sanchi

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An Historical and Artistic Description of Sanchi

(1918)

 

       

The history of Sanchi starts during the reign of

Asoka in the third century B.C., and covers a period of some fourteen centuries,

thus synchronising almost with the rise and fall of Buddhism in India. The

political story of Eastern Malwa during these fourteen centuries is known to us

only in the barest outline, and is beset with many uncertainties. Such as it is,

however, it enables us to follow the chief dynastic changes and the chief

religious movements which affected this part of India, and which are necessarily

reflected in the changing character of the monuments.

        To make this history and its bearing upon the architecture

and sculptures of Sanchi more easily intelligible, I shall divide it

into three periods, the first extending from the reign of Asoka to the overthrow

of the Kshatrapa power, about 400 A.D., by Chandragupta II; the second from the

advent of the Imperial Guptas to the death of the Emperor Harsha in 647 A.D.;

and the third embracing the later mediaeval period down to the close of the

twelfth century.

 

Early period.

 

        The ancient name of Sanchi was

Kakanada but the name is known only from inscriptions and does not

occur in any ancient author. It seems probable, however, that Sanchi

is referred to under the name of Chetiyagiri in the ‘Mahavamsa’—the

Buddhist chronicle of Ceylon—where it is recorded that Asoka, when he was

heir-apparent and was journeying as Viceroy to Ujjayini (Ujjain), halted at

Vidisa, and married the daughter of a local banker, one Devi Mahendra,

and a daughter Sanghamitra. It is further narrated that, after Asoka's

accession, Mahendra headed the Buddhist mission, sent probably under the

auspices of the Emperor, to Ceylon, and that before setting out to the island he

visited his mother at ‘Chetiyagiri ’ near Vidisa, and was lodged there

in sumptuous vihara or monastery, which she herself had erected.

Now, assuming that the story of Mahendra as told in the Sinhalese chronicleis

correct, it would be reasonable to identify this ‘Chetiyagiri’ with the

hill of Sanchi; for it was at Sanchi that Asoka set up

one of his edict pillars as well as other monuments; and it is at Sanchi

alone in this neighbourhood that any remains of the Maurya age have been found.

Unfortunately, however, there is another version of the legend, which makes

Mahendra the brother, not the son, of Asoka, and which fails to connect him in

any way with Vidisa. It would manifestly be unsafe, therefore, to deduce

from the Mahavamsa version any conclusions as to the age or origin of the

monuments of Sanchi. Be the story true or not, there is good

evidence, as we shall presently see, to show that the Buddhists established

themselves at Sanchi for the first time during the lifetime of

Asoka, and it is clear also from the memorials which the Emperor erected there,

that the sangha at Sanchi was an object of special interest

and care to him.

        Asoka had probably become a convert to Buddhism early in

life, and during the last thirty years of his reign (B.C. 273-232) he seems to

have employed his almost unlimited powers in propagating his religious ideas

throughout the length and breadth of his dominions (which comprised practically

the whole of India except the Madras Presidency), and in sending missionaries of

the faith to foreign lands as far remote as Egypt and Albania. In fact, it is

upon his zealous patronage of Buddhism that the fame of this Great Emperor

mainly rests; and it is not surprising, therefore, that most of the monuments

of his reign which have come down to us relate to that religion. Among these

monuments are some of the most perfect and highly developed specimens of

sculpture in India, but the particular specimens referred to, including the

edict-bearing pillar at Sanchi, are Perso-Greek in style, not Indian,

and there is every reason to believe that they were the handiwork of foreign,

probably Bactrian, artists. In the time of Asoka indigenous art was still in the

rudimentary state, when the sculptor could not grasp more than one aspect of his

subject at a time, when the law of ‘frontality ’ was still binding upon

him, and when the ‘memory picture’ had not yet given place to direct

observation of nature.

        On the death of Asoka in 232 B.C. the Empire of the Mauryas

rapidly fell to pieces: the central power declined, the outlying provinces

asserted their in dependence, and about the year 185 B.C. the throne of Magadha

passed to the Sungas. Of this dynasty our knowledge is meagre in the extreme.

