Sripura City Planning

Sripura developed as a vigorous and luxuriant centre of various strands of architectural traditions through the period of one and a half century (A.D. 650800) under the generous patronage and eclectic temperament of the rulers of the two royal dynasties of the Sarabhapuriyas(A.D.650-700) and the Panduvamsis (700-800 A.D.). In spite of adherence to their personal faiths, both the royalty and the nobility had been liberal in their support to art and architecture of different religious faiths. Secondly, Sripura had the unique advantage of being situated at a strategic point at the crossroads where the four Indias–East, West, North and South met. That gave Sripura the unique privilege of witnessing development of different art forms, their interaction with each other and sometimes an attempt at experimentations towards synthesis of one with another. As a result of all this, powerful architectural traditions started growing luxuriantly at Sripura.

The progress of architecture in prolific measure is evidenced by varieties of religious monuments of different faiths, secular structures like the palacecomplex and, the huge and sprawling layout of planned township revealed to us by excavations carried on at different points of time between the fifties of the last century and the present day, inscriptional references, the accounts of the Chinese pilgrim Yuan Chwang of the 7^th century A.D. and the the Reports of the British archaeologists J.D. Beglar^[1] and A. Cunningham^[2] of the last quarter of 19^th century A.D. and those of Indian archaeologist M.G. Dixit^[3] in the second half of 20^th century and J. Joshi and A.K. Sharma^[4] in the first decade of the present century. Last but not the least were the uncountable numbers of mounds, which are said to be more than 1, 25,000 in local tradition, but 184 in the estimate of present excavators dotting in and around Sripura over a radius of two to three kilometers which are thought to have kept buried in them a vast amount of archaeological serendipities which await the spade and shovel of the archaeologists to see the light of the day and speak volumes on the glorious artistic traditions of Sripura.

A remarkable feature of Sripura was the town planning, which is revealed by the traces and vestiges, which is said to have spread over an area of 35 sq.kms during the current excavation, as well as in the narratives of scholars as stated in Location and Extent of the previous Chapter and M.G. Dixit’s excavations between 1953-1956 have also revealed the existence of traces of the city in three different phases. The ancient most phase, which he thinks to have extended from early times to the last quarter of the 5^th century A.D. on the basis of the palaeography of a broken gold coin of the Sarabhapuriya king Prasannamatra discovered in Sripura. The second phase which he has assigned to the 6^th-8th century A.D. was a period of hectic building activities because, structures of brick and stone have been discovered at that layer. He has attributed the structures to the time of Mahasiva Gupta Balarjuna of Panduvamsa In the western corner of the present village Sirpur a fortress measuring 250 x 220 yards and encircled by a stone wall of 16 ft. wide, 12 ft. high has been excavated by Dixit. He has also brought to light 43 residential quarters. But, the most commendable work done by Dixit was bringing two full-fledged Buddhist monasteries (viharas) viz., Anandaprabha-kuti and Svastika into limelight. In addition to these two, he has unearthed five other Viharas, which have been unfortunately covered with earth during the last fifty years. Besides, he has discovered two Siva temples in dilapidated state–one close on the northern side of Laksmana temple and another close to the south-western side of Anandaprabha-Kuti-Vihara. The latest excavation conducted by A.K. Sharma^4a has brought out seven Buddhist monasteries, two Jaina monasteries, a number of Siva temples and a secular structure, probably a palace at a distance of about 1 kilometer to the south of Gandhesvara temple.

The road running from Sirpur to Senakpat^[5] if considered from the archaeological viewpoint, appears to be the principal high way of Sripura. Vast amounts of archaeological remains are witnessed on either side of the road for a very long distance. It is worth mentioning that both the sides of the road are comparatively at a lower level. The Anandaprabha-Kuti-Vihara and a Siva temple are on the eastern side of the road. The name of Senakpat is said to have been derived from the word “Sainya-Kapata” which literally means a military outpost, whereas, the Raikera water tank and a fortress are located on the western side of the road. Thus the explorations and excavations conducted in the last half of the previous and the first decade of the present century have brought to light the existence of a sort of “planned city-complex with a palatial structure, a highway, a number of ponds, a good number of residential quarters and lastly a number of religious shrines of different religious denominations”.

