Development of the Stupa and its parts

The earliest Stupas such as we see in the carvings at Bharhut and Sanchi, were low circular brick mounds resembling in outline their humble prototypes of the pre-Buddhist period. They were not built or decorated so elaborately or elegantly like some of the famous Stupas built at Amravati and Nagarjunakonda. The Stupas built by Ashoka were simple structure built of bricks and plaster, surrounded by a wooden rail with open gateways facing the cardinal direction.

Representation of the early type of Stupa can be seen at the Sanchi’s entrance gateway pillar, which is a simple structure shaped like a hemispherical cup placed upside down and is surrounded by a simple railing. The circular drum is very low and the Stupa is small structure of brick or stone pieces, devoid of harmika or chatra but surrounded by a short railing (wooden prototype). The wooden railing that was initially erected around a Stupa was later on copied in stone on a more elaborate scale for the bigger Stupas, such as at Bharhut, Sanchi, Amravati and at Bodhgaya around the Mahabodhi temple.

The earlier Stupas being quite low and comparatively small so could well be decorated by pious worshippers with festoons and garlands of flowers which were supported by the pegs. This later on developed into a conventional representation of the festoons in plaster work over the edifice and the pegs became purely ornamental. The rail in its primitive form was a simple fencing made of wooden pillar with suchis fixed within lenticular sockets were later copied on stone turned to be heavy and laborious speaks eloquently of its origin. The elaborate rail with decorations carved on it came later, the gateways at the cardinal points being special ornamental feature as exemplified in case of Bharhut and Sanchi.

The oldest example is the brick Stupa from Piprahwa near Nepal, has a height of only 22 ft and a basal diameter of 116 ft. Whereas, the Sanchi Stupa which is of a later period is 54 ft high with a basal diameter of 120 ft. The proportional height is just about half, while at Piprahwa it is less than one-fifth (Longhurst 1992: 13). On this surmise the age of a Stupa may be determined approximately from its shape and height, the earliest being a simple hemispherical, and the later ones were lofty round brick tower standing on a high terraced platform.

With the size of the Stupa’s becoming huge and to economize the building material (brick or stone) in some cases small compartments were made and filled with earth and rubble. The foundation of the Stupa of south-eastern India is unique in its own kind e.g. Nagarjunakonda, Ghantasala, Alluru etc, the structure was in a form of a wheel with a hub, spokes and a rim. In the case of larger Stupas the spokes were further strengthen with additional walls and the space between the spokes were filled with earth or a layer of concrete and earth. Another way which was not very common was solid flooring above the earth-packing at regular intervals in the height (Mitra 1980). The flooring was made either of bricks as found at Jaggayyapeta or of concrete as found at Garikapadu.

The relic caskets were generally placed at the centre of the Stupa but in some instances like in Nagarjunakonda the relic was kept far away from the centre and in Amravati five relic caskets were found from the southern ayakas of the Stupa.

The drum of the Stupa also underwent changes; from the Kushana period onwards the medhi portion became very elongated, leaving the anda portion look very short in height. The vedika with cardinal projections approached by steps leading to them disappeared and for the first time such as in Stupa-I of Sanchi during the Gupta period four images of Buddha were placed in cardinal directions. The drum was no longer low, the height being considerably increased and the anda or the cup-shaped part instead of retaining its primitive semi-circular contour bulged out above the drum. This bulging is found even in the rock cut Stupas at Kanheri.

Simultaneously with the elongation of the medhi portion the discs of the chatra also increased in number and appeared like a tall conical spire, sometimes crowned by a single chatra and often tapering to a conical point (Mitra 1980: 30).

In most of the cases the upper portion of the harmika expanded, its facades relived with offsets and recessed angles.

Gradually the platform becomes a permanent part of the Stupa to serve as a pedestal for the medhi. Initially the shape used to be square or circular slowly the shape changed as can be seen in the Stupa of Ratnagiri with the addition of multiple projections on each face of a square. In few cases the platform grew higher, built in a form of diminishing terraces as in Lauriya-Nandangarh, and often decorated with mouldings or sunken panels between the pilasters as seen in Andhra or niches separated by pilasters as in Gandhara (Mitra 1980: 30).

Sometimes they were conventionally strained into fantastic curves in a most unnatural way on either side. Sometime they form canopy over the Stupa.

The evolution of the torana (gateway) is equally interesting. The earlier type is found at Amravati. The early gateways were a pair of pillars to which were tied the two ends of a torana wreath. The earlier torana pillars must have had fresh torana wreaths tied to them every day. Later heavy stone work took the place of wreath.

The four gateways were connected with railing round the Stupa which were sometimes richly sculptured inside with scenes from the legends of Buddha in his various births, the outer side showing only dwarf lotuses and half lotus medallions on the uprights (pillars) and cross bars (suchis) and a long undulating flower garland on the coping (usnisha) and are available in Barhut, Sanchi and Amravati railings.

According to Foucher (Foucher 1934: 51-52), the pseudo-flower garland and a long purse full of coins appropriately issuing from the mouths of Yakshas (guardians of treasure) for the benefit of the devotees. The plinth was also carved with representations of man running after mythical animals.

Prof. Dubreuil (Jouveau-Dubreuil 1922) has nicely explained the decorative motifs of Amravati Stupas. He divides them into three main divisions of the Stupa into smaller parts; first the cylindrical part or the base is composed of two subordinate parts (a) the sculptured panel zone below (b) the narrow frieze above. Second the hemispherical part is composed of (a) a range of sculpture (b) a plain zone above (c) a decorated collar (d) a plain zone at the top.

On the top is the square part, the harmika which is balustrade around a central pillar of imposing dimensions, besides which are the parasols/ chatra.

The ayaka platform has projections at the cardinal points. There are five pillars on each projection, square at the base then octagonal and finally round at the top. The platform is rather narrow all along for the size of the Stupa.

After a detailed discussion on the various aspects of Stupa Architecture, a brief of some of the main Stupas is done below for better understanding of the next chapter “The Stupa Architecture in Orissa”