Bhadanta Vishuddhananda Bodhi Thero, president of the Mumbai-based Akhil Bharatiya Bhikkhu Sangh and the Akhil Bharatiya Buddhaleni Bachav Samiti, stumbled upon the statues when he visited the caves along with another Buddhist upasak from Aurangabad, Uttamrao Jadhav, on August 18. A complaint lodged with the Uran police resulted in the arrest of five traders, all residents of Gharapuri.

Pandurang Gharat, Mangesh Vasudev Patil, Chandrakant Damodar Thakur, Waman Lakshman Gharat and Ankush Yashwant Mhatrehave been charged with ``causing damage and hurting the feelings of the Buddhist community''. The traders have been released on bail.

``On our way out of the caves, we saw about 20 statues of the Buddha in this particular pose being sold up in about six stalls and shops,'' said Thero. Two or three of them had been sold that day itself. ``We were extremely shocked. I have preached the dhamma for over 20 years now and I have never known the Buddha in this form,'' Thero told Express Newsline. ``When I quizzed the stall owners about the particular pose the Buddha was in, he told me it was a `Shakti Buddha'.''

Yet, Thero, himself a post-graduate in Pali, checked with docorates and professors in the language and in Buddhism from the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada Vidyapeeth at Aurangabad as well as with religious leaders at the Bodhgaya in Bihar to find out if Buddha has been recorded anywhere in connection with a sexual act. ``Dr A Ramteke, professor Bhausaheb Kurale and Dr B Ganveer of theuniversity told me that the Buddha is not known to have indulged in anything of the sort. Buddhist religious texts and literature have no record of anything more than a lunch he is said to have had with the courtesan Amrapali and an upasika named Vishakha,'' said Thero.

Thero alleged that a factory unit in Gharapuri itself was manufacturing the statues. However, the accused claimed that they were supplied the statues by a trader, whose name they said they don't know, from a factory in Uttar Pradesh.

Thero theorises that the sale of the statues is ``a conscious attempt to fit Buddha into the fold of the 33 crore Hindu Gods''. A delegation of about ten bhikkhus led by Thero has requested the Mumbai police to impose a ban on the factory.