Sarnath (also referred to as Deer Park,[1][2][3] Sarangnath, Isispatana, Rishipattana, Migadaya, or Mrigadava)[4] is a town located 8 kilometres (5.0 miles) northeast of Varanasi, near the confluence of the Ganges and the Varuna rivers in Uttar Pradesh, India.

[6] Sarnath is also where the Buddhist sangha first came into existence, as a result of the first teaching given to the Buddha's first five disciples Kaundinya, Assaji, Bhaddiya, Vappa and Mahanama,[7] known as The First Turning of the Wheel of Dharma.

[16] Buddhism flourished in Sarnath during the second urbanisation (c. 600 – 200 BCE, from the time of the Mahajanapadas through the Nanda and Maurya periods), in part because of patronage from kings and wealthy merchants based in Varanasi.

Also, images of Hindu gods as Shiva and Brahma were found at the site, and a Jain temple was located very close to the Dhamek Stupa.

When Xuanzang visited Sarnath around 640 CE, he reported seeing hundreds of small shrines and votive stupas, and a vihara some 61 metres (200 feet) in height containing a large statue of the Buddha.

[18] In his writings, Xuanzang mentioned a pillar constructed by Ashoka near a stupa that marked the location where the Buddha set the wheel of the law in motion.

[19] During the Pala (8th–11th centuries) period, the rulers built new mahaviharas such as Odantapuri, Somapura, Jagaddala, and Vikramashila and patronised existing ones such as Nalanda and Sarnath.

Inscriptions unearthed at Sarnath in the early 20th century indicate that some of the monasteries there enjoyed royal patronage from the Gahadavala rulers.

For example, in a mid-12th-century inscription attributed to Queen Kumaradevi (consort of King Govindachandra) and member of the Pithipati dynasty of Bodh Gaya.

[20] It is widely asserted that the structure referred to in the Kumaradevi inscription is the Dharma Chakra Jina Vihar, but the evidence for this is inconclusive.

[23] Along with Sarnath, the most important Buddhist mahaviharas in India were Vikramashila, Odantapuri, and Nalanda, all located in present-day Bihar.

All four of these centres of learning continued to thrive throughout the 12th century, probably because of the protection, support and tolerance demonstrated by the Pala and Gahadavala rulers.

[citation needed] Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent in the late 12th century brought massive plunder and destruction to northern India.

Qutb ud-Din Aibak — the commander of Muhammad of Ghor's army — led his men from Ghazni to Varanasi and Sarnath in 1194 CE.

[28] According to the 13th-century Persian historian Hasan Nizami, "nearly 1000 temples were destroyed and mosques were raised on their foundations, the Rais and chiefs of Hind came forward to proffer their allegiance [to the Ghurids]".

[37][38] In what is the first incontrovertible modern reference to the ruins at Sarnath, Jonathan Duncan (a charter member of the Asiatic Society and later Governor of Bombay) described the discovery of a green marble reliquary encased in a sandstone box in the relic chamber of a brick stupa at that location.

[41] Throughout the early 19th century, amateur archeologists explored and excavated at Sarnath, removing antiquities, and several artists drew sketches of the site (especially of the Dhamek Stupa).

During the course of these excavations, Cunningham discovered and removed many statues from monastery "L" and temple "M", as well as the sandstone box reported by Duncan from the Dharmarajika Stupa.

[55] Sometime in the mid-19th century, Sarnath was subjected to further depredations, as 48 statues and a tremendous amount of bricks and stones were removed from the historic site to be used in the construction of two bridges over the Varuna River.

[56] A final instance of despoilation occurred around 1898, when many bricks and stones were removed from Sarnath and used as ballast for a narrow-gauge railway that was under construction at that time.

In March 1905, the team exhumed parts of the base and shaft of the pillar with its Schism Edict, lion capital, and remnants of the dharmachakra sculpture.

[10][11] During the British East India's colonial rule, ancient sites such as Sarnath were subjected to extensive archaeological study.

Among these are included: Singhpur (Simhapuri), a village approximately 1.7 kilometres (1.1 miles) northwest of Sarnath,[34] is believed to be the birthplace of Shreyansanatha, the 11th tirthankara of Jainism.

In her 1832 poetical illustration Sarnat, a Boodh Monument., to a picture by Samuel Prout, Letitia Elizabeth Landon compared the four major religions of the world and mentioned the persecution and subsequent expulsion of the Buddhists from India.