Its founder was Pushyamitra, who had murdered Brihadratha, the last of the

Mauryas, and it appears from Kalidasa's drama the ‘Malavikagnimitra’

that during Pushyamitra's reign his son, Agnimitra, was ruling as Viceroy over

the Western dominions, with Vidisa as his Capital. Pushyamitra himself is

reputed by later writers to have persecuted the Buddhist church, but his

successors must have been more tolerant; for an epigraph on the gate way of the

Buddhist stupa at Bharhut records its erection ‘during the supremacy of

the Sungas,’ and it is to the period of their supremacy, also, that several

of the most important monuments at Sanchi probably belong, namely:

the Second and Third Stupas with their balustrades (but not the gateway of

the latter), the ground balustrade and stone casing of the Great Stupas,

which had originally been of brick and of much smaller dimensions, and pillar

No. 25. The sculpture of these and other monuments of the Sunga period is full

of promise, but still in much the same primitive and undeveloped stage in which

the sculpture of Greece was at the beginning of the 6th century B.C. The

influence of ‘frontality’ and of the ‘memory image’ continues to

obtrude itself; the relief-work is lacking in depth; the attitudes of the

individual figures are as a rule stiff and awkward, and are portrayed as sharply

defined silhouettes against a neutral background; and there is rarely any

effort made at bringing them into close mutual relationship one with another. On

the other hand, a great advance is effected during this period in the modelling

of the contours and interior details, and in many other respects, also, art

begins to profit from the direct observation of nature. Here and there the

reliefs of the Sunga period at Sanchi, as well as at Bharhut and

Bodh-Gaya, reveal the influence which foreign, and especially Hellenistic

ideas, were exerting on India through the medium of the contemporary Greek

colonies in the Panjab; but the art of these reliefs is essentially indigenous

in character and, though stimulated and inspired by extraneous teaching, is in

no sense mimetic. Its national and independent character is attested not merely

by its methodical evolution on Indian soil, but by the wonderful sense of

decorative beauty which pervaded it and which from first to last has been the

heritage of Indian art.

