Archaeology and Buddhism in South Asia 9781138304895, 9780203728543

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ARCHAEOLOGY AND BUDDHISM IN SOUTH ASIA

This book traces the archaeological trajectory of the expansion of Buddhism and its regional variations in South Asia. Focusing on the multireligious context of the subcontinent in the first millennium BCE, the volume breaks from conventional studies that pose Buddhism as a counter to the Vedic tradition to understanding the religion more integrally in terms of dhamma (teachings of the Buddha), dāna (practice of cultivating generosity) and the engagement with the written word. The work underlines that relic and image worship were important features in the spread of Buddhism in the region and were instrumental in bringing the monastics and the laity together. Further, the author examines the significance of the histories of monastic complexes (viharas, stupas, caityas) and also religious travel and pilgrimage that provided connections across the subcontinent and the seas. An interdisciplinary study, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars in South Asian studies, religion, especially Buddhist studies, history and archaeology. Himanshu Prabha Ray is affiliated to Ludwig Maximillian University, Munich, Germany, and is recipient of the Anneliese Maier research award of the Humboldt Foundation. She is former Chairperson of the National Monuments Authority, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, and former Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. She is Member of the Governing Board, The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies. Her recent books include The Archaeology of Sacred Spaces: The Temple in Western India, 2nd Century BCE – 8th Century CE (with Susan Verma Mishra, 2017); The Return of the Buddha: Ancient Symbols for a New Nation (2014); and The Archaeology of Seafaring in Ancient South Asia (2003). Among her earlier works are The Winds of Change: Buddhism and the Maritime Links of Early South Asia (1994) and Monastery and Guild: Commerce under the Satavahanas (1986).

ARCHAEOLOGY AND BUDDHISM IN SOUTH ASIA

Himanshu Prabha Ray

First published 2018 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2018 Himanshu Prabha Ray The right of Himanshu Prabha Ray to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-138-30489-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-72854-3 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC

CONTENTS

List of figuresvi Prefaceviii Introduction

1

1 Spread of Buddhism: regional patterns

22

2 The written word: language and identity

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3 Travelling relics: spreading the word of the Buddha

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4 Religious travel and rituals

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5 The shifting equations: Buddhism in a multireligious milieu

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References121 Index136

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FIGURES

0.1 Map showing distribution of Ashokan edicts in the subcontinent4 1.1 Map showing distribution of Buddhist sites in the subcontinent23 1.2 Worship of the Ashokan pillar as shown at Stupa 3, Sanchi25 1.3 Ashokan pillar at Sarnath unearthed during archaeological excavations in the early 20th century 26 1.4 Inscription of Kushan King Huvishka dated 123 CE on a pedestal of Buddha image from Mathura, now in Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai, Maharashtra 29 1.5 Map of the Western Deccan showing locations of Buddhist sites 33 3.1 Amaravati worship of the relics, British Museum, London63 3.2 Ratnagiri main stupa surrounded by smaller stupas, Odisha73 4.1 The 16th-century Lokesvara image from Vellipalayam Nagapattinam district, now in the Madras Museum, Tamil Nadu 85 4.2 Stone Buddha image in worship as a Saiva deity under a tree in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu 87 4.3 The stupa maṇḍala with four Dhyānī Buddhas flanked by two Bodhisattvas each, at Udayagiri, Odisha89

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F igures

4.4 Buddhagupta inscription, now in the Indian Museum, Kolkata, West Bengal

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Note: The maps are historical, not to scale and representative in nature. The international boundaries, coastlines, denominations and other information shown in any map in this work do not necessarily imply any judgement concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such information. For present boundaries and other details, readers may refer to the Survey of India maps. All figures in the volume are from the personal collection of the author.

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PREFACE

I am thankful to Shashank Shekhar Sinha and Aakash Chakrabarty at Routledge, New Delhi, for inviting me to write this book to serve as a short introduction for students of this subject. It draws on more than three decades of research and teaching on Buddhism in South Asia at the Centre for Historical Studies (CHS), Jawaharlal Nehru University. The students at CHS have contributed immensely by challenging my ideas, both through feedback in the classroom and also by undertaking doctoral research on their own. Starting with my first publication in 1986 on Buddhist monastic sites in the Deccan and their role in social and cultural integration in the Early Historic period titled Monastery and Guild: Commerce under the Satavahanas, my research has taken me across the Bay of Bengal to study maritime linkages between several regions of South and Southeast Asia and also to study the wider pilgrimage networks of the monastic site of Kanheri on the west coast of India. Over the years, my research has been sustained by several micro-studies that I have undertaken on sites as diverse as Sanghol in Punjab and Nagapattinam on the Tamil Nadu coast, and also on coastal Odisha in eastern India. This led me to another facet of the study of Buddhism based on archival research and writings of major political leaders in the colonial period, which resulted in a book on the adoption of the Ashokan lion capital and chakra as national symbols of independent India. It has been a long learning experience with support from funding agencies, family and friends. Chandan’s encouragement and faith in my work has kept it going. I have drawn on the goodwill of several scholars whose names are far too numerous to be given here. I will only mention Dr. Kapila Vatsyayana, Dr. Devangana Desai, Prof. Vidula Jayaswal, Dr. Peter Skilling, Prof Uwe Hartmann, Dr. Monica Zin, Dr. Janice Leoshko and my younger colleagues Dr. Umakant Mishra,

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Dr. Garima Kaushik, Dr. Julia Shaw, Dr. Lars Fogelin and Dr. Akira Shimada. It is a daunting task to present the archaeology of Buddhism in 50,000 words, as required by the publishers. The approach that I found useful was to move away from discussing archaeology with reference either to the life of the Buddha or to frame it within debates of urbanism as has been traditionally accepted. I hope that my emphasis on the image and relics of the Buddha as the essence of Buddha dhamma will provide readers with a hitherto unexplored perspective for understanding archaeology and Buddhism in South Asia.

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INTRODUCTION

Archaeological excavation is any research aimed at the discovery of objects of archaeological character, whether such research involved digging of the ground or systematic exploration of its surface or was carried out on the bed or on the subsoil of inland or territorial waters of a member state.1 The first recorded discovery of a Buddhist stupa in the subcontinent dates to 1798 when Colin Mackenzie (1754–1821), a Scottish army officer in the British East India Company, discovered the remains of a stupa at Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh.2 Two years later, in 1800, a local doctor excavated a stupa at Vaisali in Bihar.3 A third region that is significant is the north-west, where one of the early ‘archaeological’ excavations was undertaken in 1830 at Manikyala near Rawalpindi, located on the Grand Trunk Road in present-day Pakistan by JeanBaptiste Ventura (1792/1793–1858), a French officer in the employ of the Punjab court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780–1839). Ventura decided to spend his money and time in opening the stupa at Manikyala, which the local tradition regarded as the resting place of Sikandar or Alexander’s horse. After his excavations, Ventura informed Ranjit Singh in a short note in Persian, that the resting place of Sikandar’s horse had been discovered.4 Though the remains found were not those of a horse but relics, gems and so on enshrined in a stupa, nevertheless the excavations initiated a search for sites associated with the ‘historical’ Buddha and the ‘religion’ preached by him, that is, Buddhism, a religion that was gradually coming into its own in Victorian England.5 As a result of these early forays, the archaeology of Buddhism has been largely studied through identification of religious architecture associated with the life of the ‘historical’ Buddha. This is a premise postulated in the 19th century when Alexander Cunningham (1814– 1893) argued for the setting up of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and for the archaeology of Buddhism, a religion that did not find 1

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mention in the Puranas. No doubt the discoveries of the 19th and 20th centuries are important, but as shown in a recent publication,6 they need to be critically analysed rather than taken at face value. The term ‘Buddhism’ seems to have arisen around the beginning of the 19th century and was marked by attempts to characterize ‘authentic Buddhism’ defined as being the teachings of the historical Buddha who lived and preached in the sixth–fifth centuries BCE.7 Archaeology itself is a relatively new discipline that developed within the last 300 years in Europe. Till then, it was generally believed that the world had been created in the year 4004 BCE, the date prescribed for its origin in the Bible. Any study of the past was based solely on literary sources, especially those of the Greeks and Egyptians. The disciplines of archaeology and anthropology transformed the study of the past in Europe and moved it beyond the domain of literary texts to material artefacts, architectural edifices and the study of communities and societies. In the 19th century, archaeology was transposed to the Indian subcontinent under colonial rule when in 1861 Alexander Cunningham was appointed the archaeological surveyor and in 1871 he was given the charge of the ASI.8 How does archaeology help unravel the history of Buddhism as it expanded not only across the Indian subcontinent but in large parts of Asia as well? Archaeology, as it has developed over the last three decades, helps define a context for both relic and image worship. It maps Buddhist sacred spaces not only horizontally across the physical and natural landscape, but also vertically in time, highlighting antecedents of religious sites and subsequent transformations. Archaeology thus establishes multiple layering of a site thereby indicating sharing and negotiation between contemporary belief systems. Finally, religious architecture has to be seen as a ritual instrument that integrated the lay devotee and the monk and the nun into a social fabric. It is the strands of this social fabric that need to be understood and appreciated and analysed within the larger narrative of origin myths and histories of monastic centres. This study shifts the focus from studying Buddhism as a counter to the Vedic tradition that emerged in an urban environment in the middle of the first millennium BCE, as generally proposed in secondary writings, to highlighting Buddhism within the first millennium BCE multireligious milieu of South Asia, which brought to the fore issues such as dhamma, dana and the emphasis on writing. It traces the archaeology of Buddhism through its regional manifestations over time and its fluctuating fortunes vis-à-vis other religious groups in the subcontinent such as Hinduism and Jainism. A good example of these 2

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shifting dynamics is reflected in the site of Sarnath near Varanasi, as discussed in Chapter 5. A third theme of significance is the role of monasticism. Did monasticism form the core essence of Buddhism, and did the religion die out in the subcontinent with the decline of monasticism in the 12th and 13th centuries? Like other contemporary Indic religions, Buddha dhamma had no central organization, ‘no single authoritative text, no simple set of defining practices’.9 Its core principle was refuge in the Buddha, the dhamma and the Sangha, though as it expanded across Asia it absorbed local traditions, responded to historical factors and evolved philosophically. The physical manifestations of the dhamma appeared in the archaeological record as religious architecture at least 200– 300 years after the Buddha had preached his dhamma across north India, and especially important are inscriptions, stupas, images and other objects of veneration. The earliest inscriptions that refer to the existence of Buddhism are those inscribed on pillars by the Mauryan King Ashoka in the third century BCE (Fig. 0.1). In the following centuries, short donative inscriptions became common at a large number of monastic sites across the subcontinent and reflected the special importance given to writing in early Buddhism. While the inscriptions and monastic architecture have been studied and written about separately in terms of either patronage or art and architecture, this book contextualizes the two together from the point of view of the development of monasticism and its expansion across the subcontinent. The role of monks and nuns in the spread of the stupa cult and image worship is crucial to an understanding of the relationship between the monastic and the ascetic tradition. The stupas enshrined relics of the Buddha and his disciples, while the space around it was often dotted with smaller structures to the monastic dead. Buddhist literature also contains instructions to monks to perform funeral rites for a fellow monk and to build stupas for the deceased members of their community.10 More recent research has meticulously documented the enormous diversity of death rituals and funerary practices in Tibetan Buddhism, especially in the context of the laity.11 Buddha dhamma or Buddhism was one of the ascetic movements that developed in the middle of the first millennium BCE. It distinguished itself from Upanishadic thought and Jain tenets by redefining both liberation and karma, the latter being defined as the principle of cause and effect. The eightfold path shown by the Buddha was founded on wisdom, morality and concentration.12 The venerable Assaji, one of 3

Figure 0.1 Map showing distribution of Ashokan edicts in the subcontinent

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the five first disciples of the Buddha, explained the essence of the Master’s dharma or doctrine to the monks Sariputta and Moggalana in the pratītyasamutpāda sūtra, a verse intimately connected with the Buddha himself and his doctrine of dependent origination.13 ‘He who sees the pratītyasamutpāda sūtra sees the dharma; he who sees the dharma sees the Buddha’.14 The verse articulates several layers of meanings: it captures the Enlightenment experience of the Buddha at Bodh Gaya; links this essence to the dhamma or the true body of the Buddha, thereby introducing fluidity between the abstract and the physical; and historically this critical text was inscribed on a variety of materials and enshrined in stupas across Asia, as a measure that would result in rejuvenating the Sangha and help the lay community renew its vows to the Buddha. This also raises the issue of balancing the philosophical kernel of Buddha dhamma with the inclusion of rituals and worship that are evident in the archaeological record from the early centuries BCE. A ritual activity that indicates wider networks of monks and nuns relates to the making and distribution of what have been erroneously termed ‘votive tablets’ in secondary literature. These unbaked clay seals and sealings are ubiquitous at Buddhist sites in the early medieval period and in 19th-century literature were often wrongly described as pilgrim’s mementoes. Instead, they are ritual objects associated with merit-making. One stanza that occurs extensively across the Buddhist world is the pratītyasamutpāda sūtra, the fundamental doctrine of Buddhism. How does this conceptualization of the archaeology of Buddha dhamma differ from that described in secondary writings? In the next section, I discuss the historiography on the subject with reference to certain themes of relevance to this study.

Historiography Buddha as a social reformer The school of Buddhist studies that emerged in Europe during the early 19th century was dominated by Indologists well into the 1900s. Eugène Burnouf (1801–1852), a Parisian philologist who wrote L’Introduction à l’histoire du buddhisme indien15 in 1844, based his study on Sanskrit manuscripts procured from Nepal and demonstrated that the texts of the Buddhists of Tibet and China were translations of Sanskrit texts from India. This, in turn, focused Buddhist studies on the pursuit of master texts for deposit in European libraries. There was a significant increase in the editing and publishing of many Pali works from 1877 onwards, especially after T. W. Rhys 5

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Davids established the Pali Text Society in 1881. Rhys Davids taught Pali and Buddhist literature at University College, London, and was instrumental in the setting up of the School of Oriental Studies. He was also the first to hold the chair in comparative religion at the University of Manchester (1904–1915). An important notion that developed was that of the historical Buddha challenging the authority of the Vedic sacrifices presided over by brahmana priests and an opinion widely shared by European Buddhologists who regarded Buddhism as a social reform movement.16 No doubt this theory has been challenged by later Buddhologists, such as Richard Gombrich.17 The image of the Buddha as a social reformer who led a crusade against Hinduism not only looms large in Victorian writings, but through Cunningham these ideas also found their archaeological manifestation and continue to be repeated to the present.18 Cunningham sought to divide religious architecture on the basis of dynastic history, though his primary concern remained the study of Buddhism, which had found no mention, as he stated, in the Purāṇas. Cunningham had an abiding interest in the biography of the historical Buddha, and in his book The Bhilsa Topes chapters 2–12 are devoted to outlining the history of Buddhism in India, life of the Buddha and a discussion of the Maurya, Gupta and Indo-Scythian dynasties. The discussion presents an integration of the archaeological data with textual accounts and inscriptions. The description in the fifthcentury Sri Lankan Chronicle, the Mahāvamsa is used for an analysis of the building and dedication of stupas (Chapter 13). It is significant that many of Cunningham’s formulations, such as his identification of places associated with the life of the Buddha, description of Buddha as a social reformer, the prominent role of the Mauryan ruler Ashoka in spreading the faith and the degenerate nature of Buddhism after seventh century CE, continue to be repeated to the present day in secondary writings. Cunningham argued that any enquirer into Indian archaeology should retrace the steps of the Chinese travellers Faxian and Xuanzang. As a result, his surveys extended mainly across modern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, though his search for Pundravardhana took him briefly to Bengal in 1879–1880 and led to the discovery of the site of Mahasthangarh. His search for Buddhist sites nevertheless led him to the recovery of a varied archaeological landscape, including the earliest Hindu temples dated to the Gupta period in central India at Nachna, Eran, Tigowa and so on. Cunningham evaluated images as mimetic and as straightforward illustrations of the text. His search for the biography of the historical Buddha led him to visit sites associated 6

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with the Master. Cunningham visited Nalanda, then known as Bargaon in his first year as Archaeological Surveyor. He explored Sarnath in 1835, repeatedly visited Bodh Gaya between 1861 and 1881 and identified Basarh with Vaisali in 1861.19 In his book on Bodh Gaya published in 1892, Cunningham illustrated the first-century BCE relief from Bharhut as a representation of the temple built by Ashoka at Bodh Gaya. This formulation has since then been convincingly countered by several scholars.20 The association of the Mauryan ruler (317–186 BCE) Ashoka with the establishment of early stupas finds mention in the writings of several early archaeologists, especially John Marshall who was the director general of the ASI from 1902 to 1928 and excavated the site of Taxila (32 km to the north-west of Rawalpindi in Pakistan) from 1913 to 1934 and Sanchi (located 46 kms north-east of Bhopal in central India) from 1912 to 1919. The emphasis in Marshall’s methodology was on tracing archaeological correlates of the legend of Ashoka as it was narrated in the Divyavadana, a text dated fifth century CE. Based on the text, he identified architectural components and archaeological markers to define the origins of the stupa. Thus, the association of the Dharmarajika stupa at Taxila with Ashoka and the Mauryas assumes significance in Marshall’s work,21 though both these assumptions have been challenged and negated by subsequent research.22 The image of the Buddha The most sustained effort in art history was that of Alfred Foucher (1865–1952),23 beginning with publications as early as 1900 and culminating in his monumental L’art Greco-bouddhique du Gandhāra in four parts.24 Buddha images excavated from archaeological sites in the north-western part of the subcontinent became the basis of Foucher’s thesis on the Greek origin of the Buddha image. To illustrate his views, Foucher used the earliest image from Hoti Mardan and also the Buddha figures from the Lahore Museum. Coins found in stupa deposits in Gandhara showing the image of the Buddha with the Greek legend Boddo provided further fodder to sustain Foucher’s claim.25 Thus, an important link is evident between archaeological work, museum collections and interpretations by art historians based on these collections. Foucher demonstrated a breadth of art historical scholarship joined with an erudition in Buddhist textual studies that was unrivalled in the field. Foucher’s understanding of Gandharan culture was premised on the maintenance of Hellenistic culture in north-west India through colonies such as Bactria from the time of Alexander down to the first 7

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century BCE. While firmly establishing the role of Hellenism in the development of Buddhist art, Foucher also changed the framework of the debate and the issue that now became important was the origin of the Buddha image. Around the same time, Okakura Kakuzo argued for Chinese influences, given the Mongolian origins of Kushan rulers.26 Implicit in the discourse developed by Foucher and others on the origin of the Buddha image was the assumption that colonialism stimulated stagnant non-Western societies by introducing the inventions of the Western civilization.27 There were several opponents of Foucher’s hypothesis. E. B. Havell argued that Indian art could only be understood with reference to Indian philosophy and Greek influence was marginal and inconsequential to the development of art. In his review of Foucher’s book, Victor Goloubew criticized the author for minimizing the contribution of Mathura – an issue that was further developed by Ananda Coomaraswamy.28 The issue of aniconism figured again in more recent debates between Susan Huntington and Vidya Dehejia.29 Huntington has emphasized that the theory of aniconism is not valid as an all-inclusive explanation for the absence of the Buddha image in early Buddhist art and that the theory of multivalent interpretation proposed by Vidya Dehejia does not offer a viable alternative to the traditional understanding of aniconism.30 Karlsson has added to the discussion by suggesting that it is important to focus on the larger context of these reliefs rather than on the relief itself.31 In a more recent study, DeCaroli shows how the emergence of powerful dynasties and rulers, who benefitted from novel modes of visual authority, was at the root of the changes in attitude towards figural images.32 The extent to which Cunningham’s surveys defined Buddhist sacred geography and impacted the study of iconography is seldom evaluated, and an early step in this direction was Janice Leoshko’s study.33 The reporting slant of archaeologists in India such as Cunningham and others did not help in an understanding of the later forms of Buddhism, and instead widened the rupture between context and icon in what came to be seen as degenerate Buddhism. Iconography came to be relied on heavily for explicating points arising from religious doctrine and the architectural component was relegated to the background. An example of this is the representation of the bhavacakra or wheel of life in a 5th-century painting at Ajanta, and also in several examples from Tibet dated as late as the 19th century. Leoshko has analysed this link by interrogating connections between text and image, form and content, aesthetics and religious requirements and of course, continuity

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and change.34 Relevant for this book is her emphasis on a synchronic reading of visual imagery. Buddhism in the writing of socio-economic history of India An issue that figures prominently in the writings of several historians and archaeologists relates to the emergence of urban centres in north India in the middle of the first millennium BCE, which then led to the efflorescence of Buddhism in the region.35 A settlement hierarchy had been proposed for north India by 400 BCE, with the largest sites, surrounded by monumental earthen ramparts, dominating the major arteries of communication. The largest sites of the period are also said to be the capital cities and political centres of the ruling elite. It is no coincidence that these included the capital cities of principalities also mentioned in early Buddhist sources such as Rajgir (of Magadha until superseded by Pataliputra), Campa (of Anga), Ujjain (of Avanti) and Rajghat (of Kasi). Perhaps, the southernmost centres in this list were Besnagar near Sanchi and Tripuri in central India. The locale of a great deal of activity in early Buddhist literature is also north India and more prominently the Ganga plains, and this then led scholars to suggest a causal link between the two. Statistical analysis of early Buddhist literature by B. G. Gokhale has identified a total of 1,009 place names in early Buddhist sources. Of these, 842 or 83.43 per cent refer to the five major cities of the north, while the rest cover 76 different types of settlements categorized as market towns (nigama, see below), villages (gama) and countryside (janapada). Outside this central area, there are references to a few places in the Deccan associated with the Buddha’s disciples, the thera and the theris. These include centres such as Supparaka (Sopara on the west coast), Bharukaccha (Bharuch at the mouth of the Narmada) and Patitthana (Paithan in Aurangabad district).36 In a special issue on Buddhist archaeology, several papers highlight the link between economic factors such as trade and urbanism in the development of Buddhism.37 Chakrabarti, for example, links three major stages of Buddhism’s growth and expansion starting from the sixth century BCE onward to the successive growth and expansion of the urban base in India. He states that in the period closer to Buddhism’s end as a major religious force in the subcontinent in the 12th–13th centuries CE, the emphasis shifted to the support derived from the regional states like the Bhaumakara kings of Orissa and the

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Palas of Bengal.38 Following the example of James Fergusson, who established a link between architectural form, ethnicity and religious affiliation,39 Dilip Chakrabarti in a later publication discusses Buddhist religious sites in India under the heading ‘Art and Architecture’.40 In terms of archaeology, however, a majority of Buddhist stupa sites date not from the period of the historical Buddha but from the third– second centuries BCE. As discussed in Chapter 2, the model for a Ganga Valley origin of Buddhism is based on an uncritical assessment of textual sources rather than on archaeological data. In contrast to the dates proposed for urbanization in the Ganga Valley in the middle of the first millennium BCE, a phenomenal spatial expansion of Buddhist monastic sites occurred many centuries later from the first century BCE onwards. Nor can a uniform plan be identified. Instead, the monastic complexes are marked by a variety of ground plans and architectural and sculptural features. An analysis of these regional variations is significant in locating the local and regional context of early Buddhist communities and their interaction with groups of other religious affiliations rather than studying them through the prism of diffusion from a central core in the Ganga Valley to other parts of the subcontinent. This is an issue that will be discussed in the next chapter. Here, I continue with an overview of writings on the archaeology of Buddhism. Archaeology of Buddhist sites The archaeology of Buddhism has often been seen as a record of the material remains of the life and associated sites linked to the Buddha. Sukumar Dutt’s pioneering study of Buddhist monasteries and monasticism published in 1962 shifted the emphasis from doctrinal, philosophical or sectarian aspects of Buddhism to architectural remains. H. Sarkar’s Studies in Early Buddhist Architecture of India in 1966 showed how Buddhists adopted different building plans in different periods of history; and the extent to which Buddhist architecture was influenced or conditioned by the doctrines and philosophies of the different sects. Another synthesis was provided by Debala Mitra, director general of the ASI from 1981 to 1983 in her book titled Buddhist Monuments (Sahitya Sansad, Calcutta, 1971). At the regional level, a large number of studies and excavation reports of Buddhist sites may be mentioned. These reports largely document and record monastic architecture as unearthed in archaeological excavations. There have also been several regional studies from a variety of perspectives such as on Gandhara41 or on the stupa in south Asia.42 10

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The contested history of the multireligious site of Bodh Gaya forms the theme of several publications, which argue that Bodh Gaya was a Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage destination for most of its history.43 Another multireligious site is that of Varanasi on the river Ganga, where archaeological excavations have been conducted for several decades, starting with those in 1940. The earliest phase of Varanasi city extended from the confluence of the rivers Ganga and Varuna to a little east of the Railway Station complex.44 More recent archaeological work by Vidula Jayaswal has shown that the nucleus of ancient Varanasi shifted from Kashi-Rajghat locality to the pucca mahal area (west of Rajghat), which is still the heart of the city. This tendency is well recorded in the accounts of the Chinese traveler Xuanzang. The nucleus of the city as per his description was south-west of Sarnath, calculated to be the pucca mahal area. These shifts in the sacred landscape including the Buddhist site of Sarnath have been recorded in a recent publication.45 Julia Shaw’s research on the Buddhist complex at Sanchi in central India relates the monastic complex with a continuous constructional sequence from c. 3rd century BCE to 12th century CE to other aspects of the archaeological landscape including settlements (particularly the ancient city of Vidisha), ritual centres, rock shelters and aspects of land use and water management.46 The principal research question that she addresses is: ‘How did the spread of Buddhism from its cradle in the Gangetic valley relate to other key processes such as urbanisation, state-formation and innovations in agriculture during the late centuries BCE?’47 A somewhat different landscape, viz. the mortuary space around Buddhist sites, has been investigated by Lars Fogelin. Using archaeological work at Thotlakonda in coastal Andhra Pradesh as his lens in a broader examination of Buddhist monastic life, Fogelin discovers the tension between the desired isolation of the monastery and the mutual engagement with neighbours in the Early Historic Period. He also sketches how the religious architectural design and use of landscape helped to shape these relationships. Thus, in his study, Buddhist monasteries seemed to be precariously balancing their public and private religious obligations with their need to provision and sustain the resident population.48 Fogelin followed up his study with An Archaeological History of Indian Buddhism, which provides a comprehensive survey of Indian Buddhism from its origins in the sixth century BCE, through its ascendance in the first millennium CE and its eventual decline in mainland South Asia by the mid-second millennium CE. The author argues that economic self-sufficiency in the mid-first millennium CE allowed the Sangha to limit their day-to-day interaction 11

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with the laity and begin to more fully satisfy their ascetic desires for the first time. This withdrawal from regular interaction with the laity led to the collapse of Buddhism in India in the early-to-mid second millennium CE.49 Two other studies that deserve mention are Umakant Mishra’s study of the multireligious landscape of early medieval Odisha50 and Akira Shimada’s comprehensive analysis of the site of Amaravati.51 Moving away from dominant discourses that discuss women as a single monolithic, homogenous category, Garima Kaushik’s monograph examines their sustained role in the larger context of South Asian Buddhism and reaffirms their agency. It highlights the multiple roles played by women as patrons, practitioners, lay and monastic members and more within Buddhism. It rereads, reconfigures and reassesses historical data in order to arrive at a new understanding of Buddhism and the social matrix within which it developed and flourished.52 In my earliest published book,53 I shifted the focus from art and architecture, that is, rock-cut caves and structural stupas in the Deccan to understanding the cultural landscape of monastic sites. This shift in focus also emphasized the interface between the polity and monastic institutions in the development of society and religion under one of the most influential early dynasties in peninsular India, the Sātavāhanas. With regard to the development of Buddhism in India, my work has sought to facilitate the turn of the entire discipline from the study of spectacular single sites like Sanchi, Bharhut, Amaravati and Nagarjunakonda towards an exploration of networks of larger and smaller Buddhist settlements, the interrelations between these sites, trans-regional trade networks and the multifunctionality of these Buddhist centres. In later publications, I have widened the discussion to include early centres in Southeast Asia, and also presented discussions of the importance of maritime networks for cultural exchange on the Indian subcontinent with other regions of the world.54 My work has also drawn on micro-studies on sites as diverse as Sanghol in the Punjab,55 Odisha in eastern India56 and Nagapattinam on the Tamil Nadu coast.57 This early work led me to interrogate colonial construction of knowledge, especially with reference to religions such as Buddhism, as discussed in the next section. Interrogating the colonial interlude In the Introduction to an insightful collection of essays, Donald S. Lopez Jr. refers to the problem that distinguished Buddhist studies from parallel disciplines, viz. how to deal with the native who also 12

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lays claim to the text. Was the native a mere informant who became superfluous once the manuscripts had reached European libraries and the languages of the text deciphered? Was the study of Buddhism a study of a world of texts?58 Buddhism had another appeal to the Victorian mind – it was based on reason and restraint and was seen as opposed to ritual and superstition. Besides, ‘original Buddhism’ and ‘pure Buddhism’ like the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome were long dead, but as a creation by Europe, it could also be controlled by it. ‘The Buddhism that largely concerned European scholars was an historical projection derived exclusively from manuscripts and block-prints, texts devoted largely to a “philosophy”, which had been produced and had circulated among a small circle of monastic elites. . . . As a result, much of the representation of Buddhism to the west . . . has centred on philosophical doctrines (often in the guise of an ancient wisdom) deserving their place in the history of ideas, with little attention paid to the more difficult questions of the contexts of textual production and circulation’.59 Torkel Brekke refers to complete transformation in religions in India in the 19th century at two interrelated levels: on the one hand, there was a conceptual shift in the understanding of religion among the English educated elite, while on the other, religious leaders worked towards creating a community identity.60 He uses three case studies in his book, that is, the Hindus of Bengal, Buddhists of Sri Lanka and the Svetambara Jains of Western India to corroborate his thesis. The three leaders, viz. Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902), Anagarika Dharmapala (1863–1933) and Virchand R. Gandhi (1864–1901), attended the August 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago and played pivotal roles in the making of modern Indian religions. Hindus, Buddhists and Jains redefined what it meant to belong to their respective communities. ‘They did this inside the parameters laid down by the English language, by European ideas of religion, European ideas of history, and European ideas of societies and nations’.61 In my latest book,62 I trace the development of Buddhist archaeology in colonial India and examine its impact on the reconstruction of India’s Buddhist past, and the making of a public and academic discourse around these archaeological discoveries. Michon explored the complex relationship between history, archaeology and religion in north-west India in the Early Historic period, so as to move beyond inherited theories on Buddhism.63 Thus, this brief survey of major trends in the study of the archaeology of Buddhism underscores the vibrancy of the field, though several themes remain to be explored, as discussed in the next section. 13

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‘Redefining’ Buddha dhamma Buddhism has come to be studied in chronological terms such as Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana, which are often seen as exclusive blocs or sects, generally in chronological sequence. Skilling has shown that the term ‘Theravāda’ itself indicating a ‘kind of Buddhism’ was a 19th-century creation. Theravāda is a term rarely found in early Buddhist texts and histories or in Early European writings. Pali and Sanskrit texts refer to ācāryavāda or nikāyāntara when referring to other schools or religious affiliations. At present, Thais, for example, define their religious identity as ‘Buddhist’ rather than as ‘Theravādins’.64 This monolithic category of Theravāda and its overuse in secondary literature has obscured the fact that ordination lineages in different parts of the Buddhist world were autonomous and formed a part of the ‘independent system of selfproduction of monastic communities’.65 They invoked their credentials of ordination at well-known and established monastic centres to either establish hierarchies or to claim legitimacy. While these lineages were linked in a global Buddhist interconnected network, they continued to maintain institutional distinctiveness at the local or regional level. Eighteen is obviously a standard figure and the number of monastic orders is likely to have been higher; some remain obscure and seem to have had little influence outside of their individual centres. The historicity and workings of these autonomous monastic orders is still unclear, but it is evident that they were neither under centralized control nor under a parent ordination lineage. The idea that Pāli texts are the oldest and most authentic is modern; it is a product of Western philological and text-­ comparative methodologies. . . . Not only must we consider the relations between the various schools and the Mahāyāna on the level of ideas, we must remember that the monastics who practised Mahāyāna took Śrāvaka vows, and shared the same monasteries with their fellow ordinands.66 The 18 nikāyas were distinguished on the basis of region, language, interpretation and teachers. The Buddha is said to have preached in Magadhi, the language of Magadha in eastern India. The school that we know today, which performs its rites and liturgies in a language which has come to be called Pali, was codified primarily by Buddhaghosa, a Buddhist scholar and commentator, in fifth-century Sri Lanka at the Mahavihara. This ordination lineage is the most widespread at present, while the Sarvāstivādin and Dharmaguptaka Vinaya lineages are 14

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active in Tibet and East Asia, respectively. We know very little of most of the others, though there are indications that several nikāyas were present at Nalanda. In Tibet and China, for example, the language used and the means through which the texts were authenticated were very different from those in large parts of India. These ordination lineages have left no historical records of their expansion or spread. There was no centralized authority to regulate or control them, and as the ordination lineages spread, new texts were produced and claims of authenticity of the texts arose.67 It is this spread of monastic ideals and lineages that we must try to identify and unearth in the archaeological record. It is also important to maintain a distinction between monastics and lay devotees. How were relations between the laity and lineage defined? Even if the monastics were Sarvāstivādin or belonged to Sīhalavaṁsa or some other lineage, was this affiliation to a particular nikāya also true of the laity? To what degree did the distinctions and identities of monastic lineages apply to the laity? These are questions to which there are no ready answers at present, but are crucial for an understanding of the interaction between the monks and the laity. Ritual performances, in which both participated, provided occasions for the monks to help the laity renew their vows.

