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Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c15: Chapter XII: Stūpas in the Āndhra-Sātavāhana Period

Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c15

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Contents

Chapter XII: Stūpas in the Āndhra-Sātavāhana Period

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One of the boldest experiments in the field of architecture and sculpture in relation to a Buddhist Stūpa was carried out in Āndhradeśa during the period of 2nd cent. B. C.—3rd cent. A. D. It reflects in the fullest measure the glory and power of the Āndhra-Sātavāhana emperors (200 B.C.-225 A.D.) and their successors the Ikshvākus (c. 230 A.D. to 275 A.D.) and of the generous opulence and religious devotion of the sturdy merchant community that flourished on both inland and oceanic trade.

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In the creation of the Andhra monuments the geographical factor was quite a compelling one. The Vengi country stretching between the deltas of Kṛṣṇā and Godāvarī commanded towards its front face the entire Indian ocean (*Mahodadhi*) and towards its back was master of the five important trade routes which spread like the fanning fingers of the hand. Along these routes the most important Buddhist monuments were sited as Dubreuil has shown; e.g. (i) on the road to Kaliṅga were amongst others Pīṭhāpuram and Saṅkārāma; (ii) on the road to the south or Draviḍa country were Ghaṇṭaśāla and Bhaṭṭiprolu; (iii) on the road to the Karṇāṭaka country were Amarāvatī, Golī and Nāgārjunikoṇḍa; (iv) on the road to Mahārāṣṭra were Allūru and Jaggayyapeṭa and; (v) on the road to southern Kosala was the site of Guṇṭapalle, which was the oldest of the entire group of about thirty monuments. Thus from all sides the wealth of a thriving commerce poured into the coffers of Vengi merchants whose munificence took a visible from in the cluster of the Buddhist Stūpas found along these routes.

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The earliest inspiration to the art movement that took shape in the Andhra country probably goes back to Aśoka. He was a strange emperor, who unrolled the map of Asia before him and plotted his creative activity in all the four direction in his own kingdom and beyond it up to Afghanistan and the Mediterranean towards the west and Nepal and Burma etc. towards the east. He was in direct touch with the country of Kaliṅga where the impact of his art activity was felt. A little to the south at Guṇṭapalle we find the cave-architecture of the Lomas Ṛishi and other caves of the Barābara group taking its footholds in an emphatic manner. It seems that the earliest Sātavāhana rulers (c. 200 B.C.) were kindly disposed to the Buddhist community of monks who were encouraged to fan out deeper into their territory. Amaravati or ancient Dhānyakaṭaka was the first capital of the Andhras where the earliest structural monuments were built in the Kṛṣṇā Valley about 200 B. C. and continued to be followed by the most stupendous Stūpas under the Later Sātavāhanas up to about 225 A.D. In the Western Ghats the Sātavāhanas wrested power from the Śakas and a political game of hide and seek with fluctuating fortune ensued between the two. But in Andhra the Sātavāhanas were undisputed masters for four centuries until they were succeded by the Ikshvāku kings in the middle of the third century A. D., who were builders of great monuments such as the Stūpas of Nagarjunikonda.

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There are sure signs of the penetration of Buddhism in Āndhradeśa in the 2nd cent. B.C. Later on as the epigraphs tell us several active schools in Buddhism grew up which inspired the building of monumental Stūpas, e. g. (i) Chaityakas at Amarāvati; (ii) Pūrvaśailas at Nagarjunikonda, and Alluru; (iii) Avaraśailas at Nagarjunikonda, Peḍḍavegī, Kaṇṭakaśaila (Ghaṇṭaśāla); and also two more schools, namely, (iv) Rājagiriyas; and (v) Siddhāthikas.

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The great art movement released by Aśoka's creative powers reached the Andhra country along the Kaliṅga and South Kosala routes leading to the foundation of a number of Buddhist monuments at Saṅkārāma situated on the Kaliṅga route and at Guṇṭapalle on the Kosala route. Probably the influences coming to Guṇṭapalle preceded those towards Saṅkārāma, since the Magadha route through the Sone and Jyotirathā valleys was open much before the Kaliṅga war. The main architectural style at both places is rock-cut. The activity at Guṇṭapalle seems to have started about the middle of the 3rd cent. B. C. and at Saṅkārāma at about 200 B. C. The monuments at Guṇṭapalle are much better preserved and show a vigorous movement which brought into existence a local group of two rock cut Vihāras, one circular rock-cut chaitya-hall and several monolithic Stūpas in the beginning. An apsidal chaitya-hall of the Hīnayāna phase was built about 200 B. C. and finally in the 2nd cent. A. D. an apsidal chaitya-hall but with images of the Buddha in place of the Stūpa was built by the Māhāyānists.

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Of the two Vihāras the larger one is mostly ruined, but the smaller one consists of a number of cells scooped in the rock. The façade of the Vihāra has been recessed in the rock in order to provide a projecting shelter over it. The overhanging rock forms a portico (Mukhamanḍapa) to protect the cave-residence from sun and rain. The façade consisted of three doorways, each flanked by a window on either side. Each of the doorways led into a long hall, each of different size. The three walls of each hall were pierced by openings leading into cells and somewhat bigger rooms at the end which are not quite regularly placed. This type of Vihāra excavation shows the architecture in its rudimentary stage showing an absence of an overriding plan implying a unity of architectural activity, the chambers being hollowed out at will. In the façade the portion above the doorways and the windows is occupied by a series of horse-shoe arches terminating in a finial above and the spaces inside being filled by a blind chaitya-window with radiating spokes which are early attempts to imitate the wooden originals in rock-excavations. The style of every thing, viz. the cells, doorway openings, and arched arcading, is extremely simple and must have preceded the time when the earliest of the western Indian caves as at Bhājā came into existence.

