History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c12: Chapter III. Stûpas.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c12
- Language
- English
Contents
- v1.c12.s1 Bhilsâ Topes. — 29 parts
- v1.c12.s2 Topes at Sârnâth and in Bihâr. — 40 parts
- v1.c12.s3 Amarâvatî. — 25 parts
- v1.c12.s4 Gandhâra Topes. — 24 parts
- v1.c12.s5 Jalâlâbâd Topes. — 31 parts
- v1.c12.s6 Mânikyâla. — 41 parts
Chapter III. Stûpas.
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Relic Worship—Bhilsâ Topes—Topes at Sârnâth and in Bihâr—Amarâvatî Stûpa—Gandhâra Topes—Jalâlâbâd Topes—Mânikyâla Stûpa.
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THERE are few subjects of like nature that would better reward the labour of some competent student than an investigation into the origin of Relic Worship and its subsequent diffusion over the greater part of the old world. So far as is at present known, it did not exist in Egypt, nor in Greece or Rome in classical times, nor in Babylon or Assyria. In some of these countries the greatest possible respect was shown to the remains of departed greatness, and the bones and ashes of persons who were respected in life were preserved with care and affection;¹ but there was no individual so respected that a hair of his head, a tooth, or a toe-nail, even a garment or a utensil he had used, was considered as a most precious treasure after his death. In none of these countries does it appear to have occurred to any one that a bone or the begging-pot of a deceased saint was a thing worth fighting for; or that honour done to such things was a meritorious act, and that prayers addressed to them were likely to be granted. Yet so ingrained do these sentiments appear to be among the followers of Buddha, that it is difficult to believe that the first occasion on which this sentiment arose, was at the distribution of his remains on his attaining Nirvâna at Kusinagara, about b.c. 480. On that occasion, eight cities or principalities are said to have contended for the honour of possessing his mortal remains, and the difficulty was met by assigning a portion to each of the contending parties, who are said to have erected stûpas to contain them in each of their respective localities.² None of these can now be identified with certainty—everything in future ages being ascribed to Asoka, who, according to popular tradition, is said to have erected the fabulous number of 84,000 relic shrines, or towers to mark sacred spots.¹ Some of these may be those we now see, or are encased within their domes; but if so, they, like everything else architectural in India, are the earliest things we find there. It is true, the great pagoda—the Shwê Dagon at Rangûn—is said to contain relics of all the four Buddhas of the present Kalpa, the staff of Kakusandho; the water-dipper of Konâgamano; the bathing garment of Kasyapa, and eight hairs from the head of Gautama Buddha;² but supposing this to be true, we only now see the last and most modern, which covers over the older erections. This is at least the case with the great dâgaba at Bintenne, near Kandy, in Ceylon, in which the thorax-bone of the great ascetic is said to lie enshrined. The 'Mahâwansa,' or Buddhist history of Ceylon, describes the mode in which this last building was raised, by successive additions, in a manner so illustrative of the principle on which these relic shrines arrived at completion, that it is well worth quoting:—"The chief of the Devas, Sumana, supplicated of the deity worthy of offerings for something worthy of worship. The Vanquisher, passing his hand over his head, bestowed on him a handful of his pure blue locks from the growing hair of the head. Receiving it in a superb golden casket, on the spot where the divine teacher had stood, he raised an emerald stûpa over it and bowed down in worship.
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¹ Examples of this may be cited in the reverence of the Athenians for the remains of Theseus and Oedipus, and the honours paid to those of Demetrius; but this bears no analogy to the relic-worship of India and Central Asia.
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² These were Râjagriha, Vaisâlî, Kapilavastu, Allakappa, Râmagrâma, Vethadîpa, Pâvâ, and Kusinârâ.—‘Buddhist Art in India,’ p. 15; S. Hardy’s ‘Eastern Monachism,’ p. 221. The fame of this distribution seems to have reached Europe at least as early as the 1st century of the Christian Era, inasmuch as Plutarch ('Moralia,' p. 1002, Dübner, ed., Paris, 1841) describes a similar partition of the remains of Menander, among eight cities who are said to have desired to possess his remains; but as he does not hint that it was for purposes of worship, the significance of the fact does not seem to have been appreciated. Conf. 'Questions of King Milinda' in 'Sacred Books of the East,' vol. xxxv. introd. p. 20.
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¹ 'Mahâwansa,' p. 26, 'Hiouen Thsang,' tom. ii. p. 417; Beal, 'Buddhist Records,' vol. ii. pp. 87-88.
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² Account of the great bell at Rangun.—Hough, 'Asiatic Researches,' vol. xiv. p. 270.
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"The thero Sarabhû, at the demise of the supreme Buddha, receiving at his funeral pile the Thorax-bone, brought and deposited it in that identical dâgaba. This inspired personage caused a dâgaba to be erected twelve cubits high to enshrine it, and thereon departed. The younger brother of King Devânampiyatissa (B.C. 244), having discovered this marvellous dâgaba, constructed another encasing it, thirty cubits in height. King Dutthagâmini (*cir.* B.C. 96), while residing there, during his subjugation of the Malabars, constructed a dâgaba, encasing that one, eighty cubits in height." Thus was the "Mahiyangana dâgaba completed.”¹ It is possible that at each successive addition some new deposit was made; at least most of the topes examined in Afghanistân and the Panjâb, which show signs of these successive increments, seem also to have had successive deposits, one above the other.
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¹ Abstracted from the ‘Mahâwansa,’ chap. 1.