Overview of the chapters This book moves away from available secondary writings on the archaeology of Buddhism in several ways: • A textual analysis of the Buddha’s biography as contained in the Lalitavistara, Mahāvastu, Aśvaghoṣa’s Buddhacarita and the Vinaya of the Mūlasarvāstivādins indicates that between the second and fourth century CE the narrative of the life of the Buddha was still in the process of formation.68 This was long after a veritable upsurge in the construction of stupas and viharas across almost all regions of the Indian subcontinent. Hence, the book desists from comparing and identifying sites based on textual sources. • The Ganga Valley and sites often associated with the life of the Buddha are no longer at the centre of the discussion in this book; instead regional characteristics are underscored with a view to providing a dynamic overview of the role of monks and nuns in the expansion and spread of sites. • Relic and image worship find place of prominence, as these were important features in the expansion of Buddhism across the subcontinent and into other parts of Asia. 15

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•

This book takes the position that the 19th- and early 20th-century colonial intervention transformed and reconfigured sites associated with early Buddhism. Hence, these intrusions need to be factored into any discussion of the past. • Rather than stressing the uniqueness of Buddhism in isolation, this study discusses it within a multireligious context. Thus, this book is an attempt to contextualize Buddhist religious architecture within its cultural landscape. The first issue that needs scrutiny is the spread of Buddhist monastic centres across the subcontinent in the early centuries of the Common Era. In secondary writings, this is attributed to royal patronage of the Mauryas or to trade. It is often assumed that Buddhism was a unitary phenomenon, which originated in urban centres in the Ganga Valley and spread to other regions. This is an issue that will be interrogated in Chapter 2. It is significant that rather than a chronological ordering of the Sangha into Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana, which are often seen as exclusive blocs or sects, Pali and Sanskrit texts refer to ācāryavāda or nikāyāntara when referring to other schools or religious affiliations. Traditions of writing and language, discussed in Chapter 3, formed the basis for regional diversity. The 18 nikāyas were distinguished on the basis of region, language, interpretation and teachers. Chapter 4 takes up the issue of the worship of the relics that constitute the core of Buddha dhamma. The relics of the Buddha are said to have been divided into eight soon after his parinirvān.a or passing away in the sixth century BCE. Textual accounts mention a second redistribution by the Mauryan King Ashoka in the third century BCE, when 84,000 stupas were built over the Buddha’s relics across the Buddhist world. Unlike sacred sites, relics are eminently portable; thus, they aid and abet the decentralization and propagation of the cult. At the same time, the popularity of the relics was easily exploited by the ecclesiastic, institutional and secular authorities who oversaw their dissemination.69 Archaeological excavations at Taxila provide testimony to the fact that the space around Dharmarajika stupa was not left unoccupied, but was instead filled in during the subsequent centuries with a number of smaller stupas, some of them containing bone relics, beads, coins and so on. A ring of 12 small stupas was built around the main stupa dated from 50 BCE to CE 40. There is evidence to suggest that some of the small stupas were repaired several times while others have decayed and only the plinth survives.70 There seems to have been a change in the mortuary landscape as evident from post-fifth-century monastic 16

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sites such as Ratnagiri in Odisha, Nalanda in Bihar, Paharpur in Bangladesh and so on. Inscribed texts or dhāran.īs were placed in many of the small stupas that crowded around the main stupa. These dhāran.īs were taken from specific groups of texts preoccupied with problems of death and means to avoid rebirth.71 The worship of the stupa and meditation are a few of the wellknown Buddhist rituals that are shared across Asia. Transformations in mantras and mudras are important to understand historical changes in the practice of Buddha dhamma over time, while pilgrimages to sites associated with the life of the Buddha help connect not only the different nikāyas but also draw them in closer interaction with the laity, as discussed in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 takes up the discussion of Buddhism in a multireligious milieu. Ashoka’s dhamma or religious doctrine clearly included both brahmanas and śramaṇa or Buddhist and Ajivika ascetics in the third century BCE and in a way set the tone for interaction between the two in later periods. It is this changing relationship between Buddhism and Hinduism and Jainism that forms the central theme of this chapter. The history of archaeology and art history is important to place in context some of the theories that emerged with regard to the relationship of Buddha dhamma with its contemporary religious doctrines in the 19th century and which have continued to be repeated. For example, the connection between architectural form and religious change was firmly established in 19th-century India and the quest for chronology securely rooted architecture within linear time. More importantly, this projected linear development of Buddhist-Jain-Hindu architecture propagated notions of origins and decline and hostility between the different religions of the subcontinent, coexistence being ruled out. The framework propounded by James Fergusson (1808–1886) has survived with extraordinary tenacity in the post-Independence period and has resulted in a general disregard for multireligious sites, shared architectural vocabulary and plurality of religious forms in the academic discourse – a theme that will be addressed. These shifts in focus help this study in moving away from the well-trodden path to raise fresh set of issues and challenges.

Notes 1 Recommendation on International Principles Applicable to Archaeological Excavations, UNESCO New Delhi Declaration, 5 December 1956, http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=13062&URL_DO=DO_ TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html accessed on 7 April 2017.

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2 Colin Mackenzie, Extracts of a Journal, Asiatick Researches, 9, 1807: 272–8. 3 J. Stephenson, Excursions to the Ruins and Site of an Ancient City Near Bakhra, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 4, 1835: 128–38. 4 J.-M. Lafont, Conducting Excavations and Collecting Coins in Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s Kingdom (1822–1839), Himanshu Prabha Ray edited, Coins in India: Power and Communication, Marg Publications, Mumbai, 2006: 98–107. 5 Philip Almond, The British Discovery of Buddhism; Donald S. Lopez, Jr. edited, Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism under Colonialism, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1995: 3. 6 Himanshu Prabha Ray, The Return of the Buddha: Ancient Symbols for a New Nation, Routledge, New Delhi, 2014. 7 It is significant that the Buddha and Buddhism are rarely mentioned in Graeco-Roman texts, and it was through early Christian writing that some information about Buddhism filtered into Europe. In the 16th and 17th centuries, as European missionaries travelled to Asia, they discovered a new religion that they labelled bauddhamatham or Buddha’s point of view. In addition, missions travelled to Tibet and Siam and the resulting accounts exposed Europe to writings of Buddhism. 8 Himanshu Prabha Ray, Colonial Archaeology in South Asia (1944–1948): The Legacy of Sir Mortimer Wheeler in India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2007. 9 Jacob N. Kinnard, The Emergence of Buddhism, Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2011: XI. 10 Gregory Schopen, An Old Inscription from Amaravati and the Cult of the Local Monastic Dead in Indian Buddhist Monasteries, Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1997: chapter IX. 11 Margaret Gouin, Tibetan Rituals of Death: Buddhist Funerary Practices, Routledge, London and New York, 2010. 12 Stephen C. Berkwitz, South Asian Buddhism: A Survey, Routledge, Abingdon and New York, 2010: 10. 13 Ye dhammā hetuppabhavā tesām hetum tathāgato Āha tesāñ ca yo nirodho evam vādī mahāsamaṇo ‘ti Those dhammas which arise from a cause The Tathāgata has declared their cause And that which is the cessation of them. Thus the great renunciant has taught. 14 Daniel Boucher, The Pratītyasamutpādagāthā and Its Role in the Medieval Cult of the Relics, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 14, 1, 1991: 1–27. 15 Eugène Burnouf, L’Introduction à l’histoire du buddhisme indien, Imprimerie Royal, Paris, 1844. 16 Hermann Oldenberg and William Hoey, The Buddha: His Life, His Doctrine, His Order, William and Norgate, London, 1882: 171–2. This was based on three suttas: Ambatta sutta (Digha Nikaya), Canki suttanta (Majjhima Nikaya) and Kutadanta sutta (Digha Nikaya). 17 Richard F. Gombrich, How Buddhism Began: The Conditioned Gen esis of the Early Teachings, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1997;

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Torkel Brekke, Religious Motivation and the Origins of Buddhism: A SocialPsychological Exploration of the Origins of a World Religion, Routledge – Curzon, London and New York, 2002. 18 R.S. Sharma, India’s Ancient Past, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2005: 130, 138: ‘Buddhism particularly appealed to the people of the nonVedic areas where it found virgin soil for conversion’. 19 Janice Leoshko, Sacred Traces: British Explorations of Buddhism in South Asia, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2003: 74–6. 20 Vidya Dehejia, Questioning Narrativity and Inscribed Labels: Buddhist Bharhut, Sannati, and Borobudur, Himanshu Prabha Ray edited, Sacred Landscapes in Asia: Shared Traditions, Multiple Histories, India International Centre and Manohar, New Delhi, 2007: 285–308. 21 John Marshall, Taxila: An Illustrated Account of Archaeological Excavations carried out at Taxila, Cambridge University Press, London, 1951: 234–5. 22 Daniel Michon, Archaeology and Religion in Early Northwest India: History, Theory and Practice, Routledge, London, New York and New Delhi, 2015: 163–81. 23 Alfred Foucher, The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central Asian Archaeology, Humphrey Milford, London, 1917: 2–3. 24 Alfred Foucher, L’art Greco-bouddhique du Gandhāra, (four parts), E. Leroux, Paris, 1905, 1918, 1922 and 1951. 25 Alfred Foucher, The Greek Origin of the Image of Buddha, Alfred Foucher edited, The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology, Paul Geuthner, Paris, 1917 (reprinted in New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1994). 26 Okakura Kakuzo, Ideal of the East, John Murray, London, 1905. 27 Stanley K. Abe, Inside the Wonder House: Buddhist Art and the West, Donald S. Lopez, Jr. edited, Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism under Colonialism, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1995: 79. 28 Victor Goloubew, Review of Alfred Foucher, L’art Greco-bouddhique du Gandhāra in four parts, E. Leroux, Paris, 1905, 1918, 1922, Bulletin de l’École française d’Extrême-Orient, 23, 1923: 438–54. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, The Origin of the Buddha Image, Art Bulletin, 9, 4, 1927: 287–9. 29 Vidya Dehejia, Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems, Ars Orientalis, 21, 1991: 45–66. 30 Susan Huntington, Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems: Another Look, Ars Orietnalis, 22, 1992: 111–56. 31 Klemens Karlsson, Face to Face with the Absent Buddha: The Formation of Buddhist Aniconic Art, Uppsala University Press, Uppsala, 1999. 32 Robert Daniel DeCaroli, Image Problems: The Origin and Development of the Buddha’s Image in Early South Asia, University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 2015. 33 Janice Leoshko, Sacred Traces: British Explorations of Buddhism in South Asia, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2003. 34 Ibid.: 123–130. 35 R. Thapar, From Lineage to State: Social Formation in the Mid-First Millennium BC in the Ganga Valley, Oxford University Press, New Delhi,

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1984. F.R. Allchin, The Archaeology of Early Historic South Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995. Dilip K. Chakrabarti, The Archaeology of Ancient Indian Cities, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1995. 36 B.G. Gokhale, Early Buddhism and the Urban Revolution, The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 5, 2, 1982: 7–22. 37 Kathleen D. Morrison, Trade, Urbanism, and Agricultural Expansion: Buddhist Monastic Institutions and the State in the Early Historic Western Deccan, World Archaeology, 27, 2, 1995: 203–21; Robin A.E. Coningham, Monks, Caves and Kings: A Reassessment of the Nature of Early Buddhism in Sri Lanka, World Archaeology, 27, 2, 1995: 222–42. 38 Dilip K. Chakrabarti, Buddhist Sites Across South Asia as Influenced by Political and Economic Forces, World Archaeology, 27, 2, 1995: 185–202. 39 James Fergusson, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, John Murray, London, 1876. 40 Dilip K. Chakrabarti, The Oxford Companion to Indian Archaeology: The Archaeological Foundations of Ancient India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 374–407. 41 Kurt A. Behrendt, The Buddhist Architecture of Gandhara, Brill, Leiden, 2004. Pia Brancaccio and Kurt Behrendt edited, Gandharan Buddhism: Archaeology, Art, Texts, UBC Press, Vancouver and Toronto, 2006. 42 Jason Hawkes and Akira Shimada, edited, Buddhist Stupas in South Asia, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2009. 43 Janice Leoshko, edited, Bodh Gaya: The Site of Enlightenment, Marg Publication, Mumbai, 1988. Nayanjot Lahiri, Bodh-Gaya: An Ancient Buddhist Shrine and Its Modern History (1891–1904), Timothy Insoll edited, Case Studies in Archaeology and Religion, Archaeopress, Oxford, 1999: 33–44. Alan Trevithick, British Archaeologists, Hindu Abbots, and Burmese Buddhists: The Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya, 1811–1877, Modern Asian Studies, 33, 3, July, 1999: 635–56; Alan Trevithick, The Revival of Buddhist Pilgrimage at Bodh Gaya (1811–1949), Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 2006. 44 A.K. Narain and T.N. Roy, Excavations at Rajghat (1957–58; 1960–65): Part I: The Cutting, Stratification and Structures, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 1976: 7. 45 V. Jayaswal, Ancient Varanasi: An Archaeological Perspectives (Excavations at Aktha), Aryan Books International, New Delhi, 2009. V. Jayaswal, The Buddhist Landscape of Varanasi, Aryan Books International, New Delhi, 2015. 46 Julia Shaw, Monasteries, Monasticism, and Patronage in Ancient India: Mawasa, a Recently Documented Hilltop Buddhist Complex in the Sanchi Area of Madhya Pradesh, World Archaeology, 27, 2, 1995: 111–30; Julia Shaw, Buddhist Landscapes in Central India: Sanchi Hill and Archaeologies of Religious and Social Change, c. 3rd Century BC to 5th Century AD, British Association for South Asian Studies, The British Academy, Leftcoast Press, London, 2007. 47 Julia Shaw and John Sutcliffe, Water Management, Patronage Networks and Religious Change: New Evidence from the Sanchi Dam Complex and Counterparts in Gujarat and Sri Lanka, South Asian Studies, 19, 2003: 73–104.

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48 Lars Fogelin, Archaeology of Early Buddhism, AltaMira Press, Lanham, Toronto, New York and Oxford, 2006. 49 Lars Fogelin, An Archaeological History of Early Buddhism, Oxford University Press, New York, 2015. 50 Umakant Mishra, Vajrayana Buddhism: Study in Social Iconography, Pratibha Prakashan, Delhi, 2009. 51 Akira Shimada, Early Buddhist Architecture in Context: The Great Stupa at Amaravati (ca. 300 BCE–300 CE), Brill, Leiden, 2013. 52 Garima Kaushik, Women and Monastic Buddhism in Early South Asia: Rediscovering the Invisible Believers, Routledge India, New Delhi, 2016. 53 Himanshu Prabha Ray, Monastery and Guild: Commerce under the Sātavāhanas, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1986. 54 Himanshu Prabha Ray, The Winds of Change: Buddhism and the Maritime Links of Early South Asia, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1994. 55 Himanshu Prabha Ray, edited, Sanghol and the Archaeology of Punjab, Aryan Books International, New Delhi, 2010. 56 Himanshu Prabha Ray, Buddhist Heritage of Odisha, National Monuments Authority and Aryan Books International, New Delhi, 2013. 57 Himanshu Prabha Ray, A ‘Chinese’ Pagoda at Nagapattinam on the Tamil Coast: Revisiting India’s Early Maritime Networks, India International Centre Occasional Paper Series, No. 66, 2015. 58 Donald S. Lopez, Jr., edited, Curators of the Buddha: The Study of Buddhism under Colonialism, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1995: 3. 59 Lopez, Curators of the Buddha: 7–8. 60 Torkel Brekke, Makers of Modern Indian Religions in the Late Nineteenth Century, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002. 61 Ibid.: 157. 62 Himanshu Prabha Ray, The Return of the Buddha, Routledge, New Delhi, 2014. 63 Daniel Michon, Archaeology and Religion in Early Northwest India: History, Theory, Practice, Routledge India, New Delhi, 2015. 64 Peter Skilling, Theravada in History, Pacific World, Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies, Third Series, 11, Fall, 2009: 61–94. 65 Ibid.: 63. 66 Peter Skilling, Scriptural Authenticity and the Śrāvaka Schools: An Essay Towards an Indian Perspective, The Eastern Buddhist, 41, 2, 2010: 5–6. 67 Ibid.: 14. 68 Max Deeg, Chips from a Biographical Workshop, Linda Covill, Ulrike Roesler and Sarah Shaw edited, Lives Lived, Lives Imagined, Wisdom Publications, Boston and The Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, 2010: 51–2. 69 Susan Naquin and Chűn-fang Yű, edited, Pilgrim and Sacred Sites in China, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1992. 70 Marshall, Taxila: 240–1. 71 Gregory Schopen, ‘Burial “Ad Sanctos” and the Physical Presence of the Buddha in Early Indian Buddhism,’ Religion, 17, 1987: 199.

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1 SPREAD OF BUDDHISM Regional patterns

The expansion of Buddhism is often seen as originating in the Ganga Valley, and then expanding across the subcontinent as also Asia. This model is largely based on later textual references to sites associated with the life of the Buddha and assumes that Buddhism was a single unified entity, a hypothesis that may be dated to Alexander Cunningham’s archaeological search for the historical Buddha in the 19th century. It is not validated by the textual evidence that underscores the development of the Buddha’s life story well into the first millennium CE, a period antedating the proliferation of monastic sites. Given the presence of several monastic orders and lineages, the expansion process was clearly far more complex than a simple matter of diffusion of the religion from sites in the Ganga Valley.1 In this chapter, I suggest that a key agency for the spread of Buddhism was that of the Sangha itself and its members, the learned monks and nuns (Fig. 1.1). An alternative scheme of categorization of sites is proposed in terms of the physical location of Buddhist monastic complexes such as in river valleys, coastal locations and hills. The Sanskrit and Pali terms used in texts are vihāra and ārāma, which translate as places of pleasure and gardens.2 I start with a discussion on the agency for the spread of Buddhism across the subcontinent and then move to peninsular India in order to emphasize the latter’s maritime orientation and changing patterns for the growth and transformation of monastic sites, while the final section discusses the location of monastic sites in the foothills of the Himalayas, which have continued well into the present. Those monks who created the Buddhist sutras had a very clear idea about the formalization of the new texts. The idea of remembering the places where the Buddha was supposed to have delivered a certain sutra at the beginning of each individual text was certainly an innovation. This happy decision to provide the texts with a geographical 22

Figure 1.1 Map showing distribution of Buddhist sites in the subcontinent

S pread of B uddhism : regional patterns

frame, quite in contrast to the earlier Vedic literature where very little is found on topography, preserved many place names of both villages and towns in the Buddhist literature. In addition, the wording introducing these place names tells us much about the development of the literary form of early Buddhist texts and about the historical memory of the early authors.3 The history of Buddha dhamma is not a history of ‘sects’ in the sense of broad-based lay groups, as in Reformation Europe. Instead, it is a history of monastic orders or nikāyas and 18 nikāyas are referred to in the Canon dated to the first century BCE. A nikāya is best described as a monastic order, and its lineage was transmitted through ordination within the Sangha. Members of a nikāya observed a shared code of rules for monks and nuns, the Prātimokṣa.4 It is also evident that different schools and doctrines of Buddhism coexisted at monastic sites without the followers making a distinction between the diverse traditions, and hence argues against a chronological framing of the socalled sects or schools.5 Gregory Schopen has convincingly shown the active participation of Buddhist clergy in the stupa and image cult and their mobility based on data from inscriptions, which refer to donations by monks and nuns.6 Thus, it is time to interrogate chronological terms such as Hinayana, Mahayana and Vajrayana, which are often seen as exclusive blocs or sects in the history of Buddhism.7 An issue that has continued to be debated is the nature of Ashoka’s dhamma, especially since Buddhist writings have associated it with the expansion of Buddha dhamma and kept the tradition of Ashoka alive. A large corpus of Buddhist writings developed around the legend of dhammarāja Ashoka.8 No doubt, the link with the Mauryan King Ashoka remains strong, especially since many of the sites marked by pillars or rock edicts later developed into flourishing monastic sites. Ashoka set up at least 20 pillars, including those inscribed with his edicts. The locations of these extend over the northern parts of the Indian subcontinent from the Nepal Terai to the districts of Champaran and Muzaffarpur in north Bihar, Sarnath near Varanasi and Kausambi near Allahabad, in the Meerut and Hissar districts and at Sanchi in central India. Nevertheless, it is abundantly clear from subsequent copies, later inscriptions engraved on many of the pillars and the shifting of pillars to other locations that a rich oral tradition had emerged around these, which helped keep the memory of the Mauryan king alive throughout history (Fig. 1.2). Early 20th-century archaeological excavations indicate that the first monument raised at Sarnath was an Ashokan pillar and an apsidal shrine was subsequently built in its vicinity (Fig. 1.3).9 The excavations 24

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Figure 1.2 Worship of the Ashokan pillar as shown at Stupa 3, Sanchi

indicate that around the middle of the first millennium CE, the inscribed portion of the pillar was covered under a floor. This is further corroborated by a late Gupta period inscription on the pillar.10 After this political initiative, only a few additions were made in the next two centuries, 25

S pread of B uddhism : regional patterns

Figure 1.3 Ashokan pillar at Sarnath unearthed during archaeological excavations in the early 20th century

including the dozen railing pillars (dated about the first century BCE) discovered near the Dhamekh stupa and some inscriptions. In the early centuries of the Common Era, Sarnath seems to have been enriched with new monasteries as well as a number of images including the red 26

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sandstone preaching Buddha established by Bhikshu Bala of Mathura. However, it was in the fourth to the sixth centuries CE that Sarnath reached a high watermark with a majority of the buildings dated to the middle of the first millennium CE, including the gigantic Dhamekh stupa. Also ascribable to this period are a number of sculptures and inscriptions as well as numerous renovations and restorations. Hence, over the centuries, an overall expansion occurred at the site of Sarnath, which continued well into the 12th century. The last historical record from Sarnath is the 12th-century inscription on a rectangular slab of sandstone written in Sanskrit. It consists of 26 verses and gives the genealogy of Kumaradevi, the queen of Govindachandra whose inscriptions range from 1114 to 1154 CE. Verse 21 mentions that the queen built a vihara at Dharmacakra or modern Sarnath and that she restored the image of Śrī Dharmacakra Jina or Lord of the Wheel of Law as it had existed in the days of dharma Ashoka. The inscription was composed by the poet Srikunda and engraved by the mason Vāmana. This 12th-century reference to the memory of the Mauryan King Ashoka indicates the longevity of the association of the king with major Buddhist sites in the Ganga Valley. Another issue relates to differences between contemporary sites. In an earlier paper, I have highlighted characteristic and unique features of two near-contemporary Buddhist sites across the subcontinent, such as Kanheri on Salsette island off the west coast of India and Amaravati in the Krishna Valley in Andhra Pradesh in southeast India, and suggested that the cultural antecedents as evident in the archaeological record help explain diversity.11 Amaravati and Kanheri provide the largest number of epigraphs in their respective regions, but an analysis of the inscriptions shows several contrasts; for example, unlike Amaravati, there is no evidence for royal patronage at Kanheri. Thus, there is a need to interrogate the agency for the spread of Buddhism as the existing models are inadequate to explain the proliferation of monastic sites in the early centuries of the Common Era and their sustained maritime orientation along both the east and west coasts of the Indian subcontinent.

The agency for the spread of Buddhism An appropriate example to start with is the hill of Sanchi on the banks of the river Betwa in central India. Although the place is not connected to any incident from the Buddha’s life, the main stupa was located in the vicinity of an Ashokan pillar and is one of several groups of stupas 27

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within a 10-kilometre radius, viz. at Sonari, Satdhara, Bhojpur and Andher. There is evidence for at least 16 dams built to provide irrigation facilities for rice cultivation in the area.12 The number of inscribed relic caskets found at Sanchi is striking and have been identified as those of Buddhist monks and teachers of the Hemavata School.13 Clearly, learned teachers and members of the Buddhist Sangha played a major role in the establishment of monastic sites and the spread of the religion. Alexander Cunningham was perhaps the first to remark on the widespread distribution across north India of gigantic Buddhist images made of red sandstone at Mathura.14 Lohuizen-de Leeuw added to this list and has shown that images from Mathura have been found over an extensive area stretching from Chandraketugarh in Bengal in the east to Butkara and Shaikhan Dheri in the north-west; from Lumbini and Tilaurakot in the north-east to Amaravati in the south. The spread in the west is defined by sites such as Osian and Noh.15 Within this wide cultural sphere of Mathura, certain images stand out such as the huge Buddha images which are inscribed and dated; these provide important clues as to the agency involved in the transportation and installation of the Buddha images. Schopen has argued that as in the case of the Buddhist monastic complexes at Bharhut and Sanchi, at Mathura, the western Deccan caves and Amaravati also, the donative inscriptions where the name of the donor has been preserved indicate that almost half of the donors were monks or nuns.16 Members of the Buddhist Sangha not only contributed to the setting up of stupas and images, but more importantly also controlled them.17 Many of them indicate their knowledge of religious texts by use of terms such as bhāṇaka (reciter), caturvidya (who knows the fourfold scriptures), dharmakathika (preacher of dharma), prāhaṇīkas (practisers of meditation) and trepiṭakas (those knowledgeable in the Tipitakas). These examples show the active role played by monks and nuns in merit-making activities connected with the stupa cult and the cult of images and their close association in all these with the laity. In the context of the inscriptions from Mathura, it is pertinent that at least two-thirds of the inscriptions that refer to the setting up of images and where the name of the donor survives are by monks and nuns. Thus, the data from inscribed and dated Buddha images show that monks and nuns were actively involved in setting up of images and introducing their worship. Bhiksu Bala and his pupils were known to have set up images of the Buddha at Sarnath, Kausambi and Sravasti in the Ganga Valley. It is also evident from the inscriptions that puja was performed often for the welfare and happiness of 28

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one’s parents18 and companions.19 This was true also for north-western India and the Deccan where monks introduced images of the Buddha into the monastic cave complexes of Kanheri and Kuda. This data challenges the generally held view that attributes the introduction of the worship of the Buddha image to the laity and popular demand. This also points to another uniqueness of images from Mathura starting from the second century CE, viz. that they are more frequently inscribed and precisely dated (Fig. 1.4). To date, 42 inscribed images are known from Mathura. Of these, 17 were donated by lay persons and 25 by monks or nuns.20 The earliest of these images were set up by Bhiksu Bala in the third year of Kanishka at Sarnath, 300 miles away from Mathura as the crow flies. Transporting the image and the enormous stone umbrella could not have been an easy task as the 10 feet high and three feet wide image was huge and set up at the place where the Buddha is said to have walked. The Sravasti image is similarly large and is 11 feet 8 inches high. The site of Sravasti is more than 200 miles away from Mathura as the crow flies.21 The earliest dated cult image to be set up at Kausambi was donated by a nun, Buddhamitrā, and was a large standing image also from Mathura, which is more

Figure 1.4 Inscription of Kushan King Huvishka dated 123 CE on a pedestal of Buddha image from Mathura, now in Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai, Maharashtra

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than 200 miles away. The inscriptions inform us that of the 19 individuals associated with the transportation and installation of Mathura images in the Kushana period, 6 were monks, 6 were nuns, 2 were laymen and 5 were laywomen. Thus, women played a significant role in these matters.22 Post-Ashokan texts such as the Apadāna are replete with descriptions of stupa construction and relic worship conceived within a cosmic soteriological framework. There are references to individuals or groups of individuals organizing festivals at the time when construction or expansion or renovation of a stupa was proposed and similarly when it was completed. Walters argues that texts relating to the Buddha’s biography were recited on these occasions as well as performed. Thus, the setting up of the stupa was an event when the king, the lay devotee, the stone carver and the monks and nuns came together in celebration of the life of the Buddha.23 The complex dynamics of survival of ancient relics, monuments and religious architecture, their recovery and resuscitation through the discipline of archaeology in the 19th and 20th centuries and imbuing them with new meanings is a process that has generally been neglected in historical discourse or else has often been subsumed under the overarching category of nationalism. It is these complexities of the creation of novel methodologies and trans-national interests that mark the study of Buddhism in the last 200 years.24 The issue to be addressed at this stage is: how does archaeology help in working out local and regional specificities of monastic sites across Asia within the overarching aegis of the Buddhist Dhamma?

Buddhism in Gandhara One of the earliest excavations of a Buddhist stupa in the north-west of the subcontinent was in 1830 and brought Manikyala, an extensive site in the vicinity of Taxila, located on the Grand Trunk Road in present-day Pakistan, into the limelight, as also the focus on what came to be termed the Graeco-Buddhist or Gandhara art dated from first to sixth centuries CE. Art historians25 define the region based on the style of art that developed and make a distinction between the core area of the art that flourished in the Peshawar Valley, bounded to the north and west by foothills, to the east by the Indus River and to the south by flatlands, though in the 19th century it was used for a much larger area encompassing eastern Afghanistan, Punjab, the Swat Valley and Kashmir. More recently, the term Greater Gandhara has been coined that covers neighbouring regions such as Swat and other river valleys 30

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to the north, the area around Taxila to the east and the eastern edge of Afghanistan to the west.26 The distinguishing features of the region include the dominance of the Kharoṣṭhī script as well as the Gāndhārī language. The earliest extant documents in the Kharoṣṭhī script are the edicts of Emperor Ashoka, and Juhyung Rhi has proposed a strong connection between the visual tradition of the region with the script and the language.27 Rhi also argues against the traditional opinion of patronage being provided by the Kushanas for the spread of Buddhism in the region and roots for regional identity with choices very different from those being made in Mathura. Of all the sculptural remains collected in museums, perhaps the one that attracted most attention was the image of the Buddha himself. John and Susan Huntington have argued that Foucher’s essay started a chain of several unfounded claims with reference to early Buddhist art, one of these being the assumption that there was reticence against including figurative images of Śākyamuni Buddha in pre-Gandhara art, which Gandhara sculptors help overcome.28 This is further supported by Susan Huntington’s studies showing that ‘modern Western authors created categories and hierarchies of art whereby the Indic art was judged to be inferior compared with what were held to be the higher aesthetic and communicative standards of the European ­tradition’ – aniconism being one of them.29 It has also been convincingly shown that relics were the object of veneration in early Buddhism, with a stupa containing a relic being accorded higher ritual status and that this was accepted by all nikāyas. Within this framework, images of the Buddha had secondary status as compared to the relic stupa. In the majority of Gandharan monasteries in the Peshawar Valley, for example, Buddha images were usually placed in a series of multiple chapels surrounding the court of the main stupa.30 Rhi has shown that one possibility of increasing the value of a Buddha image was by installing a relic in it and that this was a practice followed in Gandhara as evident from an examination of images. Occasionally, a hole has been detected in the usnisa of stone Buddha images and it is suggested that this functioned as a receptacle for the relics. ‘Combined together, a relic and an image would have become a more efficacious means to communicate with the worshiper: an image could be enlivened by a relic, and a relic could take a more concrete communicable form through an image’.31 Clearly, images and art objects from Gandhara cannot be discussed in isolation and need to factor in developments in other parts of the subcontinent. In the next section, I shift the focus to the coastal location of many of the monastic complexes in peninsular India. 31

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Coastal orientation of early Buddhist sites in peninsular India The peninsular part of Gujarat is referred to as Saurashtra and forms a rocky tableland with an altitude of 300–600 metres fringed by coastal plains. It is known for its black cotton soil making it a fertile tract for agriculture dissected by various rivers that flow in all directions. Gujarat has a total coastline of 1,600 kilometres with the Gulf of Kachchh and the Gulf of Cambay providing major inlets. The Girnar hills, which contain the site of Junagadh, are important for pilgrimage to the Buddhists, Hindus and the Jainas. The hills are marked by five peaks and the site of three reservoirs. The rounded boulder on which the Ashokan edicts are inscribed is situated at the entrance to the valley near the edge of what was once Sudarsana Lake.32 Also carved within the hills are a series of caves: the Khapra Kodia, Baba Piyara and the caves at Uperkot. The late Professor R. N. Mehta explored the Junagadh area and located an earthen bund which acted as a dam across the Suvarnarekha River. It seems to represent the dam of the lake Sudarsana, mentioned in the Junagadh inscription of Rudradaman and Skandagupta.33 In the Vankia hills at Sana, 25 kilometres from Una in district Amreli, 62 rock shelters were excavated at different levels including a caitya cave and water cisterns.34 In the coastal regions of Gujarat, Buddhist caves were excavated from the second century BCE to the sixth century CE. Rock-cut caves are known from Kateshwar and five from Siyot in Lakhpat taluka in the extreme northwest of Kutch, and also bronze images of the Buddha have been found datable from fourth century to seventh century CE. Other coastal sites in south Gujarat include Talaja in Bhavnagar district with 30 rock-cut caves and Kadia Dungar near Bharuch. Starting from modest beginnings in the form of apsidal caityas dated fourth to the third centuries BCE, more than 1,000 Buddhist caves were excavated in the hills of the Western Ghats and its offshoots at about 50 centres in the western Deccan (Fig. 1.5).35 Broadly, these sites are located overlooking creeks and coastal settlements and at passes along overland routes. Of these, 19 centres are significant in terms of providing inscriptional data and have yielded a total of more than 200 inscriptions. As compared to this exuberance of rock-cut architecture, a majority of the monastic complexes in the Andhra Pradesh region are structural and are concentrated along the coast with a scatter along the inland route in the Telangana area. Nearly 140 sites are listed in the region and the distribution along the coast from Srikakulam in the

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Figure 1.5 Map of the Western Deccan showing locations of Buddhist sites

north to Ramatirtham and Nandalur in the south is quite striking. Of these Buddhist centres, 30 sites have yielded stone inscriptions. A third-century CE Prakrit inscription from Nagarjunakonda in Andhra Pradesh refers to the fraternities of monks at Tosali, Palur and Puspagiri, identified as major Buddhist centres in Odisha.36 Recent archaeological research has brought to light several Buddhist sites in coastal Odisha, though the major expansion occurred from 5th to 13th centuries CE, when more than 100 Buddhist sites were known in the region.37 Several sites have earlier beginnings, one of these being Langudi, on a low hill running from north to south, located in the plains of the Mahanadi Delta about 90 kilometres from Bhubaneswar in the Jajpur district. The river Kelua, a tributary of the Brahmani, the second largest river system in Odisha, meanders across the northeast and eastern parts of the Langudi Hill. Thirty-four rock-cut stupas on the northern spur of the hill have been dated second–third century CE, though most of the sculptures are dated from seventh to ninth century CE. Archaeological excavations at Lalitagiri have provided

