Tirtha Atlas

The sacred geography of the Indic world — every site mapped, dated, storied, and cited.

3031 sites15 countries4 traditions30 centuries
Ancient · Buddhist · India

Sankissa

संकिशा

Sankisa, Farrukhabad, Uttar Pradesh · 27.3339°, 79.2711°

Gautama Buddha (site of the descent from the heavens)MauryaMauryanBuddhist circuit
Sacred since
300 BCE
first attestation / structure
Standing structure
3rd c. BCE (Ashokan pillar and stupa)
Maurya

History & significance

One of the eight great Buddhist pilgrimage places, revered as the spot where the Buddha returned to earth after teaching the Abhidhamma to his mother in the Tushita heaven. Ashoka set up a pillar with an elephant capital, a stupa and a temple here in the third century BCE, and the ruins of Buddhist monasteries and later Hindu monuments were surveyed by Alexander Cunningham in 1842.

Sthala katha — the traditional account

What follows is the temple’s own traditional account, transmitted through liturgy and local memory. It is recorded here as tradition, not as attested history.

The texts say Indra built three ladders down from Mount Meru so that the Buddha and his retinue could descend to earth at Sankissa on the Mahapavarana festival day.

Open in Google Maps ↗Wikipedia ↗View on the atlas map

Sources

coordinates: wikipedia-2026-08-27 · sources retrieved 2026-08-26 · dynasty page: Maurya