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Of the four canine teeth of Sâkyamuni, one is said to have been honoured among the Devas or gods, another among the Nâgas or water-spirits, the third was carried to Gandhâra,² and the fourth to Kalinga. Little or nothing is related of the first three; the most celebrated is the left canine tooth. At the original distribution it is said to have fallen to the lot of Orissa, and to have been enshrined in a town called from that circumstance “Dantapura.” This, most probably, was near the modern town of Kalingapatam; or possibly, as has been supposed, the celebrated temple of Jagannâth, which now flourishes at Purî, may be on the site of the temple to which the tooth belonged. Be this as it may, it seems to have remained there in peace for more than eight centuries, when Guhasiva, the king of the country, being attracted by some miracles performed by it, and by the demeanour of the priests, became converted from the Brahmanical cult, to which he had belonged, to the religion of Buddha. The dispossessed Brâhmans thereon complained to his suzerain lord, resident at Pâtaliputra, in the narrative called only by his title Pându. He ordered the tooth to be brought to the capital, when, from the wonders it exhibited, he was converted also; but this, and the excitement it caused, led to its being ultimately conveyed surreptitiously to Ceylon, where it is said to have arrived about the year 310; and in spite of various vicissitudes, its representative still remains in British custody, the palladium of the kingdom, as it has been regarded during the last sixteen centuries.³
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² It was preserved at Nagara or Nagarahâra near Jalâlâbâd, where Fah-Hian, A.D. 400, in his 13th chapter describes it as perfect. Hiouen Thsang, ‘Mémoires,’ tome ii. p. 97, describes the stûpa as ruined, and the tooth having disappeared.—Beal, ‘Buddhist Records,’ vol. i. p. 92.
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³ The principal particulars of this story are contained in a Singalese work called the ‘Daladâvamsa,’ translated by Sir Mutu Comara Swamy. See also ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society’ (N.S.) vol. iii. pp. 132 *et seqq.*; ‘Tree and Serpent Worship,’ pp. 174 *et seqq.*; S. Hardy’s ‘Eastern Monachism,’ pp. 224ff; and Dr J. Gerson da Cunha’s ‘Memoir on the History of the Tooth Relic,’ in ‘Journal of the Bombay Br. Royal Asiatic Society,’ vol. xi. pp. 115-146.
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Almost as celebrated was the begging-pot of Sâkyamuni, which was long kept in a dâgaba or vihâra erected by Kanishka at Peshâwar, and worshipped with the greatest reverence.⁴ After paying a visit to Benares,¹ it was conveyed to Kandahar, and is said to be still preserved there by the Musalmâns, and looked upon even by them as a most precious relic.²
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⁴ ‘Foé Koué Ki,’ ch. xii. pp. 77, 82, 83; Beal’s ‘Travels of Fah-Hian,’ pp. 36-37, or ‘Buddhist Records,’ vol. i. introd. pp. xxxii., xxxiii. Conf. Cunningham, ‘Archæological Reports,’ vol. xvi. pp. 8-11, and plate 3.
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¹ 'Hiouen Thsang,' tome i. p. 83, or Beal, 'Life of Hiuen Tsiang,' p. 63.
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² 'Foé Koué Ki,' pp. 351-352; Beal's 'Travels of Fah-Hian,' p. 161. A detailed account of its transference from the true Gandhâra—Peshâwar—to the new Gandhâra in Kandahar will be found in a paper by Sir Henry Rawlinson, 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. xi. p. 127. Conf. 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. iv. p. 141.
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All this will become plainer as we proceed, for we shall find every Buddhist locality sanctified by the presence of relics, and that these were worshipped apparently from the hour of the death of the founder of the religion to the present day. Were this the place to do it, it would be interesting to try and trace the path by which, and the time when, this belief in the efficacy of relics spread towards the west, and how and when it was first adopted by the Catholic Church, and became with them as important an element of worship as with the Buddhists.³ That would require a volume to itself; meanwhile, what is more important for our present purpose is the knowledge that this relic-worship gave rise to the building of these great stûpas or dâgabas, which are the most important feature of Buddhist architectural art.
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³ The craze for relics that sprang up in the 5th century was largely stimulated by the writings of such authorities as Augustine, Ambrose, Basil, and Chrysostom. It was strictly akin to the belief of the Buddhists. The reverence for the "qadam-i-rasul," and relics of Muhammad by his followers is also of a similar character.
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No one can, I fancy, hesitate in believing that the Buddhist stûpa is the direct descendant of the sepulchral tumulus of the Turanian races, whether found in Etruria, Lydia, or among the Skyths of the northern steppes. The Indians, however, never seem to have buried, but always to have burnt, their dead, and consequently never, so far as we know, had any tumuli among them. It may be in consequence of this that the stûpas, in the earliest times, took a rounded or domical form, while all the tumuli, from being of earth, necessarily assumed the form of cones. Not only out of doors, but in the earliest caves, the forms of dâgabas are always rounded; and no example of a straight-lined cone covering a stûpa has yet been discovered. This peculiarity, being so universal, would seem to indicate that they had been long in use before the earliest known example, and that some other material than earth had been employed in their construction; but we have as yet no hint when the rounded form was first employed, nor when it was refined into a relic shrine. We know, indeed, from the caves, and from the earliest bas-reliefs, that all the roofs of the Indians were curvilinear—probably derived from the roofs of thatched huts; and if one can fancy a circular chamber with a domical roof—not in stone, of course—as the original receptacle of the relic, we may imagine that the form was derived from this.¹
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¹ Among the bas-reliefs of the Bharaut tope is one representing just such a domical roof as this (Woodcut No. 81). It is not, however, quite easy to make out its plan, nor to feel sure whether the object on the altar is a relic, or whether it may not be some other kind of offering.
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The worship of stûpas probably arose from the popular idea that the sanctity of the relics was shared by their shrines; and gradually stûpas, simply in memory of the Buddha or of any of his notable followers, came to be multiplied and reverenced everywhere. Many were solid blocks without any receptacle for a relic; but in those inside chaitya halls, the casket was placed in the capital or Tee, whence it could be readily transferred, or taken out on the occasion of a festival.
