Bhattiprolu stupa
Topic: Early Indian Art and Architecture: Stupas, Rock-cut Caves, Temples · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Bhattiprolu is an early Buddhist stupa site near the Krishna river in coastal Andhra Pradesh, in the old Guntur district. A stupa is a dome-shaped mound built over holy relics. Relic caskets found inside the stupa carry short inscriptions. They are written in a local variety of the Brahmi script, now called the Bhattiprolu script. The site matters for two reasons. It shows Buddhism had reached the far south-east early, and it shows that writing had local forms in the south.
Example
The relic caskets of the Bhattiprolu stupa (c. 3rd–2nd century BCE) carry Brahmi-type writing with special southern letter forms. Scholars study them to trace how south Indian scripts developed.
Don't confuse with
- Amaravati stupa: another stupa in the same region. It is famous for its carved sculpture panels, not for an early script.
Related concepts
- Stupa
- Donations to stupas
- Sanchi stupa
- Bharhut stupa
- Amaravati stupa
- Deorkothar stupas
- Kesariya stupa
- Kanaganahalli
- Nagarjunakonda
- Diamond Triangle of Odisha