| | | Sanchi
Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi
UNESCO World Heritage Site : 1989
Sanchi (India)
| | | | Situated at a distance of about 9 kilometers south-west of Vidisha between Bina and Bhopal Junctions of the Central Railway, the imposing Buddhist edifices on the hill of Sanchi in District Raisen, Madhya Pradesh, are at once magnificent and instructive. | | Sanchi : Virtual tour |  | 17 sections and 21 items |
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Sanchi : Guide (1)
Village
Sanchi : Place(s) of worship (16)
Buddhist Monuments
|  | Stūpa 1 (9)
between the IInd and the Ist century B.C.
The Great Stupa as it stands today, consists of-an almost hemispherical dome (anda), truncated near the top and crowned by a triple umbrella (chhatravali) set at the centre of a heavy masonry pedestal, within a square railing.
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|  | Stūpa 3 (1)
between the IInd and the Ist century B.C.
Situated about 45 metres to the north-east of Stūpa 1, Stūpa 3, though much smaller in dimensions (diameter 15 metres and height 8.23 metres excluding the crowning members), was modelled after the former.
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|  | Stūpa 5
Vth century
Stūpa 5, to the south of Stūpa 3, is remarkable in its having an image of Buddha (in the Museum, Acc. no. 2771) in the dhyāna-mudra on a moulded pedestal built against its southern side.
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|  | Stūpa 7
Stūpa 7, about 30 metres to the south-west of the West Gate of Stūpa 1, has the same structural features as Stūpas 12, 13, 14 and 16. It stands to a height of 2.135 metres and is surrounded by the remains of a terrace, probably of a later date.
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|  | Temple 17
Gupta period
Situated near the north-east corner of Temple 18 and standing on a low moulded basement, this Temple, consisting of a flat-roofed square sanctum with a portico supported on four pillars in the front, is a remarkable piece of the Gupta architecture, noted for its structural propriety, symmetry, logical proportions and restraint in ornamentation.
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|  | Temple 18
Built on the foundations of an earlier apsidal hall of the Maurya or Sunga date, this seventh- century apsidal Temple, of which nine imposing pillars out of twelve and a pilaster with architraves over them are still intact, stands on a raised platform immediately facing the South Gateway of Stūpa 1.
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|  | Temple 31
between the VIth and the VIIth century
Situated immediately to the east of Stnpa 5, Temple 31 is a flat-roofed pillared shrine, oblong on plan and standing on a high platform ascended by a flight of steps facing south. It contains an image of Buddha having an elaborately-carved round halo and seated on a double-petalled lotus.
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|  | Temple 40
IInd century B.C.
This interesting monuments contains the remains of three different periods, the earliest, going back to the Maurya age, being in all probability contemporaneous with the stūpa of Asoka.
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|  | Monastery 36
VIIth century
These three small monasteries are ascribable to about the seventh century.
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|  | Monastery 46
Access to the smaller but higher court, Monastery 46, also surrounded by cells on there sides, is provided by a doorway at the eastern end of the northern verandah of 47.
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|  | Temple and Monastery 45 (2)
between the VIIth and the VIIIth century
Situated to the north-east of Building 43 are the ruins of this towering Temple and the attached monastery, which can be seen at the eastern extremity of the Eastern Area and belong to two periods.
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|  | Monastery 47
The track from the stair goes straight to two courts, belonging to the same monastic, complex, which rose on the ruins of earlier monasteries, the lowest floor of these dating from the Gupta period.
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| Monastery 51 (1)
A modern flight of steps, built against the circuit- wall opposite the West Gateway of Stūpa 1, leads the visitor to an imposing monastery built on a ledge of the rock, about 7 metres lower than the Main Terrace.
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|  | Buiding 8
In this building, ascribed to the Sunga period, situated at the south-western corner of the circuit-wall, we find a solid square plinth, standing to a height of about 3.66 metres above the bed-rock to its north.
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| | Sanchi : Visit Guide | |
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The monuments are open daily from sunrise to sunset and the Archaeological Museum from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. A common entry-fee (for both monuments and the Museum) is charged in the case of the persons over 15 years of age. No entry-fee is charged on Friday. The tickets are available in the counter of the booking-office attached to the entrance-gate of the Museum. Photographs of the monuments and museum-exhibits are available with the Director General, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, as well as with the Superintending Archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India, Bhopal Circle, Bhopal. Picture postcards, guide-books and a few other Government publications can be obtained from the Archaeological Office at Bhopal and the booking-office at Sanchi. The Assistant Superintending Archaeologist for Museums at Sanchi may, if necessary, be contacted for information. The free services of a guide-lecturer of the Archaeological Survey of India are also available at fixed hours except on Friday and Gazetted holidays.
The visitor with limited time at his disposal will make it convenient to visit at least Stūpas 1, 2 and 3, Temples 17 and 18, Temple and Monastery 45 and Monastery 51. | | Sanchi : Description | |
Sanchi has won an international fame through its remarkably well-preserved monuments and attracts thousands of visitors, including pilgrims and students of art and archaeology.