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ROCK-CUT CHAITYA :—Architecturally this is the principal monument at Guṇṭapalle. It is rock-cut and the earliest in date. It is deeply impressive by its style being much similar to the rock cut Chaitya-chamber of the Lomas Rishi and Sudāmā caves in Magadha and of Junnar and Koṇḍiwte in Saurāṣṭra. It is circular in form with a monolithic Stūpa or Chaitya in the centre, surrounded by a narrow circum-ambulatory passage and covered by a circular roof with ribs under it, exactly copied from wooden originals. The shrine faces east and and has a diameter of 18' and is 14½' high from the floor to the roof. The monolithic sacred Chaitya is almost half in size of the interior round apse leaving a narrow passage 3' wide for going round. This implies an economising effort towards sculpting the rock. The measurements of the drum are, ht. 3'9" and diameter 11'8", the dome ht. 4'9" and diameter 9'2", thus giving a total eight of 8½' only. There was a harmikā on the top. The circular ceiling of the dome is like an umbrella and melon-shaped of later times (Hindi kharabu-jiyā, Skt. chhatrākāra), having sixteen ribs distinctly cut in the rock and meeting at a focal point in the centre. They are bonded with each other by stone-cut rafters in a horizontal position, thus showing how truly the stone masons were copying the wooden originals. [Fig. 202]. It has been conceived as a complete replica of a thatched Parṇaśālā moulding the space around it.

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There is a arched opening with a circular top on the eastern side of the circular chamber (Parimaṇḍala chaitya) which is framed by an outer façade through which a portion of the Chaitya is visible. This is similar in style to the façade of the Lomas Ṛishi cave and has in its upper portion a chaitya window with a plain blind screen, horse-shoe shape and also the ends of the longitudinal joists with a central finial on the top. Thus we are face to face at Guṇṭapalle with the earliest form of a rock-cut Buddhist Chaitya cave having a distinctive architectural character. Later on when this circular portion was joined to a maṇḍapa in front flanked by side aisles the exca-vators arrived at the complete architectural form of both the rock-cut and structural Chaitya halls. In the field of rock-excavations there was no further development in the Kṛiṣṇā Valley, but the spark touched the sculptures of Western India, specially in Mahārāṣṭra, probably due to Sātavāhana inspiration. The structural type, however, was followed up in many other monuments of the Andhra country.

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At Guṇṭapalle a structural apsidal chaitya hall with a circular apse has been exposed in excavations which was put up about the middle of 2nd cent. A. D. as part of the Mahāyāna building activity. It is 53½' long and 14½' broad, with side walls about 4½' thick, raised on broad foundations. Its circular portion had provision for installation of Buddha images along the wall and some sacred object of worship in the centre which has not been found. This chaitya hall, one of the largest in size, had a vaulted roof with earthen ware finials (stūpikā) and with richly ornamented façade with Buddha images.

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Another noteworthy monument at Guṇṭapalle is a Stūpa with a casing of stone blocks (aśma-śilā), joined without mortar as at Sanchi. It is a hemispherical dome of 16' in diameter, 8½' high, resting on a cylindrical drum, 11½' in diameter and 5' high. The harmikā and the umbrella on top are missing. The stone blocks of casing (śilā-kañchuka) are neatly cut and accurately fitted in courses of regular stone masonry with slight curvature on their exterior side in order to bring out the round form of the Stūpa.

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At Saṅkārāma (Skt. Saṅghārāma) in Viśākhāpaṭanam on Kaliṅga route, there is an important group of monuments datable to several periods. The earliest were wrought under the shadows of Aśokan monuments of the Barābar hills and comprised a large Buddhist Vihāra, the monolithic Stūpas, some of the cells and the three apsidal Chaitya halls dating from the 2nd cent. B. C. The monolithic Stūpas here are of very large size, the principal one front of the monastery being 65' in diameter at the base. The second phase followed in the form of Stūpas covered with cut-stone-blocks and the third one in the form of structural brick Stūpas put up about the 2nd cent. A. D., although the building activity at the site continued up to the Pallava period.

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Another early Buddhist Stūpa was found at Golī in Palnad Taluk of Guntur District situated on the river Kollaru, a tributary of the Kṛṣṇā about 18 miles below Nagarjunikonda. Some remarkable sculptures in white marble-like stone have been found at this site, of superior workmanship matched to the best art of Amaravati and Nagarjunikonda. Their carving is extremely well-done and they show the highest excellence achieved in the art of the Kṛṣṇā Valley. There is a Stūpapaṭṭa amongst them (5' 1½" × 3' 1") on which a Stūpa raised on three receding terraces and covered with a lower frieze of rectangular slabs surmounted by five āyaka-khambhas on each face, is depicted with a drum and a high dome and having a harmikā on the top which is flanked by five tiered parasols (chhatrāvalī) on either side. [Fig. 203]. This appears to be a copy of the marble Stūpa at this site which was probably put up in the 2nd cent. A. D. with all the paraphernalia associated with such Andhra Stūpas. Amongst other subjects on the reliefs and friezes are a conspicuous Nāgarāja whose bold divine appearance is self-evident, Buddha and Bodhisattva images and several Jātakas, e. g. Vessantara Jātaka, Chhaddanta Jātaka, Sasa Jātaka, Mātiposaka Jātaka and several life-scenes of the Buddha as the temptation scene, Sujātā feeding the Buddha, First Sermon, Buddha’s visit to Yaśodharā, subjugation of Nāḷagiri. The detailed representation of the Vessantara Jātaka on two friezes in several panels recalls the reference to it in the description of a Mahā-chetiya in the Mahāvaṃsa. The date assigned to these sculptures on grounds of their style is 2nd-3rd. cent. A. D.

