Editor’s Note
This article reports on the significant repatriation of sacred Buddha relics to India after 127 years, highlighting a successful intervention to prevent their auction. The original text contained an incomplete sentence regarding the purchaser. For clarity and completeness, we have finalized the report to state that industrialist Pirojsha Godrej facilitated their return.
India’s faith and heritage associated with Lord Buddha has been honored once again. After 127 years, the sacred relics of Lord Buddha discovered at Piprahwa have returned to India on Wednesday. These relics were put up for auction by the famous Hong Kong auction house ‘Sotheby’s’, but due to the strict intervention of the Indian government and the initiative of an industrialist, they have come back into India’s possession.
Pirojsha Godrej of the Godrej Industries group purchased these 349 relics privately and handed them over to India. This information was provided by officials of the Union Ministry of Culture. However, the value of this historic purchase has not been made public, but according to experts, its estimated price is over 100 million dollars (approximately 830 crore rupees).
Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat described this as a wonderful example of ‘Public-Private Partnership’. He said that a major part of this collection will be loaned to the National Museum for the next five years, while the entire collection will also be displayed for three months after its arrival in India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X, “A joyous day for our cultural heritage! It would make every Indian proud that the sacred Piprahwa relics of Bhagwan Buddha have come home after 127 long years. These sacred relics highlight India’s close association with Bhagwan Buddha and his noble teachings. It also…”
These relics were discovered in 1898 during the excavation of an ancient Buddhist stupa at a site named Piprahwa, located near the India-Nepal border in Siddharthnagar district, Uttar Pradesh. The excavation was led by British citizen William Claxton Peppé. Since that time, a part of these relics has been kept safely at the Indian Museum in Kolkata, which includes the bones of Lord Buddha, vessels made of soapstone and crystal, and a sandstone vessel.
The gems and jewelry presented for auction were obtained from the same excavation and became the private property of the Peppé family. Peppé’s descendant, Chris Peppé, placed them in an auction by Hong Kong-based Sotheby’s in May 2025, but the auction scheduled for May 7 was postponed following pressure from the Indian government.
The Ministry of Culture and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) not only sent legal notices to Sotheby’s but also stopped this auction by activating the Indian Consulate in Hong Kong. Minister Shekhawat also raised this issue with the UK’s Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, although the British government expressed its inability to intervene, citing it as private property.
This step is considered part of India’s strategy to strengthen its claim on Buddhist heritage in regions influenced by China. At the same time, the government has maintained a moral perspective by presenting this matter as a cultural recovery rather than a commercial deal.