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The earlier ones were very plain, consisting of a base or drum and dome, with a square capital in the form of a box; the dome was regarded as the essential feature of a stûpa, and with the "chhattra" or umbrella over it, as a symbol of dignity, and a surrounding path for "pradakshina" or circumambulation fenced off by a wall or railing, it was complete. In course of time they came to be honoured almost as the Buddha himself—had his image affixed to their drums, and were decked with parasols, garlands of flowers, and flags or long ribbons, whilst presentations of money were made for their service.
Bhilsâ Topes.
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The most extensive, and taking it altogether, perhaps the most interesting, group of topes in India is that known as the Bhilsâ Stûpas or Topes, from a town of that name on the north border of Bhopâl, near which they are situated. There, within a district not exceeding 10 miles east and west and 6 north and south, are five or six groups of topes, containing altogether between twenty-five and thirty individual examples. The principal of these, known as the great tope at Sânchi-Kânâkhedâ, has been frequently described, the smaller ones are known from General Cunningham's descriptions only;² but altogether they have excited so much attention that they are perhaps better known than any group in India. We are not however, perhaps, justified in assuming, from the greater extent of this group as now existing, that it possessed the same pre-eminence in Buddhist times. If we could now see the topes that once adorned any of the great Buddhist sites in the Doâb or in Bihâr, the Bhilsâ group might sink into insignificance. It may only be that, situated in a remote and thinly peopled part of India, they have not been exposed to the destructive energy of opposing sects of the Hindû religion, and the bigoted Moslim has not wanted their materials for the erection of his mosques. They consequently remain to us, while it may be that nobler and more extensive groups of monuments have been swept from the face of the earth.
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² 'Bhilsa Topes, or Buddhist Monuments in Central India,' 1854. One half of the work on 'Tree and Serpent Worship,' and forty-five of its plates, besides woodcuts, are devoted to the illustration of the great Tope; and numerous papers have appeared on the same subject in the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society' and elsewhere. A cast of the eastern gateway is in the South Kensington Museum; also in Edinburgh, Dublin, Berlin, and Paris Museums.
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Notwithstanding all that has been written about them, we know very little that is certain regarding their object and their history.¹ Our usual guides, the Chinese Pilgrims, fail us here. Fah Hian never was within some hundreds of miles of the place; and if Hiuen Tsiang ever was there, it was after leaving Valabhî, when his journal becomes so confused and curt that it is always difficult, sometimes impossible, to follow him. He has, at all events, left no description by which we can now identify the place, and nothing to tell us for what purpose the great tope or any of the smaller ones were erected. The ‘Mahâwansa,’ it is true, helps us a little in our difficulties. It is there narrated that Asoka, when on his way to Ujjeni (Ujjain), of which place he had been nominated governor, tarried some time at Chetyagiri, or, as it is elsewhere called, Wessanagara, the modern Besnagar, close to Sânchi. He there married the daughter of a chief, and by her had twin sons, Ujjenia and Mahinda, and afterwards a daughter, Sanghamittâ. The two last named are said to have entered the priesthood, and played a most important part in the introduction of Buddhism into Ceylon. Before setting out on this mission, Mahinda visited his royal mother at Chetyagiri, and was lodged in “a superb vihâra,” which had been erected by herself.² In all this there is no mention of the great tope, which may have existed before that time; but till some building is found in India which can be proved to have existed before that age, it may be assumed that this is one of the 84,000 topes said to have been erected by Asoka. Had Sânchi been one of the eight cities which obtained relics of Buddha at the funeral pyre, the case might have been different; but it has been dug into, and found to be a stûpa without relics.¹ It consequently may have been erected to mark some sacred spot or to commemorate some event, and we have no reason to believe that this was done anywhere before Asoka's time.
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¹ Colonel F. C. Maisey was sent by Government in 1849 to make drawings of the gateways and sculptures at Sânchi-Kânâkhedâ. These drawings—which had been first used in ‘Tree and Serpent Worship,’—he re-published in 1892, with letterpress based on a fanciful theory as to their age and origin.
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² ‘Mahâwansa,’ chap. 13. See also ‘Tree and Serpent Worship,’ pp. 99 *et seqq.*, where all this is more fully set out than is necessary here.
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¹ At least the excavations failed in the discovery of a deposit.
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On the other hand, two smaller topes at the same place contained relics of a historical character. That called No. 2 Tope contained those of some of the Buddhist teachers who took part in the third great convocation held under Asoka, and some of whom were sent on missions to the Himâlayas, to disseminate the doctrines then settled, and with these were associated the names of others, probably contemporaries, but of whom we know nothing otherwise.² No 3 Tope contained two relic caskets, represented in the accompanying woodcuts (Nos. 10
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² The 'Dîpawansa' names the four missionaries who accompanied Kâsapagota Kotiputa to convert the tribe of Yakkas in Himavanta, as—Majjhima, Dudubhisara, Sahadeva and Mûlakadeva. Kâsapagota, Majjhima and Dudubhisara, are named on relic-boxes from Sânchi and Sonari.—'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' 1905, pp. 683ff.
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10. Relic Casket of Moggalâna. 11. Relic Casket of Sâriputra.
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and 11). One of these contained relics of Mahâ Moggalâna, the other of Sâriputra, friends and companions of Buddha himself, and usually called his right and left hand disciples.³ It does not of course follow from this that this dâgaba is as old as the time of Buddha; on the contrary, the probability seems to be that these relics were deposited there in Asoka's time, in close proximity to the sacred spot, which the great tope was erected to commemorate. The tope containing relics of his contemporaries may, of course, be more modern, possibly contemporary with the gateways.⁴
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³ Cunningham, 'Bhilsa Topes,' pp. 297, 299 *et seqq.*
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⁴ The Chandragupta inscription on the rail near the eastern gateway is a subsequent addition, and belongs to Chandragupta II., of the year A.D. 412. Fleet, 'Early Gupta Inscriptions,' pp. 29-34.