33

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evidence for a second–first-century BCE stupa, an apsidal shrine built over the remains of an earlier structure, inscriptions in KushanaBrahmi, Gupta and post-Gupta script, as also a Gupta coin. Relics in gold foil were found at the site.38 A second-century CE Brahmi inscription from the pavement of the apsidal shrine records the completion of a seat by several lay devotees and a nun. Also found from the site were dull red ware sherds with inscriptions dated first century BCE.39 The 4th–14th century period of the existence of the monastic centre at Amaravati on the Andhra Pradesh coast has perhaps been the most neglected, though there is no doubt that the site continued in existence. The 4th-6th century bronze standing Buddha images from the site are now at the Government Museum, Chennai, while the later period (8th-9th century) limestone sculptures of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, Manjusri, Vajrapani and Cunda are in the British Museum.40 In the 18th century, Colin Mackenzie recorded two major inscriptions from Amaravati, but one of these is now lost, while the other 20-line seventh–eighth-century epigraph in Sanskrit dealing with matters of Buddhist principles is now in the collection of the British Museum. There is little information on the physical characteristics of the shrines that housed these images or the settlements around the site. Walter Elliot’s drawings and sketches made during his work at Amaravati in 1845 would suggest the presence of a shrine complex, though its date seems uncertain. In addition to the lower Krishna Valley, Buddhism continued to flourish at the sites of Sankaram, near Anekkapalle, 50 kilometres from Visakhapatnam on the highway to Vijayawada and Ramatirtham, 15 kilometres north-east of Visakhapatnam. A ninth-century inscription from the site records gifts to the Buddhist monastic establishment. Bojjanakonda, the eastern of the two hills at Sankaram, is dotted with a series of rock-cut and occasionally brick-built stupas at different terraces.41 Further north along the Andhra Pradesh coast, the site of Salihundam is situated on a hill about 8 kilometres from the ancient port of Kalingapatnam located on the sea coast. Images of Marici, Bhrkuti, Tara and Manjusri have been found at the site, indicating continuity of the Buddhist monastic establishment into the early medieval period and influence from the art and iconography of ancient Odisha. A large corpus of Buddhist sculpture termed the ‘Pala Sena School of Art’ was collected from sites such as Bodh Gaya, Nalanda, Kurkihar, Mainamati, Paharpur and Mahastahgarh in the early 20th century and housed in museums. It is dated from 750 to 1200 CE.42 A major site excavated in West Bengal between 1993–1994 and 2004–2005 is that 34

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of Jagjivanpur, which was discovered on the chance find of a ninthcentury copper plate, which referred to a land donation to a Buddhist monastery by Mahendrapala, one of the Pala kings.43 Exploration around the village led to the discovery of five mounds and one of them, viz. Tulabhita, close to the palaeo channel of the river Mahananda was taken up for excavation. The excavations brought to light a brickbuilt Buddhist monastery dated from 9th to the 12th centuries CE. The most impressive artefacts from the monastic site are the terracotta plaques representing gods, men, animals and sacred objects. Ten years of excavation at the Tulabhita mound alone has brought into light 387 terracotta plaques, while a few more are known from other collections, recovered probably before the excavation at the site was undertaken in 1992. This large corpus of terracotta plaques bears close similarity with those recovered in the excavations at Paharpur in Bangladesh.44 The beginnings of Buddhist monasticism on the Tamil Nadu coast date to the early centuries of the Common Era, when Kaveripumpattinam emerged as an important coastal centre, which continued into the medieval period. Archaeological excavations at the site from 1962 to 1967 led to the recovery of a monastery dated fourth and fifth centuries CE. A small bronze image of a seated Buddha was found in one of the cells of the vihara, while Buddhapada in limestone were uncovered in the vicinity. A temple was excavated further south of the vihara and is estimated to have been more than one storey in height, with steps leading to the top. In 1927, eighth- and ninth-century gilt bronzes of Buddha and Maitreya had been recovered from the site of Melaiyur in Kaverippumpattinam. Further south was the site of Nagapattinam, which will be discussed in detail in the final chapter. Thus, the maritime orientation of a large number of Buddhist sites in Gujarat and peninsular India is striking. This is further reinforced by the presence of the largest and longest lasting centres along the coast such as Kanheri on the west coast; Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh; and Ratnagiri in Odisha. Ratnagiri is one of the longest lasting monastic complexes in the area, as its stupa is known to have been repaired in the 16th century.45 Royal patronage of Buddhist cave sites such as Nasik46 and Ajanta is clearly reflected in the sculptural programme and the inscribing or royal records. Patronage at the coastal sites of Amaravati, Kanheri and Ratnagiri was varied and it is being suggested here that this influenced to an extent the sculptural representations. The clustering of representations of Avalokitesvara as a saviour of devotees from the eight dangers including shipwreck in the western Deccan caves is striking. Several renditions were made and over 12 painted and/or sculpted versions are known from Ajanta (caves 2, 4, 35

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6, 10A, 11, 17, 20 and 26),47 4 from Kanheri (caves 2, 41, 66 and 90), 1 from Aurangabad (Cave 7), 1 from Pitalkhora (Cave 3) and 2 from Ellora,48 though nowhere is the composition so elaborate and the treatment so elegant as in Cave 90 at Kanheri. A striking feature of Buddhism in Odisha is the lack of narrative sculptures, one of the few exceptions being the aṣṭamahāprātihārya sculpture, now in the Raghunatha Temple at Solampur.49 Tara was a popular deity in Odisha, especially at Ratnagiri, where she is found sculpted on 99 niches of monolithic stupas. She is represented both in her seated lalitāsana form and in various other types described in the Sādhanamālā. From the seventh to the twelfth centuries, Tara is shown as the saviour from a variety of dangers including shipwreck in sculpture as also in epigraphs. An early representation occurs in Cave 9 of Ellora in western India and two standing images are known from Ratnagiri. She is invoked in several inscriptions, such as the Nalanda record of Vipula Srimitra dated to the first half of the 12th century, as also the Kalasan inscription from Java. It would then seem that even though there were several similarities between contemporary sites, still every site placed emphasis on certain images suggesting local preferences for cults and specific texts. In her study of the inscriptions and images found at Ratnagiri, Nancy Hock has shown the wide range and type of texts that were in use at the site from the 7th to the 13th centuries. She makes a distinction between Mantrayana, which relies on kriyā and caryā tantras and an extensive use of dhāraṇīs and Vajrayana tantras. The kriyā and caryā tantras emphasized the maintenance and worship of stupas, and identical funerary and meritorious practices were prevalent in Mahayana, Mantrayana and Vajrayana texts. It is also evident that at least two tantras of the Anuttarayoga group were in use at Ratnagiri by the ninth and tenth centuries, though a majority of the excavated images continued to be derived from the kriyā tantras.50 In this brief overview of Buddhist monastic sites, perhaps the only region that shows continuity of Buddhist monastic centres well into the present is that of the western Himalayas, as discussed in the next section.

Tabo monastery: between Kashmir and Tibet The Tabo monastery, situated in the village of the same name, lies at 3,280 metres altitude near the Tibetan (Chinese) border in the secluded Spiti Valley, just north of the Sutlej River in the present state of Himachal Pradesh and is one of the oldest continuously functioning Buddhist centres in India. It is bound by Ladakh in the north, Lahaul 36

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and Kullu districts in the west and south-east, respectively, and by Tibet and the Kinnaur district in the east. Located at a distance of 275 kilometres from Kullu, archaeological data indicates that four major routes traversed the region from the third century BCE onwards. Inscriptions on boulders in Brahmi and Kharoṣṭhī scripts, coins and temple remains have been found along the routes. The complex at Tabo includes nine temples constructed over several centuries from 996 to 1908 CE and is dotted with 23 stupas.51 The vihara comprising of a mukha-maṇḍapa, a main hall and a square garbha-gṛha or sanctum was the earliest structure at the site dated 996 CE. Renovation and repair was undertaken in 1042 CE. The temple of Maitreya and the smaller temple of Brom-ston were added in the last quarter of the 11th or the beginning of the 12th century CE. It was in the second half of the 15th century that Tabo was taken over by the yellow-robed sect and has remained under its dominance until the present.52 Although there have been significant changes in Buddhist practice during the last millennium, thanks to the good state of preservation and the abundance of primary documentation, it is still possible to trace some of the traditions connected with the first hundred years of the monastery.53 Tabo was first visited in 1909 by the German Tibetologist A. H. Francke (1817–1930) of the ASI,54 and subsequently by Giuseppe Tucci and Eugenio Ghersi in the 1930s. The monks at Tabo today belong to a different order and there have been changes in lineages over time. However, the iconographic programme and the sculptural maṇḍalas retain the original theme of the temple. Klimburg-Salter has long argued that ‘as a result of the advance of Muslim armies, trade was re-routed over the trans-Himalayan region through present day northern Pakistan and Ladakh. Thus a distinctive esoteric Buddhist art evolved in the 10th–13th centuries in the monastic centres located along these cultural corridors or trade routes through the western Himalayan region’.55 These monastic centres were avenues for translation projects undertaken by Indian and Tibetan monks and played the role of intermediaries between the communities of India and Tibet. The earliest inscriptions from Tabo dated CE 996 retain nonTibetan names of the monastic community, but from the 10th century onwards, the Spiti Valley was the scene of intensive missionary activity from western Tibet.56 The author of the inscription of CE 996 in 37

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the largest temple at Tabo (gTsug lag khan) was a monk of the Tabo community who refers to the temple’s establishment and renovation.57 A second epigraph in the du khan or assembly hall contains a clear message that ‘no layman, be he king, minister, lord or whosoever is entitled to physically or verbally punish or insult a monk, regardless of the latter’s moral status’.58 Tabo has also yielded a rich collection of manuscripts numbering 35,374 folios, which were found wrapped in six large bundles and stored in the assembly hall. Though the manuscripts are in a bad state of preservation and often fragmentary, preliminary research shows that they indicate an independent line of transmission of Buddhism as compared to the development of the Tibetan canon. To date, 49 fragmentary copies of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā have been identified in the collection, while miscellaneous sūtras mostly of Mahayana affiliation constitute the next largest body of the texts.59 The narrative murals in the Tabo complex derive both from Sanskrit texts, such as the Gaṇḍavyūha sūtra, Sukhāvati vyūha, Lalitavistara and Āryabhadrakalpika sūtra, and Tibetan Buddhist texts. The significance of Tabo is thus multidimensional. On the one hand, it provides evidence for a long period of continuous Buddhist activity in the Western Himalayas, while on the other, its location on trade routes links it to several contiguous regions of Buddhist activity such as Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and eastern India. These connections have often been disregarded and need to be highlighted here, as there is evidence of frequent travels along these routes both by trading groups and by pilgrims, as mentioned earlier. Of relevance to this section is the evidence for the import of textiles from western India to Himachal Pradesh in the 11th century, in the form of cloth used as cover to the ceiling of the Assembly Hall and the apse in the Tabo Main Temple.60 This leaves no doubt to the larger network within which the Tabo monastery was integrated and which also influenced the sculptural programme at the site. The murals of phase I, dated from CE 996 to 1000, draw on the Mahayana Gaṇḍavyūha sūtra and Prince Sudhana’s quest for knowledge. The narrative is set in peninsular India and describes the various kalyanmitra or ‘spiritual friends’ whom Sudhana meets during his journey.61 The starting point of Sudhana’s journey was Dhanyakara, often identified with Dhanyakataka in Andhra Pradesh. Historicity is of little account in this Buddhist scripture as the discourse is presented by trans-historical, symbolic beings representing various aspects of universal enlightenment. Trans-locality and long-distance pilgrimage and devotional networks have been an enduring feature of cultural life 38

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in South and Southeast Asia for many centuries. The popularity of the Gaṇḍavyūha sūtra both at Tabo and in East and Southeast Asia, for example, its prominent representation on the Buddhist monument at Borobudur in central Java, reinforces this trend. Several conclusions are valid at this juncture. First, the monastic sites underwent an irreversible change during the process of discovery in the colonial period and this process is crucial to an understanding of the archaeological context of the site. Second, the dynamism of the religious process associated with the setting up of the monastic centre can only be comprehended through an analysis of their historical trajectories firmly rooted as these were in regional and local cultural traditions. Finally, the stupa formed the nucleus of interaction between the monastics and the lay community, and the diversity of this interaction is evident from the range of burials, cairns and memorial slabs associated with the stupa landscape. How do these conclusions match sites on the island of Sri Lanka? In contrast to peninsular India where the earliest evidence of Buddhist presence is generally provided by shrines, in Sri Lanka, the first phase of Buddhist activity was associated with the donation of caves for residence in the large outcrops of granite scattered in the north and east. A majority of these are slightly enlarged natural caves and incised just below the drip ledge is the record of donation.62 Inscribed in the early Brahmi script, in the oldest Sinhalese language, these bear the stereotyped formula of dedication63 to the Buddhist monks. Around the first century CE, there was a change both in the script, the nature of the inscriptions and their location. These now occur increasingly on rocks and record donations of land, tanks, revenue from taxes to the Sangha, for example, the Rajagala rock inscription records the gift of two villages for supplying food and monastic robes to the monks residing there.64 A second transformation in the script is evident between the fourth and seventh centuries because of continuing contacts with India. After the seventh century, inscriptions often contained extracts from Buddhist texts and eulogies to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in Sanskrit, as evident from the Tiriyaya Sanskrit inscription.65 It is this continuation of key central concepts in Buddhism that need to be recognized, and also interconnectedness with other sites across South Asia, which has been underscored several times in this chapter. In addition to the central role of monks and nuns in the spread of Buddhism, another issue that remains under-researched is that of language and identity of the nikāyas. Oskar von Hinűber and Juhyung Rhi have written about the important contribution of language in forging 39

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identity within different schools of Buddhism.66 This is an issue raised again in the next chapter.

Notes 1 Stephen C. Berkwitz, The Expansion of Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia, Volkhard Krech and Marion Steinicke edited, Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe: Encounters, Notions and Comparative Perspectives, Brill, Leiden and Boston, 2012: 223–34. Tansen Sen, edited, Buddhism across Asia: Networks of Material, Intellectual and Cultural Exchange, Volume 1, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies & Manohar, Singapore and New Delhi, 2014. 2 Gregory Schopen, The Buddhist ‘Monastery’ and the Indian Garden: Aesthetics, Assimilations, and the Siting of Monastic Establishments, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 126, 4, 2006: 487–505. 3 Oskar von Hinűber, Hoary Past and Hazy Memory: On the History of Early Buddhist Texts, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 29, 2, 2006 (2008): 197 [193–210]. 4 Peter Skilling, Scriptural Authenticity and the Śrāvaka schools: An Essay towards an Indian Perspective, The Eastern Buddhist, 41, 2, 2010: 1–47. 5 Tansen Sen, The Spread of Buddhism, Benjamin Z. Kedar and Merry Wiesner-Hanks edited, Cambridge World History, Volume 5, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2015: 447–79. 6 Gregory Schopen, The Stupa Cult and the Extant Pali Vinaya, Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1997: 86–98. 7 Peter Skilling, Theravada in History, Pacific World, Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies, Third Series, 11, Fall, 2009: 61–94. 8 Patrick Olivelle, Janice Leoshko and Himanshu Prabha Ray, edited, Reimagining Aśoka: Memory and History, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2012. 9 Ajai Shankar, edited, Indian Archaeology 1992–93: A Review, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, 1997: 99. 10 Vidula Jayaswal, Mauryan Pillars of the Middle Ganga Plain: Archaeological Discoveries of Sarnath-Varanasi and Chunar, Patrick Olivelle, Janice Leoshko and Himanshu Prabha Ray edited, Reimagining Asoka: Memory and History, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2012: 229–57. 11 Himanshu Prabha Ray, Inscribed Pots, Emerging Identities: The Social Milieu of Trade, Patrick Olivelle edited, Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE, Oxford University Press, New York, 2006: 113–43. 12 Julia Shaw and John Sutcliffe, Water Management, Patronage Networks and Religious Change: New Evidence from the Sanchi Dam Complex and Counterparts in Gujarat and Sri Lanka, South Asian Studies, 19, 2003: 73–104. 13 Michael Willis, Buddhist Reliquaries from Ancient India, The British Museum Press, London, 2000: 89–94. 14 Alexander Cunningham, Report of Gangetic provinces from Dabaon to Bihar, Archaeological Survey of India – Report XI, Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1875–76 and 1877–78: 75.

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15 J.E. Van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, Gandhara and Mathura: Their Cultural Relationship, Pratapaditya Pal edited, Aspects of Indian Art, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1972: 27–43. 16 Gregory Schopen, Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1997: 64. 17 Schopen, Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks: 34. 18 H. Lueders, Mathura Inscriptions, Gottingen, Germany, 1961: nos. 29, 90. 19 Ibid.: no. 44. 20 Schopen, Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks: 242. 21 Ibid.: 244. 22 Ibid.: 249. 23 Jonathan S. Walters, Stūpa, Story and Empire: Constructions of the Buddha Biography in Early Post-Aśokan India, Juliane Schober edited, Sacred Biography in the Buddhist Tradition of South and Southeast Asia, Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi, 2002: 169–71. 24 Himanshu Prabha Ray, The Return of the Buddha: Ancient Symbols for a New Nation, Routledge, London, New York and New Delhi, 2014. 25 W. Zwalf, A Catalogue of the Gandhara Sculpture in the British Museum, Volume I, British Museum Press, London, 1996: 12–13. Kurt A. Behrendt, The Buddhist Architecture of Gandhara, Brill, Leiden, 2004: 12. 26 Richard Salomon, Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Gandhāra, The British Library, London, 1999: 3. 27 Juhyung Rhi, On the Peripheries of Civilizations: The Evolution of a Visual Tradition in Gandhāra, Journal of Central Eurasian Studies, 1, December 2009: 1–13. 28 John C. Huntington, The Origin of the Buddha Image: Early Image Traditions and the Concept of Buddhadarśanapunyā, A.K. Narain edited, Studies in Buddhist Art of South Asia, Kanak, New Delhi, 1985: 23–58. 29 Susan L. Huntington, Buddhist Art through a Modern Lens: A Case of a Mistaken Scholarly Trajectory, Julia A.B. Hegewald edited, In The Shadow of the Golden Age: Art And Identity in Asia from Gandhara to the Modern Age, E.B. Verlag, Berlin, 2014: 81 [79–114]. 30 Juhyung Rhi, Images, Relics, and Jewels: The Assimilation of Images in the Buddhist Relic Cult of Gandhāra: Or Vice Versa, Artibus Asiae, 65, 2, 2005: 169–211. 31 Juhyung Rhi, Images, Relics, and Jewels: The Assimilation of Images in the Buddhist Relic Cult of Gandhāra: Or Vice Versa, Artibus Asiae, 65, 2, 2005: 203. 32 K.V. Soundararajan, Junagadh, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, 1985: 12. 33 B. B. Lal, edited, Indian Archaeology – A Review (IAR) 1967–68, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, 1968: 13. 34 K. Krishnan, Rukshana Nanji and Atusha Irani, Revisiting Buddhist Gujarat, Government of Gujarat, Gujarat, 2010: 97. 35 Himanshu Prabha Ray, Monastery and Guild: Commerce under the Satavahanas, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1986. 36 J. Ph. Vogel, Prakrit Inscriptions from a Buddhist Site at Nagarjunikonda, Epigraphia Indica, XX, 1929–30, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, 1983 [reprint]: 23.

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37 Debala Mitra, Ratnagiri (1958–1961), Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India No. 80, 2 Volumes, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, 1981 (Volume 1) and 1983 (Volume 2). 38 B. Bandyopadhyay, Udayagiri – 2, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, 2007: 9–10. 39 M. C. Joshi edited, Indian Archaeology – a Review 1987–88, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, 1993: 88. 40 Robert Knox, Amaravati: Buddhist Sculpture from the Great Stupa, The British Museum, London, 1992: 215–22. 41 Debala Mitra, Buddhist Monuments, Sahitya Sansad, Calcutta, 1980: 219. 42 Susan Huntington, The ‘Pala Sena’ Schools of Sculpture, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1984: 5–7. 43 Gautam Sengupta, A General’s Act of Piety: A Newly Discovered Buddhist Monastery of Ancient Bengal, Marg, 50, 4, 1999: 17–86. Amal Roy, Jagjivanpur Excavation Report, Calcutta: Directorate of Archaeology and Museum, 2012. 44 Sandrine Gill, Spatial Organization of Paharpur Buddhist Establishment, Himanshu Prabha Ray edited, Sacred Landscapes in Asia: Shared Traditions, Multiple Histories, Manohar, New Delhi, 2007: 169–98. 45 T.E. Donaldson, Iconography of the Buddhist Sculpture of Orissa, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and Abhinav Publications, New Delhi, 2001: 57. 46 Himanshu Prabha Ray, The King and the Monastery: The Pandu Lena at Nasik, Pia Brancaccio edited, Living Rock: Buddhist, Hindu and Jain Cave Temples in the Western Deccan, Marg, Volume 64, Number 4, June, Marg Publications, Mumbai, 2013: 44–59. 47 Walter M. Spink, Ajanta: History and Development, Volume III, The Arrival of the Uninvited, Brill, Leiden, 2005: 5. 48 M.E. Leese, Ellora and the Development of the Litany Scene in Western India, R. Parimoo et al. edited, Ellora Caves, Sculptures and Architecture, Books and Books, Delhi, 1988: 164–79. 49 T.E. Donaldson, Iconography of the Buddhist Sculpture of Orissa, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and Abhinav Publications, New Delhi, 2001: 94. 50 Nancy Hock, Buddhist Ideology and the Sculpture of Ratnagiri, seventh through thirteenth centuries, unpublished PhD thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1987: 4. 51 Laxman S. Thakur, Buddhism in the Western Himalayas: A Study of the Tabo Monastery, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2001: 59. 52 Ibid.: 83. 53 Deborah E. Klimburg-Salter, Tabo Monastery: Art and History, donation to Tabo Monastery from the Austrian Science Fund, Interdisciplinary Research Unit: ‘The Cultural History of the Western Himalaya, 10th to 14th Centuries’, Vienna, 2005: 7. 54 A.H. Francke, Antiquities of Indian Tibet, ASI New Imperial Series XXXVIII, Superintendent Government Printing, Calcutta, 1914. 55 Deborah E. Klimburg-Salter, Esoteric Buddhist Art of the Western Himalayas, Deborah E. Klimburg-Salter edited, The Silk Road and the Diamond Path: Esoteric Buddhist Art on the Trans-Himalayan Trade Routes, UCLA Art Council, Los Angeles, 1982: 22–3.

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56 Klimburg-Salter, Tabo Monastery: 21. 57 Luciano Petech and Christian Luczanits, edited, Inscriptions from the Tabo Main Temple, Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, Roma, 1999: 10–2. 58 Petech and Luczanits, 1999: 34. 59 Christina Scherrer-Schaub and Paul Harrison, Tabo Studies III: A Catalogue of the Manuscript Collection of Tabo Monastery, Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente, Roma, 2009: XVII–XXXV. 60 Deborah E. Klimburg-Salter, The Buddhist art of Gujarat: On Taranatha’s Old Western Indian Style, Silk Road Art and Archaeology, 6, 1999–2000: 254–67. 61 Laxman S. Thakur, Visualizing a Buddhist Sutra: Text and Figure in Himalayan Art, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2006. 62 Nearly 1,300 inscriptions are known from 269 different sites and dated from the third century BCE to first century CE. 63 The formula reads: agata anagata catudisa sagasa, that is, of the Sangha of the four quarters, present and not present (Paranavitana, 1970: CXIX). 64 The beginnings of this practice may be traced to the cave inscriptions of the first phase, which refer to lots or allotments of a village being granted to the monastic centres (Paranavitana 1970: nos. 150, 786, 792–6). 65 Malini Dias, Trade in Ancient Sri Lanka: Epigraphical Evidence, unpublished Paper presented at the Conference on ‘Seafaring Communities in the Indian Ocean’, Lyon, 1–7 July, 1996. 66 Oskar von Hinűber, Linguistic Experiments: Language and Identity in Aśokan Inscriptions and in Early Buddhist Texts, Patrick Olivelle, Janice Leoshko and Himanshu Prabha Ray edited, Reimagining Aśoka: Memory and History, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2012: 195–203. Juhyung Rhi, On the Peripheries of Civilizations: The Evolution of a Visual Tradition in Gandhāra, Journal of Central Eurasian Studies, 1, December, 2009: 1–13.

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2 THE WRITTEN WORD Language and identity

The Buddha is said to have preached in Magadhi, the language of Magadha in eastern India. The school that we know today, which performs its rites and liturgies in a language which has come to be called Pali, was codified primarily by Buddhaghosa, a Buddhist scholar and commentator, in fifth-century Sri Lanka at the Mahavihara. This ordination lineage is the most widespread at present, while the Sarvāstivādin and Dharmaguptaka Vinaya lineages are active in Tibet and East Asia, respectively. We know very little of most of the others, though there are indications that several nikāyas were present at Nalanda. In Tibet and China, for example, the languages used and the means through which the texts were authenticated were very different from those in large parts of India.1 The emphasis on understanding the linguistic diversity of the different nikāyas in history is critical to an appreciation of the role of local communities in the development of a visual tradition within the different regions of the subcontinent. As formulated by Juhyung Rhi in the context of Gandhara, and briefly mentioned in the previous chapter, writings of Chinese pilgrims to India such as those by Faxian and Xuanzang who travelled to the country in the fifth and seventh centuries, respectively, indicate an awareness of regional specificities and linguistic boundaries within the country of Tianzhu or Indu such as the Kharoṣṭhī script and the Gāndhārī Prakrit language, which were the defining features of Gandhara, though drawing precise boundaries based on this information would be hazardous. The earliest extant documents in Kharoṣṭhī are two sets of royal edicts of King Ashoka found in Shāhbāzgaṛhī and Mānsehrā in and near the Peshawar Valley. ‘A cogent example is the work of the famous grammarian Pāṇini, who was active in Gandhāra around the fourth century BCE or earlier. Linguistic specialists believe that Aṣṭādhyāyī, his monumental work, was too complex to have been written without 44

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the support of literacy, and have proposed Aramaic or Kharoṣṭhī as the candidates for Pāṇini’s lipi (script)’.2 Kharoṣṭhī was also used on IndoGreek coins, but more importantly for writing Buddhist scriptures by the first century BCE in Gāndhārī Prakrit language. It is this local community who then developed a distinct visual tradition in the Swat Valley by the beginning of the Common Era. Brahmi replaced Kharoṣṭhī in the Gandhara region by the third and fourth centuries CE. Rhi suggests that this disappearance of the script may be linked to the loss of cultural identity of the region, and by the fourth and fifth century CE, the visual imagery of Sarnath and Mathura was increasingly adopted in the region of Gandhara.3 This chapter follows from the previous one, which had provided an overview of monastic sites and focuses on language and writing as critical factors providing identity to monastic lineages or nikāyas. Writing facilitated storing of information, cumulative knowledge promoted new genre of cultural and artistic expression and aided ordering of information under numeric and alphabetic heads and the use of maps.4 These networks may be identified in the archaeological record by specimens of writing on pottery, seals and sealings and by inscriptions on stone and copper plates. This chapter will primarily focus on patterns of use and distribution of the written records in an attempt to highlight both temporal and spatial variations. I start the paper with a brief overview of language diversity of Ashokan inscriptions; and then move on to a survey of writing on pottery; donative inscriptions from Buddhist monastic sites; followed by an account of the almost unique finds of Gāndhārī Prakrit manuscripts in the north-west of the subcontinent. The final section underscores the important ritual role of the Pratītyasamutpāda sūtra inscribed on terracotta seals, sealings, images, stupas and so on. Clearly, the written word was critical to defining and maintaining Buddhist identity.

Inscriptions and political power Ashoka is referred to as the Buddhist king par excellence in the Mahāvamsa written in Sri Lanka, though Chinese sources credit the same qualities to the Kushan ruler Kanishka I (CE 127–50). The first Kushan (CE 40–360) king, who Chinese writings credit with conquering lands south of the Hindu Kush as far as the North-West Frontier region and Kashmir, is identified on coins and the Rabatak inscription as Kujula Kadphises and the beginnings of Kushan rule dated CE 40.5 The Rabatak inscription records that under Kanishka, Kushan rule extended along the Ganga Valley as far east as Patna to Campa or 45

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modern Bhagalpur in Bihar. However, the earliest coins found at any of the Buddhist sites in the north-west are those of the Indo-Greek ruler Menander I (155–130 BCE), and these were found at Dharmarajika stupa at Taxila. Recent research also suggests that coins were placed at regular intervals throughout the central core of the dome at the stupa at Manikyala near Taxila. These coins were donated at the time of consecration of the stupa and at each subsequent enlargement. It is suggested that these deposits were used to finance any restoration of the monument that may have been necessary during the course of its existence.6 This practice gains significance since unlike other parts of the subcontinent, monasteries in the north-west do not provide evidence of donations of land or money. Inscriptions from Taxila and Mathura may be cited to add to these examples, but the presence of a complexity of conceptions regarding lay or private ownership of monasteries is evident. Another early polity whose inscriptions need to be brought into the discussion are the Satavahanas who ruled in large parts of the Deccan in the early centuries of the Common Era. We start the discussion with the edicts of Ashoka and then move to those of the Kushanas and the Satavahanas. Scholars refer to two genres of inscriptions of Ashoka: those in the first person and those that refer to the king in the third person. The first category includes the two minor rock edicts, all the pillar edicts, as well as the four Rock Edicts (3, 5, 6, 14), the two Separate Edicts and the minor Pillar Edicts dealing with the Sangha. The Pillar Edict series appears to be the result of careful composition; it is in the same dialect at all the sites and enumerates concrete policy measures for good governance and the promotion of dhamma. Thus, the pillar edicts constitute a single textual corpus. With the notable exception of the Bairaṭ edict by Ashoka, references to Buddhist texts are almost totally absent from early inscriptions. It is also evident that each of the edicts was accompanied by instructions to the local administrator, though there is no information on the mode of transmission of the edicts. Nevertheless, the edicts were meant to be heard or listened to rather than read, as the edicts themselves contain instructions regarding their spread both in the immediate vicinity and more widely.7 After an analysis of the dialects of the inscriptions, Norman concludes that there is no Ashokan edict in Magadhi, even though that may have been the dialect spoken in the Mauryan capital at Pataliputra. It is also evident that the dialects used in the Ashokan inscriptions coincided with those spoken locally, including in the north-west where the edicts were inscribed in Greek and Aramaic. The sole exception is in the case

46

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of the inscriptions in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, which are in Prakrit rather than in a Dravidian language.8 Based on a linguistic analysis of Ashokan inscriptions, especially those of Girnar with Buddhist texts, Oskar von Hinüber discusses the linguistic idiom produced by several Buddhist groups such as the creation of Pali by the Theravadins or the special language by the Mahasanghikas. Gāndhārī was not only connected to the Dharmaguptakas, but also to the Sarvāstivādin. All these linguistic exercises, whether at Girnar at Asoka’s time or later (?) in Buddhist literature were meant to create a separate identity for different Buddhist schools. This identity was most likely visible in different ways of wearing the robes by Buddhist monks, by using different equipment, or by different behavior, and again in the realm of language and literature, in specific words used only in the texts of one school, style, formulas or literary form as, for example, in creating different wordings for the introductions or the conclusions of the Jātakas in the respective frame stories.9 As compared to the pan-Indian spread of the inscriptions of Ashoka, those of subsequent dynasties such as the Kushanas and the Satavahanas are restricted to specific regions and often inscribed within sanctuaries and shrines. An important aspect of Kushanas art is the emphasis on the emperor himself as a divine personage, as evident from the coinage of the Kushanas rulers, epithets in inscriptions and in important surviving shrines from which a cult of the divine emperor may be inferred, such as those at Mat 14 kilometres north from Mathura on the east bank of the Yamuna River and Surkh Kotal in Afghanistan.10 The Kushanas inscriptions, for example, mention the term devakula and scholars have translated it to mean either a ‘house of gods’ or a gallery where statues of kings were enshrined. Based on an analysis of inscriptions from a sanctuary excavated at Surkh Kotal in Bactria where the term ‘house of gods’ occurs and contrary to Huntington’s observations, Fussman suggests that this refers to a dynastic shrine where the king, his officials and the royal family worshipped the deity that protected the royal household.11 The next dynasty is that of the Satavahanas, whose early records are found at Nasik inscribed on the walls of the rock-cut caves affiliated to the Buddhists. The earliest cave to be excavated in the hill range at Nasik was a residence or vihara 19, which carries an inscription

47

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indicating that the cave was excavated when Kanha or Krishna was king. Krishna has been identified as one of the earliest kings of the Satavahana dynasty controlling the Deccan from the first century BCE to the third century CE. Nagaraju dates the cutting of caves at Nasik to the rule of the Satavahana dynasty from first century BCE to third century CE.12 Vihara 3 and vihara 10 are important to understanding the royal donations to monks living at Nasik by the two rival dynasties of the Kshatrapas and the Satavahanas. There is similarity in the plans and in the construction of vihara 3 and vihara 10. An analysis of inscriptions in vihara Cave 3 indicates that it was excavated in several phases. The first phase of work on the cave was finished perhaps during the 14th year of the Satavahana King Gautamiputra Satakarni’s reign. In the eulogy of his mother, Gautamiputra Satakarni has been lauded as the Satavahana ruler who won back the territory lost to the Western Kshatrapas under Nahapana. The other inscription, cut in the 19th year of Pulumavi’s reign, indicates that the cave was enlarged with the addition of a cell in the veranda shortly after the initial phase of construction.13 Six inscriptions in Cave 10 at Pandu Lena mention the Kshatrapa ruler Nahapana (55–100 CE) and members of his family; one states that the vihara was completed in the 42nd year of his reign. The Pandu Lena caves at Nasik form an important group along with rock-cut caves at Ellora, Pitalkhora, Aurangabad and Ajanta. Each of these monastic complexes shows distinctive features, associations and chronologies. Of these, the caves at Ellora are the most diverse in terms of religious affiliations. The earliest cave excavation at Ellora began in the late sixth century and was dedicated to Siva, followed by Buddhist and Jain caves over the next several centuries until the 10th century CE. In contrast, the bulk of the work at Ajanta dates from 462 to 480 CE during the reign of Harishena of the Vakataka dynasty, though there was an early phase, as evident from caves 9, 10, 12, which were excavated in the first phase dated from the first century BCE to the first–second centuries CE.14 As compared to Ajanta and Ellora, both the town of Nasik and the Buddhist caves provide a history that stretches across a much longer period. It is evident that on the one hand, Pandu Lena caves share the cultural and religious ambience of the western Deccan, and on the other, they preserve and reflect several unique features such as patronage provided by the kings. Several sculptural representations portray the power of the cakravartin or universal monarch and especially important is a relief from Jaggayyapeta in Andhra (first century BCE), which is stylistically related to contemporary sculptures from Sanchi, Bharhut and other sites. 48

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The main figure probably represents the cakravartin Mandhata, the main character in the Mandhata jataka. Rather than glorifying the universal monarch, the story is an admonition against greed, which was the eventual downfall of Mandhata.15 The use of writing, however, extended well beyond royal inscriptions and religious texts, as discussed in the next section.

