Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c12.s2.2

c12.s2.2

The Stūpa of Bharhut was sixtyseven ft. eight and a half inches in diameter at the base but only a very small portion was left when Cunningham visited it in 1873, viz. 10 ft. in length and 6 ft. in height. This portion was on the southeast side and contained rows of small recesses (13½ in. broad at top, 4½ in. at bottom and 8½ to 9 in. apart) for lights (*dīpamālā*) of which the number for whole of the Stūpa seemed to have been about 120 for 600 lights in each row. The whole Stūpa was built of plain bricks of 12" × 12" × 3½" size, some large ones being 5" to 6" thick. The height of the Stūpa could not be ascertained but its form with the dome and the *harmikā* can be made out from the several replicas engraved in relief on railings. The original Stūpa was made of plain bricks and stood on a strong foundation of solid stone blocks. Round the Stūpa on the ground floor stood the magnificent inner railing consisting of four quadrants and four gateways facing the four cardinal points. The *pradakṣiṇāpatha* between the Stūpa and railing had a terrace 10' 4" wide. In all there were 80 upright pillars each 7' 1" in height with a coping on the top (7' in length, 1' 10" in height, 1' 8" in width, total length of the copings 330 ft.) raising the height of the railing to about 9 ft. Between each pair of the uprights (*sthambha*) were fixed three cross-bars (*sūchī*) (1' 11¼" in length, 1' 10½" in breadth, with a thickness of 6"; in all 228 cross-bars). There were sixteen pillars in each quarter portion of the railing with four additional pillars in the return-screen in front of each gateway. Each *toraṇa* gateway comprised of two tall pillars which supported an imposing superstructure of three parallel architraves with spiral projecting ends on the two sides and separated from each other by square stone blocks and the horizontal space between each pair of such curved beams was filled by smaller pillars. The detailed architectural scheme has been described by Cunningham and discussed by Barua. Cunningham found 47 pillars of the original railing, 35 on the spot and 12 from the neighbouring villages of Baṭanmārā and Pathorā and 16 out of 40 coping stones. Pt. Brijmohan Vyās has added to the collection of the Allahabad Municipal Museum 53 pieces from the Bharhut Toraṇa-Vedikā. They included 32 pillars, one corner pillar with a front and side face, three cross bars, 14 coping stones, one fragment of a capital, 2 other blocks and a stairway. The stony frame-work of the gateways although seemingly slender has justified the principle of construction and joinery underlying it by its preservation until wilful spoliation by the hand of man brought it down for quarrying stone and bricks. The shape of the dome although only a fragment few feet in length now remains, could be known from three or four bas-reliefs on the sculptures. It shows that the original big Stūpa was hemispherical resembling a bell (*ghaṇṭākāra*) in which the ratio of the diameter to the height is less than in the case of subsequent Stūpas. The same is true of the Sanchi Stūpa. But later on there was a tendency towards cylindrical shape, which was rightly compared to a giant bubble (*mahābubbula*, Mahāvaṃsa 30. 13), as also shown by the illustration of the monuments preserved on their railing or carved slabs. A bas-relief on one of the longer rails gives a good representation of the cylindrical base, with the addition of a regular railing in the usual position surrounding the Stūpa at an about distance. On the top of the hemisphere there was a square platform, also decorated with the Buddhist railing which supported the crowning umbrella, with streamers and garlands suspended from its rim. Large flowers also spring from the top as well as from the base of the square summit, and a cylindrical ornament is hung in undulating folds completely round the hemisphere.