Stuupa, and Tomb
By B. M. Barua
The Indian Historical Quarterly
vol 2:1, 1926.03, p. 16-27
p. 16
The Stupa is classed in Buddhist literature as
Saariirikacetiya or sepulchral sanctuary enshrining the
charred bones or ashes from the funeral pyre of a
deceased hero. The Buddhist hero is a Buddha or a
Thera, the greatest hero being the Buddha himself.
The Sinhalese word denoting this class of sanctuaries
is Daagaba, which is a shorter form of Dhaatugarbha.
The Dhaatugarbha strictly denotes the underground,
inner or lower chamber, containing the relic-casket
or steatite-box, and the Stuupa the upper structure or
covering mound. Thus as in one cast: the whole
sanctuary is denoted by the name of the upper
structure, so in the other the name of the lower or
inner structure denotes the whole. The word Stuupa is
the Buddhist Sanskrit form of the Pali Thuupa. The
origin of the form Thuupa can be traced back to an
Indo-European word like Tumba(1), from which the
English Tomb or the French Tombe has been derived.
According to this connexion, the Stuupa is nothing but
a Tomb or tumulus.
------------------------
1. The place mentioned in the Sutta-Nipaata, p. 103,
as Vana is evidently referred to in some of the
Votive Labels of Sanchi Stuupa, I as Tumbavana or
Tubavana (Buhler's Sanchi Stuupa Inscriptions I.
22, 23, 81, 264, 265 and 330 in Epigraphia Indica,
vol. II). The same place came to be known in
Buddhaghosa's time by two names: Tumbanagara and
Vanasavatthi. See Paramatthajotikaa, II, p.583. The
word tumbaa or tumba is in the Chittagong dialect a
synonym of tu.m, tubaa, tuppaa, tuuaa and tuup, meaning
`a piled up heap', e.g., the heap of earth, of
straw, of paddy, of cow-dung. Tumbaa is an
East-Bengal and a Maraathi form. Cf. Latin tumba.
In the Jaina Prakrit tu.mba and tu.mbii mean alaabu or
gourd and tumba also means the navel of a wheel
(Haragovinda Das Seth's Paia-Sadda-Maha^n^nava). In
Pali tumba means an aa.lhaka which is a measure of
grain, and tu.mbii a gourd (See Childers). But these
words occur in this sense in comparatively modern
works.
p. 17
But in spite of this kinship, the Stuupa considered as
a Buddhist sepulchral sanctuary and the Tomb a
Christian sepulchral structure represent two
different lines on which tumulus or mound has
developed. The custom behind the Stuupa is cremation
land the custom which is bound up with the Tomb is
burial. The transition from the latter to the former
is a long step.
The Tomb is essentially a mound covering a grave
in which the actual dead body is buried. The body
within the grave may be either directly covered by
clods of earth, particles of sand or pieces of stone
and brick, or put inside a coffin or life-size box or
cylinder of wood or stone. The body may be interred
as mere body, or it may be washed and embalmed,
wrapped up in cloth, dressed up, adorned with
jewellery, honoured with flowers and garlands, and
provided with personal belongings and necessaries, as
a tribute and mark of affection, either out of a pure
aesthetic feeling of taste, or owing to a
superstitious fear of visits and oppressions from the
disembodied spirits, or on account of a human
compassion for the helpless condition of the
deceased. With the elaboration of protective
mechanism, there may be a tomb within a tomb, a grave
within a grave, and a coffin within a coffin. Here
the desire To protect the body by all possible means
from destruction, mutilation, shame and insult is
persistent throughout, and the hoarding of jewellery
is a side-issue.
