The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c10: Chapter IV. The Stûpa and its Symbolism

The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c10

Language: English

Chapter IV. The Stûpa and its Symbolism

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THE previous chapters will enable the reader to put in its proper place in Indian architectural history, and in the life of ancient India, the interesting structure which I will now proceed to discuss, the stûpa or funeral monument, which Fergusson took for his starting-point. The stûpa itself, being originally only a tomb or cenotaph, never came within the enclosure of an Indian village except as a symbol; it belonged to the cemetery or cremation-ground outside. It was only when it had been consecrated as a religious symbol, like so many other structural elements in Indian building, that it became, like the village shrine, associated with life as well as death and was used to mark places made sacred by the events in the life of the saint whom it commemorated, and also as an ideograph in a hieratic language employed decoratively in Buddhist-Hindu art in the same way as Arabic and other script was afterwards used by Muhammadan craftsmen.

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The stûpa did not originate with Buddhism, nor was it solely associated with that aspect of Indo-Aryan religious thought, though the effect of Asoka's ardent propaganda of the cult of Sâkiya Muni made the Buddhist stûpa much more common than any other. The Jains, and probably all other sects in Asoka's time, had their stûpas. The former place the earliest of the 24 *Tîrthankaras*, or saints, commemorated by their stûpas, as far back as the Vedic Rishis; and doubtless the oldest stûpas were not symbols of a religious cult, but memorials of the dead associated with the practice of burial instead of cremation. It may be observed that even in the present day the body of a Brahman who has taken the vow of a *Sannyâsin* and retired from the world to devote himself to a religious life is not cremated after death but thrown into a sacred river—the idea being that it has been made so pure by spiritual exercises that the purificatory rite of cremation is superfluous. Another exception to the rule of cremation is that of a Hindu victim to small-pox, in which case Sitala, the dread goddess who has possessed the body, is supposed to claim it from Agni, the god of fire. Probably the imminent risk of infection for relatives whose duty it was to prepare a corpse for the funeral pile was the motive of this custom.

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It seems likely that the earliest Aryan immigrants into India also disposed of their dead by burial, marking the grave with the tumulus, which afterwards developed into the structural stûpa, and that they only adopted cremation after they had settled down to life under tropical conditions, for obvious sanitary reasons. Certainly in Asoka’s time the stûpa was generally, like the modern chattri, only a cenotaph, or reliquary.

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As the purpose of this work is architectural rather than archæological, it is unnecessary to repeat the detailed descriptions of the existing remains of early Buddhist and Jain stûpas, dating from about the fifth century b.c., which are given by Fergusson and other writers. The plan (fig. 9) and the section of the great Sânchî stûpa (fig. 14) will indicate the usual form and construction, and Pl. X the appearance of one of them from the outside, as shown in the Amarâvatî sculptures. The latter, however, representing the development of Indo-Aryan religion in the second or third century a.d., belongs to the Mahâyâna school of Buddhism, but the form and structure of the stûpa and enclosing rail remains practically the same as in Asoka’s time. The chaitya of the Kârlê Chapter-house, Pl. XIX, indicates better the austerity of early Buddhist ritual, and, making allowance for the fact that the rails are only carved in relief on the face of the stûpa instead of enclosing it, one can realise from it the exact appearance of one of the 84,000 stûpas which Asoka is said to have built.

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Fergusson and other archæologists have failed to remark that the stûpa was not a special product of Buddhist and Jain religious ritual and dogma; as it existed in Asoka's time it embodied the symbolism and ritual of all Aryan religion directly derived from the Vedas.

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FIG. 14—Section of the Great Stûpa at Sânchî, showing Rail and Gateways (from Fergusson's "History").

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The four gateways marking the cardinal points were reproductions of the gateways of the Indo-Aryan village. The rail was the same as that which enclosed the sacrificial area in the Vedic sacrifices. The Buddha, as an inspired Kshatriya teacher, disputed the Brahman interpretation of the Vedas and the efficacy of Brahmanical sacrifices; but his followers, whatever their varna or colour might be, worshipped him with the immemorial rites which belonged to all who came within the pale of the Indo-Aryan village community.

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The three bars of the rail meant the three positions of the sun at its rising, at its zenith, and at its setting—and hence a spiritual defence, for these were the three times of daily prayer—

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A STÛPA (FROM THE AMARÂVATÎ SCULPTURES)

