Beejak Ki Pahari at Viratnagar

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Virat nagar is situated on the Jaipur-Alwar state highway at a distance of near about seventy-five Kms from Jaipur. It is in the neighborhood of important and recognized tourist destinations such as Siliserh, Sariska, Ajabgarh-Bhangarh, and Alwar. There are several unique and historical venues at Virat nagar, which have largely attracted tourist attention. These venues are of great historical importance as well as they are in a reasonably good state. These venues are easily opened to the ever-increasing tourist traffic to the colorful state. Being close to Jaipur, Alwar, and Delhi, virat nagar serves as a welcome break for the tourists who are already traveling on this way.

A complex rock shelter and natural cave shelter are found in the different hills of Virat nagar. These hills indicate the presence of prehistorical people from the beginning of Early Stone Age to the Late Stone Age. The Virat Nagar city is said to have been founded by King Virat. In this kingdom, the five pandavas spent the thirteen years of their exile in disguise (Agyatwas). Virat nagar had a special significance during the period of Mahabharata.

Virat Nagar has rich past, boasting of monuments and legends. Now, viratnagar is well known as a Bairat. In fact, this forgotten little town in Jaipur district boasts of having the oldest freestanding Buddhist structure in India. Rocks found in Virat Nagar are the remains of a Buddhist Monastery. Archaeological excavations from a hill in viratnagar have revealed more from the 3rd century BC, this time was belonging to the Great Mauryan rule.

Beejak Ki Pahari hosts a wonderful site of Buddhist origin. They are remnants of a Buddhist monastery. For understanding the Viratnagar splendour and historical significance, a brief account of details related to Beejak Ki Pahari would be needed. The Beejak Ki Pahari is a hill that forms a conspicuous object of the valley. The ancient Buddhist monasteries are found on the Beejak Ki Pahari hill.

This Buddhist monasteries were in existence at the time of Hwen Thsang's visit to Viratnagar, as lates as 634 A.D. It is nearly nine hundred years after the first visit of the Emperor Asoka to the Beejak ki pahari. The remains of these Buddhist monasteries are found in two distinct platforms, wetster, the upper one that is thirty feet higher than the eastern, or the lower one. On the lower platform, the second rock edict was carved on a granite boulder. The large mass of the racks in the center must have been the core, around which the stupa had been constructed. Whereas the ruins of the bricks walls around the stupa formed the chamber of resident monks around the monastery of Buddha.

In the middle of the lower platform, there is a three-inch wide circumbulatry passage and around it again a fairly well preserved encircling wall. In western India, this is the oldest structure of temple that furnishes modal for numerous rocks cut temples. The outside walls of the temple were inscribed with Buddhist texts in the Brahmi character of the Asokan period.

A gigantic mass of rock 73 feet in length is known as 'Top' or the 'Cannon'. In the modern times, under this part of the rock a small chamber has been constructed to serve a shrine of Hanuman. On all the sides of the beejak ki pahari, there are remains of the brick walls which once formed the cells of resident's monks.