The Development of Buddhist Art in South India
By Devaprasad Ghosh
The Indian Historical Quarterly
Vol 4:4, December, 1928, p 724-740
p. 724
Amaravati Stupa
Amaravati is picturesquely situated on the south
bank of the Krsna River close by the modern town of
Dharanikota, ancient Dhanyakataka, the capital of
Maha-Andhra, about eighteen miles west of Bezwada.
The earliest stupa was raised under the patronage of
the Andhras about 200 B.C., of which a few archaic
sculptures have survived, but most of the exquisite
marbles which survive to-day belong to a subsequent
restoration about four centuries later. The great
Buddhist stupa of Amaravati which was once unrivalled
by any other Indian structure of its class in form,
dimension and decorative grandeur
p. 725
shared no better fate than the rest of the ancient
monuments. "When Huen-tsang visited the place in the
year 639 A.D. it had already been deserted for a
century, but he speaks of its magnificence and the
beauty of its site in more glowing terms than he
applies to almost any other monument in India.''(1)
From this time onward the monument gradually began to
decay and fall into ruins. Towards the end of the
eighteenth century, the famous mound, the upper part
of which rose in a turreted shape encased with bricks
to the height of 20ft. with a diameter of about 90
ft. at the top, was locally known as Dipaldinne or
"Hill of Lights". Colonel Mackenzie who went to the
site in 1797 found to his great chagrin that just a
year before, the local Raja Venkatadri Naidu had
discovered and disemboweled the mound in a fruitless
search after hidden treasures; he afterwards caused a
reservoir to be dug in the centre and used the
priceless marble slabs in building the new temple of
Amaresvara and the flight of steps to the adjacent
tank of Sivaganga. Some of the slabs were utilised by
the Mussalmans in their mosques, after 'carefully
divesting of every carving by rubbing them on harder
stones, to prevent, as it is said, any pollution
arising to Muhammadan faith from idolatrous
substances'.(2) Mackenzie revisited it in 1816, when
as a result of excavation he recovered some 130
slabs, made drawings of them and prepared a
ground-plan of the stupa. The place was next visited
by Sir Walter Elliot in 1845; but in the meantime 70
pieces of sculptures left behind in the open had been
carried away by the enterprising villagers and burnt
into lime! (3) It is deplorable that even the
Government Public Works Engineers were equally guilty
of such acts of vandalism.(4)
The slabs excavated by Sir Walter were transhipped to
England and now adorn the grand stair-case of the
British Museum. The next excavation was undertaken by
Mr. Sewell, but it was reserved for Dr. Burgess to
make a shifting and scientific examination of the
spot in 1882-83 and incorporate his findings in a
voluminous report, In the first decade of the 20th
century, the work was continued, with
______________________
1. Fergusson, History of Indian and Eastern
Architecture, 2nd ed., London, 1910, vol.I, p.123
2. Burgess, The Buddhist Stupas of Amaravati and
Jaggayyapeta, London, 1887, p. 15.
3. Sewell, Report on the Amaravati Tope, London, 1880,
p. 67.
4. Madras Govt.,Orders No. 467, 30 April, 1888, p. 15.
p. 726
valuable results, by Mr. Rea of the Arclaeological
Survey. The sculptures which are now in India after
surviving the ruthless vandalism through the ages are
shared by the Museums of Madras and Calcutta.
An inscription of the reign of Palumavi
Vasisthiputra tells us that the Amaravati stupa was
known as the Mahacaitya or 'Great Caitya' of the Holy
One belonging to the Caitika School. A stupa or
Caitya has its origin in the primitive burial mound
of both the Arya and the Asura.(1) In the vicinity of
Amaravati itself, there are numerous funeral tumulii,
surrounded by rude stone circles, of remote
antiquity, which served as the prototypes of the
later stately structures in stone or brick. The stupa
at Amaravati was not a commemorative monument like
the ones at Sarnath or Nagarahara, neither was it a
hollow Caitya containing some relic, as the earlier
stupas at Sanchi, Sonari and Manikyalado. It was a
solid structure and rested within a square stone
casket, on the top of the dome, in conformity with
the convention of the day.
