Overview
- The inauguration is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Saturday at the Rai Pithora Cultural Complex in New Delhi, according to official statements and the prime minister’s post on X.
- The exhibition, titled 'The Light & the Lotus: Relics of the Awakened One,' brings together for the first time the repatriated Piprahwa finds with holdings from the National Museum and the Indian Museum.
- Discovered in 1898 at Piprahwa, the assemblage—widely linked by scholarship to the Buddha’s relics—includes bone fragments, crystal caskets, gold ornaments, gemstones and a sandstone coffer, with a Brahmi inscription referencing the Shakya clan.
- The trove’s return followed the government’s legal move to stop a Sotheby’s Hong Kong sale in 2025 and a purchase by Godrej Industries Group that enabled repatriation through a public–private arrangement.
- Curators have organised thematic galleries centered on a Sanchi stupa–inspired model, supported by immersive films, digital reconstructions, interpretive projections and other multimedia elements.