Sanchi Stupa: Tupas A
Sanchi Stupa: Tupas A
Sanchi Stupa: Tupas A
The stupas at Sanchi are one of several groups of such monuments situated within a few miles of
Bhilsa on the G. 1. P. Railway in Bhopal State, and commonly known as the Bhilsa Topes.! One of
these groups is on the hill above Sonari: another at Satdhara; a third at Bhojpur; and a fourth at
Andher. Their existence in the vicinity of Bhilsa is not due to mere chance. It is explained by the fact
that near the modern town and at the junction of the Bes and Betwa rivers there once stood the
famous and populous city of Vidisa, and that around this city there grew up a flourishing
community of Buddhists, who found on the summits of the neighboring hills suitable sites for
erecting their memorials and monasteries. In the case of other famous Buddhist monuments, such
as those at Bodh-Gaya, Sarnath or Sankisa, the sites were chosen because they had become
hallowed by the presence of the Buddha himself, and the monuments were designed to
commemorate some act in his life, such as his attainment of enlightenment at Bodh-Gaya, his first
sermon at Sarnath, and his passing away at Kasia. But Sanchi so far as we know, had no such
connection with the life or acts of the Great Teacher, and the place is scarcely mentioned in
Buddhist literature. It is a strange coincidence, therefore, that these monuments should now be the
finest examples of this style of Buddhist architecture in India. In all probability it was their
association with Asoka, who was to Buddhism what Constantine the Great was to Christianity that
accounts for the splendor of these structures. For one of the queens of Asoka, Devi by name came
from Vidisa; and, it was on the hill of .8afichi, then known as Chetiyagiri, that a monastery is said to
have been built for his son Mahendra, Whether this story is correct or not, the fact remains that the
earliest monuments here belong to the reign of this great monarch, as is proved by the broken shaft
and lion capital of one of his famous edict-bearing pillars still standing outside the southern
gateway of the Great Stupa at Sanchi. It has commonly been supposed that the Great Stupak was
erected, just as it stands, together with the inscribed pillar outside the southern gateway, in the
reign of Asoka, and that the railing around its base was approximately contemporary with the
stupa, and that the four toranas were erected In the course of the second century B.O. These
suppositions, however, as pointed out by Sir .John Marshall in his excellent Guide to Sanchi, have
proved to be erroneous. The original stupa, which was probably built by Asoka at the same time as
his edict bearing pillar was erected (circa 250 B.O.), was a brick structure of about half the height
and diameter of the present stupa,' and it was not until about a century later, during the Sunga
period, that this original brick structure was encased in a covering of stone which brought the stupa
to its present dimensions, and the stone railing was built around it base; while it was not until the
latter part of the first century B.O. that the four gateways were added . With the addition of the
stone casing the diameter of the stiipa was increased to over 120 feet and its height to about 54 feet.
Their later casing to the dome was built of stone covered by a thick coating of mortar, finished off in
plaster and a stucco garland ornament around the dome relieved with color and gilding. The ‘last of
the additions to this remarkable monument were the elaborate and richly carved gateways. The
style and construction of both the rails and the gateways clearly shows that they are stone copies
Of former wooden models, and in all probability, the original railings and toranas enclosing the
brick stupa built by Asoka were executed in wood, just as we find them in China and Japan at the
present day. All four gateways were of similar design-the work of carpenters rather than stone
masons, and the marvel is that erections of this kind, constructed on principles wholly unsuited to
work in stone, should have survived in such a remarkable state of preservation for nearly two
thousand years. According to their age, the toranas stand in the following order the southern,
northern, eastern, and the western, their relative age in each case being indicated by inscriptions
and the styles of their sculpture. The latter exhibit a great advance in the modeling of figures and
minuteness of detail, and in many other respects also art begins to profit by the direct observation
of nature. Here and there, the sculpture of the Sunga period at Sanchi, as well as at Bharhut and
Bodh-Gaya, reveal the influence which Hellenistic ideas exerted on Indian Art through the medium
of the contemporary Greek colonies in the Punjab-b, although the character of these reliefs and
their wonderful sense of decorative beauty are essentially Indian. In the beautiful Sanchi has-reliefs
we have many representations of stupas surmounted by single-, double-, and triple-canopied
umbrellas, together with superimposed groups of umbrellas numbering from three to five, but they
have not as yet been conventionalized so as to produce the pyramid of superimposed discs which
subsequently came to be recognized as the symbol of the whole. Thus we have the primary idea of
the accumulated honor of the pyramid of stone or metal discs, which eventually had such a
profound influence on Buddhist architecture; culminating in the many-storied pagodas of China and
Japan. The only ancient wooden umbrella existing in India to-day is the
Well-known example crowning the rock-cut stupa in the Karle Chaitya in the Bombay Presidency;
but stone specimens are common. Ancient metal umbrellas are rare in India now, but they seem to
have been common enough in the seventh century, as Hiuen Tsang expressly states that several of
the stupa and uih/iras which he visited were surmounted
By' superimposed copper-gilt chaityarihas (umbrellas). The umbrellas portrayed in the Sanchi
reliefs appear to represent wooden umbrellas similar to the one remaining at Karle, as it would
have been impossible to have grouped them together in the manner depicted had they been of
stone. The latter material seems to have been used only for single canopied umbrellas and rock-cut
specimens.
Although the structural umbrellas, like the tees, which together crowned the early stupa« have all
disappeared, we still have plenty of rock-cut examples and stone models of stupa, illustrating the
successive stages through which these conventionalized groups of umbrellas passed before
assuming the form of a solid stone spire. The different stages of development are well shown in the
chronologically successive rock-cut specimens and stone models illustrated in Figs 18 to 21. It will
be noticed that, concurrently with the elongation of the tee, there is also an elongation of the body
of the stupa, until finally we arrive at the last development where the tee is practically all that is left.
Another striking feature in the development of the stupa., 8S shown in these illustrations, is that
figure sculpture has superseded the plainer architectural forms of the earlier stupas, and that the
Buddha has now been introduced in all his conventional attitudes and is even the object of worship,
his image being placed in a shrine attached to the front of the stupa.