A.K. Sharma^[6] has made the following observations with regard to town planning of a capital:

The selection of the site for their new capital by Sarabhapuriyas was strictly in accordance with the principles laid down in Vastu sastra, whose two important works are the Mansara and the Mayamata and belong to Sarvasidhanta as is demonstrated by the leading place given to Siva temples, especially by the speculations on the nature of the Linga and the pantheon in it which is essentially found in the Saivagama.

The unearthing of overwhelming number of Siva temples housing four Colours of Siva lingas proves that Sirpur was basically planned as a Saivagama. As Mayamata was not a sectarian work, it also carries details about forms of Visnu, Buddha and Jaina, and mentions temples which are not usual in Agamic literature. Bruno Dagans correctly states, “It may be said, quite definitely, that the aim of the Mayamata is to organize the integration of the external manifestation of Siddhanta Saivism in a context which could be qualified, as ‘non-sectarian Hindu’, so as to avoid the term ‘secular’ which is not very appropriate when speaking of traditional India”.

1. It is at the selected site for the capital that Mahanadi meanders to North-east, the direction of the Gods, and flows for nearly 7 kms before turning east. The meandering surrounds the capital city in half moonshaped fashion in south-west and north-east whereas the other half i.e. east and south-east is enclosed by a chain of hills, nearly 4 kms. away. In between the two half circles is the passage in the form of central furrow, the two ends of which acted as entry and exist points of the capital.

2. The capital was spread in an area of 62 km. northsouth and 42 km east-west, encircled by river Mahanadi on nearly three sides i.e. south-west to north-east and by a chain of hills on the east leaving only two points, in south and north for entry and exit to the capital. The entire stretch of the township is mostly covered with yellowish gravely soil intermixed with sandy fine silt, supposed to be the most suitable for habitation. It has a gradient of 5” to 8” from east to west providing mild drainage system for the rain water. This mild slope prevents the area from suffering sharp erosion.

3. Plotting all the structural remains, so far unearthed, the picture emerges that of a “Royal Capital” (Rajadhani). As per norms laid down in Mayamata, a Royal Capital should be impregnable at the north and east and this is exactly the case at Sirpur. Most of the important buildings occupy the cardinal points of a Swastika with Suranga Tila complex having a Pancayatana Siva temple raised on a lofty 5.60 m high carved stone adhstana occupying the center of the Swastika. On the basis of so far unearthened evidences Sirpur could be put in the category of Swastika Nagar.

4. All the temples face either east or west. Those located near the right bank face east and those away from the bank face west.

5. Walls of the structures, particularly of the temples and palace are oriented parallel to the main current of the river to avoid direct erosion by the flood waters.

6. At Sirpur, the temples and Viharas are of two types, those built by the rulers and the commoners. Those built by the commoners are small, graceful structures but all conforming to the norms. Every temple, big or small is provided with the residence of the chief priest, south of the temple and to the south of the priest’s residence, a big or small pushkarni or tank. It is evident that they were self contained units. Evidences show that the tanks were not only used for day-to-day needs but also served irrigation purposes.

7. All the Buddhist Viharas and residential buildings were at least two storeyed structures as is clear from the presence of stone topped steps. The topmost storeys were covered with hand made baked tiles having holes to tie them together.

8. Each residence had a room without a door, on the south-west corner of the building, which served as a grain house (bhandara-griha) and was approached from the top which is the practice even today in Chhattisgarh villages. Timber used for construction was generally seasoned teak-wood as has come out from the examination of heavily charred wooden pillars recovered from the palace complex. The ceiling was of wood and stone slabs plastered with lime mortar.

9. All the drainage system was concealed and underground, pointing to meticulous planning and sanitary consciousness of the people. Every house, temple and vihar had stock of lime or white washing on festive occasions.

