Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c15.s1.t2: Form of the Amarāvatī Stūpa
Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c15.s1.t2
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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.