Anuradhapura to Chennai Mahabalipuram Bodh Gaya Rajgir Shirdi Tour Package

Anuradhapura's Sri Maha Bodhi is widely regarded as the oldest historically documented tree in the world, grown from a cutting of the original Bodhi tree at Bodh Gaya and planted in 288 BCE by King Devanampiya Tissa. For well over two thousand years, it has stood as a living link between the two sites, and this trip, for travellers starting their journey in Anuradhapura, essentially retraces that ancient connection back to its source, moving through Chennai and Mahabalipuram before reaching Bodh Gaya, Rajgir and finally Shirdi.

Retracing a 2,300-Year-Old Connection

There's something genuinely rare about a trip that begins at a specific, documented historical point and travels toward the exact place that point originated from. Most journeys through India move between destinations connected loosely by geography or theme; this one begins with a tree whose entire history is a matter of continuous historical record; stretching back to a single planting date, and ends at the place that planting was meant to honour.

Chennai

The First English Fortress in India

Fort St. George, built in 1644, was the first fortress constructed by the English East India Company in India, and it remains in active use today as the seat of the Tamil Nadu state government, making it one of the rare colonial-era forts still serving a functional administrative purpose rather than existing purely as a monument.

Bronzes That Rewrote Art History

The Government Museum in Egmore, established in 1851 and one of India's oldest museums, holds a bronze gallery considered among the finest collections of Chola-era bronze sculpture in the world, including several pieces that have shaped how art historians understand South Indian metalwork techniques from over a thousand years ago.

Mahabalipuram

A Riverbed Carved Into a Cliff Face

Arjuna's Penance, one of the largest open-air rock reliefs in the world, spans an entire cliff face and depicts, according to most interpretations, the descent of the sacred river Ganges to earth, with a natural crack in the rock incorporated into the design to represent the river itself flowing down through the carved scene.

A Boulder That Refuses to Fall

Krishna's Butterball, a massive granite boulder resting at a steep angle on a smooth sloped surface, has remained motionless for centuries despite appearing to defy gravity, and various historical attempts, including one reportedly ordered by a colonial-era governor, to move or dislodge it have all failed.

Bodh Gaya

The Journey of a Single Sapling

According to historical accounts, the Buddhist nun Sanghamitta carried the sapling that would become Anuradhapura's Sri Maha Bodhi across the sea in a golden vase, a journey now commemorated on both sides of the connection it created. Standing at the Mahabodhi Temple today means standing at the literal origin point of a lineage that has been growing, uninterrupted, in Sri Lanka for over two millennia.

Rajgir

A Shrine to the Serpent Deities

Maniyar Math, an unusual circular shrine structure within Rajgir, is dedicated to Naga, or serpent deities, and its distinct round layout sets it apart from the more typical rectangular temple architecture found throughout the rest of the region, hinting at older, pre-Buddhist religious traditions that persisted alongside the area's later Buddhist significance.

Shirdi

The Mosque Where Sai Baba Lived

Dwarkamai, the mosque where Sai Baba spent much of his life, still maintains a sacred eternal flame, known as the dhuni, said to have been kept continuously burning since his time, and pilgrims today collect its sacred ash, known as udi, believed to carry protective significance.

A Nightly Procession Tradition

Each evening, a palanquin procession carries a portrait of Sai Baba from the main temple to the Chavadi, a building he historically used on alternate nights as a resting place, a ritual that has continued in some form for well over a century and remains one of Shirdi's most visibly maintained daily traditions.

A Trip That Traces Its Own Origin Story

Package Exclusions