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Fig. 202

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Fig. 203

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Fig. 204 a

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Fig. 208

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Fig. 204 b

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Fig. 205

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Fig. 206

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Fig. 207

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Fig. 211 a

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b

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Fig. 210

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Fig. 209

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c

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The Stūpa of Bhaṭṭiprolu situated on the route to the Tamila Land was a huge structure measuring 132' in height and 148' in diameter at the base, built of large-sized bricks in about the 3rd-2nd cent. B. C. In shape it was a low hemispherical mound similar to that at Sanchi. An inscribed relic-casket and some sculptures were found from this Stūpa which offers close parallels with the architecture of the Great Stūpa at Amaravati. With the relic-casket were found pearls, precious stones, gold flowers, beads, triśūlas and twenty-four small coins with the triśūlas and the sacred pāda encircled by a Nāga engraved on them. Strangely enough no Vihāra attached to the Stūpas of Bhaṭṭiprolu has been traced but the available inscriptions indicate that the local Buddhist Saṅgha was organised in to different committees for efficient functioning.

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The great Stūpa at Ghaṇṭaśāla (ancient Kaṇṭakaśaila) was on the same southern path that of Bhaṭṭiprolu and possessed the same architectural features being 122' in diameter at the base and 111' wall above it. A central 10' square solid brich work forms the core rising to the top of the Stūpa. This was encased by a bigger structure 22' square. Between these two squares were radiating walls forming hollow spaces filled with mud and mortar. This outer square was enclosed by a circular wall of 56' diameter externally and its inner side is touched by the extended walls of the square. Beyond this circle and concentric with it at a distance of 11½' is another wall of massive construction, the intervening space between the two peripheral circles being filled with subsidiary cross-walls forming cells that were filled with waste material. This resulted in great economy in building material while retaining strength of the whole structure. The inner circle formed the basis of the dome and the outer circle the basis of the first ground terrace (Medhi) used as the round path-way. In this planned architecture of the Stūpa comprising the two outer circles and two inner squares there were thirty-two compartmental cells in all, viz. 16 between the outer circles, 12 framing the outer square and 4 outside the solid brick square-core, all being filled with rammed mud conferring a massive solidity on the stupendous structure of the whole Stūpa. Thus it was a controlled architectural effort from beginning to end, the builders exercising their minds with respect to the details of construction, principle of durable building and economy of material. It has been found that a similar plan of architecture was adopted in the big Stūpa at Peddaganjam indicating that such architectural planning had taken the form of a movement. Fragments of carved marbles have been found at Ghaṇṭaśāla showing that at one time there were as good sculptures at this place as in any other Andhra Stūpa.

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On the route from Vengi to Maharashtra was sited 30 miles north-west of Amaravati the great Stūpa of Jaggayyapeta on the bank of the Palleru stream. The group consisted a number of Stūpas, monasteries and a Maṇḍapa supported on pillars, which probably formed part of a Chaitya-hall. They were built of bricks and grey-chaste marble, which gave scope for carving of the highest quality. The building activity at Jaggayyapeta continued for about seven centuries as shown by its inscriptions ranging in date from the 2nd cent. B.C. to the 3rd cent. A.D. in the time of the Ikshvākus and then to the 5th cent. A. D. in the time of the Pallavas. The biggest Stūpa at Jaggayyapeta was an imposing one being of the form of a mammoth hemi-spherical bubble, 31½ ft. in diameter, the processional path 10½ ft. wide and surrounding slabs 3' 9'' above the floor. There was a marble railing round the Stūpa enclosing the pradakshiṇāpatha formed of carved slabs similar to the big railing at Amaravati. The exterior of the Stūpa was covered in its lower portion by carved marble slabs of great beauty and on the dome above by a brick-casing which was plastered in lime and probably painted when complete in its original form. It must have been provided on its flat top with a harmikā and in its middle portion with the usual cardinal projections furnished with the five Āryaka pillars and side staircases together with an intermediate processional path surrounded by a balustrade. The inside of the Stūpa was planned in a rather more original manner and consisted of courses of rammed mud two ft. thick alternating with layers of large-sized bricks, so that the two kinds of kachchā and pakkā floors vertically placed one above the other bonded together into a compact mass that served as the solid core of the Stūpa, the whole being secured by an outer covering of bricks. What distinguishes the Stūpa at Jaggayyapeta is the quality, size and number of its sculptured slabs. There were no carvings on the slabs at the base but the pilasters above them were carved in the style of early Amarāvatī. They were not in such high relief as in the later phase of Amaravati but were of larger size. The headdresses of the figures are conspicuous and the earrings are ponderous like those at early Ajanta. The style shows restful poses and the carving is restrained than that at Amaravati and Nagarjunikonda. Although the number of available sculptures is limited, there is a great variety in the scenes and a rich documentation of contemporary life. A marble slab of this Stūpa (now in the Madras Museum) shows a puṇya-śālā supported on four pillars in front and reached by two side stairways. Inside it is a pādukā-paṭṭa under an umbrella with two hanging streamers. The object of worship is flanked by two female figures, one of them holding a *pūrṇaghaṭa* with flowers on its mouth (*pushpa-pidhāna*). It was a two-storeyed building like those shown in relief at Bharhut, and Sanchi with a vaulted roof furnished with chaitya-windows on the sides and in front and having on the top four stūpī finials. Amongst the Stūpas of the Kṛṣṇa Valley the one at Jaggayyapeta was a distinct contribution both for its architecture and sculpture.

Amarāvatī Stūpa

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The facts relating to the discovery of the Amaravati Stūpa are so interesting that it is worthwhile stating them here. When complete in its full glory in the second-third century A. D. it was worthy of the honour of being reckoned as a monument of world art. But it has been mauled beyond description and not a vestige remains on the site. And, its former splendour has to be imagined with tearful eyes by sympathetic art connoisseur on the basis of the surviving sculptured marbles in the museums at Madras, Calcutta and London.