The Stuupa is essentially a mound covering a
garbha or chamber in which the bodily remains are
deposited. The remains consist of the charred bones
and ashes from the funeral pyre where the dead body
is burnt. These, as deposited in the chamber, may be
covered with the heap of earth, sand, stone or brick,
or secured inside a large stone-box along with
precious metals and small gold-leaves, or separately
in urns. The urn in a Buddhist sanctuary is
represented by a vase of crystal or ordinary stone,
covered by a lid and inscribed with a label recording
whose bodily remains the contents are. Here the
hoarding of treasures takes the place
p. 18
of the preservation of the body(1). In covering the
chamber with a mound, the offerings of flowers,
garlands and burning oil-lamps are made in honour of
the relics. The implication is that the relies are
not only deposited but enshrined. With the
elaboration of hoarding and enshrining mechanism,
there may be a mound within a mound, a chamber within
a chamber, a box within a box, and an urn within an
urn. The jewels and coins are deposited with the
express purpose of enabling the poorer kings to
repair or rebuild the shrine. The fiction of the
burial of a warrior-hero continues to play its part.
The erection of the sanctuary proceeds on the line of
the building of a fort, surrounded by walls and
ramparts, and supervised by a military guard. The
towers and gateways, as well as the representations
of achievements of heroes are external features of
the art of fort-building. In passing the custom of
burial through the fire of the funeral pyre, the
superstitions elements in it are sought to be
eliminated and the aesthetic elements separated and
cast into brighter forms.
The processes of elimination and sublimation were
tried along both the lines, in the one by retaining
the earlier custom of burial and preserving the
actual body, and in the other by introducing the
system of burning and hoarding the remains of the
pyre together with other treasures. But the animistic
beliefs, the superstitious fears, natural weaknesses
and primitive sentiments were persistent among the
people at large. The screen of fire of the funeral
pyre served only to separate these elements, keeping
some on one side to do their works as before, and
passing some to the other side to improve the quality
of art. The burial aspect of the Stupa
-------------------
1. The very expression dhatu-nidhana suggests it. Cf.
the phrase nidhim nidketi, meaning 'hoards the
treasure', Nidhikanda Sutta in Khuddakapatha. The
other expression dhatu-ovopana suggests also the
allegory of planting the seed, the seed of the
tree of art, the tree of faith and culture.
p. 19
continued to be associated with primitive beliefs,
rites and practices. It will be interesting to
examine the Indian literary evidence in this
connexion.
In a Pali canonical passage the Buddha is said to
have made a statement referring to the bleaching of
bones (atthidhopana) as a rite prevalent in southern
countries (i. e., in South India). In explaining the
rite Buddhaghosa says that in some of the countries
among some of the aboriginal tribes) when a man died,
his body was not cremated but buried in a grave. When
the body was sufficiently decomposed, the bones were
dug out of the grave and left to dry up after being
washed and rubbed with aromatic substances. A lucky
day was fixed for the celebration of the mourning
festival. On the selected site the bones were
arranged on one side, and wine and other things on
the other. The kinsmen of the deceased person
assembled there, drank wine and wept(1). Here the
custom is that of burial, the bones are the objects
of preservation, the behaviour is characterised by
drunkenness and savagery, and the weeping is a
natural expression of sorrow.
Now take a case where cremation is the custom,
The Sujata-Jataka (No.352) relates that a landowner
from the day of his father's death was filled with
sorrow, and taking his bones from the place of
cremation he erected an earth-mound in his
pleasure-garden, and depositing the remains there, he
visited the place from time to time, adorned the tope
with flowers and studiously lamented, neglecting his
daily duties and personal comforts. Though here the
custom is one of cremation and the man is a member of
the Aryan or cultured community, he is said to have
lamented, being subject to natural weakness and
subconsciously under the superstitious belief that
his weeping might bring back the departed soul, and
he was not cured of this malady until his wise son,
the Bodhisattva Sujata, convinced him of the fact
that his weeping
--------------
1. Sumangala Vilasini, I, pp, 84, 85p
p. 20
webs less availing as a means of bringing back into
life the deceased whose body was burnt than feeding a
dead cow whose body still remained.(1)
Then consider a case where the custom is burial,
The Rg-Vedic hymn (x. 18) gives a vivid description
of the funeral of a warrior. It appears that the
dead-body was carried to the funeral ground by one
path, the path of death and the party returned by
another, the path of life. The wife of the deceased
hero followed the dead body, accompanied by Other
ladies, the ladies who were not widows walking ahead.
