History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c11: Chapter II. Stambhas or Lâts.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c11
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Chapter II. Stambhas or Lâts.
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IT is not clear whether we ought to claim a wooden origin for these, as we can for all the other objects of Buddhist architecture. Certain it is, however, that the lâts of Asoka, with shafts averaging twelve diameters in height, are much more like wooden posts than any forms derived from stone architecture, and in an age when wooden pillars were certainly employed to support the roofs of halls, it is much more likely that the same material should be employed for the purposes to which these stambhas were applied, than the more intractable material of stone.
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The oldest authentic examples of these lâts that we are acquainted with, are those which King Asoka set up in the twenty-seventh year after his consecration—the thirty-first of his reign—to bear inscriptions conveying to his subjects the leading doctrines of the new religion he had adopted. The rock-cut edicts of the same king are dated in his twelfth year, and convey in a less condensed form the same information—Buddhism without Buddha—but inculcating respect to parents and priests, kindness and charity to all men, and, above all, tenderness towards animal life.¹
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¹ These inscriptions have been published in various forms and at various times by Sanskrit scholars, such as Burnouf, Kern, Senart, Bühler, etc. Among these reference may be made to É. Senart, ‘Les Inscriptions de Piyadasi’ (2 vols.) Paris, 1881-1886; Bühler, in ‘Epigraphia Indica,’ vols. i. and ii.; and ‘Archæological Survey of Southern India,’ vol. i. Among other things, they explain to us negatively why we have so little history in India in these days. Asoka is only busied about doctrines. He does not even mention his father’s name; and makes no allusion to any historical event, not even those connected with the life of the founder of the religion. Among a people so careless of genealogy, history is impossible.
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The best known of these lâts is that removed from Topra in Ambâla district, and set up in 1356, by Fîroz Shâh Tughlak, in his Kotila at Delhi, without, however, his being in the least aware of the original purpose for which it was erected, or the contents of the inscription. A fragment of a second was found lying on the ridge, north of Delhi, where it had been set up by Fîroz Shâh, in his hunting lodge; and was re-erected in 1867.¹ Two others exist in Champâran district at Radhia, and Mâthia,² and a fragment of another was recognised—utilised as a roller for the station roads by an utilitarian member of the Civil Service. The most complete shaft, however, is that which, in 1837, was found lying on the ground in the fort at Allahabad, and then re-erected with a pedestal, from a design by Captain Smith.³ This pillar is more than usually interesting, as in addition to the Asoka inscriptions it contains one by Samudragupta (A.D. 380 to 400), detailing the glories of his reign, and the great deeds of his ancestors.⁴ It seems again to have been thrown down, and was re-erected, as a Persian inscription tells us, by Jahângîr (A.D. 1605), to commemorate his accession. It is represented without the pedestal (Woodcut No. 4). The shaft, it will be observed, is more than 3 ft. wide at the base, diminishing to 2 ft. 2 in. at the summit, which in a length of 33 ft.⁵ looks more like the tapering of the stem of a
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¹ 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. vi. p. 794. It had been brought from Mîrath in 1356.
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² The first of these is known as the Lauriyâ-Ararâj or Bakhira pillar, being at the village of Lauriyâ about a mile from the temple of Mahâdeva Ararâj, the shaft of which rises nearly 40 ft. above the water level; and the second is the Lauriyâ Navandgarh lât, 3 miles north of Mâthia. Cunningham, 'Archæological Survey Reports,' vol. i. pp. 67 and 73; xvi. plate 17; 'Epigraphia Indica,' vol. ii. pp. 245ff.
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³ 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. vi. plate 40, at p. 798.
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⁴ Fleet's 'Gupta Inscriptions,' pp. 1-17.
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⁵ These dimensions are taken from Capt. Burt's drawings published in the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. iii. pp. 105-123 and plate 3.
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5. Assyrian honeysuckle ornament from capital of Lât, at Allahabad.
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4. Lât at Allahabad.
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tree—a deodar pine, for instance—than anything designed in stone. Like all the others of this class, this lât has lost its crowning ornament, which probably was a Buddhist emblem—a wheel or the triratna ornament¹—but the necking still remains (Woodcut No. 5), and is almost a literal copy of the honeysuckle ornament we are so familiar with as used by the Greeks with the Ionic order. In this instance, however, it is hardly probable that it was introduced direct by the Greeks, but is more likely to have been borrowed, through Persia, from Assyria, whence the Greeks also originally obtained it. The honeysuckle ornament, again, occurs as the crowning member of a pillar at Sankîsâ, in the Doâb, half-way between Mathurâ and Kanauj (Woodcut No. 6), and this time surmounting a capital of so essentially Persepolitan a type, that there can be little doubt that the design of the whole capital came from Persia. This pillar, of which the greater part of the shaft is lost, is surmounted by an elephant, but so mutilated that even in the 7th century the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsiang mistook it for a lion, if this is indeed the effigy he was looking at, as General Cunningham supposes,² which, however, is by no means so clear as might at first sight appear.
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¹ 'Tree and Serpent Worship,' plates 9, 10, 10a, *et passim*.
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² 'Archæological Reports,' vol. i. p. 274, plate 46.
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6. Capital at Sankîsâ. (From a Drawing by Gen. Cunningham.)
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7. Capital of Lât in Tirhut. (From a Drawing by Capt. Kittoe.)
