The Sanchi Stupa

1.1 What is a stupa?

A stupa is a solid, dome-shaped Buddhist monument. It holds sacred remains, called relics, such as the Buddha’s ashes. You cannot go inside it.

Devotees walk around it instead. This walk is called circumambulation. It is a form of prayer on foot, and the walkway is the pradakshina patha.

The top of a stupa has three parts. A rod called the yasti rises from the dome. A fence called the harmika surrounds it. Umbrella-shaped chattras crown it.

The four doorways in the surrounding wall are the toranas. Each one is a carved stone gateway.

1.2 Why did Ashoka build one at Sanchi?

Legend says Emperor Ashoka built 84,000 stupas. That number is legend. Ashoka did build many stupas across northern India.

The Great Stupa stands at Sanchi, a village in central India.

Here is a surprise. The Buddha never visited Sanchi. UNESCO says so directly. The site is sacred because of its relics, not because of one event in his life.

Stupa 3 held the relics of Sariputra, one of his chief disciples. UNESCO names Maudgalyayana as another disciple honoured here.

2.1 Who built the stone stupa?

Ashoka’s stupa dates to the 3rd century BCE. The Sunga dynasty (184 to 72 BCE) enlarged it. They covered it with a stone casing and added walkways and railings.

The railing is the vedika. Its stone medallions show lotuses and other motifs. Remember this order: Ashoka first, Sungas second.

2.2 Who added the carved gateways?

UNESCO says the four toranas were later ornamented under the Satavahana dynasty. It dates this to the 1st century CE. The V&A museum also dates the gateways to the 1st century CE.

Other sources place the carving a little earlier. One inscription on the southern gateway names Ananda, foreman of the artisans of King Satakarni of the Satavahanas. That king is dated to the 1st century BCE.

So the safe date is around the turn of the era. Sources differ by a few decades.

2.3 What came last?

The last big addition came in the 5th century CE, under the Gupta dynasty. They added four shrines at the four entrances.

3.1 What is aniconism?

Look at the oldest carvings. You will not find the Buddha as a person. Early Buddhist artists used symbols instead. This habit is called aniconism, meaning art without a human image of the Buddha.

3.2 Which symbols stood in for him?

Early reliefs used these stand-ins:

• An empty seat, where he sat or was honoured.
• Footprints, for his presence.
• A parasol, for his protection, sometimes over an empty space.
• His eyes, or animals tied to his life.

One common reading links the four gates to four events in his life. These are birth, enlightenment, first sermon and death (nirvana). Treat this as a reading, not a fact.

3.3 When did human images begin?

In the 1st century CE, human images of the Buddha began to dominate. One of the first sites was Gandhara, on India’s northwestern frontier. Kushana-period artists at Mathura made a different human image.

4.1 Which stories do the gates tell?

The gates are covered with Jataka tales. These are stories of the Buddha’s earlier births. A panel on the lower architrave of the northern gateway tells the Vessantara Jataka.

In it, Prince Vessantara gives away his children and wife. At the end, the god Indra restores them to him.

4.2 What is the Shalabhanjika?

The Shalabhanjika is a woman who holds the branch of a tree. A famous one stands on the bracket of the eastern gateway, dated 1st century BCE to 1st century CE.

Google Arts and Culture links her to women, trees and fertility in early Indian art. She is decoration. She is not a symbol of the Buddha’s life like the empty seat or footprints.

4.3 Who is the woman with elephants?

A different relief on the railing shows the goddess Lakshmi. Elephants pour water over her. This is a separate figure from the Shalabhanjika. Do not mix them up.

5.1 What happened after 1818?

The site was abandoned for about 600 years. A British officer, General Taylor, found it in 1818. Three of four gateways still stood. The southern gateway had fallen.

Treasure hunters soon followed. In 1822 a Captain Johnson cut open one side of the stupa. The damage was so great that even the western gateway later collapsed.

5.2 Who restored it?

Restoration began in 1881. The main campaign ran from 1912 to 1919 under Sir John Marshall, Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India.

UNESCO listed the Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi as a World Heritage Site in 1989.

How has Sanchi been tested?

The answer is (a). The empty seat stood in for the Buddha in early art. Section 3 explains these symbols.

The answer is (d). The woman with elephants is a different figure, Lakshmi. Statement 2 is wrong.

The answer is (b). The empty seat is a Buddhist symbol. The Shalabhanjika is decoration from early Indian art.