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only the Buddhists called them Buddha, Sangha, and Dharma, instead of Brahmâ, Vishnu, and Siva, according to the orthodox Brahman formula. Four bars to the Brahman meant the four Vedas, the depository of the sacred traditions of the Aryan race; the Buddhists explained them as the four events in the life of the Blessed One—the Nativity, the Enlightenment, the First Sermon at Benares, and His Death, or Pari-Nirvana. The splendid open lotus flowers carved upon the rail (Pl. XIII, A) were symbols and votive offerings which had the same meaning for all schools of Aryan philosophy and religion. The rite of pradakshinâ, the circumambulation of the stûpa, which the pilgrims performed, was the ancient Aryan rite which was repeated every day round the enclosure of every Indian village. And in Asoka’s time all the beautiful imagery of Aryan poetry which first found expression in the Vedic hymns was woven into the fabric of the stûpa. It was no longer a funereal mound, but planned like the Indian village on the lines of the cosmic order which the Divine Artificer Himself had drawn. The dome was the symbol of the sky, the blue lotus flower enveloping the earth with its inverted petals. The group of five columns which rose from the base of the dome at the point opposite the four gateways marked the arms of the cosmic cross, like the main streets of an Aryan village, and represented the five cosmic jewels, earth, air, fire, water, and ether. The reliquary, at the crown of the dome, was the Vedic altar of burnt sacrifice; the rail pattern upon it reproducing in a decorative form the actual rail which enclosed the sacrificial area, and also the village shrine. The umbrella over the reliquary, originally part of the royal insignia of the Kshatriya Prince Siddhartha,¹ was transformed into the pyramidal Tee (fig. 15), which was only the Buddhist and Jain equivalent symbol for the mystic tree of Vishnu, the cosmic tree, the tree of wisdom, and the trysting tree of the village; for all Indian art derives ultimately from the life of the Aryan village.

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¹ The Vedic connotation of this symbolism is to be found in the five posts of sacrifice, *i.e.* the four marking out the sacrificial area and the central stake or altar, or the four corner pillars which upheld the universe with Vishnu’s pillar or tree in the centre. Or again, the four corner posts of the village enclosure with the council tree in the centre.

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FIG. 15.—The Tee of a Stûpa.

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Fergusson’s ignorance of the symbolism of Indian art led him to interpret the sculptures of Buddhist stûpas as representations of “tree and serpent worship.” Monsieur A. Foucher’s brilliant analysis of the sculptures of the Sânchî gateway disposes of this fallacy, which has been the source of much misunderstanding of Indian art and religion. He shows that these sculptures, instead of representing the primitive animistic cult of wild aboriginal followers of the Buddha, really embody the esoteric teaching of Hînayâna Buddhism, which was based upon the true spirit of Vedic Aryan philosophy in refusing to permit the representation of the Deity in human form. Hero-worship was a popular sentiment which could not be ignored by Aryan religious teachers; it went down to the very foundations of Aryan religion, for the Kshatriya chieftain was the spiritual leader of his tribe before the Brahman hierarchy became a political power and developed the philosophical teaching of the Vedas; and, even then, the fighting Kshatriya often overcame the Brahman with his own weapons in philosophic encounters. Both the Buddha and Krishna, the hero of the Mahâbhârata, were Kshatriyas. It was not to be expected that the abstruse speculations of Aryan philosophy could be made intelligible to the whole Indo-Aryan community, composed of so many different intellectual and racial elements;

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NORTH

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EAST

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WEST

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SOUTH]

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THE SYMBOLS OF THE FOUR GATES

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but a popular sentiment like that of hero-worship could be spiritualised and prevented from sinking into gross superstition and idolatry. That was the motive of the ritual represented by the hieratic sculptures of the Asokan stûpas. Hînayâna Buddhism forbade the worship of the great Teacher as a divinity: it permitted the veneration of the symbols which represented the events of His life on earth and the principles of His teaching. It would not tolerate the superstition of Brahmanical sacrificial rites, but it allowed the Vedic altar to be used as a table for the symbols of the Buddhist Law, as a mound upon which to plant the Bodhi tree (fig. 16), or as a casket for the relics of saints.

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FIG. 16.—Bodhi Tree with Vedic Railing.

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That is exactly what is represented in the sculptures of Bharhut and Sânchî. As a symbol of the Nativity the Buddhist sculptor used the figure of Ushas, the Vedic Dawn-maiden, otherwise Lakshmi or Sri, the Goddess of Good Fortune, Abundance, and Fertility (Pl. XI, fig. A). She rises from the cosmic ocean standing upon Brahmâ's lotus flower, and two elephants, symbols of the rain-cloud, pour lustrations over her. Seven different kinds of trees, with Vedic altars as thrones of the gods placed in front of them (Pl. XI, fig. B), symbolised the Second Event in the Buddhist sacred cycle, the Illumination under the Bodhi Tree, which was said to have taken place in seven different lives of the Tathâgata, and represented, as Professor Rhys Davids has explained, the attainment of Nirvana, the zenith of spiritual consciousness. The Third Event was the preaching of the first Sermon at Benares, the turning of the Wheel of the Law.

