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Art. V.—Description of the Amravati Tope in Guntur

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

Hitherto our knowledge of ancient Buddhist architecture in India has been derived mainly from the rock cut examples. These, though most valuable for the purpose, from their number and immutability, have the defect of being all interiors, and we obtain little or no knowledge from them of what the external appearance may have been of the structural buildings which they represent. It is doubtful whether we ever shall know, in so far as the Vihâras or monasteries are concerned. These seem, like those of Burmah at the present day, to have been principally constructed of wood, and have perished by fire or decay; but our knowledge of the Topes or Sthûpas is daily extending, and we may hope soon to understand them and their arrangements with tolerable completeness.

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Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1867

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References

page 132 note 1 The sculptures from this place were deposited hy Mr. Bayley, of the Bengal Civil Service, in the Crystal Palace, Sydenham, and unfortunately perished in the fire there in December last. Imperfect representations of them will be found in the Journal Asiatic Society Bengal, November, 1852. These are so badly done as to be of little use as a means of comparison, which is to be regretted in this instance, as their similarity to some of those found at Amravati is most striking.

page 132 note 2 These sculptures are deposited in the Lahore Museum. Photographs of them were kindly furnished to me by Donald Macnabb, Esq., Beng. C. S.

page 133 note 1 Hence the full-length name of the place is Amareṣvarapuram. Anglice, Amresbury.

page 133 note 2 These and many other historical particulars in this paper are gleaned from two letters communicated by Col. Mackenzie to MrBuckingham, , published by by him in the “Calcutta Journal,” in 03, 1822Google Scholar. They were afterwards reprinted in “Allen's Asiatic Journal,” in May, 1823, and as the latter publication is generally accessible while the former is not, all my references to these letters will be taken from it.

page 133 note 3 See Asiatic Researches, vol. ix, p. 272, et seq.

page 134 note 1 Journal Asiatic Society Bengal, Vol. vi. p. 218.

page 134 note 2 Selections from the Madras Records, 2na series, Vol. xxxix. p. 195.

page 135 note 1 Mogasala, in the Telinga language, signifies a court for public affairs, and the distribution of justice. “Doop,” is Hindostani for sun, or rather sunshine; translated into architectural language this would be “Hypethral Basilica.’ This would perhaps be the best term that could be applied to it: but it involves a theory it is as well to avoid at present. See Asiatic Journal, vol. xv. p. 469.

page 135 note 2 As a means of comparison it may be mentioned that the dimensions of the outer circle at Amravati are exactly double those of the outer circle at Stonehenge. The Indian example being 195 feet, the English 97½12. The height of the outer rails are nearly the same—the Indian, 14ft. 6in., the English rail is about one foot higher, and of a more megalithic character, but of course infinitely ruder.

page 137 note 1 A similar ornament occurs in the Jamālgiri sculptures, J. A. S. B., vol. xxi. p. 606, and I believe such are still exhibited in Burmah on the occasion of great ceremonials.

page 142 note 1 For particulars of these temples, see “History of Architecture,” vol. ii. pp. 612, et seq, and 713 et seq. We must not, however, assume that even more magnificent temples may not yet be discovered. Not one of these three temples were known or had been heard of in Europe ten years ago.

page 142 note 2 The bricks measure 20 inches by 10, and 4 inches thick.

page 142 note 3 “The whole of the inner circle has been dug up, and the stones removed for building purposes. They have been chiefly applied to the repair of Pagodas, and a great many were put to form a flight of steps to the square tank of Shivagunga.”—Col. Mackenzie in Asiatic Journal, p. 469.

page 142 note 4 The following extract from a letter of 12th June last, from Sir Walter Elliot, contains all the information available on this subject:—“They found in the centre of the mound a stone casket, with a lid, on opening which a crystal box was found, containing a small pearl, some gold leaf, and other things of no value. The Raja sent the relics to his tosha khanah, and there they remained. At a later period I succeeded in securing them for Government, and they are now in the Museum at Madras.”

