Bharhut stupa: Where stones spoke of buddha's past lives.

Bharhut stupa: where stones spoke of  Buddha's past lives.

 

 Bharhut stupa was built  by Ashoka(circa250 BCE) initially and was later improvised by the Sungas. The railings of the stupa and its one surviving gates are at the Indian museum in Kolkata. This is the earliest stupa railing to have survived. The most famous donor for bharhut stupa was king Dhanabhuti.The sculpture of bharhut represent some of the earliest example of Indian and Buddhist art. Buddhism continued to survive in bharhut until 12th century. A small Buddhist temple was enlarged around 1100AD and a new statue of Buddha was installed. In the bharhut sculptures there is no traces of any images worship , the only objects of reverence being stupa, wheel , Bodhi trees, buddha Padas and the symbol of Tri-ratna .

              Description of stupa

              Position of bharhut—  

  Bharhut also called bardavati, bardadoh and bhaironpur village it is located at satna district Madhya Pradesh.

                Bharhut is said to be site of an old city, by some named bhaironpur,which extended for 12 kos, embracing uchehara on the south, all the surrounding village of the present day are believed to have been the several mahallas,or division of ancient city.

             Description of stupa —

When sir Cunningham first visited bharhut in end of November 1873.  He saw a large flat topped mound, with the ruins of a small Buddhist vihara, and three pillars of a Buddhist railing, with three connecting rails or bars of stone, and a coping stone covering them, besides a single gateway pillar which one supported the ornaments arch of the entrance. The three pillars were more than half buried in the ground, but there were three inscription still visible one on the gateway pillar, the second on the first pillar of the railing and the third on the coping stone. To the north he found some fragments of a pillar as well as a piece of coping, but they had evidently been disturbed. On the south side, however, he was more fortunate, as he discovered some pillars of that entrance after a few hour digging, and as one of these proved to be the corner pillar of the southwest quadrant he was able to obtain an accurate measurement of the chord of the quarter circle of railing by stretching a tape to first pillar of the southwest quadrant. This distance was 62 feet 6 inches, which gives an interior diameter of 88 feet 4.5 inches for the stone railing. There was nothing left in the middle of the mound except a mass of rubbish formed chiefly of earth and broken bricks.

                Identity of bharhut—

According to Alexander Cunningham the first four I would identify with Ashta, sibor, vidisaand, sagar. Bradama may be bilhari, and bardaotis, as I have already suggested,may be Bharhut. Sigalla, which Ptolemy places on the left bank of the sons near its junction with the ganges, may be Ekachakra, or the morden, Ara (Arran of maps.) Bardaotis and sagabaza are the only two cities of the bolingae, who might readily be identified with the Bhagelas if we could be certain that they occupied this part of the country at so early a date. A wide excavation in the middle of this heap, but without any result save the finding of a number of rough blocks of stone which had formed a part of the foundation of the brick stupa. Two excavations from the stone railing in words towards the stupa and in both places he found that the terraced flooring ceased abruptly at 10 feet 4 inches. This point was therefore the edge of the base of the stupa which was consequently 67feet 8.5 inches in a diameter. After this while excavating the railing, he found numerous specimens of the bricks of which stupa had been built. Most of them were plain and square in shape, and of larger size 12*12**3.5 inches.

                    Sir Cunningham explained on his second visit to bharhut, with his assistant Mr. Beglar, the whole of the space inside the railing was excavated to a width of from 12 to 15 feet. This extensive digging brought to light the sole remaining portion of the stupa, on the S.E. face where the rubbish had been accumulated over it. The portion remaining was a mere fragment ,6 feet in height, by about 10 feet in length at bottom. It was entirely covered with a coat of plaster on the outside. The lower half was plain, but the upper half was ornaments with a succession of triangular a shaped recesses, narrow at  bottom and broad at top, formed by setting back a few of the facing bricks.

               According to sir Cunningham at the time of 1873s the entire stupa was covered with thick jangal so late 60 years ago, when his family first got possession of the estate. The stone railing is said to have been then nearly perfect. This perhaps is doubtful as the castle of batanmara, which contains several of bharhut stone, is said to be more than 200  years.

                Age of the stupa—

The age of stupa may be related from Ashoka's period or some where between 250 and 200 B.C. some scholars said that the shape of all letters of the alphabet used in the time of Ashoka, whose date is fixed within the very narrow limits of error of not more than two or three years. That these characters were in general use from Kabul to the mouth of ganges, and from the foot of the Himalayas to surashtra, we learn from the Indian legends of the coins of pantaleon and Agathokles, as well as from the numerous inscription of Ashoka himself and of Dasarastha, one of his successor, who reigned shortly after him, or from about B.C 215to 200.

           Sculpture in bharhut stupa—

A– superhuman beings.

        1– Yakshas

         2– Devas

         3–Nagas

         4– Apsarases

B– Human beings

        1– Royal person 

         2– Religious person

         3– Royal and lay costume

         4– Military costume.

          5– Female dress and ornaments

          6– tattooing.

C— Animals 

D–scluptured scenes.

           1– Jatakas, previous birth of                        buddha.

           2– historical scenes.

            3–miscellaneous scenes

            4– Humours scenes

F– objects of worship

            1– Stupa 

            2– wheels

            3– Bodhi trees

             4–Vuddha's footprints

             5– tri- ratna symbol.

G– Decorative ornaments.

H– Buddhist buildings.

 1– palaces

2– religious houses

3– vajrason canopies

4–Bodhimanda thrones

5– pillars

6– Dwelling houses.

 H –Miscellaneous objects.

 1– vehicles

2– furniture

3–utensils

4–Musical instruments.

 

Excavation of bharhut stupa:   

                                                            The remains of great stupa of bharhut stupa was discovered by  alexander Cunningham in the end of November 1873 with his assistant Mr. Beglar. In November 1874 when sir Cunningham return to bharhut with his assistant mr. Beglar to make a complete exploration of the mound of ruins, and to photograph all the sculpture systematically on the fixed scale of one-sixth of the original size for all basreliefs, and of one-twelth for all statues and larger objects.

Credit–  A stupa of bharhut,(bharhut stupa PDF),a book  by sir Alexander Cunningham.