Maha Bodhi Society

The Maha Bodhi Society, founded by the Sinhalese Buddhist reformer Anagarika Dharmapala in 1891, is the organization that reclaimed Bodh Gaya’s Mahabodhi Temple for Buddhist worship and revived Indian Buddhism’s pilgrimage geography.

Overview

Founded in Colombo in 1891 (with branches in Kolkata from 1892) after Dharmapala’s pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya, the Society campaigned internationally for the Mahabodhi Temple’s restoration to Buddhist control — the century-long struggle that produced the Bodh Gaya Temple Management Act (1949) and the temple’s shared administration.

Core teachings

Buddhist revival and pilgrimage: the restoration of India’s Buddhist sites (Sarnath, Kushinagar, Bodh Gaya), the Maha Bodhi journal (from 1892, a foundational Anglophone Buddhist periodical), and the training of Indian monks.

Practice and work

Mulagandha Kuti Vihara at Sarnath (consecrated 1931, with Kosetsu Nosu’s murals and the relics’ enshrinement); schools and hospitals; publication and mission work; the Society’s early support for Dr. Ambedkar’s movement’s milieu (the two were distinct, but the revival ground was shared).

Modern status

Centers in India and Sri Lanka; the Bodh Gaya struggle’s success made it the patron of Buddhist India’s rediscovery.

Verification notes

• The 1891 founding and the Bodh Gaya campaign are documented.
• Audited against Wikipedia (September 2026).