page 142 note 5 “In the present state of the mound it is impossible to form any conjecture whether there was any or what sort of building standing in the centre, or for what purpose it was intended.”—Asiatic Journal, vol. xv. p. 469.

page 143 note 1 Histoire de Hiouen Thsang, translated into French by Stanislas Julien. Paris, 1853. Page 188.

page 145 note 1 Histoire de Hiouen Thsang, p. 188. No reliance can be placed on the date of 1000 years twice repeated in this passage. The author is evidently speaking in round numbers, and we do not know when he placed the Nirvana. According to the Ceylonese epochs it would bring it to 457 A.D.

page 146 note 1 Histoire de Hiouen Thsang, p. 185 and 189, and Memoires, vol. ii. p. 116.

page 146 note 2 Stirling's Account of Cuttack, Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. p. 264.

page 146 note 3 Journal R. A. S., N. S., vol. i. p. 254.

page 146 note 4 Asiatic Researches, vol. xvii. p. 561 and 582, pl. ii. fig. 29, c. 41.

page 146 note 5 Asiatic Journal, vol xv. p. 471.

page 146 note 6 Asiatic Journal, vol. xv. p. 470, et seq. Wilson's Catalogue of Mackenzie's MSS., vol. i. p. cxxiv., and Taylor hi Madras Selections, Second Series, No. xxxix, p. 229, et seq.

page 147 note 1 Cunningham, Bhilsa Topes, p. 264.

page 147 note 2 J.B.B. R.A.S., vol. v. p. 39, et seq.

page 148 note 1 To prevent repetition, I must refer the reader to my “History of Architecture,” vol. ii. book vi. for the traditions of Nâga worship and Nâga art in Northern India and Cambodia. Unfortunately I knew nothing of Amravati when it was written, or I could have made that chapter much more complete than it is.

page 149 note 1 Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. p. 254, et seq.

page 149 note 2 J.A.S.B. vol. vi. p. 756, et seq.

page 150 note 1 Some years ago Dr. Bird opened a small tope in front of the Kanheri Caves in Salsette. In it he found a copper plate recording that a canine tooth of Buddha had been deposited there. The plate is dated in the year 245. From the expression “Samvat” being used, Dr. Stevenson (J. B. B. R. A. S., vol. v. p. 13,) assumes that it must be from the era of Vikramaditya. I believe, however, it is correct to assert that no Buddhist inscription is dated from the era of the hated opponent of their religion. If on the other hand we assame the era of Salivahana it brings the date to almost the exact time—A.D. 324—of these events on the east coast; and though it is not directly stated in the inscription, it seems that the tooth was deposited there by Gotami-putra, the very king who played so important a part in the narrative just recorded, and what is more, it seems extremely probable that the Kanheri tooth was, or was supposed to be, the identical one which performed so many miracles in Pâṭaliputta.

This might seem paradoxical had not the same thing happened to the same relic in similar circumstances, more than twelve centuries afterwards. When the Portuguese conquered Ceylon, Constantine de Braganza seized the Daladâ and conveyed it to Goa. The king of Pegu sent an embassy after it, and offered any amount of ransom for it. But the bigotry of the priesthood was proof against any such temptation. The tooth was consumed by fire in presence of the Archbishop and all the notables, and the ashes cast into the sea. The result was peculiar. The Ceylonese pretended that the one so destroyed was a counterfeit. A true one was discovered and sold to the king of Pegu, and as soon as he was gone and had paid for it, another true one was found concealed in Ceylon, and is probably the crocodile's tooth that is now so honoured in that country. To complete the parallelism, both the Burmese and the Concani teeth have disappeared, and only their empty chaityas remain. The Ceylonese tooth still remains with the oldest pedigree of any such relic that the world possesses.

