Indian Antiquary Vol 61

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

Page 212

188
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(OCTOBER, 1932
in white or grey limestone resembling marble. No other stone was used, and it was brought to the site by means of the river and landed at a stone-built wharf that still remains (see Plate I, 12). The wharf is about 250 feet in length, 50 feet wide and 6 feet in height along the river front and at both ends. Three rows of broken stone pillars extending from end to end show that it was originally provided with a wooden roof, probably thatched. It seems to have served as a kind of Customs House, with a row of shops or godowns on either side. Here, the Krishna is more than half a mile wide, with numerous sandbanks and huge rocks in its bed, but during the rains it is a very large river and navigable for country craft right down to the sea.
On plan and in construction, the Andhra stúpas differ from those found in the North. They are built in the form of a wheel with hub, spokes and tire all complete and executed in brickwork (see plan of stúpa on Plate III). The open spaces between the radiating walls were filled up with earth, and the dome or brick casing built over the structure. As no traces of structural stone tees have been discovered in Southern India, we may presume that they were built of brick and plaster and decorated with the rail ornament in the latter material. The stupes were covered with chunam, or fine shell-lime plaster, from top to bottom, and the moulding and other ornamentation was usually executed in stucco or plaster. The domo rested on a circular platform or drum from 2 to 5 feet in height according to the size of the monument. On top of the drum was a narrow path encircling the foot of the dome, and on each of the four sides, facing the cardinal points, was a rectangular platform resembling an altar and the same height as the drum. In the inscriptions these platforms are described as ayaka-platforms, because they usually supported a group of five stone pillars, called ayaka-khambhas (ayaka-pillars). The preciso meaning of the word ayaka is not known, but it is used much as we use the word ' altar.' From the bas-relief representations of ste pas recovered from the Nagarjunakonda and Amaravati stapas, the ayaka-platform appears as an altar, on which pious donors are portrayed depositing their offerings of fruit and flowers. All Åndhra stúpas had these platforms, but only those belonging to large and important monuments were provided with pillars. As each group consisted of five pillars, the total number of pillars for each stupa so decorated was twenty. The inscriptions show that these pillars represent gifts made to the stúpa in honour of the Buddha and to the merit of the pious donors who provided the money for the work; but no information is given as to the meaning or symbolism of the pillars.
The chief scenes portrayod in the sculptures recovered from these Andhra stripas represent the five great 'miracles,' or chief events in the life of the Buddha, namely, the Nativity, Renunciation, Sambodhi, First Sermon, and the Buddha's Death. These five incidents are portrayed over and over again, either as beautifully executed bas-relief scenes, or else as mere conventional symbols, such as a tree, wheel and stupa. In this form they are found engraved on some of the bases of the ayaka-pillars belonging to the Amaravati Stúpa now in the Madras Museum; and I discovered at Någårjunakonda four bases of ayaka-pillars each ornamented with a bas-relief representation of the 'First Sermon.' The presence of these symbols carved on the bases of the pillars seems to indicate that they were set up to commemorate the five great miracles; just as we know Aboka erected pillars to mark the sacred spots where these events are said to have occurred in Nepal and Bih&r. As it was impossiblo for those living in the Krishna district to erect the pillars on the actual spots in Northern India, they soem to have hit upon the idea of conventionalising the pillars into groups of five for the sake of convenience, so that the events could be commemorated locally, and also, perhaps, with a view to adding to the splendour and importance of the stupas, as in tho case of the Amaravati Stúpa, where the stone casing to the dome, the ayaka-platforms and pillars, and the stone railing, were all added to the monument in the second or third cen. tury A.D. This we know from the inscriptions belonging to that monument. In earlier times the ayaka-pillars were unknown, and they only occur in the Andhra stúpas of that period.