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Another capital of a similar nature to that last described crowns the Lauriyâ Navandgarh lât in Champâran—this time surmounted by a lion of bold and good design (Woodcut No. 7). In this instance, however, the honeysuckle ornament is replaced by the more purely Buddhist ornament of a flock of the sacred hansas or geese. In both instances there are cable ornaments used as neckings, and the bead and reel so familiar to the student of classical art. The last named form is also, however, found at Persepolis. These features it may be remarked are only found on the lâts of Asoka, and are never seen afterwards in India, though common in Gandhâra and on the Indus for long afterwards, which seems a tolerably clear indication that it was from Persia that he obtained those hints which in India led to the conversion of wooden architecture into stone. After his death, these classical features disappear, and wooden forms resume their sway, though the Persian form of capital long retained its position in Indian art. Whatever the Hindûs copied, however, was changed, in the course of time, by decorative additions and modifications, in accordance with their own tastes.
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To the preceding five we have to add four more lâts found in recent years. These are: (1) one at Râmpurwâ near Pipariyâ, also in Champâran district, on the edge of the Tarai, discovered in 1881, but not quite excavated; (2) at Niglîva in the Nepâl Tarai, about 18 miles north from Chilliyâ in Basti district, a broken pillar, bearing an inscription by Asoka, stating that it had marked the birthplace of Kanakamuni Buddha; (3) at Rummindeî about 13 miles south-east from the preceding and north of Paderiyâ, the lower 22 ft. of a lât, discovered by Dr. A. Führer in 1896, and bearing an inscription stating that it marked the spot where Sâkyamuni was born,¹ and (4) a large fragment and capital found, about three years ago, at Sârnâth, bearing a portion of an Asoka inscription.
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¹ Cunningham, ‘Archæological Reports,’ vol. xvi. pp. 110f. and plate 28; Führer, ‘Buddha Sâkyamuni’s Birthplace,’ pp. 27f., 33f., and plates 4-6. There is also a fragment of a stambha at the great Sânchi stûpa, with remains of an Asoka inscription on it.
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It is more than probable that each of these Asoka lâts stood in front of, or in connection with some stûpa, or building of some sort; but all these have disappeared, and the lâts themselves have—some of them at least—been moved more than once, so that this cannot now be proved. So far, however, as can now be ascertained, one or two stambhas stood in front of, or beside each gateway of every great tope, and one or two in front of each chaitya hall. At least we know that six or seven can be traced at Sânchi, and nearly an equal number at Amarâvatî,² and in the representation of topes at the latter place, these lâts are frequently represented both outside and inside the rails.
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² ‘Tree and Serpent Worship,’ plates 1, 5, 89 and 90.
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At Kârlê, one still stands in front of the great cave surmounted by four lions, which, judging from analogy, once bore a chakra or wheel, probably in metal.¹ (Woodcut No. 8.) A corresponding pillar probably once stood on the opposite side of the entrance bearing some similar emblem. Two such are represented in these positions in front of the great cave at Kanheri, which is a debased copy of the great Kârlê cave.²
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¹ 'Tree and Serpent Worship,' plate 42.
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² In the description accompanying Daniell's view of this cave he says: "On the pillar to the right, above the capital, is a group of lions, from the centre of which a few years since arose the chakra . . . though not the least appearance of it at present remains."
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8. Capital of the Lion pillar at Kârlê. (From a sketch by Mr. H. Cousens.)
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The lât at Eran and the iron pillar at Meharauli near Delhi, though similar in many respects to those just described, seem certainly to belong to the era of the Guptas during the 5th century of our era — the latter about 415, and the former in A.D. 484 — and to be dedicated to the Vaishnava creed, and in consequence belong to a subsequent chapter. That at Pathârî in Bhopal bears a much obliterated inscription of a Râshtrakûta king, Parabala, dated in A.D. 861.³
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³ 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. xvii. pp. 305f.; Cunningham, 'Archæological Reports,' vol. x. p. 70; Kielhorn, in 'Nachrichten Göttingen Gesellschaft: Phil. Hist. Kl.,' 1901, pp. 519f.
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This is a meagre account, it must be confessed, of Buddhist lâts, which probably at one time could be counted by hundreds in the important Buddhist localities in Bengal; but it is feared we shall hardly be able to add many more to our list. They are so easily overthrown and so readily utilised in populous localities, that all trace of most of them has probably been irrecoverably lost, though one or two more examples may possibly be found in remote, out-of-the-way places.
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There is no instance, so far as I am aware, of a built monumental pillar of ancient date now standing in India. This is sufficiently accounted for by the ease with which they could be thrown down and their materials removed, when they had lost the sanctity which alone protected them. There are, however, two such pillars among the topes of Kâbul, and evidently coeval with them, now called the Sûrkh Minâr and the Minâr Chakri (Woodcut No. 9). These are ascribed by the traditions of the place to Alexander the Great, though they are evidently Buddhist monuments, meant to mark some sacred spot, or to commemorate some event, the memory of which has passed away. There can be little doubt that their upper members are meant to be copies of the tall capitals of the Persepolitan pillars, which were probably common throughout this part of Asia, but their shape and outline exhibit great degeneracy from the purer forms with which that architecture commenced in India, and which were there retained in their purity to a much later period than in this remote province. No reliable data seem to exist for ascertaining what the age of these monuments may be. It probably was the 3rd or 4th century of our era, or it may be even earlier.
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9. Minâr Chakri, Kâbul. (From a Drawing by Mr. Masson, in Wilson's 'Ariana Antiqua.')