The circular base of the stupa was 162 ft. in
diameter, perhaps only 6 ft. high, supporting a
frieze and cornice, and was faced with marble slabs
possessing the richest carvings and characterised by
the most delicate treatments, depicting miniature
representations of the stupa itself and interposed by
panels elaborately carved with scenes from the life
of Buddha and the Jatakas. It is very difficult to
ascertain whether the dome rose directly from the
drum or rested upon several receding terraces like
the Gandhara, Further Indian or Indonesian specimens.
But there was no balustrade to encircle the
procession path at the base of the drum as on the
great stupa at Sanchi. The great marble dome of
Amaravati, unlike the short and stunted dome of
Sanchi, rose to a considerable height of 90 ft.
(twice that of Sanchi ) and was more or less bulging
in form. In this respect it presented a contrast to
the stilted hemispheres of the earlier northern
examples and was more akin to the soaring forms of
the Ceylonese dagobas, 'The domical part was covered
with stucco, and with wreaths and medallions either
executed in relief or painted'." The marble panels
were also 'covered' originally with thin
plaster,coloured and gilt.
_______________________
1. A very illuminating article on the 'Stupas or
Caityas' has been recently contributed by Mr. R.D.
Banerjee (vide Modern Review, Calcutta, Feb. 1928).
2. Fergusson, op. cit., p.80.
p. 727
Thus the conception of the whole thing, profound and
majestic, was matched by an exterior at once
brilliant and dazzling.
As all traces of the great stupa have been wiped
away from the site, we cannot help looking at one of
the numerous panels representing the miniature stupa
in order to gain an idea of the original one (see
plate). The very first thing that strikes us, and
which is visible nowhere in northern India, is the
five tall stelae 'above the front slab, which
slightly projects from the base of the dagoba--the
bases are square and sometimes ornamented with
carvings of Cakra, Bodhi Tree and Dagoba; the shafts
are octagonal, and they have square carved
capitals'.(1) The existence of these novel features
on the great stupa is attested by the discovery by
Dr. Burgess of a number of these pillars at the
Jaggayyapeta stupa 30 miles north-west of Amaravati,
of which we have already spoken.(2) In an inscription
they are called 'Aryaka Khambhe'. That this was a
common feature of the Kalinga Stupas is proved by the
recurrence of this element also in the stupas at
Bhattiprolu and Ghantasala. These projecting
pedestals with the enigmatical columns, on the four
cardinal points of each stupa, may correspond to the
four shrines in the stupas at Sanchi and Bharhut, and
the niches for the Dhyani Buddhas in the dagobas of
Ceylon and the Caityas of Nepal. With the march of
time the number of these chapels went on increasing;
at Sarnath they are doubled while Borobudur simply
bristles with them.
Other slabs invariably present us with another
peculiar feature, viz., a dwarf figure standing on
each side of the gate, holding a tray on his head.(3)
Their constant occurrences lead us to believe that in
the original structure they represented statues in
the round, bearing trays to receive the offerings of
the visitors. Dr. Burgess opines, 'No example of them
has been found and the only analogue I know of, is a
similar small figure bearing a basin by the doorjamb
of the cave at Lonad of the Thana district near
Kalyan."(4) But we think a closer examination of the
extant monuments may yet reveal such figures and in
fact there are such at Karli and in Orissa. A pair of
vases with flowers
___________________
1. Burgess, op. cit,, P. 72.
2. Ghosh, Development of Buddhist Art in South India,
Indian Historical Quarterly, Sept, 1927, p. 502
3. Burgess, op. cit,, Plate XXXI, Figs. 6 and 7.
4. Ibid., p. 72.
p. 728
(mangalakalasa?) prominently placed at the entrance
is another regular feature of the sculptured slabs.
The appearance of two slender pillars or
free-standing lats with small Caitya capitals,
crowned sometimes with plenty of Chatas, one on each
side of the entrance within the enclosure, is also
remarkable The paucity of such examples in the
northern stupas is striking; and if they occur at all
(as for example at Sarnath and Sanchi) they are
situated outside and not inside the rail. The actual
presence of these columns in the great stupa, is
supported by the excavations at Jaggayyapeta and
Bhattiprolu. They have also a close affinity with
innumerable concentric lats, still standing round the
Thuparama and Lankarama dagobas in Ceylon--a
perpetual enigma to the generations of
archaeologists.