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Amaravati is comparatively a very modern small town named after the shrine of Amareśvara Śiva. It is situated in Guntur district eighteen miles from Bazwada on the right or south bank of Kṛṣṇa, sixty miles above its mouth. Just south of the town stood the Great Stūpa, but about half a mile west of the town are the ruins of Dharaṇikoṭa with its earthern embankments which was really once the capital of the Satavahanas under the name of Dhānyakaṭaka.

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The discovery of the monument including the disposal of its sculptures is a thrilling chapter. Colonel Mackenzie first saw it in 1797 while on a tour of duty. Several years before him a local Raja had opened the Stūpa and removed a large number of marbles to build his shrine, town and palace. Many of the antiquities perished in the process but what remained *in situ* attracted the attention of Mackenzie who communicated an account of them to the Asiatic Society of Bengal. He returned to the spot in 1816 as Surveyor-General of Madras and employed all the means at his disposal during the two following years for a minute study of the monuments and the remaining sculptures. The results of his labours are careful plans of the buildings and maps of the surrounding country, together with eighty very carefully finished drawings of the sculptures, ‘which are unsurpassed’, in words of Fergusson, ‘for accuracy and beauty of finish by any drawings of their class that were ever executed in India.’ Three sets were prepared and of which one is still preserved in the Library of the Commonwealth Relations Office. At the same time Mackenzie sent some specimens to the three museums named above, where they have remained their principal ornaments to this day. But little notice was taken of them until Walter Elliot, Commissioner of Guntur, in 1840, excavated a portion of the monument which had not before been touched, and sent to Madras the marbles that were then found. They lay there under sun and rain for eighteen years until 1856 they were dispatched to London where also they were consined to a godown till accidentally Fergusson came to know about them and after proper treatment placed them in the British Museum where they are displayed on the main staircase.

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But the teasures of Dhānyakaṭaka still remained unexhausted. In 1830 Mr. Robertson removed some thirty-three Amaravati sculptures which eventually reached Madras and from there were sent to London in 1855. In 1876 Sewell had some hap-hazard digging done by ignorant workmen exposing a good number of sculptures. In 1879-80 the Duke of Buckingham, Governor of Madras, ordered a full clearance of the site leading to the complete destruction of the Stūpa. In 1881 Burgess came on the scene and found some 300 sculptured specimens and fragments to which he added 90 more pieces by his own excavations. The bulk (361 pieces) of these found their way to the Madras Museum in three lots, 170 pieces in 1883, 11 in 1891, and 128 and 52 in 1891. In 1905-06 and 1908-09 excavations Alexander Rea recovered additional valuable sculptures which came to be deposited in the Madras Museum.

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From the above account the fate of the Amaravati Stūpa reads like a plunder of the Heavenly Palace of Indra in which the only silver lining is that such a substantial portion of the carved marbles has been rescued which enables to reconstruct a mental picture of the physical and spiritual splendour of this Great Stūpa, or pile of sculptured marbles.

Inscriptions

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The slabs of the Amarāvatī Stūpa bore short donative epigraphs like those at Bharhut and Sanchi. Hundred twenty-six have been listed by Sivaramamurti. They reveal several interesting facts. The Stūpa was known as Mahāchetiya. It was inspired by the special sect of Buddhist monks named Chaityakas. The Mahāchetiya Stūpa was built at Dhānyakaṭaka, referred to several times as Dhanakaḍaka, Dhānyaghaṭaka, which made the Stūpa famous as Dhanamahāchetiya or Kaṭamahāchetiya. In its building cooperative effort played an important part. Donors from Pāṭaliputra, Rājagiri, Tamila (Damila) country, Ghaṇṭasāla (Ka(ṅ)ṭakaselaka), Vijayapura (Bezwada), etc. were attracted in making gifts to the Stūpa besides hundreds of local householders (gahapati), lay-worshippers (upāsaka), merchants (vāṇiya), caravan traders (sārtha), jewellers or bankers (heraṇika), and royal officers as paṇiya-gharika and rāja-lekhaka. The local merchant-guild referred to as Dhānyakaṭaka Nigama was most active with its contributions to the building of the Stūpa. Its members were known as naigama and the president of the honourable guild is stated to have made a rich gift (bhadranigamasa seṭhipamukhasa). The epigraphs throw welcome light on the organisation of the nigama institution of which the individual members were known as śreṣṭhin and the foremost of them as śreṣṭhipamukha, i.e. mahāśreṣṭhin. A special class of the merchant-community that had adopted Buddhism was known as the gahapati. The lay men invoked the religious merit of their gifts in favour of their parents, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, wives, and other family relations (ñātibandhu-bāndhava), a formula found also at Bharhut, Sanchi and Mathura. The gift was made for the welfare of all sentient beings (savasa cha lokasa hitasukhathataya).

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The local Buddhist church was also well-organised. Under the appellation of the Chaityakas (mahāchetiye chetikeyānam), who were comprised of a religious hierarchy of bhikshus, bhikshunis, pavajikā, theras, mahātheras, mahādhammakathika, vinayadhara, uvajjhāyā-uvajjhayini, antevāsika-antevasikini, that maintained a brisk religious atmosphere and prompted the laity to make religious donations to the Bhagavato Mahāchetiya.