The earth was dug out to make a grave. The spot was
surrounded by an enclosure (paridhi) , by a
atone-rampart (pasana) as Sayana interprets it(2). The
wife of the hero was urged by the priest to go back,
together with other ladies, to the world of mirth and
joy and begin her life anew. The circle of atone was
set up as a device to separate the world of living
ones from that of the dead, the priest's
interpretation changing the original motive of
guarding the grave and imprisoning the ghost. But
this was also put up as a memorial, the kinsmen of
the hero being exhorted by the priest to keep alive
hits tradition and continue his work for their
prosperity and glory. The bow was taken off from the
hand of the hero for preservation as a source of
inspiration to the nation. The body was afterwards
gently laid in the grave and covered with the heap of
earth marked with a post (sthuu^na). The mother-earth
was asked to hold her son in her bosom, not allowing
the heap or mound above him to press him heavily, and
the tomb was intended to serve as a mansion and a
monument. Though here the custom is one
-----------------------
1. Scene in Cunningham's Stuupa of Bharhut, pi.
XLVII, 3.
2. Mahiidhara, in commenting upon the Yajurveda hymn
(xxxv, 15), says that after the burning of the
body, the duty of the priest was to raise a bank
or lump of earth between the village where the
deceased dwelt and the funeral ground, as a
rampart against death. See Wilson's Rg-Veda
Samhita, vol, VI, p. 47, f.n. 4.
p. 21
of burial, the rites and prayers, the motives and
expressions are of an Aryan or exalted character,
breathing as they do, a high moral tone.
It is well observed that the topes were not
especially Buddhist monuments, but, in fact,
pre-Buddhistic, and indeed only a modification of a
world-wide custom (1). There are clear evidences showing
that certain sections of the Aryan community began to
make solid brick structures instead of heaps of
earth, or of stones covered with earth(2), and that
the urn (asthikumbha), containing the bones and ashes
and covered by a lid, came to be buried after the
dead body had been burnt(3). On being asked how his
body should be disposed of, the Buddha, said that it
should be done in royal manner. The Mahaakapi-Jaataka
(No. 407) gives an account of the obsequies of a
king. The ladies of the royal harem came to the
funeral garound, as retinue for the deceased king,
with red garments, dishevelled hair and torches in
their hands. The ministers made a funeral pile with a
hundred waggon loads of wood. On the spot where the
body was burnt a shrine was erected and honoured for
seven days with offerings of incense and flowers. The
burnt skull, inlaid with gold, was put at the king's
gate, raised on the spearlike staff serving as royal
insignia (kuntagge), and was honoured. Then taking
it, as a relic, another shrine was built and honoured
with incense and garlands.
It is well suggested: "The first step was
probably merely to build the cairn more carefully
than usual with stones, and to cover the outside with
fine cunam plaster to give it a marble-like surface".
The next step was to build the cairn
-------------------
1. Buddhist India, p. 80.
2. White Yajurveda, xxxv. 15.
3. AA`svalaayana G.rhya-Suutra, IV. 5; Saaya.na on the
.Rg-Veda hymn (X, 18).
4. Cf. Divyaavadaana, p. 381: cakre stuupaanaa.m
saradabhraprabhana.m, "made the topes that shone
forth like autumn-clouds".
p. 22
of concentric layers of the huge bricks in use at the
time, and to surround the whole with a wooden
railing"(1).