Inscriptions on pots and lamps The beginnings of writing in Brahmi and Kharoṣṭhī have often been dated to the third century BCE and attributed to the Mauryan King Ashoka. This does not take into account inscriptions on pottery and other material objects frequently found at archaeological sites.16 Archaeological finds from Sri Lanka have challenged the assumption of a Mauryan beginning for the Brahmi script. Siran Deraniyagala’s (director general of the Archaeological Survey of Sri Lanka) 1990 excavations at the ancient sacred site of Anuradhapura to the south-east of the modern city named after it, provided the first indications of a pre-Mauryan date for the presence of Brahmi in Sri Lanka, thereby questioning the hitherto held views on the introduction of the script to the island in the Mauryan period. The five shards came from a 10-metre deep test pit, Anuradhapura Mahapali. A total of 29 radiocarbon determinations were available and the radiocarbon laboratories of the British Museum and Beta Analytic carried out the measurements. It is clear from these detailed analyses that the earliest evidence of Brahmi script can be dated to the early part of the fourth century BCE.17 The second period at the settlement site of Anuradhapura is dated between 510 and 340 BCE and indicates a more permanent occupation. Archaeological excavations in the citadel area at Anuradhapura have provided evidence for a change in the nature of structures between 360 and 190 BCE. It was at this time that a rampart and ditch were constructed around the settlement. The faunal record showed a high proportion of seashells and material finds included several imports from India, such as a fine greyware, carnelian and lapis lazuli. Coins were in evidence for the first time. Another five sherds with portions of Brahmi inscriptions were also recovered. Of interest is the clay sealing from Anuradhapura (pit in period H) with the legend: ‘Magaha, the Purumaka, son of Tissa’. The same name appears in the secondcentury BCE Mihintale cave inscription located 12 kilometres from Anuradhapura and dedicated to the Buddhist Sangha.18 An analysis of the inscribed shards from Anuradhapura indicates that the legends 49

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were inscribed on lids and on ceramic vessels and that many of these vessels may have been dedicated to Buddhist religious establishments. This then provides valuable insights into the association of writing on pottery with Buddhist monastic centres. Inscriptions on pottery have an extensive distribution in the early centuries of the Common Era and inscribed pottery fragments have been found at a large number of Buddhist monastic sites.19 Particularly noteworthy in the monastic context are the inscribed bowls and vessels carrying dedicative inscriptions, such as the 24 potsherds with Kharoṣṭhī writing found in the vicinity of Peshawar with legends reading dānamukhe or donation and sanghe catudise or of the Sangha of the four quarters,20 or the 50 Kharoṣṭhī and 5 Brahmi inscribed sherds from Tor-dherai in Baluchistan. In contrast, shards inscribed with Brahmi writing were found in the stupa area at Mohenjo-daro in the Gandhara region. It is interesting that unlike the manuscripts, Kharoṣṭhī legends on pottery have a wide distribution in Punjab, eastern and south-eastern India. Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions are also found on oil lamps and on relic caskets. Several inscribed lamps have been found at sites in Gandhara such as Malakand, Taxila, Jamalgarhi and at Swat.21 The lamps from Swat are made of schist and bear inscriptions recording the donor’s name. Another unique find is a bronze finger ring from Swat with the inscription ‘(Seal of) Jhamdaputi, son of Aspamitra’ and also showing a standing female figure.22 An analysis of reliquaries shows that approximately 10 per cent of 406 Gandharan reliquaries are inscribed. Although the format and content of the 58 reliquary inscriptions have much in common with donative inscriptions, they also have characteristic formulary of their own, which sets them apart as a distinct epigraphic genre. The inscriptional texts represent a written record of a public proclamation that was made during the relic installation ritual. In many cases, the inscriptions were written on the inside of the bowl or lid of the reliquaries, so that they would be invisible even when the reliquaries were on display before interment. ‘The reliquaries were most likely displayed and paraded before throngs of worshippers before and during ceremonies celebrating their interment, and at this point the inscriptions would have enhanced their allure and status; perhaps they were even shown and read aloud during the festivities. One gets a vivid sense of such a scene in the gold leaf inscriptions of Senavarma’.23 Starting with inscriptions dated as early as 150 BCE, we find evidence that monks, nuns and monastery masters were among those involved in donations. The earliest inscribed 50

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Gandharan reliquary is probably the Shinkot reliquary from Bajaur, which bears several inscriptions, the earliest of which dates from the time of the Indo-Greek King Menandros (Menander) around the midsecond century BCE.24 In addition to Gandhara, inscribed reliquaries have also been found in Andhra Pradesh. For example, the Bhattiprolu inscriptions refer to the involvement of the local King Kuberaka and members of the laity in the veneration of the relics.25 The pillar inscriptions found at Dhanyakataka,26 Jaggayyapeta27 and Nagarjunakonda28 refer to the consecration of the relics of the Buddha, a practice also known from Gandhara. An issue that remains unaddressed is the linguistic diversity in the inscriptions on reliquaries. The Brahmi script was adopted for inscribing names in more than one language on pottery in peninsular India, viz. Tamil, Prakrit, Sanskrit and Old Sinhala. This clearly indicates the presence of at least three language groups in the region. Kodumanal archaeological site is about 15 hectares in extent, on the north bank of the river about a kilometre to the east of the present settlement. There is also a burial complex to the north, north-west and east of the mound, covering about 40 hectares. However, the many graves were submerged and partially disturbed due to the construction of the dam across the river Noyyal, 3 kilometres east of the site at Orathuppalayam. Five hundred and fiftyfive Tamiḻ-Brāhmī-inscribed potsherds and 598 graffiti-bearing potsherds were recovered during recent excavations conducted in 2012 and 2013. Based on five AMS dates obtained in different strata and comparative study made on the Tamiḻ-Brāhmī and graffiti-inscribed potsherds, the chronological frame of the site is revised and the earliest limit is now put in the sixth century BCE and the total cultural deposit is assigned to Early Historic times, thereby supplementing the evidence from Anuradhapura.29 Another interesting parallel is to be found in the use of the Old Sinhalese samuda (Sanskrit samudra and Prakrit samudda) as a personal name in the early Brahmi inscriptions of Sri Lanka.30 The term also occurs as samuda, samudamnika, samuda-siri in the records at Nagarjunakonda.31 At least 17 of the 66 inscriptions on pottery from Arikamedu are known to be in Tamil. A majority of the inscribed shards date to the first and second centuries CE, though the earliest find at the site was from the Megalithic levels dated to the third century BCE. These consist largely of masculine personal names with one exception, which reads ‘. . . kuttai’ and has been identified as Prakrit Guttä or Guta of the Sri Lanka cave inscriptions. Another term that has wider prevalence is Kuyiran (Tamil) or Kubira (Old Sinhala), both derived from 51

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Sanskrit Kubera. Variants appear as Kupiro at Bharhut in central India, Kubirako from Bhattiprolu in Andhra Pradesh, Kubira in Sri Lanka cave inscriptions and Kuviran in early Tamil cave inscriptions.32 Another 214 inscribed shards were recovered from the archaeological excavations at Vaddamanu, located 10 kilometres south-east of Amaravati. The largest concentration of 109 shards was in Period II dated between 100 BCE and CE 200, though the overall chronological span ranges from 200 BCE to the 4th century CE.33 The monastic complex at Salihundam or ancient Kattaharama yielded 80 inscribed shards and the few complete readings from the site would suggest that these were on platters or pots donated to the monastery.34 This widespread use of writing is striking, and also the linguistic diversity associated with Buddhist monastic sites which further corroborates the use of language as an identity marker.

Donative inscriptions from Buddhist sites Gregory Schopen notes that there is no textual prescription or approval of the widespread practice of inscribing donors’ names on stupas, though the Vinaya of the Mulasarvastivadins does refer to the practice of inscribing names on the property of the Sangha such as bedding, seats and pots, as discussed in the previous section. The placement of many of the inscriptions underscores their inaccessibility making it almost impossible for them to be read. Schopen, therefore, interprets the Buddhist practice of recording donative inscriptions in terms of an underlying Indian cultural understanding of personal names as representing the actual presence of their bearers, so that writing a donor’s name on a stupa would be thought to have the same salvific effect as the presence of the donor himself.35 In this section, the focus is on analyzing donor inscriptions through the lens of linguistic diversity and to address the issue of language use as a marker of regional identity. Perhaps, the most prolific in this context are the inscriptions dated to the early centuries of the Common Era, which occur across the subcontinent at a variety of Buddhist monastic sites. These have been studied from the point of view of patronage – role of women, donative formulae and so on – but seldom has the emphasis been on diversity of donative formulae. One of the largest corpuses of donor inscriptions comes from the stupa sites of Sanchi and Bharhut dated to the second and first century BCE. The inscriptions are short and simply record the gift, the name of the donor in the genitive followed by the term dānam or gift. The sole exception is that by Sagharakhita who makes the gift ‘for 52

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the benefit of his father and mother’.36 This is further supported by inscriptions from Pauni and Sri Lanka which follow the same format, though with a few exceptions. Schopen has discussed these important records indicating the intentions of the donor as evidence for the acceptance of the Buddhist doctrine of karma and dāna by donors to the early monastic centres.37 In contrast, the inscriptions from Mathura are more elaborate and refer to gifts as acts of puja or worship for the donor’s deceased parents and occasionally add the clause that it is for the welfare and happiness of all beings.38 Clearly, these formulae are linked to transfer of merit and occur in association with the Mahasanghika, Sarvastivadin, Bhadrayaka, Mahisasaka and Vibhajyavadin schools.39 This issue of transfer of merit occurs frequently at several sites in addition to Mathura and includes monastic centres such as Sarnath, Ajanta, Bodh Gaya and Nagarjunakonda, dating in many cases to the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries CE.40 The practice of transfer of merit continues well into the 10th century, as evident from an inscription at Nalanda that records the raising of a caitya by a disciple for his teacher, so that the latter might achieve the station of a Buddha.41 Clearly, the transfer of merit doctrine had far-reaching acceptance among donors both through time and across the subcontinent. As stated in the previous chapter, 19 cave sites in western Deccan provide inscriptional data in the form of donors’ inscriptions numbering more than 200.42 In contrast, nearly 140 Buddhist sites are listed in the Andhra Pradesh region. Of these, 30 sites provide evidence of donors’ inscriptions. Do these provide distinctive regional features? For example, the Prakrit inscriptions from Nagarjunakonda contain a number of phrases and formulae not found at contemporary Buddhist sites elsewhere in the subcontinent.43 One glaring absence at Nagarjunakonda is that of donor monks, though all three fifth-century Sanskrit inscriptions record gifts of monks. More relevant to this chapter is the atypical vocabulary used and formulae such as ubhayalokahitasukha,44 which also finds resonance in the architecture. The mahācaitya at Nagarjunakonda is the earliest monument at the site dated to 146–56 CE. It was for the teachers of the Aparamahāvin­ aseliya sect. One of the characteristic features of the inscriptions at Nagarjunakonda is the avoidance of the term stupa and shrines are always referred to as cetiyas.45 The term cetiya is used in the inscriptions from the western Deccan caves to refer to structures connected with the dead Buddha.46 Unlike the stupas of north India built of solid brick work or mud filling, the stupas of Nagarjunakonda were built emulating the form of a wheel with a hub and spokes – all completely 53

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executed in brick work.47 Sarkar and Misra suggest that apsidal shrines (sites 1 and 43) located in the vicinity of the main stupa or mahācaitya were later additions to the Buddhist establishment at Nagarjunakonda.48 Inscriptions on the floor of the shrines record the history of their foundations. The lay devotee Bodhisiri built the apsidal caityagṛha for the welfare of her husband, his family and her maternal family at the vihara of Culadhammagiri for the benefit of monks from several regions such as Sri Lanka, China, Kashmir, Gandhara and so on.49 The other apsidal shrine was also built for the benefit of the monks from different countries, but the donor in this case was Chamtisiri, the sister of the Iksvaku ruler Vasithiputa Siri Chamtamula.50 Cave inscriptions are found to be the oldest type of inscriptions in Sri Lanka and are inscribed below the drip ledge of caves. In the beginning, the inscriptions had two or three short lines containing the information about donations made to bhikkus, but after the second century CE, the inscriptions provide lengthy descriptions. Several political groupings are mentioned in the inscriptions, for example, the sons of kings were referred to by the title ay (Sanskrit arya, Pali ayya), whereas for the spouses of kings and princes the term upasika was used – a term that denotes a lay devotee of the Buddhist Sangha.51 Another interesting group of donors is that of the brahmanas (bamana), mentioned in no less than 21 inscriptions from different parts of the island. Donations made to the Buddhist Sangha by local chieftains are recorded at 28 of the 269 sites, with the local political elite indicated by the use of a variety of titles such as raja, maharaja, gamani, parumaka, Devanampiya, aya, abi.52 Thus, regional variations are evident in the inscriptions, as also the nature of interaction between the Buddhist Sangha and local polity. In the next section, we discuss the use of writing for inscribing important sutras extensively on a variety of material objects.

The pratı¯tyasamutpa¯da su¯tra Ye dhammā hetuppabhavā tesām hetum tathāgato Āha tesāñ ca yo nirodho evam vādī mahāsamaṇo ‘ti Those dhammas which arise from a cause The Tathāgata has declared their cause And that which is the cessation of them. Thus the great renunciant has taught. The venerable Assaji, one of the five first disciples of the Buddha explained the essence of the Master’s dharma or doctrine to the 54

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monks Sariputta and Moggalana in the pratītyasamutpāda sūtra, a verse intimately connected with the Buddha himself and his doctrine of dependent origination. ‘He who sees the pratītyasamutpāda sūtra sees the dharma; he who sees the dharma sees the Buddha’.53 This verse presents a condensed version of the sutra, and by the fourth and fifth century it became the hallmark of Buddhism as it expanded across Asia. As mentioned earlier, there are several layers of interpretations: it denotes the Enlightenment of the Buddha at Bodh Gaya, connects this experience to the dhamma, thus providing a link between the spiritual and the material realms; historically, this critical text was enshrined in stupas across Asia, as a measure that would result in rejuvenating the Sangha and help the lay community renew its vows to the Buddha; and finally, the sūtra finds visual representations on unbaked clay sealings and other such objects. This event is narrated only once in the Vinayas of the various schools, and the verse occurs once only in the Tripiṭakas or the Canon. Yet, its popularity across Asia is truly extraordinary and raises the larger issue of the role of monks and nuns for a comprehensive understanding of the expansion of Buddhism across South and Southeast Asia. It occurs on stone images, clay tablets, metal plaques and on palm leaf, paper and cloth.54 In the earliest Indian examples, the verse was inscribed on stupas, and by the middle of the first millennium CE, stone images frequently carried it. There are, nevertheless, variations in the practice. Stone images of the Buddha are not widely known in Southeast Asia, though there are a few examples such as the inscribed stone Buddha images from Si Thep.55 Unbaked clay sealings were first discussed by the French art historian Alfred Foucher in 1911 and described as souvenirs of travel brought back after visits to Buddhist sites, much like the metal insignia treasured by medieval Christian pilgrims. Since then, archaeological literature has consigned them under the label of ‘small finds’ and paid no further attention to them. It is only in recent years that Buddhologists have highlighted the ritual underpinnings of inscribing the sūtra and enshrining it in stupas. The primary motive was not as souvenirs for ‘tourism’ but to produce merit, cleanse oneself of sins and to promote the welfare of one’s kin and the deceased. It was a social practice that brought the lay community together with the monks and nuns at locations marked by stupas and caityas. The inscribed tablets were then installed inside caityas where they had been produced and the theory of ‘tourist mementoes’ has since been discredited.56 The oldest inscription of the pratītyasamutpāda sūtra is likely the one incised in the Kharoṣṭhī script on all four sides of the base of a 55

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copper stupa from the Kurram Valley in ancient Gandhara, dated to about the second century CE. Early inscribed examples in Prakrit language, dating to about the fourth century, have been found at Devnimori in northern Gujarat and slightly later examples at Ratnagiri in Odisha. Other inscriptions of the sutra, from the seventh century and later, have been found at sites across India including at the northern Indian monastery of Nalanda.57 One type of stamped clay image was a hierarchical maṇḍala depicting eight Bodhisattvas encircling a central Buddha. In India, texts, images and rituals relating to a group of eight Bodhisattvas proliferated by the fifth and sixth century CE. The mass production of small clay stupas was especially popular, and such stupas have been found extensively across Asia. Some tablets derived their power from the word alone. Longer texts are dhāraṇī – spells or incantations which promote well-being and security. These dhāraṇī texts are invariably occupied with the problem of death and avoidance of rebirth in hell. This is perhaps the primary reason for placing dhāraṇīs in stupas and worshipping them so that the deceased could be saved from an unfortunate destiny.58 Stamps of these dhāraṇī have been widely found across north India,59 while dhāraṇīs have been found inserted in small stupas at a large number of sites, such as Ratnagiri stupa 2 and 253, Udayagiri 2, Lalitagiri, Nalanda, Bodh Gaya and Paharpur, and on stone slabs and on images.60 The final section of this chapter discusses another example of writing – that on birch bark or palm leaf, though survivals in the latter case are relatively rare.

Manuscript collections ‘Buddhists embraced manuscript culture with enthusiasm and were instrumental in the development of codicological, scribal, and calligraphic practices in South, Central, and Southeast Asia’.61 During his four expeditions between 1900 and 1930 to the area around Khotan on the Southern Silk Road in what is now western China, Marc Aurel Stein discovered and brought to light nearly 800 documents on wood slips, most of them administrative and legal but some preserving Buddhist literary texts. Since the 1990s, rich collections of Buddhist manuscript fragments on birch bark and palm leaf have been recovered from the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan and centres in Pakistan. Several texts such as the Bhadrakalpikasūtra, an important text of the Mahayana describing the 1,004 Buddhas of the present period, have been painstakingly put together. In the Gandharan region and in other locales where palm leaves could not be easily obtained, Buddhist writers often used birch bark 56

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as their textual medium of choice. The bark was cut into long strips and either rolled into scrolls or cut into sheets and stored flat between boards. The scrolls found in the Gandharan region were typically written on both sides in a vertical fashion parallel to its narrow dimension, and their colophons that identified the contents of each scroll would normally be visible when rolled up.62 In the period from the second to the fifth centuries CE, the scribes used palm leaf for writing Buddhist texts, a material which had to be imported from India because palm trees do not grow in this region. Around the sixth century, it was gradually replaced by the local birch bark, which was cut in Indian poṭhi shape imitating a palm leaf. Around the seventh century, another variant of Brahmi became the standard script not only in north-eastern India from where it originates, but also in Nepal and was known as Siddhamātṛkā. At the same time, the importance and power attributed to Buddhist manuscripts derived from their status as the physical embodiments of the Dharma and functioned as sacred objects in their own right. Scriptural testimony for the equation between the Buddha and the Dhamma – as seen famously in the statement made by the Buddha to a disciple in Samyutta Nikaya iii 120: ‘Whoever sees the dhamma, Vakkali, sees me; whoever sees me sees the dhamma’ – signals that the tradition has long held that the Buddha is in some sense embodied in the Dharma he taught.63 This raises the topic of the ritual role of the manuscripts and special steps taken for their disposal so as to sanctify, preserve and protect them. Even though none of the manuscript collections have been found in an archaeological context, at least in two cases, the inscribed clay jars in which the manuscripts were discovered have been preserved and in both cases the jars bear inscriptions in Kharoṣṭhī script and Gāndhārī language. For example, the 29 scrolls of the British Library Collection were found inside a clay pot with an inscription ‘[Given] to the universal community, in the possession of the Dharmaguptakas’.64 Salomon suggests that the pot was presented to the monastery as a utilitarian object and seems to have been later recycled as a receptacle for the ritual burial of old manuscripts, possibly in a stupa-cum-monastery complex.65 There is no unity in the corpus of manuscripts buried in the pot, which instead comprises of two dozen distinct texts. In contrast to the British Museum corpus, the Senior collection of manuscripts forms a unified corpus written by the same scribe and buried almost in a virtually pristine condition. The inscription on the pot shows the formulaic pattern that is regularly associated with relic deposits or stupa foundations. This suggests that the manuscripts were considered 57

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as dharma relics equivalent to the bodily relics of the Buddha.66 This also seems to be the case with the Bajaur scrolls, which were found in a square chamber made of stone slabs. Thus, it is evident that manuscripts were ritually interred in stupas or other funerary monuments considered as a merit-making exercise, especially in the region of Gandhara where these manuscripts were found. This chapter provides a brief overview of the varied uses of writing associated with Buddhist monastic centres across South Asia, but more importantly it highlights two issues that stemmed from the survey of monastic architecture discussed in Chapter 2: one, regional variations in the use of writing, as evident from the distinctive formulae used and differences in the nature of the inscriptions themselves; the second aspect that needs emphasis is the acceptance of writing as a physical embodiment of the Buddha dhamma. As a result, sutras inscribed on diverse material were not only enshrined in ritual deposits in stupas, but also travelled across Asia spreading the word of the Buddha. This regional diversity also raises the issue of interconnectedness. Did the nikāyas develop in regional isolation as autonomous entities or is there evidence for contact especially of rituals providing occasions for congregations? This theme is taken up in the next chapter and addressed through a variety of Buddhist rituals evident in the archaeological record.

Notes 1 Peter Skilling, Scriptural Authenticity and the Śrāvaka Schools: An Essay towards an Indian Perspective, The Eastern Buddhist, 41, 2, 2010: 1–47. 2 Juhyung Rhi, On the Peripheries of Civilizations: The Evolution of a Visual Tradition in Gandhāra, Journal of Central Eurasian Studies, 1, December 2009: 5. 3 Ibid.: 10. 4 Jack Goody, The Power of the Written Tradition, Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001: 144. 5 Elizabeth Errington and Vesta Sarkkhosh Curtis, edited, From Persepolis to the Punjab, The British Museum Press, London, 2007: 67–71. 6 Elizabeth Errington, Exploring Gandhara, Elizabeth Errington and Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis edited, From Persepolis to the Punjab, The British Museum, London, 2007: 212. 7 K.R. Norman, The Languages of the Composition and Transmission of Aśokan Inscriptions, Patrick Olivelle, Janice Leoshko and Himanshu Prabha Ray edited, Reimagining Aśoka: Memory and History, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2012: 38–62. 8 Ibid.: 57–62. 9 Oskar von Hinüber, Linguistic Experiments: Language and Identity in Aśokan Inscriptions and in Early Buddhist Texts, Patrick Olivelle, Janice

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Leoshko and Himanshu Prabha Ray edited, Reimagining Aśoka: Memory and History, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2012: 201. 10 Susan L. Huntington, The Art of Ancient India: Buddhist, Hindu, Jaina, Weatherhill, New York and Tokyo, 1993: 126. 11 G. Fussman, The Mat Devakula: A New Approach to Its Understanding, Doris Meth Srinivasan edited, Mathura: The Cultural Heritage, American Institute of Indian Studies, New Delhi, 1989: 199. 12 S. Nagaraju, Buddhist Architecture of Western India, Agam Kala Prakashan, Delhi, 1981: 279. 13 Vidya Dehejia, Early Buddhist Rock Temples, Thames and Hudson, London, 1972: 160. 14 Walter M. Spink, Ajanta: History and Development, Volume 1, Brill, Leiden, 2007, 15; also 2009, Volume 4, 1–4. 15 Susan L. Huntington, The Art of Ancient India: Buddhist, Hindu, Jaina, Weatherhill, New York and Tokyo, 1993: 85–6. 16 Himanshu Prabha Ray, Inscribed Pots, Emerging Identities: The Social Milieu of Trade, Patrick Olivelle edited, Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE, Oxford University Press, New York, 2006, 113–43. 17 R.A.E. Coningham, F.R. Allchin, C.M. Batt and D. Lucy, Passage to India? Anuradhapura and the Early Use of the Brahmi Script, Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 6, 1, 1996: 73–97. 18 Lakshman S. Perera, The Institutions of Ancient Ceylon from Inscriptions (from 3rd century BC to 830 AD), International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Kandy: 6. 19 Himanshu Prabha Ray, Inscribed Potsherds: A Study, Indica, 24, 1, March, 1987: 1–14. 20 B. Ch. Chhabra, Peshawar Potsherds with Kharoshthi Writings, Epigraphia Indica, XXVIII, 1949–50: 125–9. 21 M. Nasim Khan, Inscribed Oil Lamps and Other Kharoṣṭhī Inscriptions from Gandhāra, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, 17, 2, April, 2007: 131–8. 22 M. Nasim Khan, Inscribed Oil Lamps, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 17, 2, 2007: 131–8. 23 Richard Salomon, Gandharan Reliquary Inscriptions, David Jongeward, Elizabeth Errington, Richard Salomon and Stefan Baums edited, Gandharan Buddhist Reliquaries, University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 2012: 168. 24 Salomon, Gandharan Reliquary Inscriptions: 164–99. 25 B. Ch. Chhabra, Epigraphia Indica II: 323–7. 26 B. Ch. Chhabra, Epigraphia Indica XX: 326. 27 James Burgess, The Buddhist Stupas of Amaravati and Jaggayyapeta. Archaeological Survey of India, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, 1886: 110. 28 B. Ch. Chhabra, Epigraphia Indica XX: 20. 29 K. Rajan, Early Writing System: A Journey from Graffiti to Brahmi, Pandya Nadu Centre for Historical Research, Madurai, 2015. 30 S. Paranavitana, Inscriptions of Ceylon, vol. I: Early Brahmi Inscriptions, Department of Archaeology Ceylon, Colombo, 1970: nos. 69, 774, 1096, 1005 and 1010.

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1 B. Ch. Chhabra, Epigraphia Indica XXXV: 34–5. 3 32 I. Mahadevan, Pottery Inscriptions in Brahmi and Tamil-Brahmi, V. Begley et al. edited, The Ancient Port of Arikamedu: New Excavations and Researches 1989–1992, EFEO, Pondicherry, 1996: 287–315. 33 T.V.G. Sastri, M. Kasturibai and M. Veerender, Vaddamanu Excavations, Birla Archaeological and Cultural Research Institute, Hyderabad, 1992: 116–40. 34 R. Subrahmanyam, Salihundam: A Buddhist Site in Andhra Pradesh, Government of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad, 1964: 119–22. 35 Gregory Schopen, Buddhist Monks and Business Matters: Still More Papers on Monastic Buddhism in India, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 2004: 382–94. 36 H. Lueders, Bharhut Inscriptions, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Volume II, part 2, Archaeological Survey of India, Ootacamund, 1963: 55 (A 108). 37 Schopen, Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks: 6–7. 38 H. Lueders, Mathura Inscriptions, nos. 29, 44 and 90. 39 Schopen, Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks: 38. 40 Ibid.: 60–3. 41 Ibid.: 170. 42 S. Nagaraju, Buddhist Architecture of Western India, Agam Kala Prakashan, Delhi, 1981: 5. 43 J. Ph. Vogel, Prakrit Inscriptions from a Buddhist Site at Nagarjunakonda, Epigraphia Indica, 20, 1929: 26–35. 44 Schopen, Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks: 64. 45 Ibid.: 160. 46 H. Sarkar, Studies in Early Buddhist Architecture of India, Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1966: 4. 47 K.V. Soundararajan, Nagarjunakonda 1954–1960, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 75, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, 2006: 157–8. 48 Sarkar and Misra, Nagarjunakonda: 33. 49 J. Ph. Vogel, Prakrit Inscriptions from a Buddhist Site at Nagarjunikonda, Epigraphia Indica XX, 1929–30: 22, no. F. 50 Vogel, Prakrit Inscriptions: 21, no. E. 51 S. Paranavitana, Inscriptions of Ceylon, Volume I: Early Brahmi Inscriptions, Department of Archaeology Ceylon, Colombo, 1970: nos. 4, 31 from Mihintale. 52 Lakshman S. Perera, The Institutions of Ancient Ceylon from Inscriptions, International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Kandy, 2001: 59. 53 Daniel Boucher, The Pratītyasamutpādagāthā and Its Role in the Medieval Cult of the Relics, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 14, 1, 1991: 1–27. 54 Peter Skilling, Traces of the Dharma, Bulletin de l’École Française d’Extrême-Orient, 90–91, 2003–2004: 273–87. 55 Ibid.: 273–87. 56 Peter Skilling, Buddhist Sealings: Reflections on Terminology, Motivation, Donors’ Status, School-Affiliation, and Print-Technology, Catherine Jarrige and Vincent Lefèvre, edited, South Asian Archaeology 2001, Volume

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II, Historical Archaeology and Art History, Éditions Recherches sur les Civilisations, Paris, 2005: 677–85. 57 Peter Skilling, Precious Deposits: Buddhism Seen through Inscriptions in Early Southeast Asia, John Guy edited, Lost Kingdoms: Hindu Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2014: 58–62. 58 Schopen, Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks: 121. 59 Peter Skilling, Buddhism and the Circulation of Ritual in Early Peninsular Southeast Asia, Pierre Yves Manguin, A. Mani, and Geoff Wade edited, Early Interactions between South and Southeast Asia: Reflections on Cross-Cultural Exchanges, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore and Manohar, New Delhi, 2011: 367–80. 60 Umakant Mishra, “Dhāraṇīs” from the Buddhist Sites of Orissa, Pratnatattva, Journal of the Department of Archaeology, Jahangirnagar University, 22, June, 2016: 73–84. 61 Peter Skilling, Writing and Representation: Inscribed Objects in the ‘Nalanda Trail’ Exhibition, Gauri Parimoo Krishnan edited, Nalanda, Srivijaya and Beyond: Re-exploring Buddhist Art in Asia, National Heritage Board, Singapore, 2016: 51. 62 Richard Salomon, Ancient Buddhist Scrolls from Gandhāra: The British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragments, The British Museum, London: 87. 63 Paul Harrison, Is the ‘Dharma-kāya’ the Real ‘Phantom Body’ of the Buddha? Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 15, 1, 1992: 50 [44–93]. 64 Salomon, Ancient Buddhist Scrolls, 1999: 151–2 and 214–7. 65 Richard Salomon, Why Did the Gandhāran Buddhists Bury Their Manuscripts? Stephen C. Berkwitz, Juliane Schober and Claudia Brown edited, Buddhist Manuscript Cultures: Knowledge, Ritual, and Art, Routledge, Oxford and New York, 2008: 20–4. 66 Salomon, Why Did the Gandhāran Buddhists Bury Their Manuscripts?: 26.

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3 TRAVELLING RELICS Spreading the word of the Buddha

A far-reaching development in early Buddhism was worship of the relics,1 conceived of as a living presence ‘animated and characterized by the same qualities that animated and characterized the living Buddha’.2 Vincent Smith, writing in the Hastings’ Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, declared that ‘the Buddhist cult . . ., as it is known to us from the most ancient remains and documents until the present day, has always been characterized by the prominence of relic-worship’.3 Peter Skilling has analysed an extensive range of textual sources on relics and concludes that the ‘cult of relics is central to all Buddhisms’ and links the history of Buddhism to the history of relics (Fig. 3.1).4 Gregory Schopen added to the discussion and suggested that the scriptures themselves were regarded as relics valued for their inherent charismatic and apotropaic powers rather than the content.5 In a number of Pali sources, a differentiation is made between past Buddhas who have relics that stay together intact in a single place and past Buddhas who have relics that are dispersed or scattered or widespread. John Strong has analysed these examples to address Buddhological issues concerning the uniqueness and multiplicity of Buddhas.6 Keeping this core importance of relics in mind, the focus in this chapter is on relics and reliquaries in the subcontinent. A second theme relates to the recovery of these relics during archaeological work by colonial officers of British India in the 19th century and their redistribution to other parts of Asia. The larger issue that this chapter addresses relates to the reconfiguration and transformation of the cultural landscape at Buddhist sites such as Sanchi, Taxila and more in the 19th and early 20th centuries; the construction of new temples at archaeological sites, for example, Mulagandhakuti at Sarnath; and the relocation of reliquaries from stupa chambers to museums, as in the case of Manikyala. How is this change to be factored into the study of the ancient past and of Buddhism? 62

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Figure 3.1 Amaravati worship of the relics, British Museum, London

In keeping with the theme of the book, this chapter suggests that mobility and travel were an integral part of Buddhism’s self-identity and critical components in its expansion across Asia. In the context of eastern India, the Vinaya (Mahāvagga, First Khanndaka, 4) records that the two early disciples of the Buddha, merchants Tapussa and Bhallika, who travelled from Ukkala often identified with Odisha to where the Buddha was meditating under the Bodhi tree and presented him with rice cakes and honey. They are also credited with establishing caityas and monastic complexes on their return. In a paper in 2009, 63

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Robert Buswell explored the Indian ascetic traditions of itinerant wanderers and proposed that the motivation to travel was by no means restricted to the terrestrial world but was deeply ingrained in Buddhist cosmology, as evident from the massive anthologies of spiritual journeys.7 Mobility is also closely linked to the spread of Buddhism, and in this chapter, I explore the role of relics in the expansion of Buddha dhamma across the Indian subcontinent. The two kings well known in the history of ancient India, viz. the Mauryan ruler Ashoka and the Kushan King Kanishka, have usually been seen as the patrons of Buddhism and responsible for its spread. For example, the following statement by Bart Dessein: ‘After an initial period in which the Buddhist faith did not spread beyond the boundaries of the region where the Buddha spent his life, the territorial expansion of the Maurya Empire under king Asoka (270–230 BC) enabled Buddhism to spread quickly across India’.8 Traditionally, the setting up of stupas in the Indian subcontinent is attributed to the Mauryan ruler Ashoka (272–232 BCE), though there is little archaeological evidence for dating stupas to the Mauryan period, as discussed in the previous chapter. Chinese pilgrims such as Xuanzang (III.886b–887a) refer to the Third Buddhist Council organized by Kanishka, while Faxian credits him with the construction of the stupa at Peshawar. Kanishka’s association with the monastic site near Peshawar survived well into the 11th century, as attested by Al-Biruni.9 Similarly, the 12th-century Rajatarangini accepts that Kanishka introduced Buddhism into Kashmir. How does one explain these divergent traditions – the Buddhist tradition – in contrast to the archaeological evidence? This chapter examines the different traditions and especially the archaeological data with reference to reliquaries and relics, in order to balance the contrasting views between literary texts and Buddhist practice.