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The general appearance of the Sânchi-Kânâkhedâ Stûpa will be understood from the view of it on Woodcut No. 12, and its shape and arrangement from the plan and section, Nos. 13 and 14. From these it will be observed that the principal building consists of a dome somewhat less than a hemisphere, 106 ft. in diameter, and 42 ft. in height.¹
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¹ These views, plans, etc., are taken from a Memoir by Capt. J. D. Cunningham, 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. xvi. (August, 1847), pp. 739-763.
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12. View of the great Tope at Sânchi, north-east side.
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13. Plan of great Tope at Sânchi.
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14. Section of great Tope at Sânchi.
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On the top of the stûpa is a flat space about 34 ft. in diameter, formerly surrounded by a stone railing, some parts of which were found still lying there; and in the centre of this once stood a feature known to Indian archæologists as a 'Tee.'²
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² This is an Anglicised form of the Burmese "Htî," by which this member is known; in Sanskrit it is called *harmikâ*. The lower part is called *gala* in Nepal—the "neck," and the whole *chûdâmani*—"the crest or crest jewel." The umbrellas grouped over it were termed *chhattrâvalî*, and the shaft on which they are supported the *yashti*.—Foucher, 'L'Art Gréco-Bouddhique,' tome i. p. 97.
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15. 'Tee' cut in the rock on a Dâgaba at Ajantâ.
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The woodcut (No. 15), from a rock-cut example at Ajantâ, represents the usual form at this age. The lower part is adorned with the usual Buddhist rail (to be described hereafter), the upper by the conventional window pattern, two features which are universal. It is crowned by a lid of three slabs, and no doubt either was or simulated a relic casket. No tope, and no representation of a tope—and we have hundreds—are without this feature, and generally it is or was surmounted by one or more discs representing the umbrellas of state; in modern times by as many as nine of these. The only ancient wooden one now known to exist is that in the cave at Kârlê (Woodcut No. 70), but the representations of them in stone and painting are literally thousands in number.
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The dome rests on a sloping base, 14 ft. in height by 121 ft. in diameter, having an offset on its summit about 6 ft. wide.³ This, to judge from the representations of topes on the sculptures, must have been surrounded by a balustrade, and was ascended by a broad double ramp on one side. It was probably used for processions round the monument, which seem to have been among the most common Buddhist ceremonials. The centre of this great mound is quite solid, being composed of bricks laid in mud; but the exterior is faced with dressed stones. Over these was laid a coating of cement nearly 4 inches in thickness, which was, no doubt, originally adorned either with painting or ornaments in low relief.
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³ 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' 1902, pp. 29-44; and Grünwedel's 'Buddhist Art in India,' (English ed.), pp. 24-26.
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Besides the group at Sânchi, which compromises six or seven stûpas—mostly ruined, there is at Sonâri, 6 miles distant, another group of eight topes. Two of these are important structures, enclosed in square courtyards, and one of them yielded numerous relics to the explorers.
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At Satdhâra, 3 miles further on, is a great tope 101 ft. in diameter, but which, like that at Sânchi, yielded no relics. No. 2, however, though only 24 ft. in diameter, was found to contain relics of Sâriputra and Moggalâna, like No. 3 at Sânchi. Besides these there are several others, all small, and very much ruined.
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The most numerous group, however, is situated at Bhojpur, 7 miles south-east from Sânchi, where thirty-seven distinct topes were grouped together on various platforms. The largest is 66 ft. in diameter, but No. 2 is described as one of the most perfect in the neighbourhood, and, like several others in this group, contained important relics.
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At Andher, about 5 miles west of Bhojpur, was a fine group of three small, but very interesting topes. With those above enumerated, this makes up about sixty distinct and separate topes, in this small district, which certainly was not one of the most important in India in a religious point of view, and consequently was probably surpassed by many, not only in the number but in the splendour of its religious edifices.¹
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¹ As the particulars regarding all these topes, except those at Sânchi, are taken from Gen. Cunningham's work entitled 'Bhilsa Topes,' published in 1854, it has not been thought necessary to repeat the reference at every statement.
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Without more data than we at present possess, it is of course impossible to speak with certainty with regard to the age of this group of topes, but, so far as can be at present ascertained, there seems no reason for assuming that any of them are earlier than the age of Asoka, B.C. 250, nor is it probable that any of them can be of later date than, say, the first century before our era. The topes themselves seem all to be included within these two centuries, or possibly even less.
Topes at Sârnâth and in Bihâr.
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Not only is there no other group of topes in India Proper that can be compared, either in extent or in preservation, to those of Bhilsâ, but our knowledge of the subject is now so complete that it is probably safe to assert that only two, or at most three, topes exist between the Satlaj and the sea, sufficiently perfect to enable their form and architectural features to be distinguished. There are, of course, numerous mounds near all the Buddhist cities which mark the site, and many of which probably hide the remains, of some of the hundreds of stûpas or dâgabas mentioned by the Chinese
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16. Tope at Sârnâth, near Benares. (From a Photograph.)
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Pilgrims, besides many that they failed to distinguish. All, however, with the fewest possible exceptions, have perished; nor is it difficult to see why this should be so. All, or nearly all, were composed of brick or small stones, laid either without mortar, or with cement that was little better than mud. They consequently, when desecrated and deserted, formed such convenient quarries for the villagers, that nearly all have been utilised for building huts and houses of the Hindûs, or the mosques of the Musalmâns. Their rails, being composed of larger stones and not so easily removed, have in some instances remained, and some will no doubt be recovered when looked for; and as these, in the earlier ages at least, were the iconostasis of the shrine, their recovery will largely compensate for the loss of the topes which they surrounded.