The Rail.--The most singular feature of the early
Buddhist and Jaina stupas is the rail, upon which the
artist devoted his most scrupulous attention and
lavished all the splendour he could conceive. We are
aware of the extant rails at Bharhut, Bodh Gaya,
Sanchi and Mathura and we know too their wealth of
decoration, but the remarkable rail at Amaravati has
far surpassed them all in the magnificence of elegant
carvings and the marvellous display of intrinsic
merit. The ornamental detail is simply staggering in
its profusion and afford a striking contrast to the
plain and simple rail of the great stupa at Sanchi.
The great rail at Amaravati was about 600 ft. in
circumference and 14 ft. in height with a procession
path 13 ft. broad, intervening between it and the
base. It was more than twice the dimension of the
rail at Bharhut. The Tibetan historian Taranatha
records that the great Buddhist Acarya Nagarjuna, the
founder of the Madhyamika School 'surrounded the
great shrine of Dhanyakataka with a railing.(1)
Colonel Mackenzie in 1797 Was responsible for
starting the theory that the stupa was surrounded by
two rails--one inner and another outer. The error
persisted with veteran archaeologists like Fergusson
and Burgess, not to speak of Elliot and Sewell. It
was only about two decades ago that Burgess
acknowledged and rectified the mistake. 'From some
misunderstanding of the first accounts' he added, 'it
was supposed that the Amaravati Stupa had an inner
___________________
1. Schiefner's Taranatha's Geschichte des Buddhismus,
p.72; JASB. vol.LI, pp. 119; Indian Antiquary, vol.
XII, p. 88.
p. 729
rail; this was a mistake; the inner circle of
sculptures was the facing of the base of the
stupa'.(1)
The rail at Amaravati resembled its predecessors
in the principal features; but the plinth was richly
carved with a frieze of running boys and animals,
grotesquely treated. The rectangular pillars were as
usual edged off into shallow flutes. They were
decorated with half lotus discs at the top and the
bottom, and circular discs in the middle inserted
with a full-grown lotus or a scene, in the usual
manner. But the most typical characteristic about
these pillars, is the complete absence of the large
standing human representations, occupying the entire
surface of the uprights, such as the graceful statues
of Yaksas and Yaksinis of Bharhut, Bodh Gaya and the
dancing girls of Mathura. They have entirely
disappeared and their place is occupied by greatly
magnified and richly carved lotus discs, curling
leaves carefully corrugated, comical Ganas and an
enormous variety of scenic sculptures. The preference
for group composition, as opposed to single figures,
is very obvious in the swarming of the space between
the discs--which was generally left bare and
unadorned in the earlier days by vivid and animated
delineation of the Jatakas and other incidents. The
three cross-bars were each embellished with a
beautiful lotus disc with concentric bands of petals,
the most elaborate of its kind ever made, and all
different. On the massive coping, the meandering
creeper of Bharhut was replaced by a long wavy roll,
carried by moving human figures and dwarfs and
interspersed with symbols in the loops. The
marvellous change which has taken place in the sphere
of ornamentation has already been noticed in the
previous chapter on Ornamental Representation.(2) On
the whole the inner side of the rail, covered with
scenes full of life and movement, was decorated with
greater beauty and elaboration than the exterior.
The Amaravati rail has a close resemblance to the
rail of Stupa no. 2 at Sanchi, in excellence of
carving and richness of detail. The decorative
tendency which was strongly evident at Sanchi became
more pronounced at Amaravati. The lotus medallions
grew larger in size and became more prominent (those
at the top and bottom were often three-quarters and
not half) till at last they reached their climax in
the rail of the Gautamiputra cave, Nasik, where the
pillars and cross-bars were adorned with full discs
only. "The discs were
_______________
1. Fergusson, op. cit., revised by Burgess, pp. 119f.
2. IHQ., Sept, 1927, pp. 486-91.
p. 730
multiplied till the pillars almost became evanescent
quantities in the composition."
In spite of all these arresting details, we are
confronted with the rather astonishing fact that the
four openings piercing the great rail at the cardinal
points, were not adorned with the beautiful towering
Toranas, such as we find at Bharhut and Sanchi. The
sides of the entrance are shown instead as coming out
in a 'rude sort of perspective and terminating in
neat pillars with bases and capitals, crowned by
figures of lions; at the angles too, above the roll,
on each side is a lion.'(1) One such lion lying
prostrate near the west gate yielded to the spade of
Sir Walter Elliot.(2) While the reliefs abound with
representations of such structures over the city and
palace gates, the conspicuous absence of the
characteristic Toranas from the great rail is
mysterious indeed.