Worship of the relics The Mahāparinibbāna sutta of the Digha Nikaya (16, 6: 23–8) preserves an account of the Buddha’s cremation, while Buddhaghosa’s commentary adds the narrative about the conflict between Ajatasatru and the Mallas over the Buddha’s relics. The matter was amicably resolved after the intervention of the brahmana Drona and the division of the relics into eight. Recent scholarship asserts that the Mahāparinibbāna sutta indicates that the ‘authoritative Theravada tradition both affirmed the value of relic veneration and at the same time cautioned that it should not be the primary preoccupation of members of the Sangha’.10 64

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Two of the Ashokan inscriptions, that is, those at Rummindei, Lumbini and Nigliva, refer to the king’s visit to the sacred sites of early Buddhism. At Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha, the inscription refers to the king’s visit in person and the construction of a stone wall and pillar. In addition, he freed the village of Lummini (lummininigāme) from tax and put it at one-eighth. At Nigliva, Ashoka had the reliquary of the past Buddha Konākamana doubled. Schopen discussed at length the origins of the phrase in the inscription ‘here the Blessed One was born’ and has concluded that it was ‘an old ritual formula that was to be spoken by any individual upon arriving at a sacred site’, indicating that Ashoka knew some version of a short text now preserved in different forms in the various versions of the Mahāparinibbāna sutta.11 The Gilgit Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya refers to relics being simply buried in the ground and seems to indicate a period prior to the appearance of monumental stupas. Schopen suggests that the war of relics represented at important monuments such as Sanchi, Bharhut, Amaravati and Gandhara reflects a shift in relic worship from a private to a public space.12 The second-century CE Aśokāvadāna elaborates the story of the 8 stupas and credits Ashoka with collecting the relics from the drona stupas and re-enshrining them into 84,000 stupas throughout Jambudvipa.13 Unlike the Aśokāvadāna, the Sri Lankan Chronicle, the Mahāvamsa, refers to 84,000 monasteries or viharas, which Ashoka established to honour the Buddha’s teachings, omitting all reference to any breaking in of stupas. While the Aśokāvadāna merely announces that Ashoka celebrated a festival of relics on completion of the construction of 84,000 stupas, the Mahāvamsa provides graphic accounts of Ashoka’s participation in the festivities, lavish gifts given to the Sangha, streets adorned with strings of lamps and garlands of flowers and music being played as also sermons preached.14 It is apparent that by the second century CE, several new phenomena had appeared: first, the Buddhist dhamma had spread across large parts of north India to encompass both the north-west and eastern regions of the subcontinent and also to peninsular India and Sri Lanka. A graphic account of the division of the relics is provided on the lowest architrave of the south gateway of stupa 1 at Sanchi dated to the early centuries of the Common Era. The town of Kusinagara, where the Buddha’s relics were kept, occupies the central space of the architrave. The town is besieged by seven chieftains and their well-armed troops ready for battle to retrieve the relics. The rear upper section of the architrave and the two extensions show an amicable solution to the war of relics. The chieftains are shown leaving the scene with relics in caskets carried on the heads of their elephants.15 How does this visual 65

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representation compare with the archaeological data? This is an issue that is discussed in the next section.

The archaeological evidence As discussed in the previous section, Buddhist sacred sites are closely linked with the enshrinement of relics of the Buddha. It is no surprise then that the earliest sacred sites date not from the time of the Buddha, but some 200 years later from the late Mauryan period onwards. The archaeological data underscores the importance of relics and relic worship in the creation of sacred space at Buddhist sites, as also the diversity in practices adopted on the ground. In addition to regional variations in the nature of the reliquaries, there is another important feature of the sacred landscape that needs to be factored in, viz. the location of monuments to the monastic dead. As early as 1854, Cunningham published the results of his cursory excavations at Sanchi where it was clear that an extensive cemetery was associated with the Buddhist monastic site at Bhojpur, and here as well as at Sonari and Andher, there was evidence for the elaborate housing and worship of the monastic dead.16 Similarly at Bodh Gaya, hundreds and thousands of small stupas of various sizes were crowded in a jumbled mass around the central point of the site. A marked characteristic of almost all sites is the crowding of smaller stupas around the primary stupa, as evident from the 2nd-century BCE Dharmarajika stupa at Taxila, to the 4th- and 5th-century stupas at Mirpur Khas and Jaulian and the 10th- to 12th-century sites at Ratnagiri. Often erroneously described as ‘votive’ stupas in secondary writing, the significance of these small stupas in defining the sacred landscape around stupas has only recently been researched and studied. As the following account of the stupa at Mirpur Khas in Sind shows, their funerary association is evident: ‘All the smaller stupas at the upper level, which had been opened, had funerary associations, as they contained urns with pieces of bone. Below the floor of these stupas were found some earlier minor stupas, which included two of clay, one with bones’.17 It is also evident from the archaeological record that many of these smaller stupas were added over time and contained anonymous bones and ash. As at Mirpur Khas, the central stupa at Sanchi in central India was surrounded by a large number of smaller stupas of varying sizes crowded together around it. In the 1881–1883 ‘archaeological’ operations at the site, all these were removed and the area cleared for a distance of some 60 feet from the outer railing.18 Alexander Cunningham 66

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found relics of the Buddha’s disciples Sariputta and Moggalana, as evident from the inscriptions in stupa 2 at Satdhara and stupa 3 at Sanchi. Cunningham transported the caskets containing relics to London and discarded the stone boxes in which the caskets had been placed. The stone boxes were subsequently located during the excavations conducted by John Marshall, but the relics along with the caskets seem to have been lost.19 John Marshall theorized that the relics of the two monks had been shifted to Sanchi when additions were made to the monastic structures.20 The number of inscribed relic caskets found at Sanchi is striking and may be identified with Buddhist monks and teachers.21 Not all stupas, however, contained relics and Cunningham lists several that he opened without any results.22 The stupas at Bhojpur, about 12 kilometres south-east of Sanchi, were built on four terraces, rising one above the other. Six memorial stupas occupied the uppermost platform, 16 the second platform, and 7 the small platform.23 Reliquaries were found inside four of the stupas at Bhojpur, but due to the absence of inscriptions, it is not easy to identify the monks.24 The reliquary inscriptions from the Sanchi region indicate the dominance of teachers of the Hemavata school under the leadership of Gotiputa in the second–first century BCE. Their relics were found in Sanchi stupa 2, Sonari stupa 2 and Andher stupa 2. Gotiputa was a teacher of considerable eminence and many of his disciples are referred to in the inscriptions. The Hemavatas are categorized in Buddhist sources as close to Sthaviravādas.25 It is significant that the reliquaries of the Hemavatas were found deposited in secondary stupas built outside the walls, which surrounded the big stupas. At Sanchi, the reliquaries of the Hemavatas were enshrined in a stupa at the base of the hill.26 Three imprecatory inscriptions dated to the first century BCE appear on the gateways of stupa 1 at Sanchi and warn against dismantling or shifting of the stone work from the hill of Kakanava to another ācariyakulam.27 Schopen argues that this establishes the legal right of the reliquary or the stupa to own personal property.28 It is significant for our purpose that Marshall categorically states that there is neither a record nor tradition of any relic being discovered in the Dharmarajika stupa,29 though the excavations provide testimony to the expansion of the shrine and the fact that the space around Dharmarajika was not left unoccupied, as in the case of the modern reconstruction of the Sanchi stupa, but was instead filled in during the subsequent centuries with a number of smaller stupas, some of them containing bone relics, beads, coins and so on. The sacred landscape included not only the stupa and the monastery, but also the smaller 67

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stupas and water bodies such as tanks and wells. Details of smaller stupas available from the Taxila excavations also show the organic growth of the sacred landscape around Dharmarajika, as it interacted with the community that worshipped and supported it. A ring of 12 small stupas was built around the main stupa and date from 50 BCE to CE 40. Marshall suggested that an earthquake in the first half of the first century CE destroyed them and a new set of small stupas was built over them in the middle of the first century CE. Five of the 12 small stupas contained relic caskets and these were found buried several metres below their foundations. There is evidence to suggest that some of the small stupas were repaired several times, while others have decayed and only the plinth survives.30 Three other small stupas may also be dated to the same period, though they are located at some distance from the Dharmarajika stupa and only one of them (J2) contained relics. Another stupa base (N7) yielded a relic casket and also provided evidence of repair and restoration in the third and fourth century CE. Q1 also marked the plinth of a stupa, which contained relics comprising of ash. At some distance from the Dharmarajika to the south-west were individual cells and two of these contained stupas, while to the north-west was a tank and a shrine. The second phase of rebuilding after the earthquake involved the setting up of a circle of small chapels. Antiquities recovered from these included votive offerings in the form of stucco, terracotta and stone sculpture. Two of the stupas (G4 and G5) yielded relics, those in G5 also including an inscribed silver scroll. The Kharoṣṭhī inscription on the silver scroll is dated 136 of Azes (first century CE) and records the enshrinement of the Buddha’s relics by Urasaka, a Bactrian in the Dharmarajika stupa at Taxila.31 The first-century BCE Indravarman inscription refers to relics being obtained from another nearby stupa and re-enshrined in a secure, deep and previously un-established place.32 It would then seem that the acquisition of Buddha’s relics in the region of Gandhara was not difficult, and already deposited relics could be taken and redeposited. What cost both time and money was depositing the relic in another stupa built for the purpose, a process that involved not only the construction of a monument, but also gifting the relic with valuable treasure.33 A systematic analysis of reliquaries from Gandhara, the ancient name for a region that corresponds to the Peshawar Valley area and extends to neighbouring areas, especially Taxila to the east, Swat Valley to the north and Hadda and Bamiyan to the west, indicates 68

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interesting results.34 First, it is evident that most of the reliquaries from the region of Gandhara come from the Taxila and Swat areas as well as the Kabul and Jalalabad areas. At the same time, though hundreds of stupas containing relic deposits have been excavated in Gandhara, there are considerably more stupas without relic deposits and this raises questions about the symbolic value of the stupa. For example, the Indian Museum in Kolkata lists 413 objects from Loriyan Tangai and 151 from Jamalgarhi, but no reliquary is recorded from any of these sites. Only one reliquary is known from each of the major sites Takht-i-Bahi and Sahri Bahlol. A second aspect of the reliquaries is the inscription, a majority of which, as stated by Salomon, is in the Kharoṣṭhī script and dated from the early first century CE to the late second century CE. The Shinkot reliquary from Bajaur is often termed the earliest dating from the second century BCE, though some scholars have doubted its authenticity.35 The inscriptions represent a written record of a public proclamation that was made during the relic installation ritual and in most cases refer to the relics as belonging to the historical Buddha. It is suggested that ‘the reliquaries were most likely displayed and paraded before throngs of worshippers before and during ceremonies celebrating their interment, and at this point the inscriptions would have enhanced their allure and status; perhaps they were even shown and read aloud during the festivities’.36 It has been proposed that in a majority of Gandharan monasteries in the Peshawar Valley, for instance, the primary place was given to the stupa which contained the relics of the Buddha, while images were usually placed in a subsidiary position in a series of multiple chapels surrounding the court of the main stupa. Thus, obviously in the visual hierarchy images were relegated to a position inferior to that of the stupa in terms of uniqueness and placement. This trend changed from the Gupta period onwards when huge shrines came to be constructed.37 A practice that became widespread from Gandhara to central India and Sri Lanka was that of enshrining relics inside images. As stated in Chapter 2, Juhyung Rhi has convincingly argued that ‘at an early stage in the Buddhist iconic tradition of Gandhara, a limited number of Buddha images were made with the topmost part of their usnisas removable, which quite possibly served to contain a relic inside a hole. Later on, Buddha images were occasionally produced with a hole in the topmost part (which was no longer separable from the lower part) to hold a relic or a jewel replacing it. Sometimes a hole was drilled at the same spot in a preexisting image to install a relic’.38 It is significant that this practice of enshrining relics in images is by no means 69

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restricted to Gandhara. For example, the base of an eight-foot tall Buddha image in Nagarjunakonda (site no. 6) contained a reliquary similar to those found in stupas.39 A majority of the relic caskets from peninsular India have been found in the Andhra Pradesh region and date from the 2nd century BCE to the 12th century CE. Some of the relic caskets that deserve discussion include those from Bhattiprolu in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. Archaeological excavations carried out in 1892 at one of the three mounds at the site led to the recovery of three stone receptacles from the centre of the stupa inscribed with Brahmi letters, though there is no unanimity on the dating of the inscriptions. The granite receptacles contained crystal caskets, relics of the Buddha and jewels.40 A unique discovery was that of 24 silver punch-marked coins at the base of the relic container arranged in the shape of a four-armed swastika. Inscriptions have also been found on a crystal amulet. It is suggested that the Bhattiprolu script represents a provincial offshoot of the early Brahmi script in the south and dates to the second century BCE.41 A significant reference in the inscription is to members of the gosthi and the nigama with Raja Khubiraka as their chief.42 Reliquaries are also known from the rock-cut caves of western India, for example, Pitalkhora in Aurangabad district.43 These crystal reliquaries were discovered within the rock-cut stupa in the apse of Cave 3. They were placed in oblong sockets chiselled in the back side of the drum of the stupa, the sockets then plugged by close-fitting stone slabs. Similar sockets may have been made into other rock-cut stupas such as at Karle and Bhaja. An inscription on a pillar inside the caitya at Karle refers to the relics being deposited inside the pillar and a hole is visible at the spot.44 The Mahavamsa details the account of the Buddha relic enshrined in the great stupa in Anuradhapura. King Dutthagamani ordered the relic chamber to be painted with scenes from the life of the Buddha and within this the relics were enshrined.45 Once the relic chamber was ready and the relics had been obtained, the casket containing the relics ‘comes alive’ – they rise up in the air and take on the form of the Buddha together with all the bodily signs of the mahapurusa and perform various miracles. But then, abandoning the form of the Buddha, they fall back down to earth and Dutthagamani takes them and places them on a couch in the midst of the relic chamber. The relic chamber is then sealed and closed off.46 Thotlakonda is a Buddhist monastic site located 16 kilometres north of the present city of Visakhapatnam, and along with Bavikonda and Pavuralakonda forms a cluster of monastic sites in north coastal 70

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Andhra Pradesh. Thotlakonda was excavated by the Andhra Pradesh State Department of Archaeology and is roughly divisible into three general areas. The first comprised of a central courtyard flanked on three sides by monastic cells and with a large columned hall in the centre. The second portion of the monastery contained the large main stupa, main caitya, several smaller votive stupas and several circular caityas. Just north of these ritual structures were the remains of three cisterns.47 Archaeological investigation based on a systematic survey revealed a graded mortuary landscape around the stupa, starting with small stupas and including roughly 200 stone cairns, located on the hill sides with a clear view of the monastery. These cairns were constructed of natural boulders, easily available in the fields dotting the hilltops and were contemporary to the several viharas, caityas, stupas and other Buddhist remains at Thotlakonda, which the excavators have dated between the third and second centuries BCE through to the second or third centuries CE. Most of these cairns ranged between 1 and 3 metres in diameter, but a few larger ones were more than 10 metres in diameter. Their distribution also shows a hierarchical proximity to the stupa on the hill: some were located on Thotlakonda hill itself, while others were in the valley below near settlements.48 Another example comes from north Karnataka. The Buddhist monastic complex at Sannathi 60 kilometres south of Gulbarga is located on a tributary of the Krishna, viz. the Bhima where it takes a northerly turn. The ASI excavated one of the stupa mounds named Kanaganhalli and uncovered a large and richly embellished stupa. The sculpted stones show scenes from the life of the Buddha, worship of the buddhapāda as well as of the relics. Two drum slabs, each with eight inscribed labels inserted into the visual field itself, depict the popular legend of merchant Anathapindaka’s purchase of the park known as the Jetavana in order to present it to the Buddha and his monks for their use as a monastic establishment.49 The Buddhist monastic complex at Sannathi is dated from the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE to the 4th century CE, though around the 9th and 10th centuries a temple dedicated to Chandralamba was built at the site. The site has yielded more than 145 donatory inscriptions, of which one refers to Rayo Ashoka and is inscribed on a carved slab depicting King Ashoka and his queen.50 Distinctive finds from Sannathi include memorial slabs, which were found in the 1986–1989 excavations and have also been collected over the years from various mounds and placed in the State Museum at Gulbarga. Many of these slabs were placed near stupas and are divided into panels; the top 71

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panel is generally arched and decorated with a series of tiered roofs and windows. The second panel carries the portrait of an individual or couple, while the third commonly shows either an unyoked bullock cart or a horse without a rider. Many of these are inscribed and the legends dated from first to third century leave no doubt that these were set up in memory of amātyas (ministers), vaṇijas (traders) and gṛhapatis (householders).51 These memorial slabs from Sannathi are unique in conception and representation and different from the free-standing greenish-white limestone pillars found at Nagarjunakonda in the Krishna Valley.52 Their significance may be discussed at several levels. Clearly, these memorial slabs are an indication of the wealthy lay community that patronized the stupa. At the same time, representations of donor couples at stupas were an accepted norm in the Buddhist monasteries of the western Deccan and much less in Andhra Pradesh. Also, the erection of memorial slabs indicated the revival of an earlier practice of honouring the deceased, evident in the construction of Iron Age megalithic monuments of peninsular India. More significantly, it is apparent that the stupa at Sannathi served as the focus of a large sacred landscape. The archaeological data suggests that though Sannathi is the most extensive in terms of size, it is by no means the only large postMauryan Buddhist site in north Karnataka. Others include a Buddhist vihara and an apsidal shrine at Vadgaon-Madhavpur on the outskirts of Belgaum city dated to first century BCE; a vihara and a tank at Banavasi donated by the king’s daughter; and Buddhist sculptures of the early centuries CE recovered from Hampi in district Hospet.53 However, Sannathi differs from the other two in terms of its unique landscape. There was transformation in the mortuary landscape at the site of Ratnagiri in coastal Odisha. More than 700 small monolithic stupas were exposed in the area around the stupa at Ratnagiri, and by their sheer numbers these indicate that the site competed with Bodh Gaya (Fig. 3.2).54 Five hundred and thirty-five of the stone stupas were found on the south-western side of the main stupa area and date from the 9th to 13th centuries CE. Some of the stone stupas were meant for enshrining bone relics, as evident from the provision of sockets at the base. This was also the case with a large number of the minor structural stupas, which yielded partially charred bones and reliquaries. The reliquaries were generally plain earthen vases or stone blocks with sockets. In some cases (e.g. stupas 23, 24, 25, 62 and 115) gold beads and gold coins were also found. 72

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Figure 3.2 Ratnagiri main stupa surrounded by smaller stupas, Odisha

The excavations at Ratnagiri have also provided insights into another significant practice and that is of enshrining inscribed texts or dhāraṇīs in the core of the stupas, as discussed in the previous chapter, and this is also known from other sites such as Bodh Gaya, Nalanda, Paharpur and so on. Why were these texts preferred for interment? Recent research has shown that the dhāraṇīs were preoccupied with death and release from rebirth, especially rebirth in hell. Schopen has quoted several texts that prescribe the writings of dhāraṇīs for the deceased and depositing them in stupas and worshipping earnestly for the deceased to be born in heaven. Funerary rituals associated with the dhāraṇīs are specified, and at Ratnagiri, all eight dhāraṇīs were found in the core of the structural stupas.55

Relics in a multireligious context In an insightful paper, Phyllis Granoff has explored a wide range of early and medieval Indian texts to argue that worship of the relics was a pan-Indian phenomenon rather than being uniquely Buddhist, though it is no doubt true that it took different forms in different 73

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religions.56 This argues against the traditionally held notion that the dead body was considered impure in other religions such as Hinduism and that fear of pollution from the dead had led to the enforcement of taboos relating to the dead. In the agnicayana ritual discussed in the Atharvaveda, the body of the deceased god becomes the basis on which the Vedic fire altar is built. The belief that bones or body parts can become powerful objects is widely attested in the Mahabharata and the Puranas. For example, in his fight against the asura Vritra, Indra makes a powerful thunderbolt or Vajra from the bones of sage Dadhica with which to defeat the demons (3.98.7–9). Another strand visible in the narratives in the Puranas is the concept of sacred space being created at places, for example, where Shiva’s linga turned into stone or where body parts of Parvati or Sati fell (Bh.P 11.83). Similarly, the sacred space at Gaya is associated in the Puranas with death and the dying where people choose to end their lives in view of the temptation of liberation promised to them.57 This also has close parallels with the Buddhist practice of burying the dead close to the remains of celebrated monks. How was the sacred landscape transformed in the 19th and 20th centuries?

Transformation and loss of context in the colonial period This section examines the distribution of relics unearthed in archaeological excavations in the subcontinent in the late 19th and early 20th century. In addition to the stupa at Manikyala excavated in 1830, other stupas that yielded relics include those at Sanchi (1851) in Madhya Pradesh, Sopara (1882) in Maharashtra, Girnar (1889) in Gujarat, Bhattiprolu (1891) in Andhra Pradesh, Piprahawa (1897) in Uttar Pradesh, Shahji-ki-Dheri near Peshawar (1908–1909) and Mirpur Khas in Sind (1910), the last two now in Pakistan. There was no uniform pattern of redistribution that worked in all cases, and each case has to be discussed separately. Relics from stupas at Manikyala and Sanchi date to the earliest period and found their way to the British Museum, but had a complex trajectory before they were brought back to Sanchi almost a century later. Thus, they stand apart from the other finds. In 1874, Alexander Cunningham first suggested that the Shah-ji-kiDheri mounds south-east of Peshawar may provide clues to the stupa set up by Kanishka and said to have been visited by Xuanzang. Following this identification, the American archaeologist David Brainerd Spooner excavated the site in 1908–1909. Relics are generally found

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in the superstructure of stupas in the north-west, but in the case of Shah-ji-ki-Dheri, ‘a shaft was marked out in the centre of the monument and was laboriously sunk through the massive walls radiating from the middle of the structure, until the original relic chamber was reached at a depth of some twenty feet below the surface’.58 Within this chamber was a metal casket and within it the relics enclosed in a reliquary of rock crystal. The gilded reliquary carried an image of what was described as the Kushan king, and also provided an inscription. The inscription was seen as confirming the authorship of Kanishka.59 These convenient connections made in the early 20th century have been questioned by scholars who point to the presence of a coin of Huvishka in the deposit, which post-dates its supposed construction by Kanishka, and also the fact that the inscription refers to a monastery attributed to the time of Kanishka rather than a stupa. Thus, the reliquary and its contents date to the period of enlargement of the stupa during the time of Huvishka or later.60 As reported in the media, the metal casket was kept in Peshawar Museum while the bone fragments were sent to Mandalay in Burma.61 It is then apparent that in the first half of the 19th century, the primary objective of European officers was the collection of coins and other antiquities and the general practice was to dig a trench from the top of the stupa to its base. In the process, it became known that the stupas were uniformly solid with the interior filled up with stones, rough or hewn or with bricks cemented more or less compactly by lime or earth. The operations of Ventura at Manikyala and other sites in the north-west indicated the presence of a number of small square chambers formed by stones being placed on edge and covered over by a flat slab along a line drawn through the centre from the summit to the base. The stupas sometimes had a small chamber inside, within which relics were placed. In some instances, spaces were also found in the centre or at the summit of the stupas; in the centre, they were indicated by a large and heavy slab of stone. In a few cases, tunnels from the interior cell to the circumference were met with, as if these had been designed to leave access to the relic.62 This chapter has suggested that the search for the historical Buddha in the colonial period and sites associated with him transformed a dynamic process of the making of the Buddha’s biography over time into a static search for relics of the Buddha. It is important that this dynamic process be factored into an understanding and appreciation of the past. In the next chapter, I take this process further by underscoring the interconnectedness of monastic sites.

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Notes 1 John S. Strong, Relics of the Buddha, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2004. 2 Schopen, Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks: 156. 3 Vincent Smith, Relics (Eastern), J. Hastings edited, Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics, T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1918: 659 [pp. 658–62]. 4 Peter Skilling, Cutting Across Categories: Relics in Pali Texts, Annual Report of the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University, 8, 2005: 269–332. 5 Gregory Schopen, On the Buddha and His Bones: The Conception of a Relic in the Inscriptions of Nagarjunikonda, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 108, 4, 1988: 527–37; Gregory Schopen, Monks and the Relic Cult in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta: An Old Misunderstanding in Regard to Monastic Buddhism, Gregory Schopen and Koichi Shinohara edited, From Benares to Beijing: Essays on Buddhism and Chinese Religions in Honour of Prof. Jan Yűn-hua, Oakville, Ontarion, 1991: 187–201. 6 Strong, Relics of the Buddha, 2004: 44. 7 Robert E. Buswell Jr., Korean Buddhist Journeys to Lands Worldly and Otherworldly, Journal of Asian Studies, 68, 4, 2009: 1055–75. 8 Bart Dessein, The First Turning of the Wheel of the Doctrine: Sarvastivada and Mahasanghika Controversy, Ann Hierman and Stephan Peter Bumbacher edited, The Spread of Buddhism, Brill, Leiden and Boston, 2007: 15–48. 9 Elizabeth Errington and Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis, edited, From Persepolis to the Punjab, The British Museum, London, 2007: 126–31. 10 David Germano and Kevin Trainor, edited, Embodying the Dharma, State University of New York Press, New York, 2004: 10. 11 Schopen, Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks: 115–6. 12 Ibid.: 132. 13 John Strong, The Legend of King Asoka, A study and translation of the Asokavadana, Princeton Library of Asian translations, Princeton, 1983: 109. 14 Wilhelm Geiger, translated, The Mahavamsa, Ceylon Government, Colombo: 1912 [repreinted 1950]: 41. 15 Vidya Dehejia, Discourse in Early Buddhist Art: Visual Narratives of India, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1997: 118–9. 16 A. Cunningham, The Bhilsa Topes, Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1854: 211–20: Bhojpur at which stupa 8 contained numerous large bones; 184– 9: Sanchi stupa 2: 203–5: Sonari stupa 2: 223–6: Andher stupas 2 and 3. 17 H. Cousens, The Antiquities of Sind, Archaeological Survey of India, Volume XLVI, Imperial Series, Calcutta, 1929: 97. 18 Sir John Marshall, A Guide to Sanchi, Calcutta, 1918: 87–8. 19 Sir John Marshall and Alfred Foucher, The Monuments of Sanchi, The texts of inscriptions edited, translated and annotated by N.G. Majumdar, 3 Volumes, Probsthain, Calcutta-London, 1940: 12. 20 John Marshall, Where the Restored Relics of Buddha’s Chief Disciples Originally Rested: The Stupa of Sariputta and Mahamogalana, Illustrated London News, 29 January 1949: 142. 21 Cunningham, The Bhilsa Topes: 293. 22 Ibid.: 308.

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23 Ibid.: 17. 24 Michael Willis, Buddhist Reliquaries from Ancient India, The British Museum Press, London, 2000: 89–94. 25 Ibid.: 21. 26 Ibid.: 22. 27 J. Marshall, A. Foucher and N.G. Majumdar, The Monuments of Sanchi, Volume I, Government of India Press, Calcutta, 1942: 342, no. 404. 28 Gregory Schopen, Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1997: 130. 29 Marshall, Taxila: 238. 30 Ibid.: 240–1. 31 Ibid.: 256. 32 Richard Salomon and Gregory Schopen, Indravarman (Avaca) Casket Inscription Reconsidered, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 7, 1, 1984: 107–23. 33 Brown, The Nature and Use of the Bodily Relics of the Buddha: 188. 34 David Jongeward, Elizabeth Errington, Richard Salomon and Stefan Baums, Gandharan Buddhist Reliquaries, University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 2012: 28. 35 Richard Salomon, Gandharan Reliquary Inscriptions, David Jongeward, Elizabeth Errington, Richard Salomon and Stefan Baums edited, Gandharan Buddhist Reliquaries, University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 2012: 164–5. 36 Ibid.: 168. 37 Juhyung Rhi, Images, Relics, and Jewels: The Assimilation of Images in the Buddhist Relic Cult of Gandhāra: Or Vice Versa, Artibus Asiae, 65, 2, 2005: 171. 38 Ibid.: 203. 39 T.N. Ramachandran, Nagarjunakonda 1938, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India, No. 71, Manager of Publications, Government of India, Delhi, 1953: 14. 40 G. Buehler, Bhattiprolu Inscriptions, Epigraphia Indica II, Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1894: 323–9. 41 Richard Salomon, Indian Epigraphy, Center for Asian Studies, Austin, 1998: 35. 42 I.K. Sarma, Studies in Early Buddhist Monuments and Brahmi Inscriptions of Andhradesa, Dattsons, Nagpur, 1988: 50–1. 43 M. N. Deshpande, Rock-Cut Caves of Pitalkhora in the Deccan, Ancient India, 15, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, 1959: 66–93. 44 James Burgess, Report on the Buddhist Cave Temples and Their Inscriptions, Truebner, London, 1883: 91. 45 Wilhelm Geiger, edited, The Mahavamsa, Pali Text Society, London, 1908: 241–2; English translation 203–4. John S. Strong, Buddhist Relics in Comparative Perspective: Beyond Parallels, David Germano and Kevin Trainor edited, Embodying the Dharma, State University of New York Press, New York, 2004: 27–50. 46 Geiger translated, Mahavamsa, 255 (English translation 217). 47 Lars Fogelin, Archaeology of Early Buddhism, Altamira Press, Lanham, Toronto, New York, Oxford, 2006: 86.

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48 Ibid.: 376–91. 49 Vidya Dehejia, Questioning Narrativity and Inscribed Labels, Himanshu Prabha Ray edited, Sacred Landscapes in Asia, Manohar Publishers, New Delhi, 2007: 285–308. 50 I.K. Sarma and J.V.P. Rao, Early Brahmi Inscriptions from Sannathi, Harman Publishing House, New Delhi, 1993. 51 K.V. Ramesh, A Brahmi Inscription from Belvadigi, Epigraphia Indica, 37, 1967: 131–3. 52 They bear inscriptions honouring the kings and queens, chieftains and generals, religious personages, foreman of artisans and soldiers. The foreman of artesans (avesani), Mulabhuta by name, hailed from a place called Pavayata. A narrow-necked vase, perhaps a guild mark has been incised over the inscription (Epigraphia Indica XXXV (1963–64): 16). The earliest recorded evidence of a chayya stambha from Andhra Pradesh is from Gangaperuru in Cuddapah district (Epigraphia Indica XXVI, 1970: 207). 53 I. K. Sarma and J. V. P. Rao, Early Brahmi Inscriptions from Sannathi, Harman Publishing House, New Delhi, 1993: 104–12. 54 Debala Mitra, Ratnagiri, 1958–61, Volume 1, Archaeological Survey of India, 1981: 31. 55 Gregory Schopen, Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1997: 121–2. 56 Phyllis Granoff, Relics, Rubies and Rituals: Some Comments on the Distinctiveness of the Buddhist Relic Cult, Revista degli Studi Orientali, 81, 1–4, 2008: 59–72. 57 Phyllis Granoff and K. Shinohara, edited, Images in Asian Religions: Text and Context, University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, 2004: 19–56. 58 John H. Marshall, Archaeological Exploration in India, 1908–9, (Section on: The stūpa of Kanishka and relics of the Buddha), Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1909: 1057–8; 1056–61. 59 D.B. Spooner, Excavations at Shah-ji-ki-Dheri, Archaeological Survey of India Annual Report 1908–09, Archaeological Survey of India, Calcutta, 1912: 38–59. 60 Errington and Curtis, edited, From Persepolis to the Punjab: 132. 61 Find Buddha’s Bones after 2,000 years, Indianapolis Star, September 5, 1909: B14. 62 H.H. Wilson, Ariana Antiqua, a Descriptive Account of the Antiquities and Coins of Afghanistan, Court of Directors, East India Company, London, 1841: 39–40.