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The best known, as well as the best preserved of the Bengal topes, is that called Dhamek, at Sârnâth, near Benares (Woodcut No. 16). It was explored by General Cunningham in 1835-36, and found to be a stûpa or chaitya—not containing relics, but erected to mark some spot sanctified by the presence of Buddha, or by some act of his during his long residence there. In 1904-05 further excavations were made under Mr. Oertel, but the results have not yet been made public. It is situated in the Deer Park, where Buddha took up his residence with his five disciples when he first removed from Gayâ on claiming to have attained Buddhahood, and commenced his mission as a teacher. That it commemorates this event, is exceedingly probable, since that stûpa, of all others, would be religiously preserved and restored. There are several mounds in the neighbourhood, but the descriptions of the Chinese Pilgrims are not sufficiently precise to enable us always to discriminate between them.
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The building consists of a stone basement, 93 ft. in diameter, and solidly built, the stones being clamped together with iron to the height of 43 ft. Above that it is in brickwork, rising to a height of 110 ft. above the surrounding ruins, and 128 ft. above the plain.¹ Externally the lower part is relieved by eight projecting faces, each 21 ft. 6 in. wide, and 15 ft. apart. In each is a small niche, intended apparently to contain a seated figure of Buddha, and below them, encircling the monument, is a band of sculptured ornament of the most exquisite beauty. The central part consists—as will be seen by the cut (No. 17) on the next page—of geometric patterns of great intricacy, but combined with singular skill; and, above and below, foliage equally well designed, and so much resembling that carved by Hindû artists on the earliest Muhammadan mosques at Ajmîr and Delhi, as at first sight might suggest that they may not be very distant in date.
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¹ These dimensions and details are taken from Gen. Cunningham’s ‘Archæological Reports,’ vol. i. pp. 107 *et seqq.*; for his account of the exploration, see ‘Journal Bengal Asiatic Society,’ vol. xxxii. ; Sherring’s ‘Sacred City of the Hindûs,’ pp. 236-243.
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The carvings round the niches and on the projections have been left so unfinished—in some instances only outlined—that it is impossible to guess what ultimate form it may have been intended to give them. The upper part of the tower was
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17. Panel on the Tope at Sârnâth. (From a Photograph.)
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possibly an addition of even later date than the lower part, and may never have been finished at all; but from our knowledge of the Afghanistan topes we may surmise that it was intended to encircle it with a range of pilasters, and then some bold mouldings, before covering it with a hemispherical dome.
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In his excavations, General Cunningham found, buried in the solid masonry, at the depth of 10½ feet from the summit, a large stone on which was engraved the usual Buddhist formula, "Ye dharmma hetu," etc., in characters belonging, he thought, to the 7th century, from which he inferred that the monument belongs to the 6th century. But I cannot accept the conclusion; it seems to me much more probable that this stone may have belonged to some building which had fallen into decay, or to have been the pedestal of some statue which had been disused, and was consequently utilised in the erection or repair of this structure. One feels consequently more inclined to adopt the tradition preserved by Captain Wilford,¹ to the effect that the Sârnâth monument was erected by the sons of Mahîpâla, and destroyed (interrupted?) before its completion.² We know that the Deer Park, where the Buddha preached his first sermon, was the site of one of the early and most sacred stûpas, and the excavations recently made have brought to light remains of all ages from that of Asoka down to the 11th century at least. An inscription, found long since, and dated in A.D. 1026, records the repair of a Buddhist stûpa and Dharmachakra, and the erection of a Gandhakutî temple in the time of Mahîpâla—probably by his sons.³ Whether it refers to this stûpa or not, it indicates that large restorations did take place as late as the 11th century, when this also was probably encased, as we now find it, with a modernised exterior. The form of the monument with the eight projecting faces that decorate its drum, the character of its sculptured ornaments, the unfinished condition in which it is left, and indeed the whole circumstances of the case, render this date so probable that it may be accepted for the present at least, though it is quite possible that further research may require us to modify this opinion.
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¹ 'Asiatic Researches,' vol. ix. p. 203, and vol. x., p. 130.
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² See also paper by Vesey Westmacott, 'Calcutta Review,' vol. lix., 1874, p. 68.
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³ 'Asiatic Researches,' vol. v. p. 133; 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. xiv. p. 139. The contents of this inscription was probably the basis of Wilford's statement.
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The only stone building yet found in India that has any pretension to be dated before Asoka's time is one at Râjgir, having the popular name of Jarâsandha-ka-baithak. As will be seen from the annexed woodcut (No. 18), it is in the form of a platform 85 ft. square at the base and sloping upwards for 20 or 28 ft. to a platform measuring 74 by 78 ft.⁴ It is built wholly of stones, neatly fitted together without mortar; and its most remarkable peculiarity is that it contains fifteen cells, one of which is shown in the woodcut. They are from 6 to 7 ft. in length, by about half that in breadth, and they are occupied at times up to the present day by Jogis whose bodies are constantly smeared with ashes.¹
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⁴ 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. i. p. 72.
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¹ 'Cave-Temples,' pp. 33f.; Cunningham, 'Archæological Survey Report,' vol. i. p. 20; vol. iii. p. 142.
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18. View and Plan of Jarâsandha-ka-baithak. (From Cunningham, 'Archæological Survey Report,' vol. iii. plate 42.)
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The other Bengal tope existing nearly entire, also known as Jarâsandha-ka-baithak, is opposite to the village of Giriyek, about 6 miles east-north-east of the preceding. General Cunningham states its dimensions to be 28 ft. in diameter by 21 ft. in height, resting on a basement 14 ft. high, so that its total height, when complete, may have been about 55 ft. As it was not mentioned by Fah Hian, A.D. 400, and is, apparently, by Hiuen Tsiang, A.D. 640, its age is probably, as General Cunningham states, intermediate between these dates, or about A.D. 500.² It is a bold, fine tower, evidently earlier than that at Sârnâth, and showing nothing of the tendency towards Hindû forms there displayed. It has, too, the remains of a procession-path, or extended basement which is wholly wanting at Sârnâth, but which is always found in the earlier monuments. It was erected, as Hiuen Tsiang tells us, in honour of a Hansa—goose—who devoted itself to relieve the wants of a starving community of Bhikshus.³
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² 'Archæological Survey Report,' vol. i. pp. 16-19, and plate 15.
