Bodhgaya Temple was in the hands of its followers till the first part of the thirteenth century A.D. They lost their control over it only after its destruction by the Turk invaders. From the time of their invasion to the time of the arrival of the first Mahant at the site, we have no information about the Temple. A wandering Sanyasi (Saivite Hindu monk) named Mahant Ghamandi Giri arrived at Budhgaya in the year 1590 and decided to make the place his permanent residence. In due course this Mahåvihåra was occupied by the Mahant and he claimed that he was the legitimate heir of the Mahåvihåra. The present Mahant is the sixteenth in succession to Mahant Ghamandi Giri.
The Question of restoring the Mahabodhi Mahåvihåra into Buddhist hands was first demanded by Sir Edwin Arnold, the famous author of “The Light of Asia” in 1885. He visited the spot and made an earnest appeal to the Government of India as well as to the British Government to have the Mahabodhi Temple in the hands of the Buddhists who are its legitimate custodians. He also wrote to the Buddhist countries ‘asking them to take up the cause of the Temple’. In response to his appeal, Anagarika Dharmapala of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), took up this cause in 1891 and some of his co-workers of partially regaining the Temple from the Mahanth after encountering undue hardships.