Jewels forming a portion of the sacred Piprahwa relics of the Buddha, which had recently come up for auction at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, were repatriated to India on Wednesday, 127 years after they were taken away during colonial rule.
Pirojsha Godrej of Godrej Industries Group stepped forward to acquire the collection of 349 jewels, officials from the Ministry of Culture told reporters Wednesday. The value of the transaction was not disclosed but the collection is estimated to be worth over $100 million.
Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat called it “an exemplary case of public-private partnership”.
“A large portion of the acquired collection will be on loan to the National Museum for five years, and Godrej Industries has agreed to display the entire gem collection upon its arrival in India for a period of three months,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on X: “It would make every Indian proud that the sacred Piprahwa relics of Bhagwan Buddha have come home after 127 long years. These sacred relics highlight India’s close association with Bhagwan Buddha and his noble teachings. It also illustrates our commitment to preserving and protecting different aspects of our glorious culture.”
The relics were discovered during the excavation of an ancient Buddhist stupa in Uttar Pradesh’s Piprahwa, near the India-Nepal border. They hold immense religious and cultural importance for the Buddhist community.
Besides the ornaments and gemstones that appeared for auction, the Piprawaha tranche comprises bone fragments believed to be that of the Buddha, along with soapstone and crystal caskets, and a sandstone coffer.
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The other portions of the Piprahwa relics have been held in the vaults of Kolkata’s Indian Museum since 1898. These will also be displayed at an exhibition in Delhi’s National Museum along with the repatriated gems.
The gemstones, meanwhile, became part of the private collection of William Claxton Peppé, who had conducted the excavation. His grandson and heir Chris Peppé put them up for auction through Sotheby’s Hong Kong.
The auction house, however, postponed the May 7 auction after the Culture Ministry issued it a legal notice.
The ministry called upon Sotheby’s Hong Kong to withdraw the relics from auction and cooperate with Indian authorities to return these sacred artefacts to their rightful place. Various Buddhist organisations, too, issued calls for adequate measures to stop the auction and get the relics back to India.
The listing on Sotheby’s website in May said: “Sotheby’s is honoured to present the Piprahwa gems, appearing for the first time in Hong Kong. The 1898 discovery of these gems by William Claxton Peppé at Piprahwa in northern India — where they were found buried together in reliquaries with the corporeal relics of the Historical Buddha — ranks among the most extraordinary archaeological discoveries of all time.”
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A note by Chris Peppé on his website said: “The Piprahwa gem relics were passed down from my great uncle to his son, then in 2013 they came to myself and two cousins. It was at this point that I began in-depth research into the discovery of the gems by William Claxton Peppé, my great-grandfather.”
The Ministry of Culture had also served a legal notice to Chris Peppé, asking him to withdraw the relics from the auction and return them to India. The Archaeological Survey of India requested the Consulate General of Hong Kong to take up the matter with authorities demanding the immediate cessation of the auction.
On May 2, Culture Minister Shekhawat had raised the issue with UK Secretary of State for Culture Lisa Nandy. The minister emphasised on the cultural and religious significance of the relics and urged immediate action to halt the auction. The UK, however, is learnt to have expressed its inability to help since the relics belonged to a private individual.
Unconventional private route
With this unconventional move by allowing a private industrialist to step in and get back the sacred relics, right from Hong Kong which has a huge Chinese influence, the government has reaffirmed India’s bid to establish itself as the birthplace of Buddhism vis-à-vis China. The move also allowed the government to not get into a commercial transaction for the relics, which would have raised ethical issues.
