Amaravati stupa

Also called: Amaravati · Topic: Early Indian Art and Architecture: Stupas, Rock-cut Caves, Temples · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 6 "The Age of Reorganisation"; Class 12, Ch 4 "Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings"

Meaning

The Amaravati stupa was a great Buddhist stupa (a sacred mound holding relics of the Buddha) on the Krishna river in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh. It was one of the most richly carved stupas of early India.

It matters for two reasons. It is one of the three great early stupas known for carved railings, along with Bharhut and Sanchi [5]. It is also the textbook example of a monument that was not saved: it was broken up from 1796, its carved slabs were carried away, and only a small, bare mound is left.

Explanation

Background: why a stupa was built here

• A stupa is a mound built over relics of the Buddha. Relics are bits of his body or things he used. Because the relic was sacred, people worshipped the whole mound as a symbol of the Buddha and of Buddhism.
• In the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, the dying Buddha tells Ananda to raise a thupa (Pali for stupa) "at the four crossroads". This meant a public place where all kinds of people passed.
• The Ashokavadana says Asoka shared out the relics to every important town and had a stupa built over each one. This is how stupas spread across India, Amaravati's region included.
• The first stupas date to about the 3rd century BCE. Amaravati grew over several centuries after that. It probably reached its finest stage under the Satavahanas.

Main features: plan, style and materials

• Basic plan: like other stupas, it had these parts:
• anda: the solid, egg-shaped dome that hides the relic [5]
• medhi: the round drum or terrace, used for circumambulation (walking clockwise round a sacred object) [5]
• harmika: a small box-like relic chamber on top [5]

• yashti and chattra: the central pole and the triple umbrella [5]

• Ayaka platforms: these are the special mark of Amaravati.

• There are four projecting ledges on the drum, one facing each direction.
• Each ledge carries five pillars.

• These ledges yielded seven crystal relic caskets and one ivory casket [4].

• Carved railing: a carved stone railing ran round the stupa [5]. Its pillars, cross-bars and drum slabs were covered with sculpture, mostly scenes from the Buddha's life and stories of his earlier births.

• Material: the core was brick. The outer slabs were of pale (whitish) limestone, carved in fine detail with crowded, lively, moving figures.
• Showing the Buddha: the earliest carvings show the Buddha only through symbols, never as a human figure. This followed the older custom seen at Bharhut and Sanchi [5]. Human images of the Buddha appear in later work.
• Art style: the site gives its name to the Amaravati school of art. Textbooks study it alongside the Gandhara and Mathura schools.

Who paid for it

• Votive inscriptions (short gift records carved on the stone) show that each donor paid for one part of the stupa, not the whole.
• The donors included:
• kings, such as the Satavahanas
• guilds (groups of craftspeople or traders)
• ordinary lay men and women

• Buddhist monks and nuns (bhikkhus and bhikkhunis)

• Takeaway: the stupa was built by a whole community, not by royal money alone.

What happened to it: from great stupa to bare mound

• 1796: a local raja who wanted to build a temple came upon the ruins. He decided to reuse the stone, so the stupa began to be pulled apart.
• Some years later: the English official Colin Mackenzie visited and recorded the site, but did not stop the damage.
• 1854: Walter Elliot, the commissioner of Guntur, took many sculpted panels to Madras. These are the "Elliot marbles".
• Other slabs went to Calcutta and to London.
• Result: the stupa was stripped of its carving and is now a small, bare mound. Its art survives mainly in museums, away from the place it was made for.
• Contrast with Sanchi: Sanchi escaped this kind of removal. That is why Sanchi still stands and Amaravati does not.

Time, place and evidence

• Place: Amaravati, on the Krishna river, Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh [4][5].
• Period: the stupa was probably started around the 2nd century BCE. It was enlarged and richly carved over the next few centuries, with the main patronage coming from the Satavahanas. Exact dates are approximate.
• People:
• Satavahana kings, as donors
• Colin Mackenzie, who visited and recorded the ruins

• Walter Elliot, who removed slabs to Madras in 1854

• Evidence:

• Archaeological finds: the four ayaka platforms gave seven crystal caskets and one ivory casket. Some held bone pieces, pearls, precious stones and gold flowers [4].
• Sculpture: the carved railing and drum slabs, now kept in museums in Chennai (Madras), Kolkata (Calcutta) and London.
• Inscriptions: votive records naming kings, guilds, monks, nuns and lay donors.

• Colonial records: the reports of Mackenzie and Elliot describe how the stupa was found and taken apart.

• Protection today: the site, recorded by the ASI as the "Ruined Buddhist Stupa & Remains, Amaravati", is a protected site [4]. It is not a UNESCO World Heritage Site. That status belongs to Sanchi (1989) [2][3].

Don't confuse with

• Sanchi stupa (Madhya Pradesh): first built under Asoka in the 3rd century BCE. It is famous for its four gateways (toranas) and survived almost whole. It became a UNESCO site in 1989 [2][3]. Amaravati is in Andhra Pradesh, is famous for its ayaka platforms, and did not survive.
• Bharhut stupa (Madhya Pradesh): also has early carved railings [5]. But it is in central India, not on the Krishna in the Deccan.
• Amaravati, the modern capital of Andhra Pradesh: this is a new city, named after the old Buddhist site nearby. In history questions, "Amaravati" means the ancient stupa site.
• Gandhara school: it showed the Buddha in a Greek-influenced style, in grey schist stone, in the north-west. The Amaravati school used pale limestone in the south-east and grew under Satavahana patronage.

Prelims Hooks

• Amaravati stupa: Andhra Pradesh, on the Krishna river, Guntur district.
• The four ayaka platforms (each with five pillars) gave seven crystal + one ivory relic caskets, holding bone, pearls, precious stones and gold flowers [4].
• The three early stupas with carved railings are Bharhut, Sanchi, Amaravati [5].
• Satavahana kings appear among the donors in the votive inscriptions.
• Sequence of destruction: local raja reuses the stone (1796) → Colin Mackenzie visits → Walter Elliot takes slabs to Madras (1854) → slabs also go to Calcutta and London.
• Trap: "Amaravati is a UNESCO World Heritage Site" is wrong. Among these stupas, only the Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi (1989) hold that status [2].

Mains Points

• Why some monuments survive and others do not. Sanchi was left standing in its place. Amaravati was quarried by a local ruler and then emptied by colonial officials who carried its slabs to Madras, Calcutta and London.
• This shows how colonial collecting pulled art away from its setting.

• It supports the argument for preserving monuments where they stand (in situ), which is now a basic rule of heritage protection.

• Patronage was broad-based. Votive inscriptions name Satavahana kings, guilds, monks, nuns and ordinary lay donors. They show that early Buddhist monuments in the Deccan rested on trade and craft wealth and community giving, not only on royal money.

• Continuity and change in Buddhist art. Amaravati used the old stupa plan of anda, medhi, harmika and chattra [5]. It also added its own ayaka platforms and a lively regional style in pale limestone. Its carvings show the shift from showing the Buddha only through symbols to showing him in human form. This makes it a key regional school alongside Gandhara and Mathura.

Related concepts

• Stupa
• Donations to stupas
• Sanchi stupa
• Bharhut stupa
• Deorkothar stupas
• Kesariya stupa
• Bhattiprolu stupa
• Kanaganahalli
• Nagarjunakonda
• Diamond Triangle of Odisha

Read more

• Why and how stupas were built