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4 RELIGIOUS TRAVEL AND RITUALS

The worship of the stupa is a religious duty linked to spiritual emancipation but one, which also places the worshipper within the larger domain of Buddha dhamma. As discussed in the previous chapter, the immediate precincts of the stupa continued to be regarded as sacred and the stupa continued to form the core of Buddhist sites in the subcontinent well into the 12th and 13th centuries, as evident from the area around the mahastupa at Ratnagiri. There were, however, changes in the nature of worship from the fifth and sixth centuries onward with the inclusion of sandal paste, flowers, oblations and other offerings. Particularly important was the development of ritual texts from the eighth to the ninth centuries onwards, such as the kriyā and caryā tantras, which emphasized the maintenance and worship of stupas. While the former dealt with the making and establishment of images, the latter discusses cults for daily worship. This complexity in ritual is matched by an expansion of the Buddhist pantheon, which now included Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and goddesses. The group of five dhyāni Buddhas, viz. Vairocana, Akshobhya, Amitabha, Ratnasambhava and Amoghasiddhi, is known from monastic sites in the subcontinent, though there is no evidence of a uniform practice being followed across the country, as shown in the following sections. Relevant for this chapter is the Tibetan-Buddhist tradition, preserved in Tibetan, of the written manuals for the construction of stupas, and also for rituals to be followed in their worship, though the Sanskrit originals are now lost.1 Many of the rituals such as selection of the sites, consecration of the structure and so on continue to be followed in Ladakh and in the western Himalayas,2 and find parallels in the Āgamic tradition associated with temple building in India. One of the stupa forms that figures in Tibetan texts is the gandhakuṭi representing a structure containing a stupa within. A reference to the

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gandhakuṭi, however, occurs in an inscription in Ajanta Cave 17, thus indicating continuity from an earlier tradition. Texts such as the Vimaloṣṇīśa and Raśmivimala originally written in Sanskrit now surviving in the Tibetan versions are essentially architectural manuals for stupa construction. They provide details of rituals to be followed and the process involved in activities such as site selection, preparation of the earth and consecration of the stupa once completed. These guidelines are provided for the vajrācārya well versed in mantras and mudras. The vajrācārya acquired an important position by the early sixth century CE in the subcontinent, as evident from inscriptions from Odisha. Another distinguishing feature of the period was the emphasis on initiation into yogic meditation and visualization through mantras and maṇḍalas. Can these ritual texts be termed ‘Tantric’ or belonging to the Vajrayana sect of Buddhism? Scholars have argued against the term Tantrism (doctrines and practices), since it is a Western concept and does not come from within the Buddhist system, and have proposed that it be viewed as a process rather than a structure. The goals of the Tantric vision are enlightenment and worldly success through developing the power inherent in one’s own body under the guidance of the ācārya or teacher. Its central practices may be characterized as transgression, empowerment, divinization and ritualized use of mantras and imagery. While the beginnings of several practices may be traced to an earlier period, as a system, transformations are identifiable in the archaeological record from the fifth to the seventh centuries.3 What is also significant are the overlaps with Saiva Tantric practices and interchanges between the two. Alexis Sanderson has written of the impact of the Tantric Śaiva Canon on the Buddhist Yogini Tantras, which incorporate several passages from the former with little modification. There is, nevertheless, an underlying belief in the superiority of the Buddhist system and this is evident from the treatment of Hindu deities, such as the Buddhist deity Samvara trampling on Bhairava,4 and representations of several gods, such as Heruka and Vajrahunkara trampling upon Hindu divinities. ‘As to whether the deities are conceived merely as being humiliated or as being dead, is difficult to determine’. The emphasis on magic spells would suggest that they are to be considered as corpses to be brought back to life through proper Buddhist rituals.5 Sanderson thus proposes coexistence of Śaivism and Buddhism under the royal patronage in India, as was the norm in Southeast Asia, especially the kingdoms of the Khmer, Cham and the Javanese.6 Unlike the kingdoms of Southeast Asia, in India, however, Śaivism emerged as the dominant religion.7 80

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Over the last few decades, there have been attempts at identifying specific texts that may have been used at Buddhist monastic sites, both in India and elsewhere. For example, A. Ghosh published the text of an inscription found on a stone slab now in the museum at Cuttack and also presented similar texts found on terracotta tablets from Nalanda written in Nagari characters dating from the sixth to the ninth century CE, as well as those from Paharpur and Bodh Gaya. Though Ghosh was unable to identify the text, it is now evident that the stone slab represented a short Sanskrit version of texts preserved in the Tibetan Kanjurs. Bodhigarbhālankāralakśa and Vimaloṣṇīśa form a group of texts that were widely known and used for inscribing dhāraṇīs on terracotta plaques not only at sites in Odisha, but also across the Buddhist world in Tibet, China as well as Sri Lanka. This led Schopen to conclude: If by ‘tantric’ we mean that phase of Buddhist doctrinal development, which is characterized by an emphasis on the central function of the guru as religious preceptor; by sets – usually graded – of specific initiations; by esotericism of doctrine, language and organization; and by a strong emphasis on the realization of the goal through highly structured ritual and meditative techniques, then there is nothing at all ‘tantric’ about these texts. They are texts dealing with ritual forms open to all and religious problems common to all – monks, nuns, lay men and women. Second, they show a marked continuity in terms of religious concerns with the literature that preceded them. They are, like much of the canonical Mahayana sutra literature that came before them, preoccupied with death and the problems of rebirth.8 This chapter focuses on a somewhat under-researched theme and that is of Buddhist rituals and the interconnectedness of monastic sites through pilgrimage, as evident both from archaeological excavations and from sculptural representations at sites. References in the Mahavastu indicate that stupa worship had developed its own elaborate ritual by the early centuries of the Common Era involving circumambulation, obeisance, offerings of flowers, incense, cotton and silk clothes, placing of lights and striking up of instrumental music (II: 362–4). Art historians have written about visual narratives that adorned Buddhist monastic establishments from the start of the first century BCE onwards and the techniques by which the stories were communicated ‘with a secondary role given to the story or subject 81

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matter’.9 Similarly Reynolds has shown that ‘sacred biographies resonate among religious audiences because the Buddha biography has fundamentally shaped religious conceptions and interpretations in various religious modes throughout that tradition’.10 How did these develop over time and what form did they take? In the next section, I discuss not only references to worship of the stupa, but also the changing nature of stupa deposits that provides insights into the wider context of stupa worship.

Ritual deposits and worship of the stupa In his edicts, Ashoka praises ceremonies performed for religious purposes (maha-[pha]le [e] dhamma-mangale), but decries those performed on the occasion of births, illnesses and weddings (Rock Edict IX).11 The Bhabhra epigraph of Ashoka is addressed to the Sangha and the laity and contains an unequivocal expression of the king’s respect (gaurava) and faith (prasāda) in the three jewels (Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha). The king recommends the study of dhamma texts (dhammapaliyani) as a way of ensuring that the dhamma would last forever. There are references to several religious ceremonies in his inscriptions such as visits to the Bodhi tree and chanting of Buddhist scriptures, among others. Rock Edict VIII dates Ashoka’s dhammayātā (pilgrimage) to Sambodhi or the sacred Bodhi tree at Gaya 10 years after his consecration. Texts dated to the beginnings of the Common Era, such as the Apadāna are replete with descriptions of stupa construction and relic worship conceived within a cosmic soteriological framework. There are references to individuals or groups of individuals organizing festivals at a time when construction or expansion or renovation of a stupa was proposed and similarly at the time when it was completed. Walters argues that texts relating to the Buddha’s biography were recited on these occasions as well as performed. Thus, the setting up of a stupa was an occasion when the king, the lay devotee, the stone carver and the monks and nuns came together in celebration of the life of the Buddha,12 and early Buddhist art provides an important source for the study of this.13 A bas-relief from Bharhut of the first century BCE, for example, focuses attention on the festivities around the instalment of the Buddha’s crest jewel or cudamani. The scene depicts an assembly hall with people standing with folded hands or showering flowers, and in the lower panel are shown four female dancers and four musicians. Other representations at the same site show relic processions headed by dancers and musicians. 82

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Another festival prominently depicted is that of the consecration of a stupa both at Bharhut and at Sanchi. There are several representations of congregational and ceremonial stupa worship by lay devotees with music and floral offerings at Sanchi. The scene shows musicians playing a variety of instruments, some of them quite extraordinary such as the Greek double flute and wind instruments with dragon heads from West Asia.14 The Kalingabodhi jataka refers to the celebration of a Bodhi festival commemorating the Enlightenment, and the Buddha tells Ananda that similar festivals should be held at the Bodhi shrine constructed at Jetavana and at other monasteries constructed to honour his enlightenment. In the early Buddhist texts, the Vedic term mahas was revived and a distinction made between mahas or festivals held on several occasions and the Hindu form of worship or puja. The ritual procedures also differed between the two and the latter was often addressed to a Yaksa or a deity involving the offering of food, drinks, bathing water and other services. The early Buddhists are known to have made a clear distinction between the ritual procedures of a Buddhist festival or individual ways of paying respect on the one hand and Hindu form of worship on the other.15 One of the rewards that was promised to the lay devotee abiding by the precept of giving dāna was heaven, in addition to a long life, beauty, happiness and honour (Anguttara Nikaya, III. 43). These are repeated in Ashoka’s fourth rock edict which refers to heaven as the reward for observing the dhamma preached to the laity, that is, dāna or gift giving, sīla or observance of the moral precepts, the heaven being characterized by celestial palaces, elephants and fiery manifestations of divine beings. These descriptions were translated into sculpture and several depictions of ‘scenes of paradise’ have been sculpted at Sanchi, Mathura, Amaravati and other early Buddhist sites.16 According to the Mahavamsa (ch. XV.V.31; XXXVI.V.38), several sermons were popular among the laity. These included Vessantara and Kapi jatakas and the Ariyavamsa. The Ariyavamsa is one of the seven selected texts referred to in the Bhabru edict of Ashoka addressed to the Sangha, in which he recommends the listening of these texts to the monastics and the lay devotees. Often, distinguished preachers (dhammakathika, bhanaka) were invited to preach the doctrine and received gifts in return. In Sri Lanka, structures were specially set up where the Ariyavamsa was preached (Mahavamsa XXXIV.V.38) and there is inscriptional evidence from the island to support this. In addition to the textual references and representations of festivities at Buddhist monastic sites, can archaeology provide clues to changes 83

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in stupa worship over time? In the last two chapters, reference has been made to the gradual extension of stupas, as evident from the coin deposits at Manikyala stupa. Buddhist stupas in India were repeatedly refurbished and architectural layers were added, as donations from devotees became available. Akira Shimada’s rigorous analysis of the construction of the limestone railing around the stupa at Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh shows that it was constructed in three phases. The first phase is dated from 50 to 1 BCE; the second from 50 to 100 CE; and the third from 200 to 250 CE. These additions and changes over a 300year period are evident in sizes and styles of carving of the railing.17 Was there a change in stupa deposits from those of the early centuries of the Common Era which had included reliquaries, ashes, bone fragments, coins, gems and gold, silver or semi-precious stone ornaments and beads? In Chapter 3, we referred to the placement of dhāraṇīs inside stupas across north India and also to their inscription on images from the fifth and sixth centuries CE. Here, we focus on another type of ritual deposit, that is, images, especially of bronze. Archaeological excavations conducted by Bhagwanlal Indraji in 1882 at Sopara on the west coast of India show major changes in stupa deposits by the eighth and ninth centuries CE. From a brickbuilt chamber at the centre of the stupa, archaeologists recovered bronze images of Maitreya and seven manusi Buddhas placed within the large stone coffer. The coffer also enclosed relic caskets of copper, silver, stone, crystal and gold, along with numerous gold flowers and fragments of a begging bowl.18 The bronzes were arranged on the eight points of the compass and formed a circle or maṇḍala around a copper casket, which was placed in the centre of the stone coffer and contained four other caskets and a gold plaque with an image of the Buddha.19 Was Sopara an isolated example in terms of the stupa deposits recovered or was this a wider phenomenon? In the same year, an ancient Buddhist stupa was discovered in Kanheri, from which a large stone coffer was excavated containing eight bronze images of the bodhisattva Maitreya from the eighth to the ninth centuries. The coffer also contained caskets of copper, silver and crystal, which are now in the Asiatic Society of Mumbai’s museum. At Ratnagiri, 27 bronze images were found during excavations and 3 of these were recovered from the stupa area. Inside stupa 55, three deposits were found pertaining to different layers. These included two bronze images of Jambhala and Maitreya: a circular stone slab inscribed with the ‘ye dhamma hetu. . . .’ verse and a soapstone image of Lokesvara. Images have also been found within stupas at Sanchi and Sarnath.20 The site of Devnimori located in the Meshvo Valley in 84

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Gujarat was excavated in the 1960s. Inside the brick-built mahastupa at the site, excavators recovered eight stone images of the seated Buddha, some with heads missing.21 Nagapattinam is another site where images were found inside the stupa. During demolition of the stupa at Nagapattinam by the Jesuits

Figure 4.1 The 16th-century Lokesvara image from Vellipalayam Nagapattinam district, now in the Madras Museum, Tamil Nadu

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in 1856, a large number of Buddhist bronze images were recovered (Fig. 4.1). Very little of the structures that housed the Buddha images survive, as will be discussed in the next section.

The icon More than 64 life-sized granite images of the seated Buddha dated from the 9th to the 11th century have been found in several districts of Tamil Nadu, both coastal and inland.22 None of these images is in worship at present, though some are housed in temporary structures by villagers (Fig. 4.2). A few of these are in museums, but most lie abandoned, invariably with Shiva or Vishnu temples in the vicinity. A distinctive feature of Tamil Nadu Buddhas is the flame-shaped usnisa (a chignon symbolizing expanded knowledge) on the head. There is, however, no doubt that these images would have been in worship during the medieval period. Clues into the ancient importance of the Buddha images is provided by the two-line legend on the pedestal of a 69.2 centimetres bronze Buddha image, now in the John D. Rockefeller III collection. The 2002 decipherment of the inscription reads as follows: The image of the Lord Buddha is for festival procession (s) at the temple of the Lord Buddha attached to the akkacālaipperumpaļļi or image house of Rajendracolapperumpaļļi. This image of the Lord Buddha has been installed by the venerable Kunākara IV of Ciŗutavūr. Hail Prosperity! The prefect of artisan manufactories for the merchants of the eighteen countries.23 The Buddha image was thus invested with attributes of divinity and was involved in several rituals with close parallels to those associated with Siva and Visnu. It was donated by a master craftsman serving as a functionary of a merchant guild established at Nagapattinam. Thus, it is evident from the inscriptions on the bronze images that not only were the theistic traditions shared between the Buddhists and the followers of Siva and Visnu, but also that several Buddhist monastic orders coexisted at the site, including that of forest dwellers.24 Buddha images continue to be prominently represented in the rockcut caves at Kanheri near Mumbai. Cave 11 which is also known as ‘Darbar Hall’ consists of a huge hall with a front verandah. The hall has a shrine on its back wall and cells on two sides. The Buddha in dharmacakrapravartana mudra adorns the shrine. The cave has four 86

Figure 4.2 Stone Buddha image in worship as a Saiva deity under a tree in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu

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inscriptions of different periods, one dated CE 853, which records the donation of various gifts and funds provided for the purchase of books and repairs to the damages. The image of Buddha is generally shown either standing or in seated posture. The latter, in some cases, is flanked by Bodhisattvas and in rare cases with their consorts. Avalokitesvara is the other prominent figure apart from Buddha, who finds importance here. Colossal images of the Buddha have been found at several sites from Kanheri on the west coast to Ratnagiri on the east. At the latter site, a 1.207 metres high head of the Buddha image was found on the slope of the hill overlooking the river Kelua. Another 1.26 metres colossal head of the Buddha was also recovered from the surface at Ratnagiri.25 Life-size Buddha images were also enshrined in temples at the site, for example, in the shrine complex near monastery 1. The main object of worship was a seated image of the Buddha in bhumisparsamudra, which measured 2.16 metres. The sculpture was made of six courses of khondalite slabs held together by iron clamps and dowels. The central image was flanked by Avalokitesvara and Vajrapani 1.473 metres and 1.448 metres in height, respectively.26 Another example of the continued centrality of the Buddha is provided by the site of Ellora, in the Aurangabad district of the present state of Maharashtra, but within a maṇḍala setting, as will be discussed in the next section.

Maṇḍalas in Buddhist art and architecture The earliest cave excavation at Ellora in western India began in the late 6th century and was dedicated to Śiva, followed by Buddhist and Jaina caves over the next several centuries until the 10th century CE. The Śaiva caves shared several architectural features with the 12 Buddhist caves at Ellora, which were excavated from the early seventh to the early eighth century CE. Malandra has traced the beginnings of a maṇḍala in caves 6 and 5 at Ellora. Though the seated Buddha image continued to be the focal point of worship, it was now surrounded by attendant figures. The iconographic programme has a conceptual unity and the cave presents a three-dimensional maṇḍala. More elaborate representations are to be found in the later caves at Ellora, such as the three-storeyed Cave 12 and in caves 6 and 7 at Aurangabad.27 The caves at Ellora, as shown by Malandra, were conceived as sacred architectural spaces where various groupings of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas resided. ‘These groupings have been collected in iconographic lists in such texts as the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa, Sādhanamālā, Nispannayogāvalī and the Kriyāsamgraha, and might 88

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be associated with specific teachers and/or schools’.28 This threedimensional representation of the maṇḍala diagram was to aid the devotees in achieving their desired goals. This was not an exclusively Buddhist phenomenon.29 Ellora is a good example of the continuities and changes that Buddhist networks and teachings underwent in the subcontinent. On the one hand, the site builds on the rock-cutting architectural tradition of the western Deccan Buddhist caves of the early centuries of the Common Era as seen at Karle, Kanheri and Ajanta, while on the other, it shows transformations and changes by the fifth and sixth centuries with the adoption of different groupings of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. This incorporation of maṇḍala places Ellora in a new circuit that emerged in the middle of the first millennium CE and included sites such as Cave 90 at Kanheri on the west coast,30 Sanchi and Sirpur in central India, Bodh Gaya and Ratnagiri in the east and Lahaul and Spiti in the western Himalayas. As we will discuss in the next chapter, Ellora is especially significant for the overlaps and interlinkages that it shares with Hinduism and Jainism. From the Buddhist sites of Odisha, five types of maṇḍalas were found, viz. the stupa maṇḍala with four Dhyānī Buddhas flanked by two Bodhisattva each, as in the Udayagiri stupa (Fig. 4.3); sculptural

Figure 4.3 The stupa maṇḍala with four Dhyānī Buddhas flanked by two Bodhisattvas each, at Udayagiri, Odisha

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maṇḍalas of eight Bodhisattvas around a Buddha on a single stone slab; four × four Bodhisattvas surrounding four Dhyāni Buddhas with the fifth one at the centre; free-standing Bodhisattvas forming a maṇḍala; and the last type being the maṇḍala diagram on the back of the image. The last category – maṇḍala diagram – is incised on the back of Jambhala image at Ratnagiri which consists of two concentric circles along with the Buddhist creed, a mantra and letters and numerous inscriptions representing Jambhala, Vasudhārā, dance deities, deified paraphernalia and musical instruments.31 It is also significant that there is evidence for a stupa Odisha at site 1 (Madhavapura Mahavihara) coexisting at Udayagiri in Jajpur district with other stupas unearthed during the 1997–2000 and 2001–2004 excavations at site 2. Archaeological excavations were undertaken at Udayagiri over several years, the latest being in the southern section of the valley in 2001–2003. The excavations unearthed a brick-built caitya, brick, monolithic and masonry stupas and a long drain made of stones for emptying water from monastery 2 and the shrine complex. The earliest structure at the site dated to the beginning of the Common Era was a stone platform. An inscribed relic casket and PuriKushan coins were found in its vicinity. Around the third century CE, an apsidal caitya was built on its southern side, which enshrined a masonry stupa. Around the sixth century, a brick-built shrine was raised over the apsidal structure, though the stupa was retained. The entire area underwent further changes in the 10th century when the shrine and the stupa had collapsed. A low platform was built with pedestals for setting up five colossal images of the Buddha.32 At Udayagiri, near the top of the western spur of the hill overlooking the river Birupa, are a series of rock-cut images of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas with a votive stupa in front. The first image is that of Avalokitesvara and bears two inscriptions. One is a popular Buddhist dhāraṇī and the other records that the image was a gift of Simyaka. Peculiar to Udayagiri is the alignment of the eight Bodhisattvas forming a maṇḍala around a central figure.33 It is evident that though there are regional specificities in the organization of ritual and arrangements of sculptures and architecture, yet at the same time these monastic sites formed a part of the larger network of travel and pilgrimage, as will be discussed in the next section.

Pilgrimage and travel Pilgrimage differs from other forms of worship because of the emphasis on movement and sites of sanctity. These are the places where 90

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devotees believe that they can have direct interaction with the Master. The depiction of Ashoka’s pilgrimage to the Bodhi tree and his encounter with the nagas at Ramagrama are sculpted at Sanchi, a theme that finds resonance in the later Sanskrit text, the Aśokāvadāna.34 The firstcentury CE relief from Sanchi stupa III shows that the Ashokan pillar itself had become an object of worship, while sites associated with miracles such as at Sravasti and Vaisali find representation at Bharhut and Sanchi. Similarly, a stele from Amaravati on the river Krishna in Andhra Pradesh refers to caityas at Vaisali, the site of the monkey’s gift (identified with modern Basarh in Bihar) and Sravasti, the place of the Great Miracle (134 kms from Lucknow, the capital of the present state of Uttar Pradesh). This stele, dated to the Mauryan period thus linked the site of Amaravati with sacred spots in the north.35 Clearly, the association of monastic sites with events from the life of the Buddha was an ongoing and fluid process. Several sites could be added or deleted both temporally and spatially. Sanchi, for example, was not linked to any event and yet it received generous support from a cross-section of the populace in the early centuries of the Common Era and continued until the 12th century CE. In contrast, other sites such as Bodh Gaya remained in active worship and never became ‘archaeological’. It is not clear when the eight sites associated with the Buddha’s life became codified, but stele showing scenes from the life of the Buddha became commonplace in the Indian subcontinent in the early centuries of the Common Era, though there was no uniformity in the scenes depicted. By the fifth century CE, several conventions for the representation of the scenes had come into existence.36 It is also evident that the grouping of eight sites associated with the life of the Buddha occurred only after the sixth or seventh century CE. ‘Many authors have assumed that these eight were depicted together at an earlier time, but there is no evidence supporting this supposition’.37 In 1906, a stele depicting scenes from the life of the Buddha was found in the excavations at Sarnath, but this dates from the eighth century. However, from the eighth century onwards, pilgrimage came to be embodied in a new type of image in eastern India depicting the seated Buddha surrounded by eight scenes from his life. The practice of visiting the eight sites associated with the life of the Buddha developed into a cult known as Aṣṭamahāprātihārya with the promise of rebirth in a heavenly world. This image both in stone and moulded clay had wide prevalence.38 This image circulated extensively in South and Southeast Asia, and an 11th-century votive tablet showing the Buddha seated in the centre in bhūmisparśamudrā surrounded by eight scenes from his life is now in the National Museum at Bangkok. In addition, the clay 91

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tablet shows the seven manusi Buddhas on the top and the Buddhas of the past at the bottom. The reverse of the image carries the Buddhist verse of ‘Ye dharma. . . .’39 The tablet was recovered from a hoard at Wat Ratchaburana in the Ayutthaya province. Since the verse is recited during consecration ceremonies, it is possible that the verse was written during rituals. Inscriptions refer to visits by pilgrims to the site of Buddha’s enlightenment at Bodh Gaya, both from the subcontinent and from outside India. In his report on the site, Cunningham recorded several inscriptions in Chinese and Burmese found at Bodh Gaya, but two of the inscriptions in Tibetan were subsequently discovered in his papers given to the British Museum.40 Perhaps, one of the earliest Tibetan visitors was Ye-shes dbang-po, who is reported to have come to Bodh Gaya in the eighth century. A Chinese devotee is known to have built a shrine to the north of the Bodhi tree in 1021 CE and another addition was made in 1031.41 A long inscription in Chinese by Yun Shu on a stele dated 1041 CE records a typical panegyric poem with an image of the Buddha carved on top of the record.42 In addition to the Chinese, the Burmese sent two missions in 1035 and 1086 CE to renovate and repair the temple. Burmese inscriptions from this period also record a history of the temple at Bodh Gaya, crediting the Mauryan ruler Ashoka with its construction. The great Tibetan translator Rinchen Sangpo (958–1051) placed offerings at the gate of Bodh Gaya followed by the Tibetan monk Dharmasvamin in 1234 CE. The latter refers to several important places around the temple such as the Tara shrine, a tooth relic and foot prints of the Buddha. Other portable objects that circulated widely were stone models of the Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya, the site of Buddha’s Enlightenment, averaging about 20 centimetres in height and carved in dark grey schist. These are widely dispersed from eastern India to Nepal, Tibet, Arakan and Myanmar, and often formed prototypes for the construction of shrines.43 What is fascinating is that from the 13th century, the Mahabodhi Temple became a model that was emulated at several other centres and there are at least four recreations in Burma and Thailand. The earliest was built at Pagan in the 13th century, followed by Schwegugyi in Pegu dating to 1460–1470, Wat Chet Yot in Chiang Mai (1455–1470) and the fourth one at around the same time in Chiengrai.44 These handy objects formed a crucial part of the universal visual imagery associated with the spread of dhamma across Southeast Asia and need to be contextualized with the establishment of local shrines. 92

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In addition to circulation and translations of texts, several Chinese missions to Buddhist sites in the subcontinent are also known. As recorded in the written history of the Han (Qian Hanshu) under the reign of Emperor Wudi (140–87 BCE), the emperor sent a mission to the kingdom of Huangzhi, which contemporary writers generally agree was located on the shores of the Indian Ocean, very likely in India. More often quoted are records left by Chinese pilgrims who travelled to India and visited Buddhist sites. The pilgrim Faxian arrived overland in India in CE 399 and returned by sea to China in 413–414 CE from Sri Lanka heading towards the north-west tip of Sumatra. The ship was wrecked on the way and perhaps landed in the Andamans. The next phase took Faxian to the north-west of Borneo where he arrived in 414 after 90 days at sea. The pilgrim remained in Borneo for five months and then left for China in mid-414 heading towards Canton. A second Chinese pilgrim to visit India in the seventh century was Xuanzang, though he travelled by the overland route, and while his writings are of not much relevance to maritime archaeology, they formed the basis of archaeological exploration and survey by Alexander Cunningham (1814–1893), the first director general of the ASI who brought Buddhism to the forefront and established its study as a legitimate branch in the second quarter of the 19th century. A point that Cunningham did not take into account was the audience of Xuanzang’s writings. It is suggested that the Chinese pilgrim’s narrative of his pilgrimage to India was written specifically for the eyes of the Chinese Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty (618–907), and hence Xuanzang highlighted aspects that would satisfy the curiosity of the emperor and also indicate his personal contacts and knowledge of foreign political leaders. Peiyi Wu argues that Xuanzang’s narrative includes ‘almost everything except his pilgrimage’.45 Nevertheless, Xuanzang’s writings seem to have had the desired effect at the royal court, and official Chinese sources record the arrival of an embassy from the ruler of Kanauj in central India in 641 CE and credit Xuanzang with initiating contacts between the Chinese empire and King Harsha of Kanauj.46 Two years later, Chinese sources record the visit of another highlevel mission from the Tang court to Kanauj (which arrived in CE 644) where they attended a Buddhist ceremony organized by the king, and also in 645 visited the Mahabodhi monastery at Bodh Gaya and placed an inscription under the Bodhi tree. The mission also included an artist Song Fazhi who made a painting of the Bodhisattva Maitreya under the Bodhi tree that he later used as a blueprint for a sculpture at the Jing’ai monastery in Luoyang.47 93

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This was followed by a fourth mission under the Tang dynasty led by Wang Xuance, which carried a robe for presentation to the head of the Mahabodhi monastery on behalf of Emperor Gaozong. The mission also included a Sogdian monk and was well received. A grand reception was held for the Chinese and in addition they were showered with gifts including pearls, ivory and relics and impressions of the Buddha.48 Wang Xuance also seems to have paid 4,000 bolts of silk to purchase a small parietal bone of the Buddha from Kapisha in north-western India. As indicated by the exchange of letters between Xuanzang and monks Jnanaprabha and Prajndeva of the Mahabodhi monastery, communication continued between the Buddhist monks. Other missions went from the south and Chinese histories record that the first mission to China from Chu-lién (Chola king) travelled by sea and reached their country in 1015 CE.49 It is significant that Chinese visitors to Bodh Gaya included not just monks, but also members of the naval fleets sent by the third emperor of the Ming dynasty Yong-le (1403–1425) to more than 20 countries in Southeast Asia, as well as to Bengal and the Malabar Coast and Aden, popularly known as the voyages of Zheng He. Accounts of these voyages are available in the Mingshi (History of the Ming Dynasty), which is considered the most elaborate and complete history of the Ming dynasty.50 It is based on the Ming Shi-lu, each of the shilu comprising an account of one emperor’s reign compiled after that emperor’s death on the basis of a number of sources created during the reign.51 What is relevant for this paper is the description of visits undertaken to Bengal, Zhao-na-pu-er or Jaunpur in 1412 located to the west of Bengal and to Dili or Delhi. The accounts also mention that Hou Xian, the lesser eunuch, stopped at Jin-gang bao zuo, the Vajrasana at Bodh Gaya, on his way to or from Jaunpur and offered gifts to the elders there.52 How are these finds from sites in the Central Plains to be understood within the contemporary maritime network? How extensive was this network and what are its markers?

Trans-oceanic travel The linkages that connected different monastic centres are nowhere more evident than in the case of the Indian Ocean, and we focus here on the expansion of Buddhism across the Bay of Bengal. A cluster of fifth-century inscriptions of unequivocal Buddhist affiliation was found in Kedah on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. This includes the engraving of the pratītyasamutpāda sūtra on stone – a feature that does not occur among contemporary records from the Indian 94

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subcontinent, though the formula is found on terracotta sealings. Three of these inscriptions are made of local stone and bear similar illustrations of Buddhist stupas. Texts very similar to these inscriptions have been found on the island of Borneo and on the coast of Brunei.53 The most interesting of these inscriptions in Sanskrit is that of Buddhagupta, which refers to the setting up of the stone by the mariner Buddhagupta, resident of Raktamrttika, identified with Rajbadidanga in Bengal, on the successful completion of his voyage (Fig. 4.4).54 There was a shift in maritime networks around the middle of the first millennium CE and pilgrims visiting sites associated with the life of the Buddha formed a major category of travellers. Interesting information about circum-peninsular navigation of the Malay Peninsula is contained in Yijing’s accounts of the voyage of the Chinese pilgrims who travelled to India and returned during the second half of the seventh century CE. Yijing provides an account of his journey from Canton in October-November with the north-east monsoon and his arrival in Palembang on Sumatra a month later. He stayed there for six months, and then went to Jambi near Palembang sometime around May. He stayed there for another two months and then re-embarked in order to profit from the winds of the south-west monsoon to reach Kedah (Jiechi) on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. He did not leave this region for India until the beginning of the following year when the north-east monsoon was well established. He reached the Nicobar Islands in 10 days, and 15 days later arrived at Tamralipti in Bengal. This was clearly the most direct route to the holy places of historic Buddhism.55 Twelve years later, Yijing returned by the same route travelling on the winds of the north-east monsoon to reach Kedah, but this trip required two months, when the outward journey had taken only 25 days. Sailing against the winds was a well-tried technique, but it took much longer than sailing with the winds. One of the voyages recounted by Yijing lasted only the time of one monsoon – the pilgrim Wujing left China ‘in the period of the east winds’, that is, in October-November and arrived in Srivijaya at the end of a month. After stopping at Jambi, he took another month reaching Jiechi and from there he left for Negapatam on the Tamil Nadu coast with the same winds before they began to wane towards the end of March. As late as the 17th century, the ships of the French diplomatic missions to Siam still had the same concern: they must not miss the ‘season’ as it took seven months on an average to sail from Brest and reach the estuary of the Chao Phraya.56 Maritime circuits were by no means restricted to Bengal or to north India, as evident from the maritime orientation of Buddhist monastic 95

Figure 4.4 Buddhagupta inscription, now in the Indian Museum, Kolkata, West Bengal

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sites on the Odisha and Andhra Pradesh coasts, and Nagapattinam on the Tamil Nadu coast. The two sets of Leyden copper plates – the Larger Leyden Plate and Smaller Leyden Plates – in Sanskrit and Tamil refer to the establishment of the Cudamanivihara at Nagapattinam at the initiative of the kings of Srivijaya who identified Jambi on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Construction started during the reign of the Chola King Rajaraja I (985–1016) and was completed under his son and successor Rajendra I (1012–1044). The Smaller Leyden Plates in Tamil refer to nine units of land attached to the Nagapattinam vihara.57 The larger plates contain a Sanskrit portion consisting of 111 lines and a Tamil portion consisting of 332 lines. The Sanskrit text states that in the 21st regnal year, the king gave the village of Annaimangalam to the lofty shrine of Buddha in the Chulamanivarma vihara, which the ruler of Srivijaya and Kataha, Mara Vijayottungavarman of the Sailendra family with the makara crest, had erected in the name of his father in the delightful city of Nagappattana. After Rajaraja passed away, his son Madhurantaka caused a permanent edict to be made for the village granted by his father. It is mentioned that the height of the vihara towered above Kanaka Giri or Mount Meru.58 Nagapattinam finds mention in the 1467 Kalyani inscription of the Burmese King Dhammaceti. Some Burmese monks who were shipwrecked are said to have visited Nagapattinam and worshipped there.59 A second Buddhist circuit is evident between the well-known centre of Nalanda, Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha coasts and the Indonesian archipelago, as evident from the travels of the renowned Buddhist teacher Atiśa Dipankara. A Sanskrit inscription engraved on a large copper plate found in Nalanda in 1921 records that the king of the Pala Dynasty, Devapala (ruled c. 810–847), allocated five villages to support a monastery established there by Maharaja Balaputradeva, lord of Suvarnadvipa (Sumatra).60 The inscription emphasizes such religious tenets as ‘bodhisattvas well-versed in tantras’ and the copying of Buddhist texts. The inscription provides important details about the ancestry of Srivijaya’s ruler at the time. It records his claim that his maternal grandfather was King Dharmasetu and his mother was named Tārā. His fame is compared to that of the five Pandava brothers of the Mahābhārata. The inscription goes on to refer to families of Hindu deities including Śiva and Pārvatī, Indra and Paulomi, Viṣṇu and Lakṣmī, as well as Buddha, son of Queen Maya as analogous to the parents of Balaputra. It is important to place this interaction between Nalanda and the Indonesian archipelago within the larger context of Buddhist sites along the east coast of India, and those on the island of Sumatra. 97

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The three great teachers, Subhakarasimha (637–735), Vajrabodhi (671–741) and Amoghavajra (705–774), taught both the Mahavairocanasutra and the Sarvatathagatatattvasamgrahasutra, and were responsible for introducing them in China.61 Subhakarasimha, who studied at Nalanda, was also an official emissary, carrying the ahdvairocanasutra to Ch’ang-an in 716 at the invitation of the Tang emperor. Saraha, elsewhere called Rahula, is also connected to Odisha where a seventh- or eighth-century inscription refers to a Rahularuci, a mahamandalacarya and paramaguru.62 Hiram Woodward has suggested that a distinctive world of Mantrayana and Yogini Tantras pervaded Java and Sumatra, and large parts of India from the seventh century onwards. ‘A good argument can be made for treating Indonesia and India as an integral unit well into the ninth century’.63 Important links in Woodward’s unit are provided by the sculptural and iconographic programmes of the stupa at Borobudur in central Java and the Tabo monastery in the western Himalayas. Both adopt a sequence of texts and depictions that parallel each other, that is, the life of the Buddha according to the Lalitavistara and Sudhana’s pilgrimage as detailed in the Gaṇḍavyūha sūtra. Providing a link between the western Himalayas, Andhra Pradesh and Indonesia was the renowned dhamma teacher Atiśa (982–1054). As discussed by Sarat Chandra Das (1849–1917) based on Tibetan sources, Atiśa was born in the village of Vajrayogini of Vikrampur region identified with Dhaka in Bangladesh. At a young age, he was ordained as a Buddhist monk and studied with several famous teachers. He is said to have studied at with the master Dharmakīrti of Suvarnadvipa, identified with Sumatra from 1012 to 1024. He travelled to the Indonesian archipelago on board a merchant ship along with his students. On completion of his studies, he returned to Vikramshila. In 1042, he arrived in Tibet at the invitation of the king of Tibet and is considered the father of Tibetan Buddhism.64 The overview presented here shows the decisive role of lineages of monks and nuns in changing ritual practices in the worship of stupas and Buddha images, and in providing uniqueness to certain centres. For example, a new development in the period from 7th to 12th centuries was the development of goddess Tara as the saviour from a variety of dangers including shipwreck in sculpture and in epigraphs. An early representation occurs in Cave 9 of Ellora in western India and two standing images are known from Ratnagiri. She is invoked in several inscriptions, such as the Nalanda record of Vipula Srimitra dated to the first half of the 12th century, as also the Kalasan inscription from Java. It would then seem that though there were 98

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several similarities between contemporary sites, yet every site placed emphasis on certain images suggesting local preferences for cults and specific texts. Two further points are important: one, the interconnectedness of monastic sites through pilgrimage and travel; and second, the coexistence of several monastic ideologies at the same site. For example, the emphasis on female imagery, such as that of Tara at Ratnagiri needs to be balanced against data from other sites. A copper plate charter from Jayrampur in district Balasore, dated to the first half of the sixth century CE, records the grant of a village Svetabalika to the bhikshusangha for constructing a vihara at Bodhipadraka (identified with present Jayrampur) for ārya Avalokiteśvara. The grant provided for ritual requirements of worship such as bali, caru, gandha, puspa, pradīpa and more and for providing necessities of the Ārya Sangha like food, bed, food, medicine and so on.65 This emphasis on the male deity presents a different picture from that evident at Ratnagiri. The period from the 6th to 12th centuries was also characterized by a proliferation of religious shrines of both the Hindus and the Jainas, as also sharing of theistic developments with other religious orders such as that of the Saivas and Vaisnavas. This is an issue that is discussed further in the next chapter.