Architectural Representations
Now that we have a picture of the stupa in the
height of its glory; let us proceed to discuss the
various forms of architectural representations from
the extant remains in relief as well as in the round.
Dwellings and Palaces.--From the sculptured slabs
we can find that the ordinary dwelling places were
really oblong shaped huts with barrel-vaulted roofs
which unlike the curvilinear forms of Bharhut, Sanchi
and Bodh Gaya are more or less semi-circular in
shape. This may be a peculiar South Indian feature
and differs strikingly from the square-thatched
houses of Bengal, Behar and Orissa and other early
sculptures of the North. Other small detached huts
show that they were crowned with circular domed
roofs. These instances may lead us to infer that the
South had dispensed with all angularity in
construction of the roofs of the poor and the common.
The few instances of single and double storied
palaces, buildings and shrines, carved here as well
as on the Jaggayyapeta slabs, with their railed
verandahs, caitya windows and arched roofs with
finials --which were continued till the time of the
Mahaballipur Rathas-- reveal no dissimilarity between
them and their northern prototypes. To make the
scenes inside visible they are shown in a sort of
conventional perspective. Most of the buildings
represented are distinctly
___________________
1. Burgess, op. cit., p, 70.
2. Ibid., Plate XLV, Fig. 7.
3. Ibid., XXVII, Fig. I.
p. 731
modern in character as Fergusson conjectures; and the
practice of setting up wooden architecture was
prevalent in South India till comparatively recent
times. As at Sanchi, the difference in material of
domestic architecture from that of civic and military
architecture is distinctly shown in the brick
construction of the latter. The palace buildings are
usually surrounded by high walls on all the four
sides with two or more entrance ways. Over these
gateways, there are high spires or flag-towers, where
sentinels were stationed and where also play bands or
Mangalavadya, pipe and music, both in the mornings
and the evenings. Such places are now found in all
Muhammadan palaces or Nowbatkhanas. The construction
may be laid out square or circular in accordance with
the taste of the kings or owners of the grounds, or
it may be even laid out in the form of a semi-circle
as in the Karmuka form of town-plan.'(1)
Most of the above features were recorded by the
artists in the panels.
Fortifications.-There is also complete agreement
between the southern and northern examples of
fortifications. A comparison of the reliefs of
Amaravati with the architraves of Sanchi gateways,
will make this apparent in the identical forms of
high and broad brickwalls, massive palisades, strong
gateways, lofty towers bristling with turrets and
pinnacles set with the usual Buddhist Caitya-window
facades, strongly built watch-towers, tiers stories
each supreimposed on the other, adorned with
hanging balconies and numerous strategic windows
facilitating the discharge of arrows from safe from
safe quarters, and other apartments invariably
fringed with the rail pattern and crowned with
gable-shaped roofs. it must be admitted, however,
that it is very difficult to distinguish between a
fortress and a palace proper, as in those days every
royal abode was a military stronghold and vice-
versa.(2)
Temples.--The method of building temples and
shrines does not seem to have made much progress
since the days of Bharhut. The object of adoration
was usually placed and worshipped in a courtyard
generally flanked on three sides only by buildings
(vide Asoka's temple at Bodh Gaya, carved on a
Bharhut pillar), or within separate structures either
oblong or square, but generally open and
_________________
1. Rajagrhalaksmanam, Manasara, ch. xi. Translated by
lyer in Indian Architecture, Madras, 1921, vol. iii,
Bk. I, ch. XI.
2. Burgess, op. cit., Plate xxv, Fig. 2, and xxvii,
Fig. 2.
p. 732
surrounded by pillars. Indeed one may be easily led
to ascribe the shrines represented on some of the
earliest slabs of Amaravati to the Bharhut railings.
Gateways.--Although we have no evidence as to
actual gateways guarding the entrances of the stupa
itself, the reliefs afford us with copious examples.
Two different kinds of Toranas can be noticed. One
type represents two square and carved pillars
surmounted by cushion capitals and crowned with
crouching animal figures like those at Bharhut, which
in their turn support a superstructure of a very
broad, solid semi-circular architrave without any
volute ends.(1) The second type, occurring more
frequently, has exceedingly slender and often plain,
square shafts, rising from pot-bases and crowned with
or without cushion capitals, There are the usual two
or three architraves with volute ends but entirely
bare, each ranged above the other, the gaps being
linked by vertical posts. A few of them are carved
with geometrical patterns.(2) The difference in
appearance of the Amaravat Toranas from those of
Bharhut, Sanchi and Mathura, lies in the architraves
of the former being more curved and the volute ends
correspondingly curled up to a greater degree. It can
also be noted that perhaps the gateways were not so
lavishly enriched with marvellous bas-reliefs as
those of Sanchi.