        The power of the Sungas endured for a little over a century,

i.e., until about the year 70 B.C., but whether they were supplanted by the

Kanvas or the Andhras, is open to question. The Andhras had long been

dominant in the west and south of India, and it is known that they had extended

their sway over Eastern Malwa at least two or three decades before the

beginning of the Christian era. It was under their dynasty that the early school

of Indian art achieved its zenith, and that the most splendid of the Sanchi

structures were erected, viz., the four gateways of the Great Stupa,

and the single gateway of the Third Stupa, all five of which must have been

set up within a few decades of one another. On the Southern Gateway of the Great

Stupa (the earliest of the five) is a donative inscription recording the

gift of one of its architraves by a certain Anamda, foreman of the artisans

of the Andhra king Sri Satakarni. Unfortunately for the identification

of this king, the title of Satakarni was borne by many members of the

dynasty, and it is not practicable to determine which particular one is here

designated. Hitherto he has generally been identified with the Sri

Satakarni who was reigning in the middle of the second century B.C. and who

is mentioned in the Nanaghat and Hathigumpha

inscriptions; but this view conflicts not only with what is now known of the

history of Eastern Malwa (which in the second century B.C. was ruled

by the Sungas and not by the Andhras), but with the history also of early Indian

plastic art, which has recently been established on a much firmer basis. It may

now be regarded as practically certain that the king referred to is one of the

Satakarnis who appear later in the Pauranic lists, and we shall not be

far wrong if we assign his reign to the middle or latter half of the first

century B.C. Of the monumental art of this period the gateways of Sanchi

are by far the most important survivals. Between the times when the ground

balustrade of Stupa 2 and the earliest of these gateways were erected, it

is probable that not more than a few decades intervened, yet the advance made in

relief work during this short period is most striking. In the decoration of the

gateways there is little of the clumsy immature workmanship that characterises

the balustrade in question. Though they exhibit considerable variety in their

composition and technical treatment, their style generally is maintained at a

relatively high level. They are manifestly the work of experienced artists, who

had freed themselves almost entirely from the ‘ memory pictures ’ of

primitive art, and had learnt how to portray the figures in free and easy

postures, how to compose them in natural and convincing group, how to give depth

and a sense of perspective to the picture, and how to express their meaning both

dramatically and sincerely. That Hellenistic and Western Asiatic art affected

the early Indian school during the Andhra even more intimately than it had done

during the Sunga period, is clear from the many extraneous motifs in these

reliefs, e.g., from the familiar; bell capital of Persia, from the

floral designs of Assyria, or from the winged monsters of Western Asia; and it

is clear also from the individuality of many of the figures, e.g., of the

hill-men riders on the Easter Gate, from the symmetrical character of some of

the compositions, and from the ‘colouristic’ treatment with its

alternation of light and dark, which was peculiarly characteristic of Graeco-Syrian

art at this period. But though Western Art evidently played prominent part in

the evolution of the early India school, we must be careful not to exaggerate

its importance. The artists of early India were quick with the versatility of

all true artists to profit by the lessons which others had to teach them; but

there is no more reason in calling their creations Persian or Greek, than there

would be in designating the modern fabric of St. Paul's Italian. The art which

they practised was essentially a national art, having its root in the heart and

in the faith of tie people, and giving eloquent expression to their spiritual

beliefs and to their deep and intuitive sympathy with nature. Free alike from

artificiality and idealism, its purpose was to glorify religion, not by seeking

to embody spiritual ideas in terms of form, as the mediaeval art of India did,

but by telling the story of Buddhism or Jainism in the simplest and most

expressive language which of the chisel of the sculptor could command; and it

was just because of its simplicity and transparent sincerity that it voiced so

truthfully the soul of the people, and still continues to make an instant appeal

to our feelings.

        The rule of the Andhras in Eastern Malwa was

interrupted for

a few decades by that of the Kshaharatas, probably towards the end of

the

first century, but it was re-established about 125 A.D. by Gautamiputra

Sri Satakarni, and survived until about 150 A.D., when it was finally

overthrown by the Great Satrap Rudradaman, after which Sanchii

and Vidisa remained in possession of the Western Kshatrapas until the

close

of the fourth century, when both Malwa and Surashtra were annexed

to the Gupta Empire.

        The Kshatrapas of Western India, including the family of the

Kshaharatas as well as the later Satraps, were of foreign origin and, as

their name implies, were in the position of feudatories to a supreme power, that

power being, first the Scytho-Parthian, and later the Kushan empire of the

North. In Eastern Malwa itself these Satraps do not appear on the

scene until after the establishment of the Kushan Empire, and the only

remains at Sanchi in which any connexion with the suzerain power of

the north can be traced are a few sculptures, in the Kushan style from

Mathura, one of which bears an inscription of the year 28 and of the reign

of the King Shahi Vasishka. There are various other monuments,

however, of local workmanship, which belong to the epoch of the Satraps and

which indicate that Buddhism was as flourishing at Sanchi under the

Satraps as it was elsewhere under their overlords the Kushans, though the

art in which it found expression was then at a relatively low ebb.

The Gupta or early mediaeval period.

        Although the rapid expansion of Gupta power under

Samudragupta had brought the Western Kshatrapas into contact with it as early as

the middle of the fourth century, it was not until the close of that century

that the actual annexation of Eastern and Western Malwa was achieved

by Chandragupta II. An echo of this Emperor's conquest occurs in an inscription

carved on the balustrade of the Great Stupa, dated in the year 93 of the

Gupta era, that is, in A.D. 412-13. It records the gift by one of Chandragupta's

officers named Amrakardava, apparently a man of very high rank, of a

village called Isvaravasaka and of a sum of money to the Arya-Sangha or community of the faithful at the great vihara or

convent of Kakanadabota, for the purpose of feeding mendicants (bhikshus)

and maintaining lamps.

