Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c12.s1.t2.2

c12.s1.t2.2

In course of time a natural development in the architecture of Stūpa was the desire to enclose it on all sides and this enclosure was called *vedikā* a term taken from the architecture of the Vedic *Yajña*. It was derived from the sacrificial altars called *Vedi* and seems to have originally signified the structure erected round the fire altar. The same form was later extended to an enclosure round any sacred object of worship; e. g. the word is used in the Rāmāyaṇa for a railing round a *chaitya-vriksha*. In the Rummindei Inscription of Aśoka a stone enclosure was erected round the stone-pillar by Aśoka under the name of *silā-vigaḍa-bhicha*. In the Ghosuṇḍī Inscription of Nārāyaṇa Vāṭaka the enclosure is called *prākāra*, i. e. a wall-like railing round the tablet of worship (*pūjā-śilā*). The same architectural feature was adopted for the Stūpas. In the case of the Bharhut and other Stūpas the *Vedikā* consisted of a series of upright pillars (*stambha, thambha*); each pillar was fixed to the ground by inserting its lower part in the socket of a stone basement (*ālambanapiṇḍikā*), buried under the earth to serve as the foundation. Between each pair of upright posts were fixed three transverse bars (*sūchī*) of which the ends were inserted in the sockets cut into the narrower sides of the pillars. The sokets were lenticular in shape and the cross-bars were of the form of flat pillows on account of which they were later on known as *takia*. The top of the pillars was bonded together by a series of coping stones (*uṣṇīśa*) which had on the bottom sidesocket holes (*chullī*) to receive the tenons (*chūḍā*) of the upright poles. The copings were round on the top and provided enough space on the two vertical sides for carving of decorative motifs and narrative scenes which became a very pleasing feature of Stūpa sculpture. Thus the four constituent parts, viz. the basement, upright pillar, cross-bar and the coping were bonded together into stable structure. [Fig. 55]. The great railing, *mahāvedikā* at Bharhut was profusely carved but the one at Sanchi was plain without any decoration. The railing was provided on four sides with four gateways called *toraṇa* facing the four cardinal points. [Fig. 56]. This was an important architectural feature of which the roots lay in the traditional philosophical conception of the fourfold pattern of creation symbolised in the four regions of space round a central fixed point or mount of gold called *Meru*. This became a religious cult of wide-spread popular belief known as *Diśamaha*. The Stūpa with its gateways and railings was a complete symbol of the tetradic pattern of the cosmos as evolved in Buddhist religious tradition.