# The Sultanganj Buddha goes to Birmingham
**सुल्तानगंज के बुद्ध बर्मिंघम पहुँचते हैं**

- Canonical page: https://indianepics.online/event/sultanganj-buddha-1862/
- Chapter: [Crown and the freedom struggle](https://indianepics.online/chapter/raj.md)
- Track: evidence (archaeology and documents)
- When: 1862 CE – 1864 CE
- Where: Sultanganj, Bhagalpur district, Bihar (25.2466, 86.7386)
- Tags: colonial, art, religion

## Summary

Railway works at Sultanganj uncover a copper Buddha over two metres tall; by 1864 it is in Birmingham, where it stays. Bihar is asking for its return.

सुल्तानगंज में रेलवे के काम में दो मीटर से ऊँची ताँबे की बुद्ध प्रतिमा निकलती है; 1864 तक वह बर्मिंघम में है और वहीं है। बिहार उसे वापस माँग रहा है।

## Account

Edward Brickell Harris, a railway engineer, was digging out a monastery site near the East Indian Railway's yard at Sultanganj when the figure came up on 6 December 1862, according to the British Library's record. It is copper, 2.3 metres tall and over 500 kilograms, and the museum dates it to about 500 to 700 CE. Harris published the find in London in 1864, and Samuel Thornton of Birmingham paid to bring it to Britain and offered it to the town's planned art museum.

The Buddha stands in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, far from the monastery site on the Ganga that gave it context. It left India in the same years the Archaeological Survey was starting work.

Return has been sought twice in recent years. The Archaeological Survey of India's Director General raised it in 2010, and Birmingham said it had received no official request. In July 2026 Bihar's Chief Minister, Samrat Choudhary, wrote to the Union Culture Minister asking for the statue's return, according to ETV Bharat.

## Sources

- British Library, photograph of the Sultanganj Buddha with catalogue note — https://searcharchives.bl.uk/catalog/040-003234461 (Discovered 6 December 1862 during E. B. Harris's excavations)
- Harris, Description of Buddhist Remains Discovered at Sooltangunge, on the River Ganges, 1862-63 (London, 1864) — https://searcharchives.bl.uk/catalog/032-003234460
- The Tribune, ASI wants Buddha and Amaravati sculptures back (2 June 2010) — https://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100602/main5.htm [second-hand] (Press report.)
- ETV Bharat, Bihar takes steps to bring back Sultanganj Buddha (11 August 2026) — https://www.etvbharat.com/en/bharat/bihar-takes-steps-to-bring-back-sultanganj-buddha-from-birmingham-museum-enn26081104711 [second-hand] (Press report; the letter was not read.)


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