Sanchi
Tourism
Sanchi is known for its Stupas, monasteries, temples and pillars dating from
the 3rd century B.C. to the 12th century A.D. The most famous of these monuments,
the Sanchi Stupa 1, was originally built by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka, the
then governor of Ujjayini, whose wife Devi was the daughter of a merchant from
adjacent Vidisha. Their son Mahindra and daughter Sanghamitra were born in Ujjayini
and sent to Sri Lanka, where they converted the King, the Queen and their people
to Buddhism.
The world-renowned stupas of stupa of Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh are being designated
by UNESCO as the world heritage site for its archaeological andhistorical importance.
A Chunar sandstone pillar fragment, shining with the proverbial Mauryan polish,
lies near Stupa 1 and carries the famous edict of Ashoka warning against schism
in the Buddhist community. Stupa 1 was found empty , while relics of the two
disciples of Buddha enshrined in the adjacent Stupa 3 were carried away to England.
The nearby moern temple has a reliquary containing the remains of a Buddhist
teacher from another stupa outside Sanchi.
The Sanchi hill goes up in shelves with Stuupa 2 situated on a lower shelf,
while Stupa 1, Stupa3, the 5th century Gupta temple No. 17 and the 7th century
temple No. 18 are on the intermediate shelf while a later monastery is on the
crowning shelf. The balustrade surrounding Stupa 2, carved with aniconic representations
of the Buddha, was added in the late 2nd century BC under the Shungas, while
the four gateways of Stupa 1 were built in the 1st century BC under the Satavahanas.
Carved with stories of the Buddha's past and present lives and with incidents
from the subsequent history of Buddhism, the gateways are the finest spenciments
of early classical art, which formed the seedbed for the entire vocabulary of
later Indian art.
Two fo the moving stories told on these portals are those of Prince Vessantara,
who gave away his wealth, his wife and children out of charity and compassioin,
and of Buddha who, as the monkey king, sacrificed his life to wave his companions.
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