Venerable Bhante Bodhidatta Thera

“The path of Dhamma is not walked alone — it is walked for all beings.”

His Story

From Engineer to Monk to Servant of All

Born as Jagadish on 3 May 1972 in Bengaluru district, Karnataka, Venerable Bhante Bodhidatta Thera completed a B.E. in Civil Engineering before dedicating his life to the Dhamma and to those at the margins of society. He received full monastic ordination at Bodh Gaya in 2007 — the very place of the Buddha’s awakening.

Since then, he has walked — quite literally — thousands of kilometres across India on padayatra, carrying a message of peace, social harmony and compassion. Under his leadership, IBMCT has grown from a local initiative into a registered charitable trust with flagship programs in elder care, women’s empowerment, child welfare and rural healthcare, alongside the ambitious Nalanda Study Centre, completed in 2024.

His work has extended to the Sacred Buddha Relic Initiative, advocacy for the protection of the Ashokan Rock Edicts, and international Dhamma outreach — always returning to one conviction: that wisdom and compassion belong in action.