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³ 'Hiouen Thsang,' tom. iii. p. 60; or Beal, 'Buddhist Records,' vol. ii. p. 181.
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The third stûpa, if it may be so called, is the celebrated temple or, properly, chaitya at Bodh-Gayâ, which stands immediately in front of the celebrated Bodhi-tree (*Ficus religiosa*)¹ under whose shade Buddha is said to have attained complete enlightenment in the thirty-fifth year of his age, *cir.* B.C. 525. Its history is told in such detail by Hiuen Tsiang² that there seems little doubt as to the main facts of the case. According to this authority, Asoka built a small vihâra here, but long afterwards this was replaced by a temple 160 ft. high and 60 ft. (20 paces) wide, which are the exact dimensions of the present building, according to Cunningham,³ and we are further told that it was erected by a Brâhman, who was warned by Maheswara (Siva), in a vision, to execute this work.⁴ In this temple there was a cella corresponding with the dimensions of that found there, in which the Brâhman placed a statue of Buddha, seated cross-legged, with one hand pointing to the earth.⁵ The date of the erection of this temple is still obscure: General Cunningham laboured, on rather doubtful data, to prove that it was erected in the reign of the Kushan king, Huvishka, in the century B.C., and, from a coin found in a later image, he concluded that additions and restorations were made in the 4th century.⁶ There are sculptures and inscriptions that must belong between the 2nd and 7th centuries, and they are numerous between the 9th and end of the 12th; but none of them help us in definitely fixing the date of the temple. From the style and what remains of the older sculptures, we can only assume that it may belong to somewhere about the 6th century, though considerably altered in later times by successive restorations. From an Arakanese inscription on the spot, first translated by Colonel H. Burney, we further learn that the place, having fallen into decay, was restored by the Burmese in the year 1105, and again in 1298.¹
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¹ Buchanan Hamilton was told by the priests on the spot, in 1811, that it was planted there 2225 years ago, or B.C. 414, and that the temple was built 126 years afterwards, or in 289 B.C. :—not a bad guess for Asoka's age in a locality where Buddhism has been so long forgotten.—Montgomery Martin's ‘Eastern India,’ vol. i. p. 76.
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² ‘Hiouen Thsang,’ tom. ii. pp. 464-468; or Beal, ‘Buddhist Records,’ vol. ii. pp. 118-121.
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³ ‘Archæological Reports,’ vol. i. p. 5; and ‘Mahâbodhi,’ p. 18.
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⁴ Wassiliev, in his work on the Doctrine, History, etc., of Buddhism, pp. 41-42, gives a somewhat different account, stating that it was erected by Punya, one of three brothers converted by Uttara, one of whom built a temple in the Deer Park at Benares, and the other a temple in the Venuvana garden at Râjagriha. Gen. Cunningham refers to a story related by Târânâth of two brothers, one of whom built the Nâlanda temple, and, from the resemblance in style, he infers that the Mahâbodi temple belongs to the same date, if not to one of the brothers.
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⁵ That is in the attitude known as the ‘Bhûmisparsa mudrâ’, in which Sâkyamuni sat when he attained supreme knowledge.
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⁶ ‘Mahâbodhi,’ pp. 17-25. This was a coin of Pasupati, Râja of Nepâl, whose name—possibly the Pasuprêksha of the chronologies—is well-known to numismatists from his coins; but nothing is certain about his date, except that most probably he lived subsequently to the 7th century.—‘Indian Antiquary,’ vol. xiii. p. 412; Wright’s, ‘History of Nepal,’ p. 113; Sylvain Lévi, ‘Le Népal,’ tome ii. pp. 108-111; ‘Journal Royal Asiatic Society,’ 1908, p. 681.
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¹ 'Asiatic Researches,' vol. xx. pp. 161-189; Râjendralâl Mitra, 'Buddha Gayâ,' p. 209; Phayre's 'History of Burma,' p. 46; and 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. xxxvii. p. 97, note. Gen. Cunningham read the dates as equivalent to 1079 and 1086 A. D.; 'Mahâbodhi,' pp. 27, 28, and 77. But though a scholarly translation of the inscriptions has yet to be made, the readings of the Burmese or Arakanese dates as 467 and 660 of their era, can hardly be questioned—*i.e.* 1105 and 1298 A. D.
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From the data these accounts afford us we gather that the building we now see before us (Woodcut No. 19) is substantially
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19. Temple at Bodh-Gayâ with Bo-tree. (From a Photograph by Mr. Peppe, C.E.)
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that erected in the 6th century, but the niches Hiuen Tsiang saw, containing golden statues of Buddha, cannot be those now existing — most of the images round the basement are distinctly of Burmese type, though some few of them appear to be of about the 6th century—and the sculptures he mentions find no place in the present design; the amalakas of gilt copper that crowned the whole, as he saw it, have also disappeared.¹
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¹ Beal's 'Buddhist Records,' vol. ii. pp. 118 and 136, note 2.
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The changes in detail, as well as the introduction of radiating arches in the interior, must belong to the Burmese restorations in the beginning of the 12th and end of the 13th centuries. Though these, consequently, may have altered its appearance in detail, it is probable that, until the "restoration" in 1880-81, we still had before us a straight-lined pyramidal nine-storeyed temple of about the 6th century, retaining all its essential forms—anomalous and unlike anything else we find in India, either before or afterwards, but probably the parent of many nine-storeyed towers found beyond the Himâlayas, both in China and elsewhere.
