Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c15.29

c15.29

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.