History · Ch 4 — Thinkers, Beliefs and Buildings — Cultural Developments
“Discovering” Stupas
“Discovering” Stupas
The story of how stupas were "discovered" is often as dramatic as the story of how they were built. Two stupas — Amaravati and Sanchi — had very different fates after they were found, and their histories reveal a great deal about early archaeology, colonial attitudes, and the struggle to preserve India's past.
The Fate of Amaravati
In 1796, a local raja who wanted to build a temple stumbled upon the ruins of the great stupa at Amaravati. He mistook the mound for a hill and began quarrying its stone, hoping also to find treasure buried inside. This was the beginning of a long process of destruction.
A few years later, the British official Colin Mackenzie visited the site. He made detailed drawings of the sculptures he found, but his reports were never published. In 1854, Walter Elliot, the commissioner of Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, visited Amaravati and collected several sculpted panels, which he took away to Madras. These became known as the "Elliot Marbles." Elliot also discovered the remains of the western gateway and concluded that Amaravati had once been one of the largest and most magnificent Buddhist stupas ever built.
By the 1850s, slabs from Amaravati were being taken to different places: to the Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta, to the India Office in Madras, and even to London. It was not unusual to find these ancient sculptures adorning the gardens of British administrators. Any new official in the area felt free to remove sculptures from the site, simply because earlier officials had done the same.
One of the few men who objected was the archaeologist H.H. Cole. He wrote that it was "a suicidal and indefensible policy to allow the country to be looted of original works of ancient art." Cole argued that museums should have plaster-cast copies of sculptures, while the originals should remain where they had been found. Unfortunately, he did not succeed in convincing the authorities about Amaravati.
Why Sanchi Survived
Sanchi was "discovered" later, in 1818. At that time, three of its four gateways were still standing, the fourth was lying on the spot where it had fallen, and the mound itself was in good condition. Even so, there were suggestions that the gateway be taken to either Paris or London. …
The eastern gateway (torana) of the Great Stupa at Sanchi is the subject of Figure 4.11. This is the best-preserved of the four gateways that mark the cardinal directions around the stupa mound. The photograph shows the gateway still standing in its original position — a fact that carries deep historical weight.
What you see is a structure built of stone, but designed to imitate wooden architecture: the upright posts, the three horizontal architraves (crossbeams), and the scroll-like ends are all carved in stone but recall earlier timber construction. Every surface is densely covered with sculpture. The architraves are filled with narrative scenes from the life of the Buddha and from Jataka stories (previous lives). Between the architraves, you can make out small figures — riders, animals, and decorative brackets. The upright posts are carved with panels showing scenes of worship, processions, and nature motifs like lotuses and trees. At the very top, above the highest architrave, the wheel of law (dharmachakra) is shown, often flanked by small figures.
The caption "The eastern gateway, Sanchi" is deliberately simple, but the image itself teaches a crucial lesson about preservation. The textbook explains that when Sanchi was "discovered" in 1818, three gateways were still standing and the fourth lay where it had fallen. Unlike Amaravati, whose sculptures were carted off to decorate British gardens and museums, Sanchi's gateways were kept in place. The eastern gateway in this figure is therefore not just a beautiful piece of ancient art — it is a survivor. It stands exactly where it was built, in its original relationship to the stupa, the other gateways, and the surrounding landscape. …