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The nature of the architectural elements is also revealed in the epigraphs. For example, there was a high ground railing (mahāvedikā) furnished with copings (unisa, unhisa) and cross-bars carved with medallions (parichakā suchi), both being referred to several times. It had four entrances, the south one being mentioned as dakshiṇa pārśvadvāra. Facing each gatway was the conspicuous projection called āyāka, of which the one on the north (uttarāyāka) and the other on the south (dakshiṇāyāka) have been actually found on the slabs. As we know from other Stūpas each of these āyaka platforms had five pillars, called āyakakhambha (dakshiṇāyāke chaityakhambha). The outer marble casing was the most outstanding element in the construction of the mahāchetiya referred to in numerous inscriptions as udhampaṭa (=ūrdhvapaṭa) or simply paṭa. But these slabs had specific names after the motifs and figures sculptured on them, e. g. the slab carved with a full vase (pūrṇaghaṭaka-paṭa or kalasa-paṭa), figure of svastika (sothika-paṭa), figure of wheel (chakapaṭa), figure of buddha (Budhapaṭa). The big lotus garland carved round the dome was a beautiful motif referred to here as abdamala or abātamālā (=abjamālā), same as kiñjalkinī of later literature, offered to objects of divine worship. On the top was the usual umbrella (chediyas chhata). The monolithic slabs inserted between the two upright posts of the terraced balustrade were probably known as peṇḍaka, a word of which the meaning is not quite certain. There is a reference to a lamp-post (divastambha) and a central pavilion (padhāna-maṇḍapa), which seems to have formed part of an apsidal shrine.

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The work was executed by stone-cutters (pasanika = pāshāṇika) under the direction of superintendents of works (navakarmika), whose chief was known as Mahā-navakarmika.

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The records also throw light on the history of the mahāchetiya. Two of the earliest ones being in the Maurya-Śuṅga script (c. 200 B. C.), mention Dhanakaṭaka, the ancient name of Amaravati; and the subsequent ones refer to the Sātavāhana emperors Vasiṭhiputra Pulumāyi, Yadnya Siri Sadakani, and Siriśivamaka Sadasa. Some of them are in the script of the time of the Ikshvākus (3rd century A. D.) and one of them refers to the name Vākāṭaka (5th century A. D.). There is then a long gap until we find two records, dated 1182 and 1234 A.D., engraved on a pillar in the Amarēśvara temple at Amaravati mentioning gifts ‘to the lofty Stūpa of the Buddha, which is finely decorated with various sculptures’ and for the acceptance of the Buddha ‘who resides at Śrī-Dhānyakaṭaka’. This shows that the Stūpa was intact up to the thirteenth century.

Form of the Amarāvatī Stūpa

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Some indication of the architectural form of the Stūpa must have become available to the student from the technical terms as recorded in the inscriptions. But a complete picture of the Mahāchetiya as it stood in the days of its glory is to be studied here.

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The first element to be encountered was the big ground railing, mahāvedikā, encircling the Stūpa. It consisted of massive coping-stones supported on the top of upright pillars, between each pair of which were three cross-bars inserted in mortices and the bottoms of which were fixed in foundations of brick.

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The general plan and the decoration of the Stūpa can be ascertained with fair accuracy from the surviving remains, survey plans of the early archaeologists like Mackenzie, Sewell and Burgess, and from the depiction of the Great Stūpa on its Stūpa-paṭas. From this cumulative evidence we are able to know that the rail was the most richly ornamented of its class found anywhere else and fortunately has been preserved in a portion much larger than for any other constituent part of the Stūpa. Its diameter, as calculated, was 193', almost twice of that at Bharhut, thus making a circular enclosure of about 600', round the drum of the giant Stūpa. Each upright pillar was about 9' high, 2' 10" wide; having between each pair three crossbars (suchi, suji = sūchi), about 2' 9" in the diameter of their medallions, because of which they are appropriately named as parichakā sūchi in the inscriptions. Their lenticular ends are fitted into the mortices (sūchipuḍamtara) of the pillars. The railing pillars were topped by heavy coping-stones (uṣṇīṣa, called unisa-paṭa in the inscriptions), 2' 8" high, 1' wide, rounded at the top and secured to the pillars by the mortice-and-tenon device. At each cardinal point of the railing there was an opening, 26' wide, for the gateway, although the arrangement of the superstructure of the three architraves with small balusters is missing here as in all the Andhra Stūpas. The quadrant of the railing having reached its terminal pillar projects outwards at right-angles to a length of 16' and then with the same re-entrant device as at Sanchi turns inside at right-angles to a length of six and a half feet, and then again turning outwards at right-angles to a length of eight feet. Thus the entire length of the coping crowning the four quadrants and also the re-entrants of the gateways, measured about 800', and the grand rail itself consisted of 136 pillars and 348 cross-bars. [Fig. 205].

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The coping as in the case of other Stūpas was made in pieces of different length, the largest being of 11' feet. It was carved on both faces, the outer one with the beautiful motif of garland-bearing figures, a rendering of the mālādhārī devas. The undulating meanders of the garland were filled with figures of different religious objects like the sacred tree, Stūpa, Dharmachakra, etc. It may be noted that the enriching garland at Amaravati is very conspicuous in form and the transporting figures are perfectly human with no resemblance to the dwarfish Erotes or Yakshas. [Fig. 206]. This garland is present not only on the surviving fragments of copings but also may be seen on several of the Stūpapaṭas which illustrate the railing. There are also some fragments in which the thick garland is borne on the shoulders of dwarfs, or elephant-headed Yakshas, or issuing out at one end from the gaping mouth of a makara with a Yakshī seated in front of it. [Fig. 207]. Thus the ancient repertoire of decorative motifs was still retained to beautify the long garland. On the inner side of the coping were carved like ivory life-scenes of the Buddha and Jātakas; whole making up a series of pictures of Buddhism, unsurpassed by anything known to exist in Indian art. The pillars of the railing were most lavishedly decorated in an excellent style of which the artists were capable. Such display of perfect workmanship was seldom conceived in Stūpa art. The decoration consisted of a central medallion of full-blown lotus (padmaka) with two half medallions above and below (ardhachandraka). The interspaces are horizontally divided into three flutes, the upper ones filled with figures of dampatis and folks flanking in adoration a central object of worship, e.g. Stūpa, Wheel, Tree, Footprints, etc., and the spaces below the central medallions are adorned with figures of dancing dwarfs, which appear to be a rendering of the Sadāmattaka Devas. The inner face of the pillars is similarly decorated with one full and two half medallions but the flutes of the interspaces and sometimes the half medallions also were carved with the Jātakas and life-scenes of Buddha in harmony with the carving of the coping. A different type of pillars smaller in size, and also copings and cross-bars matching with them, were found in the north-west quadrant. They are unsculptured on the outer face and probably were put up during some stage of restoration.

