It’s a measure of what India is up against that the story of India intervening to stop the sale of literally priceless relics of the Buddha was carried by BBC on May 8, 2025 with the headline “Sotheby’s halts Buddha jewels auction after India threat". It makes India sound like a bellicose local bully besides underplaying the importance of the Piprahwa hoard that included sacred remains of the Buddha as well as gems, which international conventions decree cannot be sold.

Had it not been for the concerted effort of one of India’s foremost authorities on art and aesthetics, Professor Naman Ahuja of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, these holy relics may well have been auctioned like artefacts. Apart from the gross disrespect and ignominy of such an act, that the sacred gems may have gone to China (or some Chinese moneybags) as they were to be auctioned in Hong Kong cannot be ruled out either. And the significance of that is manifest.

As Prof Ahuja recounted at a talk given at the India International Centre on Wednesday, his urgent appeal to External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar alerted India to the imminent sale and the Ministry of Culture promptly sent a notice to stop Sotheby’s and the Peppe family—the “owners" of this hoard that originally comprised fragments of Buddha’s remains and 1,800 gemstones and crystals—from going ahead with the auction. The letter made crucial points.

India averred that the gems constituted “inalienable religious and cultural heritage of India and the global Buddhist community. Their sale violates Indian and international laws, as well as United Nations conventions". A delegation from India also took up the matter with Sotheby’s leading the auction house to release a statement saying that in light of the matters raised by India “and with the agreement of the consignors, the auction … has been postponed".

The notice was sent to Sotheby’s Hong Kong and the seller, Chris Peppé, one of three heirs of William Claxton Peppé, a British colonial landowner who in 1898 excavated five caskets of relics and gems from a 2,000 year old stupa buried on his “estate"—Birdpur—in Basti district on the border with Nepal. The Peppes’ portion of those gems (also regarded as part of the ‘sarira’ or body of the Buddha) were expected to fetch HK$100m (£9.7m) at the May 7 auction.

Auctioning part of what is regarded by scholars as one of the greatest archaeological finds ever because of convincing epigraphic evidence that the........

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