        In A.D. 413 Kumaragupta succeeded Chandragupta

II, and

was himself succeeded by Skandagupta in 455. It was towards the close of the

reign of the latter Emperor (480 A.D.) that the Gupta Empire was overrun by

invading hosts of White Huns, and shorn of the greater part of its western

dominions. Eastern Malwa, however, was still unconquered in the reign

of Skandagupta's successor, Buddhagupta, and it was not until about 500 A.D.

that it passed into the hands of a local chief named Bhanugupta, and not until a

decade later that it became feudatory to the Hun King, Toramana.

        The rule of the Guptas lasted for little more

than a hundred

and fifty years, but it marks in many respects the most brilliant and

striking

of all epochs in Indian history. It was the age when the thought and

genius of

the Indian people awakened, and when there was an outburst of mental

activity

such as has never since been equalled. What precisely were the causes

which

underlay this sudden development of the nation intellect, we cannot

say, any

more than we can say what brought about similar developments in the

golden age

of Greece or in Italy during the Renaissance. Possibly, contact with

other civilisations made have had something to do with it; for

during this epoch there was close intercourse with the Sasanian Empire

of

Persia, and there was intercourse also with China and the Roman Empire.

Possibly, too, the invasions of barbarian races and the sufferings they

inflicted may have been contributing factors; for Northern India had

suffered

long beneath the yoke of the Kushans, as well as of the Parthians and

Scythians. Whatever the causes may have been, the effects of the new

intellectual vitality were conspicuous and far-reaching. In the

political sphere

they resulted in resuscitating the Imperial idea, which had been

dormant since

the time of the Mauryas, and the outcome of this idea was the

consolidation of

an empire which embraced the whole Northern India as far south as the

Narmada river In the sphere of religion, the new activity found

expression

in the revival of Brahmanism, and along with Brahmanism, in the revival

of Sanskrit, which was the sacred language of the

Brahmans. It was during this

period that Kalidasa—the Shakespeare of India—wrote his immortal

plays, and that other famous dramas were produced; and during this

period,

also, that the Puranas were finally redacted, that the laws of Manu

took

their present form and that mathematics and astronomy reached their

highest

perfection. Thus, the Gupta age marked a re-awakening—a true

‘Renaissance’—of the Indian intellect; and the new intellectualism was

reflected in

architecture and the formative arts as much as in other spheres of

knowledge and

thought. Indeed, it is precisely in their intellectual qualities—in

their

logical thought and logical beauty—that the architecture and sculpture

of the

Gupta age stand pre-eminent in the history of Indian art, and that they

remind

us in many respects of the creations of Greece eight hundred years

earlier or of

Italy a thousand years later.

        Of early Indian art the keynotes, as I have already noticed,

were spontaneous naturalism and simplicity. In the more advanced and cultured

age of the Guptas these qualities were brought under the constraint of reason,

and art became more formal, more self-conscious arid more complex. Necessarily

it lost much of the naiveté and charm of the earlier work, but it gained

in qualities which appealed to the conscious intellect as well as to the

subconscious aesthetic sense: in symmetry and proportion, for example; in the

structural propriety of its forms; in the reasoned restraint of ornament and in

the definition of detail. In another important feature, also, the art of the

Gupta period differed radically from all that had gone before. For, whereas the

Early School had regarded the formative arts merely as a valuable medium in

which to narrate the legends and history of its faith, in the Gupta age a closer

contact was established between thought and art, and sculptor and painter alike

essayed to give articulate expression to their spiritual and emotional ideas by

translating them into terms of form and colour. The types of the Buddha which

this age produced and in which it succeeded in combining beauty of definition

with a spirit of calm and peaceful contemplation are among the greatest

contributions which India has made to the World's Art.

