During
last year, I visited many of the Buddhist rock cut temples spread
over mountains of the Deccan, to look for traces of the ancient
Satvahana empire that had ruled over the Deccan plateau, around
beginning of our era. My visits suggested one thing for certain, that
the Satvahana empire had lost its days of glory somewhere around
second or third century CE.
The inscriptions at the rock cut temples of Karle'n and Nashik,
mention the name of Vasisthiputra
Pulumavi (c.110-138 CE), son of the great Satvahana king Gautamlputra
as the ruling king.
However, records end here and no mention of any other king down the
line are found in any of the rock cut temples at least to my
knowledge. I
do not propose to go into the history of Satvahanas, but one thing is
clear to me that my search must end now in Maharashtra or western
Deccan.
The
sway of the Satvahana empire was never limited over Maharashtra only
and they had ruled all over Deccan, including Andhra. There is a
belief that Vasisthiputra
Pulumavi annexed the Andhra region to Satvahana empire. However,
Maharashtra
Gazetteer suggests that it is very likely that the province of Andhra
was annexed to the Satavahana kingdom much earlier in the reign of
Satvahana Kings Apilaka and Meghasvati by the middle of the 1st
century CE itself, if not even earlier. This fact is well confirmed
by findings of Satavahana coins at many places in Andhra. I therefore
knew that I can now further continue my quest only in the eastern
Deccan or in Andhra. While reading about the ancient monuments in
Andhra, I came to know about the Buddhist Stupa at a place called
Amaravati.
Amaravati
is a tiny town, situated 35 Km north of the city of Guntur on the
right or the south bank of river Krishna, in the Indian state of
Andhra Pradesh, which has been bifurcated very recently. In local
language it is known as “Dipaldinne,” which means a Hill of the
Lamp. Amaravati and the adjoining areas have had been great seats of
Buddhist learning and religion at the beginning of our era. The
famous Chinese monk and pilgrim, Xuel Zang mentions in his travelogue
from 7th century that at Amaravati, “ though many Buddhist
monasteries were deserted by then, at least twenty were still in use
with a thousand monks living there.” Few readers would be able to
imagine that this obscure tiny town in the interior, once boasted of
a grand monument that could be compared or perhaps was even grander
than the famous Taj Mahal and was visited by thousands of Buddhist
pilgrims every day. The monument in form of a great Buddhist Stupa,
was however lost in the passage of time and all that remained was a
mound of earth. This mound was eventually called the 'Hill of the
lamp' by local people and the town got its name from this hillock.
In
the year 1796, a local landlord wanting to shift to Amaravati,
started quarrying rocks from nearby mounds of earth to build his
house. He also attempted to dig the 'Hill of the lamp' and to utmost
surprise of everyone around found stone slabs with sculptured bass
reliefs. The news reached a British officer Colonel Colin Mackenzie,
who was a passionate collector and student of antiquity. He visited
the spot and immediately perceived that the mound of earth was in
fact a great Stupa having about Ninety feet diameter and Twenty feet
height. Mackenzie returned to the site in March 1816 armed with a
team of draftsmen and surveyors. For next 2 years they made detailed
plans and drawings of the monument. After the great Stupa was
discovered, a mad rush began amongst British officers to acquire the
stone slabs of the Stupa. Many slabs were also distributed by the
officers to various museums within India. In 1845, another British
officer carried out excavation in the south west part of the mound
and found large number of fragments. He sent them to Madras, where
they lay neglected and exposed. In 1856 a new museum was opened in
Madras. Edward Balfour, officer-in charge of the museum, decided to
collect all the pieces and catalogue them. Finally 121 stone slabs
were sent to England in 1859. They were sent from a museum to museum
and finally in 1880 they reached British museum, where they are
exhibited since. In 1880, Duke of Buckingham, then Governor of
Madras, ordered complete excavation of the site. The site not
converted to a large pit. More than 400 fragments were recovered
mostly from the outer railing and were sent to museum at madras,
where they can be seen even today. A few balance pieces are exhibited
at the site in a small museum. This is the sad story, how a great
monument built by Satavahana kings, somewhere around first or second
century CE, was totally destroyed, after discovery, instead of being
renovated and rebuilt for the future generations. From whatever that
is left of the great monument, one can easily imagine its grandeur
and also the importance and glory that Amaravati must have enjoyed in
the past, very well comparable to Taj Mahal itself.
A model of the great Stupa
So,
how this great monument really looked like? At the centre was a giant
solid dome of a Stupa some one hundred and forty-eight feet in
diameter. This was surrounded by two highly sculptured stone
railings. The inner railing actually almost touched the drum of the
Stupa and carried all the decoration on it. The outer railing
constructed from limestone slabs, was One hundred and ninety two feet
in diameter and was pierced by four gates provided in cardinal
directions. The outer railing was also elaborately carved with bass
reliefs depicting many scenes from Jataka stories and Buddha's life.
It is not knows how such a great monument was slowly forgotten and
became totally neglected. It soon became a pile of rubble and in a
few centuries of time became a mound of earth and with its
disappearence, the famous town of Amaravati also became a forgotten
obscure town in the interior of 'Andhradesa.'
A stone slab from Amaravati Stupa; parhaps the 'Selfie' of the Stupa itself
Coming
back to the Satvahana king Vasisthiputra
Pulumavi ,
Maharashtra Gazetteer says that the discovery of the coins of
Pulumavi in Andhra country and of an inscription of his at Amravati,
afford clear evidence of his holding a firm sway over that province.
This particular inscription etched on outer railing, informs that in
Vasisthiputra Sri Pulamavi's reign, additions were made to the Stupa.
After
reading about the present state of the Stupa at Amaravati, it became
obvious to me that there was not much to see there except for a small
museum, since almost all marble slabs with bass reliefs have beeen
moved to either British Museum or the Government museum at Chennai. I
also recollected that I had already seen few Amaravati stones in the
National Museum at New Delhi. I therefore decided to postpone my
visit to Amaravati to a later date and visit Government museum at
Chennai first, to see the Amaravati stones.
Finally
after much deliberations I am on my way to Chennai to seen the musum.
My plane lands at Chennai airport around 8.30 in the morning. As I
come out of the arrivals hall, a blast of hot humid air hits me hard.
I know that it is going to be an incredibly hot day, so typical of
Chennai. I take an air conditioned cab to go to the place I plan to
stay; Hotel Palm grove, located on Kodambakkam High road; a distance
of about 20 Km from the airport. I must be visiting Chennai after at
least two decades but city has not changed greatly except for the
overhead Metro line. I check in the hotel, freshen up and leave for
the museum at Egmore.
24th
July 2014
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