Again with regard to the salient features of architecture he has made the following observations:

1. Before starting construction, models or blue-prints were made and walls were erected strictly on plum-bob as is clear from the lines engraved on the foundation stones. Almost each foundation stone has the first letter of the name of the mason engraved on it. As per inscriptional evidences during 6^th-7^th cent. A.D., one Vishnudatta was the chief architect of the capital. For construction of temples, huge blocks of cuddappa stones were transported from a distance of nearly 60 kms east of Sirpur, from a quarry on Mand river near Sheorinarayan. This quarry is still alive. For monolithic pillars carving sculptures, both red-sand stone and fossilized stones with circular dots were used. For carving lines sculptures with drapery and ornament details, fragile silt stones were used. Evidences unearthed show that the artists, artisans and masons were mostly locals and both stone and metal objects were made at Sirpur on the spot as waste flakes and spent metal have been unearthed.

2. Depiction of natural environment, surrounding scenes, Pancatantra and Jataka tales on carvings show that people were intelligent, well educated and aware of the ecology. Bull fight, ram fight and cock fight were popular games as also dice, marbles and hop-scotches for children.

3. Modest houses are generally comprised of a long narrow open verandah i.e. baithaka, on the round floor, to be followed by another wide verandah used as audience room or inner baithaka and at least two bed rooms and a bhandara-griha. The outer side of each building was surrounded by stone apron. All the rooms had stone flooring. The verandah had wooden and in some cases, stone pillars. Door lintels and sides were of laterite blocks. Both single and double fly doors were in vogue as evidenced by the presence of door sockets. Stone stands with shallow circular depressions were used for putting earthen jars for cool drinking water. The presence of the stones with circular holes on two sides of ‘Torana Dwara’ and on two sides of the high steps at Suranga Tila and on the sides of adhisthana at Baleshwar temple complex indicate that temple-elephants and horses for important religious occasions.

Of late, traces of the structures of a planned township have revealed varieties of houses of different sizes in square and rectangular designs as well as places for pounding paddy, preparing medicines from herbs, kitchens, sacrifices and small drains etc..The floors of the houses have been spread with cut stones. The residential houses lay arranged in rows and lanes and by-lanes which run from one end to the other.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

ASR VII, pp. 186-93.

[2]:

ibid, XVII, p. 26 ff.

[3]:

Special Report No. 1, 2007 Excavations at Sirpur, Chhattisgarh (hereinafter referred to as Special Report No. 1, 2007).

[4]:

Puramanthan, Number 5, p. 1, New Delhi, 2009 (hereinafter referred to as Puramanthan).

[5]:

Watters, T., On Yuan Chwang’s Travels in India, II, pp. 200-1, New Delhi, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as Travels).

[6]:

Sri or Laksmi has been regarded as the consort if Lorod Visnu in the developments of Vaisnvism in the Gupta age. The goddess is called Sirima Devata in the Barhut Inscription of the Sunga period (Barua, and Sinha, Barhut Inscriptions, pp. 73-74). An early representation of the goddess has been traced in i sculpture of Besnagar or about second century B.C. (Banerjee, Development of Hindu Iconography, Calcutta, 1956, pp. 370-71). Her popularity is known by her representation on early Indian coins of Kausambi, Ujjauyini, Ayodhya, Mathura and by the satraps of the Mathura and of Pantaleon, Agatoles, Maues and Azileses (Allan, Catalogue of Indian Coins: Ancient India, pp. 131, 149, 173; Banerjee, op.cit, p. 151). Her representation is also found on the Gupta coins. The Junagarh Inscription of Skandagupta (CII, III, p. 286) mentions Visnu as i perpetual resort of Laaksmi. She is represented as Lord Vasudeva’s wifie in the Sarnath Inscription of Prakataditya (CII, III, p. 286). The Apsad Inscription of Adityasena (CII, III, No. 42, p. 200 ff) mentions that Madhava, son of Vasudeva, is graced by the attentions of Sri. I Kadamba record of cir Aa.D. 500 starts with the adoration of Bhagavat with Sri on His breast and Brahma on i lotus stretched by i long stalk from His navel (Sircar, D.C., style="text-align:center">The Successors of the Satavahanas, p. 292 fn., Calcutta, 1939). The Sarabhapuriyas called Bhu as Vaisnavi in their records and considered Her as the second wife of Visnu (Cultural Heritage of India, IV, Calcutta, 1975, pp. 138-39 ff, hereinafter referred to as CHI).