Indian Antiquary Vol 61

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 208

186
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[OCTOBER, 1939
THE GREAT STOPA AT NAGARJUNAKONDA IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
By A. H. LONGHURST. NAGARJUNAKONDA, or Nagarjuna's hill, is the name of a big rocky flat-topped hill on the right bank of the Krishna river in the Palnad taluk of the Guntur district of the Madras Presidency, and 15 miles west by north of Macherla railway station, the terminus of the new line from Guntur opened in 1931. The hill stands in a valley completely shut in by a ring of hills, an offshoot of the Nallamalais (Black Hills) of the adjoining Kurnool distriet, on three sides, with the Krishna river on the fourth or north-western side, where it forms the boundary between this part of the Madras Presidency and the Nizam's Dominions. The annexed site plan (Plate T) shows the geographical features of the area and the positions of the monuments discovered.
Nagarjunakonda is about 60 miles distant from Amaravati as the crow flies, but considerably further by river. It is a wild and desolate spot, and being shut in by the surrounding rocky hills is usually very hot during most months of the year. There is a rough cart track from Macherla to Någulavaram, a distance of 10 miles, but the remaining 5 miles over the hills and through the valley to Nagarjunakonda has to be performed on foot, as no cart traffic is porsible.
The hill was once fortified, and remains of brick and stone fortifications still remain all along the rugged cliffs surrounding the plateau on its summit, showing that it was once used as a citadel; but no ruined buildings of interest were discovered on the hill. At the ecstern foot of the hill and scattered throughout the valley are a number of ruined slúpas of all sizes, from little structures 8 feet in diameter to large ones like the Great Stúpa, 106 feet in diameter. There are also many ruined monasteries and apsidal Buddhist temples, showing that, at one time, there existed here a large and flourishing Buddhist settlement, far larger in fact than the one at Amaravati lower down the river. A number of important inscriptions in Prakrit and in Brâhmi characters of about the second century A.D. were discovered in connection with the Great Stúpa and two apsidal temples. Professor Vogel of Leiden University has published an account of these old records in the Epigraphia Indica, volume XX, 1931. Besides a number of inscriptions and ruined buildings, many lead coins of the Andhra period, gold and silver reliquaries, pottery, statues and over four hundred magnificent bas-relief sculptures similar to those from Amaravati, were recovered during the excava. tions which I conducted at Nagarjunakonda during the cold seasons of 1928 to 1931, when I completed the explorations. A brief account of these discoveries appears in the Annual Reports of the Archaeological Survey of India for those years, but a fully illustrated account of the remarkable discoveries made would fill a large volume, and has yet to be written.
The historical information furnished by the inscriptions is somewhat meagre, and the careless manner in which some of them were engraved adds to the difficulty of interpreting the precise meaning of certain words and sentences. The records belong to the Southern Ikhâku dynasty, who were ruling in this part of India between the second and third centuries A.D. It is clear from these inscriptions that they were kings of considerable importance, as they formed matrimonial alliances not only with the rulers of Vanav&sa (North Kanara), but also with the kings of Ujjayini in Central India. A curious fact about these Southern Ikhâkus revealed by the inscriptions, is that while the rulers were followers of Brahmanism and porformed Vedic sacrifices, their consorts were devotees of the Buddha and erected buildings for the Buddhists settled at Nagarjunakonda and made pious donations to the stúpas. Most of these buildings owed their existence to the piety of certain queens and princesses belonging to the royal house of Ikhâku, the principal founder being a princess named Châmtisiri, who is praised for her munificence in many of the inscriptions belonging to the Great Stúpa, or Maháchetiya, as it is called in the pillar inscriptions belonging to it, and which was founded,
Noke.--The copyright of the photographe reproduced to illustrate this article is reserved by the Archæolo. gical Survey of India.