There was not much difference between man and animal till humanity discovered language. Language gave birth to fiction, and they were preserved as folklore
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gst generations. Much after that, humanity invented paper and inscriptions, which led to attempts for immortalisation by writing them down so that the sacred things could be persevered. With time languages changes shapes, interests change, and many of such stories go into oblivion.
The story of Buddha was alive in folklore, but minute details were missing. There was some tale of Kal-Ashoka the King amongst people, but only in some scratchy stories. Indian middle age was in the dark era.
A British soldier named Alexander Cunningham noticed some odd structures all over middle India. They had inscriptions in some bizarre language. Inscriptions resembled notes present in Tibet, Sri Lanka, and other Southeast Asia. Investigations, excavations, and scholars' dedication lead to deciphering the Pali language, the Rediscovery of The Great King Ashoka legacy, and many other things about Buddha.
Ashoka lived about two thousand and three hundred years ago, perhaps three hundred years after Buddha. His effort of immortalising Buddha was successful with the actions of the group of scholars in the last century. People started retelling that good old story which had many missing links.
The story of Sujata is one of such. When young Siddhartha was searching for exactitude, he took a prolonged fast, which was nearly fatal till Sujata came into the story. A village girl named Sujata took pity on the dying bright ascetic and convinced him to eat the bowel of Kheer she made for him.
An excavation led to discovering a forte (Garh) named after Sujata. The folklore is reconnected with scriptures found in that stupa (the curious looking stone with inscriptions that bothered Alexander Cunningham), and Fa-Hien, FHsienen travelogue connected the dots.
The rest is history.
Now we find her name, her story in many layers, many books amongst the guides present in the place …Did she become Buddha's disciple? , there were rumours of an affair? Did Buddha save her life once just after he was enlightened?
The Sujata Garh present near Bodh Gaya just near Phalgu river is proof that a girl named Sujata saved her life. People say that King Ashoka made a Garh in her use 300 years after she was gone. Then many renovations took place until all went to oblivion in the middle ages.
The place gave me a goosebump when I assimilated the journey of her story almost two thousand five hundred years after the incident took place.
