The general range of early historic Buddhist architecture comprised stupas, chaitya halls and monasteries. Mud stupas were built over the remains of the Buddha at Kapilavastu and Vaisali, among a few other places, and the existence of Mauryan period burnt-brick domes with stone umbrellas set within square stone railings have been traced at Sarnath and Sanchi. However, it is only in the Sunga period that the great early stupas assume their presently known forms. In the case of Stupa I at Sanchi, the Asokan stupa was then enlarged and encased in a veneer of well-dressed stones, with a high circular drum around it. The top of this drum was approached by two stairways with balustrades on the south and formed the upper circumambulation path. Another circumambulation path at the ground level was demarcated by a railing with L-like projections at the four cardinal points, leading to the ground balustrade being divided into four quadrants. Under the Satavahana kings the four gateways were added. In each of these gateways pillars with capitals support three curviform architraves with voluted ends. Square blocks separate the architraves, with the intervening space being taken up by figures of horse and elephant riders. The bracket figures of nymphs project from the abaci of the capitals and support the ends of the lowest architrave. A ‘wheel of law’ or Dharmachakra which is flanked by yakshas and Triratna symbols stands in the centre of the topmost architrave. Interestingly, the terracotta representations of such gateways have been found at a number of sites, including Chandraketugarh and Tamluk in the lower Bengal. The stupa plan and its decorative style were different at Amaravati, where the plan included four rectangular projections at four cardinal directions with four pillars on each of these projections. The dome of the stupa rests on a drum but there is no stairway to the top of the drum. However, it had a ground balustrade and a lower processional path. With time the stupa plans differed from area to area. For instance, in some stupas at Nagarjunakonda the walls were arranged in the form of a multiple-spoked wheel, whereas in the Gandhara region the miniature stupa from Loriyan Tongai stands on an oblong platform with sides showing sculptured panels and Corinthian pilasters. The stupa drum rises in four receding tiers from the centre of the platform, with the topmost drum in the form of an inverted lotus. At its lower end the umbrella shaft shows a succession of increasingly larger rectangular frames, and in its upper section there are six tiers of umbrellas of progressively larger sizes.
Fig. 49 Bairat circular ‘chaitya’
Fig. 50 Bhaja caves
Fig. 51 Ghositarama monastery, Kausambi
Fig. 52 Pakki Kuti, Sravasti
The chaitya-halls, another major form of Buddhist architecture, may be both free-standing or rock-cut and date from the third century BC. A circular example of this period, which had an inner enclosure of a panel of wedge-shaped brick-work interspersed by 27 octagonal wooden pillars and an outer procession path formed by a circular brick wall, was excavated at Bairat. Rock-cut examples with variations in planning occur in the Sudama and Lomas Rishi caves of the Barabar hills, which date from the same period. Broadly similar plans from later contexts (c. first century BC) occur in the Tulja-Lena group of rock-cut caves at Junnar near Nasik, Kondivte in Mumbai and Guntupalle in the Krishna district of Andhra. Apsidal chaitya halls dating from the third century BC have been noticed in the Sanchi temple 40 and at Sarnath and Rajgir (below Maniyar Math). Their rock-cut forms (c. second century BC to c. second century AD) are easily seen at Bhaja, Bedsa, Karle, Ajanta (caves 9, 10) and Pitalkhora (caves 3, 10, 12, 13). It is a long apsidal hall, divided into a nave for congregration, an apse containing the stupa and aisles demarcated by colonnades around the nave and the apse. The ceiling of the apse and the nave is barrel-vaulted, containing wooden rafters in some early cases (cf. Bhaja). Structural examples of apsidal halls were also known (cf. Sirkap). Quadrilateral chaitya halls belong to a later period. Monasteries go back to the time of the Buddha. Examples of a complex of elliptical and rectangular halls have been traced at Ghositarama of Kausambi, Jetavana of Sravasti and Jivakamravana of Rajgir. Rock-cut examples of a later period can be seen at many places (cf. Bhaja, Bedsa, etc.)
Fig. 53 Jivakamravana of Rajgir
Fig. 54 Reconstruction of Vidisa temple (Lalitkala)
Free-standing Hindu temples occur only from the Gupta period onwards, although shrines have been represented in sculptural reliefs from Mathura, Sanchi and Bharhut. Excavated examples of earlier dates are still rare and occur at Sanchi, Vidisa, Nagari and Sonkh, among a few other places. The Sanchi temple 40 dates from the third century BC and its only surviving’ portion is its apsidal stone plinth with steps on the east and the west. At Vidisa, the foundation of an elliptical structure was found within the outline of the foundation of another elliptical structure with a rectangular projection. This original outline of the famous Vasudeva temple of Vidisa dates from the third century BC. At Nagari or ancient Madhyamika in Rajasthan (near Chitor) there was a similar construction of timber and mud walls of the same period. The Sonkh specimen—an apsidal Naga temple—belongs to the second century AD Recently, an apsidal structure on rammed burnt-brick foundation has been dated to the late Mauryan period at Sarnath.