Stupa Architecture

Introduction
The word Stupa is mentioned in the Rigveda, Atharvaveda, Vajasaneyi Samhita,
Taittriya Samhita, in the Panchvimshati Brahmana and the Monier-Williams
Sanskrit-English Dictionary 49 which says it a “knot or tuft of hair, the upper part
of head, crest, top, summit, a heap or pile of earth or bricks etc.
During the period c. 200 BCE- 300 CE there was an institutionalisation of
religious activities. Different religions were patronised by different sections of the
society which led to the building of elaborate and grand religious structures.
Keeping this background in mind, this period witnessed the growth of Buddhist
religious architecture.
According to M. Sivarammurti, Stupa is regarded as a monument for veneration.
But as Stupa seems to be associated with votive and commemorative and offering
purposes; moreover Stupa was related to the ritualistic and commemorative with
sectarian affiliation with the school of philosophical obligation and was bound by
aspects of socio economic life.
Buddhist religious architecture consisted of viharas (residences of monks), stupas
(repositories of remains or relics) and chaityas (places of worship), some
free-standing and some cut into rock at hillsides. Viharas were monasteries for
the accommodation of monks living together in communities, and were mostly, if
not always, connected with chaityas. A stupa (heap, mound or tumulus),
originally a funerary mound, stood for the center of the universe in Buddhist
tradition
Stupas
The tradition of making stupas was pre-Buddhist. The funerary association,
though, goes back to the Vedic Ages where mounds were raised on ashes and
charred remains.
The stupa in the Buddhist context, celebrates parinibbana, the central message of
Buddhism and also symbolises the eternal ‘body’. According to sacred tradition,
eight stupas were built over the remains of Buddha immediately after his death.
However, we do not know how these were as none of them survived. However, it
is assumed that they were prototypes of the many stupas that were raised all over
the Buddhist world.
Initially, relics of the Buddha were enshrined in the solid core of stupas but,
thereafter, relics of the Buddha’s disciples and famous monks were similarly
enshrined. Veneration and worship were transferred from the relics to the stupa
itself, whether or not it contained relics.
The stupa quickly became an emblem of the Buddha’s dhamma and an important
part of Buddhist monasteries. The Mauryan king, Ashoka, played a pivotal role in
popularising the stupa and, according to the Avadana texts, is supposed to have
redistributed the Buddha’s relics among prominent towns in the land and
ordered the construction of stupas over them.
The stupa itself is a hemispherical mound with a barrel-vaulted roof built over a
sacred relic either of the Buddha or of a sanctified monk or saint. The relic was
generally kept in a casket, which was placed in a smaller chamber in the centre of
the stupa. There were four types of stupas in all—saririka (containing the buried
bodily remains of the Buddha), paribhogika (containing the buried belongings of
the Buddha), uddesika (memorial stupas) and votive.
Bas-reliefs carved on the railings and gateways of the stupa show scenes from
daily life. They also depict scenes from the Jataka stories or tales associated with
the previous lives of the Buddha. At each of the four cardinal points in the stupa,
there was a break in the railing for a large gateway. This gave the sculptors
further scope to show their skill.
The stupas followed a fixed style which was also related to its function as a
Buddhist object of devotion. All stupas had a solid, circular mass, enclosed within
a railing (vedika) surrounded by a circumambulatory path (pradakshina path)
which is meant to be circumambulated by Buddhist devotees. Circumambulation
(parikrama) remains one of the most important means of performing worship in
the faith of India throughout the centuries. The worshipper has to
circumambulate a prescribed number of times while keeping the monument at
his/her right all the time (pradakshina), thus moving in a clockwise direction.
There are two flights of stairs (soapanas) and a stone umbrella (chhatra). The
railings are ideally meant to be a perfect circle though in some cases it may be
elliptical. The four gateways (toranas) in the railing are aligned to the cardinal
directions and the pattern of entrances thus produced creates a cosmological
diagram in the form of a swastika, which encloses the entire sacred space.

Location of Stupas
The stupa-monastery complexes were usually located near urban centres, and
along major trade and pilgrimage routes. Some marked places connected with
important events in the life of the Buddha. Most of the major stupa-monastery
complexes were located on the outskirts of great cities of the time—Sanchi
outside Vidisha, Amaravati outside Dharanikota (the Satavahana capital) and
Nagarjunakonda outside Vijayapuri (the Ikshvaku capital). Bharhut was also
clearly located on the outskirts of a city, which has not been identified so far.
Sanchi

This essay is the story of Sanchi interwoven with Buddha‘s life as gleaned through
the archaeological pieces of evidence.

Sanchi Stupa is a Buddhist complex, famous for its Great Stupa, on a hilltop at
Sanchi Town in Raisen District of Madhya Pradesh, India. The Great Stupa at
Sanchi is India‘s oldest stone structure and an important monument of Indian
Architecture. It was initially commissioned by the emperor Ashoka in the 3rd
century BCE.