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Unfortunately, instead of carefully preserving this very interesting monument, the Government of Bengal was advised to "restore" it, and this was carried out under the superintendence of General Cunningham and his assistant, by which—as might have been anticipated—it was materially modified, and from an archæological point of view seriously injured.²
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² Cunningham's 'Mahâbodhi,' preface, p. ix. The restoration cost the Government somewhere about 200,000 rupees; and then the Mahant of the neighbouring monastery appropriated the renovated temple for his Vaishnava followers and consecrated the image by applying to it the "tilak" or frontal mark of Vishnu, so that it might be worshipped as that divinity, whilst he set both the Buddhists and Government at defiance to re-occupy the shrine.
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Eventually we may discover other examples which may render this noble tower less exceptional than it now appears to be. At Kesarîyâ in Champâran, about 20 miles south-east from Lauriyâ-Ararâj, where one of the pillars of Asoka mentioned above is found, are the ruins of what appears to have been a very large tope. It is, however, entirely ruined externally, and has never been explored, so that we cannot tell what was its original shape or purpose.³ At Piprahwa also in the north of Basti district, on the Nepâl frontier, a mound containing the remains of a stûpa was excavated in 1897-98, but, apparently, more attention was given to the discovery of the relic casket, than to the construction and dimensions of the stûpa. It seems, however, to have been about 90 feet. in diameter at the base, and about 13½ ft. from the ground level; the dome began with a diameter of about 62 ft.⁴ The inscription on one of the relic caskets has attracted much attention on the part of scholars as recording the deposit of relics of the Sâkya clansmen of Buddha.¹
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³ Cunningham, 'Archæological Reports,' vol. i. pp. 64ff. and plate 24.
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⁴ 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' 1898, p. 577; and 'Report on a Tour of Exploration of the Antiquities in the Tarai, Nepal,' by Babu P. C. Mukherji, 1899, pp. 43-47, in which the "approximate total diameter of the whole stûpa" is given as 90½ ft.; but both illustrations and descriptions are very unsatisfactory.
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¹ ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,’ 1899, pp. 149-180; 1905, pp. 679f; and 1907, pp. 105f.
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All along this line of country numerous Buddhist remains are found, all more or less ruined, and they have not yet been examined with the scientific care necessary to ascertain their forms. This is the more to be regretted as this was the native country of the founder of the religion, and the place where his doctrines appear to have been originally promulgated. If anything older than the age of Asoka is preserved in India, it is probably in this district that it must be looked for.
Amarâvatî.
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Although not a vestige remains *in situ* of the central stûpa at Amarâvatî, there is no great difficulty, by piecing together the fragments of it now in the British Museum—as is done in Plates 48 and 49 of ‘Tree and Serpent Worship’—in ascertaining what its dimensions and general appearance were. When Colonel Mackenzie first saw it, in 1797, the central portion of the mound was still untouched, and rose in a turreted shape to a height of 20 ft. with a diameter of about 90 ft. at the top, and had been cased round with bricks, and so may have been 40 or 50 ft. in height. This indicates a dome of considerable size; the base or drum was probably 162½ ft. in diameter, and wainscotted with sculptured marble; how broad it was above we have no means of knowing, or whether there may not have been even a second terrace; but if, as is most probable, there was only one, the dome may have been 120 to 140 ft. in diameter. The perpendicular part was covered with sculptures in low relief, representing stûpas and scenes from the life of Buddha. The domical part was covered with stucco, and with wreaths and medallions either executed in relief or painted. No fragment of them remains by which it can be ascertained which mode of decoration was the one adopted.²
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² For a detailed account of the Amarâvatî Stûpa, see ‘Archæological Survey of Southern India: The Buddhist Stûpas of Amarâvatî and Jaggayyapeta,’ 1887.
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Altogether, there seems no doubt that the representation of a stûpa (Woodcut No. 20), copied from the Amarâvatî marbles, fairly represents the central building there. There were probably forty-eight such representations of dâgabas on the basement of the stûpa. In each the subject of the sculpture is varied, but the general design is the same throughout; and, on the whole, the woodcut may be taken as representing the mode in which a Buddhist stûpa was ornamented in the 1st or 2nd century, at which time the style seems to have reached its highest point of elaboration, in India at least.¹
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¹ The recent discovery of the base of a stûpa, about 11 ft. in diameter, outside where the south gate of the great Amarâvatî stûpa was, has revealed the style in which the base or drum of these eastern stûpas was decorated—by marble slabs richly carved with representations of stûpas, placed at intervals, and with other sculptures between. There was no "inner rail" around the large stûpa, as was at one time assumed.
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20. Representation of a Stûpa from the Rail at Amarâvatî. (From a bas-relief in the British Museum.)
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In the Andhra country—or, at least, in the districts adjoining the deltas of the Krishnâ and Godâvarî rivers—Buddhism must have had a very strong hold in early times. This is abundantly evidenced by the numbers of their remains in the area. A list of the mounds or "dibbas"—as they are called—indicates about three hundred in the Kistna district alone; probably most of these cover ancient remains, and, as excavation has shown, many of them were stûpas.¹ How many may exist in neighbouring districts we do not yet know. Unfortunately many, including the largest of these, containing the most important remains, have been used as quarries for brick and marble—not by natives only—but by Government Public Works engineers, the record of whose vandalism in utilising the materials is most deplorable.²
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¹ 'Madras Government Orders,' No. 462 of 29th May 1889.
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² See *e.g.* 'Madras Government Orders,' No. 467, 30th April 1888, p. 15.