The monuments are within a kilometre of the railway-station of Sanchi, where all passenger trains and Amritsar Express stop. On previous intimation to the station-masters of Bina, Itarsi and Sanchi, Punjab Mail too may stop here for air-conditioned and First- class passengers travelling over 161 kilometres to and from the Sanchi station. Second-class passengers, when travelling in parties of not less than ten for a distance over 400 kilometres in this particular train, can avail of this facility as well. The place is also accessible by road from Vidisha, the headquarters of the district of that name, and Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, respectively 10 and 70 kilometres away. | | Sanchi : History | |
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Crowing the hill-top of Sanchi, nearly 91 metres in height, the group of the Buddhist establishments commands a grand view even from a distance. It is unique not only in its having the most perfect and well-preserved stūpas but also in its offering a wide and educative field for the study of the genesis, efflorescence and decay of Buddhist art and architecture for a period of about thirteen hundred years, from the third century B.C. to the twelfth century A n , almost covering the whole range of Indian Buddhism. This is rather surprising, for Sanchi was not hallowed by any incident in Buddhas life; not is it known to have been the focus of any significant event in the history of Buddhist monachism. Hiuen Tsang, who so meticulously recorded the details connected with Buddhist monuments, is silent about it. The only possible reference to it is contained in the chronicles of Sri Lanka, according to which Mahendra, son of Asoka and his queen Devi, daughter of a merchant of Vidia, whom Asoka had married during his halt there on his way to Ujjayani as a viceroy, is said to have visited his mother at Vidisā, and the latter took him up to the beautiful monastery of Vedisagiri built by herself. Mahendra had stayed there for a month before he set out for Sri Lanka.
The foundation of the great religious establishment at Sanchi, destined to have a glorious career as an important centre of Buddhism for many centuries to come, was probably laid by the great Maurya emperor Asoka (circa 273-236 B.C.), when he built a stūpa and erected a monolithic pillar here. In addition to his marriage with a lady of Vidisā, the reason for his selection of this particular spot may be due to the fact that the hill-top served as an ideal place for giving a concrete shape to the newly-aroused zeal for Buddhism in the emperor, who is said to have opened up seven out of the eight original stupas erected over the body- relics of Buddha and to have distributed the relics among innumerable stūpas built by himself all over his empire. By its quietude and seclusion ensuring a proper atmosphere for meditation, combined with its proximity to the rich and populous city of Vidisā, Sanchi fulfilled all the conditions required for an ideal Buddhist monastic life. The dedicatory inscriptions at Sanchi unmistakably show that the prosperity of the Buddhist establishment here was, to a great extent, due to the piety of the rich mercantile community of Vidia. The nearness of the city, the strategic situation of which at the confluence of two rivers, the Betwa and the Bes, as well as on two important trade-routes resulted in a great overflow of wealth, was in no small measure responsible for the flourishing condition of Sanchi even when the empire of the Mauryas was a thing of the past.
After a temporary set back following the break-up of the Maurya empire, when the Stūpa of Asoka was damaged, the cause of the Buddhist establishment of Kākanaya was taken up with a feverish zeal by the monks and the laity alike, not a negligible percentage of the latter being formed by visitors of Vidisā for trade and other purposes. The religious fervour found its expression in a vigorous building activity about the middle of the second century B.C. , during which the Sungas were ruling and which saw the stone encasing and enlargement of the stūpa of Asoka, the erection of balustrades round its ground, berm, stairway and harmikā, the reconstruction of Temple 40 and the building of Stūpas 2 and 3.2 The same intense religious aspiration and creative forces continued unabated in the next century as well, when, during the supremacy of the Satavahanas, new embellishments, in the form of elaborately-carved gateways, were added to Stūpas 1 and 3.
The political vicissitude which northern India went through immediately before and after the Christian era, when the Scytho-Parthians and Kushans invaded and annexed a large part of the land, had perhaps its repercussions at Sanchi as well, resulting in a slackening of structural activities. The establishment of a foreign power in the Malwa region under the Kshatrapas, engaged in chronic warfare, hardly provided any incentive for the dormant workshop. However, like the contemporary Buddhist centres of north and south-east India, Sanchi freed itself, during the period, from the earlier aniconic tradition, but its contribution to the evolution of the image of Buddha was nil, and it depended for such images on imports from Mathura.
After a prolonged period of stagnation and lassitude under the Kashtrapas, there was a revival of sculptural activity at Sanchi during the reign of the Guptas who, after conquering the Kshatrapas (circa A. D. 400), provided peace and prosperity essential for the growth of artistic pursuits. The discovery of a few images in the Mathura sandstone, executed in the early Gupta tradition, proves that Mathura continued, even in the fourth century A. D. , to meet the demand of the clientele of Sanchi. But soon afterwards the local art of Sanchi once more came to the fore, and to this period belong the four images of Buddha seated under canopies against the berm of Stūpa 1 facing the four entrances. But even in the best days of the Guptas the figures of Buddha from the ateliers of Sanchi fell short, in standard and number, of their counterparts at such Buddhist centres as Sarnath.