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It is easy to understand why the wheel appealed to the understanding of every Indian as an appropriate symbol of the whole teaching of Buddha, which was not a dogma of religion but a rule of life. The wheel was not only an ancient Vedic symbol of the sun, as representing the cosmic soul-force, but every Aryan in performing the rite of pradakshinâ round his native village—starting from the eastern gate and following the path of the sun along the Road of Auspiciousness to its zenith at the southern gate, its setting at the western gate, its descent into the nether world until it reached its nadir at the northern gate, whither the sons of King Sagara¹ pursued the sacrificial horse which had escaped from their charge, and, finally, returning to his starting-point in the east—was symbolically turning the wheel of the divine law and meditating upon the mystery of life and death.

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¹ King Sagara prepared a horse-sacrifice, but the horse was stolen by the sage Kapila. The king's sixty thousand sons who had charge of it searched for it high and low, and at length discovered it in the regions below the earth, grazing by the side of the sage, who was wrapt in meditation. When attacked, Kapila burnt them all to ashes by the fire which flashed from his third eye—the eye of spiritual consciousness. A descendant of Sagara, by turning the waters of the Ganges on to their ashes, obtained the admission of their souls into heaven.

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The Fourth Event, represented by a sculpture of the stûpa (Plate XI, fig. D), was the Death of the Buddha, and the completion of the cycle of rebirths in his Pari-Nirvana, Reincarnation was symbolised by the serpent, which periodically sheds its skin and appears with a new body to resume the turning of the wheel of life.

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The Buddhist Law was only the spiritual staff which should help the Aryan villager over the obstacles and pitfalls of the way of life. It was not any dogmatic solution of the riddle of the universe, but a practical way of salvation which appealed strongly to the deep religious instinct of a people oppressed by the burden of the extravagant ritual of Brahmanical sacrifices. The inspiration of Buddha would hardly have touched the imagination of all classes so deeply had his teaching cut across the most cherished religious convictions of India. The almost instant and universal success of Asoka's missionary efforts must be attributed to the political genius of the Buddhist leaders in adapting their propaganda to the traditional religious observances of Indian daily life. The thought of the nativity of Buddha as the sunrise, or dawn of a new spiritual life for every human being, quietly took the place of the original Brahmâ concept, the Vedic Creator who opened the petals of the world-lotus. The Sangha, or the congregation of the faithful, meeting under the village council tree, was equivalent to Vishnu, the sun at noon—the Preserver whose mystic tree or pillar upheld the universe. Siva, symbolised by the sun at its setting and when below the horizon, who was the Dissolver of life and apotheosis of the Vedic philosophy of the cosmos, became Dharma—the Buddhist law of daily life—superseding the Brahman law of sacrificial rites, and pointing the way to Pari-Nirvana when the Ego, released from the chain of human existences, was merged in the cosmic ocean. Nirvana and Pari-Nirvana were the two ends of the upright arm of the cosmic cross, the pole or axis of the universe, which was Vishnu's pillar, or churning-stick, or Siva's *lingam*. It was worshipped by Buddhists as a mystic fiery pillar.

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The poets and philosophers of Vedic India pictured the night sky spanned by the Milky Way, with the seven bright planets of the Great Bear glittering athwart it, as Vishnu-Nârâyana sleeping on the seven-headed Serpent of Eternity, whose coils encircled the universe. These planets had once been the seven great Rishis who taught the Aryans divine wisdom. Buddhist India adopted the same symbolism with a different connotation. The seven great Rishis were the seven Buddhas. The serpent was the cycle of countless existences through which they had at last attained to Pari-Nirvana. These were narrated in the jâtakas, as told by village story-tellers on starlight nights under the mystic tree of Vishnu. The kathaks, or professional story-tellers, were probably the most successful propagandists of Buddhism among the uncultured non-Aryan masses; for it is easy to believe that these delightful old-world tales appealed more strongly to popular imagination than the abstract philosophy of the Vedas, especially as the doctrine taught by them relieved the people from the intolerable sacrificial ritual of the Brahmans.

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The Brahman philosopher taught his disciples as they went the daily round of the village to think of the four gates as the four Vedas.¹ The Buddhist teacher struck a more human note when he substituted the Four Events in the life of the Aryan hero, the Enlightened One; and at the same time he respected the esoteric teaching of Vedic philosophy by inventing a form of aniconic symbolism which met the natural desire of the artist to visualise his spiritual thoughts. When this symbolism is rightly understood, it is easy to read the sculptures of Bharhut and Sânchî as a narrative of the life of Sâkiya Muni and his previous existences on earth, and also as an exposition of the teaching of the Hînayâna school of Buddhism. The sculptures of Amarâvatî represent a later development of Buddhist philosophy when the prohibition of anthropomorphic symbolism was removed from Indo-Aryan religious ritual by the propagation of the tenets of the Mahâyâna school.

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¹ Originally three, corresponding to the three bars of the Vedic sacrificial rail which appears in the Asokan stûpas. A fourth Veda—the Atharva—was subsequently recognised, and at Amarâvatî the sculpture frequently represents four bars in the rail.

Linked texts (4)

Mahābhārata — Vyāsa, Sanskrit
Veda — Sanskrit
Sāñcī
Bharhut