Part 14 - Dharmarājika stūpa

Located to the south of the Main Shrine and in a slight north-west direction to the Dhamek stūpa the structure was earlier known as the Jagat Singh stūpa. It was named after the dewan of the king of Banaras, who erected a market place on his own name by bricks taken from this ancient stūpa and caused an immense loss to the structure. At the same time his activities brought the ancient Buddhist site to notice. Cunningham during his survey made note of a circular hole at a distance of 520 feet from Dhamek and marked it as a site from where a large number of bricks were taken. A detailed survey of this site was made in 1904-05. It was labelled as stūpa K and its concentric rings of brickwork were measured. The diameter of the innermost ring is more than 44’ while another ring surrounding it measured 55’. It cannot be said with certainty whether the former is the innermost ring or there existed even smaller rings. It was found out that the stūpa was dome shaped and examination of the surrounding wall from inside made it appear that the outer and upper part is overhanging. The breadth of the bricks decreased from the innermost to outer layers.

The stūpa deviated from its original shape and form because it was built and rebuilt several times. In the ruined state in which the stūpa was constructed did not allow much speculation on its original form. Only this may be suggested that the interior was largely reconstructed to support the upholding of the roof. A search was made to discover a plinth above the floor. At a considerable depth a concrete floor with rough and irregular brickwork and it was indeed the outer casing of the last addition to the stūpa. Another floor was discovered nearby. This floor ran all round the stūpa at a height of 2 feet above the foundations. On a six layers and 19 inches thick brickwork this floor is located. It contains five inches thick concrete.^[1] Concentric rings of the stūpa was originally constructed by Aśoka with slightly wedge shaped bricks whose sizes varied. Some kinds of additions were made in the Kuṣāṇa period. In 5^th- 6^th centuries CE a nearly 16’ wide Pradakṣiṇa patha or circumambulatory passage was built. In the 7^th century this passage was filled up and an approach to the shrine was made by placing some stone stairs from outside.

The shrine had its next addition in 9^th- 10^th centuries. Finally, the whole stūpa was encased during the time when the Mulagandhakuṭi stūpa or the main shrine underwent a huge transformation under Gahadvala queen Kumarī Devī’s auspice.^[2] To the west of the stūpa remains of an ancient brick wall and several small stūpas were found. Here, two cross bars of a stone rail were found. Similar fragments of rail pillars were located to the adjacent vihāra. Three of the pillars bore short donative inscriptions of the Maurya character. One inscription in this area belonged to the 5^th century CE. It speaks of a lamp-a pious gift made by a lady lay devotee Sulakṣmaṇā at the chief temple of the Lord Buddha. Other important findings in this shrine belonged to Kuṣāṇa or Gupta periods. These were mostly the Buddha images in various forms.