Notes 1 Pema Dorjee, Stupa and Its Technology: A Tibeto-Buddhist Perspective, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi, 1996. 2 Laxman S. Thakur, Buddhism in the Western Himalayas: A Study of the Tabo Monastery, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2001: 59–97. 3 Robert L. Brown, Introduction, Katherine Ann Harper and Robert L. Brown edited, The Roots of Tantra, State University of New York Press, New York, 2002: 1–16. 4 Alexis Sanderson, Śaivism and the Tantric Tradition, S. Sutherland, P. Clarke and F. Hardy edited, The World’s Religions, Routledge, London, 1988: 128–72. 5 Thomas Eugene Donaldson, Iconography of the Buddhist Sculpture of Orissa, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, 2001: 415. 6 Alexis Sanderson, The Śaiva Age – The Rise and Dominance of Śaivism During the Early Medieval Period, Shingo Einoo edited, Genesis and Development of Tantrism, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 2009: 105. 7 Sanderson, The Śaiva Age: 117–23. 8 Gregory Schopen, Figments and Fragments of Mahayana Buddhism in India: More Collected Papers, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 2005: 337.

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9 Vidya Dehejia, Discourse in Early Buddhist Art: Visual Narratives of India, Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi, 1997. 10 Juliane Schober, edited, Sacred Biography in the Buddhist Traditions of South and Southeast Asia, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1997. 11 D.C. Sircar, Asokan Studies, Indian Museum, Calcutta, 1979: 40. 12 Jonathan S. Walters, Stūpa, Story and Empire: Constructions of the Buddha Biography in Early Post-Aśokan India, Juliane Schober edited, Sacred Biography in the Buddhist Tradition of South and Southeast Asia, Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi, 2002: 160–92. 13 Karel R. Van Kooij, Remarks on Festivals and Altars in Early Buddhist Art, K.R. Van Kooij and H. van der Veer edited, Function and Meaning in Buddhist Art, Egbert Forsten, Groningen, 1995: 33–43. 14 Van Kooij, Remarks on Festivals: 34. 15 Ibid.: 36. 16 Karel R. Van Kooij, Indra’s Heaven in Buddhist Art, Debala Mitra and Gourishwar Bhattacharya, editors, Studies in Art and Archaeology of Bihar and Bengal, Sri Satguru Publications, Delhi, 1989: 107 [97–117]. 17 Akira Shimada, The Great Railing at Amaravati: An Architectural and Chronological Reconstruction, Artibus Asiae, LXVI, 1, 2006: 89–141. 18 Bhagwanlal Indraji, Antiquarian Remains at Sopara and Padana: Being an Account of the Buddhist Stupa and Asoka Edict Recently Discovered at Sopara and of Other Antiquities in the Neighbourhood, Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, XV, Bombay, 1882: 273–328. 19 Devangana Desai, Bronzes from Sopara – Seven Buddhas and a Maitreya, Art and Icon: Essays on Early Indian Art, Aryan Books International, New Delhi, 2013: 124–33. 20 Debala Mitra, Ratnagiri (1958–61), I, Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of India No. 80, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, 1981: 31. 21 R.N. Mehta and S.N.Chowdhary, Excavations at Devnimori, MS University, Vadodara, 2010 [1966]: 49. 22 B. Jambulingam, Buddhism in the Chola Country, Doctoral Thesis, Tamil University, Thanjavur, 1999. 23 Peter Schalk, editor, Buddhism among Tamils in Pre-Colonial Tamilakam and Ilam, Uppsala University, Stockholm, Volume II, 2002: 595. 24 Ibid.: 607. 25 Debala Mitra, Ratnagiri (1958–61), Volume 2, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, 1983: 454, 461. 26 Debala Mitra, Ratnagiri (1958–61), Volume 1, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, 1981: 178. 27 Geri H. Malandra, Unfolding a Mandala: The Buddhist Cave Temples at Ellora, SUNY Press, New York, 1993: 26. John C. Huntington, Cave Six at Aurangabad: A Tantrayana Monument? Joanna G. Williams edited, Kalddarsana, American Studies in the Art of India, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1981: 47–55. 28 Geri H. Malandra, The Mandala at Ellora/Ellora in the Mandala, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 19, 2, 1996: 190. 29 Dennis Huston has argued that a Vaisnava mandala was applied to the architectural form and iconographic programme of the 770 CE Vaikuntha Perumal Temple at Kanchipuram in Tamilnadu. Dennis Huston and

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Vasudeva Krsna, Theology and Architecture: A Background for Srivaisnavism, Journal of Vaisnava Studies, 2, 1, 1993: 139–70. 30 Suraj Pandit, Miracle of Shravasti Depicted in the Art of Kanheri and Kondivate, Anila Verghese and Anna L. Dallapiccola edited, Art, Icon and Architecture in South Asia: Essays in Honour of Dr. Devangana Desai, Aryan Books International, New Delhi, 2015: 49 [43–56]. 31 Debala Mitra, Jambhala-Mandalas in Sculpture, Journal of the Asiatic Society, 3, 1, 1961: 39–41. Thomas Eugene Donaldson, Probable Textual Sources for the Buddhist Sculptural Maṇḍalas of Orissa, East and West, 45, 1/4, December, 1995: 173–204. Umakanta Mishra, Odisha: Cradle of Vajrayana Buddhism, The Souvenir of the Indian History Congress, 74th Session, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack 28–30 December 2013: 79–87. 32 P.K. Trivedi, Further Excavations at Udayagiri – 2, Odisha, Archaeological Survey of India, New Delhi, 2012: 31–5. 33 T.E. Donaldson, Iconography of the Buddhist Sculpture of Orissa, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and Abhinav Publications, New Delhi, 2001: 64. 34 Vidya Dehejia, edited, Unseen Presence: The Buddha and Sanchi, Marg Publications, Mumbai, 1997: 39. 35 Amalananda Ghosh and H. Sarkar, Beginnings of Sculptural Art in Southeast India: A Stele from Amaravati, Ancient India, 20 and 21, 1964–65: 168–77. 36 Joanna Williams, Sarnath Gupta Steles of the Buddha’s Life, Ars Orientalis, 10, 1975: 171–92. 37 Janice Leoshko, Sacred Traces: British Explorations of Buddhism in South Asia, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2003: 71. 38 John C. Huntington, Pilgrimage as Image: The Cult of the Astamahpratiharya, Orientations, 18, 4 and 8, 1987: 55–63 and 56–68. 39 M.L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati, Votive Tablets in Thailand, Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, 1997: 20. 40 Alexander Cunningham, Mahabodhi or the Great Buddhist Temple Under the Bodhi Tree at Buddha-Gaya, W. H. Allen, London, 1892: 67–75. 41 Tsering Gongkatsang and Michael Willis, Tibetan, Burmese and Chinese Inscriptions from Bodhgaya in the British Museum, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Series 3, 2013: 1–11. 42 Janice Leoshko, The Significance of Bodh Gaya, Adriana Poser edited, Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art, Asia Society Museum in association with Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2011: 10–13. 43 John Guy, The Mahabodhi Temple: Pilgrim Souvenirs of Buddhist India, The Burlington Magazine, CXXXIII, 1059, June, 1991: 356–67. 44 Robert L. Brown, Bodhgaya and Southeast Asia, Janice Leoshko edited, Bodhgaya: The Site of Enlightenment, Marg Publications, Bombay, 1988: 101–24. 45 Peiyi Wu, An Ambivalent Pilgrim to T’ai Shan in the Seventeenth Century, Susan Naquin and Chun-fang Yü edited, Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China, University of California Press, Berkeley, Los Angeles and Oxford, 1992: 67 [65–88]. 46 Tansen Sen, In Search of Longevity and Good Karma: Chinese Diplomatic Missions to Middle India in the Seventh Century, Journal of World History, 12, 1, 2001: 6 [1–28].

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47 Ibid.: 9. 48 Ibid.: 20. 49 K.A.N. Sastri, A History of South India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1955: 219. 50 Haraprasad Ray, Trade and Diplomacy in India-China Relations: A Study of Bengal During the Fifteenth Century, Radiant Publishers, New Delhi, 1993: 7. 51 Geoff Wade, translated, Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu, an open access resource, Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 2005. 52 Harprasad Ray, Trade and diplomacy in India-China relations: a study of Bengal during the fifteenth century, Radiant Publishers, New Delhi, 1993: 78. 53 Jan W. Christie, State Formation in Early Maritime Southeast Asia: A Consideration of the Theories and the Data, Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 151, 2, 1995: 256 [235–88]. 54 B. Ch. Chhabra, Expansion of the Indo-Aryan Culture During Pallava Rule, Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1965. 55 Michel Jacq-Hergoualc’h, The Malay Peninsula: Crossroads of the Maritime Silk Road (100 BC – 1300 AD), Brill, Leiden, 2002: 53–4. 56 Jacq-Hergoualc’h, The Malay Peninsula: 55. 57 Schalk, Buddhism among Tamils: 513–670. 58 Gokul Seshadri, New Perspectives on Nagapattinam, Hermann Kulke, K. Kesavapany and Vijay Sakhuja edited, Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa: Reflections on the Chola Naval Expeditions, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 2009: 125. 59 Schalk, Buddhism among Tamils: 596. 60 Hiranand Shastri, The Nalanda Copper Plate of Devapaladeva, Epigraphia Indica, 17, 7, 1924: 310–27. 61 Geri H. Malandra, The Mandala at Ellora / Ellora in the Mandala, Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 19, 2, 1996: 185 [181–208]. 62 Amalananda Ghosh, Khadipada Image Inscription of the Time of Subhakara, Epigraphia Indica, 26, 1942: 247–8. 63 Hiram Woodward, Esoteric Buddhism in Southeast Asia in the Light of Recent Scholarship, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 35, 2, June, 2004: 353. 64 Ruth Sonam, translated and edited, Atisha’s Lamp for the Path, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca, New York, 1997: 7–17. 65 D.C. Sircar, Select Inscriptions Bearing on Indian History and Civilization, University of Calcutta, Calcutta, 1965: 530–1.

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5 THE SHIFTING EQUATIONS Buddhism in a multireligious milieu

In the past kings used to go out on pleasure tours during which there was hunting and other entertainment. But ten years after Beloved-of-the-God’s (rājā piyadassi) coronation he went on a tour to saṁbodhi and thus instituted [Dharma] dhamma tours. During these tours, the following things took place: visits and gifts to [Brahmins] brāhmaṇas and ascetics [śramaṇas], visits and gifts of gold to the aged, visits to people in the countryside, instructing them in dhamma, and discussing dhamma with them as is suitable (Major Rock Edict VIII, Girnar version). – D. C. Sircar, Inscriptions of Aśoka (New Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, 1975, p. 46)

The dhamma or religious policy of the Mauryan King Ashoka was aimed at giving gifts to Brahmins (brāhmaṇas), Buddhists and other ascetics (śramaṇas) in the third century BCE. The king did not stop feeding the Brahmins nor did he denigrate them, as he propagated the Buddha dhamma. In secondary writings, however, there are references to hostility between different groups. Romila Thapar, for example, makes a distinction between Brahmanism and Sramanism and refers to them as organizationally separate. The latter term, according to her, included a variety of Buddhist, Jaina, Ajivika and other sects, which denied the fundamentals of Brahmanism such as Vedic Śruti and Smrti (oral and written tradition).1 Within this framework, Brahmins were seen as legitimizers of political authority and Brahmanism is credited with the adoption of a common language, viz. Sanskrit. What Thapar does not explain is the relationship between Buddhism and Sanskrit 103

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and the fact that Sanskrit was also used by Buddhists by the beginning of the Common Era, as discussed in Chapter 3. Traditionally, two broad trends have influenced historical studies on ancient India in the post-Independence period: one is the Marxist school, which supports the Indian Feudalism theory.2 The paradigm opposing the theory of Indian Feudalism emphasizes the centrality of the political structure in initiating change and suggests three discontinuous phases of urbanization around which other economic activities coalesced. These phases have been defined as the Harappan (3rd and 2nd millennium BCE), Early Historic (600 BCE to 3rd and 4th centuries CE) and Early Medieval (6th–7th to 12th–13th centuries) periods.3 Three major historical processes have been postulated for the early medieval period within this framework: expansion of state society; assimilation and acculturation of tribal peoples; and integration of local religious cults and practices within what is termed the Brahmanical fold. Historians writing within the Marxist framework of Indian History define the post-fourth-century period as marking a transitional phase between the sacrificial Vedic religion and the emergence of Puranic worship marked by devotion to a deity. This transformation, it is suggested, was brought about by the migration of Brahmins from the towns and the development of tirthas or sacred pilgrimage spots.4 Brahmins are credited with being agents of acculturation among the tribal populations from the fifth century CE onwards. It is suggested that, at numerous feudal centres, temples were constructed for the first time in permanent material such as stone in the fifth century CE ‘inspired by the growing importance of Bhakti and by the newly established Smarta-Pauranic religion, which was associated with the new social set-up’.5 Regional states emerged from the 7th to the 10th centuries marked by complex changes in religious dimensions of the society and it is ‘believed that Bhakti and the worship through Bhakti of God as a Lord located in a temple, was the key ideological strand of the period’.6 This argument which forms the basis of Ronald Davidson’s work has been countered elsewhere and will not be repeated here.7 Ronald Davidson, in his study of early medieval Buddhism based largely on the Feudalism hypothesis, proposes that ‘esoteric Buddhism is a direct Buddhist response to the feudalization of Indian society in the early medieval period, a response that involves the sacralization of much of that period’s social world. Specifically, his book argues that the monk, or yogin, in the esoteric system configures his practice through the metaphor of becoming the overlord of a maṇḍala of vassals, and issues of scripture, language and community reflect the 104

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political and. social models employed in the surrounding feudal society’.8 The basic flaw in social history written from the point of view of historical materialism is that it prioritizes theory over quantitative analysis and neglects detailed documentation of archaeological sites. For example, when Sharma refers9 to the decline of Buddhism and conversion of tribal society to so-called Brahmanical culture he does not spell out that the tribal groups were located in inland areas rather than along the coasts, where religious development followed a very different trajectory, as discussed in Chapter 2. As shown in this study, archaeology presents a very different perspective on religious transformation in early South Asia when compared to conventional historical writings on the subject, which have tended to focus on ‘religious architecture and brahmins being agents of political legitimization’ and ‘hegemonic control’ of other groups. In an earlier paper, I have countered the linear view of religious change, which suggests that the Hindu temple came into its own after the decline of Buddhism in the fourth–fifth centuries CE.10 Instead, the paper established that the apsidal form was part of a common architectural vocabulary widely used from the second century BCE onwards not only for the Buddhist shrine, but also for the Hindu temple and several local and regional cults. The diversity in terms of social organization as well as architectural development evident in the archaeological record is extraordinary and provides a corrective to the somewhat homogenizing textual data. This coexistence of diverse religious architecture such as Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, as well as the Iron Age megaliths emphasizes religious plurality in South Asia based on both monumental architecture and archaeological remains. It is evident that Buddhist stupas and Hindu and Jain temples did not emerge from a vacuum. Both in Vidarbha and in Andhra Pradesh, Buddhist shrines and temples formed a part of the cultural landscape along with megalithic burial sites and memorials to the deceased. For example, Colin Mackenzie (1753–1821), the surveyor of the East India Company, visited Amaravati in district Guntur located on the river Krishna in 1816 and mapped stone circles in the vicinity of the mahastupa at Amaravati. Seventeen Iron Age urn burials were reported from beneath the stupas, indicating the continued sacrality of the site from the Iron Age into the historical period. Active architectural development of the mahastupa started around 200–100 BCE and continued well into the 14th century CE, thereby making Amaravati one of the longest lasting Buddhist sites in peninsular India. The diameter of the stupa at Amaravati has been estimated at 42 metres, and in its dimensions matched the stupas at Sanchi in central India, Pauni in Vidarbha 105

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and Bhattiprolu on the Andhra Pradesh coast. However, there is no other example of a stupa in Andhra Pradesh, which continued in use for a long time and was constantly refurbished.11 It is also important to recognize that most sacred spots were associated with more than one religion, be it Buddhism, Jainism, Hinduism or Islam, such as the Nagarjunakonda Valley, where more than 30 Buddhist establishments, 19 Hindu temples and a few medieval Jaina shrines were unearthed in several seasons of archaeological excavations conducted at the site after its discovery in 1920 until its submergence in 1960.12 Second, local shrines and cult spots linked the village to the town and located these within a larger religious geography. Practices such as that of pilgrimage provided wider connectivity through movements of groups and communities, thereby linking several spots across the religious landscape. An appropriate example of this is the site of Ellora in the Aurangabad district of the present state of Maharashtra in India. The earliest cave excavation at Ellora began in the late sixth century and was dedicated to Siva, followed by Buddhist and Jaina caves over the next several centuries until the 10th century CE. Though Ellora’s Hindu excavations are dedicated to Siva, the two exceptions are caves 14 and 25 which appear to have been temples to Durga and Visnu (or possibly Surya), respectively. Cave 16, famous as the monolithic rock-cut Kailasanatha Temple dedicated to Siva is admired for its conceptualization and sculptural exuberance. The Saiva caves shared several architectural features with the 12 Buddhist caves at Ellora, which were excavated from 600 to 730 CE. They document the development of what is often termed Vajrayana imagery from the simple delineation in Cave 6 to the elaborate forms of Cave 12. Much of the excavation activity for the Jain cave temples was conducted during the 9th and 10th centuries, a time when the Rashtrakutas had attained paramount sovereignty in the region. Although the ASI has categorized the Jain monuments into five separate cave complexes (caves 30–34), there are in actuality 23 individual cave temples, nearly all of them containing a shrine and rock-cut Jina image.13 Three kilometres from the caves at Ellora is Khuldabad, known as the Valley of Saints, as it is said to contain the graves of 1,500 Sufi saints as well as the tomb of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, those of his sons and his generals. Marking the Chisti establishment at the site are the tombs of Sayyad Burhan-al din, a Sufi saint who died in 1344 and the mausoleum of Sayyed Zain ud din, another saint highly revered by the Muslims. On the east side, it contains a number of verses inscribed from the Quran and the date of the saint’s death in 106

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1370 CE. These tombs are important markers of the 14th-century Sufi tradition of Nizamuddin Auliya that went from Delhi to the Deccan and established itself in Khuldabad. Ellora is by no means the only example of religious pluralism in South Asia but is instead one of the many sacred places that preserve diverse historical memories. Another multireligious site that underwent a long period of contestation in the 18th and 20th centuries is that of Bodh Gaya.14 In the next two sections, we focus first on Mathura and then on Nagapattinam, as the two underwent different trajectories of religious transformation.

Beginnings of archaeology at Mathura The city of Mathura is located on the river Yamuna, about 55 kilometres north-west of the city of Agra, though the archaeological remains cover a much larger area and extend almost across the entire district. Geographically, the region is characterized by two distinctive features, viz. the river Yamuna to the east and the Govardhan ridge to the west. Two aspects of the archaeology of the region are striking: one, the extensive area dotted by ancient mounds; and second that it does not easily fit into the core and periphery model, with the fortified city often being described as the core in secondary writings. Important for this chapter is the multireligious milieu of ancient Mathura, as evident from the rich archaeological finds especially of the first three centuries of the Common Era. The sacred landscape was shared not only by Hindu, Buddhist and Jain shrines, but also those dedicated to local cults and sculptors producing images for diverse religious groups. It is useful to underline the fact that archaeological remains do not match literary accounts of the city of Mathura. For example, the Anguttara Nikaya states that Mahakaccayana, a famous disciple of Buddha, preached the principles of his Master in Mathura. At that time, he lived in the Gunda grove, the exact location of this place not being mentioned in the text.15 Sanskrit texts such as the Mahābhāśya of Patañjali refer to Mathura as the place where Krishna killed Kamsa. In the Mahābhārata and the later Puranic lore, there are numerous references to the city of Mathura as the birthplace of Lord Krishna, and the Yadavas are identified as the chief ruling family of the region.16 Preliminary explorations at Mathura began as early as the 1830s, with the discovery of a Bacchanalian group of stone sculpture by Colonel Stacy. This was followed by a survey by Alexander Cunningham from 1853 to 1883 based on the account of the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang. His primary objective was to collect sculptures from several mounds around the present city of Mathura, especially from Katra, 107

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Jail, Kankali Tila and Chaubara mounds, many of which found their way to the Indian Museum in Calcutta.17 Cunningham’s collections included several life-size images of the Buddha, Jain Tirthankaras, Nagas18 and Yakshas,19 in addition to sculpted railing pillars.20 In 1872, during his explorations, Cunningham found a pillar in a small dharamsala near the Balabhadra tank close to Bhuteshwar mound. The second–third-century railing pillar shows a standing female figure on the back of a dwarf and on the back is sculpted the Valahassa jataka in three compartments.21 Five other railing pillars are known from Bhuteshwar mound, though at present a Siva Temple built in the late 18th century is an important marker at the site. Two inscriptions are known from Bhuteshwar: one, inscribed on a Naga image; and the other on a railing pillar, though the reading is doubtful. Vincent Smith has recorded numerous tirthankara images and ayagapattas unearthed at the site of Kankali Tila in Mathura, which seemed to be the prime site of Jaina finds in the region.22 Subsequent studies on Jainism have further explored the region and added to the list of these antiquities that undoubtedly establishes Mathura as a major Jaina centre during the ancient period.23 A more recent study provides a comprehensive analysis and chronology of the earliest known stone sculptures from Mathura dated from 150 BCE to 100 CE, which is before the establishment of the Kushan rule in the area.24 In the mid-20th century, the focus of Indian archaeology shifted to identifying urban centres and defining their hinterland in keeping with the emphasis on urbanization, as discussed at the beginning of this chapter. Due to the vastness of the region, it was perhaps regarded as appropriate that only the settlement or the ‘core city’ of Mathura be identified and excavated while the adjoining areas, which were the peripheral hinterland, are excluded from this venture. Therefore, the starting point of the 1970s excavations (1973–1974 to 1976–1977) by the ASI was aimed at 14 selected sites in the present-day Mathura City. The remains of fortification walls that were recovered reassured the archaeologists that this indeed was the heart of ancient Mathura, and on the basis of further excavations along the fortifications and sites falling within this, it was concluded that the ancient settlement of Mathura was a crescent-shaped, well-established, well-demarcated prosperous and cosmopolitan city on the banks of the river Yamuna with its high defences and moats, as described in the Harivamsa Purana. The excavators dated the beginning of urbanization at Mathura to early third century BCE and suggested that it was at this time that several monastic sites developed,25 but so far have provided no data on the linkages between the religious sites or those between them and the city. 108

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The site of Sonkh lies 22 kilometres south-west of Mathura City and an area of 320 × 280 metres (i.e. about 90,000 square metres) of the old mound still exists. Archaeological excavations conducted by a German team at Sonkh showed that it was first settled in 800 BCE.26 Level 28 is dated close to 100 BCE and from here to level 25 (i.e. until 20 BCE) showed that for the first time buildings were constructed of baked brick (the use of brick is often considered an important indicator of urbanization). Two apsidal structures were excavated, though the earliest evidence for an apsidal shrine of baked brick in the habitation area dates to the first century CE.27 Apsidal Temple 1 was reconstructed at least seven times in the first–second centuries CE, as evident from the distinct floor levels. Several terracotta plaques depicting Durga Mahisasuramardini (Durga killing the demon Mahisasura) and the goddess holding a child were found near apsidal Temple 1,28 clearly indicating its Hindu affiliation. A second apsidal temple (no. 2) dedicated to the Naga cult or snake worship was found 400 metres north of the main excavated area and dates to a somewhat earlier period in the first century BCE. In the first phase, the foundation of the apsidal structure was laid in mud brick (48 × 23 × 7 cms) followed by layers of baked brick of the same size, surrounded by pillar bases and an enclosure wall. The second phase of the temple has been dated to the early centuries of the Common Era and the affiliation of the structure becomes evident at this time. From the conspicuous accumulation of finds associated with the Naga cult, it is apparent that the temple was a major centre for the worship of the Naga cult.29 A first-century BCE Kharoṣṭhī inscription found in the Gandhara region records the construction of a tank for the worship of the Nagas and the practice of donating puskarinis or lotus tanks and the setting up of images of Nagas is evident from other inscriptions from Mathura as well.30 But perhaps, indisputable evidence for worship at a shrine comes from a record on a pillar base at the Jamalpur mound, which refers to a gift of Devila described as devakulika or priest of Dandhikarna Naga.31 In addition to Mathura, another early centre known for the worship of the Naga cult is Rajgir.32 The excavations at Mathura yielded fragmentary stone plaques dating from the late Kushan to early Gupta periods showing gods like the four-armed Vasudeva (14.2 × 7.4 × 2.4 cms.; 18.0 × 9.8 × 6.2 cms.), two-armed Skanda (11.0 × 8.5 × 3.6 cms.) and Skanda riding a peacock (8.2 × 8.8 × 2.1 cms.), Durga Mahisasuramardini (14.2 × 11.5 × 4.0 cms.; 17.9 × 12.7 × 6.6 cms.; 9.0 × 10.0 × 3.1 cms.), squatting Matrka (19.0 × 13.6 × 3.7 cms.; 15.3 × 17.0 × 9.3 cms.) and seated 109

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Kubera (11.3 × 11.5 × 4.1 cms.). Most of these were found in situ in fillings of houses and were possibly used for worship in houses.33 At the site of Mat, the remains of a temple complex dated to the early centuries of the Common Era were unearthed. The site is located 15 kilometres north of the present-day Mathura City, and excavations at the site have resulted in the finds of inscribed images of the Kushan kings, one of them being of Kaniska as per the inscription on the image. Along with this, there are the remains of a tank complex that has yielded Naga images and sculptures. The excavations revealed the remains of a plinth as well, which with the help of two important inscriptions from the site can be concluded to be a part of a temple structure or a devakula, possibly enshrining the statues of the Kushan kings.34 Epigraphic evidence for the prevalence of the Bhagavata cult is indicated by the Besnagar pillar inscription of second century BCE, which refers to the setting up of a pillar (garuda-dhvaja) in honour of Vasudeva by the Heliodorus, a Greek ambassador to the court of Bhagabhadra from the Indo-Bactrian ruler Antialkidas.35 The stone pillar was found at Vidisha by Alexander Cunningham in 1880, and systematic excavations undertaken from 1963–1965 revealed prehistoric beginnings of the site with continuous habitation well into the modern period. An elliptical temple was constructed at the site around the fourth–third century BCE consisting of a sanctum, a circumambulatory path, an antarala and a mukha-mandapa. It had a brick plinth and a superstructure of wood, thatch and mud, but was raised on an earthen platform after damage by floods. To the east of this, seven pillars set on thick stone basal slabs were exposed in alignment with the Heliodorus pillar.36 This association of the Greek ambassador with the Vasudeva cult is significant, especially in view of references in early Greek sources to Herakles (widely identified as Krishna) being held in honour by the Sourasenoi (Surasenas) of Medhora or Mathura. This is further supported by a similar reference by Curtius to the image of Herakles being carried in front of the Paurava army.37 It is around the second century BCE that representations of Sankarsana on the obverse and Vasudeva Krsna on the reverse complete with their distinctive attributes occur on Agathocles drachmae from Ai Khanum.38 Another representation of a standing human figure with a plough in the left hand and a long stick in the right identified with Samkarsana is found on the silver punch-marked coins from Mathura.39 Thus, ritual and worship came to occupy a well-defined space as distinct from the settlement area and gradually this demarcation became more distinct. By the third–first centuries BCE, local and regional cults 110

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coexisted with Buddhist and Jaina monastic complexes and the Hindu temple. Archaeological data establishes that both the Buddhist caitya and the Hindu temple were contemporaneous in second and first centuries BCE. An analysis of the epigraphic and archaeological data from several mounds shows that the use of writing was by no means limited to the political centre.40 Besides, certain mounds/sites appear to have a larger following as evident from the scale of architecture and patronage provided to the religious establishments. A second trend that is noticeable is that while some mounds/sites appear to be single cult centres, others have evidence of multiple religious affiliations. There also seems to be a clear-cut variation in the temporal changes at different mounds; while some start to show sculptural and architectural activity as early as second century BCE, others do not come into prominence till the early centuries CE. During the first century BCE and first century CE period, Saptarishi Tila in Mathura City seems to have been an important Buddhist centre, probably a stronghold of the Sarvastivadins. The ruling family of the period provided generous patronage to the site, establishing a stupa and donating land to the monastery at the site. However, this is the only donation we have to this site, and the sculptural data from the site is also very limited in nature. The sites of Jamalpur and Govindnagar seemed to have gained popularity in the succeeding period as important Buddhist centres. The architectural finds from Jamalpur (largely the inscribed railing pillars) and the existence of Buddhist monasteries at the site indicate that it developed into a popular Buddhist site. The extensive Buddhist sculptural finds from Govindnagar and the existence of a monastery at the site makes it as prolific a centre as Jamalpur. Other than these, there are many other mounds all over the district that have yielded Buddhist imagery and inscriptions like Anyor, Chaubara, Bhuteshvar, Kota, Sonkh, Palikhera and more. There also does not seem to be any spatial concentration of Buddhist sites in the Mathura City, and it appears that they are randomly distributed all over the district. This is also true for other religious cults, for instance, Jainism. Kankali Tila clearly seems to have been the most important Jaina establishment in Mathura and, perhaps, one of the important centres of Jaina pilgrimage in north India at this time. The antiquity of the site is established by architectural and epigraphic evidence as early as second century BCE, and it continued to flourish till the middle of the first millennium CE. Although there have been finds of images of Hindu deities from the site, Kankali was undoubtedly the most important Jaina site in Mathura. But other than Kankali, there are other sites 111

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from where Jaina images have been found like Isapur and Palikhera. These mounds/sites are also not spatially contiguous but are located at considerable distance from each other in the district. Similarly, Sonkh as a site seems to be primarily dedicated to the Naga cult. The other trend observable is that while most of the mounds/sites in Mathura are multiple cult centres, there are some that are exclusively dedicated to one religion. The only find from the site of Parkham has been the colossal Yaksha statue, donated by members of a Manibhadra congregation or guild. Similarly, the site of Chhargaon seems to be exclusively dedicated to the Naga cult, as the inscribed Naga statue that records the donation of a tank and a temple to it is the only important find from the site. The site of Girdharpur, for instance, has largely yielded Naga-Nagi plaques and Hindu sculptures, and no reported finds of Buddhist or Jaina images. Therefore, there seems to be immense diversity and heterogeneity in the way religious cults are spread in the district of Mathura, and this distribution pattern needs to be further documented and researched.41 Researchers have shown that images from Mathura had widespread distribution across the subcontinent, while epigraphists have emphasized their unique linguistic characteristics.