Pillars and Pilasters.--Apart from the pillars
which serve architechtonic purpose, freestanding
sculptured lats can be observed on many of the slabs.
There are some with cushion capitals and inverted
steps bearing Cakras and other Buddhist symbols(3)The
slender columns within the enclosure, which 'at once
remind us of the Asoka lat in Northern India and
Iron pillar at Delhi' and specially the rows of
pillars round the Anuradhapur stupas in Ceylon
supporting the same cushion capital and inverted
slabs, have miniature dagobas always placed on top of
them. This is perhaps the first instance where a
Caitya constitutes the crowning emblem instead of the
usual animal or other familiar northern conventions.
The Ceylonese capitals of the particular type are
either topped with a knob or with a flat surface.
None of the pillars which must have stood at the
gates, remains in its entirety--only fragments have
been found. The earlier types were plain and carved
with rail pattern and other Buddhist symbols
------------------------
1. Burgess, op. cit., Plate v, Fig. 2.
2. Ibid., XVIII, Fig. 2.
3. Ibid., V, Fig. 2.
p. 733
while the later examples were adorned with the
figures of the Buddha and other sculptures. The
shafts were square, octagonal or
Some of the broken fragments of pilasters betray
crude craftsmanship and antique characteristics noted
below. Dr. Burgess judiciously observes, "These slabs
so closely resemble those round the Jaggayyapeta
stupa that we cannot mistake in ascribing them to the
same age.(1) They must have belonged to the early
stupa. Like the Nasik and Junar pillars, the base
consists of three thin slabs supporting a vase,
carved with leaf and bead pattern. This clearly
indicates that in ancient times the original wooden
shafts were inserted into metal pots to preserve them
from decay and injury. This theory has been
strengthened by the recent discovery of the bronze
shoe of a column at Balawat in Assyria, which points
to the frequent use of this particular method in
Assyria, Mesopotamia and Persia. Remarkable plastic
examples of this type are found at Bodh Gaya,
Khandagiri (Ananta Gumpha) and Gautamiputra cave at
Nasik. But unlike the western prototypes, a
projecting member, carved with dwarfs or hybrid
creatures and ornamented with the old battlements and
other motifs, stands over the neck of the body. The
shafts, the edges of which are slantingly cut off
like those of the Bharhut pillars, are adorned with
half lotus discs at each and a full one in the
middle; and closely resemble the pilasters in the
Pithalkora Vihara. But no pillar with cushion
capital, first encountered at Kanheri and so often
sculptured in the reliefs, has been discovered.
Generally the double carve of the bell-shaped or
lotus capital, is very slight and do not possess
the graceful sweep of the Asokan capitals;neither it
is boldly modelled with soft drooping flutes nor
facaded like the Karli examples. The flutes, on the
contrary, are extremely crude and shallow, like the
Bhaja specimens and their significance is further
reduced by the intersection of bands of lotus leaves
and beads. Absolutely smooth capitals, parallel with
those found in Nasik caves are not, however, rare.
The necking consists of the bead and reel pattern
which supports the terraced superstructure,
surmounted by a pair of winged animals seated in
juxtaposition, similar to those prevalent in other
regions.(3)
So we may conclude that the typical
characteristics of pillars and
_________________________
1. Burgess, op. cit., p. 94.
2. Ibid., Plate XLIV, nos. 5, 6; LIV, no. 2.
p. 734
pilasters during the 2nd and 1st centuries before the
Christian era, are almost identical throughout India,
whether in the north (Bharhut, Sanchi, Mathura), in
the west (Bhaja, Pithalkora, Junar, Karli, Nasik,
etc.), in the east (Bodh Gaya, Udayagiri, Khandagiri,
etc.) or in the south (Amaravati, Jaggayyapeta etc.).
