The Great Stupa
There has been a stupa on this site since the time
of the Mauryan king Ashoka (r. 269–232BC), whose wife,
from the nearby village of Vidisha, established a monastic community at
this location. This was followed by a period of time during the early
Sunga dynasty when Buddhism was supressed and during which the stupa
was badly damaged. The stupa was enlarged and took on its present form
around 150BC, most likely during the reign of the Sunga
king Agnimitra; the railings and four gateways (torana) were
added in roughly 70BC during the Satavahana era.
The gateways are lavishly decorated on all sides with low relief sculpture,
most of which depict scenes from the life of the Buddha or illustrate
Jataka tales, stories relating incidents from the Buddha’s
previous existences, when he accumulated merit during each cycle of death
and rebirth before becoming the enlightened one. Some of the panels record
historical events, including events from the life of Ashoka. Others
show generic royal processions or are just decorative.
During this time frame the Buddha was never depicted directly and there are
no images of the Buddha on the gateways. There are only symbolic
references, like the bodhi tree (which represents his enlightenment,
which occurred under a bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya), the deer (in recognition
of his first sermon in the deer park at Sarnath) and the many-spoked
wheel (which represents his setting of the wheel of the dharma
[law] in motion). Sometime before 450AD, during the reign
of the Guptas, images of the Buddha in the meditation mudra were installed
inside each of the four gateways.
Photo taken: January 21, 2008
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