        The ‘Renaissance’ of India did not come to an end with

the break-up of the Gupta power, nor was it limited by the geographical

boundaries of that Empire. Its influence was felt not only throughout the length

and breadth of India, but in countries far beyond, and the strength which it had

gathered in the fourth and fifth centuries did not exhaust itself until the

close of the seventh. These three centuries of India's Renaissance (circa

350-650 A.D.) are commonly known as the ‘Gupta period,’ though during the

latter half of this period the Guptas themselves were reduced to a petty

principality in Eastern India.

        For two generations Northern India lay under the yoke of the

Huns, and it was not until 528 A.D. that their power was shattered by the

victories of Baladitya and Yasodharman over Mihiragula—the

bloodthirsty and ruthless successor of Toramana, who well earned for

himself the title of ‘ the Attila of India. ’ Then followed a period of

quiescence, while the country was recovering from the savagery of the

barbarians. During this period, which lasted until the beginning of the 7th

century, there was no paramount authority in Northern India capable of welding

together the petty states, and the latter were probably too weak and exhausted

by their sufferings to make a bid for imperial dominion. The ideals, however, of

Gupta culture, though necessarily weakened, were still vital forces in the life

of the people, continuing to manifest themselves alike in their science, their

literature and their art; and it needed but the agency of a strong, benevolent

government to bring them once more to their full fruition. In Northern India,

this agency was found in the government of Harsha of Thanesar (606-647

A.D.), who within five and a half years of his accession established an empire

almost coterminous with that of the Guptas, and for thirty-five years more

governed it with all the energy and brilliancy that had distinguished their

rule. The art of the 6th and 7th centuries is represented at Sanchi

mainly by detached images, which will be described in a separate catalogue, when

the Museum now in course of erection is complete. They are infused with the same

spirit of calm contemplation, of almost divine peace, as the images of the

fourth and fifth centuries, but they have lost the beauty of definition which

the earlier artists strove to preserve, and, though still graceful and elegant,

tend to become stereotyped and artificial. The sculpture of this age, as we know

from the caves at Ajanta, was not on so high a level as painting, and as a

means of decoration was probably less popular than the sister art. At Sanchi,

unfortunately, no trace is left of the chapels, and only those who know the

grandeur of the Ajanta decorations, can appreciate how vastly different these

buildings must have looked in ancient days.

Later mediaeval period.

        From 528 A.D., when the Huns were defeated, until 1023 A.D.,

when the Panjab was occupied by Mahmud of Ghazni, Northern India was left

practically immune from foreign aggressions and free therefore to work out her

own destinies. During these five centuries no need was felt of a central power

to oppose the common foe; there was no voluntary cohesion among the many petty

states; and, with one single exception, no sovereign arose vigorous enough to

impose his will upon his neighbours. It was a period, in fact, of stagnation,

when the energy of the country was largely dissipated in internecine strife, and

when its political weakness was reflected in the religion and arts of the

country. The only ruler, so far as we know, who rose superior to his age

and surroundings was Mihira Bhoja of Kanauj, who between the years 840-90 A.D.

made himself master of an empire of which extended from the Sutlej to Bihar and

which was maintained intact by his successors Mahendrapala and Bhoja

II. In

this empire Eastern Malwa, which was then ruled by the Paramara

dynasty, is known to have been included at the close of the 9th century, but the

power of the Pratiharas of Kanauj rapidly declined during the early decades

of the following century, and by the time that Raja Munja (974-95

A.D.) came to the throne, Eastern Malwa appears to have asserted its

independence and to have become the predominant state in Central India. Both Munja

and his nephew, the celebrated Bhoja, who reigned over Malwa for more

than 40 years (A.D. 1018-60), were liberal patrons of literature and art, and

themselves writers of no small ability. A reputed monument of the latter king,

that may have preserved his name, was the great Bhojpur lake to the S.E. of

Bhopal, which was drained in the fifteenth century by order of one of the

Muhammadan kings. With the death of Bhoja, about 1060 A.D., the power of the

Paramaras declined, and, though the dynasty survived at Dhar,

Malwa passed during the twelfth century into the possession of the

Chalukya kings of Anhilwara. With the subsequent history of this

district we need not here concern ourselves; for at Sanchi there are

no Buddhist edifices of importance later than the twelfth century A.D., and it

is probable that the Buddhist religion, which had already been, largely merged

into Hinduism, died out in Central India about that time.