The heroes over whose graves, funeral pyres, or
bodily remains, the shrines were raised, were all as
yet `deceased persons of distinction, either by
birth, or wealth, or official position, the chief of
them being warrior, king, overlord. The mounds built
in honour of their memory were all as yet looked upon
as monuments of victory. The presiding deities of
such shrines built on four sides of the cities like
Vesali, Malls and Alavaka were all Yaksas or dreaded
personalities among the luminaries, the elemental
forces, the inanimate things, the animate forms, the
animals on land and in water, the savage tribes and
civilised men. They were at the same time ail
entombed eponymic and deified heroes from whom the
members of ruling clans, tribes and nations sought to
derive their strength and inspiration. Though the
basic idea was hero-worship, the Yaksa-shrines built
beside the Yaksa-mansions were all believed to have
been possessed by the disembodied spirits and haunted
by the ghosts of these heroes. The elements of dread
superstition clang on to these shrines which were
evidently tombs over the prehistoric graves in which
the heroes were buried together with their jewels and
hoardings. Though the mode of worship became
imperceptibly Brahmanical or priestly, the heroes
continued to be remembered in tradition and myth of
the people at large as their own leaders, and
religious offerings and worship at the tombs
enshrining their memory and bodily remains regarded
as a way of producing the permanent mental attitude
to remain loyal to the glorious tradition of the past
and not to depart therefrom. When, in course of time,
the kings and nobles became `the leaders of thought,
or reformers, or philosophers, they were claimed by
the people at large as their own teachers, much to
the detriment of the interest of the priests who
traded by mediation between men on one
--------------
1. Buddhist India, p. 80.
p. 23
side and the unseen and invisible world of spirits on
the other. A passage in tile Divyaavadaana supplies a
typical case where the Brahmin priests as a class are
represented as so much opposed to this mode of
worship that the bankers who wanted to build a Stuupa
in spite of the oppositen, but were fewer in number,
that they had to seek the protection of the king and
complete their project under the guard of the royal
army(1). The development of the art of building this
class of shrines took a new turn and followed a
direction which went to overshadow warrior the king
by warrior the teacher. In the history of this
development the Buddha was certainly the greatest
landmark. What is the new turn that it took and what
the direction that it followed? Hitherto the mounds
were built and shrines honoured as monuments of
victory. Henceforth they were intended to serve as
monuments of victory in defeat.
In a Buddhist sanctuary with the mound in its
centre, the carvings and frescoes, depicting various
scenes from the Buddha's life, and the temples and
niches containing the images illustrative of the
formal modes of various meditative moods, are all
placed in the outer zone, added as ornaments or
decorative designs, full of lesson and artistic
value. From the artists' point of view these are
various expressions of refined human imagination and
finer emotion, and in the devotees' perception these
appear as representations of the actual and possible
achievements in human life. The central structure
towering with its imposing sight is but a device to
preserve and enshrine the bones and ashes from the
funeral pyre where the body of the Buddha or that of
a disciple after death was cremated. There are old
inscriptions or epitaphs, incised on the
relic-caskets and recording when, by whom, and whose
remains were enshrined. The famous
--------------
1. Divyavaadaana, pp. 243-244; "The priestly records
carefully ignore these topes" (Buddhist India, p.
82).
p. 24
Piprawa Vase Inscription, found in Nepal Terai,
records: ¢wlya.m salila-nidhane Budhasa Bhagavate
Sakiyanam sukitithatinam. "This (memorial mound
enshrining the relics was built) on the demise of
Buddha the Divine Teacher by his Sakyan kinsmen of
glorious deed."
The expression salila-nidhane occurring in it
signifies that the Buddha's body, exactly like that
of any other man, was subject to decay and consumable
by fire. There are passages where he is represented
as saying that he was anyhow dragging his worn-out
body, like a cart after careful repairing. The
presence of hair, nail, bone, tooth, and the rest
indicates that he had a human form. The legends and
traditions, the sculptures and paintings, the images
and inscriptions go to represent that he was born
under all ideal circumstances of life, and that in
all respects he was perfect, as perfect as a man
could be. And yet the fact remains that he died. The
mounds contain: the monumental evidence of man's
inability to overcome death in spite of all ideal
circumstances, opportunities, attainments and
perfections. By mere explaining away or mocking at
death, the truth about man's inability to overcome it
cannot be denied. The fact of the demise and funeral
of the Buddha decides once for all that the denial of
it is a mere act of fancy and frenzy, and all
attempts to deny it are a bad bargain and a hopeless
muddle. The bold proclamation of this truth is the
obvious Buddhist motive behind the Stuupa.
