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BUDDHIST
ARCHITECTURE
Another
excavated cave about a hundred years later is the magnificent prayer
hall or Chaitya, at Karle in the Poona district. This too has been
excavated from the living rock and is unparalleled for its lofty
and elevated impression. The size is truly stupendous, 124'x46-1/2'x45'.
With well proportioned great and bulky pillars, carrying capitals
of great originality holding up a vaulted roof that has real rafters
of timber inserted into it, a ribbing inherited and copied from
wooden structure. The columns are strong and bulky, surmounted
by sculptured capitals. In the far distance there is a stupa with
a wooden umbrella on top and astonishingly the original wood has
survived unharmed to this date. |
Chaitya Hall, Bhaja, Maharashtra |
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Sanchi Stupa
No.1, Full View,
Madhya Pradesh
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The
Buddhist Stupa is another form of architecture, comprising a hemispherical
dome, a solid structure into which one cannot enter. The stupa
is a glorified, beautified, enlarged funerary mound: what was once
the resting place of the bones and ashes of a holy man. Tradition
has it that after the great demise of Lord Buddha, Emperor Ashoka
decided to construct a large number of stupas throughout his dominion
in memory of the Master and enshrine in them relics such as pieces
of bones, teeth, hair etc., over which the Stupas were constructed.
Originally the stupa was made of bricks and surrounded by a wooden
railing. The existing stupa at Sanchi encloses the original stupa
and has been enlarged and enclosed within the stone railing or
balustrade, when stone was adopted in the place of wood. To the
stupa which consisted of a domical structure, a base, sometimes
circular, sometimes square, was added in the 1st century B.C.,
a circumambulatory path as well as the stone railing with four
elegantly carved gateways in the four cardinal directions. In place
of the original wooden umbrella, which was put up to signify the
stupa represented and was built over the ashes of the Lord or his
immediate disciples, a sign of royalty and dignity, developed in
the course of time an interesting composition on top of the dome,
the Harmika; a square Buddhist railing from which rises the shaft
that holds the imperial umbrella, sometimes single and later on
multiplied to three or even more, diminishing in size as they go
upwards.
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The
railing and gateways at Bharhut, Sanchi and Bodh Gaya are the most
famous in the north and at Amravati and Nagarjunakonda in the South.
Upright pillars and cross bars, based on wooden construction, were
made and provided the occasion for dome of the finest low relief carvings
to be found anywhere in Indian art. On these surfaces are carved the
favourite symbols of Buddhism, the lotus, elephant, bull, lion and
horse and some of the Jataka stories of the previous births of Buddha,
depicted in low relief with such exuberant details that they are considered
a land-mark in the story of Indian art. The Sanchi Stupa has a diameter
of 120' and a height of 54'. About these gateways one thing stands
that most of early Indian architecture was of wood and timber and that
these are true imitations in stone of early wooden construction. |
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Sanchi Stupa No.1, Detail of Sculpture on Torana, Madhya Pradesh
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Under
the aegis of Ministry
of Culture,
Government of India
15-A, Sector - 7, Pappankalan, Dwarka,
New Delhi - 110075 |
Centre for Cultural Resources and Training |
Telephone:(011)
25088638,
47151000
Fax: 91-11-25088637,
Gram: CENCULT
E-mail:- dg.ccrt@nic.in |
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