Bihar Travel Guide: Bodh Gaya, Nalanda, Rajgir, Patna and Vaishali

Bihar's sights fall into clusters: Bodh Gaya and Gaya in the south; Rajgir, with Nalanda 15 km and Pawapuri 38 km away; Patna on the Ganga; and Vaishali and Kesariya in the north. Vikramshila and the Valmiki tiger reserve lie far out to the east and north-west.

Bodh Gaya

Bodh Gaya, 16 km from Gaya, is the town where the Buddha attained enlightenment. Its Mahabodhi Temple Complex, inscribed by UNESCO in 2002, holds the Bodhi Tree and the Vajrasana, the seat of his enlightenment, and the monasteries of many Buddhist countries stand around it. Give it at least a full day and a night, so that you see the temple early and late in the day. Our Bodh Gaya travel guide covers its sacred spots, rules and monasteries in depth.

Nalanda

The excavated remains of Nalanda Mahavihara, a monastery and place of learning that UNESCO dates from the 3rd century BCE to the 13th century CE, spread over 23 hectares: 11 viharas, the monks' residences and lecture halls, and 14 temples, laid out along a north–south axis. UNESCO inscribed the site in 2016. The Archaeological Survey of India's museum, opened in 1917, shows about 350 of the more than 13,000 objects found here, and a memorial hall nearby honours the Chinese scholar Xuanzang. Nalanda is 15 km from Rajgir.

Rajgir

Rajgir was the capital of the Magadha king Bimbisara and his son Ajatashatru, and its Gridhakuta hill, the Vulture's Peak, named for a rock shaped like a vulture's head, was a favourite meditation place of the Buddha, where he is said to have preached the Lotus Sermon. Venuvan, the bamboo grove, is held to be one of the first gifts Bimbisara made to him. A ropeway climbs to the marble Vishwa Shanti Stupa, Brahmakund's 11 hot springs draw Hindu pilgrims, and the cyclopean wall of huge undressed stones still runs up Ratnagiri hill.

Pawapuri

Pawapuri, 38 km from Rajgir, is where Mahavira, the 24th Jain Tirthankara, attained nirvana. Its Jal Mandir, the water temple that marks the place of his cremation, stands in a tank of red lotuses and holds the Charan Paduka, his footprints; tradition says his elder brother, King Nandivardhan, built it. It is one of five main temples in the town. The district names Patna, about 90 km away, as the most convenient railhead, though Rajgir is nearer.

Patna

The state capital, on the Ganga, holds Takht Sri Harmandir Ji, the birthplace of Guru Gobind Singh and one of the five seats of Sikh temporal authority; Maharaja Ranjit Singh built the present gurdwara. Golghar, a granary built by Captain John Garstin in 1786 after the famine of 1770, has 145 steps spiralling up to a view of the city and the river. Add the Bihar Museum, closed on Mondays, and Kumhrar, which the ASI lists as the supposed site of Ashoka's palace. Cover your head and remove your shoes at the takht.

Vaishali

Vaishali, about 65 km from Patna by way of Hajipur, was the seat of the Licchavi republic: the mound called Raja Vishal ka Garh is believed to have been its assembly, and the Abhishek Pushkarini tank the place where its rulers were anointed. At Kolhua, an 18.3-metre Ashokan pillar of polished red sandstone, topped by a lion, stands beside a brick stupa. Relics of the Buddha found here in excavations of 1958 to 1962 are now enshrined in the Buddha Samyak Darshan Museum and Memorial Stupa, built of 42,000 sandstone blocks joined without cement.

Kesariya

In East Champaran, the stupa at Kesariya rises 104 feet. The state tourism department dates its first building to Ashoka's reign in the 3rd century BCE, with enlargement in the Gupta period, and ties it to the Buddha's last journey, when he is said to have given his alms bowl to the Licchavis here. The Archaeological Survey of India excavated it in 1998. Buses and cars reach it from Motihari or Muzaffarpur.

Vikramshila

At Antichak, 38 km from Bhagalpur in eastern Bihar, are the ruins of Vikramshila, a Buddhist university founded by King Dharmapala. The ASI protects the site, with its stupa, monastery remains and meditation halls, and UNESCO names Vikramshila among the monastic cities that took up Nalanda's model of the residential vihara. It is far from the other Buddhist sites, so plan it from Bhagalpur rather than as a day out of Patna or Rajgir.

Barabar Caves

In the Barabar and Nagarjuni hills of Jehanabad district, seven rock-cut caves, among them Lomas Rishi and Sudama, are protected by the ASI. The state's tourism site dates them to the Mauryan period and notes their polished interiors and inscriptions. The caves are near Makhdumpur village; autos and taxis run from Jehanabad town, and the last stretch may mean a short trek.

Valmiki Tiger Reserve

Bihar's only tiger reserve covers about 901 square km in the northernmost part of West Champaran, where its forests run into Nepal's Chitwan National Park. It was notified in 1994, and the Wildlife Institute of India counts seven forest types within it, from dry Siwalik sal to swamp forest. September to April is the season to go, and jeeps and taxis come from Bettiah and Narkatiaganj.

• Sit in on the chanting at the Mahabodhi Temple, morning or evening.
• Ride the ropeway up to Rajgir's Vishwa Shanti Stupa, then visit the Vulture's Peak and Venuvan.
• Walk through Nalanda's excavated monasteries and temples, keeping off the walls, as the site's rules ask.
• At Gaya, watch or take part in pind daan, the rite Hindus perform for their ancestors, at the Vishnupad Temple on the Phalgu river; it enshrines a footprint of Vishnu in rock, and Queen Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore gave it its present form in the 18th century.
• Climb Golghar for the view of Patna and the Ganga, then spend a morning in the Bihar Museum.
• Buy Madhubani painting, Bhagalpur silk or sikki-grass work (see the questions below).

Time a trip for a festival if you can. Chhath, which Bihar calls the Mahaparv, follows Diwali in October or November: devotees fast and offer prayers from riverbank ghats to the setting sun and then the rising one. The Sonepur Mela, or Harihar Kshetra fair, opens at the meeting of the Ganga and the Gandak on Kartik Purnima, the full moon a fortnight after Diwali, and runs for about a month. Gaya's Pitrapaksha Mela fills 16 days of September and October, Buddha Purnima falls on the full moon in May, and Vaishali holds its Mahotsav in April for Mahavira's birth anniversary.