Mr. Havell remarks "The lotus and vase pillar,
besides being one of the most ancient Indian
architectural orders, is also the most frequently
used. It is found at all periods."(1)
The Ruins of Sankaram and Ramatirtham
Let us now take leave of the Krsna district and
proceed a little higher up the Kalinga country. There
are two isolated hills covered all over with
monolithic and structural Buddhist remains, very
close to the village of Sankaram, in the Vizagapatam
district of the Madras Presidency. "The monuments,"
says Mr. Alexander Rea, "are the earliest of their
class in the South of India and constitute one of the
most remarkable groups of Buddhist remains in the
Presidency. Indeed the only other known site in the
South, where monolithic remains exist in any
considerable number, is that of the Seven Pagodas,
and though the Sankaram site is not to be compared
with it in point of extent, it takes precedence as
regards the age of the monuments."(2) The Eastern
Hill, which is the higher of the two, is literally
strewn with rock-cut caves and dagobas, the monoliths
set upon platforms and terraces, rising in tiers over
each other culminate in the dominating structure of a
great stupa on the summit. The grandeur of Borobudur
flashes across the mind when we visualize the almost
identical arrangement and the imposing profile of the
whole mass in its original and pristine glory.
The remains can be classified into three main
heads, viz., (I) rock-cut caves, (2) monolithic
dagobas and structural stupas and (3) structural
buildings for residential purposes.
Rock-cut Caves.--The surface of the rock at
places is hollowed out into a deep recess in order to
provide a vertical wall with a platform before
it--just in the manner of the peculiar rock-dwellings
in Asia Minor, called the Syppilus. On the Eastern
Hill, in one such wall,
___________________
1. Havell, Handbook of Indian Art, London, 1920,
p. 44.
2. Rea, A Buddhist Monastery on the Sankaram Hills,
Vizaga-patam Dt." Arch. Sur. Ann. Rep., 1907-08,
p. 149.
p. 735
double caves are cut, one standing over the other and
each of them is entered only by a single rectangular
doorway. The facade is of the Behar caves, the
Western Caitya halls or the neighbouring caves in the
Godavari district. We sorely miss the much familiar
Caitya-window, the Caityas, the Buddhist rail and
other ornamental devices which decorated the facades
of almost all the Buddhist rockcut caves of the early
period.
In Cave I, "over the door which is guarded by
figures of Dvarapalas" like the Nasik caves,
"weather-worn traces of an architrave can be traced
which include two semi-circular pediments with a
cornice over it." The usual place of the
Caitya-windows is usurped by a semi-circular recess
occupied by a large-seated image of the Buddha.
Figures of the Buddha, sometimes with attendants, are
also carved in niches beside the facade. The interior
of this cave also differs materially in plan and
construction from the early Buddhist Caitya halls.
The Chamber, instead of being oblong in shape with an
apsidal end, is absolutely square in dimension. It is
further characterised by the absence of the double
row of columns dividing the interior into a central
nave and the two side-aisles as in the Western Caitya
caves, The hall is, on the contrary, demarcated into
twenty compartments by four cross rows of sixteen
pillars. The columns are massive in proportion and do
not resemble in any way the early types of pillars
with a pot base, lotus or bell capital and animal
superstructure. They belong to a different class
altogether--having a square base, short octagon in
the centre changing into sixteen sides upwards, these
several unskilfully moulded neckings followed by a
thin and small torus, surmounted again with square
block. "Two central piers of the central square have
a standing image apparently a Cauri-bearer, cut in
the front of the base." Stranger still, a Caitya or
rock-cut dagoba with a plainly moulded base, a
circular dome and the remains of a tree, stands on a
square platform which fills up the space between the
four central piers and is situated in the middle of
the cave instead of rising precipitously from the
floor at the apsidal end of the hall, according to
convention. So here we are confronted with the unique
spectacle of the combination: a Caitya hall and a
Vihara combined into one.
Cave II above it consists of two apartments--one
rectangular vestibule, and a shrine which is also
rectangular and without pillars. "The walls of the
vestibule are also carved with the Buddha and
attendant images and some representations of the
dagoba with strikingly bul-
p. 736
bous domes" like some at Amaravati. Instead of the
Caitya, there is a seated image of the Buddha on a
pedestal on the back wall of Cave III. In Cave V, the
type of pillar is identical with that of No. I; only
it is more slender and has a fluted(?) or moulded
torus. "There is a lotus patera at the top of each
square and pediment at the top of the octagon." The
principal cave on the Western Hill contains another
novel feature, viz., the Caitya is placed in a square
cavity in the middle of the chamber below the ground
level. The ceilings of these caves are plain and
flat. The walls and images were originally coated
with plaster.
