DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27191#0114
8o
BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE.
Book I.
on one of the relic caskets has attracted much attention on the
part of scholars as recording the deposit of relics of the >S&kya
clansmen of Buddha.1
All along this line of country numerous Buddhist remains
are found, all more or less ruined, and they have not yet been
examined with the scientific care necessary to ascertain their
forms. This is the more to be regretted as this was the native
country of the founder of the religion, and the place where his
doctrines appear to have been originally promulgated. If any-
thing older than the age of A^oka is preserved in India, it is
probably in this district that it must be looked for.
AmaravatI.
Although not a vestige remains in situ of the central stupa
at Amaravati, there is no great difficulty, by piecing together
the fragments of it now in the British Museum—as is done in
Plates 48 and 49 of ‘Tree and Serpent Worship’—in ascertain-
ing what its dimensions and general appearance were. When
Colonel Mackenzie first saw it, in 1797, the central portion of
the mound was still untouched, and rose in a turreted shape to
a height of 20 ft. with a diameter of about 90 ft. at the top,
and had been cased round with bricks, and so may have been
40 or 50 ft. in height. This indicates a dome of considerable
size ; the base or drum was probably 162% ft. in diameter, and
wainscotted with sculptured marble; how broad it was above
we have no means of knowing, or whether there may not have
been even a second terrace; but if, as is most probable, there
was only one, the dome may have been 120 to 140 ft. in
diameter. The perpendicular part was covered with sculptures
in low relief, representing stupas and scenes from the life of
Buddha. The domical part was covered with stucco, and with
wreaths and medallions either executed in relief or painted.
No fragment of them remains by which it can be ascertained
which mode of decoration was the one adopted.2
Altogether, there seems no doubt that the representation
of a stupa (Woodcut No. 20), copied from the Amaravati
marbles, fairly represents the central building there. There
were probably forty-eight such representations of dagabas on
the basement of the stupa. In each the subject of the sculpture
is varied, but the general design is the same throughout; and,
on the whole, the woodcut may be taken as representing the
1 ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,’
1899, pp. 149-180; 1905, pp. 679f; and
1907, pp. I05f.
2 For a detailed account of the Amara-
vati Stupa, see ‘ Archaeological Survey of
Southern India : The Buddhist Stupas of
Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta,’ 1887.
BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE.
Book I.
on one of the relic caskets has attracted much attention on the
part of scholars as recording the deposit of relics of the >S&kya
clansmen of Buddha.1
All along this line of country numerous Buddhist remains
are found, all more or less ruined, and they have not yet been
examined with the scientific care necessary to ascertain their
forms. This is the more to be regretted as this was the native
country of the founder of the religion, and the place where his
doctrines appear to have been originally promulgated. If any-
thing older than the age of A^oka is preserved in India, it is
probably in this district that it must be looked for.
AmaravatI.
Although not a vestige remains in situ of the central stupa
at Amaravati, there is no great difficulty, by piecing together
the fragments of it now in the British Museum—as is done in
Plates 48 and 49 of ‘Tree and Serpent Worship’—in ascertain-
ing what its dimensions and general appearance were. When
Colonel Mackenzie first saw it, in 1797, the central portion of
the mound was still untouched, and rose in a turreted shape to
a height of 20 ft. with a diameter of about 90 ft. at the top,
and had been cased round with bricks, and so may have been
40 or 50 ft. in height. This indicates a dome of considerable
size ; the base or drum was probably 162% ft. in diameter, and
wainscotted with sculptured marble; how broad it was above
we have no means of knowing, or whether there may not have
been even a second terrace; but if, as is most probable, there
was only one, the dome may have been 120 to 140 ft. in
diameter. The perpendicular part was covered with sculptures
in low relief, representing stupas and scenes from the life of
Buddha. The domical part was covered with stucco, and with
wreaths and medallions either executed in relief or painted.
No fragment of them remains by which it can be ascertained
which mode of decoration was the one adopted.2
Altogether, there seems no doubt that the representation
of a stupa (Woodcut No. 20), copied from the Amaravati
marbles, fairly represents the central building there. There
were probably forty-eight such representations of dagabas on
the basement of the stupa. In each the subject of the sculpture
is varied, but the general design is the same throughout; and,
on the whole, the woodcut may be taken as representing the
1 ‘Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society,’
1899, pp. 149-180; 1905, pp. 679f; and
1907, pp. I05f.
2 For a detailed account of the Amara-
vati Stupa, see ‘ Archaeological Survey of
Southern India : The Buddhist Stupas of
Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta,’ 1887.