the ‘Eight Great Places’ of the Buddhist pilgrimage. It was here that Buddha performed the miracle of the ‘Descent from the Heavens, accompanied by Indra and Brahma’. According to Buddhist literature, in his seventh year after the enlightenment, on the full moon day of Asalha (in July) the Buddha, following the performance of the Twin Miracle at Shravasti went up to the Tavatimsa (Tushita Heaven) and passed the rainy season retreat teaching Abhidhamma to his mother Maya Devi, who had died seven days after Buddha’s birth and been reborn as a male god in Tushita heaven. Three months later, at the time of his descent from heaven, a great assembly of kings and people of the eight kingdoms gathered. As Buddha descended, a flight of gold stairs appeared, which he climbed down. He was accompanied by Brahma on the right and by Indra holding a jewelled umbrella on the left. The descent of the Buddha took place on the day of the Mahapavarana festival (marks the end of the 3-month rainy season retreat).

In 1842, Alexander Cunningham identified the village of Sankisa with the place Sankasya mentioned by Faxian and Kapitha by Xuanzang.

Xuanzang saw a 70-foot-high staircase at the spot where Buddha had descended from heaven. On the top of the stairs was a temple with a stone image of the Buddha that according to Faxian was 16 cubit (16 feet) tall. Close to the stairs was a 70-foot-high Ashokan pillar. The Buddha bathed immediately after his descent, and later a bathing house and stupa were built to mark that site. Stupas were also raised at the spot where he cut his hair and nails and where he entered Samadhi. Faxian and Xuanzang tell about the presence of more stupas and a chankramana (a raised platform with foot impressions of the Buddha) where the Buddha and the previous Buddhas had walked and sat in meditation. According to Xuanzang, these shrines were enclosed within the walls of a Sammitiya Monastery, which he describes as being excellently ornamental and having many fine images. He adds that hundreds of monks dwelt there along with a community of lay followers.

Cunningham discovered a sandstone Elephant Capital at 400 feet to the north of the Bisari Devi Temple. No excavations have taken place at Sankisa. According to Alexander Cunningham, all the sacred shrines including the Temple of Descent mentioned by both the pilgrims are buried under the present village Sankisa.