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Bodh Gaya is situated on the left or western bank of the Falgu river (also known variously as Neranjara, Nilanjana or Lilanjana), about 5 miles south of the district town of Gaya. Not very far from Bodh Gaya on the Dhongra Hill is the village of Urel, representing the village Uruvela, Uruwelaya or Uruvilwa where the eldest of the three Kasyapa brothers, the most famous of the sages of the Buddha’s time, is said to have lived. The name Uruvela has been variously derived by Cunningham from the sandy wastes of the river or from the forest of Bel trees close by.
The Ceylonese chronicle, the Mahavamsa, the Lalita-Vistara and other Buddhist texts abound in references to Uruvela as the place intimately associated with the events of the Buddha’s life just before enlightenment before the famous tree. The tree may have been known originally from the village of Uruvela for some time, till it acquired a separate name for itself. Such a name was variously known as Bodhi, Mahabodhi, or Buddha Gaya. The term Bodhi was probably in use in the time of Asoka and in many other inscriptions the place is referred to as Mahabodhi. The name Buddha-Gaya first occurs in the inscription of Amara-Deva and in Akbar’s time may have been the common name to distinguish it from Gaya, which had by then grown to considerable importance after the decline of Buddhism. Abul Fazl refers to Gaya as Brahm Gaya, possibly to distinguish it from Bodh Gaya. The same name is used as the modern name of Bodh Gaya.
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