Lot 136
Cunningham, Sir Alexander
Mahabodhi
Auction: India in Ink: The Library of Dr Raj Krishna | 01 October 2026 from 10am | Lots 79 to 208
Description
or the Great Buddhist Temple under the Bodhi Tree at Buddha-Gaya. London: W. H. Allen & Co., 1892. First edition, 4to (32.5 x 24cm), original green pictorial cloth gilt, all edges dyed red, x 87 pp., 31 plates printed on card (mainly photographic), bookplate, a little wear to extremities, a few pencilled annotations to plates
Provenance
INDIA IN INK: THE LIBRARY OF DR RAJ KRISHNA
Footnote
Rare. ‘Sir Alexander Cunningham’s book Mahabodhi or the Great Buddhist Temple Under the Bodhi Tree at Buddha Gaya, published in 1892, was the culmination of its author’s nearly 30 year intimacy with Bodh Gaya and its antiquities. Although now obsolete in parts because of subsequent advances in Indology, Cunningham’s book is still essential reading for an understanding of Bodh Gaya’s past’ (Dhammika, The Navel of the Earth: the History and Significance of Bodh Gaya, 2018, p. viii).