The particulars of this second great attempt to destroy the Daladâ. will be found well stated in Sir E. Tennent's Ceylon, vol. ii. p. 199. Translations of the original authorities are there given also.

page 151 note 1 Dinne means sand bank in Telugu. This may be the origin of the name Dîpal dinne, which certainly does not mean “Hill of Lights.” Can Dîpal, by any synonysm, be assumed to mean diamond ?

page 151 note 2 The Siamese, as Colonel Low points out, wishing to make their own country the scene of these events, have lengthened the periods of the voyage preposterously. They make it three months from Cuttack to the Diamond Sands, and three more from thence to Ceylon. J.A.S.B., vol. xyii., pages 86 and 87.

page 151 note 3 One of the objects of Col. Mackenzie's surveys was to mark the Diamond mines in the locality. He plots the diamond district as extending to about eight miles north of Amravati, but it seems there are no mines elsewhere.

page 151 note 4 It does not seem quite clear how far the Ceylonese dates are to be relied upon as quite correct about this time. Avowedly there is an error to the extent of at least 60 years in the date their annals assign to Asoka. This has subsequently been adjusted, to some extent, by Mr. Tumour, but not, so far as I can judge, in such a manner as to inspire entire confidence. My impression is that the dates in the fourth century are all from ten to fifteen years too early.

page 152 note 1 Is not this the Varaja of the Western-cave Inscrip., J.B.B. R.A.S., vol. v. p. 42?

page 152 note 2 Those who, according to the Daladâwanso, had combined with the nephews of Khîrâdhâro and conquered the country.

page 153 note 1 This is evidently a title, though from the similarity of the name Col. Low confounds him with the great Asoka, and places him 321 B.C.

page 153 note 2 It would be absurd to found any serious theory on the mention of the name of Rome, if it stood alone and unsupported. The circumstance mentioned in the narrative of the strangers being white men, and coming by sea, is a small confirmation that the people here mentioned were really Europeans. My impression, however, is that few who are familiar with the arts of Rome in Constantine's time, and who will take the trouble to master these Amravati sculptures, can fail to perceive many points of affinity between them. The circular medallions of the arch of Constantine—such as belong to his time—and the general tone of the art of his age so closely resemble what we find here that the coincidence can hardly be accidental. The conviction that the study of these sculptures has forced in my mind is that there was much more intercommunication between the east and the west during the period from Alexander to Justinian than is generally supposed, and that the intercourse was especially frequent and influential in the middle period, between Augustus and Constantine.

page 155 note 1 It is to be regretted that the Daladâwanso has not been completely translated, for it appears that in the twelfth or thirteenth century, the tooth relic was taken back to India at a time apparently, when (1187) a Kîrti Nissanga, a prince of Kalinga, was one of the many Indian princes who held sway in Ceylon. It is said to have been conveyed to the banks of the Ganges (Upham's History of Buddhism, p. 32), but as Landresse suggests (Foĕ Kouĕ Ki, p. 345) this more probably was the Godavery, or, in other words, the Kistnah. From some particulars furnished me by Sir Walter Elliot it seems that the part of the monument he dug into was a chapel formed of old slabs arranged unsymmetrically by some prince about that time, so as to form a chapel for some unexplained purpose. It may have been to receive this relic.

The inscription translated by Prinsep (J. A. S. B. vol. vi. p. 218) shows that Buddhism was flourishing at Amravati in—say the twelfth century. Altogether nothing would surprise me less than to find that the tooth relic sojourned here for seventy-six years before its recovery by the Ceylonese, about 1314 of our era. The materials exist for settling this question, but they have not yet been made available.

page 155 note 2 Histoire de Hioen Thsang, p. 187. Mémoirea, vol. ii. pp. 105 and 395.

page 156 note 1 The most succinct account of these events is found in Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 383, et seq. On all these occasions; whenever a cloth is represented, it is stamped with the feet of Buddha, sometimes one pair only, at others several. It will be recollected that cloths stamped with feet were the cause of a war between Cashmeer and Ceylon, about 150 years before this time.—Asiatic Researches, vol. xv. p. 27.

page 157 note 1 At Badamee, about 300 miles due west of Amravati, there exists a series of caves of more modern date. They may be the ninth or tenth century, but I have not the materials necessary to enable me to speak positively on the point. They belong to the Brahmanical religion, with a slight admixture of Jainism; but throughout them Nâga people with the Nâga hood appear everywhere. Three hundred miles north of Badamee, in the sculptures at Ajunta (not in the paintings), the same thing appears, and my impression is that the Nâgas will be found everywhere when the triangular section of the country, of which these three places mark the angles, comes to be examined.