The Gupta period, which ushered in a new epoch in the history of Indian temple-architecture, saw at Sanchi as well as resuscitation of structural activity. In Temple 17, which has withstood the ravages of time, we find one of the earliest Gupta temples noted for their well-balanced proportion, restraint in ornamentation and elegance.
After the glorious days of the Guptas centrifugal forces became once more rampant. And then came the shock of the Hama invasions, which resulted in the seizure of a large part of western and central India by that tribe. But that occupation was short- lived, to be shattered by Yasodharmans victory over their chief Mihirakula in the first half of the sixth century.
On the ashes of the Gupta empire rose a number of small kingdoms, none of which was powerful enough to bring any large part of India under its aegis, till Harshavardhana (A. D. 606-647) achieved some sort of political unity in northern India. His espousal of the cause of Buddhism brought a fresh lease of life to that religion. The vestiges of the seventh and eighth centuries, which saw at Sanchi the building of several monasteries and temples, reveal a prosperous condition of the Buddhist community at the place. The number of the images of Buddha made during the period was fairly considerable. Executed in late Gupta tradition, they, however, lack the charm and grace, of their prototypes and are almost lifeless and mechanical.
After the death of Harsha, northern India once more became a prey to the ambitions of different dyansties. The Pratiharas, who had established themselves in the Malwa region by the eighth century, were followed by the Paramaras in the next century. But Sanchi seems to have been hardly affected by these political changes, as the existence of a number of medieval monasteries and temples testifies to a period of continued prosperity. Temple 45, for example, which is now a mere shell bereft of its original splendour, has the same architectural pompousness and exuberance of decoration as would characterize the contemporaneous north Indian architecture. From the find of such images like Vajrasattva and Marichi, it is abundantly clear that Vajrayana did extend its roots here as well.
It is not known how end came to the Buddhist establishment at Sanchi. No Buddhist monument can be assigned to the thirteenth century A. D.. On the other hand, to this period belong a number of Brahmanical plaques containing representations of Vishnu, Ganesa, Mahishāsuramardini, etc., which can be seen in the Museum. We do not know if the Buddhists deserted the place or gradually lost their vital forces to maintain their individuality - thus succumbing to the all- absorbing force of Brahmanism, which was one of the potent causes of the extinction of Buddhism in the land of its birth.
Exploration and preservation
From the fourteenth Century onwards, Sanchi left deserted and unnoticed, till in the year 1818 General Taylor brought it to public attention by discovering its ruins, of which he found Stūpas 1, 2 and 3 intact. The great interest which this discovery created accounts to a large extent for the immense damages suffered by the monuments at the hands of amateur archaeologists and treasure-hunters. In 1822, Captain Johnson, Assistant Political Agent in Bhopal, opened up Stūpa 1 from top to bottom on one side, thus leaving a great breach which resulted in the collapse of the West Gateway and a part of the enclosing balustrade. Stūpa 2 was also partially destroyed. Alexander Cunningham, together with Captain F. C. Maisey, excavated Stūpas 2 and 3 in 1851 and found relic-caskets within. They also sank a shall at the centre of Stūpa 1, which, however, failed to yield any relics. These operations, coupled with the depredations of villagers and the growth of vegetation, wrought havoc to the stūpas. The pillar of Asoka was broken into pieces by a local zemindar, to be utilized as a sugar-cane press.
The question of repairs and preservation was not at all considered till 1881, when Major Cole took up the work in right earnest and succeeded, in the course of the next three years, in clearing off vegetation, filling in the breach in the dome of Stūpa 1, setting up its fallen West and South Gateways and a part of its railing and restoring the gateway in front of Stūpa 3. The other monuments, however, were left uncared for, and no attempt was made to expose the structures lying buried under débris. This work was later on undertaken creditably by Sir John Marshall, Director General of Archaeology in India, who, between the years 1912 and 1919, brought the monuments to their present condition. His work entailed a large-scale clearance of jungle, excavation and thorough conservation of the edifices, which included the complete dismantling and rebuilding of the south-west quadrant of Stūpa 1, setting up of its balustrades and erection of the crowning members, reconstruction of the dome, balustrade and crowning members of Stūpa 3, resetting of the out-of-plumb pillars of Temple 18, repairs to the perilously-decayed Temple 45, rebuilding of the retaining wall between the Main Terrace and Eastern Area, re-roofing and repairs of Temples 17, 31 and 32 and provision of an effective drainage. The site was next turfed and planted with trees and flowering creepers. A small museum was also built to house the loose antiquities found in the course of these operations.
In 1936, Mohammad Hamid excavated the ruins on the hill-slope between Stūpas 1 and 2 and brought to light the well-preserved shell of a monastery. Since then, though no excavation has been done, the monuments have received persistent attention and have thus been saved for posterity. | | Sanchi : More pictures | |
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