Gaya

Gaya is in a city in Bihar. It is used as a transit point for pilgrims traveling to nearby Bodhgaya. Gaya was a part of the ancient state Magadha. In South Bihar, the most prominent representative of Bhumihar Brahmin was the Tekari Raj family, whose great estate in Gaya dated back to the early eighteenth century.

"Gaya is a picturesque city surrounded by temple-crowned hills… It is a place of great sanctity and a very important place for pilgrimage, the central point of which is the Vishnupad temple that enshrines a footprint of Vishnu. The temple was built in the 18th century by the Maratha princess Ahliyabai.The hills around the city are also places of sanctity. The highest is that of Brahmayoni, which rises precipitately to a height of 450 feet above the plain. Six miles south of Gaya is the great temple of Bodh Gaya, one of the holiest places in the world, and the most sacred of all places to the Buddhists.These (Barabar) hills are 6-8 miles east of Bela railway station, the second railway station on the way to Patna… This is the site of the ancient Silabhadra monaster. On a low ridge of granite in the southern corner of the valley are the famous Barabar caves. The reader of E.M.Forster’s book A Passage to India will recall the incident of which the scene is one of these caves." - Sir John Houlton in Bihar the Heart of India.

Now a days it is an ordinary district headquarter of India and bears a polluted, not so clean and dusty look though it still draws thousands of Hindu pilgrims as a pilgrimage and place for a compulsory pindadaan( funeral offerings to the deceased) for Hindus.Vishnupad Temple is the main draw which was constructed by famous Maratha princess Ahalyabayi of Holkar Dynasty of Gwalior in seventeenth century in place of old dilapidated temple.

Gaya is well connected thru Air, Rail and Road. Bodhgaya is the nearest Airport which offers International flight for Bodhist Country like Thailand, Mayanmar, Japan. 2nd Option is Patna which is 100 KM and well connected by Rail and Road service.