English
From evidence which will be brought forward hereafter, it would appear that the central building or Tope itself is at least a century older than the great Rail, and that the imner or smaller Rail is at least as much more modern, so that, like our own cathedrals, the erection of this Tope may have lasted for two or three centuries, or say from 200 to 500 a.p. Even beyond this, however, there are reasons for believing—. as will be shown in describing Plate LXXXITI.—that a building of. importance existed here as early as the Christian era, or contemporaneously with the gates at Sanchi. On the other hand, we know for certain that it was afterwards repaired and used for Buddhist purposes as late as the twelfth or thirteenth centuries; but the particulars of this restoration are less interesting, and further explorations on the spot are necessary before they can be made intelligible. “ All this, however, will be clearer and more easily intelligible when we have gone through the description of the 54 Plates, which are devoted to the illustration of the architecture ‘and sculptures, oF the Amravati Tope. PLATE XLVI. &, NucKaALamPeTT. Bas) ¥ Re + ga Ses Dianono Mines.” * 7 eo . & eee / “yeorn {tes vat tas gee Path *PoLtiam oo | 2 : - a. Moonacoor, ™ ws pe: Ome, ¢ Hg a 3 ~ 2 —~ iy OONCKINNAPAUDOD. 2 5S TRS - ia ataca 2 / “Ba { 9S) Pacopagis® ae): ooo * 5 ree mae A iS tS aGanr coor. —j* ; See Le! + —_ —_— _s Ase y *3 DARANAGO ICoorcurreg KADEVERDINA Cums. Leary 4 << Sy Pevenrvaimen Con, ST. Sf “EN \ VycoonTAPoDRAM. : oe Sasuanom Srowe. ANGACAM CHER ROO. g CAuswrauo. ou 735 MAP or AMRAVATI w GUNTOOR & OF PURTYALL & THE DIAMOND MINES ; WITH THE VILLAGES ADJACENT REDUCED FROM THE ORIGINAL SURVEY. IN 1816. — = i> — PLAN and SECTION of the TOPE AY AVORAYAT IC, From Survey siuile by COR MACKENZIE, i 17, SECTION ON LINE FROM A TO 6. Seale, 20 Feet to on Inch DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. AMRAVATI TOPE. PLATES XLVI. ann XLVII. Pratt XLVI. is copied literally from the survey of the locality made by Colonel Mackenzie in 1816-17, and suffices to explain the exact relative position of . the different antiquities already alluded to (page 151). In order to prevent any appearance of adjusting it to suit any theory, the spelling has been retained as found in the original map, though it differs occasionally from that adopted in the text. The ramparts of the old tow: of Daranacotta will be observed to. the westward of the. modern town of Amravati, and the site of the several mounds. ‘of Dipaldinna, Nuckadeverdina, and Cootchitippa are also plainly marked. One cluster, though the smallest, of the circular tumuli or stone circles, is close to the old town to the westward; but by far the most numerous groups are gathered round the bases of the hills in the right-hand lower corner of the map, where they are described as existing in hundreds. The diamond mines are all on the left bank of the river, opposite the town. Plate XLVII. is likewise copied literally from a drawing in the Mackenzie Collection,* and represents the monument as it existed in 1816-17. At that time the slabs coloured dark red were either standing or were lying in such a position that their original site could be identified ; and the paving stones of the procession path, coloured pink, were also in situ. , The central building had at that time entirely disappeared, the materials haying been utilized by the Raja in building the new town.t Having cleared it away, he was induced to dig deeper in search of treasure, which is always supposed to be buried in these mounds; and having made a great hole in this pursuit, he after- wards determined to make use of it by forming it into a water tank. This, as will be seen from the plan and section, was not complete at the time it was abandoned, the Raja having ruined himself by extravagance some time before Colonel Mackenzie’s, second visit. In the process of excavation the earth had fortunately been thrown | * A reduction of it to the-scale of 100 feet to 1 inch was published by me in the Handbook of Architecture (Woodcut 9), in 1855, } “ The whole of the inner circle has been dug up, and the stones removed for building purposes. They have been chiefly applied to the repair of Pagodas, and a great many were put to form a Aight of steps to the square tank of Shivagunga.”—Colonel Mackenzie, in Asiatic Journal, p. 469. x 2 164 _THE TOPE AT AMRAVATL on to the path and rails, so as to protect them to a-certain extent; and those slabs which had not been carried away were thus partially protected till some were excavated by the Colo; el.