Distribution of images from Mathura Alexander Cunningham was perhaps the first to remark on the widespread distribution of images from Mathura across north India.42 Lohuizen-de Leeuw added to this list and has shown that images from Mathura have been found over an extensive area stretching from Chandraketugarh in Bengal in the east to Butkara and Shaikhan Dheri in the north-west; from Lumbini and Tilaurakot in the north-east to Amaravati in the south. The spread in the west is defined by sites such as Osian and Noh.43 Within this wide cultural sphere of Mathura, certain images stand out such as the huge Buddha images which are inscribed and dated, as these provide important clues as to the agency of monks and nuns in the transportation and installation of the Buddha images. Many of them indicate their knowledge of religious texts by use of terms such as bhānaka (reciter), caturvidya (who knows the fourfold scriptures), dharmakathika (preacher of dharma), prāhaṇīkas (practisers of meditation) and trepiṭakas (those knowledgeable in the Tipitakas). Bhiksu Bala and his pupils are known to have set up images of the Buddha at Sarnath, Kausambi and Sravasti in the Ganga Valley. It is also evident from the inscriptions that puja was performed often for the welfare and happiness of one’s parents.44 112

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This also points to another uniqueness of Buddha images from Mathura, viz. that they are more frequently inscribed and precisely dated. To date, 42 inscribed images are known from Mathura. Of these, 17 were donated by lay persons and 25 by monks or nuns, as mentioned in Chapter 2.45 These inscribed colossal images distinguish Buddhist monastic centres at Mathura from other religious groups at the site, which are further accentuated by distinctive features of language use. Mathura has provided a large corpus of inscriptions, which are diverse both in language and content. Many of them are donative with Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina religious affiliations, while others are secular in nature. The languages used include Sanskrit, Middle IndoAryan and a hybrid Sanskrit.46 As with the colossal Buddha images, the inscriptions also indicate the widespread linkages of Mathura. For example, Kharoṣṭhī inscriptions on a lion capital from Mathura provide keys to understanding links between various Saka families which ruled Taxila and Mathura.47 The Mathura lion capital inscriptions commemorating the installation of Buddhist relics thus indicate kinship connections between the family of Mathura Kshatrapas and Saka lineages of the north-west.48 They also show local borrowings between Buddhist and Jaina monastic centres, though no doubt the Jaina inscriptions contain several phrases unique to them. Thus, no clear hierarchy is evident among the mounds and sites in Mathura City, as also the district in the chronological period dating from the second and first century BCE to the third century CE, the latter end of the timescale coinciding with the Kushan domination in north India. Does this change in later periods? This is an issue that will be discussed in the next section with reference to the coastal site of Nagapattinam.

Nagapattinam and the multireligious context of the Tamil Nadu coast Nagapattinam was an important seaside town located along the east coast of south India. Fifty kilometres to its north was the site of Kaveripumpattinam located at the point where the river Kaveri enters the Bay of Bengal. It was a flourishing Buddhist establishment from the second century BCE to the sixth century CE. Around the eighth–ninth century, the centre of activity shifted to Nagapattinam, which has yielded a rich hoard of Buddhist bronzes. Nor was Nagapattinam the sole Buddhist site on the east coast. Further north, the 4th–14th century period was marked by the continued existence of the monastic centre at Amaravati on the Andhra Pradesh coast. The fourth–sixth-century 113

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bronze images of the standing Buddha from the site are now in the Government Museum in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, and eighth- and ninthcentury limestone sculptures of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, Manjusri, Vajrapani and Cunda are in the British Museum.49 In addition to the lower Krishna Valley, Buddhism continued to flourish at the sites of Sankaram, near Anekkapalle, 50 kilometres from Visakhapatnam on the highway to Vijayawada and Ramatirtham, 15 kilometres north-east of Visakhapatnam. A ninth-century inscription from the site records gifts to the Buddhist monastic establishment. Bojjanakonda, the eastern of the two hills at Sankaram, is dotted with a series of rock-cut and occasionally brick-built stupas at different terraces.50 Further north along the Andhra Pradesh coast, the site of Salihundam is situated on a hill about 8 kilometres from the ancient port of Kalingapatnam located on the sea coast. Images of Marici, Bhrkuti, Tara and Manjusri have been found at the site, indicating continuity of the Buddhist monastic establishment into the early medieval period and influence from the art and iconography of ancient Odisha. The cultural context of Nagapattinam locates it within a multireligious sacred geography, which preceded and succeeded the establishment of the Buddhist vihara at the site in 1005 rather than a sequential development of Buddhism followed by Hinduism, as often suggested. The Kayarohanaswami Temple in Nagapattinam is dedicated to Shiva and is said to have 6th-century origins, though the present structure is dated to the 11th century. Several 11th- and 12th-century inscriptions engraved on the temple walls provide valuable information. In addition to the setting up of the vihara, the king of Srivijaya gave a set of ornaments and jewels to the silver image of Nakaiyalakar (the handsome lord of Nagapattinam) according to an inscription carved on the wall of the Shiva Temple, thereby corroborating a plural sacred landscape at Nagapattinam. A second record refers to donations of several types of lamps by the agent of the king of Srivijaya, while a third mentions donation of gold coins from China for the worship of an image of Ardhanarisvara installed on the premises of the temple by the king of Kidar identified with modern Kedah.51 Several seventh-century Tamil saints such as Saint Thirunavukkarasar (Appar) are known to have compiled devotional couplets in praise of Nagapattinam and its shrines.52 In the verses to Lord Kayarohanam sung by saint Sundarar in the ninth century, the temple is associated with the fishing community at Nagapattinam, and this is a link that continues well into the present. These multiple audiences of the Kayarohanam Temple are in marked contrast to literary writings and sculptural representations 114

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from Thanjavur in the 11th century. The Chola period is marked by the ‘emergence of new Tamil literary styles and genres, mature and confident in their vision of religious communities both Saiva and Vaisnava. . . . [which portray] Saiva and Vaisnava saints, as calm victors in debate over well-meaning but ignorant Buddhist monks’.53 Characteristic of the somewhat ambiguous relationship between Saivism and Buddhism in Tamil country is the imagery and paintings of the 11thcentury Brihadisvara Temple at Thanjavur. Seated Buddha images under the Bodhi tree are sculpted in relief on the outer walls of the temple. Another striking representation of the seated Buddha is to be found in the painted Tripurantaka panel in chamber 11 of the ambulatory gallery of the temple. The wrathful Siva as Tripurantaka or destroyer of the three cities is shown on a chariot doing battle with the asuras. At the top of the panel is the seated Buddha shown as an avatar of Vishnu who helped in weaning the asuras away from the path of Siva worship by preaching heretical thoughts. This representation no doubt draws on the Puranic tradition that describes the Buddha as an avatāra of Viṣṇu who deluded the asuras into believing anti-Vedic doctrines. In the Viṣṇu Purāṇa, one of the oldest Purāṇas, Buddha is introduced as one of the many forms of māyā-moha or the delusive power of the deity. The Purāṇas are generally dated from 400 to 1000 CE with Viṣṇu Purāṇa being close to the earlier date and the Bhāgavata Purāṇa close to the latter.54 These representations need to be balanced against evidence from inscriptions, which refer to large royal donations to the Buddhist vihara at Nagapattinam, as discussed in an earlier chapter. During demolition of the monastery at Nagapattinam by the Jesuits in 1856, a large number of Buddhist bronze images were recovered. In a carefully concealed brick chamber, five bronze images of the Buddha were found, one of them with a Tamil inscription on the pedestal which reads: ‘Hail Prosperity! The Nayakar (Buddha), who assured the salvation of scholarly Pandits who learnt the Agama (Nikaya)’.55 Three hundred and fifty Buddhist bronzes were discovered between 1856 and the 1930s at Vellipalayam and Nanayakkara Street in Nagapattinam. Subsequent finds of Buddha images made in 1910 and 1935 were distributed to several museums. An analysis of the inscriptions on the bronzes shows that many of the epithets associated with notions of divinity and found in contemporary Saiva and Vaisnava traditions were applied to the Buddha image, indicating considerable inter-religious and intercultural communication.56 Peter Schalk refers to three kinds of Buddhism at Nagapattinam: the first one is evident from bronze pedestal images, which show them to 115

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be close to Saivism so that it is difficult to differentiate between the two. The second is documented in the 12th-century text the Viracoliyam and its commentary, which propagates a devotional form of Buddhism mediated by the sage Agastya. The third form of Buddhism was that of the acaryas. Very little of this last form survives, except in the form of stone images from several sites along the Tamil Nadu coast.57 In addition to the bronzes are the more than 100 life-sized seated Buddha images in stone that have been found all along the Tamil Nadu coast, largely dated to the 11th century. These were first documented in 1908 in Travancore and in the 1930s from the area around Kānchi. They have been added to since then, though their precise spots are not always available.58 Nagapattinam also finds mention in the 1467 Kalyani inscription of the Burmese King Dhammaceti. Some Burmese monks who were shipwrecked are said to have visited Nagapattinam and worshipped there.59 Having lost the gifts, the emissary of the Sinhalese king returned to Sihaladipa. The theras and Citraduta, however, travelled on foot to Nagapattana and visited the site of the Padarikarama monastery. They worshipped the image of Buddha in a cave constructed by command of the Maharaja of Cinadesa on the spot of the seashore where the Holy Tooth relic was deposited in the course of its transit to Lankadipa in the charge of Dandakumara and Hemamala who were husband and wife. Clearly, the relations between the followers of Buddha dhamma and those of Saivism were complex and cannot be straitjacketed into either of hostility or appropriation. In spite of the Puranic accounts or Tamil writings of submission of Buddhist monks, there were several borrowings between Buddhism and Saivism. The Buddhist connections with other centres along the coast remained strong; especially important were linkages with monastic complexes in Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Similar evidence for plurality, contestation and negotiation within a multireligious milieu is available for other areas of the subcontinent such as coastal Odisha, as discussed in the last chapter. The period from 5th to 13th centuries CE saw in the eastern state of Odisha a remarkable expansion of Buddhism in some clusters, development of Jainism in a few pockets and overall expansion of Saiva, Sakta and Vaiṣṇava temples and the growth of local regional kingdoms. This religious landscape was marked by competition and borrowings in Tantras and iconography. For example, many Buddhist tantras were moulded on Saiva lines, whereas the Saiva iconography such as images of Lakulīśa and Śiva were strongly influenced by the Buddha image. An important development was that of large regional kingdoms and the coming of royal temples. This is an issue that needs to be located 116

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within the larger sphere of the Indian Ocean world and is beyond the scope of this book.

Notes 1 Romila Thapar, Cultural Pasts: Essays in Early Indian History, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2000: 967. 2 This credits the introduction of iron around 1000 BCE with the expansion of agriculture and production of a ‘surplus’ in the middle Ganga Valley. This surplus was then invested in trading ventures, which emerged around the middle of the first millennium BCE. Trade with the Roman Empire led to the development of urban centres in the early centuries of the Common Era, but with the decline of the Roman Empire and consequently its trade with India, these towns and cities were abandoned. A period of agrarian expansion and self-sufficient village economy followed, lasting until 1000 CE when foreign trade revived under the Arabs. R.S. Sharma, Indian Feudalism c. AD 300–1200, Macmillan, New Delhi, 1965. 3 B.D. Chattopadhyaya, The Making of Early Medieval India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1994: 167. The period between the 6th–7th and 12th–13th centuries showed developments vastly different from the society of the earlier period. ‘State formation was a crucial agent of change in this respect, in the sense that it brought a measure of cohesion among local elements of culture by providing them a focus’ (p. 35). While urban centres were characterized as centres of political power, surrounded by large agricultural hinterlands and located along trade routes in the Early Historic period, the character of these urban centres changed in the early medieval period into ‘nodal points in local exchange networks’. Chattopadhyaya, Early Medieval India, 181. 4 Ramendra Nath Nandi, Social Roots of Religion in Ancient India, K.P. Bagchi, Calcutta, 1986: 27–46. 5 Devangana Desai, Presidential Address, Section I, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 50th session, University of Gorakhpur, Gorakhpur, 1989–90: 21–56. 6 Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya, The Making of Early Medieval India, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1994: 29. 7 Susan Verma Mishra and Himanshu Prabha Ray, The Archaeology of Sacred Spaces: The Temple in Western India, 2nd Century BCE – 8th Century CE, Routledge, London and New York, 2017: 1–20. Himanshu Prabha Ray, The Return of the Buddha: Ancient Symbols for a New Nation, Routledge, London, New York and New Delhi, 2014: 134–72. 8 Ronald M. Davidson, Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement, Columbia University Press, New York, 2002. 9 R.S. Sharma, Early Medieval Indian Society, Hyderabad, Orient Blackswan, 2003; 235–65. 10 Himanshu Prabha Ray, The Apsidal Shrine in Early Hinduism: Origins, Cultic Affiliation, Patronage, World Archaeology, 36, 3, September, 2004: 343–59. 11 Akira Shimada, Early Buddhist Architecture in Context: The Great Stupa at Amaravati (ca. 300 BCE – 300 CE), Brill, Leiden, 2013.

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12 Himanshu Prabha Ray, The Return of the Buddha: Ancient Symbols for a New Nation, Routledge, New Delhi, 2014: 195–200. 13 Lisa N. Owen, Absence and Presence: Worshipping the Jina at Ellora, Himanshu Prabha Ray edited, Archaeology and Text: The Temple in South Asia, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2010. 14 Janice Leoshko, edited, Bodhgaya: The Site of Enlightenment, Marg Publications, Bombay, 1988. Alan Trevithick, The Revival of Buddhist Pilgrimage at Bodh Gaya (1811–1949), Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 2006. Himanshu Prabha Ray, Archaeology and Empire: Buddhist Monuments in Monsoon Asia, The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 45, 3, 2008: 417–49. David Geary, Matthew R. Sayers, and Abhishek Singh Amar, edited, Cross-disciplinary Perspectives on a Contested Site: Bodh Gaya, Routledge, London, 2012. 15 F.L. Woodward, The Anguttara Nikāya: The Book of Gradual Sayings, Volume I, Luzac & Co., London, 1st edition 1934, reprint 1962: 62–3. 16 Suvira Jaiswal, The Origin and Development of Vaishnavism, Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1967. Doris Srinivasan, Early Krishna Icons: The Case at Mathura, Joanna. G. Williams edited, Kalādarśana: American Studies in The Art of India, American Institute of Indian Studies, New Delhi, Oxford & IBH Publishing Co., 1981: 127–36. 17 John Anderson, Catalogue and Handbook of the Archaeological Collections in the Indian Museum, Volume 1, The Trustees, Calcutta, 1883: 163. 18 J. Ph. Vogel, Naga Worship in Ancient Mathura, Archaeological Survey of India – Annual Report, 1908–09: 159–63. 19 G.H. Sutherland, The Disguises of The Demon: The Development of the Yakṣa in Hinduism and Buddhism, State University of New York Press, New York, 1991. 20 Upinder Singh, Cults and Shrines in Early Historical Mathura (c. 200 BC-AD 200), World Archaeology, 36, 3, September, 2004: 378–98. 21 Anderson, Catalogue: 189. 22 Vincent A. Smith, The Jaina Stupa and Other Antiquities of Mathura, North-Western Provinces and Oudh Government Press, Allahabad, 1901. 23 Amalananda Ghosh, edited, Jaina Art and Architecture, 3 volumes, Bharatiya Jnanpith, New Delhi, 1974–75. 24 Sonya Rhi Quintanilla, History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura, c. 150 BCE – 100 CE, Brill, Leiden, 2007. 25 M.C. Joshi, M.C. Joshi, Mathura as an Ancient Settlement, D.M. Srinivasan edited Mathurā: The Cultural Heritage, Manohar, AIIS, New Delhi, 1989: 165–70. 26 H. Haertel, Excavations at Sonkh, Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin, 1993. 27 Ibid.: 86. 28 Ibid.: 120, 123. 29 Ibid.: 425. 30 H. Lueders, Mathura Inscriptions, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Gottingen, 1961: no. 137. 31 Lueders, Mathura Inscriptions: no. 63. 32 Around the third–fourth centuries, the Nagas appear as one of the political dynasties in north India. According to the Puranas, seven rulers of the dynasty enjoyed the charming city of Mathura. In fact, the

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Nagas comprised of several ruling houses and in addition to Mathura, their presence is attested to at Vidisa, Padmavati or Pawaya and Kantipurya. F.E. Pargiter, The Purana Text of the Dynasties of the Kali Age, Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series, Varanasi, 1962: 49, 53. The Nagas had marital relations with the Vakatakas and their coins are known from Mathura and Pawaya, H.V. Trivedi, Catalogue of the Coins of the Naga Kings of Padmavati, Department of Archaeology and Museums, Gwalior, 1957. 33 Haertel, Excavations at Sonkh, 1993: 245. 34 J.Ph. Vogel, ‘Explorations at Mathura’, Archaeological Survey of India – Annual Report, 1911–12, Superintendent Government Printing, Calcutta, 1913: 120–33. 35 John Marshall, Archaeological Survey of India-Annual Report 1914–15, Superintendent Government Printing, Calcutta, 1916: 66. 36 Amalananda Ghosh, An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology, Munshiram Manoharlal, New Delhi, 1989: 62. 37 D.C. Sircar, Studies in the Religious Life of Ancient and Medieval India, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1971: 17. 38 Doris Meth Srinivasan, edited, Mathura: A Cultural Heritage, Oxford and IBH, 1989: 383. 39 Ibid.: 127. 40 Shivani Agarwal, The Archaeology of Mathura: Regional Complexities and Diversities (300 BC–AD 300), Ph.D. thesis, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 2009. 41 Agarwal, The Archaeology of Mathura: 154–6. 42 Vogel, ‘Explorations at Mathura’: 75. 43 J.E. Van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, Gandhara and Mathura: Their Cultural Relationship, Pratapaditya Pal edited, Aspects of Indian Art, E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1972: 27–43. 44 H. Lueders, Mathura Inscriptions, K.L. Janert, editor, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Gottingen, 1961: nos. 29, 90; and companions: no. 44. 45 Gregory Schopen, Bones, Stones and Buddhist Monks: Collected Papers on the Archaeology, Epigraphy and Texts of Monastic Buddhism in India, University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1997: 242. 46 Th. Damsteegt, The Pre-Kusana and Kusana Inscriptions and the Supercession of Prakrit by Sanskrit in North India in General and at Mathura in Particular, Doris Meth Srinivasan edited, Mathura: A Cultural Heritage, Oxford and IBH, 1989: 298–307. 47 F.W. Thomas, The Inscription on the Mathura Lion Capital, Epigraphia Indica, 9, 1907–08: 135–47. 48 Richard Salomon, Journal of the American Oriental Society, 116, 3, 1996b: 418–52. 49 Robert Knox, Amaravati: Buddhist Sculpture from the Great Stupa, The British Museum, London, 1992: 215–22. 50 Debala Mitra, Buddhist Monuments, Sahitya Sansad, Calcutta, 1980: 219. 51 Gokul Seshadri, New Perspectives on Nagapattinam, Hermann Kulke, K. Kesavapany and Vijay Sakhuja edited, Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa: Reflections on the Chola Naval Expeditions to Southeast Asia, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 2009: 121–5.

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52 Gokul Seshadri, New Perspectives on Nagapattinam, Hermann Kulke, K. Kesavapany and Vijay Sakhuja edited, Nagapattinam to Suvarnadwipa: Reflections on the Chola Naval Expeditions to Southeast Asia, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore, 2009: 107–11. 53 Anne E. Monius, Imagining a Place for Buddhism: Literary Culture and Religious Community in Tamil-Speaking South India, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 2001: 122. 54 Klaus K. Klostermaier, A Survey of Hinduism, State University of New York, Albany, 2007: 59–72. 55 T.N. Ramachandran, The Nagapattinam and Other Buddhist Bronzes in the Madras Museum, Government Press, Madras, 1954: 19–21. 56 Peter, Schalk, edited, Buddhism among Tamils in Pre-Colonial Tamilakam and Ilam, Vol. II, Uppsala University, Stockholm, 2002: 603. 57 Ibid.: 517. 58 Ibid.: 518, 559–68. 59 Ibid.: 596.

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Willis, Michael, 2000. Buddhist Reliquaries from Ancient India, London: The British Museum Press. Wilson, H.H., 1841. Ariana Antiqua: A Descriptive Account of the Antiquities and Coins of Afghanistan: With a Memoir on the Buildings Called Topes, by C. Masson, Esq., London: East India Company. Woodward, F.L., 1934/ 1962. The Anguttara Nikiiya: The Book of Gradual Sayings, Vol. I, London: Luzac & Co. Woodward, Hiram, 2004. ‘Esoteric Buddhism in Southeast Asia in the Light of Recent Scholarship,’ Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 35, 2, June. Wu, Peiyi, 1992. ‘An Ambivalent Pilgrim to T’ai Shan in the Seventeenth Century,’ in Naquin, Susan and Yü, Chun-fang edited, Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China, Berkeley, Los Angeles and Oxford: University of California Press: 65–88. Zwalf, W., 1996. A Catalogue of the Gandhara Sculpture in the British Museum, London: British Museum Press I.

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INDEX

ācāryavāda 14, 16; ācārya 80, 116; mahamandalacarya 98; vajrācārya 80 Ajanta 8, 35 – 6, 48, 53, 80, 89 Alexander 1, 7 Amaravati 1, 27, 34, 35, 52, 65, 83 – 4, 91, 105, 112, 113 Amreli 32 Andher 66 aniconism 8, 31 Anuradhapura 49 – 50, 51, 70 Apadāna 30, 82 Aramaic 45, 46 Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) 1, 2, 71, 93, 106, 108 Arikamedu 51 Ashoka (King) 3, 6, 7, 16, 17, 24 – 5, 26, 27, 30, 31, 44, 45 – 6, 49, 64 – 5, 71, 82 – 3, 91 – 2, 103 Ashokan edict/s 4, 24, 31 – 2, 44, 46 – 7, 82 – 3, 97, 103 Aśokāvadāna 65, 91 Assaji 3, 54 Aṣṭasāhasrikā 38 Atiśa Dipankara 97, 98 Aurangabad 9, 36, 48, 70, 88, 106 Avalokitesvara 34, 35 – 6, 88, 90, 99, 114 Baba Piyara cave 32 Bajaur 51, 58, 69 Banavasi 72 Bargaon 7 Bavikonda 70 – 1 Besnagar 110

Bhaja 70 bhakti 104 Bhallika 63 Bharhut 7, 12, 28, 48, 52, 65, 82 – 3, 91 Bharuch 9, 32 Bhattiprolu 51 – 2, 70, 74, 106 Bhojpur 28, 66, 67 Bhrkuti 34, 114 Bodh Gaya 5, 7, 11, 34, 53, 55, 56, 66, 72, 73, 81, 89, 91, 92, 94, 107 Bojjanakonda 34, 114 Borobudur 39, 98 Brahmanism 103 – 4 Brahmi 34, 37, 45, 49, 50, 51, 57, 70 Brekke, Torkel 13 Brihadisvara temple 115 Buddha: avatāra of Viṣṇu 115; biography 15, 30, 75, 82; bronze 32, 34, 35, 84, 86, 113 – 14, 115; image worship 1 – 2, 3, 15, 28 – 9, 31, 86 – 8, 98; inscribed 28, 29 – 30, 55, 112 – 13 Buddhaghosa 14, 44, 64 Buddhapada 35, 71 Buddhagupta 95 – 6 Burnouf, Eugène 5 Buswell, Robert 64 cakravartin 48 – 9 Chakrabarti, Dilip 9 – 10 Chandraketugarh 28, 112 Chandralamba temple 71 Chinese pilgrims 92 – 4

136

I ndex

coins 16, 37, 49, 67, 72, 75, 84, 114; Indo-Greek 7, 45 – 6; Kushan 45, 47, 90; punch-marked 70, 110 Cunda 34, 114 Cunningham, Alexander 1, 2, 6 – 7, 8, 22, 28, 66 – 7, 74, 92, 93, 107 – 8, 110, 112 dāna 2, 52 – 3, 83 Davidson, Ronald 104 Dehejia, Vidya 8 Dessein, Bart 64 Devnimori 56, 84 – 5 dhamma 2, 3, 5, 14, 16, 17, 24, 30, 46, 54, 55, 57, 58, 64, 65, 79, 82 – 3, 84, 92, 98, 103, 116; dhammarāja 24; see also dharma Dhanyakataka 38, 51 dhāraṇī 17, 36, 56, 73, 81, 84, 90 dharma 5, 27, 28, 54 – 5, 57 – 8, 92, 103, 112 Dharmaguptaka 14, 44, 47, 57 Dharmarajika stupa 7, 14, 46, 66, 67 – 8 Dutt, Sukumar 10 Elliot, Walter 34 Ellora 36, 48, 88 – 9, 98, 106 – 7 Faxian 6, 44, 64, 93 Fergusson, James 10, 17 feudalism 104 Fogelin, Lars 11 Foucher, Alfred 7 – 8, 31, 55 Gaṇḍavyūha sūtra 38 – 9, 98 Gandhara 7, 10, 30, 44 – 5, 50 – 1, 54, 56 – 8, 65, 68 – 70, 109 Gāndhārī (Prakrit) 31, 44 – 5, 47, 57 Ghosh, Amalananda 81 Girnar 32, 47, 74, 103 Gokhale, B. G. 9 Gombrich, Richard 6 Gotiputa 67 Granoff, Phyllis 73, 74 Greek 2, 7 – 8, 46, 83, 110 Heliodorus 110 Hemavata School 28, 67

Heruka 80 Hinayana 14, 16, 24 Hock, Nancy 17, 36 Huntington, Susan 8, 31, 47 Huvishka 29, 75 Indian Museum 69, 96, 108 inscribed tablets 55, 81 Jaggayyapeta 48, 51 Jagjivanpur 35 Jaina 103, 106, 107, 108, 111 – 13 Jamalgarhi 50, 69 Jambi 95, 97 Jambudvipa 65 Jaulian 66 Jayaswal, Vidula 11 Jetavana 71, 83 Junagadh 32 Kadia Dungar 32 Kalasan 36, 98 Kalingapatnam 34, 114 Kanaganhalli 71 – 2 Kanheri 27, 29, 35 – 6, 84, 86, 88, 89 Kanishka 29, 45, 64, 74, 75, 110 Karle 70, 89 karma 3, 53 Kashmir 30, 36, 38, 45, 54, 64 Kateshwar 32 Kausambi 24, 28, 29, 112 Kaushik, Garima 12 Kaveripumpattinam 35, 113 Khapra Kodia 32 Kharoṣṭhī 31, 37, 44 – 5, 49, 50, 55, 57, 68, 109, 113 Khuldabad 106 – 7 Klimburg-Salter, Deborah 37 Kodumanal 51 Kshatrapa 48, 113 Kuda 29 Kushan 29, 30, 31, 34, 45, 46, 47, 64, 75, 90, 108, 109 – 10, 113 Kusinagara 65 Lahore Museum 7 Lalitagiri 33 – 4, 56 Langudi 33 Leoshko, Janice 8

137

I ndex

lineage – ordination 14 lion capital 113 Lopez, Donald S., Jr. 12 Lumbini 28, 65, 112

Nigliva 65 nikāya 14, 15, 16, 17, 24, 31, 39, 44 – 5, 57, 58, 64, 83, 107, 115 nikāyāntara 14, 16

Mackenzie, Colin 1, 34, 105 Magadhi 14, 44, 46 Mahabharata 74, 97, 107 mahāparinibbāna sutta 64, 65 Mahasthangarh 6 Mahavihara 14, 44, 90 Mahayana 14, 16, 24, 36, 38, 56, 81 Maitreya 35, 37, 84, 93 Malandra, G. 88 maṇḍala 56, 80, 84, 88 – 90, 104 Manikyala 1, 30, 46, 62, 74, 75, 84 Manjusri 34, 114 manuscript 5, 13, 34, 45, 50, 56, 57, 58 Marici 34, 114 Marshall, John 7, 67, 68 Marxist framework 104 Mathura 3, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 45, 46, 47, 53, 83, 107 – 13 Maurya/n 3, 6, 7, 16, 24, 27, 46, 49, 64, 66, 72, 91, 92, 103 Megalith/ic 51, 72, 105 Mehta, R. N. 32 memorial slab 39, 71 – 2 Michon, Daniel 13 Mihintale 49 Mirpur Khas 66, 74 Mishra, Umakant 12 Mitra, Debala 10 Moggalana 5, 55, 67 Mohenjo-daro 50 Mūlasarvāstivāda-vinaya 65 Mulasarvastivadin 15, 52

Paharpur 17, 34, 35, 56, 73, 81 Paithan 9 Pali 5, 6, 14, 16, 22, 44, 47, 54, 62 Pali Text Society 6 parinirvāṇa 16 Pataliputra 9, 46 Pauni 53, 105 Pavuralakonda 70 Pitalkhora 36, 48, 70 Prakrit 33, 44, 45, 47, 51, 53, 56 Prātimokṣa 24 pratītyasamutpāda sutra 5, 45, 54 – 6, 94 puja 28, 53, 83 Pundravardhana 6 Puranas 2, 6, 74, 108, 115

Naga 91, 108 – 10, 112 Nagapattinam 12, 35, 85 – 7, 113 – 16 Nagarjunakonda 12, 33, 51, 53 – 4, 70, 72, 74, 106 Nalanda 7, 15, 17, 34, 36, 44, 53 – 4, 56, 73, 81, 97, 98; see also Bargaon Nandalur 33 Nasik 35, 47 – 8

Sahri Bahlol 69 Salihundam 34, 52, 114 Salomon, Richard 57, 69 Samvara 80 Sana 32 Sanchi 7, 9, 11, 12, 24, 25, 27 – 8, 48, 52, 62, 65, 66 – 7, 74, 83, 84, 89, 91, 105 Sanderson, Alexis 80

Rabatak 45 Rajatarangini 64 Rajgir 109 Ramatirtham 32, 114 Ranjit Singh 1 Ratnagiri 17, 35 – 6, 56, 66, 72 – 3, 79, 84, 88 – 90, 98 – 9 relic 1, 2, 3, 15, 16, 28, 30, 31, 34, 50 – 1, 57 – 8, 62 – 75, 82, 84, 90, 92, 94, 113, 116; casket 28, 50, 67, 68, 70, 84; in stone stupa 72 reliquary 50 – 1, 62, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 72, 75, 84; in images 69 – 70; inscribed 50 – 1, 67, 69 Rhi, Juhyung 31, 39, 44 – 5, 69 Rhys Davids, T. W. 5, 6

138

I ndex

Sanghol 12 Sankaram 34, 114 Sannathi 71 – 2 Sanskrit 5, 14, 16, 22, 27, 34, 38, 39, 51 – 2, 53, 54, 79, 80, 81, 91, 95, 97, 103 – 4, 107, 113 Sariputta 5, 55, 67 Sarkar, H. B. 10, 54 Sarnath 3, 7, 11, 24 – 7, 29, 45, 53, 62, 84, 91, 112 Sarvāstivādin 14, 15, 44, 47, 52, 53, 111 Satavahana 12, 46 – 8 Satdhara 28, 67 Schalk, Peter 115 Schopen, Gregory 24, 28, 52, 53, 62, 65, 67, 73, 81 Shahji-ki-Dheri 74 – 5 Shaikhan Dheri 28, 112 Sharma, R. S. 105 Shaw, Julia 11 Shimada, Akira 12, 84 Shinkot reliquary 51, 69 Siddhamātṛkā 56 Sikandar 1; see also Alexander sīla 83 Sinhala 51 Siyot 32 Skilling, Peter 14, 62 Smith, Vincent 62, 108 Sonari 66 Sonkh 109, 111, 112 Sopara 9, 74, 84 Spooner, D. B. 74 – 5 śramaṇa 17, 103 Sramanism 103 Sravasti 28, 29, 91, 112 Srikakulam 32 Srivijaya 95, 97, 114 Stein, Marc Aurel 56 Strong, John 62 Sudarsana lake 32 Sufi 106 – 7 Surkh Kotal 47 Suvarnadvipa 97, 98 Swat 30, 45, 50, 68 – 9

Tabo 36 – 9, 98 Takht-i-Bahi 69 Talaja 32 Tamil 51 – 2, 97, 114, 115, 116 Tamil Nadu 12, 34, 35, 85, 86 – 7, 95, 97, 113 – 14, 116 Tapussa 63 Tara 34, 36, 92, 97, 98, 99, 114 Taxila 7, 16, 30 – 1, 46, 50, 62, 66, 68 – 9, 113 Thapar, Romila 103 – 4 Theravāda 14, 64 Thotlakonda 11, 70 – 1 Tibetan Buddhism 3, 36 – 8, 79, 98 Tilaurakot 28, 112 transfer of merit 53 Tripurantaka 115 Udayagiri 56, 89 – 90 Uperkot 32 urban centre 9, 16, 104, 108 Vaddamanu 52 Vaisali 1, 7, 91 Vajrahunkara 80 Vajrapani 34, 88, 114 Vajrayana 14, 16, 24, 36, 80, 106 Vakataka 48 van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, J. E. 28, 112 Varanasi 3, 11, 24 Vedic 2, 6, 24, 74, 83, 103 – 4 Ventura, Jean Baptiste 1, 75 Vikramshila 98 von Hinüber, Oskar 39, 47 votive stupas 66, 71, 90 votive tablets 5, 68, 91 Walters, Jonathan 30, 82 Xuanzang 6, 11, 44, 64, 74, 93 – 4, 107 Yaksha 108, 112 Yijing 95 Yogini Tantra 80, 98

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