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The cross-bars, three in number with each pair of pillars, were carved on both faces with full-blown lotuses (phullaka) excepting the inner face of the middle one which showed some scene from Buddhist legend. The round medallions of the cross-bars are referred to as *parichakra* in the inscriptions.

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The gateways were the simple opening without the crossbeams or latticed superstructure as at Bharhut or Sanchi. Their double re-entrants were reconstructed on the basis of their brick foundations. The railing of the gateway was crowned by four lions, two facing each other at the point where the coping stopped and the railing took a turn, and two others at the terminal of the railing and looking outwards.

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The ambulatory passage was about five feet higher than the terrace outside the rail, and so a small stairway with a moonstone (*chandrasilā*) at its bottom decorated with lotuses, as illustrated on one of the *Chaityapaṭas* of the late phase. On the same slab the vertical face of the terrace outside the railing is decorated with a row of animals, *chatushpadapaṅkti* of the *Mahāvaṃsa*.

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At one time it was believed that there was an inner rail between the Stūpa and the grand balustrade on the ground level. But this was artistically an impossible position. The fact was that the pilasters and the slabs found placed against an encircling brick platform originally formed part of the decoration of the drum of the main Stūpa and of its terraced or intermediate balustrade.

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A distinctive feature of the Andhra Stūpas was the construction of four projecting platforms from the body of the Stūpa facing the gateway openings. These were known as *āyāka* and two of them on the north and south sides are actually referred to in the inscriptions as *uttarāyāka* and *dakhiṇāyāka* respectively. The word *āyāka* was derived from Skt. *āryaka*, meaning the worshipful and was already known at Mathura in the term *āyāgapaṭa*. According to Mackenzie's plan the platforms were 32' long and 6' wide, and were put up at a height of 20' from the base of the drum as actually found at Nagarjunikonda *in situ* they measure 22' by 5'. The architects introduced this innovation by deliberate choice. In the earlier phase they were absent but on the *Stūpapaṭas* of the later phase they form a conspicuous feature. [Figs. 208-9]. To accommodate them in proper perspective the super-structure of the gateway was eliminated so as not to interfere with the free view of the platforms. Each of these was provided with an elaborate structure of itself, viz. a frontal *āyāgapaṭa* carved with the figure of Buddha or a Nāgarāja, two side staircases leading to the upper processional path. On the top of each platform were five octagonal pillars (*aṭṭhaṃsika āyākakhambha*) about 10' to 15' in height. The *Stūpapaṭas* show them to be crowned with arched windows (but in Nagarjunikonda they are domed), the central one having invariably a miniature Stūpa on the top, and their bases display the decoration of Bodhivṛiksha, Dharmachakra, Stūpa, Dharmachakra, Bodhivṛiksha, or of five Stūpas, or of five Buddhas.

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The *āyakas* divided the intermediate railing into four quadrants. A terrace 5' wide projected from the drum encircled by a balustrade of which the pillars were 8' high. Between each pair of pillars was inserted a monolithic rectangular slab in place of the cross-bars that was carved on both sides, which is probably mentioned as *peṇḍaka* in the inscriptions.

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The *Chaityapaṭas* show that the Stūpa was encased by sculptured slabs to which the inscriptions refer as *Udhampaṭa* (= *ūrdhvapaṭa*). There was a series of such sculptured slabs. One frieze was fitted all round the drum; its height being about 10', and scenes of Buddha's life and other kindred figures were carved on them. A special feature was a rail pattern carved below and above the scenes of a Chakravartī king with Seven Jewels (*Sapta-ratna*). At the level of the *āyaka* platforms there was another frieze of such large slabs on the vertical portion of the dome measuring about 11', in height. These slabs may be identified as *Chakrapaṭa*, *Stūpapaṭa*, *Buddhapaṭa*, *Bodhipaṭa*, *Pūrṇaghaṭapaṭa*, *Svastikapaṭa*, etc., some of the names being found in the inscriptions. Above this beautiful frieze was the spring of the curvature of the dome which was decorated by several small bands; the first being a row of animals (*chatuppadapaṅkti*), a row of *triratna* motifs, a row of full vases (*puṇṇaghaṭapaṅkti*).

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On the shoulder of the dome, as *Stūpapaṭas* show, was a lotus garland (*abjamālā* = *abdmālā* of inscriptions), and above it a decorative band of round medallions filled with figures alternating with palm-trees.

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On the top there was a *Harmikā* of fairly large size, being 24' square. In the centre of the Divine Mansion was a thick stone post inserted deep in the body of the dome which supported the main umbrella and which stood inside a railing. On the two sides of the dome in its upper portion are figures of dancing *devas* (*nachehaka devā*) and worshipping *devas* (*mālādhārī devā*) and below them group of Yaksha musicians.

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There are variations in this scheme of decoration as evolved to several centuries and demonstrated by carving on different *Chaitya-paṭas*. The Amaravati Stūpa was the loftiest monument in the whole of Andhradeśa, almost double in dimensions to the Bharhut and Bhaṭṭiprolu Stūpas. Its artistic splendour was unsurpassed and the architectural planning was the outcome of the boldest imagination. It stood as the perfect example of the monumental glory of the Sātavāhana age.

