Bharhut

Bharhut


Top: Original layout of the Bharhut stupa. Bottom: East Gateway and Railings, Red Sandstone, Bharhut Stupa, 2nd Century BCE. Indian Museum, Kolkata.
Shown within India
Shown within India
Basic information
Location India
Geographic coordinates 24°26′N 80°52′E / 24.44°N 80.87°E / 24.44; 80.87Coordinates: 24°26′N 80°52′E / 24.44°N 80.87°E / 24.44; 80.87
Affiliation Buddhism
District Satna
State Madhya Pradesh
Region Vindhya Range
Country India
Year consecrated 200-300 B.C.
Ecclesiastical or organizational status Stupa ruins present
Status Artifacts Removed

Bharhut (Hindi: भरहुत) is a village located in the Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, central India. It is known for its famous relics from a Buddhist stupa. The Bharhut sculptures represent some of the earliest examples of Indian and Buddhist art, now located in the Indian Museum in Kolkota.

Bharhut stupa

Structure

The Bharhut stupa, depicted on one of the friezes.

The Bharhut stupa may have been first built by the Maurya king Ashoka in the 3rd century BCE, but many works of art, particularly the gateway and railings, were apparently added during the Shunga period, with many friezes from the 2nd century BCE.[1]

The central stupa was surrounded by a stone railing and four Torana gates, in an arrangement similar to that of Sanchi. A large part of the railing has been recovered, but only one of the four torana gates remains.

An epigraph on the gateway of the stupa mentions its erection "during the supremacy of the Shungas by Vatsiputra Dhanabhuti".[2] The expression used is "Suganam Raje", which is thought to mean "during the rule of the Sungas", although not without ambiguity.[3]

Excavation

Bharhut pillar capital with rosette, beads-and-reels and palmette designs.

In 1873, Alexander Cunningham visited Bharhut. The next year, he excavated the site.[4] J. D. Beglar, Cunningham's assistant, continued the excavation and recorded the work through numerous photographs.

A pillar capital in Bharhut, dated to the 2nd century BCE during the Sunga Empire period, is an example of Bharhut architecture thought to incorporate Persian and Greek styles,[5][6] with recumbent animal (in the style of the Pillars of Ashoka), and a central anta capital with many Hellenistic elements (rosettes, beads-and-reels), as well as a central palmette design, in a style similar to that of the Pataliputra capital.[7][8][9]

The complex in Bharhut included a medieval temple (plate II), which contained a colossal figure of the Buddha, along with fragments of sculptures showing the Buddha with images of Brahma, Indra etc.[10] Beglar also photographed a 10th-century Buddhist Sanskrit inscription,[11] about which nothing is now known.

The ruined stupa—nothing but foundations of the main structure (see Gallery)—is still in Bharhut; however, the gateways and railings have been dismantled and reassembled at the Indian Museum, Kolkata.[2] They contain numerous birth stories of the Buddha's previous lives, or Jataka tales. Many of them are in the shape of large, round medallions. Two of the panels are at the Smithsonian.[12]

As representative of early Indian art

Relief from Bharhut.

In conformity with the early aniconic phase of Buddhist art, the Buddha is only represented through symbols, such as the Dharma wheel, the Bodhi tree, an empty seat, footprints, or the triratana symbol.[12]

The style represents the earliest phase of Indian art, and all characters are depicted wearing the Indian dhoti, except for one foreigner thought to be an Indo-Greek soldier, with Buddhist symbolism.[13] The Bharhut carvings are slightly earlier than the Sanchi carvings and the earlier Ajanta frescos.

An unusual feature of the Bharhut panels is the inclusion of text in the narrative panels, often identifying the individuals.[14]

Inscriptions

The inscriptions found at Bharhut are of considerable significance in tracing the history of early Indian Buddhism and Buddhist art. 136 inscriptions mention the donors. These include individuals from Vidisha, Purika (a town somewhere in the Vindhya mountains), Pataliputra (Bihar), Karhad (Maharashtra), Bhojakata (Vidarbha, eastern Maharashtra), Kosambi (Uttar Pradesh), and Nasik (Maharashtra). 82 inscriptions serve as labels for panels depicting the Jatakas, the life of the Buddha, former Manushi Buddhas, other stories and Yakshas and Yakshinis.[14]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Marshall, John (1918). "An Historical and Artistic Description of Sanchi (pp. 7-29)". A Guide to Sanchi. Calcutta: Superintendent, Government Printing. p. 11. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  2. 1 2 "Bharhut Gallery". INC-ICOM Galleries. Indian National Committee of the International Council of Museums. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  3. ↑ Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE by Patrick Olivelle
  4. ↑ Cunningham, Sir Alexander (1879). The Stûpa of Bharhut: a Buddhist monument ornamented with numerous sculptures illustrative of Buddhist legend and history in the third century B.C. London: W. H. Allen.
  5. ↑ Early Buddhist Narrative Art by Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky p.16
  6. ↑ Early Byzantine Churches in Macedonia & Southern Serbia by R.F. Hoddinott p.17
  7. ↑ The East: Buddhists, Hindus and the Sons of Heaven, Architecture in context II, Routledge, 2015, by Christopher Tadgell p.24
  8. ↑ India Archaeological Report, Cunningham, p185-196
  9. ↑ Age of the Nandas and Mauryas by Kallidaikurichi Aiyah Nilakanta Sastri p.376 sq
  10. ↑ "General view of remains of Buddhist temple of later date than the Stupa, Bharhut". Online Gallery. British Library. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  11. ↑ "Photograph of a slab with a Buddhist sanskrit inscription". Online Gallery. British Library. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  12. 1 2 "The Art of Buddhism". The Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Smithsonian Institution. 2008. Retrieved 29 September 2014.
  13. ↑ "The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity, John Boardman, 1993, p.112
  14. 1 2 Luders, H.; Waldschmidt, E.; Mehendale, M. A., eds. (1963). "Bharhut Inscriptions". Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum. II. Ootacamund: Archaeological Survey of India.
  15. ↑ Faces of Power: Alexander's Image and Hellenistic Politics by Andrew Stewart p.180
  16. ↑ D.N. Jha,"Early India: A Concise History"p.150, plate 17
  17. ↑ "The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity, John Boardman, 1993, p.112
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bharhut.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.