Dagobas.--Almost all the dagobas, strewn about
the hill and converging upward, are rock-cut
monoliths. They are very crudely worked out and their
forms are characterised by the utmost simplicity. The
hemispherical ''auda" which is either bulbous, flat
or elongated in shape, is nearly superimposed on a
drum having also stunted or column-like elongated
forms. Formerly they were all covered with Stucco.
Compared with the monolithic Stupas at Bhaja, they
appear absolutely bare; even the essential rail
ornament is absent from the rim of the drum, and as
far as it can be guessed, this device and the
favourite Caitya windows do not occur on the Harmika,
disfigured as it is. The dagobas on the West Hill are
comparatively better. Some of them have moulded
bases, plain plasters and cornice round the drum,
also a series of inverted slabs on the relic casket,
in the conventional way. Others are faced with brick
or made wholly of brick.
"The crowning Stupa rested on a square platform,
on which rested the low rock-cut cylinder which
formed the lower part of the dome, the upper part
being completed in brick. The complete dome must have
been a low curve of less than
semi-circle.........almost wholly of brick."
Structural Buildings for Residential
Purposes.--On the eastern end of the top of the
highest terrace, the remains of a structural
rectangular Caitya hall made of brick and terminating
in an apse, has been excavated, Like the one at Ter,
in the Nizam's Dominions, the Caityas are too small
to have space or necessity for pillars. It is the
main structure round which all other constructions
grew up. It has been divided into two compartments by
means of the usual partition wall near the apsidal
end, into an ante-camber and a shrine The Caitya is
replaced inside the shrine by a rectangular stone
pedestal with a cavity on top, probably meant for an
image. There
p. 737
is a large stone-paved brick hall, faced with
pilasters just in front of the Caitya, but at a lower
level. "'And inside these walls and placed at right
angles to them at the same level are the remains of
the partition and outer walls of a continuous row of
cells and shrines standing on the north, east and
south sides.'' Another peculiar feature is to be met
with at the entrance of the hall, which is flanked on
either side by apsidal brick structures, with their
entrances facing the central passage. The chambers
which occupied this position, if at all, in the
Western caves, were square and never apsidal.
Remnants of other continuous rows of cells have also
been dug out around the three sides of the raised
Caitya terrace and at the same level with it, while
an outer detached row stands parallel to those to the
north.(1)
One of the range of hills, in the vicinity of the
village of Ramtirtham, in the Vizagapatam district,
is also studded with the extensive ruins of a
Buddhist monastety. Like Sankaramm, apart from the
foundations of a large brick stupa, the most
interesting buildings here are the structural Caityas
so rare in India. On the Gurubhaktakondu Hill, there
are remains of an apsidal brick Caitya hall, with a
stone dagoba resting on a double pedestal. There is a
wall across the chord of the hall. The absence of
pillars was perhaps a common characteristic of the
stuctural Caityas. In agreement with the Caitya at
Chezarla, it has brick pilasters "with moulded bases
and capitals, and at the base of each, fragments
remain of three crouchant lions.'' The semi-circular
slabs at the foot of the flight of stone stairs at
once recalls the beautiful 'moonstones' of Ceylonese
architecture. Near by it, at a lower level, is the
site of a brick Vihara, the roof of which was
supported by six rows of six piers each--square in
section but near the top octagonal. This exceptional
arrangement has made it impossible for a quadrangular
space to be provided in the middle, in imitation of
the Western rock-cut Viharas. The foundations of
other Viharas do not show remains of columns.(2)
The Date of the Ruins.--Regarding the remains at
Sankaram, Mr. Alexander Rea in his Report says, "The
sculptures in all the
____________________
1. Most of the data utilised here are borrowed from
Mr. Rea's Report.
2. Rea, "Buddhist Monasteries on the Gurubhaktakonda
and Durgakonda Hills at Ramatirtham." Arch. Surv.