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The internal structure of the Andhra Stūpas shows a certain degree of evolution. The small Stūpa at Goli and the larger Stūpas at Bhattiprolu and Gudivada were of solid brick masonry laid in compact floors from top to bottom. In the building of the Jaggayyapeta Stūpa there was some marked advance dictated by economy of material and labour. In that, brick-courses, two feet thick, were used alternately with courses of rammed mud. At Ghaṇṭasāla we see better principles of scientific constructions, viz. a core of concentric brick-squares in the centre with interconnecting walls making compartments which were filled with mud and rubble and then radiating walls from the core to the circumference with similarly filled compartments between the two walls. In view of the wholesale demolition of the inner structure of the Amaravati Stūpa it is difficult to postulate its original form. But since the core of the main Stūpa and its peripheral structure were put up originally about 200 B. C. it appears that the Stūpa started with a solid masonry construction. It seems to have been a small Alpeśākhya Stūpa which was later on converted by the then prevailing techniques of enlargement into a Maheśākhya Stūpa of the biggest dimensions amongst all the Stūpas of Central and Western India and the Vengi country. This appears to have been the architectural process of extending radial walls from the pre-existing solid core and filling the compartments with rubble (iṣṭakācūrṇa) and fine clay (lakṣṇa mṛttikā). The bricks found in these Stūpas are fairly big, being up to 24" in length, 18" in breadth and 4" in thickness, and it should be said to the credit of those brick-makers (iṣṭakāvardhaki) that the high standard and quality of baking the bricks in the kiln were such as to preserve the bricks intact for about twenty centuries until the spoliation by human hands dislodged them from their places. The drum-base and the dome above, although rising up to a height of about 100', did not sink, sag or burst but stood intact to meet the challenge of time.

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As already mentioned (p. 125), Stūpas in the Andhra Valley had three distinctions, viz. chaste marble of butter-like yellowish whiteness (medavaṇṇa pāsāṇa), profusion of sculptured forms and decorative motifs (sabbāni rūpakāni), and the box-like projections on the four sides of the Dhātugarbha, known as mañjūshā or āryaka, from which evolved the Rathikās of the Brahmanical temples.

Sculptures

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The number of surviving sculptures from the Mahācetiya is probably the largest found anywhere else in Andhradeśa. These sculptures certainly show a great beaty of carving and variety and give evidence of the natural evolution of style over a period of five centuries. On the basis of style and epigraphic evidence these may be roughly divided into four periods as follows :

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1. Early or Archaic Period. C. 200 B. C. Contemporaneous with the foundation of the Stūpa (of which period several inscriptions in Maurya-Śuṅga script have been found).

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2. Intermediate Phase. C. 100 A. D. Contemporaneous to the period of the Sātavāhana Emperor Vāsiṣṭhīputra Pulumāvi (A. D. 16-119; whose inscription is found at Amaravati, Sivaramamurti, ASMM, No. 51).

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3. Mature Phase. C. 150-200 A. D. Contemporaneous to the period of Siri Yajña Sātakarṇi (A. D. 160-189; whose inscription was found at Amaravati, Fergusson, *Tree and Serpent Worship*, p. 261).

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4. Last Phase. 3rd century A. D. Contemporaneous to the period of the Ikshvāku kings. Inscriptions in the Ikshvāku skript of Nagarjunikanda being also found at Amaravati.

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The evolution of the Amaravati Stūpa thus becomes a simple problem receiving chronological proof from the epigraphs themselves. Whenever there was architectural and sculptural activity in relation to the Mahāchetiya it has left behind its proof in the existing inscriptions and we are thus provided with a natural frame-work of time-scale in which the builders raised, restored, enlarged and retouched this stupendous monument.

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In the early phase, the style of figures with their faces, dress and ornament has its nearest parallel at Bharhut and in Caves X and IX at Ajanta. Sculptures of this period are limited in number and fragmentary. The faces are frontally conceived with conspicuous turbans on the head and heavy earrings of the *prākāravapra* type with a spiral back and square front as explained earlier, and several necklaces with square clasps; and the eyes are slightly aslant. There is some degree of stiffness and dullness in expression. The arms and fingers are attached and bear ornaments of puppet-like formality. The girdle of the female figures is broad, secured by a big clasp in front. On the male figures the girdle is rope-like resembling the entrails of a boar (*śūkarāntraka*) type and generally female figures wear a sash (*kāyabandhana*). Double lines are engraved on the thighs and lower part of the cloth indicating fine folds. The feet are splayed opening wider on the front side adjoined at the heel.

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There is no Buddha figure as at other centres, but his presence is always indicated by symbols. On the coping the heavy garland is carried on the shoulders of dwarfish Yakshas, as shown at Bharhut, Sanchi and in the Western Indian Chaitya-halls (cf. Sabhāparva, *ante*, p. 88). There are rows of elephant-headed pot-bellied Yakshas who formed the prototypes of Gaṇeśa figures of much later times. Some of the animal figures on the rail, especially winged griffins with eagle heads are very vigorous and recall the varied rich repertoire of early Indian art which was in vogue from India to Iran and Western Asia. The pillar with the vase-capital supporting addorsed elephants also bespeaks archaic traditions. The bell motif (*kiṅkiṇī-jāla*) of the early Stūpa copings also occurs here as a border motif. The *makara* appears with a gaping mouth oozing meandering creepers. [Figs. 210-13].

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In the second phase there is a definite evolution of style marked by naturalness and freedom of expression, greater elegance and variety of poses. The material consists of some casing slabs. The style of carving has its parallel in the early Kushāṇa art of Mathura (c. 1st century A. D.). The stock of motifs became richer with a general tendency to incorporate the scenes from social life. The worship of Buddha through symbols and human figures is seen side by side just as in early Mathura reliefs. This was the period of Vāsishṭhīputra Puḷumāvi and the great Sātavāhana empire was in its full force and independent assertiveness. His authority and artistic activities extended from the eastern to the western ocean as we known from a Nasik cave-inscription in which some donation of Puḷumāvi are recorded in favour of the Dhānyakaṭaka monks. The slabs depict a series of life-scenes of Buddha, showing the Master in a symbolical form but only a couple of times in human form. The elegant Buddha figures indicate to Mathura for their prototypes with a spiritual expression as on the face of the Katra Bodhisattva. Some of the scenes are—*Buddha's Abhinishkramaṇa* and *Māra-vijaya*. The women wear diaphanous drapery as at Mathura and appear to be nude although they are with vestment.