* Sir Walter Elliot’s explorations were apparently wholly confined to the northern side of the Western Gateway, where a mound of earth concealed the modern chapel, the walls of which furnished nine-tenths of the slabs now in the India Musewn. All that the Raja discovered to reward his search was a small relic casket, which is now in the Madras Museum.t It was apparently similar to those found ¢ at Sanchi, - but has no inscription and is of no intrinsic value. _ The dimensions o£ the Tope, as shown in the plan, and recorded by. Colonel Mackenzie, are 195 feet} for the inside diameter of the outer circle, and 165 feet for that. of the inner. The procession path is paved with. slabs 18 feet long, and the inner rail is 2 feet- in width. Each of the four Gateways projected about 30 feet. beyond the outer rail; but all are so ruined that the dimensions cannot be ascertained with exactness. The only addition I have made to the plan is the yellow circle in the centre. This is the site and I believe the dimensions of the enclosing Rail of the central -~Dagoba. For reasons which will be given when describing Plates XCIII. to XCVIIL., it would appear that it did not exceed 30. feet in diameter; and if this. were so, it seems nearly certain that other buildings occupied the rest of the enclosure; but as it is nearly certain that all these were erécted in wood it is in vain now to. hope to find any remains of ‘them. A. nine-storied pagoda has already been’ alluded to (p. 161); and my conviction is that, besides this, there must have been a Vihara or residence, - a Chaitya hall, a Dharmasala, and other conventual buildings. These, or the greater part of them, must have existed’ prior to 322; and it was to enclose and unite them that the great Rail was erected. Nothing is so common as such an arrangement as this in the Madras territory. In nine cases out of ten, in their greatest temples, the . sanctuary itself is relatively less important, as compared with its surroundings, than this 30-feet Dagoba is to its rails and the other buildings; so that there.is at least no &@ priori ‘improbability in - the arrangement.§ * In the present state of the mound it is impossible to form any conjecture seerner there was any or ‘what sort of building standing in the ba or for what p purports it was intended. —Asiatic Journal, vol. XV. p. 469. : — . t The following extract from a letter of 12th June last, from Sir Walter Elliot, contains all the information available on this subject :—“ They found in the centre of the mound a stone casket, with a “ lid, on opening which a crystal box was found, containing a small pearl, some gold jeaf “and other “ things of no value. The Raja sent the relics to his tosha khanah, and there they remained. . At. a “ later period I succeeded in securing them for Government, and they are now in the Museum at Madras.” t By a curious coincidence this is exactly twice the diameter of the outer circle at Stonehenge. There the inner diameter of the outer circle is exactly 100 Roman feet, or 97/6 feet English. The outer rail in the Indian example is rather more than 14 feet high ; that at Stonehenge is, as nearly as it can be. now - measured, 15/6. These coincidences, may be accidental, but though at first sight so different, it does not. appear to me doubtful but that they are both simulated sepulchres—cenotaphs—relic shrines, or whatever. they may be called, and are utterances of the same primeval.faith, What does not appear to admit - of doubt is, that they were being erected simultaneously—the western one to commemorate a martyrdom, the eastern to perpetuate the memory of the visit or enshrinement of a relic. § So convinced am I of the correctness of the view, that I had prepared a drawing purporting to be a bird’s eye view of the Tope, with all these arrangements, and intended it should form the frontispiece . to this work. On second thoughts I abandoned the idea. All the other Plates in the work are aberlats facts ; this would have been said to have involved theories. ‘L004 | OL HON] IgdO AUE-1 AIWDS ” BEOSOTINE GELOO LO GOR TYNE FO NOW erry WAX AlYTd ‘TEP AY ED ei ‘LOO, | OL HONY |] 310 GUES-T ATWOS ‘KENSOIONE UKLOO £O TORL TENGRLNY CO NOMA Sy a RE Ol a wit SE a a el i ERNE re XX FLWId sy, TLYAYENY DESCRIPTION OF PLATES. 165 PLATES XLVIII. ann XLIX. Wuey I was first furnished with a complete set of Photographs of the Amravati marbles in the India Museum, I confess that the task of arranging them or of finding out to what parts of the building each .belonged, seemed hopeless enough. By degrees, as I became familiar with them, I perceived that they might be classified’ _ in. three ‘great groups. First, I perceived that-in one portion the figures were - very much larger than the others, the sculpture coarser, and they had ie Sanchi form of Rail as an ornament. These, I afterwards made out, belonged to the central building, and they are found arranged in Plates XCIJI. to XCVIII. © Once their general characteristics are guessed, there is no difficulty in recognizing them either in the marble or in Colonel Mackenzie’s drawings. A.