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The stûpa at Bhattiprolu, about 6 miles north of Repalle, was for long one of the best preserved in the district—presenting a circular mound or dome of 40 ft. or more in height, though ruined at the top, a marble pillar 15 ft. high standing erect beside it, and with clear indications of the procession-path round it.³ This was destroyed, about 1870;⁴ what was left of it, on being surveyed in 1892, showed that the dome had been about 132 ft. in diameter, while the basement was of about 148 ft., the procession-path had been 8 ft. 4 in. wide and fenced on the outside by a marble rail—of which the bases of six piers were found *in situ*. Towards each of the cardinal points the base projected about 2 ft. 4 in., with a straight front, probably for the support of the five monoliths — represented on all the sculptured stûpas from Amarâvatî, and as was the case at Jaggayyapeta.⁵ The sculptures of the latter stûpa, indeed, bear a close resemblance in their archaic character, to the only two fragments recovered here, and, so far as they go, indicate that this stûpa may have been of considerably earlier date than even the great rail at Amarâvatî. We might suppose also that the sculptures would be confined chiefly to the projecting façades, whilst the rest of the basement was faced with plain slabs and pilasters.
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³ 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. i. pp. 153, 348, 374; 'Madras Journal of Literature and Science,' vol. xix. p. 225; Sewell's 'Topographical Lists of Antiquarian Remains,' pp. 77-78.
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⁴ *Ante*, p. 34, note 3.
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⁵ 'The Buddhist Stûpas of Amarâvatî and Jaggayyapeta,' p. 110. These projecting pedestals with their five *âryaka* (worshipful) columns, may be analogous to the chapels for the Dhyâni-Buddhas at the bases of the dâgabas of Ceylon and of the chaityas of Nepâl.
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At least one relic casket had been found by the first excavators at a considerable height above the ground level; but the enclosing slabs, whether inscribed or not, were broken and cast aside, and the casket was smashed on the voyage to England and thrown away. During the survey, Mr. Rea discovered three more relic boxes at a lower level, and bearing inscriptions of considerable palæographic interest, the alphabet of which can hardly be placed later than 200 B.C.¹
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¹ 'Epigraphia Indica,' vol. ii., preface, pp. ix.-xiii., and pp. 323-329; Rea's 'South Indian Buddhist Antiquities,' pp. 7-16; and conf. Fleet 'Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,' 1903, pp. 99ff.
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At Gudivâda, 20 miles north-west from Masulipatam, there was a "dibba" containing the remains of a stûpa, which was also demolished by the local engineers, it is said about 1860, and so little was left of it that its dimensions cannot now be ascertained. Four relic caskets are said to have been found, though we can learn nothing about their age; but considerable numbers of Andhra coins, mostly of lead, are turned up about the site belonging, probably, to the first three centuries of our era.²
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² Sewell, 'Topographical Lists of Antiquarian Remains,' p. 52; Rea, *op. cit.* pp. 18-23.
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The stûpa at Jaggayyapeta or Betavolu, 30 miles north-west from Amarâvatî, had been plundered of its rail, and of much of the marble casing of its basement, the dome had been destroyed, and relic casket dug out before it was surveyed in 1882. The basement was 31½ ft. in diameter, and portions of the facing remained, chiefly on the south side where the slabs on the projection for the support of the five stelæ bore archæic sculptures. The procession-path had been about 5 ft. wide, surrounded by a rail or wall, of which every fragment had disappeared.³
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³ 'The Buddhist Stûpas of Amarâvatî and Jaggayyapeta,' pp. 107-113, and plates 53-55.
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At Ghantasâlâ, 13 miles west from Masulipatam, a mound was surveyed by Mr. Rea in 1892, and was found to contain the remains of a stûpa with a diameter at the ground level of about 111 ft. contained by a circular brick wall 18 ft. thick, forming the drum of the stûpa. Inside this was a curious reticulation of walls, between which the spaces were packed with black earth: a circular wall of 56 ft. outside diameter was connected by sixteen radiating partitions with the outer wall; and inside this was a square of 26 ft., in the middle of which was a column of brick 10 ft. square, joined to the preceding by four partitions from the middle of its sides, which ran right through the whole interior, while the sides of the outer square were continued to the inner circle.⁴ In the centre of the column was a well, varying in width from 9 in. to 2 ft. 6 in. square, in which was a relic casket, but without anything to indicate its age. On each of the four faces of the base were projections, as at Jaggayyapeta, about 17 ft. in length by 5½ ft. broad and 4½ ft. high. Sculptured slabs were found in the neighbourhood bearing a strong resemblance to those of Amarâvatî; and some had been utilised to carve on them Hindû divinities.¹
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⁴ Rea, 'South - Indian Buddhist Antiquities,' plate 14; a less complex arrangement of interior partitions was found by Dr Führer in the Kankâli-Tîlâ at Mathurâ.—Foucher, 'L'Art Gréco-Bouddhique,' tom. i. p. 95; and V. Smith, 'Jain Stûpa,' plates 1 and 3.
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¹ One slab had represented a fine stûpa, with Buddha, having a halo about his head, as the central figure, and with the usual five stelæ above; another, represented a Bodhi tree, under which is a throne on which lie two round objects like cushions (perhaps relics), whilst, curiously enough, the figures at each side are not the usual worshippers, but Mâra and his hosts of Mârakâyakas. Photographs of such sculptures would be preferable to pen and ink drawings.—Rea, *loc. cit.* plates 27 and 28.
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It is not quite clear how this stûpa was completed; possibly there may have been more than one platform round the dome; but we may suppose, as is most probable, that the massive brick wall formed the true basement or drum, faced with sculptures, and crowned by a procession-path round the dome, as at Sânchi; this latter may have had a diameter of about 84 ft., rising as a hemisphere to about 54 ft. from the ground.²
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² Mr Rea, *loc. cit.*, pp. 33-41, has proposed a somewhat fanciful theory of the construction of this stûpa.
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At many other places, both in the Godâvarî and Kistna districts, remains of other stûpas, as also of rock-temples and other Buddhist antiquities, including some structural chaitya chapels, have been found—testifying to the predominance of Buddhism in this province, and their prosperity for some centuries before and after the Christian Era. Jaina images are also met with—evidencing their spread southwards from Orissa.³
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