page 157 note 2 Bhilsa Topes, by Gen Cunningham, p. 351. pi. xxxi. Gen. Cunningham considers it an emblem of Buddha. I am sorry to differ from him, but I can find no authority for this interpretation, My impression is that the Amravati sculptures quite contradict it.

page 157 note 2 Lalita Vistara. Paris, 1847, p. 14, et seq.

page 158 note 1 The following is a curious instance of the irradicability of local forms, even long after the religion to which they belonged may have perished. During the festival of Navarâtrî, in honour of Siva as Amreshwar, the immortal lord, on the third night a brazen tree is carried round the town in procession; on the fifth night a ten-headed serpent in brass. At the close of the festival the worshippers go in great pomp to a tree called Shemmu Veerchum, where the god is made to exercise in shooting an arrow at the sacred tree, followed by a discharge of fire arms in the air, which closes the ceremony. In the festival called Siva Mahârâtrî, the procession to the same tree is the culminating point, to which all previous arrangements are subordinate, and thus the festival closes,—See Asiatic Journal, vol. xv. p, 472 and 473.

page 160 note 1 General Cunningham, in his work on the Bhilsa Topes, considers it the emblem of Dharma, p. 58, pi. xxxii.

page 162 note 1 Is it not the original of the symbol of the planet Mercury ? Buddha, Mercury, and Woden gave their names to the middle day of the week, and astronomically the same sign might serve for the three.

page 163 note 1 In some papers by the Rev. Mr. Hislop, Missionary at Nagpore, edited by Sir R. Temple, he describes the religion of the Gonds in the following ten words: “Religion—All introduce figures of the horse in their worship.”

page 163 note 2 Asiatic Journal, vol. xv., p. 468.

page 163 note 3 “On the east of the Chanda district (the Gond district nearest Amravati) the men wear no covering for their heads or the upper part of their bodies, The women deck themselves with thirty to forty heads, to which some add a necklace of pendant bells. Bangles of zinc adorn their wrists, and a chain of the same metal is suspended from the hair, and attached to a large boss stuck in the ear. But the greatest peculiarity connected with their costume is the practice that prevails, in more remote districts, of the women wearing no clothes at all; instead of which they fasten with a string passing round their waists a bunch of leafy twigs to cover them before and behind.” Barring the twigs, which seem to be a modern innovation, nothing can more correctly describe the costumes of the sculptures than the above extract from Mr. Hislop's paper on the Gonds, edited by Sir E. Temple, p. 8.

page 164 note 1 A very beautiful set of drawings of the sculptures of the Sanchi Tope exists in the East India Library in Canon Eow. They were made in 1854 by Lieut, now Lieut-Colonel Maisey. They are most interesting as far as they go, but unfortunately only represent a small portion of the sculptures. A beautiful set of photographs of the Sanchi Tope is now in course of publication by Lieutenant Waterhouse, R.E.

page 164 note 2 In the Western Cave inscriptions, the name Yavana Dhanaka cheka frequently occurs, either as a benefactor or an artist, but whether as one person or several is by no means clear. Dr. Stevenson translates the name as the “Greek Xenocrates:” General Cunningham, with much more appearance of truth, as a “Yavana of Dhanaka cheka!” The first reading we may safely reject, but it will be very interesting if it should be proved that our Dhanaka cheka was then so important as to furnish artists and funds for the Western Caves. That the Yavanas came from the North-west can hardly be doubted, and these land-marks seem to point to a path of migration which may prove invaluable to future explorers.

page 165 note 1 Strabo, lib. xv., p. 698. Maximi Tyrii Disput. viii., ed. Lib., p. 140.

page 165 note 2 Asiatic Researches, vol. xv., p. 1, et seq.

page 165 note 3 “Die Voelker des Oestlichen Asien,” vol. 1., passim. They are huddled together in so confused a manner that it is impossible to refer to particular passages. See History of Architecture, vol. ii. p. 713, et seq.