The Barhut Stupa as a creation of art represents
a distinct form or type. The Stuupas at Sanchi and
Sonari, in short, all the Bhilsa topes belong to this
type. The models produced by the Barhut artists can
be taken as faithful representations of the forms
known to them at the time or they imagined what they
ought to be. The scenes of relic-procession represent
how the casket containing the remains of the funeral
pyre was carried to the site where it was deposited,
One of the Pillars full of medallions contains a
geometrical symbol, which may be taken to represent
the ground plan of the brick-
p. 25
mound(1). It shows that the layers of large bricks
were so arranged as to illustrate various
permutations and combinations of Svastikas(2). The
forms changed or were modified with times and
according to localities, the process being one of
differentiation or harmonisation between the mound on
one hand and the mansion or temple on the other. The
tope built by the Sakyan kinsmen of the Buddha over
their portion of the remains of his funeral pyre is
an earlier example, but this is still in ruins and
has not as yet been restored(3). The Ahin Posh tope,
restored by Mr. W. Simpson, is a later example, and
it shows a long flight of steps in front, leading up
to the dome(4).
Buddhaghosa gives the following description of
the tope built by and during the reign of king
Ajaata`satru for hoarding the relies in one place
(dhaatu-nidhaana) . His description is evidently
coloured by what he saw at Thuupaaraama in Ceylon. (1)
To start with, the bricks were made out of pure earth
dug out of a held to the south-east of Raajagrha. The
people were told that the king's intention was to
build some shrines in honour of the eighty great
Disciples. When the cavity had been dug so deep as 80
cubits, the bed was metalled with iron, and upon it
was built a chamber of copper and iron of the same
dimension as the shrine of Thuupaaraama. In this chamber
were placed eight mound-shaped relic-boxes of white
sandal, containing the relies of the Buddha. Each of
these was put within seven other boxes of red sandal,
of ivory and the like, the uppermost one being made
of crystal. All these were covered up by three
chambers, one within another, the uppermost one of
copper and iron serving as the upper half of the
chamber-box. Having scattered sand with seven
precious metals, one thousand lotus flowers growing
on land
-----------------------
1. Cunningham's Stuupa of Bharhut, pi. xii.
2. Ibid., pi. xi.
3. Buddhist India, p. 33. Smith's History of Fine Art
in India and Ceylon, p. 84.
4. Buddhist India, p. 83.
5. Sumangala-Vilaasinii, Siamese ed., Part II. pp.
271-276.
p. 26
and in water were strewn over it. Five hundred and
fifty Jaataka-illustrations and the figures of eighty
great Disciples and those of `Suddhodana and Mahaamaayaa
as well as those of seven comrades were made all in
gold. Five thousand gold and silver jars filled with
water were set up, five hundred golden flags were
hoisted, five hundred golden lamps, and silver lamps
of equal number were filled with fragrant oil and
provided with wick on two sides. The Venerable
Mahaakaa`syapa sanctified them, saying, "Let these
garlands never wither, let this fragrance never
vanish and these lamps never become extinct." A
prophecy was inscribed on a goldplate to the effect
that king A`soka would in time to come spread these
relics far and wide. The king having honoured the
relics with all kinds of jewellery, came out shutting
the doors one by one. The door of the copper-and-iron
chamber was scaled, and upon it was placed a piece of
precious gem with an inscription, authorising the
poorer kings to honour the relics with its aid.
Thereafter `Sakra sent Vi`svakarmaa to do all that was
needed to protect the hoarded relics. He set up traps
to keep off wild animals (vaalasanghaatayanta) ,
surrounded the relic-chamber (dhaatugabbha) by a
wooden enclosure with wooden posts carved with the
figures of soldiers holding swords (asihatthaani
ka.t.tharuupakaani), and encircled the same by stone in
the manner of a brick-structure. After having thrown
dust-heap over it, and levelled the ground, a
stone-mound was built covering it. When king A`soka
opened this tope after 218 years, he saw the
oil-lamps burning as though they were just now lit
up, and the lotus flowers fresh as though they were
just now gathered and offered.
The story of Dharmaruci in the Divyaavadaana
contains the description of another example of a
tope. Here the tope, among other details, is said to
have four staircases with steps leeding, layer after
layer, up to the dome with a crowning construction,
surmounted by an umbrella, inlaid with all precious
metals. On its four sides there were four doorways,
and four shrines, one containing the representation
p. 27
of the scene of birth, another that of enlightenment,
the third that of first sermon, and the fourth that
of demise of the Buddha(1).