Its nucleus was a simple hemispherical brick structure built over the relics of the
Buddha.

It is crowned by the chhatri, a parasol-like structure symbolising high rank,

intended to honour and shelter the relics. The original construction work of this
Stupa was overseen by Ashoka, whose wife Devi was the daughter of a merchant
of nearby Vidisha. Sanchi was also her birthplace as well as the venue of her and
Ashoka‘s wedding.
 In the 1st century BCE, four elaborately carved toranas (ornamental gateways)
and a balustrade encircling the entire structure were added—the Sanchi Stupa
built during the Mauryan period made of bricks. The composite flourished until
the 11th century.

In the Buddha‘s life at Kushinagar, the Buddha asked Ananda to spread a cloth
on ground between two Sala trees. He was born between two Sala trees and was
to die in a similar place. He lay down like a lion and gave his last admonitions to
thousands of monks and lay people who had assembled to have a last glimpse of
him. The Buddha said that ―Now, monk, I have Mahaparinirvana of Buddha,
Gandhara Mahaparinirvana of Buddha, Gandhara nothing more to tell you but
that all that is composed is liable to decay! Strive after salvation energetically.‖

The event of the demise of Buddha is called Mahaparinirvana in the Buddhist

world. Buddha‘s remains cremated with royal honours. Drona, a Brahmana,
stopped a battle for the possession of his mortal remains for daily worship. Eight
stupas were erected in different parts of India to house his relics. Since Buddha‘s
Parinirvana took place at Kushinagar, the Mallas of Kushinagar kept the relics
under their possession.

Through the ages, Sanchi was a great religious centre for many centuries, from
300 BCE to 1100 CE. The stupa number 01 (Great Stupa) had been through
various stages of development. In the beginning, it was made of bricks and dates
to the Mauryan period. This brick stupa was just half of the present time.

After the Mauryan period, the Stupa developed during the Sunga period and the
Vedika around the Anda and Medhi, Harmika was added to the early Mauryan
stupa.

In the 100 BCE, the Stupa was further enhanced by the great Satavahana rulers
by adding four Toranas in four cardinal directions.

The last addition to the Stupa took place during Gupta period when four images
of Buddha, each seated under a pillared canopy installed against the walls of the
StupaStupa facing its four entrances.

The monuments at Sanchi remained unnoticed until 1818 when General Taylor of
the Bengal Cavalry camped near the site in a military campaign. For several years
after that Sanchi suffered from the depredation of treasure- hunters and amateur
Archaeologists, the stupas were significantly damaged by digging in 1822.

The excavation of Alexander Cunningham and F.C. Maisey in 1851 marks the
beginning of a more scholarly approach.

Besides the recovering reliquaries, Cunningham attempted to describe the site in

detail and gave an account of the inscriptions. Cunningham‘s book Bhilsa Topes,
published in 1854, represents the best work of the period.

According to Cunningham, ―the name of Sanchi, or Sachi,‖ is probably only the

spoken form of the Sanskrit Santi: for the term Santi-Sangham (the Santi
community) used in the inscription on the southern pillar of the Great Tope.‖

Names of Sanchi in Early Records:

1) Vedisagiry or Chetiyagiri: There is the reference in Mahavamsa that
Mahendra, son of Asoka and his queen Devi, is said to have visited his mother at
Vidisa, and the latter took him up to the beautiful monastery of Vedisagiri built
by her. In some recessions, it is called Chetiyagiri.
2) Kakanaya or Kakanava: From the early votive inscriptions it appears that the
locality was known anciently as Kakanaya or Kakanava. The records of 412-413
CE and 450- 451 CE, inscribed on the ground balustrade of Stupa 01, refer to it by
Kakanadabota.

Relics were found at Sanchi meaning the relic belongs to the holy person‘s body
kept as an object of reverence. This part may be a holy person‘s bone, the objects
like rings . bracelets used by the divine person. After the cremation of Buddha,
his relics distributed among the eight kings. The containers used for the Buddhist
tradition relics have variously described as reliquaries, casket and relic boxes.
The most common word is the relic casket. It is important to note that not
Buddha, relics have found from any of the stupas of Sanchi but, the relics of
Sariputta and Maha-Mogalanasa the two chief disciples of Buddha found in the
ruins of Stupa Number 03. The archaeologist found Sariputta and Mogalana, the
two chief disciples of Buddha in the ruins of stupa number 03. As this discovery
all subsequent explorations fully described in Bhilsa Topes, it only refers to them
here to explain how it happened that it became associated with the explorations
of ―Sanchi and its Remains.‖
 The caskets are made of steatite covered by a thin earthen bowl of glossy black
ware. These relic caskets recovered on the level of the terrace at the centre of the
dome. Inside the relic-chamber covered by a large stone slab of over 1.5 metres
were two stone boxes with their lids respectively inscribed with the words
‗Sariputas‘ and ‗Maha Mogalanas‘, the lids are now in the Museum. The Stupa
Number 03 situated about 45 metres to the northeast of Stupa Number 01. Its
diameters and height are 15 metres and 8.23 metres respectively. It is equally
important to note that Stupa Number 02, located at the western side of the Stupa
Number 01 yielded a few Buddhist teachers‘ relic caskets. At the height of 2.13
metres above the terrace, Cunningham found within a relic-chamber a relic-box
of sandstone, 0.28 X 0.24 X 0.24 metres. Inside the box were found four small
relic-caskets of steatite inscribed with the names of ten Saints whose burnt bones
were enshrined within. Among these ten Saint, the name of Kasyap-Gota and
Moggliputa is significant. It is noteworthy that Moggliputa Tissa was the key
person to organize the third Buddhist council during the reign of Ashoka.