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The third phase appertains to the mature stage at Amaravati when the building activity and the sculptural art reached their highest development. In the second half of the second century A. D. the glory of the Sātavāhana empire (*sām rājyalakshmī*) enjoyed its highest wealth, beauty and fame of which the best fruits may still be seen in the large number of rail-pillars, copings, bars, *āyāka*-platforms and their pillars, terraced balustrade and the drum-slabs with intervening decorative friezes and the large number of *paṭṭas* like the *chakra-paṭṭa*, *stūpa-paṭṭa*, *savastika-paṭṭa*, *Buddha-paṭṭa*, and the still numerous slabs carved with Buddha's life. The Mahāchetiya evolved as a *maheśākhya* Stūpa by several devices of enlargement invested with boldness of imagination and utmost depth of religious feeling and creative originality. The sculptures are marked by an unknown exhuberance and joy determined to fructify the kingdom of heaven (*Amarāvatī*) on earth.

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The great ground rail, about 13' high, was a work of this age and is said to have been inspired by the sage Nāgārjuna. The gorgeousness of decoration and perfection of carving in the medallions, fluted corners of the pillars, and on the copings and cross-bars, make the Amaravati Mahāvedikā an wonderous work of superb art throughout India. The *ūrdhva-paṭṭa* slabs are of the same quality showing the highest watermark of the manipulating skill of the Sātavāhana artists. Working on large slabs, 10 to 13 feet in length, they have displayed perfect mastery of composition dealing with a number of figures and scenes but all set in distinct registers and groups of principal and subsidiary, vertical and horizontal bands. The world of Devas and that of men and animals are integrated with a rare perfection and an atmosphere of endless joy is created in the visage of each *ūrdhva-paṭṭa*. Indeed, there is so much of meaning for the mind to grasp and so much of beauty to admire that each Amaravati slab leaves a haunting impression ever afterwards. As observed by Sivaramamurti, the figures are conceived in several planes, both deep and shallow and in difficult poses with all kinds of flexions, buoyancy and facile movement. The delineation of figures in the hands of the Mahāchetiya-masters appears more like script than carving.

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For the Buddha most-often repeated is the Pādukāpaṭa combined with a Pillar of Fire (Agniskandha = Aggikhandha) which was but another form of the Tower of Wisdom (Prajñākandha) that the Buddha was. It was then a prevailing conception about his cosmic mind that a ray shooting from it enveloped the whole world and thus he became a Lokottaramahāpurushaa the Supramundane Great Being, visualised as the lofty brand of fire or the burning bush of light or a perfect incarnation of Sūrya, in which family he was born.

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The main garland on the coping, transported by men and women of full stature and perfectly adorned with beautiful ornaments and drapery, belongs to this period. Their handsome forms agree with the ideal Mālādhārī Devas mentioned in the Divyāvadāna amongst the encircling Rakṣāpaṅkti. The Amaravati carvings of the thousandfold garland and the human figures carrying it are a great advance on the dwarfish Yakshas of earlier periods, or Erotes of Gandhara sculpture and they show the complete Indianisation of the motif with a religions background and integration amongst the several classes of Devas invoked for the welfare of a being and the portection of a monument. The Garland is sometimes shown being emitted from the mouth of a makara, a symbol of Varuṇa's ocean and also from the mouth of a stoutly built Yaksha, a servant of Vaiśravaṇa Kubera. The Bhāgavatas later on transformed it into a heavenly garland of one thousand lotuses offered to a deity.

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The crowded composition of figures is visible in such scenes as the confusion created by an elephant in the streets of Rājagṛiha, or by the fierce aspect of king Udayana shooting with his bow at the frightened harem. In both of these the artists retains his mastery over the available surface of the bas-relief for distinctness and symmetry. [Figs. 214-15].

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The mature Amaravati style of the second century A. D. with its great majesty of sculpture was followed by a comparative decline and stiff formalism in the 3rd century A. D. which was the same period as that of the Nagarjunikonda Stūpa. Quite a good number of drum slabs were either used as palmsests for carving fresh scenes or their backs were out-turned as faces and carved with new scenes of chaityapaṭṭas which were more conventional. The freedom of the artists was subordinated to a set pattern of decoration and conventionalism that did not much scope for imagination. The figures are somewhat taller and slimmer, and loaded with pearl-string decoration. The sacred-thread woven with small pearls (*muktāphala-yajñopavīta*) appears as a charming feature on divine and human figures, both male and female, for the first time which later on became so common in the Gupta age. The use of *sīmanta-makarikā* head-ornament formed by addorsed alligator-heads is seen for the first time in this phase. Lion head motif (*siṃhamukha*, *kīrtimukha* or *grāsa*) also begins to appear as on the crown of a Nāgarāja figure. The figures of grotesque dwarfs are carved with the lion face motif on the pot-belly.

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A special feature of rail-decoration occurring in this phase is the design of "rosette and leaf" on the roundels of cross-bars and pillars which is ubiquitous at Nagarjunikonda. The frieze-decorations containing peeping human faces out of chaitya-window designs are depicted in the architectural moulding of this period. Thus we see that the pearl-*yajñopavīta*, the *makarikā* ornament, the *kīrtimukha* motif, the chaitya-window moulding with human face, the sette with a high makaratoraṇa back and foliated scroll-work are some of the features in the last phase of Amaravati art which link it up with the subsequent style of the Gupta age.

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