Stupa at Piprahwa (Basti district)

Piprahwa is situated in Basti district of U.P. this site can be dated back to fifth-fourth century BCE. William Peppe an amateur archaeologist had dug the centre of the Stupa in 1897 and found an inscribed relic casket. The inscription was in Ashokan Brahmi. The area from where he obtained the relics fell in the second phase of the Stupa i.e. middle Mauryan period.

The site was only scientifically excavated in 1971 by K.M.Srivastav (IAR 1970-71:37). The excavator believed that the Stupa had at least two structural phases. Initially the Stupa was an earthen mound encircled by a single line of burnt bricks. Two relic caskets were unearthed from the Stupa. The relic caskets are believed to be of Pre-Mauryan period.

When the Stupa was enlarged the anda of the mud Stupa was totally removed possibly as it might have got washed off due to rain and other environmental hazards. This renovation work started with a square base of burnt bricks. It contained rectangular niches at regular intervals for bearing images.

As at the centre of the Stupa there was a pipe like hole Peppe described it as a circular pipe, same kind of a hole was found in the Stupas of Bhattiprolu in Andhra Pradesh the site was investigated by an engineer named Norris in 1871 in his report he mentioned it a shaft of the chatra (Irwin 1979:811-812). Similar kind of hole at the centre was found at Lauriya-Nandangarh, a wooden stump penetrated till the virgin soil was found (Irwin 1979:816). This finding made it clear that a wooden pillar was placed at the centre of some of the ancient Stupas. Vaisali, Ghantasala and Gotihawa are few other sites from where the axial pillars are reported.

In Cylon also this kind of axial pillar was reported but of stone and traditionally it was known as Indra-kila which means Indra’s peg. When the local monks were asked why it is called so, they couldn’t answer.

Different scholars have different opinion; according to D.Mitra (1981:26) “The pipe was probably meant for marking the centre of the dome in order to facilitate the laying of brick courses in circular rings”, according to Irwin “Stability was expressed by a stump or wooden shaft as the axial pillar in the centre of the monument”, so does Paul Mus “Henceforth, the central part played by the axial pillar in the structure of the Stupa is confirmed. It is not just that it marks the centre, and that it rises up and dominates the Stupa in the form of a staff bearing parasols: the entire masonry surrounds and encloses it, is explained by it, and constitutes no more than–in a single word–its envelope. From the above discussion, “it is clear that a Stupa is to be understood above all in terms of its axis” (Tucci 1988: xxiv). In the Tibetan tradition, the axial pole of the Stupa is considered as the Tree of Life (Irwin 1979:839).