By the first century CE, the Great Stupa had been enclosed in brick and stone
slabs, plastered over and probably painted white with its four ornamental
sandstone gateways completed and it is these gateways that are the crowning
glory of the whole stupa structure. They resemble wood and ivory carvings. In
each gateway of the stupa, three uprights and architraves, with coiled ends
representing the unfurling of scrolls, rest on thick rectangular pillars. Triratna
motifs, the three Buddhist jewels – the Buddha, the Doctrine and the Order—are
placed at the pinnacle of the gateway. The most significant decorations are the
central narrative panels, surrounded with a host of human, animal, geometric
and plant motifs, among them the earliest female nudes—implying a hierarchy of
meaning implicit in Indian sacred decoration. Water buffaloes, elephants,
human-headed lions and many-hooded king cobras (nagas), have been
represented, reiterating the Buddhist belief in the unity of life.
While Stupa I did not yield any relics, Stupa II contained a relic box with bone
fragments of ten Buddhist monks. Stupa III had the relics (bone fragments and
beads) of the Buddhist monks Sariputta and Mahamogalana. Coins and
semi-precious stones have been discovered from under the floors of the monastic
cells. Other structural remains at Sanchi belonging to c.200 BC-AD200 include
pillars, a pillared hall and shrines, including an apsidal one. Recent excavations
at Sanchi have revealed ancient mud dams for storing rainwater. Hence, the
monks were obviously involved in water harvesting, not just for providing
drinking water but also for irrigating the surrounding fields.
Around a thousand small donors, 200 of them being women, funded this stupa.
However, the cost of the decoration of the gateways was borne by 11 major
donors. Generosity (Dana) was raised to a very high level in Buddhism, instilled
through the popular story of Prince Vessantara. Among other donors were the
ivory workers from the nearby town of Vidisha who carved the details of the
gateways as an act of piety. Over 800 inscriptions have been found at Sanchi, the
vast majority being votive inscriptions of the 2nd century BCE-2nd century CE.

Amaravati
Amaravati is another major site in the Andhra region and is supposed to mark the
site of ancient Dhanyakataka, an important town in the Deccan and capital of the
later Satavahanas. The large stupa-monastery complex located here is close to an
impressive megalithic burial. A fragment of what may be an Ashokan inscription
suggests the possibility that this complex dates to Ashoka’s time, with six
occupational periods ranging from the 2nd century BCE to the 2nd/ 3rd century
CE.
The Amaravati stupa was the largest in the Andhra country and is referred to in
ancient inscriptions as a mahachaitya. However, due to indiscriminate excavation
and removal of sculpted stones from the site from the late 18th century onwards,
the drum of the brick stupa, the circumambulatory path and a few railing
uprights are all that survive here.
While the spoked-wheel plan appears at many sites like Nagarjunakonda, the
Amaravati stupa had a solid brick core. There is another interesting contrast
between the stupas of Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda. While the dome, railings
and gateways of the Amaravati stupa were profusely ornamented with beautiful
relief carvings, the railing fragments from Nagarjunakonda are all plain and
uninscribed.
In addition, the sculptures at Amaravati are more mature than those at the
central Indian sites of Sanchi and Bharhut, as the relief scenes are less crowded
and the figures are more natural and graceful. While these sites offer the earliest
sculptural representations of important episodes in the Buddha’s life and of the
Jataka stories, a common link between the Jataka scenes at Bharhut and
Amaravati is that they are labelled, which is of great help in identifying the
sculptures.
Nearly 200 inscriptions were discovered at the site of Amaravati and 108 of these
provide data on patronage. Monks and nuns form the largest category of donors,
followed by women and trading groups. It is evident that the site of Amaravati
had great sanctity, thereby explaining the prominent part played by monks and
nuns in sponsoring religious architecture at the site.

Conclusion
Not only do these stupas mark the growth of Buddhism, not only in India but in
the world as well, but also it shows how the rulers, in order to gain legitimacy,
patronised many of these stupas. Though Buddhism diminished during the
mediaeval ages in South Asia, these stupas stand witness to the grandeur that was
attached to Buddhism.