        Of the architecture and sculpture of this later medieval

period there are various examples at Sanchi, including the whole

group of structures on the Eastern terrace, numbered from 43 to 50, besides a

vast array of detached carvings, small votive stupas, statues and the like.

One and all bear witness to the rapidly declining purity both of the Buddhist

religion and of Buddhist art, but it is in Temple 45, which is by far the most

pretentious monument of this epoch, that the visitor will most quickly recognise

the overwhelming influence which Hinduism, and particularly the Tantric cult,

had exercised on Buddhism before the 11th century A.D., and it is in the same

temple that he will best appreciate the wide gulf which separates this

architecture from that of the Gupta age. During the later medieval times

architecture aspired to greater magnificence and display, but what it gained in

grandeur (and the gain in this respect was undeniably great), it lost in its

aesthetic quality. There is no longer the same sense of proportion and of

balance between form and ornament which was so conspicuous in Gupta work. The

purely decorative impulse which the Gupta artist had kept under the control of

reason, reasserts itself, and ornament is allowed to run riot, destroying

thereby the unity and coherence of the design. Carving loses its plasticity and

vitality, and cult images become stereotyped and lifeless—mere symbols, as it

were, of religion, devoid alike of spirituality and of anatomical definition.

Sanchi in modern times.

 

         From the 13th century onwards Sanchi appears to

have been left desolate and deserted. The city of Vidisa had fallen to

ruins during the Gupta period and had been superseded by Bhilsa

(Bhailasvamin); but, though the latter town played an important part in local history during

Muhammadan times, and though it was thrice sacked by Moslem conquerors, and its

temples destroyed for a fourth time in the reign of Aurangzeb, yet amid all this

devastation the monuments of Sanchii, in spite of their prominent

position on a hill only five miles away, were left unscathed, and when visited

by Gen. Taylor in 1818, proved to be in a remarkably food state of preservation.

At that time three of the gateways of the Great Stupa were still standing

erect, and the southern one was lying where it had fallen; the great dome was

intact; and a portion of the balustrade on the summit was still in situ.

The second and third stupas were also well preserved, and there were

remains of eight minor stupas, besides other buildings, in the vicinity of

the Second Stupa, but no record of their condition is preserved. The beauty

and unique character of these monuments was immediately recognized; and from

1819 onwards there appeared various notes, illustrations and monographs

descriptive of their architecture and sculpture, though too often marred by the

fanciful ideas or inaccuracies of the authors. Most notable among these works

were Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes, (1854), Fergusson's Tree and Serpent

worship (1868) and Gen. Maisey's Sanchi and its Remains (1892).

But the widespread interest which the discovery and successive accounts of the

stupas excited, proved lamentably disastrous to the monuments themselves;

for the site quickly became a hunting-ground for treasure seekers and amateur

archeologists, who, in their efforts to probe its hidden secrets or to

enrich themselves from the spoils supposed to be hidden there, succeeded in half

demolishing and doing irreparable harm to, most of the structures. Thus, in

1822, Capt. Johnson, the Assistant Political Agent in Bhopal, opened the

Great Stupa from top to bottom on one side, and left a vast breach in it,

which was the cause of much subsequent damage to the body of the structure and

of the collapse of the Western Gateway and portions of the enclosing balustrade.

