Early Buddhist Architecture in Context: The Great Stūpa at Amarāvatī (ca. 300 BCE-300 CE)

329 Pages·2013·7.721 MB·English

by  Shimada, Akira

Early Buddhist Architecture in Context
Brill’s Indological Library
Edited by
Johannes Bronkhorst
In co-operation with
Richard Gombrich, Oskar von Hinüber,
Katsumi Mimaki, Arvind Sharma
VOLUME 43
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/bil
Early Buddhist Architecture
in Context
The Great Stūpa at Amarāvatī (ca. 300 BCE-300 CE)
By
Akira Shimada
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2013
Cover Illustration: A stūpa slab from Amarāvatī at Chennai Government Museum. Photo by
Takashi Koezuka.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Shimada, Akira, 1968-
 Early Buddhist architecture in context : the great stupa at Amaravati (ca. 300 BCE-300 CE) /
by Akira Shimada.
  pages cm — (Brill’s Indological library ; 43)
 Outgrowth of the author’s thesis (doctoral—University of London, School of Oriental and
African Studies).
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-23283-9 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-23326-3 (e-book)
 1. Stupas—India—Amaravati. 2. Buddhist architecture—India—Amaravati. 3. Amaravati
(India)—Buildings, structures, etc. I. Title.

DS486.A6S55 2012
934’.84—dc23
2012019855
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ISSN 0925-2916
ISBN 978-90-04-23283-9 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-23326-3 (e-book)
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contents v
For my family
vi contents
contents vii

CONTENTS
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   xi
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  xv
Note on Transliteration and Citation of Primary Sources . . . . . . . . . . .  xvii
List of Figures, Tables, Maps and Plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   xix
Plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . following  xxiv
Introduction: Discovery of the Amarāvatī Stūpa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1
I. Discovery of the Stūpa and Early Excavations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
II. Historiography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1. Archaeological, Epigraphic and Art-Historical Analysis . . . . 11
2. Historical Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3. Methodological Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
III. Possible Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  24
1. Comprehensive Examination of the Objects in Site Context  25
2. Intensive Survey of Archaeological and Epigraphic Data for
Recovering Regional History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3. Active Reading of the Archaeological and Epigraphic Data   26
IV. The Scheme of This Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  27
1. Dynastic History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
I. The Pre-Historic and Geographical Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
1. The Lower Krishna Valley . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
2. Pre-Historic Settlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3. Amarāvatī . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
II.  The Early Historic Period (ca. 300 bce–300 ce) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
1. The Mauryan Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2. The Post-Mauryan Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3. The Sadas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4. The Sātavāhanas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5. The Ikṣvākus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
III. Chronological Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  48
1. The Starting Date of the Later Sātavāhanas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2. The Termination Date of the Later Sātavāhanas . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3. The Date of the Sadas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4. The Early Sātavāhanas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
viii contents
2. Chronological And Architectural Reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
I. Mauryan (?) Foundation of the Stūpa and Early Period of
Construction (ca. 200-100 bce) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
1. Foundation of the Stūpa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
2. Date for the Earliest Architectural Remains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
3. Dimensions of the Early Stūpa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4. Link to Pre-Buddhist Building Traditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
II. Late Period of Construction (ca. 50 bce-250 ce) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
1. Enlargement of the Stūpa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
2. Construction of a New Limestone Railing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
3. Refurbishment of the Stūpa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
3. Social Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
I. Transition to Early Historic Society: The Mauryan Period . . . . . 113
II. Formation of Proto States: The Post-Mauryan Period . . . . . . . . . . 116
1. Localization of State Infrastructures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
2. Socio-Economic Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
III. Expansion and Intensification: The Sada-Sātavāhana Period . . . 123
1. From Regional State to Inter-regional State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
2. Expansion of Socio-Economic Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
IV. The Transformation of Society: Epigraphic Evidence . . . . . . . . . . 135
1. The Prevalence of Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
2. Disintegration of Traditional Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
4. Buddhist Patronage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
I. The Development of Buddhist Patronage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
1. The Rise of the Urban Ethic in Early Historic India . . . . . . . . . 148
2. Buddhist Patronage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
II. Organization of Buddhist Construction Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
1. The Laymen: the Intermediaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
2. The Saṃgha: the Supervisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
3. The Kings: A Catalyst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
4. Stūpa: The Architecture of Collective Patronage . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
contents ix
5. City and Monastery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
I. The Spatial Relationship between Buddhist Monasteries and
Cities. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
II. Components of the ‘Outside’ Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
1. Funerary Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
2. Trade/Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
III. Nature of the ‘Outside’ Spaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
1. Insecurity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
2. Impurity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
3. Transcendence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
IV. Social Roles of Buddhist Monasteries in Peripheral Spaces . . . . 191
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
I. Amarāvatī: The Urban Monastery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
II. Transformation of Andhran Monastic Buddhism (ca. 250 ce) . . 200
Appendix
A. Description of the West Gate of the Amarāvatī Stūpa: Extract
from Walter Elliot’s Note Found with Pencil Sketches, 1845 . . . 205
B. Early Historic Sites in Andhra Pradesh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
C. Amarāvatī inscriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261