Sanchi Stupa: History, Gateways and Why It Is a UNESCO World Heritage Site

On a hilltop at Sanchi, 46 kilometres from Bhopal, stands the oldest stone structure in India: a great domed stupa first raised by the emperor Ashoka in the third century BCE. Around it are other stupas, temples and monasteries spanning thirteen centuries. UNESCO inscribed the Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi as a World Heritage Site in 1989.

At a glance

• Location: Raisen district, Madhya Pradesh
• Inscribed: 1989
• Type: Cultural
• Period: third century BCE to twelfth century CE
• Founded by: Ashoka

History

Ashoka, who turned to Buddhism after the Kalinga War, built a brick stupa here and set up one of his polished stone pillars. His queen Devi came from nearby Vidisha. In the second century BCE the stupa was enlarged to twice its size and faced with stone, and in the first century BCE the four gateways were added.

The Buddha himself never visited Sanchi. With the decline of Buddhism in India the hill was deserted. A British officer, General Taylor, came upon the monuments in 1818. Amateur digging damaged them before Sir John Marshall restored the site between 1912 and 1919.

The Great Stupa

• The dome: a solid hemisphere about 36 metres across and 16 metres high, crowned by a triple stone umbrella
• The railing: a stone fence copying wooden construction, enclosing a path for walking round the stupa
• The gateways: four, called toranas, each with two pillars and three curved crossbars, covered with carving

The carvings

The gateways show scenes from the life of the Buddha and from the Jataka tales of his earlier births. The Buddha is never shown as a person. He is represented by symbols: a tree for his enlightenment, a wheel for his teaching, footprints, an empty throne. The panels are full of the life of ancient India: cities, processions, forests, elephants and villagers.

Other monuments

Stupa 3 held relics of Sariputta and Moggallana, two of the Buddha’s chief disciples. Temple 17, of the Gupta period, is one of the earliest surviving stone temples in the country.

Why it is a World Heritage Site

Sanchi is the oldest Buddhist sanctuary in existence and was a major centre of the faith for more than a thousand years. Its gateways are among the supreme works of early Indian sculpture.

Visiting

Sanchi has a small railway station; most visitors come from Bhopal. The stupa appears on the Indian 200-rupee note.

Image: The Great Stupa (Stupa 1) at Sanchi, Madhya Pradesh. Photo by Bernard Gagnon, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.