Ann. Rep., 1910-11, p. 78-81.
p. 738
caves and on their facades generally are crude and
primitive in design and have none of the finished
technique so strikingly observable at places like
Amaravati, where the highest phases of the sculptor's
art are so lavishly represented. The crudeness may
point in either of two ways. It may either represent
a very early period of undeveloped workmanship or a
later decadence. The Buddhists did not survive
sufficiently long after Amaravati epoch for any such
decadence to have strikingly manifested itself. The
inference is therefore that the period represented by
these sculptures is earlier than Amaravati or
possibly prior to the first century. The earliest of
the remains here or the monoliths probably belong to
the period of Asoka himself. Though the sites founded
by him are historically and traditionally described
as numerous in Southern India, no traces of any of
them have hitherto been found."(1)
Firstly, we cannot concur with the view of Mr.
Rea, that the Buddhists and their art "did not
survive sufficiently long after Amaravati epoch for
any such decadence to have strikingly manifested
itself." The statement falls to the ground in the
face of the discovery of Buddha and Bodhisattva
images at Amaravati, Jaggayyapeta and other places
belonging to the 6th and 7th centuries A.C. and
betraying obvious signs of degeneration in technique
and treatment. Again we can hardly ignore the
invaluable testimony of the famous Chinese traveller
Huen-tsang, who passing through the countries of
Kalinga, Kosala, Andhra and Dhanyakataka in the 7th
century noticed stupas and numerous Sangharamas
peopled by hundreds of Buddhist priests.
Secondly, the architecture of the caves,
monoliths and other structures, itself does not
warrant us to accept the conclusion of Mr. Rea. If
the rail pattern, Caitya window motif, sloping door
jambs, wooden ribs of the barrel vaulted roof and the
wooden screen and the purlins in front of the Caitya
hall are indicative of an early age, surely all these
features are prominent by their absence at Sankaram.
The occurrence of the miniature Caitya windows over
the door and some of the windows and the so-called
"horse-shoe arch" over the entrance of the vestibule,
closely resembling the facade of the Lomasa Rsi cave,
in some of the Buddhist caves at Guntupalle, Godavari
district, in the heart of the Kalinga country, is
sufficient proof of their pre-Christian age. But we
search in vain for these typical details here,
________________________
1. Rea, Arch. Sur. Ann. Report, 1907-08, foot-note,
p.158.
p. 739
The facade is extremely simple in design, the ceiling
is entirely plain and the pillars themselves have not
any affinity with the earlier types we are familiar
with. On the contrary, many points of similarity can
be detected between them and the later cave pillars.
Indeed, none of the architectonic features at
Sankaram is reminiscent of wooden construction--they
are purely lithic in design and conception and
indicate a late period when the transition from the
wooden to the stone construction has been complete.
Then again the arrangement of the pillars, the
square plan of the Caitya Chamber and the situation
of the Caitya itself, in the centre of the hall and
on a pedestal, are unique in the history of Buddhist
architecture in India proper, The presence of the
stupas with square bases, is noticed first in the
caves at Kholvi in Rajputana and also at Dhamnar.
About the former's date, Mr. Fargusson is of opinion
that "they are probably the most modern group of
Buddhist caves in India."(1) As regards the
monolithic dagobas, they cannot reasonably be
assigned to a period earlier than Amaravati, much
less to the age of Asoka--for the outlines of all the
stupas, large or small, is flat and stunted. We come
across the bulbous domes for the first time at
Amaravati and it is an admitted fact that stunted
domes resting upon elongated pedestal is a later
development. If we also take into account the
structural building at Sankaram, the peculiar
combination and arrangement of rows and cells with
and around a Caitya, primarily appears in the caves
at Dhamnar, about which Fergusson remarks
"..........,.the whole making a confused mass of
chambers and caityas in which all the original parts
are confounded and all the primitive simplicity of
design and arrangement is lost, to such an extent
that without previous knowledge they would hardly be
recognisable.........There are no exact date for
determining the age of this cave but like all of
these series, it is late, probably between A.D.
600-700."(2)
So in the absence of any good photographs of the
sculptures we have been compelled to take recourse to
architecture, and in the light of the above facts, it
may not be quite correct to maintain that the period
represented by the ruins at Sankaram "is earlier than
Amaravati or probably prior to the first century
A.D." It is very probable,
____________________
1. Fergusson, History of Indian and Eastern Arch.,
vol.I, p. 166.
2. Ibid.
p. 740
on the other hand, that they belong to a much later
period. The crudeness of the sculptures, of which Mr.
Rea speaks, is the natural concomitant of a decayed
art, when Buddhism was apparently in its last gasps
in Southern India.