Architecture

      After the death of Ashoka the empire broke to pieces, but his descendants continued to rule the home provinces for about half a century, at the end of which they were superseded by the Sunga kings who governed parts of Northern India until the beginning of the first century B. C. E. However, the style of architecture, decoration, and sculpture which perhaps first assumed a permanent form under the patronage of Ashoka continued in use up to about the close of the first century of the Common era, forming a distinct and definite period in the history of Indian art.

      Although Buddhism at this period, approximately extending from 273 B. C. E. to 10 °C. E., was by no means the only religion in India, it enjoyed a dominant position as the result of the great Buddhist emperor’s propaganda, and the monuments remaining, therefore, are almost all Buddhist, though few are as early as the reign of Ashoka. The huge mass of solid brick masonry known as the great stupa of Sanchi, later encased with stone, may belong to his reign, as well as several other similar structures, but most of the buildings that now survive are of a later date.

      The ancient civil buildings having all perished utterly, except the tangle of superimposed foundations that is all that the spade lays bare at most of the early sites, the story of Indian architecture must therefore be reconstructed from the somewhat one-sided evidence of the temples and shrines, and the bas-reliefs that adorn them. The most characteristic early architectural compositions were stupas, with their appurtenant railings and gateways, monasteries, and churches, the ‘ifaziiya-halls’ of James Fergusson. The monasteries and churches include both rock-cut and structural examples. Isolated pillars also were frequently set up.

      Stupas or ‘topes’, the dagabas of Sri Lanka, solid cupolas of brick or stone masonry, were constructed either for the safe custody of relics hidden in a pagaba, or chamber near the base, or to mark a spot associated with an event sacred in Buddhist or Jain legend. Until the early twentieth century, the stupa was universally believed to be peculiarly Buddhist, but it is now a matter of common knowledge that the ancient Jains built stupas identical in form and accessories with those of the rival religion. However, no specimen of a Jain stupa is standing, and our attention may be confined to the Buddhist series. The earliest stupas were of unburnt bricks like the Bharhut stupa. The great stupa at Sanchi was originally of this type, a casing of roughly trimmed masonry and a ramp forming an upper procession-path being added later.

      As time went on, the originally hemispherical dome of this stupa as it appeared before restoration was raised on a high drum or tier of drums, and so by a series of gradual amplifications the ancient model was transformed first into a lofty tower after Kanishka’s stupa at Peshawar, described by Hiuen Tsiang, and ultimately into the Chinese pagoda.

      The most ancient stupas were very plain. They were usually surrounded by a stone railing, sometimes square in plan, but more often circular, marking off a procession path for the use of worshippers and serving as a defence against evil spirits. The earliest examples of such railings, at Sanchi, are unadorned copies of wooden post-and-rail fences. The bars of the railing were usually lenticular in section, inserted in the posts as shown in the diagram. At Besnagar another form of ancient railing has been unearthed, consisting of oblong slabs held by grooved uprights.

      Bharhut and Sanchi represent two sequent stages in the development of the stupa of the Early (post-Mauryan) Period. They and their appurtenances had become more ornate. Sculpture was freely applied to every member of the railing to the posts, rails, and coping. Late in the second century of the Common era at Amaravati the railing was transformed into a screen covered with stone pictures in comparatively low relief but with the richest effect. The openings giving access to the processionpath inside the railing were dignified by the creation of lofty gateways (torana) copied from wooden models, and covered with a profusion of sculpture. The best examples of such gateways are those at Sanchi.

      The origin of the stupa lies in primitive burial ceremonies for they are primarily tombs like the ‘iron age’ cairns of the south and such tumuli as those excavated by Dr. Theodor Bloch near Nandangarh in the Champaran District. Originally mounds of earth, the earliest stupas existing are of unbaked brick, hemispherical in shape. Although their first object was the enshrinement of sacred relics, in later times they acquired a symbolical value and many cenotaphs were built, the dedication of miniature stupas of stone or clay being customary at the great shrines. This idea of the symbolic value of stupas and the merit of stupa-building, on the part of the faithful, apart from the relics they might or might not contain, is to be found at the root of the legendary accounts of Ashoka’s ten-thousand stupas. Fa Xian says that in monasteries it was customary to raise stupas to Mudgalaputra, Sariputra, and Ananda, as well as in honour of the Abhidharma, Vinaya, and Sutra, such stupas in fact being regarded as altars. The word chaitya is indeed often used where a stupa is intended, in the sense of a shrine or holy place. So Anathapindika builds Sariputra’s chaitya which was four stories high, decreasing in size, and which contained a relic vase, and was surmounted by a roof and many umbrellas.

      In the Dulva, too, it is laid down that a Bhikshu’s body (Buddhist monk’s body) is to be covered with grass and leaves and a chaitya raised over it. In a still more remote sense, the converted but disconsolate Queen Sivali raised stupas at the places where her ascetic husband had argued with her and finally convinced her. In medieval times the stupa with its pyramid of sheltering umbrellas is dwarfed in importance by the sculpture that adorns it. At Ajanta and Ellora and everywhere, in miniature at Bodh-Gaya, it is really nothing but a domed shrine, the tier of umbrellas being fused together into a spire.

      Stupas, not to speak of miniature votive models, varied greatly in size. The very ancient specimen at Piprahwa on the Nepalese frontier, which may possibly be earlier than Ashoka, has a diameter of 35.36 metres at ground level, and stands only about 6.7 metres high. The diameter of the great Sanchi monument at the plinth is 46.17 metres, the height about 235 metres and the stone railing is a massive structure 31 metres high. Several monuments in Northern India, some of which were ascribed to Ashoka, are recorded to have attained a height of from 61 to 122 metres; and to this day the summit of the Jetavanarama Dagoba in Sri Lanka towers 76.5 metres above the level of the ground. The larger monuments afforded infinite scope to the decorative artist.

      The Great Stupa of Sanchi, 3rd century B. C. E., Sunga dynasty. Sandstone, stupa: diameter at the plinth: 37 m, height: 16.5 m, stone railing: 30.8 m. Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh.

      Western Gateway (torana) of the Great Stupa. The pillar capitals depict four yaksha-like figures standing back-to-back with upraised hands supporting the architraves, 70 B. C. E., Satavahana dynasty. Sandstone, gateway height: 10.36 m, pillar height: 4.27 m. Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh.

      On the Bharhut bas-reliefs two types of buildings are to be found. The first is domed and round in plan. The second is barrel-roofed and sometimes three stories high. This second type is the origin of the barrel-roofed chaitya-caves where the details of the octagonal pillars, the balcony railings and the arched doorways and windows are faithfully portrayed. At Sanchi the same types appear and also at Amaravati and Mathura. Shrines are shown in three instances and are all of one type. At Bharhut the Shrine of the Headdress Relic is circular in plan, closed in by a low railing but otherwise open on all sides.

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