The same blundering excavator was probably responsible, also, for the partial

destruction of the Second and Third Stupas, which until then had been in

perfect repair. Then, in 1851, Major (afterwards Gen. Sir) Alexander

Cunningham and Capt. F. C. Maisey together contributed to the general spoliation

of the site by hasty excavations in several of the monuments, and, though they

succeeded in recovering a most valuable series of relic caskets from the Second

and Third Stupas, their discoveries scarcely compensated for the damage

entailed in their operations, since the caskets themselves were

subsequently lost. During all these years the idea of repairing and preserving

these incomparable structures for the sake of future generations seems never to

have entered anyone's head, and, though in 1869 (as an indirect result of a

request by Napoleon III for one of the richly carved gates) casts of the East

Gate were prepared and presented to the principal national museums of Europe, it

was not until 1881, when still more havoc had been wrought by the neighbouring

villagers or by the ravages of the ever encroaching jungle that the Government

bethought itself of safeguarding the original structures. In that year Major

Cole, then Curator of Ancient Monuments, cleared the hill top of vegetation and

filled the great breach in the Main Stupa made by Capt. Johnson nearly

sixty years before, and during the two following years he re-erected at the

expense of the Imperial Government the fallen gates on the south and west, as

well as the smaller gate in front of the third stupa. No attempt, however,

was made by him to preserve the other monuments which were crumbling to ruin, to

exhume from their debris the monasteries, temples and other edifices which cover

the plateau around the Great Stupa, or to protect the hundreds of loose

sculptures and inscriptions lying on the site. These tasks which involved

operations far more extensive than any previously carried out were left for the

writer to undertake in 1912, and during the five years that have intervened

since then they have been steadily and systematically pushed forward. The

building which were at that time visible on the hill top were the Great

Stupa and the few other remains which the reader will find indicated in the

plan on Pl. XV by hatched lines. For the rest, the whole site was buried beneath

such deep accumulations of debris and so overgrown with jungle, that the very

existence of the majority of the monuments had not even been suspected. The

first step therefore, was to clear the whole enclave of the thick jungle growth

in which it was enveloped. Then follower the excavation of the areas to the

south and east of the Great Stupa, where it was evident that a considerable

depth of debris lay over the natural rock, and where, accordingly, there was

reason to hope (hope which has since been abundantly justified) that substantial

remains might be found. The building which have been exposed to view in the

southern part of the site are for the most part founded on the living rock; but

those in the eastern area constitute only the uppermost stratum, beneath which

there still lip buried the remains of various earlier structures. Then I have

been well content to leave to the spade of some future explorer, having

satisfied myself by trial digging at different points that they are mainly

monastic dwellings similar in character to those already brought to light in

other parts of the enclave and likely, there fore, to add but little to our

present knowledge of the monuments.

        The third task that awaited me was to put one and all of the

monuments into as thorough and lasting a state of repair as was practicable.

Most important and most difficult of achievement among the many measures which

this task entailed have been: first, the dismantling and reconstruction of the

south-west quadrant of the Great Stupa, which was threatening to collapse

and to bring down with it the South and West Gateways, as well as the balustrade

between them; secondly, the preservation, of Temple 18, the ponderous columns

of which were leaning at perilous angles, and had to be reset in the

perpendicular and established on secure foundations; and, thirdly, the repair

of Temple 45, which had reached the last stage of decay and was a menace to

anyone entering its shrine. Other measures that are also deserving of particular

mention, are the rebuilding of the long retaining wall between the central and

eastern terraces; the reconstruction of the dome, balustrades and crowning

umbrella of the Third Stupa; the re-roofing and general repair of Temples

17, 31 and 32; the effective drainage (involving the relaying of the old

fragmentary pavement) of the area around the Great Stupa; and the improvement

and beautifying of the site generally by roughly levelling and turfing it by the

(planting of trees and flowering creepers.

        Finally, there remained the question of protecting the

numerous moveable antiquities which lay scattered about the site. For this

purpose a small but adequate museum is now in course of construction, where

sculptures, inscriptions and architectural fragments can all be duly arranged

and catalogued, and where the visitor will find plans, photographs and other

materials to assist him in the study of these unique monuments.

 

Marshall, John. A Guide to Sanchi. Calcutta: Superintendent, Government

Printing, 1918, 7-29.http://projectsouthasia.sdstate.edu/Docs/archaeology/primarydocs/sanchi/HistArt.htm